#HRHappyHour Tonight - 'Sports, Labor, and Lockouts'

After a long summer break, the HR Happy Hour Show returns live tonight at 8:00PM ET, with a laser focus on the things that matter most to the world of HR, Talent, and the Workplace.

Of course I am talking about sports.

Here are the details you need to know:

HR Happy Hour 147 - 'Sports, Labor, and Lockouts'

Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 8:00PM ET

Call in on 646-378-1086

Listen to the show live at 8:00PM ET on the show page here, or using the widget player below:

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This week the HR Happy Hour Show returns from a long summer hiatus, tanned, trim, and rested, and ready to once again take on the important issues facing the workplace, Human Resources, and Talent Management. 

Of course that means another sports show!

Seriously though, here in the USA there are several compelling sports-themed stories that are not only impacting the sports world, but also have wider and larger implications for Talent and HR professionals in any field.

Take a quick scan of the sports news today, and you'll likely see stories on:

The NFL labor impasse with its on-field officials, which has led to a lockout, replacement (scab) officials, and a noticeable deterioration of the quality of officiating, and some would argue, the actual product.

The NHL, also stuck in a labor battle, this one pitting the league against its own players. Another lockout, another potential situation for replacement labor, or even an entire season cancellation.

A major college football power, Arkansas, that fired its former, (successful) coach after an off field scandal, only to replace him with another high-profile coach who is in the middle of a personal bankruptcy and may be coming a little unhinged.

Finally, Notre Dame absolutely embarrassing Michigan State last week.

So tonight we will open up the lines to talk sports, labor, talent, what you did all summer, and more, all in the HR Happy Hour style.

I hope you can join us as we relaunch the show tonight!

The rest of the room is against you

Quick take for a Friday that seems like a Thursday. Why is it that these so-called 'short' workweeks always feel so long?

Anyway - catch the video embedded below, (email and RSS readers will need to click through), courtesy of the sports and pop culture website Grantland, that takes us through the recent NBA Draft experience of one Royce White, a star college player at Iowa State with sure-fire NBA-level talent, but carrying a significant 'too risky' label for many teams, due to his struggles with anxiety disorder and an admitted fear of flying.

The video is about 8:30, you should watch it all, then come back and be ready to answer a few questions I think White's situation raises for everyone involved in talent assessment, selection, and management.

Wow, pretty powerful and compelling stuff. White, with in the words of his agent, 'The rest of the room against you', will get his chance at the highest level with the Houston Rockets, who seem to be the only team willing to take a chance on a talented guy with a few off the court problems that may or may not effect his ability to perform to the best of his ability.

Ok, I promised a few questions then I'll wrap this up:

1. Are the Rockets taking an unnecessary and perhaps reckless risk with one of their prized assets, their 1st round draft pick, by taking White?

2.  Are the fans, customers, owners of the Rockets going to be patient and understanding if indeed White's problems with anxiety disorder impact negatively his ability to produce results on the court?

3. Would you, in your role in HR, Recruiting, or just someone with any kind of responsibility or participation in a hiring process be willing to take the bad with the good in a candidate like White? Are you able to play a bit of a long game in your hiring and are you ready to have your own reputation and judgment called into question by making a so-called 'risky' hire?

After watching the video and learning a little more about Royce White, you can't help feel for the guy and to hope that he is able to overcome or at least deal with his issues and become a successful and productive player.

But also you want to root for his success not just for him, but for the Rockets organization, (largely Head Coach and NBA legend Kevin McHale), for taking a risk, for looking at the talent as a whole person not just a set of measurements and statistics, and reminding all of us that every candidate deserves a fair reckoning.

Have a Great Weekend!

Off Topic - The Highlights of the Olympics

I am on record as not caring about the Olympic. I much prefer traditional American team sport where we crown the our champions as 'World Champions', even though all the teams are based in the USA, (or Canada, which I think technically is a part of Michigan).

So that said, and while still trying to remove from my scarred corneas the few minutes of team synchronized swimming I stumbled upon last wee - here are my two (video) highlights from the recently concluded, (are they still going on), Summer Olympics.

In category one, advertising, hands down the winner has to be this Nike spot, reminding us that there just might be greatness in all of us. (email and RSS subscribers click through to check the video).

I dig that kid and the message, (call me a sucker if you like).

And in category two, and just about the coolest thing you'll see this weekend, a dramatic re-enactment of World's Fastest Man Usain Bolt's victory in the 100m dash, rendered in that most evocative and emotional medium - LEGO stop motion, (email and RSS subscribers click through to check the video)

Amazing right?

Anyway, farewell Olympics for now, I can't wait, (kidding), to see you again for the Winter games in a couple of years and pretend I care about Nordic Combined.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Hank Aaron and the right way to succeed

Last weekend I made my (usually) annual trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in lovely Cooperstown, NY. If you are a baseball fan, or just an American History fan, you owe it to yourself to make the trip sometime. It is a small village, and not the easiest to reach by air, (Syracuse would be the closest thing to a 'real' airport, and that is about 90 miles away), but you won't spend a better summer weekend anywhere else.

One of the newer museum exhibits, dedicated in 2009, is titled Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream, which chronicles the career and life of baseball legend, and former career home run champion Hank Aaron. 

Here's Hank's official bio from the Hall of Fame site:

Exhibiting an understated style that became his trademark, Hank Aaron became the all-time home-run champion via one of the most consistent offensive careers in baseball history, with 3,771 hits. In addition to his 755 home runs, he also set Major League records for total bases, extra-base hits and RBIs. Aaron was the 1957 National League MVP, won three Gold Gloves for his play in right field and was named to a record 25 All-Star squads.

Even the official bio is understated. It is almost impossible to grasp the amazing baseball achievements of Hank Aaron, particularly in the modern age where accomplishments less than a quarter of Aaron's are rewarded with hundred million dollar contracts, endless product endorsement deals, and off the field time spent chasing models and actresses.

Aaron's baseball standards for home runs, (surpassed only by a guy who certainly used performance enhancing drugs, and spent his spare time being a jerk to anyone that came into contact with him), runs batted in, and total bases place him at the absolute pinnacle of success in what was America's most popular sport. And his success, particularly when considering the barrage of racist harassment, hate mail, and even death threats that Aaron had to endure in 1973 and 1974 as he pursued and eventually surpassed baseball icon Babe Ruth's then home run record, has to be thought of as on par with Ruth, Gehrig, Mays, and maybe one or two more, as the greatest in the history of the game.

But oddly, we don't really talk about Aaron all that much. We still talk about Ruth and a few other heroes of the early age of baseball who are still recalled almost reverently. Jackie Robinson, the major league's first African-American player is remembered, rightly, as a courageous leader and legend whose importance to not only baseball but race relations in the USA can't possibly be diminished. And the recent set of players, some of whom have broken Aaron's and other records, well so many of them left and will leave the game tainted by the notion that steroid and other performance enhancing drug use contributed to their success as much as natural talent and hard work. Those stories have dominated baseball coverage for the last five years or so, and this focus will likely only intensify as many of these so called steroid-era players become eligible for Hall of Fame consideration themselves.

But above and despite all this, Aaron remains, like he was in his days as a player, classy, reserved, composed, and a champion. But not just a champion and a model for success in sports, a model for how to succeed in life, and, more interestingly, how to carry oneself once success has been achieved.

Aaron provides a lesson for all of us. That we can still play and win the right way. We can be both humble, respectful, and proud at the same time. That our achievements don't have to come at the expense of others, in fact, they often arise in spite of others.

That in the end, baseball, like all games, is really just a game, and all games come to an end.

But class, that lives forever.

French fried and who takes the heat when you reach for talent

Last night I stayed up way too late for a tired body still recovering from #SHRM12 to watch the NBA 2012 player draft up until the point where my beloved New York Knicks made their one and only selection, with the 48th overall pick.

And in classic Knick fashion, they managed to enrage the small but vocal contingent of fans on hand at the draft, as well as a fair number of active fans in the Twitterverse, with the selection of the mostly unknown Kostas Papanikolaou, from Greece, whose main claim to fame, (aside from being short an 'e' from having every vowel in his last name), was ONE good game in the recent Euroleague finals.  Immediately after the selection of Papanikolaou, and amid the fans' shouts of 'Who the heck is that?', some of the commentators on the draft broadcast talked about the Greek's game, and that he has potential, some good skills, needs some further development, yadda-yadda-yadda. Truth is, hardly anyone knows anything about this player and his game, and whether or not he will become a productive NBA player someday is anyone's guess. The dunk of death

As a Knicks fan, the draft always brings back memories of the 1999 draft, where the Knicks selecting with the 15th overall pick in the event, selected a similarly unknown, (but admittedly with a better body of work to that point), Fredric Weis, a 7'2" center from the basketball hotbed of France. Long story short, Weis never played in the NBA, and despite having a decent career in a few European leagues and representing France is several international competitions, is really only remembered for one thing - being jumped over and dunked upon by NBA star Vince Carter in the 2000 Olympics, in a play known as "Le dunk de la mort'', ('The dunk of death'). 

As I mentioned, Weis never made it to the NBA, and certainly it will take a few years to know if Papanikolaou will meet the same fate. There are just too many variables, and a long history of guys you've never heard of before, (Nowitzki, Ginobili, Sackett), having fantastic careers to completely discount the Greek's chances. 

But here is the interesting thing for the talent evaluator and professional in these kinds of 'reach' scenarios - if Weis would have turned out to be a star, or even a solid, reliable contributor on the NBA level, a ton of the credit would have gone to the person(s) gutsy enough to risk their professional reputation and jobs and pick an unknown guy out of France over a more established player from a US college that the fans and public would have at least known about. The risk, at least a disproportionate amount of selecting an unknown quantity, from a talent pool not known for producing great hires, who you have to explain for half an hour just exactly who he is, is almost all on the talent pro.

If a guy like Weis, and Papanikolaou as well, ends up as a success, most of the accolades and credit will go to them. If they fail, it isn't really their fault, no one expects unknowns from Europe to become big NBA stars, (less so today, certainly that was the case in 1999). 

The safe bet of course, for the NBA talent evaluator, and for you the corporate talent pro, is to make the 'safe' pick, choose the talent from a known source, one that your fans, colleagues, and hiring managers recognize. Make the 'defensible' choice. 

Because if the the blue-chip guy from the Big 10 school that has been on TV 47 time in the last 3 years fails - well then that's the player's fault, not yours.

If you as a talent pro reach for a guy like Weis and he fails?

Well that's your fault. And that's no fun.

Have a Great Weekend!