So today I’m in the car…XM is on the fritz so am listening to one of a million classic rocks stations in Birmingham, AL. Don’t get me started on the radio music scene….
So this morning the Patty Smyth/Scandal song “The Warrior” comes on. You know the 80’s anthem (good god it is hard to repeat the lyric) “shooting at the walls of heartache, bang, bang….”. Dear lord I cannot continue…..and I am from the 80’s and can appreciate an anthem.
I tweet out my distaste of this song that I despised even back in the day and to my surprise a myriad of my coworkers/ twitterati, etc respond. For the love of God, most favor the tune; Love the song. Most don’t understand why I don’t like it. Several said “so you’re not a warrior?”, “I’m a warrior”, “can’t believe you’re a hater”.
I was in shock and awe folks; shock and awe.
So the HR takeaway: remember your perception of employee likes and dislikes is always wrong. Always. If you don’t believe me check out this cool Dan Pink Video! (love the 80’s references on it). Getting a handle on what they think is vital to strategic success. Study after study show what employees favor is almost always different from what leaders think employees favor (or are motivated by or engaged by). Since corporate success hinges on employee engagement, HR rockstars need to embrace this concept of, oh…I don’t know, asking employees what motivates them.
If not you may be shooting at the walls of heartache….o god I can’t believe I went there.
PS– Patty Smyth seems to be doing OK despite my wholehearted distaste of this song==>> she and hubby John McEnroe seem to be living the good life. So kudo’s to you Warrior Lady…
While I never liked Scandal, it has some stiff competition for worst 80’s song ever:
Rock Me Amadeus – Falco
We Built This City – Starship
Girl You Know Its True – Milli Vanilli
Hangin’ Tough – NKOTB
Kokomo – Beach Boys
Sussudio – Phil Collins
Anything by Richard Marx
Anything by Rick Astley
Heartbeat – Don Johnson
God Bless the USA – Lee Greenwood
Warrior suddenly doesn’t sound as horrible in retrospect
@akabruno Rock Me Amadeus is PURE GENIUS in my book! I challenge you on that one sir! We Built This City = Sucks. From White Rabbit to We Built this City is tragic. Warrior still bad….
Let’s just say Rock Me Amadeus is no Der Kommissar!
Video proof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w4Xulsjo5I
Matt – Don’t be hatin’ on NKOTB….
Even in the NKOTB ouevre it is bad.
We Built This City – Starship is the worst. I believe this has been scientifically proven.
But I HATES Lee Greenwood in his own special way.
Dang I kinda liked this song.
Yeah, I didn’t much like it either. But then again, compared to some of the pap that is coming out these days, its pretty tolerable. If you drop the lyric track…
Never cared for the song but a very good point taken! Now what was that about “Rock me Amadeus”?
Hated that song when it came out.
Still hate the song today.
Plan on hating it for the rest of my life.
Your blog is really cool to me and your subject matter is very relevant. I was browsing around and came across something you might find interesting. I was guilty of 3 of them with my sites. “99% of blog owners are committing these 5 errors”. http://tinyurl.com/cvartfk You will be suprised how fast they are to fix.