You call it 'culture' - to the talent it might just be 'policy'

Fresh off last week's launch of The 8 Man Rotation, 2012 Season free Ebook on all things Sports and HR, I am stocking the pond for the 2013 edition with another dispatch from the sports world - but one that I promise has more broad relevance and applicability.

In baseball, and perhaps in all of North American major professional sports, the New York Yankees are the most famous, most successful, and most storied franchise in history. Legendary players, achievements, 27 World Series championships, and the occasional bit of controversy have been the hallmarks of the team throughout its long history.

With this long history comes tradition certainly, and traditionally the Yankees have continued to reinforce elements like their uniforms, which are the same design, more or less, as they have always been, and with no player names on the back, only numbers. The Yankees shun most of the other 'entertainment' elements that have become a fixture of professional sports - they have no costumed mascots or cheerleaders. They try for the most part to project a sense of professionalism in how they play the game, and how their players, (employees really), also project themselves when they are representing the team.

For players this means (among other things), an 'appearance' code - uniform shirts buttoned and worn a certain manner, and curiously enough still in 2013, a ban for players on facial hair.  Yep, you read that correctly. If you want to play for the Yankees that means no mustaches, beards, goatees, Van Dykes or facial hair of any type.

The Yankees ownership obviously feels, and has for a long time, that the facial hair ban helps to ensure and support their company brand and culture - professionalism, attention to detail, and very 'corporate' in nature. To them surely this 'rule' really is not so much a rule or a policy, but an outward manifestation and expression of that culture.  And it is entirely up to them as an employer to feel that way.

But one man's (or company's) culture is another man's policy - and in some cases this culture/policy has the effect of deterring otherwise 'top' talent from the organization. The latest example of this in action for the Yankees - check these quotes from the Tampa Bay Rays' pitcher David Price. Price is one of the best pitchers in the league, and when he becomes a free agent in a couple of years, would be precisely the kind of talent the Yankees would pursue. 

Here's what Price has to say about the Yankees and facial hair:

"If I ever did hit that free-agent market, there would be teams I wouldn't sign with simply because of the stuff that I've heard -- every rule they have."

Taking note of his beard, I told Price he'd have to shave if the Yankees traded for him.

"I wouldn't stay there very long then,” he responded. “I wouldn't sign a long-term deal there. Those rules, that's old-school baseball. I was born in '85. That's not for me. That's not something I want to be a part of."

Sure, you can get a little cynical here and tell me - 'If the Yankees offered him $10M more than any other team, he's shut up and sign the contract and shave the beard.'  That could very well be true, but that isn't really the important point to me. 

One man's 'culture' is another man's policy. Sure in this case maybe the culture/policy is having its desired effect - preventing what would possibly be a bad hire. Price, if he went to the Yankees would bristle over the facial hair ban, and probably lots of other culture/policy issues as well.

Not judging anyone here - the Yankees have been really successful for a long time doing it their way, and Price has an absolute right to his opinion and his desire to be treated as a professional.

Not judging, but just reminding that living up to and reinforcing your culture means sometimes turning away some fantastic talent that doesn't see your culture the same way you do. 

VIDEO - On how ridiculous you 'big thinkers' sound

Take two minutes of your Friday to watch the video embedded below, (Email and RSS subscribers please click through), titled 'Outside the Box', by director Joe Pelling.

Outside the Box from Sherbet on Vimeo.

Classic.

Hysterical.

Familiar?

And hopefully a good reminder to any of us, (me too), who might occasionally take ourselves too seriously.

That's all I've got for the week.

Have a great Weekend all!

#HRHappyHour LIVE Tonight - 'The 8 Man Rotation - Season 3'

On Tuesday of this week The 8 Man Rotation gang - Matt 'akaBruno' Stollak, Kris Dunn, Tim Sackett, Lance Haun, and I released our third annual free Ebook on the intersection of 'Sports and HR'.

Titled simply 'The 8 Man Rotation: A Look at Sports and HR, The 2012 Season' - the Ebook is a collection of over 60 sports-themed blog posts and articles from 2012 (up from 45 in 2011), and registering about 150 pages of goodness.

So while The 8 Man Rotation Ebook has become an annual tradition, (and an institution of sorts in the HR space), so too has the 8 Man Rotation's annual appearance on the HR Happy Hour Show to celebrate the Ebook launch - and to talk about all things 'Sports and HR'.

And so as it should be, as it must be, The 8 Man Rotation is back LIVE on the HR Happy Hour Show tonight, February 21, 2013 at 8:00PM ET.

You can catch the show in a few different ways - listen to the live stream starting at 8:00PM ET on the show page here, or using the widget player embedded below:

Listen to internet radio with Steve Boese on Blog Talk Radio

 

You can also listen via the call-in listener line - 646-378-1086, (if you are brave you can even join the fun).

After the show, you can access the replay anytime from the show page, or from the Apple iTunes store - just search for 'HR Happy Hour' in the podcasts area and download the show for free to your iDevice.

I know it will be a fun show tonight - even if you are not a huge sports fan I think there will be some insights on how sports and HR and talent and recruiting and work are all interrelated that you will find interesting.

I hope you can join me, co-host Trish McFarlane, and The 8 Man Rotation tonight!

The Google background check: How long can you hold this against someone?

Check this interesting piece on Deadspin last week from the world of High School sports titled 'Disgruntled Goalie Scores On His Own Net, Flips Off Coaches, Skates Off The Ice Forever. On the surface it seems like a kind of amusing, if a little sad, tale about a senior high school ice hockey goalie, feeling like he had been slighted and had unfairly lost playing time to a sophomore goalie. The senior then used the occasion of the team's last game to vent his frustration with his coaches and the situation in a classic flame-out fashion.  

I won't embed the video here, or mention the goalie's name - both can be found at the Deadspin piece, but in case you don't have time to check the footage (you do, it's literally about 12 seconds), here is the gist of what went down:

With three minutes remaining, and Farmington up by one, (he) corralled the puck behind the goal. The video picks up there as he skates it in front and casually slips it into his own net. He sends a middle finger to his bench, fires off a salute, and skates back to the locker room. The game was tied, and Farmington—with a third-string goalie in net, the sophomore was out with an injury—would concede another goal a minute later to lose.

You can certainly chalk up the senior's demonstration/protest/tantrum to a youthful indiscretion and an immature way to express his anger.  Sure, he was wrong to put the puck in his own net, he was wrong to flip off the coaches, and he was wrong to put himself above the team in that way. Whether or not he was a better goalie than the sophomore really isn't important here, but for anyone that has been in that kind of situation, you can at least feel for the kid's point of view. 

Again, in the end, it's really just a kid acting out inappropriately, like most kids will do at least once in a while, and that most of us probably did ourselves when we were that age. No big deal really, it was only a silly hockey game, and the kid will learn his lesson, (or maybe he won't), and everyone will move on and forget.

But I wanted to call it out on the blog this week, after having a quick scan through the 75-odd comments on the Deadspin piece, and noticing at least a half dozen comments similar to this one from someone named 'Loose Cannon':

/Googles '(the kid's full name)'

//discards resume, moves on

- Hiring Managers

Again, I'm leaving out the kid's real name, as I think as evidenced by the comments from 'Loose Cannon' and several others he is never really going to be able to erase this incident from the interwebs. No matter what he goes on to in his life, a Google search for his name, like many, many Recruiters and hiring managers will execute, will bring up these words and images that show immaturity, selfishness, and lack of respect for authority.

But I kind of feel bad for the kid. Not because of what 'Loose Cannon' thinks, (I have a feeling he isn't hiring anyone anytime soon), but rather for the fact that this episode is going to trail him for a long, long time - maybe forever.

I know I did some stupid things back in the day, things I would not want my potential next boss to read about it in detail.

Our young goalie friend here doesn't have that option now. 

Let's hope the HR person or recruiter that does the first Google search on him in a few years can empathize.

It will help if he or she was also brought up in the YouTube age I think. 

EBOOK: The 8 Man Rotation: The 2012 Season

It's like Christmas in February for the HR pro/sports fan.

What am I talking about? Well, here goes.

I'm sure even if you are not a sports fan you are familiar with the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. Many years back, the big shots at SI concocted a scheme to try and goose sales of their weekly sports magazine in one of the most dead spots of the year in the sports calendar - February.

Their solution to try to boost sales in the period after football season had ended and before baseball season had started?

Pack the 'sports' magazine with images of bikini-clad models cavorting on exotic beaches. And it worked - the 'swimsuit' issue remains a top seller. Certainly, SI came up with a solid strategy that has served the magazine well for a long time.

Well, your pals from The 8 Man Rotation, Lance Haun, Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn, Steve Boese, and Matt Stollak are coming at you with our own contribution to help you navigate through the last few weeks of Winter - yes, it's the release of The 8 Man Rotation: A Look at Sports and HR - The 2012 Season!

The 8 Man Rotation 2012 Season Ebook is the third edition in what has become a February sports tradition on par with the legendary SI Swimsuit issue.

But the 8 Man Rotation offers something different, (not better I suppose, but certainly different), than models on the beach, it brings over 140 pages from the 8 Man Rotation gang, all about the intersection of HR, Talent Management, Recruiting, Leadership and sports.

Sports is the perfect metaphor for much of what we care about in HR and Talent - recruiting the right talent, coaching and performance management, coaxing the best results out of everyone on the team, dealing with 'superstar' talent and finding ways to balance talent, ego, ambition with team goals in order to achieve greatness. 

It's what sports are all about, and more or less, it's what HR and Talent pros also try to deliver for their organizations.

The fearless Matt 'akaBruno' Stollak has once again pored through a year's worth of posts from LanceHaun.com, The Tim Sackett Project, HR Capitalist, Steve's HR Tech, and his own True Faith HR to collect a fantastic compilation of posts on recruiting, development, strategy, and more - and all with the sports angle that fans of the prior editions of The 8 Man Rotation have come to expect. 

So head on over to The 8 Man Rotation site to check out and download your FREE Ebook - The 8 Man Rotation: A Look at Sports and HR, The 2012 Season.

And one more thing - you can catch The 8 Man Rotation gang LIVE on the HR Happy Hour Show this Thursday, Feb. 21 at 8:00PM ET, talking about all things 'Sports and HR'.