I’ve been “teaching” since 1995, the year I started my doctoral studies at Oklahoma State University. In those 15 years, I’ve taught numerous undergraduate and MBA classes on a variety of topics related to leadership and management. I’ve interacted with thousands of adults in my classes, all of which were classified as “students” by both the institution and themselves.

Yet, I’m still trying to figure out what a true “learner” looks like, and I’m hoping you can help me. I think the questions I’m interested in apply in the workplace as much as they do in the classroom, especially since I teach business and management. So, from what you have actually observed in yourself and others:

1. What does it mean to learn?

2. Why are people motivated to learn?

3. What does learning look like? In other words, how does someone you work with that you believe is truly interested in learning speak and act?

5. How do you deal with people at work that are truly interested in learning? How do they affect you?

6. How would you know if someone you work with is truly not interested in larning? What are the things you would listen and look for?

7. Why are some people not interested in learning?

8. How do you deal with people at work that are truly not interested in learning? How do they affect you?

Ok, that’s enough for now. Is there another good question about learning that I am not asking? If so, please ask it and answer it.

Please tell me what YOU think!

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In my MBA class tonight, one of the topics we will cover is diversity in the workplace. I don’t think you can teach a class in Organizational Behavior and not at some point discuss the variety of ways that people differ from each other, and how those differences affect how they work together. Diversity night is always a tough one. Historically, most of my students are open to the discussion, but there are always a few that bristle at either discussing diversity at work or the way I talk about it.

I don’t think diversity is a mirage. I think people can differ on many dimensions, and frankly I like that. Work would be pretty boring and a lot less effective if everyone was just like me. But differences are challenging.

When I find a dimension of difference between myself and someone I have to work closely with, my goal is to understand why that difference exists and how it might affect our relationship, especially with respect to communication and decision making styles. I find the key with difference is to avoid the temptation to think that mine is better than yours.

The most difficult and for some most unpopular thing I talk about are the advantages I experience being a member of the power majority. This is really a statement about power in groups, not about white males. If the majority of folks at work were women with green skin, pink hair, and degrees from elite universities, the power dynamics would be exactly the same.

Even though I truly believe my group status makes me advantaged, I am also quite certain I have lost the shot at a few jobs because I am a white male. I’m not angry at all about that, because frankly I have won more times than I lost. That’s just the way it goes.

And I also feel no sense of “guilt” for the advantages I experience and the disadvantages others have historically experienced.  Zero, zilch, none. I do, however, feel a profound sense of responsibility to make others more aware of the dynamics of diversity in the workplace and to do my part in helping to make things better for my children and grandchildren. I do think we have come a long way, but we still have plenty of room for significant improvement.

What do you think?  Share your thoughts with me in the comments section below.

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Are Your Employees Interesting?

Guest Post by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton

Over the last few years, our series of business books has focused on “carrots,” our catch-phrase for recognition offered by leaders to appreciate the great work of their employees. And yet in a new 350,000-person study, we learned that the same practices of appreciation and recognition that create great leaders also contribute to the success of breakthrough teams.

Here’s what we found: Cheering is the secret sauce that can create a spirit of camaraderie so strong that the act of supporting each other becomes second nature, where the vast majority of pettiness and finger-pointing stops. And it was appreciation (or recognition) that was the key cheering factor that unlocked commitment, drive, and ultimately, success. As team member talents and efforts were rewarded frequently and specifically, colleagues also strove for the same treatment. They wanted a bit of cheer too.

Sounds good, right? But what if your cheering was under scrutiny from the Wall Street media?

We found that’s just what happened recently at Texas Roadhouse, a restaurant chain with 330 locations and 40,000 employees system-wide. The restaurants were built to resemble a traditional roadhouse found throughout rural Texas, serving great food amid line dancing and country music.

Company founder Kent Taylor opened the doors on his first restaurant in 1993 with a simple people-first philosophy; take care of your employees and they will take care of your guests. His focus on employee happiness was a departure from the conventional management wisdom at a time when competitors were focused solely on taking care of the guest. In this remarkable culture, awards were created for meat cutters, bartenders, and even line dancers. Other national promotions and contests combine for a line-up of employee recognition that is impressive.

It’s an approach that recently earned Texas Roadhouse careful attention from the press. Recently at the company’s annual managing partner conference, CEO G.J. Hart was invited on air by CNBC to discuss the company’s decision to continue recognition practices. While media focus at the time was critical of using company resources to celebrate in a time of rampant economic cutbacks, Hart used the opportunity to create a rallying cry for Texas Roadhouse employees.

Read the words of Service Manager Wendy Ennis of the Clarksville, Indiana, restaurant, as she described to us Hart’s appearance on the news network: “The whole interview was pretty incredible. Not only did GJ not apologize for celebrating his people’s accomplishments, he said he wasn’t sure it was enough. It’s an honor to be a part of a company that’s so committed to taking care of its people—especially now. At a time when most companies are saying, ‘Don’t love your people, don’t do anything extra, just tighten the belt as much as you can,’ it’s almost as if our leadership does just the opposite. The message we get is, ‘Take care of your people especially right now. Love your guests especially right now. Take care of your community especially right now.’ And you know what? The guests tell us they can feel it too and they love it.”

By continually engaging employees through a platform of consistent appreciation, Texas Roadhouse has inspired such employee commitment, not to mention stronger performance and customer loyalty, all of which contribute to better business results. “We have seen a double digit drop in turnover from just a year ago,” says Dave Dodson, communication and recognition program director.

Other company metrics also speak to the success of the Texas Roadhouse’s approach to culture. In 2009, again during the recession, company earnings were at record levels.

The moral of the story: Texas Roadhouse is one of many great examples that illustrate the power of cheering in this economy. Despite the doom and gloom, there is potential in every team to be extraordinary.

New York Times bestselling authors Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton are the authors of The Orange Revolution: How one great team can transform an entire organization coming Sept. 20 from Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Learn more at carrots.com. Subscribe to Adrian and Chester’s blogs at http://adriangostick.com and http://chesterelton.com

Thanks, Adrian and Chester! Bret

In my new post at The Student Branding Blog, I talk about how I am trying out a new software platform called Flavors.me. This is a simple application that lets anyone list at a single site their multiple social media activities. It is customizable, and some folks have created some very impressive pages, but mine is simple simply because I am not very creative! I have given mine a custom URL, and I list on this site my LinkedIn, this blog, my personal blog, Twitter, Youtube, and Vimeo.

I like it so far. It’s a good way to bring your brand together on a single site. If you do check it out, let me know what you think.

My post today over at The Leader Lab is entitled “Five Evidence-Based Outcomes of Both the Bright-side and the Dark-side of a Leader’s Personality.” This article is a follow-up to one I wrote last week entitled “Seven Things to Expect from Your Narcissistic Employee,” which was a big hit on SmartBrief on Leadership.

In this article, I summarize the results of a fascinating study of 75 Major League Baseball CEOs over a 100 year period, published in one of our top research journals. The bottom line is that narcissistic leaders are more likely to turn over good managers, while positive leaders are more likely to achieve outcomes associated with organizational success. That’s something many of us might have suspected, but it’s nice to have some credible evidence behind it.

I hope you check out the article by clicking here!

I got my copy of “Be Bodacious: Put Life In Your Leadership,” by Steven D. Wood free of charge from the publicist. When this thin book with a goofy title arrived, I was glad I did not pay for it. To be completely honest, I did not look forward to reading it.

But now I am going to recommend it. I did not love this book, because I prefer evidence-based books on leadership over anecdotes and stories. If you are someone that loves stories more than research, this book could be for you.

Even though I did not like the style, I did love the message – a lot. The message boils down to these six words:

• Be extraordinary
• Be unrestrained
• Be bold

We’ve all heard this message before, but few of us actually live it. Through the stories Steven shares in his book, he reminds us how important it is to doggedly pursue an uncompromising commitment to others by holding ourselves to very high personal standards. It’s impossible to be the leader others need you to be if you live an ordinary, constrained, and timid life.

“Change your future by changing what you do today” (p. 89).

This book would be an especially good read for young people or new leaders, but even the most seasoned among us need to constantly remind ourselves how easy it is to become complacent and comfortable with our own mediocrity. It’s not a new message, but it is an excellent message – one I bodaciously recommend.

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I teach an MBA course in Organizational Behavior every semester. Most of my students have never had a previous course in OB, and many have never had any management course. So I use a textbook to cover the basic concepts of OB and case studies, mostly from Harvard Business School Press, to help us think about how to apply the concepts.

Every semester I also have my students subscribe to six of my favorite bloggers. They are required to leave a comment on at least one blog per week and hopefully engage the blog author in a brief conversation. I have them read blogs because I want them to get a perspective on leadership other than my own. The blogs they are required to subscribe to this semester are:

Bob Sutton: Work Matters

Dan McCarthy: Great Leadership

Wally Bock: Three Start Leadership

Art Petty: Management Excellence

Mary Jo Asums: Aspire

Paul Hebert: Incentive Intelligence

I also give them a list of 4-5 current books and ask them to read and report on one. The books on my list this semester are:

Employees First, Customers Second

Drive

Multipliers

Open Leadership

Good Boss, Bad Boss

Bob Sutton is one of my favorite business authors. His new book, Good Boss, Bad Boss, will be out on September 7 so make sure to get your copy early. If you are interested in continuously developing your capacity to lead, manage, or supervise others, I think you will benefit by reading any of these books or following any of these blogs.

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I was very pleased to participate in a discussion yesterday with Peter Mello, David Burkus, and Scott Allen. We discussed a variety of issues, but the highlight of our discussion was our shared and divergent views of leadership education at the university level.

You can listen to or download the podcast of our discussion by visiting Peter’s site, The Weekly Leader and clicking on this link.

Thanks, Peter, David, and Scott!

I am going to recommend “Delivering Happiness: A Path To Profits, Passion, And Purpose,” by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. I received my copy of the book free of charge from the publicist. There is a lot of hype surrounding this book, so admittedly I had very high expectations. This is a good book for sure, but it’s not a great one. I liked “Employees First, Customers Second,” better as a CEO’s inside look at the transformation of his company.

Tony has a very engaging writing style. Although he is clearly extremely intelligent and talented, he tells his personal story and the story of building Zappos with others in a very simple sincere way. Tony might come off as goofy at times, but he did not to me come off as arrogant. This is a guy any of us would be lucky to work with or for.

For me, the book really took off at about page 130, when Tony began to describe in more detail the brand, culture, and people of Zappos. Two things that really impressed me were his list of 10 ways to instill customer service into your company, and the 10 core values of Zappos.

10 Ways to Instill Customer Service into Your Company (p. 147)

1. Make customer service a priority for the whole company, not just a department. A customer service attitude needs to come from the top.

2. Make WOW a verb that is part of your company’s everyday vocabulary.

3. Empower and trust your customer service reps. Trust that they want to provide great service…because they actually do. Escalations to a supervisor should be rare.

4. Realize that it’s okay to fire customers who are insatiable or abuse your employees.

5. Don’t measure call times, don’t force employees to upsell, and don’t use scripts.

6. Don’t hide your 1-800 number. It’s a message not just to your customers, but to your employees as well.

7. View each call as an investment in building a customer service brand, not as an expense you’re seeking to minimize.

8. Have the entire company celebrate great service. Tell stories of WOW experiences to everyone in the company.

9. Find and hire people who are already passionate about customer service.

10. Give great service to everyone: customers, employees, and vendors.

10 Core Values of the Zappos Culture (p. 154)

1. Deliver WOW thorough service

2. Embrace and drive change

3. Create fun and a little weirdness

4. Be adventurous, creative, and open-minded.

5. Pursue growth and learning

6. Build open and honest relationships with communication

7. Build a positive team and family spirit

8. Do more with less

9. Be passionate and determined

10.  Be humble

That’s great stuff and entirely consistent with my philosophy at Positive Organizational Behavior. Tony’s description of these core values and the hyper-focus on customer service at Zappos make the book worth your time to read.

I actually think this book is more valuable for aspiring entrepreneurs and young managers than for CEO types. If you are a mid to upper level manager in a company that does not already embrace some of these values, you are going to have a difficult time applying any of this. If you like this stuff, my advice is to find a Zappos like company to work for.

But if you are a young entrepreneur you have a chance to build something new and unique that’s limited only by the stuff between our ears. If you get a chance to build a company from the ground up, then do it right. Tony’s insight as a young entrepreneur building two companies is extremely valuable.

I have to be honest, even though I loved the philosophy, there were times when I found myself skimming quickly through sections of the book just to get finished. And the last chapter of the book on delivering happiness just didn’t work for me. But this is a good book; one that I’m happy to recommend.

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Last Friday I did a phone interview with Kade Dworkin, and Kade has posted the interview as a podcast at his website Meet My Followers.  You can listen to the podcast by clicking here.  I am very honored to be among the first 13 people interviewed by Kade.

Kade and I met through The Student Branding Blog where I was doing blog posts and Kade was doing Student Branding TV. I wrote a blog post that Kade disagreed with and he sent me a LONG e-mail explaining his position. What really impressed me was how professionally Kade handled his disagreement. He did not disparage me either online or in his e-mail, but he made a passionate and well articulated argument for his points. That’s professionalism at its best.

Since that exchange Kade has spoken via Skype to two of my personal branding classes here at UNR. He is a big hit every time with both me and my students because not only is he a good speaker, but his message is right on. Kade “gets it” and I really appreciate that.

So please check out Kade Dworkin’s site or follow him on Twitter.