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Executive Times |
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Volume
7, Issue 9 |
September, 2005 |
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ã
2005 Hopkins and Company, LLC Note
re: links---certain hyperlinks assume that you are registered as a subscriber
to the site. If you are not a subscriber to certain sites, the links will
fail. If you register, the links should work. Also, certain hyperlinks expire
and may not be available when you try to go to the site. Pleasure
The mandated scripted response to almost
all customer exchanges at Ritz-Carlton
is “my pleasure.” Sometimes the line is delivered with such enthusiasm the
most cynical customer suspends any disbelief that the line is genuine.
Perhaps when repeated often enough, it’s a reminder that work can bring
pleasure, even the most mundane tasks. For some of us, work is always
pleasurable, because we love what we do. For others, work provides a means to
an end, and becomes a necessary evil and rarely brings pleasure. Many workers
ricochet between those two extremes. Executives who love what they do are
breathing a sigh of relief this month as the typical vacation season ends,
and they can finally ratchet up intensity at work. In this issue, we explore
some ways in which work can bring pleasure, and how being proud of the job
one does and enjoying work can make the time spent working seem minimal. As
you think about the situations described here, reflect on your attitudes
about your current job. Are you excited to start a new work week? Do those
who report to you share your enthusiasm? Does time at work seem to fly by?
How proud are you of what you’re accomplishing at work? Fifteen new
books are rated in this issue, beginning on page 5. Two books are highly
recommended with four-star ratings; seven books are recommended with three
stars; three are mildly recommended with two star ratings, two books have a
one-star recommendation; and we’ve bestowed our first DNR (Do Not Read)
rating for the year. Consistent with the theme of this issue, the DNR review
is for a manifesto calling for workers to disengage quietly at the workplace.
Visit our 2005 bookshelf at http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/2005books.html
and see the rating table explained as well as explore links to all books
we’re reading or considering this year. If there’s something missing from the
bookshelf that you think we should be considering, or if there’s a book
lingering on the Shelf of Possibility that you think we should read and review,
let us know by sending a message to books@hopkinsandcompany.com.
We read a fine
description of the pleasure that can come from work in The Wall Street Journal (8/23) (http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112473011878219678,00.html).
Poet Donald Hall came away from
his Harvard ’51 reunion “dismayed
by the attitude of many of his former classmates, who had become bankers,
brokers or lawyers. Describing to them how he had left a secure faculty
position to move to his family farm and write for a living, they collectively
cried, ‘What self-discipline!’ ‘In vain did I
protest,’ Mr. Hall writes. ‘For me, I told them, it required no discipline to
spend my days writing poems and making books. …The unvarying frequency of the
accusation -- that I took the whip to myself every day, while handcuffed to
the desk -- upset me because the stereotype suggested a melancholy provenance:
Did all my classmates hate their work so much?’ … Mr. Hall doubts it. He
suspects that like him, many people find in their work an ‘absorbedness’ that
transports them to an interior world where the ego is quieted, the mind (and
possibly the body) is wholly engaged, and hours pass like seconds. Work isn't
the master of such workers; it's a fountain of contentment. Or as Anna Howard Shaw, a minister,
physician and teacher, wrote in her 1915 autobiography, ‘Work has always been
my favorite form of recreation.’”
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has been
studying a notion he calls “flow” for four decades, but the results of his
work have been slow in entering the business sector, according to articles in
the August issue of Fast Company (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/97/art-of-work.html.)
While his groundbreaking book, Flow: The
Psychology of Optimal Experience came out in 1990, and caught the
attention of some sports figures (Jimmy
Johnson credited the Cowboys
1993 Super Bowl win to flow), few companies have tried to apply flow in the
workplace. (In our June 2003
issue we gave Csikszentmihalyi’s book Good
Business a two-star review). According to Fast Company, here’s how Csikszentmihalyi describes flow: ‘“It is
what the sailor holding a tight course feels when the wind whips through her
hair....It is what a painter feels when the colors on the canvas begin to set
up a magnetic tension with each other, and a new thing, a living form, takes
shape.’ ... It's a condition of heightened focus, productivity, and happiness
that we all intuitively understand and hunger for. … In the flow state,
Csikszentmihalyi found, people engage so completely in what they are doing
that they lose track of time. Hours pass in minutes. All sense of self
recedes. At the same time, they are pushing beyond their limits and
developing new abilities. Indeed, the best moments usually occur when a
person's body or mind is stretched to capacity. People emerge from each flow
experience more complex, Csikszentmihalyi found. They become more self-confident,
capable, and sensitive. The experience becomes ‘autotelic,’ meaning that the
activity actually becomes its own reward. ‘To improve life, one must improve
the quality of experience,’ he says. One of the chief advantages of flow is
that it enables people to escape the state of ‘psychic entropy,’ the
distraction, depression, and dispiritedness that constantly threaten them.” When you’re working, is your body or mind stretched to
capacity? Do you come away from work “more self-confident, capable and
sensitive”? Does work provide you with that “condition of heightened focus,
productivity and happiness” you hunger for? How well are you stretching those
with whom you work? Are they pushing their limits and developing new
abilities? Is work its own reward in your workplace? Diligence What
conclusions about your written work can others draw? Does your diligence
stand out? Has your precision helped to convey your message? Can you refrain
from sending a redlined copy of Executive
Times to us pointing out all the grammatical errors in this issue? Addiction How do you recognize signs of workaholism in yourself and
others? How can you deploy your energy with a greater balance between work
and the rest of your life? If your work feels like recreation to you, how
does your work feel to those with whom you are in close relationships? Have
you asked them how they feel about your work? Are you prepared to change the
way you work to become healthier? Follow-up
Here are
selected updates on stories covered in prior issues of Executive
Times: Ø
The
front page of the November 1999
issue of Executive Times noted that State
Farm lost a class action lawsuit concerning the use of non-OEM parts for
auto repairs and faced paying over $1 billion in damages. In August, the Ø
Many
prior issues of Executive Times (most
recently the February 2005
issue) have pondered why Daimler
CEO Jürgen Schrempp wasn’t given
the boot for his performance in leading that company. The Daimler supervisory
board announced that Schrempp will step down at the end of this year. For a
comprehensive look at poor performance and the challenges that are in place
for his successor, Dieter Zetsche,
read the 8/15 Business Week cover
story, “Dark Days at Daimler,” (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_33/b3947001_mz001.htm.)
Ø
In
case you were detached from the world during August, and missed the news,
President George W. Bush appointed
John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations despite our labeling Legacy
Consistency The most
successful executive of his generation has retired, especially if one
measures success in terms of consistent profitability. For the last dozen of
the 42 years he’s spent at Exxon, Lee Raymond has served as CEO, out of
the limelight, generating billions of dollars of profits at the world’s
largest company whether oil is priced at $10 a barrel or at $70 a barrel.
During an era marked by corporate malfeasance and political correctness, the
few times that Raymond calls attention to himself, he’s notable for sticking
to his positions, whether popular or not. For example, he doesn’t believe in
global warming, and has made that clear. Exxon announced in August that
Raymond will retire at the end of this year, and will be replaced by his
groomed internal successor, Rex W. Tillerson. We read on the Associated Press wire (http://www.forbes.com/associatedpress/feeds/ap/2005/08/04/ap2174088.html)
that, ‘“Lee has created a group of executives to lead the company into an era
of bigger projects and longer lead times,’ said Daniel Yergin, president of the Cambridge Energy Research Associates. ‘He's imparted a steadiness
for Rex to move the company on a disciplined course.’” Raymond’s focus on
profitability produced extraordinary rewards for shareholders, and he’s left
a legacy at Exxon for his successors to follow. While we’ll hear plenty in
his final months about his gruffness, political incorrectness and huge
compensation, his legacy has been in remaining diligently focused on profits,
and for that, he’ll be long remembered. Latest Books Read and Reviewed: (Note: readers of the web version of Executive Times
can click on the book covers to order copies directly from amazon.com. When you order through these links, Hopkins
& Company receives a small payment from amazon.com. Click on the title to read the review or
visit our 2005 bookshelf at http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/2005books.html).
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ã
2005 Hopkins and Company, LLC. Executive
Times is published monthly by Hopkins and Company, LLC at the
company’s office at To subscribe to Executive
Times, sign up at www.hopkinsandcompany.com/subscribe.html
and we’ll bill you later. Consider
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as a gift. Gift subscriptions to the web version include an e-mail
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version gift subscriptions can also include “Compliments of (giver)” with
your corporate logo on each copy. About
Hopkins & Company Ø Coaching:
helping individuals or teams find ways to do more of what works for them, and
ways to avoid what's ineffective Ø Consulting:
helping executives solve business problems, especially in the areas of
strategy, service to market, performance and relationship management Ø Communications:
helping executives improve their written and oral messages To engage the services of Hopkins &
Company, call Steve Hopkins at 708-466-4650 or visit www.hopkinsandcompany.com. |
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