Focus, Music, Sport--Leadership

I recently returned from the Florida Kennedy conference and as part of my trip I got to visit my father in Tampa.  He is a 40 year exec with technology company that competes with IBM among others.  I got to spend time with him on his Birthday along with my boss from Germany.  We started talking about great leaders and executives and what makes them truly great.  My father got on this kick about focus.  He said the single commonality that he saw in them was a deep, unbreakable focus.  He talked about Steve Job's ability to focus on the right priorities.  

I hadn't thought about the discussion again until about a half hour ago.  I am not a big runner but I've been trying to do more of it lately.  I grabbed my ipod this morning, threw on some tunes and went for a run.  By the way, this all ties together...just bear with me for a moment here.  I ran down my street, along the ridge on Willamette Blvd. near the University of Portland, down a dirt path along the ridge and ran on railroad tracks along the Willamette river.  I ran by large tanker ships and old closed down industrial buildings.  It was an intersection of natural form infused with gothic machine like relics.  I cruised by this while listening to my favorite beats.  The mix of imagery, rhythm and beat made me forget that I was running.  This is important because when I focus on the running itself it's a boring act, my muscles ache, and I feel fatigued.  With my favorite tunes and stimulating scenery I'm able to focus on my end goal--run three miles faster than I have in the past and turn my body into a machine.  

Towards the end of my run my conversation with my father came to mind, as I was accomplishing my goal.  I starting thinking about the ability to focus and how this is critical to success.  I also started thinking about how this is very difficult to do in modern corporations.  Everyday I get hit with a thousand ideas, pressures, roadblocks, etc.  If I focus on strategy and it takes too long people get skeptical, want to do something easier, etc.  It's a battle to pick the three most critical things you need to accomplish and make them happen without them being sidetracked, budget cut, death my committee.  Yet, that's exactly what my father was talking about with these leaders.  They sometimes come across as a$$holes in order to stay focussed; they may seem hyper focussed on something that someone new coming in doesn't have a clue about because what they are focussed on is an end goal established before that person started.  And yet they stay focussed, their brains are like laser sights on an assault riffle and they never take their eyes off the target.  

Not many people have this resolve.  Nobody has it all the time; there are just too many distractions.  But think about the parallel with my run.  I don't like running but I accomplished it.  Many people think the answer is clearing their mind to focus but it's different for everybody.  For me I am more focussed at a rock concert than in a library.  Quietness makes my brain wonder all over the place.  Music and physical energy allow me to get focussed and determined.  This is part of the problem with all the pop psychology that is out there...most of it talks about meditation, quiet time, figuring stuff out, bla, bla, bla...how about the complete opposite.  Finding the things that get your adrenaline cranking, your blood pressure racing, heart pounding, mind working at full throttle and then go hit your toughest problem.  Not everybody needs zen to stay focus.  

The other piece to this is the intersection of music, sport and focus.  How many people do you know that throw on some tunes when they want to stay focussed on a problem or task.  How many people do you know that go for a run at lunch time or hit the gym after or before work to relieve stress?  Try combining all three!  Seriously.  I think you will find it pretty amazing and maybe a total alternative to the zen approach.  It makes me think of Rob Strasser, ex CEO of adidas North America.  This guy was the brains behind some of our most compelling and emotional campaigns.  He was anything but Zen like.  The guy bellowed in meetings.  Now--I don't think the guy really took care of himself and unfortunately had a short life span.  But, he was a creative genius.  I see Jobs as the same way---anything but Zen like.  These guys have amazing energy, passion; they go at full throttle always.  I'm not advocating everybody juice up five shots of espresso in the morning, throw on some hardcore thumping music and hit the gym right after work for a killer hour and a half workout....that's not too far off a typical day in my world by the way...but it's to find your inner focus and not let anybody break it.  I meet so many people with amazing ideas but they have no focus and ability to execute them, drive them culturally, push the limits...I believe if you find your way to focus you can do all of these things.  So if you tried the peaceful approach to staying focussed and that hasn't worked for you--grab some beats, push your body to the limit and shoot for your end goal if you if you were a sprinter in the Olympics.  Oh, and tune out the nay sayers and non believers in what you do.   

Tell me how you find you focus? 

Six Months

It’s been about six months since I joined adidas and several posts ago I wrote about my experience of starting my new career here. Many of you have written me to ask why I haven’t continued to talk about what it’s like to work here now that I’ve been here for a while. To be honest I’ve been working on so many projects that I haven’t had time to write. It’s amazing though in six months how much more insight you have into an organization, it’s culture, norms, etc. So here I am, working from home this morning with a little bit of spare time to write an update about my experience here six months later.

Again—I want to premise that I’m a recruiter so it’s my job to sell the organization. I’ve lived by some simple rules though—I won’t sell something that I don’t love. If I didn’t love it here so far I would leave. The experience has been amazing so far and everyday this place grows on me more. First off—there is a realness and rawness about working at adidas. Maybe this stems from being born of sports. The culture is one where people don’t look for the barriers—we focus on where we want to go and we work hard and fast to get there. It’s very much like being on a sports team at adidas. It’s not about personal gain here. It’s about team gain. We play to win. The organization is also nimble. We aren’t this massive bureaucratic, red-tape environment. We tend to have smaller teams, bigger roles and responsibility and a lot of creative latitude. If we screw up we get back up and play harder next time. I’ve had the experience of working on fat, over-resourced teams in the past and while this is probably appealing to some—I’m really enjoying having a broad scope and nimble team with fast execution.

We have a new president that started not long before I started. He leads with a strong vision and clear goals. I can’t get into details of his specific strategy but he brings a clear path that the entire organization can work towards. With this there is a lot of change within the organization. We have built the organization on this nimbleness though and will continue to do so. If you are reading this and thinking you want to work here the more flexible you are the better. If you are mobile, can try new things and adapt quickly to strategy changes then you will thrive here. If you are the type of individual that wants to come in and do the same job for five years you will struggle. I worked in the tech PR industry before this so change is the only thing I knew—for me this is perfect.

It’s also energizing to see the love for the brand people have. Random people come up to me all the time to tell me about their first pair of adidas and what the brand has meant to them. I recently did focus groups for an employment branding project I’m working on and almost everybody universally told me that they love that adidas has always remained authentic. I understand what they mean to. Most companies I have worked for in the past overly fixate on their competitors and try to do it better. At adidas the focus is really on the customer and staying true to them. Of course I can’t say we don’t want to beat the competition but we don’t do this by replicating what others are doing. We do this by listening the customers and making product that caters to them. I think this is what makes adidas unique and not just another mass production consumer goods company. I like working in environments that are just different and unique.

I get to work on projects that have global scope. I’m on the phone weekly with other countries. It’s almost impossible to work at adidas and not interact with people from around the world. This doesn’t make the job easy but it makes it rich. The ability to have global perspective opens up entirely new possibilities and perspectives on a project that you would never otherwise get. The adidas vision is really premised on improving lives through sport. Bringing people together on a global level, getting kids to focus on the right values and becoming good teammates, improving the performance of athletes and everyday people so they can live healthier lives. We get to see this inside and outside the company around the globe. You realize we are part of something much bigger working at adidas. You get to see it first hand. This has been invaluable learning so far.

Okay, I can go on for hours about different aspects of the adidas culture. I will write more about it soon. I’ll leave you with this; I’m not going to say every aspect of the job is easy and always fun. All jobs have challenging aspects about them. What I will say is that I’m given the latitude to make real change, take on meaningful challenges and have an incredible team and support by management to achieve impossible things.

Join the Red Ball Movement

I knew adidas had a culture built around sport and living the brand but I never realized how deep this passion ran. It's pervasive everywhere you turn at adidas. At lunchtime the halls are empty and the building becomes quiet. The steets, the fields, the courts, the fitness center, the trails are teaming with adidas employees though. One guy on my team runs six miles at lunch, showers, eats and is back at his desk within an hour. One girl bikes 28 miles into work and often swims or jogs after work. These aren't the exceptions either, they are the norm. The organization stands for team, for healthy lifestyle and for helping people win. We even look at how sport can assisant in humanitarian efforts.

So what do you ask is the Red Ball Movement? This is a movement supported by the Adi Dassler Fund to support the international humanitarian organization Right to Play. The Adi Dassler Fund was founded to support organizations that connect children with coaches who teach life values in addition to sport. When you purchase a red mini ball you will be able to support the Right To Play organization. They are cool little red soccer balls--I bought two of them for my kids and they loved them.

If you want to support the organization go to any adidas retail store and you can't miss them!

My Third Stripe

I’ve joined Adidas!

I’ve been recruiting for over eight years now and it’s been a wild ride. My career started with an internship at Johnson Matthey Electronics in Spokane, Washington. My role, Human Resources Intern. My job, revamping their 200+ job descriptions. My degree was in Human Resources so this really allowed me to cut my teeth on some basic HR tactics. I quickly learned though my strength was not in HR administration but in relationship building, problem solving, innovating process and marketing.

When my internship ended I started to apply to roles throughout the Northwest and California. There were a few things that I was certain about at this point in my career. I knew I needed to get out of Spokane. I needed a larger marketplace. I also knew that I needed to work in an environment that was intense, that forced fast learning and constant problem solving. I was offered a role at a local recruitment agency in Portland, Oregon—Employment Trends. Here I quickly moved into a recruiting role and was able to build one of the agency’s largest accounts. I found that I loved recruiting. In recruiting you always have variables that create constant challenge. You can build the best process in the world but when you are working with people there are always situations that are going flip things upside down. To be good, you have to stay razor sharp on business indicators, know your clients business inside and out, be a master of relationships and know how to leverage marketing/branding to attract talent. These were the skills I learned quickly in this environment.

After two years I wanted corporate experience, greater challenges and greater resources to sharpen my craft. I moved over to Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, one of the top PR firms in the world. I recruited for just about every business within the agency and worked my way up to leading Waggener Edstrom’s Microsoft Staffing team. Here I learned how to plan for intense shifts in the business, how to continually innovative our process to stay ahead of the business, how to lead, how to amplify a brand and become a true brand ambassador. This lead me to my most recent role as Strategic Sourcing Strategist, which focuses on development, and implementation of strategies to build talent networks across the world—focusing on skill rarity and business criticality. I also am responsible for implementing the technology to support these efforts, which include a CRM build-out, a host of on-line media/social networking tools, blogging tactics…essentially evangelizing Web 2.0 to give us competitive advantage.

So now this leads me to my third stripe, Adidas North America. I just accepted the role of Recruiting Programs Manager at Adidas and will be leading the charge in developing Adidas North America’s recruiting strategy, in partnership with our global lead of recruiting, Steve Bonomo, and Adidas North America head of HR, Jochen Eckhold. There are many things I will be charged with in my new role but the thing I’m most excited about is building a world-class employment brand for Adidas North America. I’ve been fortunate that I have had the opportunity to work in PR, work around creative people who know how to solve intense business problems through strategic communications—including branding and PR. I have also worked in a culture where innovation and creative ideas are more important than profit itself—yes, this is true believe it or not. Waggener Edstrom puts people and innovation before profit—but profit always followed with this approach. This I will be forever grateful for because it taught me that no idea is too big or too bold or not worth considering. Now I plan to take this to the next level. Failure is not in my vocabulary, average is nothing, good is average—which is nothing—The only thing left is great. So my plan is to build one of the most innovative talent brands in the world. Nothing will be off the table, nothing too bold, and nothing too hard. To Adidas impossible is nothing. Impossible is nothing to me. As my former CEO used to say…”I want to work with companies that are on the lunatic fringe.” This is where I will spend my time building something great.

More to come on my role at Adidas…. I welcome feedback from anybody out there who reads my blog, people in the creative fields, innovative recruiters, passer by’ers--to comment on what you believe to be great employer brands. What makes you want to work at an organization, what creative tools amplify this message in the marketplace. OR…if you are interested in a career at Adidas I would also encourage you to leave a comment or send mail. I will be updating my profile and contact information in the coming weeks.

Now it’s time to earn my third stripe!