Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Producer (00:00):
The tech leaders
toolbox podcast is brought to
you by Paul Simkins and thebully LEAD program, focusing on
helping tech leaders like you,and the frustration of low
performing teams, and losingexcellent employees, so they can
increase productivity by 50%. Gohome on time, and sleep better
(00:21):
at night.
Paul Simkins (00:23):
Hello, and welcome
to the tech leaders toolbox. I'm
Paul Simkins. And we're herebecause how you lead today
determines how your teamsucceeds tomorrow. This is
Episode 56 of the podcast. AndI've been thinking about lately
a lot about social media and theimpact that it's had. And like
everything else it has itspositives or negatives, they
(00:44):
present some real challenges forleaders in terms of how
individual use affects theorganization's reputation, and
bottom line and how it impactsthe team. So let's talk about
some questions that leaders needto be asking. And if you like
bacon, have I got a recipe foryou? Are you ready? Let's go.
(01:12):
It's no secret that one of thedownsides of social media is the
plethora of people looking tohave their own 15 minutes of
fame. Now, if you haven't ever,ever heard that term before,
it's it's a term it was derivedfrom some statements that the
artist Andy Warhol made back inthe 70s. That talking about
again, how everyone gets their15 minutes of where again, all
(01:37):
the focus is on them. And socialmedia now has created a an art
almost out of that on Facebookand tik tok and Instagram and
other outlets. People are alwayslooking for ways to create their
own 15 minutes of fame. I thinka lot of these challenges that
they come up with, some ofwhich, you know, are meant to
(01:59):
benefit charities, but then manyof them aren't. I remember, you
know, my kids were talking aboutthe cinnamon challenge a while
back where he had to take awhole tablespoon of cinnamon and
you had to take it dry andstraight and take it down. And
there were others as well tide,the tide pod challenge and all
that it's just silly stuff thatthe only purpose it had was
(02:21):
again, to get a lot of likes,and to get a lot of viewership
of your video shared on tik tok,or wherever. And the thing is,
though, is that while socialmedia has kind of amplified
that, that's nothing new peoplehave always looked for ways to
get their own 15 minutes offame, for example. But again,
(02:42):
what social media has done isamplified that it's given them
an easy platform, you know, itwas hit and miss. Now it's
becoming easier and easier to goviral. And it seems the dumber
it gets, the more extreme itgets, the more attention it
gets. And unfortunately, though,it can have an impact in the
(03:04):
workplace, what individuals whowork for you do on their own
time granted, but it can have animpact on you. And it can have
an impact on results in theworkplace. And sometimes I can
have very negative consequences.
And thinking about someexamples. I actually remember a
few years back, there wasactually a Google employee who
(03:26):
had more conservative views thanWell, probably most Google
employees. And on a employeecreated social media platform
was rather expressive aboutthose views. Well eventually got
him fired. And not just forhaving conservative views. But
(03:47):
because several found those moreextreme views to be offensive
within the workplace. And peoplecomplain, they no longer felt
safe around them, and thingslike that. And that was the
result of that. I also thinkabout more recently, I mean, we
can go back to what happened inJanuary 6 of 2021. With what
(04:08):
happened in Washington, DC. Andthere were a lot of employees
there who took a lot of peoplewho, again, not as employees as
individuals made the decisionbecause of their stance because
of their political positionbecause of their political
(04:28):
opinions, because of theiraffiliations, decided to
basically storm, the capital ofWashington DC, and basically
break in committing severalfelonies and misdemeanors in the
process and are facingconsequences about it. Three
that stood out to me was andagain because the picture was
(04:52):
all over the place. There was anemployee of Navistar who again
was in the lead breaking intothe Capitol, you see pictures of
them right there in the hallway.
And what is he doing? He'swearing his employee badge while
he's doing this. Needless tosay, they no longer have a job.
Specifically, and specifically,there was person named Libby
(05:15):
Andrews from Pennsylvania. She'sa real estate agent, affiliated
with a real estate agency. Shewas there. She maintained she
was not part of that groupstorming. In fact, she says she
had even gone back to her hotelby that time, but she was there
and documenting some of thestuff was going on posting it on
social media. And just becauseof that, she was basically
(05:39):
separated from the agency shewas affiliated with, and she
found out by an email blast,which of course is inadvisable,
but and we'll talk and that'sanother kind of question that
comes up. And also attorney PaulDavis of Texas, who again, was
an active participant in all ofthis, and from his smartphone
(06:00):
shot videos, and narrated hisparticipation in it. And he was
an attorney working for aninsurance firm that immediately
severed all ties with him.
And it also raises a story of astory of one that I remembered
from a few years back, whichsome of you may remember in
Simone is the story of Julibriskman, Juli briskman, was a
(06:24):
marketing analyst for agovernment contract called
akoma, LLC. And briskman was outshe was riding your bicycle
along on some back roads. And itjust so happened that the
presidential motorcade wascoming by she was stopped on her
bicycle wallet came by. Andbecause of her positions and
(06:45):
thoughts, she did notnecessarily agree with the
president at the time. And soshe decided to exclude as it
were by extending her middlefinger at the cat at the
presidential caravan as it wentby. Now, again, she didn't
record it. She didn't go onsocial media and brag about it
(07:06):
or anything else. But a WhiteHouse photographer quickly took
a picture of that scene. It wentviral on the internet. Now, she
did do one thing that wasinadvisable, which we'll talk
about in a second. But the endresult was it went viral and she
was afraid that again, it wouldbe found out and that there
(07:28):
would be trouble. So she tookthe initiative to go to our
human resources office, informthem that she was the person in
the picture that is all over theinternet. her boss thank you for
stepping forward and thenpromptly fired her. Here's the
thing. According to her boss,Juli briskman, had violated the
(07:49):
akama LLC code of conduct andthat conduct states that first
it's the policies of Aquaman itssubsidiary companies for
conducting business inaccordance with applicable laws
and the highest ethicalstandards. Acme expects that a
high level of ethical standardsand personal integrity will be
reflected in all of its businessdealings. Okay, not really a
(08:13):
case right there. But similarly,Acme expects its employees,
officers and directors toexercise good judgment and
maintain high ethical standardsin all activities, which affect
akama. Every akama employee isheld to these standards. So
according to them, briskman wasgiven the motorcade the finger
was an obscenity, and thereforea violation of policy. They were
(08:35):
concerned about the impact itwould have on their core
business of contracting with thefederal government. So goodbye
to Julie. And this is where itgets complicated. Now, there is
probably a good number of peopleright now saying, well, she
probably deserves it. And thatmay be true, it was inadvisable,
(08:58):
even if it was strongly felt. Atthe same time, it opens up a
whole bunch of questions worthconsidering from both a
leadership and employeeengagement perspective. And here
are some pertinent facts toconsider on her particular case,
that again, can be easilyextended other similar types of
(09:19):
cases First of all, risk whenwas off duty. She was wearing
nothing that represented hercompany, unlike the guy from
Navistar who had his badge rightthere on the front of his shirt.
She was wearing nothing thatrepresented or indicated who she
worked for. She did not take thepicture, nor did she arranged to
have it taken. Now she did andthis is what again what she did
(09:43):
that was inadvisable. She likedshe saw it. She liked it. She
made it her profile picture onher personal Facebook page,
which incidentally does notmention her employment. And most
companies that contract with thefederal government will have
policies that say you should Dothat you shouldn't mention your
employment on your Facebookpage. Now part of what happened
(10:06):
comparatively, within the sameorganization, a male quote, co
worker, allegedly posted apublic message calling someone a
pretty obscene name, typicallyassociated to liberals on his
Facebook page, where he featuresthe company logo in his profile
picture. And he was reprimandedand deleted the post, but he was
(10:27):
not fired. And again, anotherfactor akoma was totally unaware
of her involvement until shetook the initiative to tell
them, in fact, it's probablylikely they would have never
known. And then another factoris that Virginia is in
employment at will state meaningtechnically, an employer can
terminate you for any reason atany time. So that's the factors
(10:51):
pertinent to that. And again,things to think about, if you
face similar situations, howmuch is too much? How much can
you really justify what anindividual does on their own
time of their own initiative?
And can you justify how thatimpacts the organization?
(11:18):
How can you can you justifyterminating somebody's
employment? Because their viewsor their political affiliation
differ greatly from yours?
Here's some other questions toconsider. Again, raises
questions about the reach oforganizations into our personal
(11:41):
lives. I have personally alwayskind of had a push back on that,
of how much you can askquestions about how I conduct my
life. It also raises questionsabout the message we send, when
the application of policyappears uneven, as in this case,
(12:02):
you know, again, taking the caseof briskman. And the male co
worker who was conservative,doing something very offensive,
and even showing a cut a tie tothe organization, yet was not
fired. briskman being liberal,not showing an affiliation to
the organization takes an actionand yet is fired for. Where are
(12:24):
the lines? Where behavior andchoices and personal life are of
concern to an employer?
Producer (12:42):
Further,
Paul Simkins (12:43):
What message does
it send when an employee shows
integrity and suffersconsequences? As a result,
remember that again, especiallyin brisbanes case, she went to
them told them, I'm the personin the picture, you need to know
that before you find it out fromsomebody else. I'm that person
she showed integrity in herbehavior, yet as a result, she
(13:08):
was terminated. And why theuneven application of the
obscenity policy? How do you doyou let political alignment play
apart? And if so, does it showdiscrimination that someone
obviously an extremeconservative is reprimanded but
(13:30):
a liberal is terminated? And isthe company's concern about her
behavior potentially affectingtheir core business? A valid
one? In other words, part oftheir concern was that, that
they had this policy because itcould affect how they do
business, their core business.
And that was part of why she wasterminated. Is that legitimate?
(13:52):
Can they really make that casehere? And if it is, could I be
terminated for being aProtestant? Because the
company's biggest client isCatholic. Again, where do we
draw the lines? And now on thesurface, they they may seem like
(14:15):
easy questions to answer yet,like a Russian nesting doll, you
know, every time you open one upyou you discover inside is
something else to be opened andexplored. It's It's not easy.
And and and unfortunately, Ididn't come here today to be
able to give you answers onthis. But rather to get you
(14:37):
thinking. So the question is,again, where do we draw the
lines? beyond just the legalwhere do we draw the lines. So
one of the things I want to doand I'm working to line this up
right now, is I'm going to bringin a panel for one of our
episodes here in the nearfuture. And we're all I'm going
(14:58):
to discuss this becausequestions really playing on my
mind a lot, and I'm sure itprobably is in yours. And we
want to discuss this a littlebit more and see where we go
with this. So look forward toagain in very near future. And
I'll make sure I let you knowwhen it's happening. But I'm
going to try and get a panel inhere of some experts to talk
about this a little bit more. Inthe meantime, we'll be back in a
(15:21):
moment.
Producer (15:25):
While you're here,
take a moment right now to
subscribe to the tech leaderstoolbox podcast, and leave a
review. That way, you willalways be up to date on the bold
and innovative leadershipprinciples we are sharing here.
And come join the tech leaderstoolbox Facebook group as well,
where you and other leadersdiscuss these concepts in more
(15:46):
detail. And we answer yourquestions. Subscribe today and
share this with your friends.
Paul Simkins (15:54):
Alright, so here
we are, again, at the last part
of the show where again, thoseof you who've listened before
know that I love outdoor cookingof every kind. And I love it so
much that I have actuallycreated a Facebook group. Just
about that, I call it smoke anddash. And on the smokin dash
(16:14):
Facebook group. Everyone comesout we are we're growing by the
way in leaps and bounds we'vehad just like a huge growth
lately, everybody's like reallygetting into outdoor cooking.
And so they come out there theytalk about their smokers, their
grills, doing stuff in Dutchovens and all kinds of creative
recipes and, and barbecue foodthey have eaten and and so it's
(16:37):
a great place, whether you're anexperienced outdoor cooker,
whether you're just interestedin it, or you just like to eat
outdoor cooking, it's a greatplace to be. And I invite you to
come and join us at the smokingdash Facebook group. Now I like
to share a recipe, an outdoorcooking recipe on every one of
my shows. And you know, andagain, I have quite an extensive
(17:00):
book of recipes. But I get tiredof just sharing mine all the
time. And I want to get newones. And so I encourage out of
my facebook group, I actuallyencouraged all of the members,
hey, if you got a recipe toshare, share that recipe with
me. And I'll feature it on theshow and I'll give you a shout
out. So actually, this is one ofthose situations. Today, I'm
(17:21):
going to give a shout out.
Excuse me, I'm going to give ashout out to Ed gaskey, who's a
member of our smoke and ashFacebook group, he brought this
recipe to my attention. Therecipe is actually derived from
a recipe on barbecue attics.comBBQ attics.com is where this was
originally featured. And you'veprobably heard of it before.
(17:42):
It's called bacon explosion. Soagain, if you love bacon, I
think you're really gonna likethis recipe. And here's how it
goes. So you need about twopounds of thick cut bacon. And
then about one to two pounds ofbulk pork sausage. You're going
to want some cooked bacon cut upinto pieces and and if you're
(18:05):
really lazy you can get awaywith buying the already bacon
pieces but you can just buy likethe pre cooked bacon heated up
and cut it up into pieces.
You're going to want to eat somebarbecue sauce. And what you're
going to want for this is you'regoing to want a sweet tasting
barbecue, you don't want saltyor savory you want sweet and you
(18:27):
want a sweet barbecue seasoning.
That usually means it's got agood deal of sugar in it or
something similar. And then whatI like to do my little twist on
this is I like to have eitherturbinado or dimora sugar.
That's kind of a step betweentable sugar and raw sugar. And
it's got a great benefit inbarbecue in that it gives you a
(18:47):
nice sweetness, but it doesn'tbreak down as readily as table
sugar does. And so it tend to bereal good for putting a nice
glaze and flavor on things. Sohere's what you're going to do
with this you're going to takethe bacon, and you're basically
going to weave it together it'suncooked, you're going to weave
it together in a very tightlattice pattern. You know,
(19:08):
basically a weave in you want itto be you want it to end up with
about a five to six inch squarefrom that. And again, it's got
to be tight, no gaps between thebacon. Now you're going to take
your barbecue seasoning, andyou're going to sprinkle that
seasoning all over the baconover the top of the bacon. Then
you're going to take your bulksausage, and you're going to
(19:31):
spread that out evenly overtopof the bacon. And then take the
barbecue sauce and spread thatevenly over the sausage. And
then take those bacon pieces.
sprinkle that over top of allthat. And then at this point,
you're going to take from thesausage leaving the lattice
(19:53):
bacon alone. Take the sausageand roll it up into a tight roll
and seal it And put it at oneend of the bacon lattice of the
bacon weave. Then you're goingto take the bacon and the roll
and roll the whole thing uptightly. And then take your
barbecue seasoning sprinkle moreof the barbecue seasoning on the
(20:15):
outside of the bacon, you'regoing to put that in your
smoker, you want to get thosesmokers temperature up to about
225 to 250. and maintain itthere, you're going to put that
in the smoker with the seam sideof the bacon down. So it doesn't
unravel on you. And you're goingto cook that for about one and a
half hours. At the one and ahalf hour mark, you're going to
(20:39):
take your turbinado sugar,sprinkle that sugar evenly all
over the roll. Again, doesn'thave to be a heavy sprinkle, but
sprinkle it good a goodsprinkling all over the roll,
and then cook it for another oneto one and a half hours.
On the inside temperature. Ifyou're checking with a like an
(20:59):
instant read thermometer shouldbe about 160 degrees. Then
you're going to remove that andlet it sit for about five
minutes before cutting it intohalf inch slices. Now what that
turbinado sugar does on thatwhole thing is it put a nice
glaze, sweet glaze over the topof it, you could add a little
bit more barbecue sauce when youserve it. And it'd be so
(21:21):
delicious. It's called a baconexplosion. And that's kind of
one of those things where if youlook at all those ingredients,
you know, if you have a highcholesterol, you may not want to
do this one. But my often jokeyou know, I often joke about it,
I say you know you get a freePlavix with it, because you
might need it. But anyway, it isabsolutely delicious, though,
(21:41):
and be great something you wantto do. If you're having any kind
of an outdoor picnic or party oranything like that sports party
we got coming up soon, we'regonna have March Madness coming
up might be ideal for that ifyou're having a March Madness
party. So there it is baconexplosion. All right. So this
week, we talked about questionsthat need leaders need to be
(22:03):
asking about how social mediaand what individuals do on
social media impacts theorganization, and what kind of
policy you should have in placefor that. Now we've got all
kinds of things and and again,if you have a recipe you'd like
to share with the podcast, oreven better, if you have
questions you'd like us toaddress here on the podcast, all
(22:25):
you have to do is send us anemail to Paul at boldly
lead.com. And we'll take a lookat that. And we'll address that.
And again, if I if you share arecipe and I use it on the show,
I'll give you a shout out. Myshout out this week to Ed gaskey
for sharing the recipe to thisweek. And, and again, if you
bring up topics that wediscussed, we'll give you credit
(22:47):
for that as well for bringingthat to mind. And we will
discuss those topics here on theshow. And I do this for free and
I do it because I want to add asmuch value too as I can to
leaders within the tech industryas much as I can. So I want to
ask a favor from you. If you arelistening to this on any kind of
a podcast directory service,like Apple podcast or anything
(23:08):
like that, would you take thetime right now, to give us a
five star review and to sharethe podcast with others. I
really want to grow thelistenership to the podcast
here. I want to add value to asmany people as I can. And so I
need your help to do that. Ican't do it on my own. So please
(23:28):
give us a five star review.
Share the podcast with yourfriends, let them know it's here
and what it's done for you andthe benefits is provided and the
value is added to you. Well,that's about all we have for
this week, folks. Until nextweek, go out and be the leader.
You were meant to be