Last Friday, I was sitting in O’Hare airport in Chicago, answering forum posts and blogging, and a fellow traveler (I love that characterization), saw the Manager Tools logo on my (gorgeous new Mac) laptop screen. As he passed by, he pointed at the screen and said,

“Great site.”

I smiled and said, “Yeah, I love it.”

He kept right on walking, and didn’t turn around.

So, to the guy in the Admirals Club Friday who’s a fan: that was me.

YOU MADE MY DAY.

No, that’s not a spelling error above. Some of you recognize it as the title of a great American movie, starring Will Smith. There’s a message in there for managers, but I daresay many of us missed it.

I was having dinner recently with a group of client managers, and someone mentioned how much they liked Mr. Smith’s acting, and many of us agreed. Several said they liked him in Independence Day, and then someone piped up that they had just seen In Pursuit of Happyness, and really enjoyed it. I completely agreed - I loved it - but my take on it was different.

If you haven’t seen it, I’m not giving anything away by saying that the plot is that Mr. Smith is struggling to make ends meet as a salesman, and through a series of unfortunate events, his wife leaves him, and he is evicted, and becomes homeless - all while caring for his young son.

I assure you, it is heartwrenching. What he goes through to maintain his dignity, to keep his son fed, to be fair to others…it’s impressive. You can feel him on the edge of sanity, and on the edge of keeping his self esteem, and on the edge of society. He sleeps at least one night in a subway bathroom.

With his son.

In a turn of fate, Mr. Smith’s character creates an opportunity to join an internship program at a large stock brokerage, and is ecstatic about it…until he discovers that THIS internship comes with no pay.

And his efforts to stay out of true despair and misery continue.

It’s a wonderful uplifting story.

And during the whole time at the big brokerage house, NO ONE KNOWS WHAT HE IS GOING THROUGH.

No one asks. No one helps. No one meets with him.

No one cares. Too busy with their own stuff, with getting ahead. Too busy being selfish and self-interested.

Oh, and did I mention it’s a true story? Mr. Smith plays the part of Chris Gardner, now a VERY successful owner of his own financial firm.

And why was my take different? Frankly, while everyone else was cheering for Mr. Smith, I was screaming at his bosses.

His selfish, self-interested, ladder-climbing, profit-seeking managers.

You better be doing your one on ones, and spending time asking your folks how they’re doing.

They may be sleeping in a shelter.

How would that make you feel?

Wanna get screamed at?

it’s good to be back.

Today, we cover the 2nd in a two-part series on Horstman’s Wager.

Last week we covered the basics as to why “Playing the Game” doesn’t work … today we get into the details of the dreaded Horstman’s Wager MATRIX.

During the show, we refer to the printed matrix included in the slides for this series. Although the slides are typically only available to premium members, given how much easier having the slides can make following this particular podcast, we’ve made this week’s slides available to everyone … enjoy!

This cast is about interview preparation, and the need for ethics and candor during the process.

We’ve been pleased by the demand for our interviewing product - close to 1,000 purchases so far, and the early feedback has been quite powerful. If you would like to read what folks are saying, you can see that here. And, if you’d like to order, you can do that here.

One of the tenets that distinguishes the casts is its emphasis on preparation. One of the Forum posts actually suggests that folks buy before they think they need it, because many of our suggestions require time to implement (it can take months, done right).

BUT… there are those who disagree. There are interviewees who believe that the key to interviewing is to “play the game”. Many of these folks will tell you that the way to prepare is learn about the company (false, and proven so in Lesson #1), so that one can “be what the company wants”.

Those who have suggested that to Mark meet with his famous response: “you’ve never seen Horstman’s Wager, have you?”

In this cast, we’ll discuss Horstman’s Wager: why “playing the game” is the kiss of death in interviewing.

Today, we finish up our conversation on how to be an effective mentor.

This cast describes how to be an Effective Mentor. [We released two previous casts on how to be mentored: Basics of Mentoring - Part 1 and Basics of Mentoring - Part 2]

In a departure from our normal planning, Mark wrote this week’s show based on his strong response to a recent WSJ article, “Career Mentors Today Seem Short on Advice But Give a Mean Tour”, published 28 August in the Cubicle Culture column (normally written by Jared Sandberg, this week by Elizabeth Holmes). Basically the article says that mentors don’t do a good job and described some of the more pitiful efforts.

[We’re pretty sure you can get the article free by clicking here: Career Mentors Today Seem Short on Advice But Give a Mean Tour]

The state of mentoring today is pathetic. It’s pathetic at least in part because the state of management is pathetic as well. Too many companies ask mentors to do what managers ought to be doing: coaching, guiding, giving candid feedback, providing career guidance, preparing for promotions, helping create networks of associates and resources. A good manager does ALL that.

But we’ve decided that rather than just rail at what exists, we’ll finally deliver the second half of our pair of mentoring casts: How to be an Effective Mentor.