Does the financial services business need to wash out its mouth with soap?  Last Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that “There will never be another S—- deal at Goldman Sachs.”  This after Goldman Sachs told 34,000 traders and employees (verbally) that it will no longer tolerate e-profanity.  An April U.S. Senate hearing had exposed Thomas Montag’s 2007 missive, “[B]oy, that timberwo[l]f was one s— deal,” and GS decided something needed to be done. (the profanity, not the policy that allowed the act). The S.E.C. said Goldman needed to review its business standards.  So Goldman’s next step was to inform employees that the company will be policing them with profanity-screening software, which Citgroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, Bloomberg and others have done for years.  

Since Montag was telling the truth (it was a bad deal) perhaps he could have avoided embarassment by  prettying-up his profanity.  One way to do that is by substituting symbols, which I learned are called ”grawlixes” (alert Bill O’Reilly - I believe we have a new word of the day).  But how satisfying would that have been?  They really look silly, don’t they?  It’s as old fashioned as when your parents used to spell titillating messages (Mary’s daughter had S-E-X with her boyfriend and she is P-R-E-G-O’s) You knew exactly what they were talking about.    

I’ve said before I’m no saint in this department.  Profanity has its place in modern life. Researchers say it helps mitigate pain.  That means when my husband can’t get the thingamajig contraption that holds the corn on the grill to work and he drops it on the ground and burns his hand, I should say, “Go ahead honey, let ‘er rip - it’s a stress reliever.”   

But how about profanity in the workplace?  Is it justified?  After all, our jobs are filled with stress.  There seems to more stress than ever.  For example, it must have been terribly stressful for trader Tourre to act against the interests of its clients, and for the management to realize what had been done.  Oh, the pressure.    

I do wonder with stress in the workplace at an all-time high, how many times a day does the average person let ‘er rip?  Perhaps a better question is what is average?  After all, some people cringe when they hear a profanity-light-word; others have blasphemed a thousand times before they order their morning coffee roll with a Dunkin on-the-run.    

In search of what is “average” I came across one study of tape-recorded conversations.  It claimed roughly 80–90 spoken words each day—0.5% to 0.7% of all words—are swear words, with a variance of 0% to 3.4%.  I’m thinking that is on the ultra light side.  This researcher must not get out much.  He certainly didn’t visit any of my old newsrooms and I doubt he carried a tape recorder into the sacred halls of Goldman Sachs.   

Okay, enough.  Let me take a step back and talk what really matters on the topic of profanity, which is your own self-interest.  My view is simple.  Profanity in e-mail?  Stupid.  Idiotic!  Why would you risk it?  It goes viral in a second.  Do you really want it  in the inbox of your boss, your boss’s boss, your client or customer, your enemy, the Wall Street Journal, where it will live forever in the archives if it gets that far?  It’s one thing to whisper sweet profane nothings to your best work friend in the hallway, and another to write them down and hit the send button.  It isn’t becoming of a top executive. It hurts your leadership brand. Protect your reputation. Enough said.

Before I wrap up I do want to say that I believe Goldman Sachs missed the point.  I agree with WSJ reporter Michael Corkery who noted in his blog that the ban on profanity is the first new Goldman Sachs policy to emerge since the bank settled its case with the SEC on July 15th.  As he points out, the irony is that most of the e-mails that got them into trouble in the first place were profanity-free.  “What was most damaging to Goldman in (Fabrice “Fab”) Tourre’s trove of emails,” says Corkery, “was the French trader’s admission that he knew there were problems with the mortgage derivatives market at the same time he was peddling them to investors.”

So Goldman Sachs has taken a tough stand against bad words.  Whoopdy do.  Yes, setting boundaries with appropriate vocabulary is a good idea.  I have no issue with the edict, or with the scanning software.  You can only hope they now are prepared to address the ethical standards that genuinely threaten their reputation, the lapses that help fuel American’s ongoing disillusionment with Wall Street.    

No comments »

I couldn’t believe I did it. 

Just kill me now.

I was responding to an email from our consultant Sarah.  I don’t know why.  I hit REPLY ALL.

Tell me you’ve done it too.  (Please.)

Okay here’s what happened.  I was in a hurry.  (check one.)

I assumed it was from my consultant with a copy to our business manager.  (check two).

I didn’t review the name in that second line.  (check three.)

I was trying to be clever. (check four.)

I didn’t see his name until my curser was poised on send in a downward motion.  It was just like when you see someone falling off of a chair backwards; you’re watching it in slow motion, you want to scream but you can’t and you are helpless. Nothing you can do.  Nothing.  

Out it went– into cyberspace.  A message intended for the consultant went to the CLIENT!!!!

Panic. 

(What ensues next is chaos in my office - I go down the hall to find our tech guy.  Revise that–I FLY out of my office and down the hall yelling…”Can you recall it?” Bob RACES to the server, shuts it down, but I can see by the look on his face that this is just for show.  The phone is ringing.  It’s Sarah.  “Yes, she knows,” I hear our new receptionist say.  “We’re trying to recover it.”  We stand their staring at each other.  Futile.  For some idiotic reason I’ve never activated the delay feature on my email- you know the one that keeps the email in your outbox for a minute or two?  Of course, now, I’m thinking, “What did I say, exactly?”   I go back to read it.  It’s not terrible.  It’s just…. well….EMBARASSING.

I wish I could tell you that this was a bad dream brought on by indigestion from a piece of undercooked fish and too many glasses of Pinot Grigio.  I wish I could say it didn’t happen.  But it did.

Oh, that damned REPLY ALL button.

Why did I do it?  It’s my rule?  I NEVER use replay all. Okay, honestly? Maybe once in awhile.

Into the consultant penalty box go I.  The price will be steep.  I will have to call immediately to explain the inside joke.  

Thank GOD IT WASN’T A BAD MESSAGE. 

Just for the record - we like to celebrate bringing in a new client by virtually ”throwing the Gatorade.”  You know, that ritual that teams have when they drive down the field, score, grab a big barrel and dump it on the coach.  It read, “Sarah, let’s get the signed contract and then we’ll throw the Gatorade.  Nice job!  Your clients must have give you some great recommendations.”  

Like I said, it’s not a BAD message.  It’s just that we are in the COMMUNICATIONS business.   We are not supposed to make these mistakes.    

If I worked for ME?  I’d be in a lot of trouble today.  

In a way I would argue that it’s worse when you’re the boss because you’re supposed to set the standard.  I can guarantee right now that I will awaken at 3 a.m. –reliving this horror.

So … learn from my mistake.  Be careful.  Don’t get sloppy.  Copy and paste emails - don’t hit forward.  Never hit reply all.  Put every name in that line intentionally.  

Gee, I hope he laughs when he gets my voice mail.  

Just kill me now.

2 Comments »

What that statistic doesn’t tell you is how much time you spend writing, editing and crafting each email.  If you’re trying to manage your time more efficiently, one question to ask is - would it take less time to do this by phone?  Or would it be more effective by phone?  It’s not just that email - but the trail of email you are about to create that you must consider, not to mention, the lost opportunity of building a relationship over the telephone.  Go to your data base, look up the number, and dial the phone.  

Let’s imagine that each email message you read takes approximately 1 minute to scan, another 1 minute to consider, and 3 to 5 minutes to write a response.  That’s up to 7 minutes per email - and I haven’t even calculated the ones you are just receiving, reading and deleting.  You can bet that while some email correspondence may take less, many may take more time.  38 emails times 7 minutes is 266 minutes –that’s four and a half hours of email time.  Half your workday.  So the 25% number could be low. 

What are some other tips that will help you to change the email/time equation? 

• Internally, keep your answers friendly but very brief. 
• Let people know that you prefer the telephone for scheduling internal meetings. 
• Tell people not to copy you unless you must be informed or unless you must take action. 
• Include in your own subject lines whether an email requires action. 
• Become a pithy, high content writer. 
• Create scannable email with bullet points, bolds, and underlines so people can quickly review and respond.  Encourage those who work for you to do the same.  Your
• Unsubscribe from all the lists you don’t want to be on - that waste your time. 
• If you have an executive assistant, work out a plan so they can respond to certain people and types of communications. 
• Don’t check the email constantly - batch it at points in the day when you can take a break from the high priority, high concentration tasks you have.

No comments »

The November/December issue of The Conference Board Review has an article I want to recommend on The Attention Deficit.   The issue about productivity in a world of constant communication is important.  This isn’t about interruption - there has always been interruption in the workplace.  From the guy who stops in midday to tell you what his kids are doing to the friend who always calls you in the office while she’s traveling or in her car with nothing to do — there have always been those.

What’s new, as the article points out, is the sheer number of such devices and their intrusive nature, from e-mail to instang messaging, XML feeds, blogs, social-networking sites, cell phones, pagers, “they connect the knowledge worker, but to what?”

According to BASEX, a New York-based IT research company, a thousand executives and knowledge workers last year repored receiving on average 200 e-mails, instant messages, phone calls (office and cell) and text messages a day.

One of the most relevant points for the leaders who are readers of The Power Speaker Blog is this - “Many people permit their e-mail to deflect them from their plans for the day.  Their inbox, in effect, becomes their daily schedule.  People end up working on stuff that’s not important.”

Here’s my own QUICK QUIZ: Are Your E-Mail Habits Getting in the Way of your Career?

• Are you anxious to hit the reply button as soon as a new email comes in?
• Are you checking your email more than 4 times per day? 
• Do you get sidetracked answering email when you know other things are more important?
• Do you spend too much time replying?
• Are your messages too long?
• Do you find yourself answering surveys, checking out unimportant attachments, and otherwise, getting sidetracked?
• Do you feel that email “relieves” your stress when you don’t want to do something else, or something you’re working on seems too difficult?
• Does it drive you crazy to have anything sitting in your inbox?

If you answered yes to half or more of these questions then it’s time to look at your email habit as a habit.  Unless you have the type of business (or an explicit promise to your clients and customers) that you will return all email correspondence within the hour, then you need to set strict guidelines and stick to them.

Why? You’ll never get promoted to the top or stay at the top if you can’t manage your time, and more important, execute what’s important.

E-mail is literally threatening many rising stars future.  I’m not old fashioned about this - I’m as connected as the next person.  But you know who you are.  This is about more than your productivity, it’s about creativity, time to think, innovate, plan, prioritize, and move your organization forward. 

No comments »