No Jerks, No Divas

Kathy Savitt is CEO of Lockerz, a social network and e-commerce site.  She discusses the following:

I put a very high premium on intelligence and a very high premium on wit in general, which is different from intelligence alone.  It's not enough just to have I.Q.  You have to have active listening skills and really want to communicate with someone.

And Rule No. 1 is no jerks, no divas.  Somebody could be the most brilliant, most experienced person in the world.  But life is too short, and that kind of person can also plant the first seed of cynicism.

Savitt addressed cynicism with the following:

A good example is when a team member has a great idea or has a big issue with a customer experience and no one responds, no one even acknowledges it, no one gets back to them.  The idea festers, problems mount, no one listens.  That's a recipe for cynicism.

Another cell of cynicism is when you feel a company is not actually living out its core values.  And just a lack of overall communications can cause problems.  Leaders can have the greatest of intentions, and their senior team may feel completely bought into the vision.  But if people on the front lines don't know what's going on in the company, you might have a seed of cynicism that can grow.