NoSpin Debunker
#33: December 17, 2001
Resume Redux and the 2001
NoSpin “Spin” Awards
This is my final NoSpin Debunker for 2001. I’m going to take a couple weeks off. Thanks again for your interest the past year, and I hope that you will tell others to Sign up for my NoSpin Debunkers in 2002.
Back in the summer I wrote a couple of Debunkers (click on July 30th Debunker and August 6th Debunker) about the topic of “resume embellishment.” Someone should have sent those Debunkers to George O’Leary, at that time head football coach at Georgia Tech and now the former coach at Notre Dame after being fired this past Friday-- five days into his new job. It seems that O’Leary fabricated both his football and educational background on his resume, and tried to get away with it in the national spotlight. If you missed it, check out the CNNSI story about O'Leary. Congratulations George: you win the NoSpin Marketing Spinner of the Year Award. The company award for 2001 goes, hands down, to Enron.
Is the press just picking on poor George and guys like Chainsaw Al Dunlap, former CEO of Sunbeam (who also fibbed on his resume and was exclusively known for his zeal in cutting staff), as well as other prominent resume embellishers? I don’t think so. But I do think that many members of the national press have treated Notre Dame very badly in coverage thus far. A number of prominent columnists have chastised the university for making such a horrible coaching faux pas. On the contrary, Notre Dame, which has the highest football graduation rate in the country, should be applauded for admitting a serious error early on and correcting it. Notre Dame will get a better coach than George O’Leary as well (note the 33% graduation rate during his tenure, and Tech wasn’t that great anyway).
Resume embellishment (also see The Liars Index—one placement firm’s quantification of resume fabrication) is a type of personal, versus organizational spin, but they are intertwined nonetheless. I define Spin as:
“… the propensity for organizations NOT to tell it like it is and thereby avoid the tougher things like building good products, listening to customers and markets, and communicating with employees--and hence lose out on better financial results. Unlike having a "point-of-view", persuading, or telling a real, positive story, "spin" is a conscious effort to deceive, distort, deflect, or disavow. But spin can also be unconscious (although not condoned) in the sense of businesses having been brainwashed to create meaningless drivel or “yak” that tells no worthwhile story at all—but rather confuses and confounds versus illuminates or sells…”
Do you think that the level of spin will go up, down, or stay about the same in 2001? Click here to take the final NoSpin Poll of 2001.
There are degrees of spin and resume embellishment, no question. But at the at the far end of the spectrum, I believe that both resume embellishment and spin often emanate from people who are bullies—physical, economic, political, intellectual, religious or other flavors of bully. These people believe that they have the right to take advantage of others, and they often enjoy it for the sport and/or the greed. They think they’re stronger and better, and they tell any story they want as a result. Nothing is too outrageous. They think that anyone who doesn’t do the same is a weakling or a fool. “They” are wrong, and they are unethical.
As with George O’Leary and Enron, the bigger the resume “embellishment” or the spin—and the more prominent the company or person—the harder they fall. The folks who take unfair advantage of others—including customers, markets, employees (and yes, employers)—have to pay the piper at some point for their actions. Spin boys and spin girls (and their surrogates) cost organizations in terms of public embarrassment, lost credibility, lost income, damaged stock values, and sometimes their organization’s very survival—besides setting the wrong example (that they “got away with it” for a time). They cost individuals their jobs and their ability to feed their families.
As 2001 draws to a close, perhaps it’s time again to do some introspection and see where, as business people, we are on the “spin” spectrum. Maybe some folks need to clean up their resumes once and for all. Maybe others can stop wasting time, effort, and money “spinning” and trying to fool folks in the marketplace. Rather, they can re-focus their resources on real products, services, and customers and persuade them to buy more products and services by using creative, interesting, yet truthful messages. Not spinning is a lot more promising alternative.
Why not a New Year’s Resolution to cut the spin and instead aim for better business results in 2002?
Best wishes for a safe and prosperous 2002! Talk to you again soon.