Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer – lessons in handling differences

December 23, 2013 ~ Orlando Ceaser

We are often started with the commercialization of Christmas. We are reminded to not lose sight of the reason for the season. This is valuable advice for Christians and others during this reverent time of year.

We grew up with Gene Autry Christmas classic of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. It is a delightful song, but also delivers a powerful message about encountering and handling differences. This song could start meaningful conversations about accepting others.

The song begins with a reference to the reindeer popularized in Clement Clarke Moore’s, “The night before Christmas”, also known as “A visit from St. Nicholas.” It begins with a roll call of Santa Claus’ reindeer that of course omits the name of Rudolph. As you recall, Rudolph was different from the other reindeer because of the luminescent quality of his nose. His nose was so shiny that it had either reflective qualities or it glowed like a light. This was enough to make him the object of ridicule and ultimately ostracism by the other reindeer.

This lack of acceptance is seen when children and adults are confronted with someone who is different from them. Our initial response is to make fun of the person and then to isolate them because of their characteristics, traits, heredity or idiosyncrasies. Many of us recall when we were young and begged for approval. Even to this day, there is something about us that makes us stand out from the crowd and the crowd lets us know it.

At work or is school, simply being the new person, the new kid on the block, the person who is an unknown, becomes a source for teasing or isolation. We often wondered,” if they would only get to know me, they would see that I’m just like them. “Rudolph was a reindeer, so he surely had a similar appearance, except for his nasal peculiarity. But suppose he was of a different color, from a different region of the country or had a different ability. He would have manifested a difference that would have caused him difficulty until he was accepted. We usually ask the different party to fit in, when the real focus should be on them being accepted by the group.

Bullying is also a response shown toward those who are different. The song the does not indicate that Rudolph was bullied, but we can only assume that preventing him from “playing in any reindeer games” was not always accomplished in the most delicate manner.

The song does not tell us what Santa Claus was doing during the hazing or if he even knew about it. But, as a good leader, he engineered a very strategic response. He knew the talent and value of all of his reindeer. He evaluated the weather system for his next journey and realized he was going to encounter numerous blizzards. He knew that the solution to his problem existed among the ranks of his reindeer. He knew he had one reindeer that could help navigate the wintry delivery of toys to boys and girls around the world. This opportunity would be well received it if every reindeer benefited from his gift.

We can give Santa credit for waiting for the appropriate time to unveil strategy. He could have given the reindeer the opportunity to work it out amongst themselves, as so many people do in similar situations. They say such things as,” kids are just being kids, learning to navigate difficult situations will only make the recipient stronger and teach them valuable life skills and that which does not kill them will make them stronger, to paraphrase Friedrich Nietzsche the philosopher. Maybe the reindeer performed similar initiation rites to others in the group that had other distinctions from their peers. Maybe they solve their treatment of Rudolph as being harmless and natural.

The defining moment came,” one foggy Christmas Eve, Santa came to say: Rudolph with your nose so bright, won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?” Many managers, leaders and parents look for the opportune moment to use the skills of their people. The right moment to show the world and the individual, that they recognize their true value and wish to share this value with every member on the team. We can only assume that in the fictitious conversation, Santa’s encouraged Rudolph and told him about the value of his difference. He made him feel that he was something special and should never feel that he was not important and did not have a place. I’m sure he made him feel like an important member of the team. He validated his value by asking him to lead the team by moving up to the front of the line.

You remember the happy ending to the song. “Then all the reindeer loved him, as they shouted out with glee, Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, you’ll go down in history! We know that in real life, responses to differences may not always lead to a happy ending. Sometimes the individuals have lingering insecurity, damage to their self-esteem and underlying resentment from the initial exclusion. But, so often when the difference that is ridiculed or denied is used for the benefit of the group, the organization, institution, group or community becomes stronger. The people learn a valuable lesson about inclusion. We are hopeful that when the person is accepted they don’t become complicit and act in the same manner when they encounter other people who are different.

If we remember the Rudolph days of our lives and commit ourselves to prevent them from happening to others, we will maximize their future contributions to our teams, families, organizations and communities. We will perform a noble act when leading by example with the lessons learned from Rudolph the red nose reindeer.

Insight – Leadership and the eyes of the poet

August 16, 2013 ~ Orlando Ceaser

I believe that I can learn from everybody and everything. Therefore everybody and everything can teach me something. That is sometimes the mantra of a poet. They are in search of understanding and an opportunity to contribute in a manner that is a valuable and hopefully, a unique expression of insight.

Insight is described by business dictionary.com as a combination of feedback and knowledge.

“1. Feedback; ideas about the true nature of something In business, product testing sessions are used to gather insight from people with different backgrounds, experiences and feelings, with the intent of finding out how consumers may respond.
2. Knowledge in the form of perspective, understanding, or deduction. Someone may come up with an insight after a long period of thought, or suddenly out of thin air as in an epiphany or sudden understanding. “Management had the insight to decrease its expenses amid falling sales before a scheduled earnings release, so that the company would be viewed in a more favorable light.”

Poets use their senses to cultivate their insight to gain a better understanding and appreciation of their world. They can be introspective, sensitive and deep thinkers able to view a situation from many perspectives. They like to experiment with different approaches in search of a fresh thought.

A poet’s insight is used to teach panoramic thinking. They use magnification and peripheral vision to evaluate many sides to an issue, problem, project or situation. Magnification allows them to see things on a different level and expose certain aspects that were never considered. This poetic viewpoint can therefore, help in brainstorming and innovative thinking sessions, whether alone or in groups. Leadership should capture this brilliance and use it achieve the vision and the mission.

Poets learn to;

• Deal with being different,
• Be reflective, alone and sometimes not appreciated
• Explore different approaches to achieve the ideal word painting
• Use ordinary objects to state their case or make a point
• Constructively use their mind and their senses
• Use memory mechanisms to recall lines, associations and patterns
• Develop an appreciation for the entire object
• Give voice to the other side of a situation or issue
• Search for another perspective
• and expressing inner feelings
• Take an inward journey of discovery to increase self awareness
• Use of structure and routines to organize thoughts
• Use journals, diaries and notebooks to record their observation and thoughts

The poet has inspirational words for winning, has a vocabulary for victory and can speak effectively against the pervasive language of losing. You want them linked to the vision and mission of the organization. Their words will immortalize and internalize the vision, mission and purpose. A poet summed up the vision and the spirit of the company by starting each day with a message to his wife, “I am going to save a life today.” He was a successful pharmaceutical sales representative.

The poet may be the introvert in the room, deriving their energy from absorbing everything around them and processing it later in the day. They are the creative ones, who are insightful, observing and analyzing problems. They may see things that others don’t see, mainly because they are looking. In my book the Isle of knowledge, I tell a story about my friend Buttons from my childhood. During our walks around streets and alleys on the West side of Chicago, Buttons was always finding money and other things of value. I tried to match his skill with little success. His secret was that he was always looking down and therefore, had a greater opportunity to find things. He was looking where the treasure was located. The poet is always looking for treasure in the places where they reside.
Poets are always observing, always using their senses, connected and involved in the world around them. A poet likes to experiment. She is always working with different styles, words, formats, illustrations and images. You need to find them and include them in the high-performance functioning of your team.

You may have heard that poetry and business to not go together. However, if leaders practice this reality it may hinder you in identifying and harnessing this valuable human resource. This power, if channeled properly, will improve the culture within your business.

You want to know the poets, because this knowledge can cause an exponential rise in productivity. Leveraging their talent will help you unlock your greatness. You can utilize this talent within yourself and produce a chain reaction of the skill in others. Max De Pree, former CEO of the Herman Miller furniture company, tells a story in his book Leadership is an art, which is a part of the Herman Miller company history. One day the founder of Howard Miller went to the house of a recently deceased employee. The man’s job was a millwright for his furniture company. While visiting his home, the widow asked if the young manager would mind if she read some poetry aloud. After listening to her read beautiful poetry he asked the author of the work. She replied that it was her husband, the millwright. At that moment the young manager wondered,” was he a poet who did millwright’s work, or was he a millwright who wrote poetry?

Max Dupree goes on to say,” understanding and accepting diversity enables us to see that each of us is needed. It also enables us to begin to think about being abandoned to the strengths of others, of admitting that we cannot know nor do everything. This simple act of recognizing diversity in corporate life helps us to connect the great variety of gifts that people bring to the work and service of the organization.” Unlocking your diversity greatness means you are maximizing the creative talent within yourself and the members of your team. This will help you extract and multiply the greatness around you.

The poet was always looking for ways to explore other opinions, described the people and environments in a new way and using language to encourage and celebrate success. The poet may not actually use the gift to write words of verse or disclose this talent of others. However, it is evident in the way they go through life and perform their vocation. They have a desired to find a creative outlet, especially if their skills cannot be used at work.

It is crucial and beneficial to view the world through the eyes of the poet. Their insight is talent on your team that can add to your success and overall effectiveness. Leaders must recognize the poetic perspective as an aspect of diversity and the ways people present themselves at work which could make the world a better place.

Internal Corporate Warfare – Mind to mind combat

October 1, 2012 ~ Orlando Ceaser

In an era of empowerment, engagement and teamwork, there is an internal struggle among people who should be allies. Individuals who should be aligned against the external competitive forces have squared off against their co-workers. This internal corporate warfare is a game of mind to mind combat initiated by managerial favoritism, individual’s ambition, hastily conceived diversity programs and survival tendencies linked to the current economic environment. Frequently this warfare is undetected by leadership until the damage has been done through poor morale and the loss of key talent.

Managerial Favoritism

When individuals realize that some people or person has an inside track to promotions they are more than slightly irritated. Nepotism is alive and well in corporate America and so is employee backlash. People do not willingly work with someone if they feel they cannot be trusted or that they will arbitrarily move ahead of them on the promotional totem pole. One of the reasons it is uncouth to get involved in an office affair is the impact it has on the other employees. They do not feel comfortable. They are afraid the person is a spy and will tell all of their secret conversations.

If someone is placed on the proverbial fast track, this leads to friction in meetings and in interactions with their peers. Some people want to dethrone the heir apparent, while others befriend them for personal gain. However, the mind to mind combat and verbal sparring are evident in their personal interactions. As a leader, have you thought about the conflict caused by a potential show of favoritism with certain employees?

Individual Ambition

Ambition is not a dirty word or a concept that is frowned upon by people in power. Organizations want employees who work hard to improve their performance and strive to excellence. Corporations want leaders because they will assume the executive positions within the organizations. They will be responsible and accountable to achieve corporate objectives for the shareholders.

There seems to be a resurgence of cut throat career ladder climbing within a number of companies. This is very true in those organizations that pit their employees against each other in a “may the best man or woman win” scenario. Employees realize that the managerial hierarchy has flattened and therefore, there are fewer roles, so the ambitious become more aggressive. The ambitious are savvier in selecting mentors, taking additional courses and networking feverishly to line up an army of supporters and advisors. Whereas, many in the younger generation want work life balance, the unscrupulous ambitious ones are still willing to sacrifice everyone and everything to reach the top of the heap.

Hastily Conceived Diversity Programs

Leaders read the latest business publications and are confronted with leaders who tout the richness of their Diversity / Inclusion strategies. Top companies in their industry are featured on Top 50 lists for diversity and inclusion. The Corporate ego is inflamed and they decide to do something about diversity and inclusion to improve their corporate culture. They may realize that the demographics of their company do not match their customers or the external marketplace. This need to tap into a wider swath of the talent within the minds of their employees is done swiftly and without much research into how it fits into their overall strategy.

Corporate awareness is further enlightened when they consider data on engagement and how, many of their workers are not bringing their entire selves to work. With these factors in mind they decided to hire and promote people without doing their homework and disseminating their strategy to their people. They waste a golden opportunity to use diversity and inclusion as a means to make all employees feel valuable and appreciated.

When people realize that a diversity and inclusion program incorporates everyone within the company and offers equality for the most talented, much of the infighting is reduced. Diversity programs should include all of the ways in which employees are different. The business case should be discussed and the benefits to the entire company should be delineated. When this is not done properly, workers will not accept new people and will sabotage the arrival and careers of their teammates. The conflict, clashes and ostracism create unnecessary tension. The new employee is blind-sided. They have no idea what is going on. They view their co-workers as cold hearted, hostile and unfriendly.

Survival tendencies

Companies are doing more with less and becoming more creative in achieving their objectives. Talent management strategies have introduced concepts such as forced ranking which can inadvertently lead to internal corporate or departmental warfare. How does widely advertised forced ranking affect teamwork among peers? If you know your assistance could help someone leap frog you and move in front of you in the eyes of management, would that affect your desire to coach your peers?

When I was in sales it was common for sales people in the same industry not to talk to each other. They viewed each other as the competition and the enemy. This helped them make sure they would not give away any secrets on strategy or promotional programs. Is it unreasonable to think this could occur within an organization if people view their peers as the competition? Suppose they see their co-workers as threats to continued employment or promotions, would it affect their actions?

Benedict Arnold and Judas Iscariot are two of the most notable traitors in history. Many careers have been sabotaged by co-workers who gave disparaging stories about their peers for personal gain. I was told a story early in my career. Apparently a group of employees were complaining about a recent company policy. The most vocal among the group reported the meeting to his manager, conveniently leaving out his role in the meeting. He sacrificed his peers to make himself look good. He was subsequently promoted to the chagrin of the rest of the group who attended that meeting.

Companies may try to improve their culture, but are unaware of the internal corporate warfare raging within their doors. Self aware leaders and employee surveys may alert them to the potential skirmishes. Enlightened and strategic leaders improve their culture for the benefit of all. The prevailing peace and cooperation among co-workers will minimize counterproductive exercises and enhance productivity, performance and profits.