Plenty of people are lamenting the new generation of workers from the Millennial group. You know what they say: “Entitled.” “Want to be promoted now.” “Everyone gets a trophy.” Some go as far as predicting an irreversible negative effect on business and industry as a whole.
I don’t believe any of this for a second. As a young man of 20, I exhibited all those same Millennial behaviors while in the Navy back in 1984, me and all of my peers. We turned out OK. The Navy is still afloat. It’s just a bunch of hype.
If you ask me, the REAL threat to business and productivity is the consumption of informational pork rinds. I know you’ve seen them. Infographics with a picture of clouds and a quote from people like Jack Welch or Steve Jobs. A pellet of wisdom that gets liked and shared. Your daily taste of informational pork rinds.
I love pork rinds. I fry them up whenever I smoke a bunch of pork shoulders. I even like the ones you buy at the gas station. The ones that taste like salty, smoky packing peanuts.
They’re not good for you though. You could subsist on them if you had to, but I’m sure it would do long term damage to your liver and kidneys.
Ten days ago I ran a little experiment. Using an app named ShareAsImage, I came up with a bunch of random statements and posted them on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Some samples are below:
It took exactly 10 days for someone to finally throw the Bull**** flag. I was hoping I’d see it thrown on the first one, but yet most were ignored and sadly, a few were liked. I only hope nobody retweeted or forwarded them. The author was Ben Dover (say that name slowly…get it?) and I was the ghost writer. I was selling filet mignon, but really it was just a handful of pork rinds.
If you fell for it, please don’t hate me. It’s a wakeup call for all of us. We owe it to our personal and professional development to read and research healthy. To quit falling for fads (Mindfulness: Taking time to NOT think and be in the moment….REALLY?????) To stop forwarding pork rinds to your network (Managers light a fire under people, Leaders light a fire IN people with the obligatory happy and sad faces) and to fill your mind with solid substance. Classic books on management like The Fifth Discipline. Practical seminars like the Supervisory Skills Boot Camp (wait…that’s MY seminar!) and a strong network of true experts with proven results.
If you want to be the best in your field and a credible resource for others, take the time to improve your mental diet. More steak. Fewer pork rinds.
