You've fallen 99 times? You're hired!

Who would you prefer to hire?

Someone who has tried something 100 times and never failed or someone who's tried 100 different things, failed 99 times, and only succeeded once.

Here's why you should hire the person who's fallen short 99 times.

If you've succeeded 100 times without fail, you haven't been risking anything. You've been playing it safe. And you've never been tried or challenged. Heck, you haven't even broken a sweat. And you've never learned anything new because you've never had to. You may be successful ... but you're also static.

Now someone who's fallen 99 times has also had to get up 99 times, which shows character, determination and a strong will. If you've fallen 99 times out of a hundred, you've risked something all 100 times, which is daring. Falling 99 times also provides 99 opportunities to learn something new that can be used for the next challenge. If you've fallen 99 times, you weren't born into success - you had to earn it.

To do good things, you need someone with a consistent track record. To do greatthings, you need someone who's not afraid to take risks and will get right back up after falling down. You can pack your team with perfect people all you want, but I want to do something that hasn't been done before. I want to shake things up. I need people who think, "I don't know how many tries it's going to take but I'm going to do this eventually."

Swear Like You Care: Passionate Profanity at Wor

Disclaimer: If you are the sensitive or easy-to-offend type, read no further, especially if mild profanity is offensive or hurts your eyes.

If you haven't uttered a single "shit" or "f**k" in the last 30 days at work (even in private), it might mean you just don't care.

There are an infinite number of situations where swearing is inappropriate in the workplace. But the scenarios in which swearing is not only acceptable, but appropriate and inspiring, are exactly why you should become proficient in passionate profanity in 2015.

It might even get you promoted.

The use of profanity in the workplace is an incredibly polarizing issue, with unique perspectives as you shift country to country, company to company, and person to person. In fact, more than half of American's and more than three quarters of Britishswear regularly in the workplace. A Google search on "profanity in the workplace" has over 500,000 results ranging from "WTF? Is your workplace a hotbed of profanity?" to "Watch your mouth, cursing in the workplace could get you fired". We can all agree to disagree on when it's appropriate to swear at work.

However, if you are passionate about what you do, there is a specific reason to incorporate deliberate and intelligently architected profanity into your game at work.

It's massively memorable, proves your passion, and will help you bond with your audience. (if you don't f**k up the delivery)

There are many scenario's where passionate profanity has a true business application: Team meetings, large group events, 1:1 discussions, hallway conversations, commiserating with colleagues. If you dare cross that line at work, I suggest starting in a simple place. Ensuring your presentations are MASSIVELY MEMORABLE.

Leverage profanity to deliver massively memorable presentations. Contrary to what you might think, words are better than pictures.....And profane words are better than regular words to drive your most important point home.

"A picture is worth a thousand words" is a commonly accepted premise in the business world. Most people nod their head approvingly when you say it. The business world has shifted to highly visual presentation materials. As a result, Powerpoint is the most overused (and arguably ineffective) presentation tool on planet Earth. But as we shift to easy visuals and metaphoric presentations, we are dismissing almost 100 years of research on how the brain processes information.

You may not have heard of the "Stroop Effect", but it's an 85 year old theory on the brains ability to process and prioritize information quickly. The classic Stroop test consists of a series of words in different colors. The goal is to simply say the color when the word appears. Try it below:

Not incredibly easy, is it? But doable. It gets quite a bit harder when those images flash quickly on the screen one by one. When you get home, there is a NSFW example of the Stroop test using profanity here (same disclaimer applies from above). It gets exponentially harder to name the color when profane words appear.

But why? The Stroop theory asserts that the brain processes words at a faster pace than colors or imagery. If there were a word/image race, the word wins. As a result of this race, your brain struggles to take in images when words are competing for the same attention. Words that trigger an emotional reaction, essentially beat out all other images and words in the race to your cerebral cortex. This means that you can massively emphasize the most important parts of a presentation by deliberately incorporating strong emotional words.

Profanity simply ups the ante, creates intense emotion and cements focus.

Harvard Science Review summed it up nicely, "Swear words, in the appropriate context, can be beneficial when used for group unity, coherence, and general expressiveness."

Dan McGinn, in a Harvard Business Review article titled "Should Leaders Ever Swear?" called out Barack Obama for leveraging deliberate (though mild) profanity after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Obama told Matt Lauer on live television that "one of his goals was to determine "Whose ass to Kick". This statement gave viewers immediate insight into his state of mind, intent, and focus on solving the problem. Imagine if he had said his focus was on "conducting a thorough investigation to determine the cause of the spill".

Not as much impact, eh?

I am definitely not taking a stab at that! Hey, I don't work at your company. Shit. I don't want to get you in trouble. Get creative, test some boundaries, have some fun. Even in the most conservative companies, you can find the right forum to express your thoughts in a...well "colorful" way.

How To Resign With Style

How not just to quit, but how to resign gracefully and with class? Indeed, being courteous and smart about your resignation and departure guarantees that you've given yourself the best possible shot at future success.

Fortunately, there exist some key principles you can follow. We´ll talk about them in this blog article.

The most important rule, however, immediately right now: Never quit and leave on bad terms! You owe it your employer, your colleagues, business partners, and – most importantly – yourself by being and coming across as a professional and mature person.

Evaluate Your Situation - Firstly, verify that resigning is the right decision. Don´t quit just to make a point. Understand what the pros and cons of your decision would be. Are there things you can do to improve aspects of the job that bug you? Could you get another job in the company? Have you e.g. talked with your boss and does she know that you consider resigning (at least, if you feel there are meaningful reasons for you to stay)? Has she had a chance to address your needs and wants?

Check The Legal Aspects - Carefully study any legal documents you signed when joining or working at your current job. Are there any non-compete agreements, does your contract require a certain period of employment from you, which is the leave notice your company requires, etc.? By the way, you should also be clear about the financial consequences a resignation might have on your life; especially when not having found another job yet.

Choose The Right Timing - In a perfect world try to leave when you´re on a high note and not when you are burnt out. In a non-perfect world, which is the case most of the times, don´t wait with your resignation too long. After you conducted a thorough situation analysis and came to the conclusion it´s best for you to leave, then just do it. You have only one life to live!

Do It Personally - Don´t chicken out. Request a meeting with your boss. Don´t send a resignation email or letter. You need to say it face-to-face. Very important: Tell your manager before anyone else. She deserves it.

Hand In A Resignation Letter - Written in a professional, i.e. non-emotional manner. It should be a short and polite letter stating your intention to leave and by when. Submit your resignation with sufficient lead time before your planned resignation date. Submit it to your direct supervisor (e.g. whilst you personally inform him about your resignation) and with a copy to your HR department.

Be Prepared To Answer About Your Reasons - Be as honest as you can be. Again in a tactful and respectful manner. It´s a good opportunity giving your boss (and others) constructive feedback. Be fair and mention all factors and try to weight them. Whatever reasons you provide, keep your story consistent. Be prepared and open to receive feedback from colleagues, peers, etc. If your company offers formal exit interviews trying to understand the "real“ reasons why you´re leaving take part at it. Again, be conscious not to burn any bridges by saying anything negative or insular.

Anticipate The Reaction Of Your Boss - If you have a good and professional boss, she will tell you how sorry she is to lose you. In case you have already a new job, she should congratulate you. Most importantly, she should respect your decision. If she reacts poorly, then it reflects badly on her, and not on you. Stay professional, explain your reasons and stress that you will support her and the team to make a smooth transition. Don´t allow neither your boss nor your team putting any guilt on you.

Anticipate The Reaction Of Your Company - How has your employer handled employees who resigned in the past? Is your management grateful to employees who provided long notice, or are people who resign usually shown the door immediately? Be prepared for this scenario by clearing personal files and removing personal information and belongings, and getting your workspace organized. Don´t take anything with you which belongs to the company. On the other side, if you are a valuable employee, be prepared that your employer might present you a counter-offer to make you stay. You should have considered in advance, if and under which conditions you might accept it. Personally I advise against accepting a counter-offer as experience shows that it still does not work out. Either way, be primed and clear in your answer.

Take With You What You´ve Earned - Ensure to get a fair settlement and compensation for any outstanding salary, commission payments, vacation days, and to get details on all employee benefits, rolling over your pension plan, etc.

Support A Smooth Transition - Do your best to complete all open assignments, have any remaining work well documented and organized in a file. And, if time and situation allow, assist in training your replacement. Some people even offer to be available for a couple of phone calls with their replacement after they leave. This generates considerable goodwill and is often highly appreciated by the replacement and the company. A great way for you being remembered as a committed and highly supportive team member.

Respect Confidentiality - Don´t talk about your resignation until it´s official. Once you've resigned, don't go spreading the word. Do not mention your departure to anyone before you have discussed these details with your boss. Agree with her when and how to communicate it.

Don't Be Negative - When you're talking about your resignation with co-workers, try to emphasize the positive and talk about how the company has benefited you, even though it's time to move on. Don´t brag about your possible new job. Be modest and appreciate what your company and your colleagues are doing. Also after you’ve left the company, don´t say anything negative about your former employer, manager, or colleagues.

Be Committed And Hard Working Until The Very Last Day - This point usually separates the wheat from the chaff. That´s when you can identify the true professionals. Be loyal as you´ve used to be. Avoid taking a short-timer's attitude and avoid aligning yourself with any discontented co-workers. Sadly, many who resign suddenly seem to have forgotten about all those years when they´ve worked hard to build their career in and with the company. In a few weeks or days they damage their former – and often also their future – reputation without realizing it. Don´t be stupid!

Inform Your Colleagues And Business Partners - After having spoken with your boss be sure to personally tell other managers or key employees with whom you have worked that you have resigned. Thank these persons for having successfully worked with you and having helped you building your careeer.

Say Goodbye - Before you leave express a heartfelt farewell. Offer your colleagues, boss, and business partners words of gratitude and appreciation. On your last day in the office organize a farewell drink with some food. Your coworkers will remember it. Try to stay with some of them in touch by exchanging contact information with key people. Send a farewell message by email to those whom you can´t personally bit farewell.

Ask for a Reference - Ask your boss, colleagues or business partners, if they were willing to give you a reference. Inquire, if they were available to give a recommendation via email, phone, or professional network sites like LinkedIn.

The way someone leaves a job tells a lot about a person´s character. Handle yourself well. In today´s highly connected world it´s pretty likely that someone knows someone with whome you´ve worked with. You may also cross paths again in the future. Or, and that also happens from time to time, you might want to be rehired by a former employer.

In a nutshell: Make sure you leave on the best possible terms and don´t burn bridges.

What do you think? Please join the discussion by leaving a comment below.

Best regards,

Andreas von der Heydt

*****
Andreas von der Heydt is the Head of Kindle Content at Amazon in Germany. Before that he hold various senior management positions at Amazon and L'Oréal. He's a leadership expert and management coach. He also founded Consumer Goods Club. Andreas worked and lived in Europe, Australia, the U.S. and Asia. Andreas enjoys blogging as a private person here on LinkedIn about various exciting topics. All statements made, opinions expressed, etc. in his articles reflect only his personal opinion.

What I learned from my son's first recruitment experience: A thing about Startups

Last week was a momentous one in my life: My eldest son, Guy, was offered his first job. Then twenty four hours later he was offered another job.

Given what I have dedicated my working life to, it has been a fascinating experience to observe the process of my own child attempting to enter the workforce for the first time.

Guy turned fifteen in August and immediately announced that he wanted to get a job. I encouraged him to do so as I had started a casual retail job at the same age and apart from earning my own money, I learned many valuable things about working with, and relating to adults in a formal environment.

As both his mother and stepmother had successful and enjoyable times working at McDonald's, and there being a local McDonald's within walking distance of his mother's house, Guy decided to apply to work at McDonald's. He successfully completed an online application and was invited to the local store to be interviewed by the store manager.

I deliberately stayed in the background while all this was going on, based on my (mostly-but-not-always-followed) parenting principle of 'if my son/daughter wants my advice then he/she will ask for it'. I resisted giving Guy any interview advice with the belief that he's a smart kid who is capable of looking after himself.

He returned from the interview.

'How did it go?', I asked.

'Pretty well, I think.'

'Why do you say that?'

'Well, at the end of the interview I asked him how I had done, and he said I was the best person he had interviewed today.'

There you go, I thought to myself. You don't need to give your son advice, he is confident enough to ask the right question at the right time.

Guy was advised by the McDonald's store manager that he should check online for notification about his application's progress. Some weeks went by without word. Again, I resisted the temptation to tell him what he should do. If he wants the job desperately enough, he will follow up, I thought.

While he was waiting to hear back from McDonald's, Guy applied for another job, at his local Subway. After his online application was accepted, he was scheduled for an interview at the store.

The day before the Subway interview, Guy decided to follow up directly with his McDonald's interviewer and found out that he was meant to have been advised some weeks before that he was successful.

About an hour before the Subway interview, Guy was offered the McDonald's job, subject to successfully completing some online training. Guy went to the Subway interview anyway, and was also offered the Subway job.

Guy now wants to try and do both jobs. He reasons that he is not guaranteed any amount of shifts at either McDonald's or Subway.

This is not what I would advise, but he hasn't asked me for my advice and given my successful track record of keeping my mouth shut with respect to my son's work-related decisions, why should I tempt fate now?

I was discussing this series of events with a long-term friend who is the respected CEO of a highly successful recruitment agency and father of two teenage children. We were discussing the issue of parental intervention in the lives of our respective children – where is the line between encouragement, suggesting, telling or simply trusting your child to work it out for themselves?

It's not clear, nor will it ever be clear, I don't think.

In the conversation, I said I couldn't recall my parents ever telling me what I should do with respect to my choices about education, friends, sport or career.

The only exception to that was one night my father waited up for me to get home from a late night. I was playing cricket the next day. I was a top order batsman who had some talent. My father gave me a big serve, the gist of it being that if I was committed to doing something then I should give it my best shot and not compromise my chances of doing well by 'burning the candle at both ends'. I proved my father right by being dismissed in a forgettable way for a low score the next day.

Needless to say, I ignored my father's very wise advice and my cricket 'career' finished up being a tale of unfulfilled promise.

This was the exception; overall my parents trusted that they had brought their son up with a set of values that enabled him to work stuff out for himself in his own time.

I started an economics degree without any real idea of where it might take me. I completed that degree four years later at the age of twenty-two, no further enlightened as to what career I might choose. I don't recall this lack of planning and rather haphazard approach of mine leading to any serious conversations, initiated by my parents, about 'my future'.

As Guy commences his work life I hope I am wise enough to continue to learn from the example set by my parents. Trust that each of my three children will be guided by the values that enable them to work things out for themselves and learn something from each of the choices that they make.

Ten Stupid Rules That Drive Great Employees Away

We met a guy named Vijay at a conference where he and I were speaking. About six months later, we heard from him.

"So I wanted to let you know, I'm out of here," said Vijay on the phone.

"What's the story?" we asked. "When we met you, you loved your job."

"I loved the job I thought I had, which is the job I interviewed for," said Vijay.

"That job never materialized. The company is trying to change its stripes, but it's hard."

"Let me guess," said my teammate Molly. "They told you 'It takes time to turn an ocean liner around.'"

Vijay laughed. "Those are the exact words my boss used! He's been trying to turn the vessel around for five years. That's too slow. I don't have that much time. I have things to do and places to go!"

"You couldn't see a path forward at your job?" I asked.

"I could see the path forward, and it's full of rocks and snakepits and quicksand," said Vijay.

"No good," we said. "Congratulations on your job search!"

"This place has a great brand name, but inside the company it's a weenie atmosphere," said Vijay.

"It's rules, rules, and more rules all over the place. Nothing but reasons why NOT to try something new. Life is too short!"

Vijay got a great job seven weeks later. It's sad to see great people like Vijay leaving companies.

I'm sure Vijay's CEO doesn't realize that his company makes it impossible for people to do the jobs they were hired for.

It's a new millennium - fifteen years into the new millennium, in fact. We don't have to manage our teams the way we did in 1962.

My dad put up with stupid corporate rules because his employer offered him a career path, job security forever and an awesome pension plan that my folks still rely on today, thirty years after my dad retired.

All that stuff is history. Employers who keep Mad-Men-era policies in place will keep driving their best people away until they spot the connection between policies, passion, performance and profits. Here's how it works:

The more policies, the less passion you'll get from your team.

The less passion, the less exciting the team's performance will be.

The less exciting the performance, the lower your profits will be.

Eureka!

Maybe this reminder will induce you to nuke one or more of these ten Talent-Repelling Policies if you're a manager. If you're not a manager, that doesn't mean you have to stay silent and complain to your cat about the stupid rules at work. You can speak up, at a staff meeting or directly with your manager.

Find your voice and speak! You were hired for your brains, weren't you?

Here's our list of Ten Stupid Rules that Drive Great Employees Away.

Stupid Attendance Policies

Salaried people don't need attendance policies. That's why they're on salary. If you're still dinging people for getting to work ten minutes late when they commonly stay an hour late every day, you don't deserve them on your team.

Stupid Frequent-Flyer Policies

Business travel is a grind. It takes years off your life. It's not easy being on the road and leaving your life behind. Your employees earn every frequent-flyer mile their business travel entitles them to. Those miles are theirs, not their employer's.

Any company stingy enough to steal its employees' frequent-flyer miles is not an employer that can grow your flame or take you to the next step on your path. Get them to change that Scrooge-y policy, or run away.

Stupid Dress Code Rules

We write dress code policies because we'd die of embarrassment having to talk to an employee face-to-face about his or her excessively club-by or beach-y attire. Too bad for us. We're managers, and sticky human topics are part of the job.

Get rid of the insultingly detailed dress code policy and simply remind your employees to dress for business.

You can add "If you're on the fence about whether or not to wear a particular ensemble or article of clothing to work, err on the side of caution and don't wear it."

Bell Curve Performance Reviews

Performance reviews in general are a bureaucratic waste of time, but the ones that force managers to fit their teammates into pre-set slots on a Bell Curve are disgusting and unworthy of the brilliant people on your staff.

If you truly don't trust your managers to hire wonderful employees, why did you make them managers? Bell curve performance reviews only encourage the hiring and retention of so-so employees, or worse. Get rid of them in 2015 and celebrate your team's briliiance!

Stupid Bereavement-Leave Policies

There are still employers that require their employees to bring in funeral notices in order to be eligible for a few days' paid bereavement leave. That's shocking and horrifying.

No doubt some employee way back when falsified a family death to get some time off, and ever since then the company has been writing its policies to prevent such a fraud from re-occurring.

That's idiotic, and heartless. It's never smart to write policies directed toward people you wish you hadn't hired. Trust your employees, and they'll trust you back.

Stupid Approvals for Everything

We'd expect any employer to require approval from higher-ups before you're allowed to spend a lot of money or hire someone new. We'd expect some required approval before you launch a project or put someone on probation.

Do we really need a manager's written approval for an employee to replace his ID badge?

We have taken nearly all the latitude away from the talented adults we hire. That's stupid and a waste of shareholder's money. More bureaucracy only slows us down.

Can we trust the people we chose to join our team to do simple things like order a new stapler without requiring a manager's written permission? If not, can we call ourselves leaders?

Stupid Disciplinary Rules

The idea of discipline comes from the military. We don't think that it would ever be appropriate to put our kids' piano teacher or our plumber on probation, so why would we do that to the employees on our teams? The idea of progressive discipline makes no sense in the Knowledge Economy we operate in now.

We are all adults. If someone goofs up, we can have a conversation about it. We can figure out where things broke down. If we don't trust a person to represent our brand, what good will probation or a written warning do?

Don't listen to people who say "We have to do this stupid stuff in order to fire people if they don't improve." That's completely false. I was a Fortune 500 HR SVP and I'm an expert witness in employment matters now. Anyone who sighs "We're forced to follow these old rules" is either lying to himself, to you, or both.

Stupid Feedback Mechanisms

Employee Engagement is a crock and a slap in the face to your teammates, most of whom would be happy to tell you to your face what your company is doing right and wrong. All you have to do is walk up to them and ask them, face to face, and listen to what they have to say.

Annual employee engagement surveys are a weenie's answer to the question "How are we doing, and how's the team?"

Do you ask your wife to fill out a survey and tell you how you're doing as a husband? She'd have a sharp answer for you if you proposed that approach.

Why should the valued collaborators you work with see things any differently? Lose the engagement survey and make it easy for your teammates to tell you what's working and what isn't, in the moment.

Stupid Hiring Processes

It's easy to fill job openings when you do these three things:

• Write job descriptions in English or your local language rather than corporate zombiespeak.
• Treat job applicants like valued collaborators rather than interchangeable machine parts or pieces of meat.
• Make the interview process fast and friendly, and remember that job candidates need to be sold as vigorously as your customers do.

It's hard to fill job openings when you use Black Hole applicant-tracking systems to screen resumes by means of keyword searching.

That's the world's worst way to hire people. Any employer that complains about talent shortages is barking up the wrong tree. Humanize your recruiting process and watch the talented people flow in!

Stupid Forced Ranking

Forced ranking, sometimes call Stack Ranking, is a process of lining up your employees and comparing them to one another, Best to Worst. It's easily the stupidest idea corporate and institutional weenies have ever come up with.

You can't stay and work for a company that treats like you like a two-by-four stacked up against other pieces of lumber, not when there are wonderful organizations that could use your help!

Your teammates deserve better. People are unique and whole in themselves. There is nothing to compare between one person and another -- thank goodness! Smart employers have always known this. Any organization that doesn't get it doesn't deserve your talents. Get on your path and find the people who do!

Questions and Answers

Why are there hot dogs chasing people in the header image?

They are weenies driving smart and capable employees away. Weenie policies have the same effect. Capable people don't want to put up with being treated like children or criminals, so they leave to go work somewhere else.

Why do companies install so many stupid rules and policies?

Fear is the reason. Fearful managers don't trust themselves to hire people they could trust to do the right thing. There is a tremendous amount of fear in many corporations, institutions and startups. Small companies are not immune to fear.

How do you make an organization more trusting and less fearful?

Talk about fear and trust. They are business issues. Don't pretend there is no energy in the place or that every single person can't feel the energy. Ask your team at every opportunity, in group meetings and one-on-one "How are you doing? What's new? How can I help?"

Do you have to be a manager to tackle workplace energy, and fear and trust?

No! There are lots more non-managers in any organization than there are managers. We all feed Godzilla, the bureaucratic monster, or we all starve him. Tell the truth at work. Say "I'm not sure I know how to complete this project" when you are uncertain.

Break the ice on the topics of fear and trust. Tell your boss "Some of these policies suck away a lot of time and energy and hold us back. How can we revise them or get rid of them?" Blaming managers for the bad energy at work is the worst thing you can do. It depletes your mojo and reinforces the idea that you are powerless at work unless you're a manager.

Are you powerless? You don't look powerless to me!

Cold Drinks or Tyre Cleaners

Today afternoon, I was buying newspaper from a bakery-cum-general merchandise shop in my locality in Bangalore. Another customer came and asked for a bottle of Pepsi. Shop owner gave him instead a bottle of Thumps Up. I told the shop owner, he asked for Pepsi and you are giving him thums up. He told me, customer will accept any one. I was perplexed. I asked the customer, is it so? He said yes, because I am buying it not for drinking but for some other purpose.

Now suspense was thicker. I could not hold myself. I enquired little more, during conversation he told me, he has bought this thumps up bottle to clean the car tyres. I could not believe him.

I simply followed him, and what I saw, one boy was cleaning the car of his owner. This man also got involved in cleaning the car with that boy. I asked him to show me literally how he is going to use thumps up for cleaning the car tyres. I asked his name, he was Ram Milan. He told me, Sir, you will have to wait, first we will clean the whole body then in last we will wipe the car tyre with thumps up.

I was ready to see the experiment from my own eyes, so simply I killed some 20 minutes reading the newspaper. Till then they had completely cleaned the car. Meanwhile the car owner also came. I told him, I am waiting to see some experiment; it will be an eye opener and lesson for my life. He started laughing, and told me that he is using all these cold drinks, pepsi, coca-cola and thumps etc. to give shining to the car tyres. He told, all cold drinks will work.

Now Ram Milan, took the bottle of thumps up, poured the drink in a mug and soaked it in a piece of cloth, and started wiping the outer side of the car tyres.I could not believe my eyes. To be fair with these cold drink companies, I can tell you it worked wonderfully. Tyres were looking brand new. Thums up!!

Owner quipped, new tyres!!

Now time was for me to take lesson, never to touch “Tyre Cleaners” in my life.

Do you get some lesson from this story? Am sure, at least you can give your car tyres a brand new look. Whether you will drink it or not, is your choice.

For cold drink companies, I have a simple question, what are you selling? Cold drink or “Tyre cleaner”?

A BIG Thums DOWN..