I don’t know the origin of the term “all hands meeting.” Sometimes people refer to it by the acronym AHM.  Just a little advice — AHM can also refer to:

• Automated Hacking Machines
• Adaptive Handoff Management
• Airline History Museum
• Airport Handling Manual
• Anterior Hyaloid Membrane

…and over a dozen other terms, so personally I would avoid it.  Could be confusing.  As acronyms usually are.

Anyway, I would venture the All Hand Meeting term originated with the maritime phrase “all hands on deck.”  Picture the ship captain (that’s YOU!  Or the EXECUTIVE TEAM!), charting a course (the BUSINESS STRATEGY), and then calling the crew (EMPLOYEES) up top for a hearty kick in the wooly britches.  The captain urges the swashbucklers to toughen up for the voyage (NEXT QUARTER), brace for the next storm (STRUGGLING GLOBAL ECONOMY, NEW COMPETITIVE CHALLENGES), and fortify themselves for a long stretch without provisions (BUDGET CUTS), not to mention and stingy meals of stale bread and water (LOUSY RAISES AND BONUSES).   Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! 

Ah! The All Hands Meeting.  What will you say when you get up to speak about the state of the organization?  How will you stand and deliver a talk that perfectly frames the current issues, challenging people to move forward and redouble their efforts?  

The purpose of the all hands meeting is quite simple.  Think of it as the President’s State of the Union Address.  You may not get 40 standing ovations on live TV, but your talk should stir genuine emotion from your employees.  Strive to speak eloquently, succinctly and clearly about the current and future state of the enterprise.  Paint a vision of where you have been and where you are going.  Get out the compass, set a course, and tell us how we get to that distant shore.

So, your AHM is coming up soon.  Where should you begin?

May I suggest that the first step is NOT to pull out the musty, old slide deck from the LAST quarter’s all hands meeting.  Think about starting from scratch, and preparing a fresh, new, “killer” presentation.  

What you say matters.  Every word.  Take time to make it great.  Getting people together isn’t logistically easy, and it’s expensive.  And your own professional reputation is riding on this.  You’re evaluated as a leader every time you get up to speak.  Make it count. 

One thing about this fall that’s worth noting - people are still feeling “at sea” because of economic uncertainty.  You would think they would be more motivated to work hard.  But people are actually  paralyzed by fear.  Clear the log jam and get that ship sailing.  

I do everything in my power to shut out the drumbeat of negative economic news, as I know you do.  But  most people don’t.  So it takes a toll.  They need leaders who will stand up and lead. People are only human; they’ve been resourceful for a long time, projects are demanding, and they are tired.  They need to be inspired.

My advice? To inspire, you have to BE inspired.   Ask yourself these questions and then answer them for your team: 

1.        Where are we going? And why is it the right course?  How do you know?

2.       What makes you believe it can be done?  

3.       How do you know that our team can do this?  

4.       Where can we course-correct?   

5.       How do you know we can do it? 

6.       What’s cool about our company? (Tell them how brilliant they are)  

7.       How will we know when we’ve arrived?   

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If you want to learn something about attracting great talent, a good place to start is by studying winning professional sports teams.  The complexities of salary caps, egos and free agency aside, the best have certain advantages.

For instance, the Yankees brand is singularly powerful - pinstripes and piles of money are a killer combo, even for players who have previously enjoyed being big fish in smaller ponds - spending their entire careers in a city that adores them.  My husband hates it when you say that but he’s a lifelong Yankees fan living in New England, and he’s just a little sensitive. 

The Celtics have lately been successful with another proven talent magnet -the law of attraction.  Shaq had lunch with the legendary Doc Rivers and decided he wanted to join the  green team.  Voila, a couple of good meals and he’s lined up to help them make one more run at a championship.  I have some single friends who wish dating was that easy.

However, if you’re not the Yankees or the Celtics in business, you can still attract great talent.  For instance, there’s a small but soon-to-be mighty technology company that has neither unlimited resources nor brand name.  Not yet.  But when they needed talent, and needed it fast, they found a “third way.” They took one year, and devoted 50% of their time to recruiting the best of the best. 

Since I know their story I can assure you that they could ill afford the “luxury” of being out of the office and away from business.  They did it anyway.  They decided that attracting top talent WAS their business. Talent to grow the company was job one. With adequate bank accounts and a small but interesting set of press clippings they had enough ammunition to be resourceful.  Their secret weapon was their story.

Armed with a quite remarkable account of how they started, what they’d accomplished, and where they were going, they secured meetings with their A-list players and … and wowed them.  They didn’t have a shamrock brand but they had a track record of early success, and more important, extreme commitment and firey passion for their business plan.  You wouldn’t believe the people who have said yes to them.

How did they take time away from business to focus like a laser on talent? One of their advisors explained it to me this way.  Instead of trying to keep all the plates spinning by themselves, they took their fingers off the plates, stacked them at the side momentarily, and went out to find the experts who could spin better than they could.  Now the plates are spinning like nobody’s business and they are on the verge huge success in every way you can possibly define it.  And just to take that metaphor a little farther than I probably should - had they NOT taken their fingers off the plates, they probably would have shattered into a million pieces anyway.

Think of your role as a leader in attracting talent this way.  If you want to have Brad Pitt in your movie, you need to either:

a. scare up $20 million bucks

b. put George Clooney in the cast, or

c. get a meeting with Brad, and HAVE A GREAT SCRIPT.

Movie stars, like business stars, want to be a part of an exciting company story.  They can work anywhere.  They like to be able to brag about it. 

Why do I share this in my blog on leadership and communication?  Because you can spend all day fussing with your compensation packages, but once all things are relatively equal and a person you’re trying to recruit believes it is fair enough, what they really want is to join a team with a passionate leader who has an exciting vision and a key spot for them.      

When you get out there to recruit, tell your story with passion and conviction.  Make sure your employees do the same.  They’re your best ambassadors.  Who needs pinstripes - when you have passion?    

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30th Street Station, Philadelphia, PA

The other day on my way to a lunch meeting in Philadelphia I passed by the scene of a crime - my own - some 20 years ago.   It wasn’t illegal, unethical or immoral; however, what I did was nearly fatal to my budding television career. 

Snow flurries were swirling outside 30th Street Station on a bitter cold, pre-Thanksgiving night, when I was sent out to do a live shot for the 11 o’clock news on WCAU-TV.  The music played (Where do they get those awful, self-important news jingles); the anchorman introduced me; I offered my one-line “lead-in;” they rolled the pre-recorded story, voiced from the field. When it ended, they cut back to me for the live close; I started, and then stopped.  Mid SENTENCE.  I couldn’t for the life of me remember how I had planned to throw back to the studio.  

I still wince when I imagine the panic that must have ensued in the control room.  ”What the….did her brain freeze?  What’s wrong?  BATES!  You’re ON!  Mike - CUE.  CUE!!!!! We’ve got nothing. Standby, Larry…back to you….”  After the longest 7 or 8 seconds of my lifetime, Larry Kane must have apologized to the audience.  I don’t remember.  It’s a blank. I was horrified.  And humiliated.

Trudging slowly up the stairs to the newsroom now after midnight, I encountered producer Paul Gluck who had waited for me, rather than joining the crew for an after-news beer.  

“What the hell happened?” he asked. 

“I don’t know,” I replied.  “I memorized every word.” 

“That was your first mistake,” he retorted.  “Never memorize.  Internalize.”

I have often shared that story.  The lesson is to master material without setting yourself up to be a victim of momentary memory lapse.  You can’t count on the brain to fire on all cylinders WORD FOR WORD.  Practice phrases and internalize the ESSENCE of it.   

I share the story for a different reason here.  I was struck - as I drove by that side of the building in the photo above - the scene of my  “crime” -  and felt a flutter of those old, raw emotions.  It wasn’t exactly like yesterday but I was back there, feeling something again.   

That’s when it dawned on me to write about this.  About how important it is to go back and re-live those moments as you think about sharing your stories.  Not just retell.  Re-LIVE.

Freeze frame the moment.  You’ll find a rich source of material.  Because it’s the feelings that make your story powerful.  Connecting with audiences on an emotional level is the point.  Leaders teach.  People learn when they make both an intellectual and emotional connection.  Hence, emotion is part of teaching. 

Truth be told, people vastly prefer to hear about your mistakes.  To err is human, and people want to follow human beings.  They appreciate leaders who open up.  They connect with you emotionally.  And that is  powerful stuff.

You may not relish going back to the scene of some of those crimes.  However, its easy, working with a partner, to recall emotions and imbue your presentation with authenticity. Let them prompt you. ”How did you feel about that?”  When we teach  storytelling “live” at boot camps it’s amazing how well this works.  You see the impact in the faces of the audience, as the storyteller reveals an emotion.  They soften, smile, nod, laugh, and cry.  

Yes, it is appropriate in business to share emotions.  In fact, if you want to influence hearts and minds, it is imperative.  So don’t take the detour.  Drive by the scene of the crime, if only literally.  See what happens when you allow yourself remember… how you felt.    

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A fascinating essay by Jonah Lehrer in the Wall Street Journal explores how nice people are likely to rise to power, and yet the very traits that got them there disappear when they get to the top.  Psychologists refer to this as the paradox of power.  Lehrer cites a compelling bunch of studies affirming this human tendency.  Apparently, SOME people who get to positions of authority by being polite, honest and compassionate become impulsive, reckless and rude once they get there. 

Here’s one example of the research on how nice people finish first, which I find utterly credible.  A University of California Berkeley psychologist gave students free pizza and a survey at the beginning of the year, and asked them to provide their first impressions of every other student in the dorm. At the end of the school year he comes back with more pizza and another survey.  Turns out that the nicest, most considerate, outgoing students were at the top of the freshman hierarchy.  Their peers conferred authority on the people they “liked.”

However, additional research shows that once SOME people gain power, they start listening less, making up their minds in spite of evidence to the contrary, growing less compassionate, more reckless, far less generous and even cheating when they know no one is looking.  In its most benign form, power tripping can lead to bad business decisions.  For example, one study found that overconfident CEOs were more likely to pursue innovation and take their companies in new technological directions, risks that often didn’t pay off.  “Unchecked, bad things can start to happen,” he said.  

I was thinking about that pizza study.  My daughter is going into her junior year in college, and her early impressions of some of kids she shared dorm space with have changed dramatically in two years.  It happened in high school.  You remember high school.  The popular crowd doesn’t “wear well,” over time.  At my daughter’s school, they were still outgoing (involved in every club and activity) but many were not nice or inclusive.  A few went REALLY BAD - mercilessly taunting kids on the lower rungs of the teenage social strata.  By 12th grade, my daughter used to refer this group, which had managed to retain social authority, as the “So-Called Popular Crowd,” with a sardonic look that would leave you in stitches.

So this isn’t news.  You know that old saying, ”Abolute power corrupts absolutely.”  I went looking for the origin to see how old it is.  It arose from John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, (1834-1902) who expressed it as an opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Great men are almost always bad men.”  Human history is the story of good versus evil, the stories of the powerful and corrupt.  Still, it’s interesting to think about this tendency of leaders to  evolve for the worse, not the better, in terms of modern business.  What can be done - in terms of leadership development as well as business practices.  

In business we need leaders who are tough minded and  decisive.   You can’t please everyone.  You will disappoint.   You have a responsibility to the greater organization.  As Lehrer writes, ”In some cases, (these) new habits can help a leader be more decisive and single-minded, or more likely to make choices that will be profitable regardless of their popularity.” 

However since it’s human nature to cross the line - for decency, respect, courtesy, and even morality to be lost as people rise to power, how do we protect our organizations?   How can we encourage the right behaviors in leaders, in spite of the potential for things to go so wrong?  

The article suggests the remedy is transparency.  If people tend to think they’ll get caught in bad behaviors they tend not to go there.  Isolation breeds contempt.  There is, as Lehrer puts it, ”no cure for the paradox of power,” but transparency can keep people from doing bad things.

 Click here to read the entire essay.

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Carl-Henric Svanberg, Chairman, British Petroleum

There are easy targets and then there are easy targets.  I almost hesitate to write about Carl-Henric Svanberg, Tony Hayward and the bunch, because the entire media world has already aimed, fired and riddled the bulleseye with bullets.  What else can be said about this hapless gang? 

On the other hand, since my thing is communication and leadership, I do want to comment because there are lessons here.  Aside from how stupid can you be.   

The Chairman of BP has been nowhere to be found for the first 60 or so days of the oil spill.  when he got a call summoning him to the White House to pony up with billions for the restitution fund, he came out of his cave and spoke just like a cave man.  I am referring of course to his reference to the victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as “the small people.”

It took only minutes for the thing to go viral which meant of course they had to issue the ever-popular press release apology.  Svanberg apologized for having spoken “clumsily” to reporters.    

”What I was trying to say - that BP understands how deeply this affects the lives of people who live along the Gulf and depend on it for their livelihood - will best be conveyed not by any words but by the work we do to put things right for the families and businesses who’ve been hurt.”  Nice try, but no amount of wordsmith-ing is going to make up for a blunder the size of the Gulf.    

If it had just been this one gaffe then people might attribute it to the language barrier (Svanberg is Swedish), or a stressful slip of the tongue.  However, it was only the latest of several BP executive “gaffes” during the eight-week controversy.

Tony Hayward, BP CEO

Just when it seemed Gulf residents couldn’t get any more outraged about the massive oil spill fouling their coastline, word came Saturday that BP’s CEO was taking time off to attend a glitzy yacht race in England.  The social media networks lit up as Gulf Coast residents remarked they’d like a day off from the onslaught of oil on their coasts.  What could the BP spokesman say?  It was the first “day off” Hayward had had since the April 20th oil rig disaster and he has a keen interest in this annual race.  And, this came after a misstep not long ago when he told reporters that he just wanted his life back.  He was forced to apologize.   

So how did it happen?  Of course these guys have never lived under the withering scrutiny of worldwide press and the democracy of the 24-7 blogosphere.  They’re used to coming and going pretty much as they please and saying what they think.

At the same time they seem to be utterly unaware of the impact their words and actions have on others.  As with every corporate crisis, it’s usually not the mistake that kills you  (although this one is bad).  You become Public Enemy Number One because you don’t appear to have any sympathy - strike that - any awarness whatsoever of the plight of others.  

As we speak, some adjunct professor is drafting a case study for Harvard Business School and it’s the easiest thing he or she has ever written.  Only this one won’t be that brilliant Tylenol case that everyone has studied for twenty some years.  This will be a case study in how everything can go wrong some of the time. 

It would be easy to conclude that these guys don’t just have tin ears.  They seem to have forgotten where they came from.  I have no idea whether they grew up with privilege, but they weren’t always kings of their world.  At some point along the way when people uttered the word “CEO” or “Chairman” to them you have to believe they thought, wow, wouldn’t that be great someday?  To have the opportunity to lead a company?  What an awesome responsibility.  What a privilege.

As the author of two books with CEO in the title (Speak Like a CEO, and Motivate Like a CEO) I’m often asked to “defend” those titles.  “How many CEOs really communicate well?” People will ask.  Or, “How many CEOs do you know who really motivate other people?” 

I’ve never spoken publicly about this, but my editors at McGraw Hill were also doubters - more than a little concerned about the choice of title for book #1.  “CEOs don’t have a very good reputation,” one remarked when we were debating what to call it.  I assured them that most of my clients were very interested in getting to the C suite or were already there.  That turned out to be true, as it became a business best seller. 

One reason I love working with leaders is because the vast majority of them love their companies and understand pretty clearly what an impact their words and actions have on others. They are keenly aware that they have a responsibility to those who work for them, live in their communities, and buy their products.  Unfortunately they aren’t the ones who make headlines. 

If you are lucky enough to get to sit in the proverbial corner office, fly on the corporate jet, and play golf at the nicest country clubs,  I think it’s worth cultivating an attitude of gratitude.  If you haven’t done that lately, and you know whether you have, then pour a little humility into that cup of coffee along with the milk and Splenda.  A sense of entitlement is the underlying attitude that leads to shooting yourself in the foot.  One mistake is a gaffe.  A bunch of them that occur because you are acting like the emporer who has no clothes is foolhardy.  

Don’t get me wrong, I think if you are smart and work hard you should get what you “deserve.” The good life is a good thing.  But when you run a company, every day you must to get up and thank those hard-working lucky stars of yours and be thankful for the people who make it possible.  Cultivating that attitude will prevent you from developing the mindset that gets you into trouble when your company is in peril.

I hope – really I do – that eventually things turn around for BP because of the good people who work there and the thousands who invest in BP stock in their retirement portfolios.  Nobody is rooting for BP to fail.  We need oil, we need profitable companies to create jobs and make our economy run like the wind.  I just hope as BP is writing out the check they’re remembering that in the grand scheme of the big wide universe, we’re all pretty darned small.    

 

 Svenberg's comment on "small people" : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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What’s a CEO to do when confronted with an irritating little gnat of a technology blogger who won’t let her off the hook about her company’s poor performance? 

In the case of Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz the answer is… let it rip.  She stopped the curmudgeonly interviewer in his tracks (and drew guffaws from the audience) when she dropped the f-bomb in response to a line of tough questions that compared her unfavorably to Steve Jobs.  I guess she thought it would get him off her case.  Nice try but now the world is now watching on You Tube.  

Didn’t I just write about this You Tube thing…like…. six days ago?

Bartz has a flair for colorful language and you can’t blame her for playing Mama Bear Yahoo - protecting her company cubs from the bad, bad media.  She’s been on the job 16 months.  In today’s ADD world that’s a life time.  She hasn’t performed a miracle yet.  Yahoo’s stock price has been tanking and the press hasn’t been so kind.  Pressure on. 

Then again, the Bold-Ms.-Bartz did make the decision to get on that stage.  I would assume some poor soul in the Yahoo-land communications department was savvy enough to tip her off that this dude Michael Arrington isn’t a fan.  It wasn’t gonna-be-no-love -fest.  

Bartz: I’ve been at this company 16 months. and so I’m supposed to have an iPad, iPod… I mean, c’mon. You are involved in a very tiny company [pause].

Arrington: Very tiny.

Bartz: And it probably takes a long time to even convince yourself what the hell to do. So I don’t want to hear any crap about something magical that the fine people of Yahoo are supposed to do in this short time. So f___ off.”

Interestingly, some people are falling all over themselves praising the blunt Ms. Bartz.  Guy Kawasaki, a  Twitterer-extraordinaire, tweeted, ” I respect Carol Bartz even more now..” @GlennF tweeted, “I especially like how Carol Bartz doesn’t play the marketing-speak messaged CEO. She destroys Arrington there.” Another, @Segphault, wrote in a tweet, “Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz is awesome.”

This has nothing to do with women by the way.  A few weeks ago Vice President Biden also made headlines when he slapped President Obama on the back with a congratulatory “this is a big f___ing deal.” 

I’m beginning to think I need re-examine my media training program all together.

Really.

I used to videotape executives just to show them that the APPEARED A BIT IRRITATED at the tough questions we threw at them.  I would make them to watch and advise them to keep cool.  A little passion is always good.  You don’t want to look like you don’t care.  But letting them get under your skin is generally counterproductive.  They focus on your emotion and stop hearing your message.

The pressure of running a public company with a once-glorious-now-somewhat-tattered brand-name notwithstanding, I still think it’s better when you’re in control.  And once again, I’m not claiming to be any kind of saint in the profanity department.  My dad, a common sense Midwest country lawyer always used to let it rip in the house, and tell me cussing sure as hell isn’t the worst sin.

But back to basics, people.  You are a leader.  What do you want your company’s culture to be?  And what do you want your leadership BRAND to be?  Carol Bartz seems like the kind of gal I’d enjoy having a beer with.  Her people may be mighty proud she’s standing up for them.  But the f-word will forever be tattooed on her precious executive reputation.  With an exclamation point.

Just something to think about.

YaHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 Carol Bartz, Yahoo CEO: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Decked out in red midriff-baring tops and hot pants, performing to “All the Single Ladies,” the 8 and 9 year old dancers at a recent competition earned whoops and praise for their skilled moves, imitating the above photo.  Yet when the video hit You Tube, their gyrations launched an internet firestorm.  It sparked a raging controversy regarding the age appropriateness of those sexy Beyonce-like dance moves.   

The girls’ parents were dumbfounded, saying the video was never meant to be viewed by millions of people.  “This is taken completely out of context,” Cory Miller, father of one of the girls, told Good Morning America.  “The girls are doing something they love to do,” he added.  But “once something becomes viral it gets out of control.”  

That got me thinking about you.  Not the situation where your kids post video of you doing the air guitar routine.  More like when your employees, competitors or even perfect strangers decide to post a video of you speaking in a quasi public forum.  Let’s say you’re on a panel, or giving a conference presentation; or even speaking at an all hands meeting.  Someone with good, bad or benign intentions might just decide to create some mischief.  Are you comfortable with that?  Are you even thinking about it?  

I don’t know what percentage of cell phones and blackberries can capture digital video but it’s certainly growing.  88% of Americans have cell phones.  4 billion people in the world carry one.  I can only think of one or two places where I’ve been asked to surrender mine - mostly going into locations related to government or defense.

Ubiquitous video capability has had a fascinating impact on TV news gathering.  TV news crews no longer have to be “on the scene” to get the story.  I understand the arrest of one of three Pakistani men who may have been in cahoots with the Time Square bomber was captured by a neighbor who happened to see the FBI outside the door in Watertown, MA.  Here’s a link to the raw video  

There are ways to protect yourself but it’s confusing.  On You Tube’s web site the first thing they tell you is you can only take down a video if you uploaded it yourself.  Videos can be removed by You Tube for copyright infringement.  Other than that, after several tries, I couldn’t easily find out on line what the policy is.  

What if you don’t happen to like a video of you that someone else loaded?  I hadn’t done a You Tube search on myself in awhile.  I found most of the videos were posted by our marketing director - tips on communication and clips of speeches.  However, there are also excerpts from television newscasts (when I was a lot younger and more of a brunette - but yes, that’s me.)  No reputational harm - kind of fun to see the old news sets - but I sure didn’t post them.  No idea who did.  What if I just didn’t like them?  I’m not sure I would have recourse.  I don’t own the copyright.  This is what I mean.  It’s a brave new world.  

Not sounding the alarm bell here just yet but it’s something to think about.  

By the way, the video of the dance contest is harder to find now.  On USA Today’s site, a message pops up: “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by YAK films.”  But you can still find it on ABC Good Morning America’s web site.

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Well, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
Tell me, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
‘Cause I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
The Who, 1978

When the English rock band The Who (Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, plus bassist john Entwistel and drummer Keith Moon) recorded one of their iconic 70’s anthems, their chorus posed a haunting rhetorical question to a guy who wakes up in Soho after a drunken, brawling night.    

More than 30 years later, it’s hard to get those words out of your mind isn’t it?  Not only when you’re 23, nursing a hangover, pondering how to make something of your life; but also when you’re older and figuring out what am I doing here?  It’s important to ask because we all have a need to connect who we are with what we do.  Call that - authenticity.    

Years ago in designing our executive coaching program we developed an in-depth personal history interview for that reason.  We realized we couldn’t coach anyone until we knew who they were.  Where were you born; what did your parents do; what kind of student were you; what was college like; what did you want to be when you grew up?  What happened earlly in your career; who were the people who shaped you; why did you choose this path?  Why this industry?  This company?  This leadership role?  

What’s intriguing is that this process isn’t just a valuable coaching tool.  It helps our clients remember stories they had forgotten that reconnect the past with the present.  These stories are a bridge to authentic leadership; useful not only to you, but to the people you lead.  They also want to know.  Who are you?      

Years ago I met Dan Wolf, CEO and founder of Cape Air. Dan is a pilot with a side-splitting sense of humor and a gift for storytelling. Known as the airborne executive, he grew up fascinated by flying, hanging around airports.  In the summers between college at Wesleyan, he learned to fly around Cape Cod. He tooks his last semester of college off to become an instructor and commercial pilot.  Cape Air began as a flying school and then expanded to take on more and more routes.  Eventually they became America’s largest privately-owned and operated commuter airline. 

In an interview in CNNMoney.com a couple of years ago, he said, “There are airline CEOs who make a point to be active on the front lines — handing out nuts and meeting passengers in the airplane — but I really love the idea of still being able to fly. I make it a point to fly Saturdays in the summer because I know we’re busy. I’ll see how the operation is working, and since I’m flying on the weekend, I’m not taking time away from my desk job.”

Now there is a guy who is passionate about his company.  He loves flying.  I understand who he is.  So do his employees.  This could account for the fact that when you click on the awards list of their web site you have to keep scrolling and scrolling.  They’ve won everything from the prestigious Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in New England to the Greater Boston Chamber Small Business Award, and Cape Cod Citizen of the Year Award, and dozens of others.

I don’t have any interest whatsoever in promoting or highlighting Dan Wolf - I’ve only met the guy once.  But I think I “get” who he is.  And I would imagine that people who work for him do, too. 

When people understand who a leader and that resonates with them, they’re like to want to be part of his or her organization.  If you love the Cape, enjoy the aviation business, like the idea of working for an employee owned company run by a guy with passion and a sense of humor, then you’re quite like to find Cape Air attractive.  And once you get there, you’re likely to work hard and stay around.  

It isn’t always an easy question to answer.  But I will tell you this.  It’s worth examining.  

Who are you?

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