Memorial Day in the United States is, technically, the day set aside to honor those who gave their lives in military service. I’m also thinking a lot today about my father, Louie Hadden, and my father-in-law, Jim Prentice, who served in World War II, and, thankfully, survived into their 80′s.

My dad was a Motor Machinist Mate on a couple of supply ships in the South Pacific. Born in 1926, he was only 15 when the US entered World War II, but a year later, he fudged his age on the application, and joined the Navy. After the war, with the help of the mechanical training he received in the Navy, he became a typewriter repairman, and later ran his own office machine company until he retired.

My wife’s father was a Sergeant Major in the Gordon Highlanders, a Scottish regiment of the British Army. He was a tank commander, and fought for more than three years on the ground in Burma, the present-day Myanmar that we’ve heard so much about in recent weeks, since the May 2 cyclone devastated much of the country.

These are just two of the millions of people worldwide, who have served freedom-loving countries in modern times. Some of these were drafted, but their service is no less heroic or appreciated. Others, like my dad and Jim, volunteered, went above and beyond what was required, because they wanted to serve.

These two – the sailor and the soldier – are rarely out of my mind. I see and hear reminders of them all around me. But today, especially, I remember them, for what they chose to do in service of their respective countries. Take a minute and remember, and be thankful for, someone you know who’s done the same.

Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and his co-author and business partner Bill Catlette, are the authors of the new book Contented Cows MOOve Faster, as well as the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

According to news reports, Presidential candidate John McCain is planning a little cookout over Memorial Day weekend, at his place in Sedona, Arizona. As the guest list includes a number of people who’ve been suggested as possible vice presidential running mates for Senator McCain, the news media have been reporting that it’s really an audition for the job of VP.

McCain’s people deny that.

I don’t know why. I suspect it probably is, in fact, a vetting opportunity for the job of veep, and if so, I think it’s a good idea. Especially for jobs with a complex set of requirements, like that of Vice President of the United States. I know what John Nance Garner, one of FDR’s VP’s said – that the job wasn’t worth a bucket of warm spit – but that’s changed over the last 20 years or so.

I’ve done a lot of “observational” interviews, taking job candidates to lunch or dinner, in part to observe how they behave in social situations, how they interact, and how they treat others. I once decided against an executive candidate because, during dinner, he snapped orders at our server, and never once uttered the words “thank you” for anything she did. I didn’t think he’d make a good leader – someone who needs to be able to inspire the discretionary effort of those they lead.

I also traveled one time with someone I had considered recommending for a particular job. This guy did nothing but complain the whole time, even when faced with relatively minor annoyances. I changed my mind.

According to a story (perhaps apocryphal, maybe true), the late department store magnate James Cash Penney once took a prospective store manager out to dinner as part of the candidate’s interview process. He noticed that the fellow salted and peppered his meal before taking the first bite. Penney wondered if this might portend a tendency to make decisions before having all the necessary information, and he passed on the potential candidate.

The next time you’re hiring someone, try to create an opportunity to observe them in a situation where they need to interact with people. It might tell you more than any interview question you could possibly come up with.

Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and his co-author and business partner Bill Catlette, are the authors of the new book Contented Cows MOOve Faster, as well as the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

A piece of incoming email caught my eye this morning. It was from our friends at Workforce Management Magazine promoting their upcoming June issue and the feature article, “Best Practices in Talent Management.” Carroll Lachnit and crew at Workforce do good work, and I’m sure this issue will be no exception. I just wish they’d make one small change to the title, however. Let’s change the word, “best” to something a little less grandiose, like, well… better.

Having spent a good bit of the last 15 years studying leadership and employment practices, if I’ve become convinced of anything, it is that no one, repeat, no one has the market cornered on best practices in this arena. Not the ones mentioned in the annual ranking of the “100 Best Companies to Work For in America” (Fortune), not the oft-cited exemplars like Southwest Air and Google, and no, not even the firms labeled as “Contented Cows” in our first book, Contented Cows Give Better Milk.

So where’s the beef? My point is this:  Branding your employment practices as the “best” or even accepting that mantle is putting yourself on a very slippery slope. It is a bit like calling yourself the best airline. Now there’s some rarified company for you! Admittedly there are some good players out there, but unlike the game of golf, there is no Tiger Woods; no consistent, odds-on favorite.

For the organizations that have earned themselves a spot way back in the pack, the point – indeed this whole post is moot. For them, the difference between best and better is an academic exercise. But for the ones who are doing some great things in the employment arena, the “A and B players” if you will, it is best, or should I say helpful to remember that one of the keys to greatness is staying hungry. Being proclaimed the “best” interferes with that hunger because at some point, you start believing that stuff and before long, your performance suffers as your breathe your own exhaust. I saw it happen at my alma mater, FedEx, where, after about the 3rd year of being labeled one of  the “100 Best Companies to Work For in America”, we started believing our good press and stopped working so hard at improving our leadership habits. Soon thereafter, our employees noticed, as did, in succession, our customers and shareholders.

To the  point of my last post, by all means celebrate whenever you’ve got cause to do so, but just like Tiger, keep your head out of the clouds and stay hungry.

Ben Stein’s new movie, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed , made me think. Which is exactly what its detractors don’t want you to do.

My son’s high school chemistry teacher offered his students extra credit for going to see the full-length documentary (we pay for him to go to a school where teachers and students have the freedom to be open-minded, an option not offered in the public schools in our community.) And I went with him. How often does your teenage son say, “Hey, Dad, you wanna go see a movie?”

There are so many things going for this movie that it’s hard to know where to start. A brilliant piece of filmmaking, at once entertaining and disturbing, the movie is chock full of visual and audio allusions, inserted in precisely the right moment to support the very dialogue you’re hearing. It’s clever, laugh-out-loud funny, and provides evidence that there is, indeed, intelligent life among moviemakers. At least one of them.

Another major asset is Ben Stein himself, a man with a profusion of intellect, energy, and insight, not to mention money. Stein himself is a study in contrasts: brilliant, dressed as dull. The movie exposes the narrowminded, parochial view held by many in the so-called “scientific community” that the only explanation for the origin of life is fully contained in the theory espoused by Charles Darwin in the 19th century, and no further evidence need be brought to bear on the question, thank you.

Stein points out, with arresting clarity, against a backdrop of Nazi totalitarianism and mind control as a metaphor, how threatened this crowd is by any discussion that suggests that there may be more to the universe’s origin and development than that which Darwin theorized. They don’t want to talk about it. They don’t want anyone else to talk about it. And, if you’re a scientist or educator, and you dare question Darwin, ask that alternative theories be considered in addition (not instead of) or point out that it, like Intelligent Design, is a theory certainly worthy of consideration, but not settled fact, your job, your chance to be published, and indeed your career will be in grave jeopardy.

I don’t know where we came from. Nobody knows. Big Bang? Evolution? Intelligent Design? Far greater minds than mine have debated this for centuries. And that’s good. Let the debate continue. Maybe one day we’ll get it figured out (although I doubt it). And certainly not if those Ben Stein exposes continue to exert pressure to make sure no intelligent discussion ensues.

This blog, unlike the targets of “Expelled” welcomes, indeed encourages, contrasting points of view. Let us hear from you.

Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and his co-author and business partner Bill Catlette, are the authors of the new book Contented Cows MOOve Faster, as well as the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.