Zappos.com founder and CEO Tony Hsieh has been lauded for the laid-back corporate culture he has established at the successful online retailer (now owned by Amazon). In a recent interview with The New York Times Hsieh discusses his career, and how his experience at one of his early startups led him to determine the importance of leadership and the proper company culture.

One of our values is, “Create fun and a little weirdness.” So one of our interview questions is, literally, on a scale of 1 to 10, how weird are you? If you’re a 1, you’re probably a little bit too strait-laced for us. If you’re a 10, you might be too psychotic for us

It’s not so much the number; it’s more seeing how candidates react to a question. Because our whole belief is that everyone is a little weird somehow, so it’s really more just a fun way of saying that we really recognize and celebrate each person’s individuality, and we want their true personalities to shine in the workplace environment, whether it’s with co-workers or when talking with customers.

I think of myself less as a leader, and more of being almost an architect of an environment that enables employees to come up with their own ideas, and where employees can grow the culture and evolve it over time, so it’s not me having a vision of “This is our culture.”

Maybe an analogy is, if you think of the employees and culture as plants growing, I’m not trying to be the biggest plant for them to aspire to. I’m more trying to architect the greenhouse where they can all flourish and grow.

Last month Katty Kay and Claire Shipman wrote an opinion piece in the Washington Post detailing some recent studies that correlate business success with gender diversity. The authors argue that more female executives equals greater business success. I apparently missed this article, but it was brought to my attention over the weekend. The article cites some informative studies:

Pepperdine found that the Fortune 500 firms with the best records of putting women at the top were 18 to 69 percent more profitable than the median companies in their industries. McKinsey looked at the top-listed European companies and found that greater gender diversity in management led to higher-than-average stock performance.

Is there a magic number of women? In some cases, it's just three. Catalyst, a research firm focused on women and business, found that Fortune 500 companies with three or more women in senior management positions score higher on top measures of organizational excellence. In addition, companies with three or more women on their boards outperformed the competition on all measures by at least 40 percent.

I certainly think the role of diversity in the workplace is an important topic, so I'm glad I eventually came across the article. But there is more here than simply the skills of female versus the skills of male executives. I think Lloyd Morgan at the always intelligent and insightful Lone Gunman blog makes some very important points on this topic. Quote:

• For a start, this research was conducted on Fortune 500 companies. Not exactly a diverse, or even large, sample to find such correlations in.
• Such research doesn’t say that female traits (or the lack of male traits) are conducive to success, but that diversity is key.
• A firm liberal enough to have women in senior management (and rightly so) is likely to be open to many other opportunities than a conservative firm.

I think the last point is the most poignant. The success is probably more indicative of the culture in the company rather than the actual effect of female versus male executives. A diverse company atmosphere will be more conducive to open-mindedness and will see greater success. It is an atmosphere that you should be mindful of and look for when interviewing with a company.

Hope you had a good weekend, let's kick the week off with The Links ...

Inside Higher Ed Correlates Religion with College Majors: "Being a humanities or a social science major has a statistically significant negative effect on religiosity -- measured by either religious attendance and how important students consider the importance of religion in their lives. The impact appears to be strongest in the social sciences." (via Sullivan)

The Thin Pink Line Improves Your Presentation Skills: For most careers you are going to need to have some skills in public speaking or give some sort of presentation. At the very least, being comfortable presenting in fron of others will help with the interview process. Carol Frohlinger details some observations she made of a presentation-oriented client and comes up with a good list of the keys to solid presenting.

BullsEye Resumes Lists Their Rules of Success: The list is general and broad, but in this case that is a good thing. This is a list of rules to follow for any career from remaining humble in your work to recognizing the commercial imperative of your business dealings.

Alexandra Levit in the Wall Street Journal On Motivation During the Job Search: "Ms. Johnson suggests taking some form of action every day -- such as calling a mentor to brainstorm or researching area firms on LinkedIn -- in order to sustain momentum and keep yourself in a "doing" mindset. "There is a lot of activity that leads up to closing the deal, and each time you inch ahead, you should feel a sense of satisfaction," she says."

The New York Times On the Etiquette of Drinking at Work Functions: Some people say abstain. Some say just have one. Some say go with the flow. "It’s essential, however, to know your limits. If you’re inexperienced in such situations and your clients or bosses are throwing back Johnnie Walkers, you can’t follow their lead, Ms. Condren said. If you try to keep up, you will likely drink too much and act unprofessionally — definitely drawing attention to your youth and inexperience."

"Business woman" courtesy mirimcfly via Flickr Creative Commons

Welcome to the Daily Roundup. Each day at the ThinkTalk Blog we will post some links that we find informative, interesting, or just plain funny. The goal is to let you know what else is going on out there, and ultimately help you with the development of your career.