Management Site

Top Five Mistakes Leaders Make in These Troubled Times

2009-01-25T19:33:00.003+07:00

by:Eileen McDargh

January 21 2009 - Even Joe the Pipefitter must look askance at some of the moves made in corporate America when faced with a string of bad news. (Sorry... I just can't use "Joe the Plumber", a guy who didn't pay his taxes, isn't certified as a plumber, and has tried to cash in on his 15 seconds of fame which - amazingly McGraw Hill has turned into a book while making great authors wait for a contract.)
Mistake #1: Become reactive and reactionary

There is truth in the old saying "Respond in haste. Regret in sorrow." This is also known as the "ready, fire, aim" approach of leadership. When leaders fail to gather the information and critically assess the long-term impact of decisions, severe errors are made. Consider the Big Three auto executives who knee-jerked their way on private planes to ask for a handout without ever having a plan. Now that's a bonehead mistake.

First, stop any action and breathe. Think long-term strategy. Be cautious. Be proactive. Test out the decisions by saying, "If this... then this..." so you can try it on for size.
Mistake #2: Huddle with only the corporate folks

First, answers are often found at the floor level, not at the ceiling. Involve everyone in the search for efficiencies and innovations. Engage everyone in a common vision and mission. Besides, if managers tell employees what to do, you've taken away all sense of responsibility and ownership. How refreshing to have the Obama team now posting discussions on the internet and seeking input from a variety of people with differing viewpoints. Building transparency goes a long way for building trust and making us all feel we are part of the solution.
Mistake #3: Cut. Cut. Cut.

No one EVER downsized their way to greatness. Wholesale termination of employees without thinking about the cost of underserved customers and too much work done by too few people or canceling the meeting without realizing that this is the time TO GATHER and candidly talk are just two examples of cuts that could have been done with a scalpel instead of a hacksaw. Substitute Jello for Jamoca Fudge and Two Buck Chuck for Dom Perignon but bring people together.

As for layoffs, if your organization or department can handle this-bring everyone together and spread out the facts. One very smart leader found that employees were willing to reduce work schedules, work half-time, and job share rather than have members of their team terminated. For more ideas, read Responsible Restructuring: Creative and Profitable Alternatives to Layoffs by Wayne Cascio, professor of management at the University of Colorado-Denver Business School.
Mistake #4: Go after new clients and customers

Unless your current customers have vanished because of poor quality or service, these can be your best source of new revenue. Ask how you can turn them into champions of what you provide. Make them feel special and valuable. I've noticed that my bank is now making every effort to thank me for my business, to call me by name, to answer any request with a "no problem" attitude. Sure, they should have been doing that all along but-better late than never. Besides, they've already got all my money in the safe. I think they'd like to keep it.
Mistake #5: Do more with less

We've been hearing this for years. In my consulting practice, I have often found that much of the "more" is work that provides no value at the end of the day. Scrutinize every process; get rid of the sacred cows and the egos. Translate every action into a dollar value. In one organization, we found that senior executives were tripping over each other to put their two cents into every PowerPoint presentation that was made. It was a waste of executive talent, made each project longer than necessary, disempowered the employee creating the presentation, and actually used up some $15,000 worth of senior management time!
BONUS Mistake: Buy into pessimism

It's a huge mistake we ALL make when we let the news of the day finds us hiding under the covers, chopping up the furniture for kindling and searching for recipes made with bread and water. What we have here is an opportunity to really consider what is most important, to spend time at work that is meaningful, and to nurture relationships that matter. We have an opportunity to reclaim our reputation, our integrity, and our future. Not to do this would be our biggest mistake.

To condense the wisdom of a Hopi Elder, "This is the Eleventh Hour...and we are the ones we've been waiting for."

© 2009, McDargh Communications. Publication rights granted to all venues so long as article and by-line are reprinted intact and all links are made live.

Known as a powerful presenter and facilitator, Eileen McDargh, CSP, CPAE has been creating conversations that matter and connections that count since 1980. Executive Excellence ranks her among the top 100 thought-leaders in leadership development. Her newest book, Gifts from the Mountain, received the 2008 Ben Franklin book award. To hire Eileen as a speaker, coach or retreat leader visit http://www.eileenmcdargh.com.

Fluency:Leading In The Midst of Change

2009-01-25T19:30:00.000+07:00

By Phoebe Eng, keynote speaker at Linkage's 10th Annual Summit on Leading Diversity in Atlanta, GA, March 16-18, 2009

December 12 2008 - Some of you may remember the 1985 hit song, "We are the World," produced by Quincy Jones and an inspiring cast of musicians who sang about working together, past our differences. Or perhaps you remember the tremendously successful United Colors of Benetton ad campaign back in the 1980s, celebrating young faces of every color, signaling the look and feel of a world without borders. Media images like these showed us the world and nation, as we wanted ourselves to be -- pictures and soundbites of many races cooperating, communicating, and sharing opportunity and fortune.

If only it were that simple. Almost 25 years later, we are still struggling to make that vision real -- in our business practices, in the running of our cities, and, now, in the context of great cultural, demographic, and economic changes brought on by globalization.

As 21st century leaders, you know that building, guiding, and sustaining truly diverse communities is tremendously difficult work. Over the last decade, city populations and workforces have changed faster than at any point in history -- job relocation, mobile commerce and ease of travel have changed our cities' demographics quickly and often. Immigrant and new communities continue to influence and change the culture of our cities. Young families and children supplant the aging baby boomer generation, again, changing the character and priorities of a community.

At the same time as we become a more diverse, more prosperous nation, our cities have also become more segregated. In fact, studies from SUNY Albany, UCLA, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education have reported that segregation of our children has worsened over the last decade, even as we live in more integrated areas. As newcomer groups grow in critical mass, so does the tendency to organize along racial, ethnic, or other group-affiliated lines. Changing demographics and the growth of ethnic enclaves have made race awareness and identity politics an effective means of voicing the needs of some of our cities' otherwise marginalized groups.

Amid all of this, civic and corporate leaders are confronted with difficult choices every day. Worthy projects from different community sectors must compete for limited resources. Appointments and commissions must be assigned in ways that satisfy all the interests represented in our constituency groups, assuring each of them adequate representation. From time to time, leaders also face crisis-fueled change, forcing them to guide their communities quickly through controversies.

Does this sound stressful? Indeed, scenes of a diverse community can be those of chaos, fiefdoms, even balkanizing, as some futurists and scholars predict. Alternatively, some see these times as momentous, opening the door to the grandest and most inspiring of challenges.

How does one lead a community, whether local or global team, in the midst of huge demographic and economic shifts? How do leaders create communities where all constituents feel included, counted and equally receiving of the opportunities offered by a community? And how do we have difficult conversations that turn our best intentions into action and accountability, not only from our leaders, but from ourselves?

The answers to these questions are certainly many and varied, depending on a community's specific composition and the issues it faces. Nevertheless, one of the most important skills of a leader through changing times will be a skill set of cultural fluency. This is not necessarily language fluency, as that term is usually used. Fluency is the skill set of understanding and being understood past apparent borders. To know one's constituents and address their needs effectively, 21st century leaders must practice and hone their fluency skills.

Over the past few years, I've talked to many fluent leaders: opinion shapers, thought leaders in business and communities, artists, teachers, media creatives, all who understand that their ultimate success depends on how deeply and quickly they can identify common ground and transcend boundaries between their constituents. Fluent leaders are servant leaders who willingly assume the place of liaison, the diplomatic negotiator, the arbiter of compromise.

What are some of the qualities of a fluent leader? They understand the value of nuance. They readily deal with complexity, knowing that solutions to real problems require many levels of information and analysis. Every one of the fluent leaders I've interviewed is also insatiably curious. They are lifelong learners who have honed their vision and their life's purpose through constant exposure to different experiences.

Perhaps most importantly, these leaders also understand that the practice of fluency is not a Pollyanna-esque, naive vision of the world, where a handshake, a kind word, or a dabble into a diversity program will suffice. It is quite the opposite. Fluency work is hard "detail" work that requires courage. To be a fluent leader means having some enemies, crossing boundaries, and entering into the necessary struggles to challenge leaders and systems that benefit from closemindedness, fear, and simple formulae.

As we work toward uniting our communities, we have shown that we want to trade together, learn about one another, work side by side, make money together, and even build our families -- across cultures and across our differences. Yet without knowing how to bridge what are often daunting chasms across race, religion, class, and culture, creating workable diverse alliances can often be impossible. Basic misunderstandings can thwart our earnest attempts at generating commerce and a vibrant exchange of ideas. Communications break down. Relationships fail.

In our quickly changing communities, the art of fluency becomes a crucial leadership approach for anyone wishing to become an aware global citizen and an effective global leader. And it is the only way forward if we are truly committed to creating a world, and a nation, where all can flourish to their fullest potential.

©2008 Phoebe Eng

E-mail:Way To Gossip and Waste Time

2008-12-29T10:46:00.003+07:00

Managing Time OFF

2008-12-29T10:43:00.001+07:00

A recent survey by Hewitt Associates, a global human resources services company, has found that US companies are potentially losing millions of dollars in payroll expenses and productivity because they fail to effectively manage employees' time off. Employers may believe this is crucial for successful recruitment and retention but most do not maximize the value of this aspect of their benefits programs.

The survey of 421 companies found that only 11 per cent provided the same time-off programs across all employee groups, making them difficult to administer and manage. Only 57 per cent formally tracked sick days for exempt employees, and less than half (46 per cent) tracked personal days. Most did not know the financial cost associated with their employees' time away from work.

Three-quarters of companies could not provide an actual or estimated cost of their sick pay. Those that did estimated the potential cost to be 1 - 3 per cent of payroll. The report points out that for a company with US$450 million in payroll, such costs could be between US$4.5 million and US$13.5 million a year. When all types of paid time off are included (sickness, vacation and disability) the cost could reach an estimated 9 per cent of payroll, or US$40.5 million.

Kim Stattner, a principal in Hewitt's health management consulting practice said:

"Time-off programs are important tools for attracting and retaining employees, but they've gotten so complex that the administration of the programs typically overshadows this. It's critical that companies design holistic time-off programs that enable them to better manage, track and quantify the amount of time off that their employees take, especially since these programs are just as expensive - if not more so - as health care benefits, particularly when you factor in indirect costs such as overtime, temporary labor and employee morale. Doing so can potentially save companies millions of dollars in payroll expenses and, at the same time, positively impact employee productivity and satisfaction with their benefits."

The survey found that approximately 5 per cent of covered employees experienced short term disability in a year, usually lasting 40 - 42 days. The report estimates that a company with 20 000 employees would lose 42 000 days as a result, the equivalent of more than 160 employees not working for an entire year. Assuming an annual salary of US$50 000 and 260 workdays a year this would result in loss of productivity amounting to US$8 million.

Almost 80 per cent of companies surveyed tracked short term disability among exempt employees, and 87 per cent outsourced their short and/or long term disability programs. However, less than half (44 per cent) offered a return-to-work program for employees with work-related disabilities, and only 28 per cent had a program to manage non-occupational disabilities.

Kim Stattner commented:

"Short term disability can potentially cost companies millions of dollars in lost employee productivity, but tracking data and implementing return-to-work programs can help minimize costs. Companies with return-to-work programs more readily comply with doctors' restrictions, such as shorter hours or lifting limitations, which enables employees to get back to work sooner, leading to improved productivity and, often, earlier recovery. In addition, companies that track disability absence data can analyze it in conjunction with medical data, allowing them to identify co-morbidities that exist among disabled workers and enabling them to integrate disability with condition management programs."

The survey found that majority of employers offered vacation time based on length of service, ranging from a median of two weeks at hire to five weeks after 25 years. Nearly two-thirds offered standard holidays only, while 37 per cent also offered floating holidays.

Carol Sladek, a principal in Hewitt's talent and organization consulting practice said:

"Most employers offer separate 'buckets' of time for vacation, holidays, sick and personal time and apply a different mentality toward each of their time-off programs. In many cases, this type of compartmentalizing results in companies offering more time off to employees than intended."

A growing number of companies are offering employees paid time off (PTO) banks that often include a combination of vacation, personal days and incidental sick time with the aim of improving cost management and giving employees more flexibility. The current survey found that between 22 per cent and 32 per cent of companies offered PTO bank time compared to 18 per cent in 2000. Those with PTO banks provided approximately six additional days at most levels. The majority of schemes included time off on hiring, followed by additional time off after one year.

Carol Sladek added:

"PTO banks are becoming increasingly popular, because they often result in a win-win - allowing companies to more effectively manage their time-off programs and attract and engage talent, while providing employees more flexibility in taking time off."

The survey found that 65 per cent of companies did not use a disciplinary policy to discourage unscheduled incidental time off by exempt employees. Of those that did, 53 per cent used a verbal or written warning. One in five who said they use a disciplinary system said they had no formal policy in place. Only 9 per cent had incentive programs for employees who had not used all their sick time at the end of the year.

Kim Stattner said:

"Most companies do not have disciplinary policies or incentive programs in place for a variety of reasons - whether it's because they lack the ability to punish or reward employees for something they don't track or they feel strongly about 'incenting' people to show up for work when the paycheck should be reason enough. But Hewitt has found that in the right environments these types of programs can be extremely successful at influencing employee outcomes, thus boosting productivity."

The report concludes that creating and implementing a successful time-off program means viewing health, absence and disability as interconnected. It recommends that companies consider the following strategies:

* "Take inventory" - Most time-off programs have been developed gradually over time. Make sure the purpose of the program meets the needs of current employees. The way in which elements are combined can have a significant positive impact.
* "Identify the totality of time- off program costs and establish a formal tracking plan" - Companies have found it difficult to identify and assess the impact of complex programs. Identify the total associated costs and establish a formal plan for tracking and managing future costs.
* "Review the design of your time-off program" - The design of a time-off program can minimize unscheduled time off. Employees are looking for more flexibility. Consider offering floating holidays or adding a PTO bank.
* "Consider outsourcing short and/or long term disability" - More than half (51 per cent) of companies surveyed found that outsourcing short and/or long term disability reduced the length of absence, and 47 per cent experienced more effective application of return-to-work programs. Less incidence of disability was noted by 27 per cent of companies.

Adaptive Corporate Culture: Key to Financial Performance

2008-08-19T16:00:00.000+07:00

A new study of Fortune 500 companies co-sponsored by Crawford International and HR.com shows that those with adaptive corporate cultures and strong leadership practices financially outperform those that do not.

The report, Leadership and Culture, states that only three out of ten strategic change programs produce the business value or financial return that company leaders expect. In a study of the financial performance of 94 large companies from 1995 to 2004, the researchers found that companies that create adaptive corporate cultures outperform companies with non-adaptive cultures by a factor of 900 to 1 as measured by long term net income and stock price growth.

Ric Roi, lead researcher and vice president, Crawford International, said:

"As we worked with corporations over the past 24 years, we came to recognize the importance of corporate culture and strong leadership in supporting business change and transformation. Clients that have an adaptive or agile corporate culture have historically thrived in the face of organizational change while those with non-adaptive cultures suffer through change."

Companies participating in this study reporting high levels of adaptability include 3M, Apple, Bank of America, Cisco Systems, Barclays, BMC, Hewlett Packard, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline and Intuit.

Larry Schnicker, director, HR development operations, Cisco Systems said:

"Cisco's unique and agile culture originates at the top with John Chambers as President and CEO. Cisco's core values have allowed our company to remain very agile in adapting cultural expectations to include the importance of Cisco as a career company, management as a profession, and talent development and movement."

Adaptive companies also tend to be more pioneering as evidenced by Cisco recently being named by Business Week as one of the top 30 most innovative companies in the world.

Debbie McGrath, CEO, HR.com said:

"If more corporations truly measured the value and impact of leadership and culture on their bottom lines, they would invest more in developing leaders and creating high performing cultures, instead of just paying lip service to it. At HR.com, we are committed to helping our 135 000 members share in the research we sponsored with Crawford so they can understand and realize the impact of great leadership and culture."

E-Mail : Way to Gossip and Waste Time

2008-08-19T15:50:00.000+07:00

A survey by MessageGate, Inc. has found that e-mail continues to be the most popular corporate workflow tool but that employees exercise poor judgment in its use, increasing costs and business or legal risks.

Shaun Wolfe, CEO of MessageGate said:

"E-mail has replaced the corporate water cooler as the way to gossip and waste time while on the clock; unfortunately, it's not nearly as visible. If an employee spent hours lingering around the water cooler, everyone would see and somebody would tell them to get back to work. Sitting at a desk and communicating via e-mail is not out of the ordinary, and there is less accountability because the boss can't tell if your e-mails are gossip or work."

MessageGate Activity Profiles (MAPs) provide companies with structured e-mail analysis of inbound, outbound and internal messages. The survey found that whatever the size and scope of the company, similar challenges are faced when dealing with e-mail.

These include:

* As little as 20 per cent of internal e-mail may be work-related; the remaining 80 per cent consists of alerts, newsletters, forwards, spam and carbon copies.
* Customers frequently include sensitive data (e.g. passwords) in e-mails meaning that companies must be alert to what is included in the reply.
* E-mail is often treated like instant messaging and is used for lengthy personal conversations; a particular risk for companies that prohibit instant messaging software.
* Employees frequently make accidental financial disclosures (e.g. on pending acquisitions).
* Messages including more than three carbon-copied addresses generally are for information only.
* Distribution of inappropriate images and videos from work accounts is common. The report points out that these are archived and identify the company source.
* Many companies use social security numbers as employee ID and these are widely distributed over e-mail both internally and externally.
* A typical internal e-mail is sent to two people on average, resulting in duplication and increased archive and storage costs.

The report argues that sharing these results with employees can increase awareness of relevant policies and practice. E-mail analysis can also reduce operational costs, and improve business processes as well as storage and retention.

Bradley Young, director of services for MessageGate commented:

"Quarterly MAPs are simple and provide a benchmark for companies to monitor and track improvements," said. "As employee awareness around e-mail policy increases, companies can adjust policies as appropriate. Over time, employees become more sophisticated with regards to e-mail and corporate risk and exposure is greatly reduced."
Related article
2003 E-mail Survey Reveals: One in Five Companies Has Fired an Employee for E-mail Abuse

June 24 2003 (Newstream) -- According to a new survey from the American Management Association, Clearswift, and The ePolicy Institute, 22% of companies have terminated an employee for e-mail infractions and e-mail users spend about 25% of the workday on e-mail. Over 1,100 US employers participated in the 2003 E-Mail Survey, a follow-up to an e-mail survey conducted by the American Management Association and ePolicy Institute in 2001.

The survey in detail revealed that 14% of respondents noted that their organization has been ordered by a court or regulatory body to produce employee e-mail an increase of 5% over 2001, when 9% of respondents reported employee e-mail had been subpoenaed.

The average respondent spends about 107 minutes (1 hour 47 minutes) on e-mail every day ... about 25% of the workday. While 24% report spending less than one hour, 31% spend more than two hours and 8% more than four hours.

76% of respondents say that they have lost time in the last year due to e-mail system problems. 35% estimate they lost only half a day, but 24% think they have lost more than two days.

"E-mail is a great communications tool but not without its shortcomings," said Ivan O'Sullivan, vice president at Clearswift. "These statistics reveal and solidify the idea that companies need to be proactive in understanding how to protect their confidential information assets and train employees how to maximize productive use of e-mail."

"Most employers drop the ball when it comes to educating employees about e-mail risks, rules, and responsibilities," said Nancy Flynn, co-author of E-Mail Rules: A Business Guide to Managing Policies, Security, and Legal Issues for E-Mail and Digital Communication (AMACOM Books 2003) and executive director of The ePolicy Institute, www.ePolicyInstituteChange.com. "While 75% of organizations have written e-mail policies in place, only 48% offer e-policy education to employees, and merely 27% offer e-mail retention/deletion training." said Flynn. On the upside, e-policy training has doubled since 2001, when 24% of companies offered e-policy education to employees.

"It's important for organizations to establish, educate and enforce e-mail policies and rules to control and understand their employee's use of e-mail. The legal issues inherent with use of e-mail are ever present as are the risks of lost productivity both from employee abuse and misuse," said Flynn.

Eighty-six percent of respondents agree that e-mail has made them more efficient, in spite of the fact that 92% receive spam mail at work. Fully 47% say spam constitutes more than 10% of all their e-mail; 7% report spam represents over 50% of all e-mail received.

According to the compiled data, in 2003, more than half (52%) of U.S. companies engage in some form of e-mail monitoring of employees and enforce e-mail policies with discipline or other methods. In fact, 22% of companies have terminated an employee for e-mail infractions.

The use of technology to monitor e-mail and control message content has increased since 2001, when 24% of respondents reported using software to conduct key word or key phrase searches of e-mail and/or computer files. In 2003, over 40% of employers report using software to control written e-mail content. Fully 88% couple software with education.

While 90% of employers have installed software to monitor incoming and outgoing e-mail, only 19% are using technology to monitor internal e-mail among employees.

"Management's failure to check internal e-mail is a potentially costly oversight," says Ivan O'Sullivan, Vice President of survey co-sponsor Clearswift. "Off-the-cuff, casual e-mail conversations among employees are exactly the type of messages that tend to trigger lawsuits, arm prosecutors with damaging evidence, and provide the media with embarrassing real-life disaster stories. The fact that 90% of respondents send and receive personal e-mail at work and 66% of companies lack a policy for deleting nonessential messages, compounds the problem," says O'Sullivan.

Clearswift, provides software that helps companies enforce email policies to stem the tide of email that can pose threats to organizations and slow down networks. Clearswift's products, EnterpriseSuite and MIMEsweeper help companies enforce policies to stop:

* Inappropriate email that can lead to legal liability for harassment and discrimination
* Loss of confidential information such as customer data, proprietary plans or intellectual property
* Loss of network productivity resulting in network downtime from large email attachment, malicious viruses and executables
* Lost employee productivity from spam, inappropriate web-surfing and online shopping

The survey was conducted to educate the marketplace on the importance of establishing epolicies, educating employees on the policy and enforcing the policies with software.

About Clearswift

Clearswift is the world's leading provider of software for managing and securing electronic communications, with a 23% share of the global content filtering market. Clearswift delivers the capabilities for organizations to protect themselves against e-mail and web-based threats, meet legal and regulatory requirements, implement productivity-saving policies and manage intellectual property passing through their network.

The company's expertise lies in establishing and enforcing e-policies. Content security threats include the circulation of inappropriate images and text, Spam and oversize files, loss and corruption of data, breaches of confidentiality, as well as viruses and malicious code. Clearswift's software portfolio includes Clearswift MIMEsweeper, a product family for e-mail and web e-policies and Clearswift ENTERPRISEsuite, a software infrastructure for managing e-policies in complex environments. More information about Clearswift, its products and services is available at www.clearswift.com

About American Management Association

American Management Association is the world's leading membership-based management development organization. For 80 years, it has provided valuable and practical action-oriented learning programs to people at all levels, in all industries, from companies and agencies of all sizes. More than 500,000 AMA customers and members a year learn new skills and behaviors, gain more confidence, advance their careers and contribute to the success of their organizations through a wide range of AMA seminars, conferences and executive forums, as well as through AMA books and publications, research and print and online self-study courses.

About The ePolicy Institute

The ePolicy InstituteTM is a leading source of ePolicy and eMail-related products and services. The Columbus, Ohio-based ePolicy Institute is dedicated to helping employers limit electronic liabilities while enhancing employees' eCommunications skills. Through the ePolicy Institute Speakers' Bureau, the organization provides speaking, training and consulting services to clients throughout North America and around the globe. Executive Director and Author Nancy Flynn, a noted authority on ePolicy and eMail, is the author of five books published in four languages. Her titles include E-Mail Rules and bestsellers The ePolicy Handbook, and Writing Effective E-Mail. The go-to source for workplace ePolicy and eMail information and tips, Nancy Flynn/The ePolicy Institute has been featured by Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, US News & World Report, National Public Radio and thousands of media outlets worldwide. To book a consultation, speaker or media interview, contact experts@epolicyinstitute.com or visit www.epolicyinstitute.com.

Anger in The Workplace

2008-08-19T15:25:00.000+07:00

July 20 2008 - Research published in Psychological Science earlier this year reported differences in attitudes to men and women who lose their temper in the workplace. In three separate studies, psychologists Victoria Brescoll from Yale University and Eric Uhlmann from Northwestern University found that while such outbursts tend to be accepted or even rewarded in men, women are judged less competent as a result.

Hillary Clinton's recent presidential campaign raised the question of whether anger was damaging to a female candidate. Researchers found this to be unequivocally the case unless the anger was in response to treatment of a family member.

Victoria Brescoll commented:

"An angry woman loses status, no matter what her position."

Researchers showed participants videos of actors applying for a job. They were asked to rate them on their perceived competence and whether they should be hired, the degree of responsibility they should be given, and how much they should get paid. Both men and women assigned higher status, salary and competence to men expressing anger. However, when actors expressed sadness, women applicants were ranked equally to men in status and competence but not in salary.

The second study focused on lower-status jobs and compared angry applicants to those not displaying any emotion. Once again, angry men were valued more highly than angry women. However, these differences were not apparent in the emotionally neutral group. The third study allowed women actors to explain why they were angry, resulting in improved ratings. However, when men gave an explanation it tended to be interpreted as a sign of weakness.

Victoria Brescoll concluded:

"Whether you are running for president or looking for a clerical job, you cannot afford to get angry if you are a woman."
'Bad Apples' at Work

A study from the University of Washington Business School published in Research in Organizational Behavior in 2007 examined how negative behavior by one person in an organization can impact on teams and groups. Researchers describe these individuals as "bad apples" acting like a virus within teams, with the capacity to "upset or spoil the whole apple cart".

Together with Terence Mitchell, a professor of management and organization and UW psychology professor, William Felps, a doctoral student and lead author, decided to investigate the effect of a negative co-worker on workplace atmosphere after his wife experienced the phenomenon. She characterized her work environment as cold and unfriendly but this changed when a co-worker described as "particularly caustic" and "always making fun of other people" was away ill for several days.

William Felps explained:

"And when he was gone, my wife said that the atmosphere of the office changed dramatically. People started helping each other, playing classical music on their radios, and going out for drinks after work. But when he returned to the office, things returned to the unpleasant way they were. She hadn't noticed this employee as being a very important person in the office before he came down with this illness but, upon observing the social atmosphere when he was gone, she came to believe that he had a profound and negative impact. He truly was the 'bad apple' that spoiled the barrel."

The researchers analyzed about two dozen studies focusing on workplace team and group interaction, with specific reference to the impact of individuals whose negativity may be expressed in various ways: not doing their fair share of work, being "chronically unhappy and emotionally unstable", or being aggressive and bullying. They found that it only takes one such "toxic" team member to provide the catalyst for organizational dysfunction. In a follow-up survey, they found most people they could identify at least one "bad apple" from their own workplace experience.

The researchers reviewed various working environments (including manufacturing, fast food, and universities) where tasks and assignments were performed by groups of approximately 5 -15 individuals with interdependent jobs or where significant interaction was necessary. They explain that employees in such circumstances tend to be less tolerant and are more likely to challenge negative behaviors.

In one study of about 50 manufacturing teams, they found those with a disagreeable or irresponsible member were significantly more likely to perform poorly, experiencing conflict, poor communication and lack of cooperation between team members.

Terence Mitchell commented:

"Most organizations do not have very effective ways to handle the problem. This is especially true when the problem employee has longevity, experience or power. Companies need to move quickly to deal with such problems because the negativity of just one individual is pervasive and destructive and can spread quickly."

The study identified three ways in which group members may react to a negative member. Motivational intervention, where concerns are expressed and the person asked to change; if this proves unsuccessful rejection may follow where the individual is removed from the situation. These strategies require team members to have sufficient power; lack of power leads people to become frustrated and distracted. This leads to the third strategy, being defensive - common coping mechanisms include denial, social withdrawal, anger, anxiety and fear. Researchers explain that as trust weakens along with the positive culture, members physically and psychologically disengage themselves from the team. The study concluded that negative behavior has a greater impact than positive behavior.

Terence Mitchell said:

"People do not expect negative events and behaviors, so when we see them we pay attention to them, ruminate over them and generally attempt to marshal all our resources to cope with the negativity in some way. Good behavior is not put into the spotlight as much as negative behavior is."

The researchers differentiate between the negativity of "bad apples" and innovative challenging employees "who think outside the box" and may not always be appreciated as a result. If negative individuals emerge after selection screening, researchers suggest that organizations should allocate them to independent work positions where possible; or the only option may be to let them go.

William Felps commented:

"Managers at companies, particularly those in which employees often work in teams, should take special care when hiring new employees. This would include checking references and administering personality tests so that those who are really low on agreeableness, emotional stability or conscientiousness are screened out."

Finding Your Perfect Work

2008-06-10T15:54:00.000+07:00

by Linda Matias

There was something about the way "Super Fly" Jimmy Snuka jumped from the third rope of the wresting ring onto his opponent that made me want to be a professional wrestler. I couldn't wait to become a star of the wrestling ring.

But when I shared my dream with adults, I was told that girls weren't born to be wrestlers. That was a boy's job. I remember becoming upset and saying, "But I'm a tomboy. Can't tomboys be wrestlers?" and the universal answer was no, not even tomboys can be wrestlers.

Any lingering dreams I had of being a professional wrestler quickly disappeared the day my cousin put me in a figure-four leg lock, a very painful wrestling move. However, the experience of being told I couldn't fulfill my career goals due to my gender has remained with me till this day.

As a professional who deals with career issues every day, I have come to realize that my story isn't unusual. Though the reasons vary, countless other people's childhood dreams have been squashed by well-meaning adults. I am one of the lucky ones who found my way to a gratifying career; others are still searching for their perfect work.

If you are one of those people who want to change careers but find the thought overwhelming, you are not alone. That feeling is understandable, since most likely you spent many years on acquiring an education and/or honing your craft to just give it up midstream-even if you are unhappy.

Like most life changes, a career shift requires introspection-an examination into where you have been and where you want to be. If you find that you are dissatisfied with your work, asking yourself the following questions can helpful in your journey to a satisfying career.

* What is my current job description? What is my ideal job description? What are the differences between the two? What are the similarities?

This exercise is a good starting point because it will force you to scrutinize your current job responsibilities and how they relate to your overall career goal.

* What do I like best about what I do? What do I like least? Of what I like to do best, are those skills transferable into other fields?

The trickiest part of changing careers is to decipher how your experience relates to another industry or field. Sometimes the answer is clear. Other times, it may take more work to determine how your job-related and marketable skills will appeal to a new area of practice.

* In which job(s) was I the most content? The least content? Why?

After this task you will be able to identify what motivates you and what burns you out in a job. Motivating factors are skills that you may or may not be proficient in, but that you do enjoy performing. Burnout factors are skills you may or may not be proficient in, but don't enjoy performing.

* What aspects of my personality can hinder (or have hindered) my career growth?

This is an important question to ask, since your personality and the way you communicate with others can determine how successful you are or will become.

* Am I willing to trade in my "Mercedes" for a "Chevrolet"?

Most of the time, changing careers means you must take a pay cut. And when you take a pay cut, your lifestyle changes. Take the time to review your financials. Determine whether you are willing to live without the two vacations a year or going out to dinner every Saturday night.

You may find that a complete transformation may take a while. You may need additional training or education, or you may need to take an entry-level job to position yourself for success in the path of your new career. A career change takes resilience, confidence, and most importantly, patience.

When Bad Interviews Happen to Good Candidates

2008-06-10T15:48:00.000+07:00

by Linda Matias

Going through the motions of a bad interview is like peeling back the layers of an onion. Sally learned this lesson the hard way, hands-on during an interview that should have been a piece of cake. Sally applied for a position that fit her qualifications perfectly. When she received an invitation to interview, Sally believed she was a shoo-in for the job. Feeling confident, she approached the interview in a lax manner. She didn't prepare and prematurely celebrated an offer she was convinced would be extended.

The day of the interview, Sally was surprised by the level of anxiety she felt. Her apprehension began to build and she began to prepare for the interview at the last minute. By the time she arrived at the interview, she was visibly shaken.

Lesson learned: The time to collect your thoughts is prior to an interview, not on your way to one. If you arrive to an interview bewildered, the recruiter will take notice and you run a high risk that you will be not get the offer.

The interviewer entered the waiting area and introduced himself. To ease the tension, he asked a common icebreaker question, "Did you have trouble finding us?" Sally has never been a smooth small talker and she answered the question candidly. She confided that she doesn't have a good sense of direction and coupled with the fact that she was anxious, she passed the building entrance quite a few times. The interviewer smiled politely and proceeded to walk towards the interview room. Realizing she goofed, Sally hesitantly followed the interviewer.

Lesson learned: Everything you say and do during an interview is scrutinized; from the instant you walk in, to the moment you walk out. An innocent question doesn't exist during an interview and a careless misstep is seldom forgotten. Choose your responses carefully.

When Sally was escorted to the interview room, she was surprised to see a panel of interviewers. She was only familiar with the "it's just you and me, kid" type of the interview - the one-on-one. At the start of the interview, she quickly realized that it was going to be a challenge to manage that interview.

Lesson learned: Interviews are unpredictable. One never knows the broad range of topics that will be covered and the type of formats that may be presented. Familiarize yourself with all interview settings.

Because she was not ready for the series of questions, Sally tripped over her answers. She focused on issues that weren't relevant and provided little information on what was pertinent. She began to ramble and appeared under-qualified for the position.

Sensing that she was interviewing poorly, Sally began to lose patience with the process. She failed to maintain eye contact and began to fidget. The enthusiasm she felt for the position and the company slowly diminished as she witnessed the blank looks on the faces of the panelists. She withdrew mentally from the interview, and as a result, appeared disinterested.

Lesson learned: Most interviewers expect candidates to be nervous during an interview, and they rarely will forgive you if you fail to demonstrate a sincere interest in working for them. Most hiring decisions are based on whether the interviewer feels a connection to you. The failure to establish a bond immediately is usually beyond repair.

After the interview Sally realized that the questions she had been asked were not difficult. She had been overwhelmed by nervousness and that had clouded her ability to communicate clearly and to the point effectively.

Lesson learned: Even if you have the "right stuff," nothing is guaranteed. Don't get caught off guard; prepare for interviews; do your homework.

What IsYour Greatest Weakness ?+

2008-06-10T15:45:00.000+07:00

by Linda Matias

The fastest way to make a good interview go bad is to avoid questions posed by the hiring manager. The one question candidates love to avoid is, "What is your greatest weakness?" Most candidates are quick to respond with superficial answers such as "I'm a workaholic" or "I'm a perfectionist." Not only are those responses boring, but they are also predictable answers interviewers are used to hearing. So much so that an interviewer's comeback line often is, "That doesn't sound like a weakness. Now why don't you tell me about a real weakness?"

Ouch. What an uncomfortable position to be in-when a decision maker challenges you during an interview. Just like you, the interviewer wants the process to go as seamlessly as possible, and they quickly become resentful when they are placed in a confrontational position.

When answering questions surrounding your greatest weakness, my advice is to tell the truth-to a point. Though I don't advocate providing a play-by-play of every area that may need improvement, it isn't a good idea not to cop to a weakness either. A happy medium does exist, and it lies in focusing your response on an area that doesn't have a major impact on your ability to do the job. This should be an area that you are on your way to improving. Note, not an area you've already improved, but one that is well on its way.

Interviewers recognize that jobseekers aren't forthcoming when answering the "greatest weakness" question. As a result, there is a new trend in hiring circles of interviewers cleverly disguising the question and using a variation of the theme. In doing so, interviewers are successfully stumping candidates, and are receiving responses that uncover the not-so-pleasant side of candidates.
Cleverly Designed "Greatest Weakness" Questions

* We all have aspects of our job we prefer not to do. What aspect of your day-to-day responsibilities do you dislike?

In hopes of making you feel comfortable, interviewers may ask questions that start with "we." The psychology behind this is to make you feel as though you are with a friend, which can cause you to let your guard down.

* Think back to your last review. What suggestions did your supervisor have for improvement?

The chances are extremely high that your supervisor offered suggestions for improvement. Interviewers are aware of this and anticipate that you will disclose the details of your most recent evaluation.

* Describe a project you worked on that didn't turn out as well as you expected.

Interviewers find that job seekers reveal more when they are asked to tell a story. The assumption is made that the more you talk, the more likely you'll disclose your weaknesses.

* In what area of your work do you think you can be more effective?

This question is very similar to "greatest weakness" question. However, interviewers believe the way the question is phrased will make you feel less threatened, and therefore more likely to answer freely.

Bottom line: whether or not you want to divulge sensitive information during an interview, an interviewer is going to try his or her darnedest to dig for skeletons in your closet. Interviewers want to uncover any reasons why they shouldn't hire you, and they hope those reasons will come straight from you. So be prepared.

More articles by Linda Matias:

Seven Habits of Highly Successful Job Seekers
There are those who land a job right away and those who struggle through the process of finding one for a long time. But luck has nothing to do with it.

Nuts and Bolts of Effective Cover Letters
As a job seeker, you shouldn't overlook the importance of a cover letter. If written strategically, a cover letter increases your chances for consideration, and provides an opportunity to highlight your individuality.

Interviewing Like a Pro in Five Easy Steps
It's an inescapable fact that interviews are the "make or break" factor on whether one lands the job.

So, why don't you tell me about yourself?
The most frequently asked interview question. It's a question that most interviewees expect and the one they have the most difficulty answering.

Recognized as a career expert, Linda Matias brings a wealth of experience to the career services field. She has been sought out for her knowledge of the employment market, outplacement, job search strategies, interview preparation, and resume writing, quoted a number of times in The Wall Street Journal, New York Newsday, Newsweek, and HR-esource.com. She is President of CareerStrides and the National Resume Writers' Association. Visit her website at www.careerstrides.com or email her at linda@careerstrides.com.

STRESS in the 21st Century

2008-05-18T11:27:00.001+07:00

Stress is associated with a number of physical conditions including back-pain, susceptibility to viruses, chronic fatigue syndrome and autoimmune disease. Richard O'Connor. author of Undoing Perpetual Stress : The Missing Connection Between Depression, Anxiety and 21st Century Illness, argues that our bodies are not designed to cope with the stresses of the modern world. O'Connor (2005: 13) goes so far as to state that:

"With the exception of some rare conditions like schizophrenia and manic depression, most 'mental illness' is the result of stress acting on a vulnerable individual - the effect of a lifetime of common human misery."

He notes, moreover, that some kind of stressful event usually triggers the appearance of schizophrenia and manic depression - conditions that are generally considered to be biologically based. Stress is also the underlying cause of so-called 'psychosomatic illnesses', according to O'Connor. The illnesses we have today may be the result of genetic disposition plus the consequences of stressful conditions, possibly dating back to childhood. He contends that (2005: 17):

"... all these problems - anxiety, depression, addiction, nonspecific illness, personality extremes, and much of the worry that besets all of us - are all tips of the same iceberg, all manifestations of our response to the stresses of contemporary life, all connected beneath the surface, all reinforcing and buttressing each other. Contemporary research shows that you can't fully recover from any of these conditions by focusing on the symptoms. You have to change the way you live."

Unfortunately, if O'Connor is to be believed, that is too difficult for most of us. Instead, we enter into vicious circles where stress is met with more of the same behaviour that made us stressed in the first place. Worry and depression both make the situation worse. Our ways of dealing with the symptoms also compound the problem - taking prescribed or over-the-counter drugs, sleeping pills, alcohol and illegal drugs do not make the underlying cause go away. In fact, they can make the problem worse.

O'Connor (2005: 20) identifies the components of the vicious circle:

* The constant stress puts us into a continuous 'fight or flight' mode that cannot be turned off.
* We try to deny that we are under stress until it is no longer possible to ignore the fact.
* We have natural psychological defences but these often operate through denial and distortion of reality. We didn't get that job because the boss was too stupid to see how good we were (not).
* If we blame ourselves, we get ill. If we blame other people, we cause friction at work or at home - and that leads to more stress.
* We lose touch with reality, and we cope even less well.

We may start regarding ourselves as victims, and even if we do not, the 'perpetual stress response' (O'Connor's term) leads to a nasty and continuous dose of stress hormones in our bodies. And putting pills into our systems is not a solution.

O'Connor's solution is to produce an adaptive spiral, a rewiring of the brain to develop positive coping attitudes and behaviours that make us feel better about ourselves, more confident and able to deal constructively with stressful conditions.

Articles about Stress at Work on HRM Guide

Yesterday's Hero

2008-05-18T11:23:00.002+07:00

By Linda Matias

Wonder Woman makes it look so easy. She gets up every morning, fights the good fight, calls it a day, and starts the whole process all over again. This is the way most of us begin our workday. We work hard, accomplish lots, and get up in the morning for an encore presentation.

From childhood we were told that if we put 110% into our careers that we will be shoo-ins for promotions and raises. It sounded like an excellent plan and one that you easily bought into-hard work equals a big return on investment. Good deal.

Then one day you walk into your office only to discover that your position has been eliminated. Not through any fault of your own, but because the powers-that-be made an executive decision to reduce costs. At that moment, you quickly realize that not everything comes from hard work, and you are reluctantly thrown into the job search.
THE CHALLENGE

No matter how many awards you received and no matter how impressive your career progression, the old adage is true: "You're only as good as your last sale." And if you have been unemployed for a while, hiring managers may view your experience as being outdated. To your surprise, a search that you were convinced would take only a few weeks turned into a year-long process.

Since the resume is the first meeting between you and a prospective employer, the way you position your skills is critically important. This is especially true if you want the reader to overlook your unemployment gap and focus their attention on your successes.

If your resume fails to cleverly tackle red flags, the reader will eliminate your candidacy within seconds. With today's job market, it is rare to find a jobseeker who has a flawless work history, and a traditional resume doesn't always properly address the immediate concerns jobseekers are facing today.

THE SOLUTION
This is the reason why professional resume writers recommend a combination resume for those a) who have been unemployed for over a year who want to deemphasize an unemployment gap and b) those considering a career change who wish to highlight relevant marketable and/or transferable skills.

A combination resume integrates the best features of the functional and chronological resume formats. Similar to the functional resume, the combination resume emphasizes skills; and just like the chronological resume, the combination resume sequentially showcases your professional history.
ANATOMY OF A COMBINATION RESUME

The most basic format for a combination resume includes the following sections: Introduction, Accomplishments, Professional Experience, and Education. Below is a breakdown of each section.

Introduction
The opening of a resume serves as a teaser and is called a Career Summary, Professional Profile, or Summary of Qualifications. Whatever term you decide to use, the end result must sum up your value to the hiring organization. Let's take a look at an example:

Goal-driven, tenacious sales and management professional demonstrating award-winning sales record in highly competitive industries. Strong leader and team player; excellent motivational skills to build and sustain forward growth momentum while motivating peak individual performance from members. Experience in managing all aspects of sales development cycle, from prospecting and cold calling through detailed presentations and negotiation to closing follow-up activities.

Notice that the example above provides the reader with a checklist of the candidate's qualifications. From the onset, the reader has a feel for what the candidate can bring to the table.
Accomplishments

Since this section appears immediately after the introduction, it must keep the momentum going. This is your opportunity to showcase the fact that your experience is still relevant, you're still in the game, and you are a serious candidate. Let's look at a couple of accomplishment-based statements.

* Ranked consistently in top 5 company-wide for sales production among staff of 600+ brokers, bringing in $3.5 million in gross commissions during tenure.

* Contributed to success of supervised brokers through hands-on training and mentoring; led team that generated $13 million in commissions.

Notice that the statements are specific and target key achievements the candidate is most proud of.

Professional Experience

This section provides a chronological history of your experience along with a brief summation of your responsibilities. Here's an example of how your professional history can appear.

Vice President, Bay Shore Financial, New York, NY, 2000-2004

Supervised team of 12 brokers in account prospecting and development activities. Conducted in-depth research on stocks and related topics to provide best recommendations for clients. Mentored team members and provided assistance with complex and escalated client issues. Authorized sign-off on large transactions.
Education

The education section can include your college background, technical training, and/or professional development.

Bachelor of Arts, Accounting-LONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY, Brooklyn, NY
BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

A combination resume will allow you to highlight your impressive accomplishments and grab the reader's interest right at the beginning while also providing the chronological work history employers are looking for. Now get out there and knock that employer's socks off!

Seven Habits of Highly Successful Job Seekers

2008-05-18T11:20:00.002+07:00

even Habits of Highly Successful
Job Seekers

By Linda Matias

In the job search craze, there are those who land a job right away and those who struggle through the process of finding one for a long time. 'Luck' is usually the response one hears from disenfranchised job seekers when they find out that their neighbor down the street was offered a position after only a two-week search. With many job seekers vying for only a few open positions, the truth is that 'luck' rarely has anything to do with it.

Realizing that their job search campaign doesn't have to be a never-ending struggle, successful job seekers approach the process with patience and persistence. If you want to be among the highly successful job seekers follow the seven steps outlined below.

1. Search with purpose
Instead of trying to fit into a mold set by a hiring organization, target companies that match your goals and career values; doing this will allows you to focus your energy into searching for a position that is a natural fit.
After all, you don't want to find yourself embarking on another search within a year's time because you made a decision in haste.

2. Always be prepared
Be ready for your day's activities by 9 am. Opportunities rarely land on your lap and you have to be prepared for the surprises that may come up during the day. You don't want to be caught sleeping when someone calls to discuss an employment opportunity.
If you find yourself answering the phone like this: "hello? . . . well . . . um . . . well, like I was kinda sleeping. . . how long is this gonna take? . . . who are you again? . . . like I, um, contacted so many places, cuz, you know, like, I can't like find a job . . ." then it is time to reprioritize your needs.
Waiting until your unemployment insurance is about to end before you begin aggressively looking for a position can be a costly mistake. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you are running low on resources and desperation is about to set in. This is when mistakes are made and your job search may begin to suffer.

3. Develop a job search plan
Organize your job search, map out a strategy, set priorities, and establish goals. Begin your search with a clear focus and a plan. Participate in a number of activities including answering classified ads, posting your resume on the Internet, and going on informational interviews.

4. Bypass Human Resources
A human resources representative is also known as a "screener." The screener's job is to review resumes and match your experience with a checklist of requirements set forth by the hiring manager. If there are enough matches, the human resources representative forwards the resume to the decision maker.
Unfortunately, not much is left to the screener's interpretation. This is why most opportunities are lost - because the screener doesn't have the luxury of making a decision based on instinct; he or she is instructed to follow the lead of the hiring manager.

Since the decision makers (e.g., VP of Sales, Director of Marketing, or CEO) are the ones who determine who is ultimately hired, it is advisable that you apply directly to them.

5. Write follow-up letters
Well-written follow up letters can make a difference as to whether you get hired. A follow-up letter is more than a simple note thanking the interviewer for his or her time. It should be a sophisticated letter that either re-affirms your interest in the position, serves as an opportunity to mention an important point you neglected to bring up, and/or provides an opportunity to offer new insight on a topic that was discussed during the interview.

6. Avoid toxic job seekers
Job clubs are a great way to generate ideas and for networking purposes. However, some are also a breeding ground for negativity. These support groups can inadvertently affect your job search. Take inventory of the job seekers in attendance. Do they offer words of encouragement? Are they supportive of your efforts, or do they feed into your insecurities?
If after such meetings you feel emotionally drained and start to believe your chances of landing a job are bleak, then it's time to search for a new support team.

7. Be good to yourself
There are two types of job seekers. One, that has a laid back approach, and the other that always feels "there aren't enough hours in the day" and compulsively searches for a job without taking a breather.
Following in the footsteps of the latter is the fastest way to reaching burn out and when careless mistakes are often made. Though your job search should be your primary activity, don't allow it to consume your every waking moment.
Every so often take a mini vacation; spend time with people who support you, listen to music and participate in activities you enjoy. Clearing your mind replenishes your energy and will allow you to continue searching for a job with a fresh outlook.

Recognized as a career expert, Linda Matias brings a wealth of experience to the career services field. She has been sought out for her knowledge of the employment market, outplacement, job search strategies, interview preparation, and resume writing, quoted a n umber of times in The Wall Street Journal, New York Newsday, Newsweek, and HR-esource.com. She is President of CareerStrides and the National Resume Writers' Association. Visit her website at www.careerstrides.com or email her at linda@careerstrides.com.

Seven Habits of Highly Successful Job Seekers by Linda Matias, JCTC, CEIP (c) Linda Matias - All rights reserved

What To Do If You're Affraid of Being Fired

2008-05-18T11:16:00.001+07:00

Being fired is a common fear these days. Here are a few tips to help you if you think you're in the firing line.

If you hear or are told outright by your employer that some jobs have to go and yours “might” be one of them, what can you do about it? It’s a worrying prospect for many who rely on their regular income to cover mortgages, car loans, school fees, food bills, and all the other expenses of living. What you can do about it depends on the size of the company you work for, your skill level and experience, where you live, the status of employment in your area, etc. If you are afraid of being fire for other reasons, there are still steps you can take, so first let’s take a look at being laid off/made redundant.

1. Get the Truth.
Find out first if YOUR job is on the firing line. You may be worrying for nothing. Don’t just ask other employees – they may merely repeat rumors and gossip. Either have a confidential chat with your immediate Manager, or make an appointment with the Human Resources Manager. There’s no point “worrying” unless you have to.

2. Use Your Contacts
If your job is in jeopardy, depending on your current role, you may be able to put yourself in a position of availability to “head hunters” from other companies. Make contact with people in other organizations and ask about job possibilities, or you can contact the H.R. Managers of other companies and ask them if it is worthwhile submitting your Resume. If you are a member of an association, it’s time to network. Let it be known among those in positions to help you that you are in need of a new position… but be discreet.

3. Update Your Resume
Don’t leave it until the bell tolls before you start sending out job applications and your resume. What if you are not going to “lose your job” for another three months, but it takes 3-6 months before you find another one? Can you afford to wait that long? Start applying now. If you find a job quickly, whether you see out your remaining time with your existing employer or not will depend on whether your “new” employer is prepared to wait. It’s hard when you have feelings of loyalty to your existing employer, but they are planning to get rid of you soon… right now you need to be looking out for yourself.

4. Know Your Entitlements
If staying until the end, make sure you know your entitlements. What settlement is the company offering you? Have you received a termination agreement with everything set out? If in doubt, have it checked by a professional. You have legal recourse if the company does not pay you what you are entitled to under your agreement with them and state and federal laws, and even union rules (if applicable to you) governing such things as redundancy packages etc. In addition to this, find out if you are eligible for any government unemployment benefits – in case you need them.

5. Get References Before You Go
Make sure you get references before you leave the company. You will need them.

Now let’s say you are afraid of being fired for other reasons. Perhaps you made one too many mistakes, or your boss doesn’t like you, or you are being discriminated against for reasons of sex, religion or whatever. If you haven’t actually been fired “yet”, try to find ways to overcome the situation that is threatening you. Can you transfer to a different department? Would a word with your Manager help clear things up? Is there anything you can do to put things “right” or fix them?
If not, and the threat of being fired is real, consider this:

1. Keep a diary of all communications, verbal or otherwise, between yourself and others at your place of employment, including any discriminatory behavior/comments.

2. If you are with a Union, you might like to get advice now rather than leave it too late. For all you know, there may be something else you can do to save your job, especially if it is through discriminatory actions or unfair harassment. If you are not with a Union, contact a legal professional or an employment professional to find out your rights. Even if you are fired, you do have rights. And when you are fired, you still have rights. Have you been unfairly dismissed? You can make a claim if you have. You are also entitled to a settlement payout if you have been fired, so make sure you receive all your entitlements. If you can, find someone “friendly” to give you a good, written reference before you leave.

3. If you are not that happy where you are, update your resume and start looking for a new job. You might consider doing this anyway, particularly if your dismissal has been unpleasant and you have been awarded your job back again… you may find the “after” treatment not much of an improvement on the “before” treatment.

Written by Terri Levine, MCC, PCC, MS, CCC-SLP, the President of Comprehensive Coaching U - The Professional's Coach Training Program, a popular Master Certified personal and business Coach, sought after Public Speaker, and Author of bestseller, "Work Yourself Happy", "Coaching for an Extraordinary Life", "Create Your Ideal Body", and soon to be released "Stop Managing, Start Coaching". She can be contacted via the website http://www.ComprehensiveCoachingU.com or by telephone: 215-699-4949.

Bad Language Can Get You Fired

2008-05-18T11:12:00.001+07:00

With the economy threatening recession, a new survey suggests that cursing and cussing in the workplace are not likely to help your career. The survey shows that 36% of bosses in the U.S. have issued a formal warning, and 6% have actually fired an employee for swearing.

The survey of more than two thousand executives conducted by TheLadders.com, specialists in $100k+ jobs, also found that 81.2% of senior executives believe that working alongside a foul mouthed colleague in the office is unacceptable.

TheLadders.com survey looked at how seriously senior managers viewed manners and office etiquette in the current 'F' Word Culture. With 98.7% of survey respondents believing that there is such a thing as 'office etiquette', more than two thirds (69.7%) said that they would fire an employee for bad office manners. 82.4% said that they had given official warnings for making personal calls, talking loudly or wearing revealing clothing.

The top 5 causes for dismissing employees breaching office etiquette were:

1. Bad language (38.4%)
2. Excessive workplace gossip (36.5%)
3. Drinking on the job (35.2%)
4. Leaving the office without telling anyone (33.6%)
5. Too many personal calls (28%)

While more than four in five employees found swearing in the workplace unacceptable, the most offensive behavior in the office is stealing a colleague's food from the office refrigerator. No fewer than 97.8% of respondents said that fridge raiders were the worst possible offenders of workplace etiquette. The breaches of office etiquette most often cited by survey respondents featured:

* Eating someone else’s food from the fridge (97.8%)
* Bad hygiene (95.6%)
* Bad habits (88.2%)
* Drinking on the job (85.7%)
* Wastefulness with paper (82%)
* Swearing (81.2%)
* Cooking smelly food in the office microwave (74.1%)
* Sneaking peaks at the BlackBerry in meetings (63.5%)

According to Marc Cenedella, TheLadders.com's CEO and founder:

"Some argue that in the 21st century employers should move with the times and accept a more casual work environment. But employees beware, in every office there exists an invisible line between professional and unprofessional and it is very clear from our survey results that some common behaviors definitely cross the line."

www.hrmguide.com

Aging Workforces

2008-05-18T11:09:00.002+07:00

A survey by the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations (NAPEO) found that almost a third of small-business owners are creating 'knowledge transfer' plans - transferring key knowledge from older to younger workers - as a means of coping with the retirement of millions of baby boomers.

11% of the 400+ U.S. small business owners in the survey said they had fully established plans with a further 17% developing them.

Gene C. Wilson, president of PANTHEOS, a professional employer organization, comented:

"Small-business owners value their older workers and want to make sure the knowledge they’ve gained over the years is conveyed to younger workers now. In fact, small businesses are outpacing larger firms in planning."

The survey also found that more businesses are reporting that older employees are delaying retirement - 37% compared to 18% in 2007. The main reason is that they enjoy working but financial reasons also play a part.

According to Gene Wilson:

"An aging workforce is creating major changes across the nation, yet small businesses show they are ready. The NAPEO survey shows their great flexibility in the midst of these changes.

"The good news for small-business owners is a growing number of baby boomers are willing and able to continue working," Wilson added, pointing out that businesses with plans for older workers will have a strategic advantage over competitors caught unaware and unprepared.

"Business owners will want to hold onto good people, no matter what their age," said Wilson. "That’s why such a large percentage of them are formulating plans to proactively retain these older workers for their valued skills, knowledge and experience."
Accommodating Older Workers

More than one-third (34 per cent) of all American employers - and nearly half (46 per cent) with 25 000 or more workers - agree that the aging workforce will have a significant impact on their company. However, more than three-quarters (79 per cent) have not taken any steps to accommodate older workers, according to the MetLife Employee Benefits Trend Study conducted in 2006.

The study, based on separate surveys of employees and HR/benefits executives, found that 33 per cent of baby boomers (aged 41-60) have not yet decided when they plan to retire. More than half (58 per cent) of young baby boomers (aged 41-50) are worried that they will have to continue to work either full- or part-time to live comfortably during retirement and 61 per cent say that 'outliving retirement money' is their number one retirement-related fear. Fuelling these concerns is the fact that 27 per cent of baby boomers admit to being 'significantly behind' in their savings, and one in ten hasn't even started saving.

The MetLife study found that older workers are generally more satisfied with their jobs and more loyal to employers; 67 per cent of pre-retirees (aged 61-69) reported high levels of job satisfaction and 75 per cent indicated that they were very loyal to their employers. Comparative figures for all employees were 44 per cent and 46 per cent respectively. Pre-retirees are also more likely to report that benefits are an important reason they remain with their employer.

The study argues that companies must grapple with a host of benefits-related issues specific to aging employees. Senior management ranked 'health-care costs' as their top benefits-related concern (81 per cent). The impact of the aging workforce is especially significant for the largest companies. Roughly one-third of employers with 25 000 or more workers cited 'long-term care issues' (35 per cent) and 'benefits for retired employees' (44 per cent) as a key concern in 2006. Companies with fewer than 50 employees rated these as key concerns in only 14 per cent and 18 per cent of cases.

The study found that, in addition to protection products such as disability and long-term care insurance, older employees are increasingly turning to the workplace for financial planning advice. Currently over half (56 per cent) of pre-retirees are interested in having access to financial planners to help them make decisions about 401(k) money. In order to help employees address the needs of guaranteed income in retirement, nearly half (46 per cent) of the largest companies - and 31 per cent of companies with 500 or more employees - currently offer annuities through the workplace as an employee benefit.

Other key survey findings include:

* Longevity is a significant, but overlooked retirement risk. Many people will live up to 40 years in retirement, so ensuring a steady stream of income is crucial. While most (72 per cent) pre-retirees have tried to calculate how long their savings will need to last, only half (50 per cent) of baby boomers have taken steps to factor longevity into their retirement plans.
* The oldest baby boomers will reach traditional retirement age in five years time. Approximately one-quarter (26%) of all baby boomers do not allocate any of their monthly household income to retirement savings vehicles. As a result, 38 per cent expect to remain behind in their retirement savings five years from now. Equally concerning is the fact that employees aged 51-60, who only have a few years left to accumulate savings, are allocating, on average, only 10 per cent of their monthly household income to retirement savings products.
* Nearly half of all employees are worried about providing for their own (47 per cent) and their spouses' (49 per cent) long-term care needs. Long-term care insurance was ranked as their most valued benefit by 16 per cent of employees, doubling from 8 per cent in 2004. Long-term care insurance is offered by nearly half (46 per cent) of all companies and 81 per cent of companies with 25 000 or more employees.

Maria R. Morris, executive vice president, Institutional Business said:

"Over the next decade, the aging workforce will transform the way that both employers and employees think about work and retirement. With increases in longevity, many workers recognize that they may need to stay in the workforce longer to fund their retirement, which could last 30 years or more.

"Employers that make a long-term commitment to accommodate their older workers - not just through the physical environment or flexible work schedules, but by providing access to critical employee benefits that can protect an individual throughout their lifetime - will reap the benefits. Many older workers feel a strong sense of loyalty to their companies and expect the same in return. At a time when baby boomers are nearing retirement - and increased longevity is enabling many of them to work productively well into their 70s and 80s - older workers may prove to be the solution to the impending talent shortage. It's crucial for companies to identify a strategy for retaining trained, experienced workers and keeping them satisfied and engaged."

www.hrmguide.com

FINDING A JOB

2008-04-20T12:50:00.000+07:00

by ResumeEdge.com

You know exactly what kind of career you want. Your resume is perfect. You've forced your friends to spend hours asking you practice interview questions. Everything is in order - except you don't know how to go about finding the job openings.

The first step is to shift your networking skills into high gear. Start asking friends and family members to ask their co-workers, friends, hairdressers, optometrists, accountants, and other acquaintances if they've either heard of any available, relevant job openings, or if they know of someone to whom you ought to talk.

Another good way to make connections is to contact your college alumni office or career services center to see if either has a list of alumni who have volunteered to serve as mentors and contacts to young jobseekers.

Also, if you've held internships in the past, get in touch with your employers and co-workers from those experiences and ask if they can point you in the right direction.

While there's truth to the adage that the best jobs are never advertised, that doesn't mean you can't find a good job outside the networking realm:

* Check out Internet job listings.
* Go to trade websites for the career field in which you're interested. Often, occupations have professional associations with websites that include job listings. If you don't know the name of the association or trade organization that unifies your potential colleagues, do a search or ask someone in the field. Those websites are also an excellent way to cull contact names.
* Go to job fairs. You can usually find advertisements for job fairs in your local newspaper.
* Visit the websites of companies for which you would like to work. See if they have any job listings posted within the site.
* If you're interested in working for a medium- or large-sized company, call the human resources departments of potential employers and ask if they have any job openings.
* Read the classified section of the newspaper. If you want to relocate, find out what newspapers serve the places you'd like to live and then browse those papers' classified sections on the web.

The most important thing to remember is that the job search is often like a roller coaster ride. You might find some great opportunities, only to find that positions have been filled. And, in turn, you might investigate something you don't think you're interested in, only to strike a gold mine. The important thing is to keep you head up, and keep pushing forward. As long as you're persistent and patient, you will either find a good job, or you'll find a job that will serve as a transitional job that will open doors for you.

Determining Your Skills

2008-04-20T12:46:00.000+07:00

by ResumeEdge.com -

Job listings rarely read, "Wanted: Philosophy majors specializing in Socrates," or "Calling all English majors for top jobs at high-profile firm," or "Were you a history major? Earn six-figures for performing intellectually fulfilling work."

If you are a liberal arts major, targeting potential employers and marketing yourself may seem a monumental, if not impossible, task. You should have majored in electrical engineering, right?

Wrong. Sure, your technically-trained friends generally don't have much trouble determining which employers to target and how to showcase their tangible skill sets. But, with a savvy approach to getting a job, you are just as likely as a computer science major to find meaningful work. And, best of all, your liberal arts degree generally isn't limiting: You have the freedom to do nearly anything they want.

The first step is not to think of yourself in terms of your specific degree. Companies often do not hire students because of their specific degrees - instead they use job applicants' skills as criteria for filling positions. So, instead of asking, "What are good jobs for Romance Languages majors?" ask, "What are my passions and strengths? What skills do I have? What do I want to be doing in my job?"

The first step in responding to these questions is to honestly address what you love to do. What fascinates you? What do you find compelling and fulfilling? Once you've answered these questions, address what skills you can bring to the work place.

Your first response may be that after four years of college, your skills amount to doing close readings of King Lear and analyzing the socioeconomic implications of the Kennedy administration. However, according to Phyllis R. Stein, a career coach in the Boston area, liberal arts majors tend to have a lot of skills they don't even know they have. "It's not just that you took a Shakespeare class," Stein says. Instead, she explains, in that Shakespeare class you honed your researching skills, you learned to make coherent presentations, and you refined your ability to organize your thoughts in writing.

Stein adds that liberal arts majors generally have excellent administrative and management skills. They write well, they can think critically, they can analyze problems, and they can communicate well with co-workers. Liberal arts majors can work simultaneously with big picture concepts, and with the small details that fit into these large visions. They are also, she says, adept at adapting to the vocabulary of different occupational fields. For example, the jargon of marketing, law, and accounting is such that different words in each field often have similar definitions. Liberal arts majors are good at achieving fluency in many different occupational languages, simply by virtue of spending their undergraduate careers using terminology specific to English, philosophy, and history. This versatility is helpful to liberal arts majors as they tailor their resumes and job applications to prospective employers.

Also, when you assess your skills, don't forget the skills you gained from doing volunteer and extra-curricular work.

Self Assessment

2008-04-20T12:44:00.000+07:00

by ResumeEdge.com - The Net's Premier Resume Writing and Editing Service

To many recent college graduates, the most difficult part of finding a job does not involve formatting resumes, networking, and answering interview questions with panache. Instead, these tasks sound like a cakewalk compared to the seemingly monstrous exercise of figuring out what jobs to apply for in the first place.

However, according to Phyllis R. Stein, a Boston-area career coach, the process of figuring out the best career for you need not be overwhelming or mystical. "Trying to figure out where you're going is a very logical process," Stein says, likening it to following a cake recipe or methodically cleaning a car engine.

A common mistake Stein says she has noted in her clients is a tendency to assess the job market; pinpoint where the plentiful, lucrative jobs are; and then, without a second thought, direct their energies toward entering that field. The problem with that approach, however, is that a career in the hottest, trendiest field might be a terrible match for the jobseeker, and the choice to blindly enter a particular field can lead to unhappiness and a jarring career change later on.

Instead, Stein encourages her clients to devote themselves to figuring out their occupational callings before they even think about the job market. By divorcing the process of self-assessment from the reality of landing a job, Stein says her clients are better able to choose satisfying careers.

Stein's Recipe for Self-Assessment:

1. Accept that the self-assessment process is not instantaneous. Rather, Stein says one year is the average period her clients need to identify careers that match their personalities and desires. It's important not to get frustrated and to be patient! During the period of self-assessment, Stein says her clients often hold jobs that they don't want in the long-term so they can make money and meet their basic needs while they make important discoveries about what they ultimately want to do. Also, Stein warns he clients not to feel discouraged or overwhelmed by their peers who went straight from college to law school or medical school and who seem to have been born knowing they wanted to do with their lives. At any given point, Stein says the a quarter to a third of her clients are doctors and lawyers.

2. Decide what you want out of your job. Ask yourself what it is about a job that will make you excited to go to work every day. What do you want to get out of your work? Some answers might include prestige, power, control, money, a sense that you're helping others, and creative stimulation. Be sure to be honest with yourself instead of answering in terms of what you think you should say.

3. Make a list of the skills you will bring to your job. Think of everything you have to offer an employer. Are you a good writer? Can you make sound financial models? Do you have a good eye for design? Are you well-organized?

4. Make a list of skills you want gain from your job. What have you always wanted to learn how to do? Do you want a job that will hone your number-crunching skills? A job that will perfect your presentation and speaking skills? A job that will push you to learn a foreign a language?

5. Involve your friends and family in your brainstorming and list making. Share your lists with those close to you, and ask for feedback. The people around you who've heard you complain about your job and who've watched you do things you enjoy will likely have valuable insight into what you want out of a job, what skills you have, and what skills you want to gain.

6. Make a list of careers that match your discoveries thus far. Again, enlist your friends and family. Ask them what careers they think of when you mention your new-found criteria. Read job descriptions and see if you find occupations that either match your needs or that spur your thoughts about what careers you might like.

7. Read articles and books about the careers in which you're most interested. Through this process, you will eliminate some of the careers you thought were contenders. You will also gain a sense of why the remaining ones appeal to you. Usually, at this point, you would have three or four possible careers in mind. It is not a problem, Stein says, if those careers seem dissimilar or unrelated.

8. Conduct informational interviews . Use these meetings with seasoned professionals as an opportunity to further explore what it's like to work in a particular field.

9. Shadow others who have the kinds of jobs you think you might want. Stein says her clients often learn things about the day-to-day experience of certain careers that that they could not have learned anywhere but on the job. For example, Stein says she once had a client who thought she wanted to work in flower shop. However, after shadowing a local florist, the client crossed that job off her list because she didn't like that she would have to stand on cement floors all day and that the air temperature had to be uncomfortably chilly so that the flowers wouldn't wilt. Often, after shadowing a few different people in different careers, one career will rise to the surface as the best match.

10. Intern in the career field you think you've chosen. Through an internship, you will solidify your plans, and you will probably develop specific areas of interest within your career choice. Internships are also a great way to make contacts and meet potential employers.

Diversity

2008-04-09T14:27:00.000+07:00

Few Organizations Define Diversity

While organizations tend to believe that diversity in the workplace is important, only 30% have an agreed definition of 'diversity', according to a recent Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) report.

The 2007 State of Workplace Diversity Management Report is based on a year-long study on the status of diversity in the workplace conducted in partnership with the American Institute for Managing Diversity Inc. The survey included 993 human resource professionals and 330 diversity practitioners from a range of organizations, including publicly and privately owned companies, non-profits, and the education sector:

While the report states that there is evidence of more awareness of diversity in a general sense, managing diversity continues to be a challenge. Specifically, among other hurdles to diversity management, survey respondents emphasized that the field:

is not well-defined or understood
focuses too much on compliance, and
places too much emphasis on ethnicity and/or gender.
Frank McCloskey, survey contributor and vice president of diversity at Georgia Power said:

"The field is stuck, with little innovation in how we are tracking diversity. There is lack of discipline and understanding of what diversity means beyond race and gender or how success is being defined, or not being defined, by most corporate diversity and inclusion initiatives."

A survey of more than 1,400 HR professionals and diversity practitioners within the project asked them to evaluate the role of diversity practices in accomplishing specific business objectives:

Around half (52%) felt that to a 'large extent,' diversity practices create a work environment or culture that allows everyone to contribute all that they can to the organization.
To the same extent, 49% considered that diversity practices achieve appropriate representation of racial and ethnic groups.
48% believed that diversity practices enhance, to a large extent, the ability of people from different backgrounds to work together effectively.
Other significant findings in the report include:

Small companies - those with 99 or fewer workers - are least likely to have an official definition of diversity
Public/government organizations are more likely to define diversity than private non-profit and for-profit organizations
About 75% of HR professionals said that making full use of the workforve's diverse talents was strategically important to their organization. This group wanted greater emphasis on the positive relationship between diversity and business results.
SHRM President and CEO Susan R. Meisinger commented:

"Our research confirms that most organizations currently have diversity policies and practices in place. But, while policies mark a significant step forward, challenges remain."

Previous Article - Communicating workplace diversity a top priority
September 13 2003 - Research earlier this year for the New York Times Job Market showed that top managers at organizations with established workplace diversity programs support these initiatives by communicating them as:

- top priorities to employees (91%)
- top priorities to to their customers or the business community (73%)
- by funding diversity recruitment and retention initiatives (65%)

These findings came from telephone interviews with 500 hiring managers across the nation conducted by Beta Research Corporation to identify trends in workplace diversity. 350 diverse job seekers (74% African-American, 21% Hispanic and 4% Asian) were also surveyed through minority-focused websites.

They also found that nearly all hiring managers (92%) in businesses with diversity programs said that their senior managers strongly supported workplace diversity as a company goal with 72% saying that diversity initiatives were included in their company's business strategy.

Defining Diversity
More than half of hiring managers (55%) and two-thirds of job seekers (67%) said they defined diversity as a mixture of people of different backgrounds, races and cultures. When asked what ideas they associated with workplace diversity, hiring managers said:

Equal opportunity
Fairness
Inclusive culture
Affirmative action 93%
92%
76%
72%

While job seekers said:

Equal opportunity
Fairness
Inclusive culture
Affirmative action 95%
88%
54%
77%

Recruiting Diverse People
Two-thirds (67%) of organizations surveyed said they were actively recruiting diverse job candidates. Just over a quarter (27%) of hiring managers said that the attrition rate for their minority employees was higher than that of non-minority employees. 14% of hiring managers (14%) said their organizations had introduced retention programs that were specifically designed to retain minority employees. Their hiring practices included the following tactics:

Use referrals by current diverse employees
Advertise to brand their organization as diverse
Place help-wanted ads in publications targeting diverse groups
Reach out to associations representing diverse groups
Place help-wanted ads on Web sites targeting diverse groups
Sponsor and promote mentor programs for diverse employees
Sponsor and promote affinity groups for diverse employees
Target historically African-American or Hispanic universities 78%
62%
59%
55%
51%
42%
24%
22%

Minority job seekers said the following factors were important to them and found them to be helpful criteria when evaluating potential employers:

Company's support of work-life balance
Company's hiring/cultivating of diverse employees
Company's ranking on a "Best Places to Work" list
Strong mentor program
Company's sponsorship of affinity groups
Company's ranking on a "Best Place for Diverse Employees" list
70%
65%
49%
43%
40%
29%

Diversity Retention
When asked to identify specific initiatives that were very valuable to their organization's diversity retention efforts, 55% of hiring managers cited affinity groups as being very valuable and almost all employers (92%) said they used affinity groups to reach workplace solutions that were acceptable to all employees.

In businesses that actively recruit diverse candidates, most hiring managers say that their company:

directs efforts toward building a culture that is more inclusive of all employees' needs (88%)
generally supports work-life balance and overall flexibility (93%)
uses a diversity program as the first step toward creating such a culture (93%)
To measure the progress of diversity initiatives, hiring managers said they looked at their company's percentage of diverse talent in non-management positions (51%), management positions (21%), highest paid positions (15%), on the company's board of directors (11%) and total purchases from minority owned businesses (9%).

Impressive Titles Are More Than Cheap Rewards

2008-04-09T14:20:00.000+07:00

More and more organizations are doling out impressive-sounding job titles, many including superlatives such as 'chief'. One reason is to stop key executives from leaving, according to Michael Jalbert, president of MRINetwork, a major search and recruitment organization. But titles such as chief marketing officer, chief innovation officer, and chief risk officer also mark the extra responsibilities that CEOs are delegating to senior staff.

Michael Jalbert said:

"CEOs and presidents of companies realize that running a successful business requires an effective leadership team. Many top executives have more autonomy in the running of their departments than ever before. This results in a greater sense of ownership and fosters loyalty."

Jalbert considers that 'chief' titles are best used to signal strategically important issues in the organization. For example, banks often have a chief risk officer now to make sure that they are in compliance with laws governing accountability. And many businesses have a chief marketing officer to show the importance of customer acquisition. But organizations expect results in return for these titles.

"If the CMO can't deliver results fast enough - such as increase market share and improve brand awareness - they don't last long," said Jalbert.

Retaining top talent is a particular problem in organizations with flat structures. Inventing posts with prestige titles is one of the few options to keep employees happy in their careers. "Some of the more creative ‘chief' titles cater to the desire of up-and-coming managers to possess titles that reflect what they do. This generation of workers is unimpressed with traditional titles and impatient to get ahead. They're also willing to change jobs to get what they want," he said.

But 'title creep' can be counter-productive. Jobs that do not deliver on impressive titles repel rather than retain talent. "People can easily see through new titles that offer prestige in name only. If the job doesn't also bring added responsibility and recognition, employees can feel that they are being manipulated," said Jalbert, observing that the title "vice president" has become so common that it is almost meaningless.

"Meaningful recognition within the organization is critical," said Jalbert. "Mere titles won't suffice in the long term."

Celebrity CEOs
Executive titles, rewards and personal self-belief are inter-twined. Mathew Hayward of the University of Colorado at Boulder and co-authors Violina Rindova and Timothy Pollock of the R. H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland at College Park published an intriguing paper "Believing One's Own Press: The Causes and Consequences of CEO Celebrity,"in the July 2004 issue of Strategic Management Journal. In this paper they pointed to the unhealthy relationship between CEOs' belief in themselves and the way they were written up in the media. They argued that executives should not believe their own press bevcause it tended to become bad news for their organizations.

According to Mathew Hayward, who has since written a book on the same theme (Ego Check: Why Executive Hubris is Wrecking Companies and Careers and How to Avoid the Trap), journalists often create an inflated image of CEOs by attributing their organizations' positive performances solely to their CEOs' strategic actions. The trouble begins, said Hayward, when they start to believe the hype.

"What you have is journalists affecting the outcome of how businesses are run by affecting the CEO," Hayward said. "Once CEO celebrities are created, they tend to believe the hype and see themselves as invincible. I think this has greatly contributed to the CEO excesses we have seen over the past few years."

The public are fascinated by celebrities and perhaps the media is just giving the public what it wants, more celebrities. But Hayward says there's more to it than that:

"The public wants to believe that individuals are in control, so they happily accept these accounts as being true.

"When CEOs display idiosyncratic personal behavior in public, it becomes easier for journalists to provide accounts that bolster attributions of the firm's action to its CEO.

"By and large this is very dysfunctional for the company, because when CEOs buy into their own celebrity, they will tend to want to have the company revolve around them. Most notably they will want to continue the behavior and actions that got them on the magazine cover, which isn't necessarily good for the company."

Family Issues and Performance

2008-04-05T13:26:00.000+07:00

Concern for Family Issues May Boost Performance

Employee support programs are vulnerable to elimination in times of economic downturn due to bottom-line-only decisions according to Susan Lambert, Associate Professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago.

In a new book, Work and Life Integration: Organizational, Cultural and Individual Perspectives, co-edited by Susan Lambert and Ellen Ernst Kossek, Lambert argues that the business case for providing workers with supports for their personal lives is currently outdated and needs to be changed. "The field's quest to make a business case may have come at a cost," Lambert said. "Many early, formal employee supports largely operate as employer supports. They were designed to help workers keep their personal responsibilities from interfering with their job involvement and performance. The more time you spend with your children, the less time you're likely to have for your work."

Lambert considers that this attitude is slowly changing. In particular, a group of not-for-profit organizations concerned with work and family issues has begun to argue that the business case should be addressed at the bigger picture and move from "a narrow focus on short-term profitability to a longer-term strategy of investing in employee and community well-being."

For example, programs such as on-site day care have been offered and promoted by some businesses as a means to improve profitability by reducing employee absenteeism and turnover, said Lambert, who, along with doctoral student Elaine Waxman, also reports on research conducted in Chicago-area corporations in the book.

Still, a business case needs to be made for accommodating family interests when dealing with employees. Employers must group work-life policies with other human resource strategies that invest in workers, Lambert said.

Contributors to the book contend that firms should be reminded that they gain a competitive advantage when they pursue their profits through quality enhancement, rather than cost containment. In doing that, they need to discuss ways employees add value to service and production.

"Part of making the case for the importance of workers' contributions to firm success would be to highlight how lower-level workers are on the front lines of customer service and technological innovation," Lambert said. That position would show that firms gain competitive advantages when they design jobs that allow employees to add value to firms through their work.

Those changes provide the basis of broader policy improvements discussed in the book. Current research also shows that laws to improve situations for workers seeking to deal with family responsibilities have been ineffective. The Family and Medical Leave Act, which allows workers unpaid leave to care for newborn children or other family members with serious health problems, is available to workers at about 11 percent of the nation's work places and covers 55 percent of the work force.

Lambert and Waxman found that workers in lower-level jobs often do not receive sick or vacation time or employer-sponsored health insurance. "Thus, an important step in a new business case would be to focus on barriers to distributing supports that are available in many work places today, at least on the books," she said.

Lambert said employers who implement work-life policies and researchers should work together to develop a new understanding of the role of work-life issues. "It has been our experience that few employers systematically collect data to quantitatively or qualitatively evaluate the effectiveness of their work-life policies."

Longitudinal studies would help employers define the links between work and family life, and multi-method studies also could contribute to understanding the causes and outcomes of frictions between workers and the workplace, Lambert said.

Lambert added that in general, research in the work-life field needs to become more rigorous, so, for example, definitions of various terms have more consistent meanings, and so researchers look beyond two-income, married couples and their problems to examine the issues that affect low-income, single heads-of-households. Researchers also have focused a great deal on individuals and their family needs and not enough on the nature of work itself, she said. Work and Life Integration: Organizational, Cultural and Individual Perspectives is intended to overcome that problem.

"The book chapters help direct attention to the ways in which conditions of employment are critical to worker and family well-being, revealing multifaceted and reciprocal relationships," she said.

Lambert examined hospitality, transportation, retail and financial service jobs, and found a high degree of turnover and very limited opportunities for workers to organize their work life around family needs. She also found that in some workplaces, temporary workers fill lower-level jobs with low wages and few benefits. These temporary workers share the workload with regular employees who have job-related benefits. In general, employers often distinguish jobs by status rather than tasks, which is leading to increased stratification in the workplace, she said.

"Given the widening gap in well-being between citizens lodged at the top and the bottom of America's income distribution, it seems important to develop insights into how workplaces might play a role in diminishing inequality in those opportunities essential to balancing work and family life, and ultimately, to improving the well-being of workers, their families and communities," she said.

More FUN at Work

2008-04-05T13:24:00.000+07:00

Is it another fringe benefit for highly paid employees?

The best paid employees get the highest material benefits from working, but it also seems that they have the richest social lives.

A study published in a recent issue of the journal Social Science Quarterly found that highly paid workers were more likely to participate in social activities with co-workers. The highly paid also reported greater cohesion and solidarity among their colleagues.

"The social attractions of the workplace are strongest for those who are already rewarded with the biggest paychecks," said Randy Hodson, author of the study and professor of sociology at Ohio State University.

According to Hodson, highly-paid employees tend to have jobs with more freedom and autonomy in which they can interact with their co-workers and develop friendships. They are also more likely to work in teams in which interaction with others is both necessary and encouraged.

On the other hand, lower-paid workers - for example, those in manufacturing - are likely to spend more time working with things, rather than people, and may not have the time to interact with their colleagues.

The research was based on a detailed analysis of 124 book-length studies of employees in a variety of workplace settings. Occupations included meat packers, taxi drivers, lawyers, doctors and people from a wide range of other jobs.

Hodson and three graduate students organized and coded information from all of these books to measure the degree and type of social interaction at a variety of workplaces from around the world. Hodson was then able to build a data set that allowed quantitative, statistical comparisons of different workplaces and different kinds of employees.

Results suggest that when people develop friendships at work, it is because they enjoy their work and co-workers, said Hodson.

"It is the carrot of having an enjoyable and well-paid job that leads to rich social lives at work, not the stick of worrying about job loss," Hodson said. "But of course, only some people are offered the carrot."

It appeared that women tended to report less rich social lives at work than men. The researchers found that this was because men tended to have jobs that made workplace friendships more likely. When women had jobs in which social interaction with co-workers was common, they tended to report similar on-the-job social lives to their male colleagues.

According to Hodson this research suggests that for many highly paid workers, there is not a conflict in which they feel forced to spend time away from their families in order to be at work.

"For people who have well-paying, interesting jobs, the workplace is a positive attraction that provides meaning and fulfillment in their lives," Hodson said.

"The friendships and camaraderie they have with their co-workers is part of the appeal of work. For these lucky employees, the workplace is a strong competitor for their time with home and home life."

Workaholism, then, may be partly the result of employees who truly enjoy their work and co-workers, and not necessarily a result of fearing for their jobs, Hodson said.

The study was supported by the National Science Foundation.

How when Work and Familiy Conflict ?

2008-04-05T13:22:00.000+07:00

When Work and Family Conflict, Men Are More Likely Than Women to Leave Their Jobs

Male and female employees are confronted with conflicts between work and family but men who believe they have a heavy workload are more likely to leave their jobs than their female counterparts. This is the conclusion of a Texas A&M University study, conducted by Ann Huffman, a doctoral student in psychology; Dr. Stephanie Payne, a Texas A&M professor of psychology; and Carl Castro of Walter Reed Army Research Institute. Their study examined whether the time demands of a job and perception of workload affected male workers more than women - and if the differences were enough to make male, more than female employees, want to leave their jobs.

"The short answer is "yes," gender does make a difference," Huffman says.

Their finding was presented at the recent Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology's annual conference in Orlando.

"I think a lot of the time when people think about work-family conflict, they immediately think of female employees -- that they would be the ones to experience the conflict moreso than men, but that was not what we found," Payne says.

According to the researchers, men have significantly higher levels of 'work-family angst' than women. And men, more than women, believe that long working hours are detrimental to their personal time, are too time consuming and greater numbers would consider leaving their jobs, in comparison to women.

A partial explanation is that the two sexes have traditionally played different roles. Stephanie Payne says that women are traditionally committed to roles that support the family and although they may be expending a lot of time at work, they can still find the energy for family responsibilities.

Men, on the other hand, are more accustomed to the role of breadwinner and can find it difficult to adapt to increased demands of taking care of family and home, Payne explains.

Nevertheless, more men are being called upon to handle more family responsibilities, whether they are married with a working spouse and have children or they are single dads with child-care concerns, she notes.

"In terms of the way we think of men and women, and the roles they play, we're really not as far along as we would like to think we are when it comes to attitudes about gender," Huffman says.

"I think when women first started entering the workplace, they probably experienced work-family conflict during this transition, but now with things changing, men are going through this transition and experiencing the same type of conflict," she says.

Huffman notes that the workplace is changing in increasing magnitude, with men assuming more family responsibilities while women are taking a more active role in the workplace.

The potential impact of this one trend alone, she says, is something that more and more organizations are paying attention to. Forward-thinking organizations know employees facing serious work-family conflicts are likely to leave their jobs if the demands interfere too much with their family responsibilities.

Therefore, organizations are working to provide a healthy balance between work and personal life. In fact, one national study found 70 percent of workers are not satisfied with their work-family balance, and half of those people are considering looking for new jobs because of problems of coping with both personal life and work.

"It seems that organizations will have to take this changing demographic into consideration if they are going to keep their employees productive and happy," Huffman says.

"In this day and age, the boundaries between work and home are less defined," Payne says. "With beepers, cell phones and email people are expected to respond to work demands even when they are physically some place else. The boundaries of 'when am I at home and when am I at work' are less clear."

Senior Employees Worklife

2008-04-05T13:19:00.001+07:00

Most Senior Employees Never Stop Working

A recent poll of executives and professionals by MRINetwork, a major international search and recruitment organization found that the majority rarely stop working. Typically, they worked evenings, weekends, and during their commute. Many believed that their employers were responsible for creating the situations that lead to overwork.
70% of 500+ people surveyed said the organizations they worked for did not do a good job at fostering a work/life balance. 65% of participants in the poll were frequently still working after normal office hours, a further 19% worked 'sometimes', 9% occasionally. Only 5% said they never did so.

Michael Jalbert, president of MRINetwork, commented:

"They often feel they have no choice but to work as much as it takes to meet management's expectations. More enlightened managers, however, are beginning to realize that the X and Y generations are much more committed to forging a balanced life than the retiring baby boomers. This will inevitably lead to a reevaluation of the performance requirements of individual positions within many companies, especially as the younger generation moves into higher management levels."

"A number of factors influence the rising number of people whose work day extends far beyond the traditional hours," Michael Jalbert said. "Obviously technology that makes staying connected almost anywhere in the world effortless is a significant contributor. And for many people that's led to an almost compulsive need for 24/7 interaction."

He noted that many organizations were understaffed. "Most people simply have more work to do than they can accomplish in eight or even ten-hour days . In some cases, working overtime has masked the need to hire more mid-to-upper-level employees. If the work is getting done satisfactorily, senior management may not be aware of gaps in their workforce."

But many employees love what they do. "The greater their interest and commitment to the work they do, the more they seem to work - even when it's not required of them. To these people, the ability to stay connected to their work via a variety of technological devices is an asset rather than a liability."

Michael Jalbert notes that, especially for telecommuters, there is a blurring of the distinction between being 'at work' and 'off work'. "As much as employees value flexible work schedules, this arrangement can also encourage working more and playing less."
Setting Boundaries Between Work and Home

E-mail, text messaging and cellphones make it so easy to keep control of your work from home. But a study by Michigan researchers in 2003 found that people who integrate their work and family life are not always happier.

Ellen Kossek, a professor of Labor and Industrial Relations at MSU, found that people who create boundaries between work and family are actually more connected to their families than those who integrate their jobs and personal lives.

"We need to realize that it is OK to shut work out of our personal lives," said Kossek. "It's counter intuitive, but spending more time specifically on work may actually help you spend more quality time with your family."

Kossek and her collaborators - Professors Susan Eaton of Harvard University and Brenda Lautsch of Simon Fraser University - surveyed 95 supervisors and over 300 of their employees. They studied how separating or integrating work with family obligations impacted workers' happiness, time at work and performance. The survey revealed that managers who integrate tend to have more work and family conflict than those who separate.

"Work can take over our personal lives," said Kossek. "If you're working from the family computer in the middle of the family room, your kids see you at work and don't understand why you're physically there, but mentally you're someplace else."

"An easy way to begin to tell if you are an integrator or a separator is to ask, do you have one calendar or two? Do you have one key chain or two? Your ability to put up boundaries to your work and family may be able to help improve your happiness."

"If you must integrate, the best way to help your family is to have a separate door to the office," said Kossek.

It seems that some people are naturally more integrated in their style than separated. "Women managers, on the whole, are more likely to be integrators than men," said Kossek.

Integration or separation may have an impact on the amount of time an employee spends at work.

"All these technological time savers really end up taking more time," said Kossek, who found that on average people who worked from one office spent 43 hours per week at work, those in two places spent 45 hours per week at work and those working in three places spend an average of 52 hours per week at work a week.

"Counter to the popular perception of flexibility allowing people to excel in both their work and personal lives, employees who used portable work were rated lower in performance evaluations by their supervisors," said Kossek.

"Lower performance evaluations may actually be because supervisors do not know how to manage distance workers."

About EMAIL

2008-03-30T11:36:00.000+07:00

E-mail: Way to Gossip and Waste Time

A survey by MessageGate, Inc. has found that e-mail continues to be the most popular corporate workflow tool but that employees exercise poor judgment in its use, increasing costs and business or legal risks.

Shaun Wolfe, CEO of MessageGate said:

"E-mail has replaced the corporate water cooler as the way to gossip and waste time while on the clock; unfortunately, it's not nearly as visible. If an employee spent hours lingering around the water cooler, everyone would see and somebody would tell them to get back to work. Sitting at a desk and communicating via e-mail is not out of the ordinary, and there is less accountability because the boss can't tell if your e-mails are gossip or work."

MessageGate Activity Profiles (MAPs) provide companies with structured e-mail analysis of inbound, outbound and internal messages. The survey found that whatever the size and scope of the company, similar challenges are faced when dealing with e-mail.

These include:

As little as 20 per cent of internal e-mail may be work-related; the remaining 80 per cent consists of alerts, newsletters, forwards, spam and carbon copies.
Customers frequently include sensitive data (e.g. passwords) in e-mails meaning that companies must be alert to what is included in the reply.
E-mail is often treated like instant messaging and is used for lengthy personal conversations; a particular risk for companies that prohibit instant messaging software.
Employees frequently make accidental financial disclosures (e.g. on pending acquisitions).
Messages including more than three carbon-copied addresses generally are for information only.
Distribution of inappropriate images and videos from work accounts is common. The report points out that these are archived and identify the company source.
Many companies use social security numbers as employee ID and these are widely distributed over e-mail both internally and externally.
A typical internal e-mail is sent to two people on average, resulting in duplication and increased archive and storage costs.
The report argues that sharing these results with employees can increase awareness of relevant policies and practice. E-mail analysis can also reduce operational costs, and improve business processes as well as storage and retention.

Bradley Young, director of services for MessageGate commented:

"Quarterly MAPs are simple and provide a benchmark for companies to monitor and track improvements," said. "As employee awareness around e-mail policy increases, companies can adjust policies as appropriate. Over time, employees become more sophisticated with regards to e-mail and corporate risk and exposure is greatly reduced."

Related article
2003 E-mail Survey Reveals: One in Five Companies Has Fired an Employee for E-mail Abuse
June 24 2003 (Newstream) -- According to a new survey from the American Management Association, Clearswift, and The ePolicy Institute, 22% of companies have terminated an employee for e-mail infractions and e-mail users spend about 25% of the workday on e-mail. Over 1,100 US employers participated in the 2003 E-Mail Survey, a follow-up to an e-mail survey conducted by the American Management Association and ePolicy Institute in 2001.

The survey in detail revealed that 14% of respondents noted that their organization has been ordered by a court or regulatory body to produce employee e-mail an increase of 5% over 2001, when 9% of respondents reported employee e-mail had been subpoenaed.

The average respondent spends about 107 minutes (1 hour 47 minutes) on e-mail every day ... about 25% of the workday. While 24% report spending less than one hour, 31% spend more than two hours and 8% more than four hours.

76% of respondents say that they have lost time in the last year due to e-mail system problems. 35% estimate they lost only half a day, but 24% think they have lost more than two days.

"E-mail is a great communications tool but not without its shortcomings," said Ivan O'Sullivan, vice president at Clearswift. "These statistics reveal and solidify the idea that companies need to be proactive in understanding how to protect their confidential information assets and train employees how to maximize productive use of e-mail."

"Most employers drop the ball when it comes to educating employees about e-mail risks, rules, and responsibilities," said Nancy Flynn, co-author of E-Mail Rules: A Business Guide to Managing Policies, Security, and Legal Issues for E-Mail and Digital Communication (AMACOM Books 2003) and executive director of The ePolicy Institute, www.ePolicyInstituteChange.com. "While 75% of organizations have written e-mail policies in place, only 48% offer e-policy education to employees, and merely 27% offer e-mail retention/deletion training." said Flynn. On the upside, e-policy training has doubled since 2001, when 24% of companies offered e-policy education to employees.

"It's important for organizations to establish, educate and enforce e-mail policies and rules to control and understand their employee's use of e-mail. The legal issues inherent with use of e-mail are ever present as are the risks of lost productivity both from employee abuse and misuse," said Flynn.

Eighty-six percent of respondents agree that e-mail has made them more efficient, in spite of the fact that 92% receive spam mail at work. Fully 47% say spam constitutes more than 10% of all their e-mail; 7% report spam represents over 50% of all e-mail received.

According to the compiled data, in 2003, more than half (52%) of U.S. companies engage in some form of e-mail monitoring of employees and enforce e-mail policies with discipline or other methods. In fact, 22% of companies have terminated an employee for e-mail infractions.

The use of technology to monitor e-mail and control message content has increased since 2001, when 24% of respondents reported using software to conduct key word or key phrase searches of e-mail and/or computer files. In 2003, over 40% of employers report using software to control written e-mail content. Fully 88% couple software with education.

While 90% of employers have installed software to monitor incoming and outgoing e-mail, only 19% are using technology to monitor internal e-mail among employees.

"Management's failure to check internal e-mail is a potentially costly oversight," says Ivan O'Sullivan, Vice President of survey co-sponsor Clearswift. "Off-the-cuff, casual e-mail conversations among employees are exactly the type of messages that tend to trigger lawsuits, arm prosecutors with damaging evidence, and provide the media with embarrassing real-life disaster stories. The fact that 90% of respondents send and receive personal e-mail at work and 66% of companies lack a policy for deleting nonessential messages, compounds the problem," says O'Sullivan.

Clearswift, provides software that helps companies enforce email policies to stem the tide of email that can pose threats to organizations and slow down networks. Clearswift's products, EnterpriseSuite and MIMEsweeper help companies enforce policies to stop:

Inappropriate email that can lead to legal liability for harassment and discrimination
Loss of confidential information such as customer data, proprietary plans or intellectual property
Loss of network productivity resulting in network downtime from large email attachment, malicious viruses and executables
Lost employee productivity from spam, inappropriate web-surfing and online shopping
The survey was conducted to educate the marketplace on the importance of establishing epolicies, educating employees on the policy and enforcing the policies with software.

Adaptive Corporate Culture

2008-03-30T11:34:00.000+07:00

Adaptive Corporate Culture: Key to Financial Performance

A new study of Fortune 500 companies co-sponsored by Crawford International and HR.com shows that those with adaptive corporate cultures and strong leadership practices financially outperform those that do not.

The report, Leadership and Culture, states that only three out of ten strategic change programs produce the business value or financial return that company leaders expect. In a study of the financial performance of 94 large companies from 1995 to 2004, the researchers found that companies that create adaptive corporate cultures outperform companies with non-adaptive cultures by a factor of 900 to 1 as measured by long term net income and stock price growth.

Ric Roi, lead researcher and vice president, Crawford International, said:

"As we worked with corporations over the past 24 years, we came to recognize the importance of corporate culture and strong leadership in supporting business change and transformation. Clients that have an adaptive or agile corporate culture have historically thrived in the face of organizational change while those with non-adaptive cultures suffer through change."

Companies participating in this study reporting high levels of adaptability include 3M, Apple, Bank of America, Cisco Systems, Barclays, BMC, Hewlett Packard, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline and Intuit.

Larry Schnicker, director, HR development operations, Cisco Systems said:

"Cisco's unique and agile culture originates at the top with John Chambers as President and CEO. Cisco's core values have allowed our company to remain very agile in adapting cultural expectations to include the importance of Cisco as a career company, management as a profession, and talent development and movement."

Adaptive companies also tend to be more pioneering as evidenced by Cisco recently being named by Business Week as one of the top 30 most innovative companies in the world.

Debbie McGrath, CEO, HR.com said:

"If more corporations truly measured the value and impact of leadership and culture on their bottom lines, they would invest more in developing leaders and creating high performing cultures, instead of just paying lip service to it. At HR.com, we are committed to helping our 135 000 members share in the research we sponsored with Crawford so they can understand and realize the impact of great leadership and culture."

Corporate Culture and Change

2008-03-30T11:30:00.001+07:00

Research by Jennifer A. Howard-Grenville, a University of Oregon management professor in the Lundquist College of Business published in Organization Science and in "Corporate Culture and Environmental Practice: Making Change at a High-Technology Manufacturer" (Edward Elgar Publishing Inc.) considers the "tug of war" that can occur over innovation and argues that knowledge about past initiatives and the business culture of a target group are essential when promoting organizational change.

The findings are based on a nine-month study of a major U.S. semiconductor manufacturer (given the pseudonym Chipco) undertaken while the author was a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Located within a group targeting reduction of the organization's detrimental environmental impact, she observed interactions with a larger technology-development group, studied core organizational culture and change and conducted 26 interviews with employees who had been involved in previous issue-selling initiatives with varying degrees of success.

Jennifer Howard-Grenville explained:

"Research in the last 20 years had been based on interviews with successful issue sellers, focusing solely on what they did right. The studies hadn't given the arguments much context. Failures often were overlooked. I found that people who are looking to advance issues in an organization can do so by learning from failures of past efforts and of running up against core organizational culture. If group members learn from earlier experiences, they'll realize how to better craft their argument and portray an issue so that others in the dominant culture will understand what's at stake."

She continued:

"Issue-sellers must understand other people in an organization's various groups, in particular those being targeted to affect change. The way to get savvy is to build alliances, befriend those who know the culture. They may not share your passion or interest, but they may be able to help you understand another group's culture and levels of resistance."

The study found that the environmental group demonstrated a distinctive change in approach in order to get the attention of the technology-development group and gradually began to influence the design of new processes to incorporate concerns about environmental impact.

Jennifer Howard-Grenville commented:

"The issue-selling group wasn't successful until its members recognized that they needed to adapt their arguments to fit the cultural expectations of the technology group by showing and interpreting data in the language of development engineers. Environmental group members demonstrated their confidence by adopting an approach that said: 'You do measurements; we do measurements. Here's our data.' They portrayed their data in the language of the technology group, for example, in terms of equipment efficiency. They didn't just say that we need to pay attention to the environment."

Perception of Consultant Quality Trails That Old Permanent Staff

2008-03-18T11:53:00.001+07:00

A recent survey finds that hiring managers are twice as likely to rate their permanent staff as 'excellent' than they rate consultants.

The survey of 899 randomly selected U.S. hiring managers was conducted by Yoh, a unit of Day & Zimmermann. The hiring managers were selected from outside Yoh's customer base. The survey asked respondents to rate the quality of their permanent employees on a report card scale, on grades 'A' for 'excellent' to 'F' for 'failure.' 513 of the hiring managers who used consultants rated their quality on the same scale. The survey found that:

Only 15% of hiring managers rated their consultants as 'excellent.'
Around 30% of respondents rated their permanent employees as 'excellent.'
Almost 58% rated their consultants as 'above average' - 'A' or 'B' grades
83% graded permanent workers as 'A' or 'B' this year - compared to 80% last year.
'D' and 'F' ratings were similar for both groups - 7% for permanent employees, and 8% for consultants.
According to Yoh's press release, a number of factors cause hiring managers to rate their full-time employees higher than consulting staff. For example, a reluctance on the part of many organizations to 'fully invest in or integrate their consulting staff with permanent staff.' Inadequate investment and assimilation may then lead to:

less-than-ideal hires
inefficient teams
a divided work force, and
mediocre output.
Some organizations will move consultants into jobs for which they are not qualified in order to 'retain consulting head-count' - e.g. allocating a software engineer to user support after launching new technology. Yoh state that this 'unfairly sets up consultants to potentially fail in their new role.'

Yoh places consulting and permanent professionals in companies. Yoh's Vice President of Strategy and Marketing, Jim Lanzalotto, commented:

"Consulting talent is not a commodity, yet many employers and staffing firms continue to view it that way. Companies stand to achieve optimal results from both consulting and permanent staff if they understand their business needs, communicate those to a capable staffing partner, integrate teams and commit resources to finding and training quality consultants."

STRESS,CANCER and HIV

2008-03-18T11:50:00.000+07:00

Stress, Cancer And HIV
A review of research into the relationship between stress and disease commissioned by the Institute of Medicine and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has found that stress is a contributing factor particularly in triggering or worsening depression, cardiovascular disease and speeding progression of HIV/AIDS. Sheldon Cohen and Denise Janicki-Deverts both from Carnegie Mellon University, together with Gregory E. Miller of the University of British Columbia also considered underlying behavioral and biological mechanisms.

Sheldon Cohen, the Robert E. Doherty professor of psychology explained:

"The majority of people confronted with even traumatic events remain disease-free. Stress increases your risk of developing disease, but it doesn't mean that just because you are exposed to stressful events, you are going to get sick."

The authors found the strongest evidence came from research on depression, which found stress associated both with onset and relapse of the illness. Social stressors such as divorce and bereavement were particularly significant. They also found that depression is common among people who have been diagnosed with a serious illness and suggest that physical disease itself is stressful and can lead to depression. Chronic stress (such as that experienced at work) was found to contribute to cardiovascular illnesses such as coronary heart disease.

The authors concluded that studies on the relationship between stress and HIV/AIDS have produced less clear findings, but since 2000 have consistently demonstrated an association with progression of AIDS. They suggest this may be a result of complex and demanding drug treatments and could affect compliance. They also noted that autonomic nervous system changes caused by stress may influence virus replication.

The authors commented:

"Individuals differ with regard to rate of progression through the successive phases of HIV infection. Some remain asymptomatic for extended periods and respond well to medical treatment, whereas others progress rapidly to AIDS onset, and suffer numerous complications and opportunistic infections. Stress may account for some of this variability in HIV progression."

The authors suggest two possible pathways for the association between stress and disease: behavioral (such as lack of sleep, exercise, and treatment compliance, poor nutrition, increased smoking) and endocrinal (release of hormones that influence other biological processes, including the immune system).

The authors said:

"Effects of stress on regulation of immune and inflammatory processes have the potential to influence depression, infectious, autoimmune, and coronary artery disease, and at least some (e.g. viral) cancers."

They found inconsistent results in studies of the role of stress in cancer and highlight a number of difficulties in this field: delays in diagnosis; imprecision in measuring progression; an association may only be found in cancers influenced by sustained hormonal response and impaired immunity.

Sheldon Cohen concluded:

"We will need additional studies across a broader range of cancers before we can fairly evaluate the role of stress in cancer."

Cancer Beliefs
A survey of more than 6000 American adults published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention found that a substantial number held fatalistic beliefs about cancer and were more likely to ignore preventive advice concerning exercise, quitting smoking and healthy nutrition. The study analyzed data from the National Cancer Institute's Health Information National Trends Survey, the first for almost 20 years to assess knowledge about and attitudes toward cancer prevention.

Jeff Niederdeppe, Ph.D., professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison said:

"Many Americans seem to feel afraid and helpless in regards to cancer, which may be exacerbated by conflicting news reports and a general lack of education on the causes and prevention of cancer. They say 'well, there is nothing much you can do about it' and, as our survey shows, they indeed do nothing about it."

The survey asked participants for their response to three statements about cancer. About 47 per cent agreed that "It seems like almost everything causes cancer," while 27 per cent agreed that "There's not much people can do to lower their chances of getting cancer." Nearly three quarters (71.5 per cent) agreed that "There are so many recommendations about preventing cancer it's hard to know which ones to follow."

Respondents who held at least one of these beliefs were less likely to exercise weekly and eat five daily servings of fruits and vegetables. Those who believed that "it's hard to know which recommendations to follow" were more likely to smoke. The report explains that all three beliefs were associated with lower levels of education.

The report concludes that there has been little progress in changing the belief that "everything causes cancer" despite increased availability of information over the last 20 years. While not specifically investigating the impact of media coverage on fatalistic beliefs about cancer, the report suggests that constantly changing and sometimes conflicting messages may be contributing to public confusion and what is needed is simple, straightforward education about preventive measures.

Jeff Niederdeppe commented:

"Cancer is a difficult thing to talk about in the space of a single news story. Science values repetition, while the media values novelty. Those two concepts naturally butt heads, which can confuse people."

Work Related Stress and Coronary Heart Disease

2008-03-18T11:46:00.000+07:00

New research from Universite Laval's Faculty of Medicine published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has demonstrated that chronic job strain after a first heart attack may double the risk of suffering a second one.

Researchers explain that previous studies had confirmed a relationship between work-related stress and a first coronary heart disease (CHD) event, but the few studies conducted on the association with recurrent CHD were limited in scope and inconsistent in their findings.

Researchers led by Chantal Brisson followed a group of 972 people aged 35 to 59 who had suffered a heart attack. They were interviewed at six weeks, two and six years after returning to work concerning their health, lifestyle, socio-demographic status, and degree of work stress. A job was defined as stressful "if it combined high psychological demands (heavy workload, intense intellectual activity, and important time constraints) and little control over decision-making (lack of autonomy, creativity, and opportunities to use or develop skills)."

The study found that 124 participants suffered a second heart attack and 82 experienced unstable angina. People reporting high levels of work stress at six weeks and two years were twice as likely to suffer another CHD event. Researchers found that the risk remained the same after allowing for variables such as severity of the first heart attack, other health conditions, family history, lifestyle, socio-demographic status, personality, and other work-environment factors. They also found that job strain did not increase the probability of experiencing a second CHD event during the first two years.

Chantal Brisson commented:

"It makes sense on a biomedical level, since the pathological process at the source of the CHD requires some time before it can manifest itself."

The researchers conclude that these findings should alert employers to the need to protect people from potentially harmful situations when they return to work after a heart attack.

Chantal Brisson said:

"Employers and occupational health service professionals must find ways to modify the psychological demands of a job or the level of control over decision-making for people returning to work after a heart attack. It can be done, and encouraging autonomy, creativity, and the development of professional abilities in the workplace is not incompatible with a company's productivity."

The Secrets of Innovation

2008-02-27T11:18:00.000+07:00

Secrets of Innovation

Observations by Scott Berkun, author and innovator

Innovation is really not hard, says the author of The Myth’s of Innovation, Scott Berkun. You do not have to be a genius, a workaholic or carry and advanced degree in engineering. You just have to be able to create something new and useful.

The “new” part intimidates many would-be-inventors, who think that in order to innovate you have to introduce something the world has never seen before. That hardly ever happens, argues Berkun. Practically all great innovators borrowed and reused ideas from the past. Their inspiration usually came from careful observations how things already work: how birds fly, how “primitive” artists see the world, how fuels burn.

All these seemingly simple observations gave birth to powerful new inventions: the flying machines, new painting styles, devices that power and light our world. According to Berkun, the trick to innovation is to widen your perspective on what qualifies as new. An innovative idea should meet the needs that have not been met before, open new applications.But idea is only the beginning of the innovation. A successful innovation process, says Scott Berkun, should include three main elements: asking questions, experimenting, and self-reliance:

Scott Berkun is the author of the bestseller The Myths of Innovation (O’Reilly Media, Inc., 2007). He writes about creative thinking and innovation at http://www.scottberkun.com/.

The following information is excerpted from an article in the new January 2008 eJournal, The Next New Thing.

(begin byliner)

Secrets of Innovation

By Scott Berkun

The biggest secret of innovation is that anyone can do it. The reason is simple: It’s just not that hard. Look up the word “innovate” in any dictionary and see what it actually means, instead of what you think it means. You’ll find something like this: To innovate is “to introduce something new.” That’s it. It doesn’t say to you need to be a creative genius, a workaholic, or even have on clean underwear. It’s just three little words: introduce something new. And I promise that by the end of this essay, you’ll have all the secrets needed to do it yourself.

The key word in the definition is “new.” The common trap about newness is the assumption that new means something the universe has never seen before. This turns out to be the third most ridiculous assumption in the history of mankind (you’ll have to figure out the other two for yourself). Here’s proof: Name any great innovator, and I guarantee they borrowed and reused ideas from the past to make whatever it is they are famous for.

The Wright brothers, the inventors of powered flight in the United States, spent hours watching birds. As boring as it seems, we have bird-watching to thank for the supersonic jet planes we have today. Picasso’s development of cubism, one of the great artistic movements of the last two centuries, was heavily influenced by his exposure to African painting styles, as well as the work of an older French painter, Cezanne. And Thomas Edison did not create the concept of powered light: You’d have to talk to the thousands of people who died before Edison was born who turned wood, wax, oil, and other fuels into controllable and portable light sources (not to mention Joseph Swan, who patented the electric light before Edison).

Even in today’s high-technology world you can find easy connections between what we call “new” and ideas from the past. The World Wide Web and the Internet get their names from things thousands of years old. The first webs were made by spiders, and the first nets were used to catch fish by indigenous people around the world, thousands of years before the first computer. Google, the wonderful search tool, is often called a search engine, in reference to concepts of physical mechanics, not digital bits.

All these examples prove that the trick to innovation is to widen your perspective on what qualifies as new. As long as your idea, or your use of an existing idea, is new to the person you are creating it for, or applies an existing concept in a new way, you qualify as an innovator from their point of view, and that’s all that matters.

Even with these improved definitions, it takes more to make innovation happen. The tool kit of every innovator typically includes three things: questions, experiments, and self-reliance.

Step 1: Ask Questions

Innovation- Ask Question

2008-02-27T11:16:00.000+07:00

Step 1 : Ask Questions

Scott Berkun’s first step in innovation

The easiest place to start is with things you do every day. Simply ask: Who else does this, and how do they do it differently?

If you only know one way to do something, you’re making a big assumption. You’re betting that of the infinite ways there are to do it, the single one you know is the best. I’m a gambling man myself, but I wouldn’t make that bet, as those odds, one against infinity, are embarrassingly bad.

Even simple things like washing dishes or tying shoelaces have dozens or hundreds of alternative approaches in use by different people around the world. Those methods are all potential innovations for you and everyone you know. The problem is that someone has to go out of their way to find those alternatives and bring them back.

Not sure how to start? It’s with more questions. Useful questions for innovators include:

• Why is it done this way?

• Who started it and why?

• What alternatives did they consider, and what idea did their new idea replace?

• What are my, or my friend’s, biggest complaints with how we do this thing, and what changes might make it better?

• How is this done in other towns, countries, cultures, or eras of time?

• What different assumptions did they make or constraints did they have?

• How can I apply any of the above to what I do?

Many great innovators asked better questions than everyone else, and that’s part of why they were successful. It wasn’t genius, whatever that means, special top-secret brain exercises they did every morning, or even how much money they had. It was through the dedicated pursuit of answers to simple questions that they found ideas already in the world that might be of use.

Isaac Newton asked how could the force of gravity affect apples as well as the moon? And by framing the question that way, he made observations and developed mathematics related to gravity, something no one else had done to his level of satisfaction.

Many of Leonardo da Vinci’s inventions started with him asking the question: “How does water flow?” It was his many studies of rivers, streams, and the way water moved that led to his inventions for water-powered wheels, ways to move water in aqueducts and canals, and pumps for wells. Without asking questions and looking around, even at obvious everyday things like water and gravity, Newton’s and da Vinci’s creative talents would never have had a chance to surface.

Step 2: Try Things Yourself

Innovation-Try Things your self

2008-02-27T11:14:00.000+07:00

Step 2 :Try Things Yourself

Scott Berkun’s second step in innovation

Asking questions is one thing, but trying to answer them is another. There is no substitute for firsthand experience when creating things. The unique aspects of who you are, including qualities you may not like about yourself, are an asset when it comes to creative thinking. No one can see the world exactly the way that you do.

This means that if you can experience, watch, or make something yourself, you may discover lessons and make observations that other people failed to notice. Those observations are the seeds of innovation: You might see an old idea or tool in a way no one else in your family, business, or city has before, and if you follow it, an innovation might be yours.

Remember that the knowledge we have today about the universe did not come from magic books that have been sitting around waiting for us since the dawn of time. It came from curious people who not only asked questions, but followed them to places others weren’t willing to go.

Francis Crick and James Watson, the discoverers of DNA, followed hunches and made guesses to answer their questions, spending hours in labs doing things their professors thought were not only unscientific, but a giant waste of time. Even Socrates, the greatest philosopher of the Western world, was against the idea of writing things down in books. Had his pupil Plato not picked up on the innovation known as writing, and wrote down Socrates’s story himself, we wouldn’t know either of their names, much less the Socratic method for learning that many universities base their teachings on today.

Progress depends on people thinking independently and following their curiosity as far as they can, including doing things others around them refuse to try.

Innovation- Attempt, Learn, Attempt Again

2008-02-27T11:05:00.000+07:00

Step 3 :Attempt, Learn, Attempt Again

Scott Berkun’s third step in innovation

The last step is not to expect success the first time. If you’re doing something new for yourself or your friends, it’s hard to predict what the outcome will be. And the bigger the innovation the more risk -- and work -- there is: Making innovative cookies is one thing, but changing the way people think or work is another.

Since long hours of work might be required to satisfy your curiosity, what’s important is how you respond to failure.

Can you find the courage to respond not with embarrassment or regret, but with more questions:

• Why did this fail?

• What can I learn now?

• What will I do differently next time?

If you can, like most great inventors and creators throughout history did, you’ll be well on your way.

Work and Sleep

2008-02-25T15:46:00.001+07:00

Work And Sleep
September 25 2007 - Research from the University of Pennsylvania published in SLEEP has found that work time is the largest influence on how long an individual sleeps on both work and leisure days. The more hours worked the less sleep achieved.

Dr Mathias Basner analyzed a telephone survey of 47 731 respondents between 2003 and 2005 to the American Time Use Survey (a continuous study sponsored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau). The survey asked people how they had spent their time in the 24 hours up to 4.00am on the day interviewed.

Analysis revealed that the majority of waking activities were inversely related to sleep time. Compared to the average sleeper, respondents who slept up to 4.5 hours worked an average of 93 minutes more on weekdays and 118 minutes more on weekends and those who slept a minimum of 11.5 hours worked an average of 143 minutes less on weekdays and 71 minutes less on weekends. The report highlights expert recommendations that adults get seven-to-eight hours of sleep a night.

Mathias Basner said:

"These cross-sectional results in a nationally representative sample suggest that compensated work time is the most potent determinant of sleep time, in which case work time should be considered an important factor when evaluating the relationship between sleep time and morbidity and mortality."

Another key finding was that travel time (including commute to work) on both weekdays and weekends unexpectedly proved to be the second most significant factor after work time. The author suggests further research is indicated into how sleep time is affected by earlier starts and/or later returns as people travel longer distances or cope with inadequate transport infrastructure and traffic congestion. In addition little is known about the impact of non-commute travel on sleep time.

The study found that there was a moderate relationship between short sleep and time spent on socializing, relaxing and leisure. Respondents in this category also spent more time on education and household activities and those with very short sleep times spent more time watching TV. Waking activities decreased with increasing sleep time with the exception of watching TV.

The study found little difference between work and non-work days except that compared to respondents with average sleep times, short sleepers spent less time watching TV on weekends, and long sleepers spent less time on socializing, relaxing and leisure activities. The balance between sleep time and waking activities was influenced by age and gender. Work time was maximal for respondents aged 45-54 years; sleep time increased for younger and older age groups.

Working Life

2008-02-25T15:39:00.000+07:00

Working Life Under Labour

A recent report from The Work Foundation suggests that the Labour government merits "7 out of 10" for its impact on working life during the last 10 years. Authors Ian Brinkley, David Coats and Stephen Overell award this score for the government's "central achievement" in maintaining economic performance and low unemployment, while introducing reforms to secure greater justice in the workplace.

The report argues that while more action is needed especially in respect of enforcement of employee rights and to improve the quality of working life the environment is much improved. Some of the more pessimistic predictions about the future of work made in the 1990s have not come about. Less secure forms of employment (e.g. temporary, part-time) were increasing at that time. However, three-quarters of the 2.9 million jobs created between 1999 and 2006 were permanent and full-time. The current employment rate of 74.5 per cent is comparable to the highest ever achieved (76 per cent in the mid 1970s).

Specific improvements cited by the report include:

The National Minimum Wage introduced in April 1999 at an adult rate of only £3.60, it is now one of the highest in the world (and will increase to £5.52 in October 2007). Affecting about one million workers, 68 per cent of them women, it has "reduced the extent of low pay and improved the relative position of the working poor".
Flexible working, work-life balance and families: the availability of flexible working has increased significantly. The right to request this of employers was introduced in 2003. There has been an extension of maternity leave entitlements and paternity leave was introduced in April 2003. However, the authors highlight evidence of unmet demand, and compare greater availability in other European countries.
Working Time of more than 48 hours a week has declined, partly a result of the implementation of the Working Time Directive in 1998. This measure also introduced a minimum four week's paid leave to full-time workers (2.5 million saw an increase in their entitlement).
Trade unions: The Employment Relations Act 1999 introduced a statutory procedure for gaining recognition for collective bargaining, but trade union membership has not increased over the period.
The report also considers changes in work less directly influenced by political reform. For example, the trend towards decreasing job satisfaction appears to have been stemmed. However, the report describes the "bad jobs problem" - more monotonous, repetitive jobs than comparable economies, combined with workers' low sense of autonomy and control - as "the UK's most significant challenge" for the future.

David Coats, associate director of policy at The Work Foundation said:

"Work is one area of policy where Tony Blair's administrations have not only been extremely active over the last decade, but in which that activity has been for the better. The government has legislated to give workers a means of redress against some of the excesses of flexible labour markets - often in the face of resistance from employers - while simultaneously maintaining the dynamism of the economy.

"It is true that there is a legitimate concern about how well these rights are being enforced - especially among vulnerable groups of workers - and there may be a case for some further amendments to the law. Nevertheless, now the era of re-regulating the relationship between employers and employees appears to be at an end, Labour's workplace reforms can be seen not only as an ethical step forward, but perhaps also as a contribution to closing the productivity gap with other major economies as more employers are encouraged to abandon low-pay, low-skill, low-productivity business models."

Recruitment

2008-02-25T15:13:00.000+07:00

Recruitment Practices
A recent survey by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp - formerly HRI) in conjunction with HR.com has found that 75 per cent of 180 organizations responding either use or plan to use psychological assessment for executive selection and development. Over half (58.3 per cent) currently use such methods, a further 16.7 per cent are considering their implementation.

The survey also found that assessments are used most commonly for selection and development (66.4 per cent), and 51.8 per cent of organizations assess candidates for virtually all senior positions. More than half (52.2 per cent) utilize external psychologists to administer assessments, and almost all employ a mixture of tests and interviews (64.4 per cent) and/or comprehensive assessment centers (43.5 per cent).

Jay Jamrog, senior vice president, research at i4cp said:

"Organizations are placing an increased focus on the development and selection of key talent. Accurately identifying high-performing leaders is critically important when it comes to managing through change in an increasingly competitive global environment. The results of this survey clearly show that organizations are recognizing the demands placed on executives and are using the right tools to assess a leader's abilities to withstand the pressures of high-level jobs."

Motivation

2008-01-24T13:16:00.000+07:00

Financial Incentives May Not Motivate
by Jeffrey Pfeffer,Thomas D Dee /August 2007

Research by Jeffrey Pfeffer, Thomas D. Dee II professor of organizational behaviour at Stanford Graduate School of Business, published in The Conference Board Review and "What Were They Thinking?: Unconventional Wisdom About Management" (Harvard Business School Press) suggests that the common management practice of offering financial incentives as motivators can have the reverse effect.

Jeffrey Pfeffer said:

"Incentives should be used not to drive behavior but instead to provide recognition and to share the company's success with its employees. There are, unfortunately, few shortcuts in leadership-and using financial incentives to fix companies isn't one of them."

The study found that organizations increasingly have been using individual incentive pay with the intention of improving productivity and efficiency. It cites a salary survey by Hewitt Associates, the compensation and human resources consultancy, which found the percentage of companies offering at least one plan tying pay to performance rose from 51 per cent in 1991 to 77 per cent in 2003.

Jeffrey Pfeffer said organizations can be misguided if they use incentive pay based on the belief "that if employees were just compensated appropriately, virtually every organizational and management problem could be solved."

The report cites the author's own experience buying a car. When the salesman (paid by commission) was told he and his wife were not planning to make a purchase that afternoon he began ignoring them. They ended up buying from another dealership where more attentive salespeople "tried to build a customer-service culture and encourage dealer loyalty."

The author also cited the experience of city officials in Albuquerque who began paying garbage collection crews for eight hours of work irrespective of how long it took them to complete their routes in an attempt to cut overtime costs. Far from encouraging workers to finish the job quickly, some crews cut corners "missing pick-ups; speeding, which caused accidents; or driving to the dump with overloaded trucks, which led to fines".

Jeffrey Pfeffer also challenges the controversial practice of awarding stock option grants to top executives:

"There is evidence that the higher the option grants to senior executives, the more likely it is that their companies will have to subsequently restate their financial statements."

The author questions the common assumption that employees are motivated primarily by money and suggests that too much reliance has been placed on financial rewards. A supportive organizational culture can be just as important.

Jeffrey Pfeffer commented:

"You want rewards to be large enough to be noticed, and you want to use them to provide an occasion for celebration and recognition, to let the group come together and share successes and enjoy each other's companionship. But you certainly don't want to make the incentives so large that they begin to drive, and thereby distort, behavior."

"One can change a pay system or a set of financial rewards fairly quickly and easily. It is much harder to change organizational culture, people's mindsets and beliefs, their knowledge and skills, and how effectively they work and communicate with each other. Thus, financial incentives offer the mirage of a quick fix-and contemporary management seems to be enamored of that idea."

Women in Leadership

2008-01-24T12:56:00.000+07:00

Gender stereotyping a key barrier
by: Ilene H Lang (July 2007)

A new survey has found that gender stereotyping continues to be a key barrier to the advancement of women in corporate leadership and leaves women leaders with limited and conflicting options.

The Double-Bind Dilemma for Women in Leadership: Damned if You Do, Doomed if You Don't is the third in a series of reports examining the effects of gender stereotyping in the workplace by Catalyst, a non-profit organization working to advance opportunities for women and business. The study surveyed men and women business leaders in the US and Europe. Of 1231 participants, 296 were US senior managers and corporate leaders (168 women and 128 men) and 935 were European managers and senior managers (282 women and 653 men). The second part of the study provides qualitative analysis of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 13 women leaders in a large US corporation.

The report argues that gender stereotyping results in organizations routinely underestimating and underutilizing women's leadership talent. The 2006 Catalyst Census shows that while women make up over 50 per cent of management, professional and related occupations, only 15.6 per cent of Fortune 500 corporate officers and 14.6 per cent of Fortune 500 board directors are women.

Ilene H. Lang, Catalyst president said:

"When companies fail to acknowledge and address the impact of gender stereotypic bias, they lose out on top female talent. Ultimately, it's not women's leadership styles that need to change. Only when organizations take action to address the impact of gender stereotyping will they be able to capitalize on the `full deck' of talent."

The report highlights numerous previous studies demonstrating similar leadership styles in men and women. However, earlier research by Catalyst found that women business leaders faced persistent gender stereotyping frequently confronting them with double-bind "no-win" dilemmas not experienced by men. The current study found that men are still perceived as "default leaders" while women are considered "atypical leaders" and as violating accepted norms, irrespective of their leadership style.

The survey identifies three common dilemmas currently experienced by women business leaders, supported by comments from participants:

1. Extreme perceptions. Women business leaders are perceived as "never just right". Those who act in a manner consistent with gender stereotypes are considered too soft, those who go against them are considered too tough.

"My observations show senior women to be at either end of the spectrum, drivers that do it themselves (even though they might have given it to someone). This type tends to give little recognition and is a perfectionist. The others are very effective delegators, giving lots of recognition and building loyal teams, but can be perceived as 'not tough enough'" (US man, age 35-44, level not specified).
2. High competence threshold/lower rewards. Women leaders face higher standards than their male counterparts and receive less reward. Often they must work doubly hard to achieve the same level of recognition for the same level of work and "prove" they can lead.

"Men and women are seen differently, and the difference in my experience and observation is that we (women) need to show it more times before they believe it. With a woman, they will want to see the behaviour repeated more frequently before they will say that this is really part of the women (sic) and her capabilities" (European woman, high-potential manager).
3. Competent but disliked. Women exhibiting traditional leadership skills such as assertiveness tend to be seen as competent but not personable or well-liked. Those who adopt a more stereotypically feminine style are liked but not seen as having valued leadership skills.

"...it may just be that people are more sensitive to how women behave in that regard. There does seem to be a little more tolerance for harsh behavior from men rather than women. Women are quicker to get labeled, and with men, it's easier to brush it off..." (High-potential woman, US-based manager).

"I have experienced in the past that women can be distrusted in leadership roles, especially when they use a dominant style of communication. On the contrary, if they use a collaborative style serving their organization and empowering people, they get more recognition and sincere appreciation from their male equals" (Spanish man, age 31-35, middle management).

The report suggests that organizations need to develop strategies to remove the pervasive and damaging impact of gender stereotyping from the work environment to take advantage of the expanding pool of female leadership talent.

Ilene H. Lang explained:

"While women may address double-bind dilemmas with individual strategies this is clearly about organizations shifting their norms and culture to meet marketplace demands."

The report argues that education about how stereotyping works and holding individuals accountable can decrease the negative impact of gender bias. Actions that organizations can take include:

* Providing all employees with tools and resources to increase awareness of women leaders' skills and the effects of stereotypic perceptions.
* Assessing the work environment to identify ways in which women are at risk of stereotypic bias.
* Creating and implementing innovative work practices that target stereotypic bias; particularly effective when specific areas of risk, such as performance management procedures, are addressed.

The report suggests ways in which organizations can apply this knowledge:

* Managerial training and diversity education - educating managers and employees about the origin and consequences of bias, inconsistencies between values and actual behavior, and causes and effects of gender inequality in the workplace.
* Performance and evaluation management - employing objective and unambiguous evaluation criteria.

Business Success

2008-01-05T12:40:00.001+07:00

Common Barriers to Your Business Success by Shaun Kirk

I recently realized something that I consider to be relatively important and I wanted to share it with you. Over the past few years and I ve heard some interesting reasons as to what is holding a business down and keeping it from expanding. Ive heard things such as there is too much competition andtimes have changed and government regulations are the root of all evil and must be destroyedâ€ Ive heard them all.

As a business owner, I used to agree with these reasons quite a bit. When I first decided to learn how to better run my business I hired a consultant and I remember a particular conversation with her whereby she asked me something that I considered rather rude: she asked me why I was not successful. I was very surprised and somewhat angered that she asked me this directly. At first I didnt answer, I just kind of looked at her and shrugged my shoulders. So she asked me again, Why are you not as successful as you know you should be? I said I cant believe youve asked me that question. Ive paid you some money and youre insulting me?She laughed, but persisted and asked me the question again,So Shaun, tell me, why arent you as successful as you know you could be? I hate to say it but I then became really angry. I went on for about 15 minutes giving all the reasons why I couldnt be as successful as other business owners.

After blurting out all my reasons for failure, my consultant very calmly said to me, Im going to tell you something that might upset you. Are you ready? I said yes. She saidYour success or failure in your business is your own doing and as soon as you really understand that, youre on your way out of it.At that moment in my life it was more truth than Ive ever heard. It put me completely flat back into the chair. I said, Wow. So what do I do? She replied, Well show you what to do, but you have to change your mind about a few things. You have to change your mind fromI have all these reasons why I cannot be successful to I can and will be successful. So off we went and my business continued to expand from that point.

At the beginning of this article I mentioned that I had a bit of a revelation when I realized something. Now Im going to tell you what it is. After hearing very many business owners complaining about all the reasons why they arent doing well, I spotted this one very simple thing. They are paying attention to all the barriers to their success.

But what are the barriers? The barriers are nothing more than something that you consider will stop you. If you consider that you cant drive new business in your doors, youl have trouble with that. If you consider that you cant find good people, youll always look around and have a staff that youre never quite happy with, because you cant find good people. The truth is, you can find good people, but you consider that you cannot, so therefore you cannot.

My point is, I realized that all my past excuses and all the excuses Ive heard since from other business owners as to what is holding down the business are simply things that are considered or believed to be true. They are not physical barriers, such as a wall or something that you can touch they are things that you think will hold you back.

Sometimes what is holding you back is a fear of failing, and that fear of failing keeps you from starting anything or sticking your neck out so to speak. Sometimes what keeps you from doing well is thinking if you want anything done right you have to do it yourself Thats the hallmark of an overworked executive. With this thought in place you become exhausted and burn out while the other staff cut out early to go to a soccer game or something like that and dump the work on you.

The only barriers that are worth solving are the barriers that actually keep you from winning the game. If you arent sure what the game is, then you might consider any problem in your office significant enough to handle. This could be something such as having two staff members not getting along and you spending an afternoon trying to patch things up, when most likely if youd just throw them in a room theyd work it out and you could get back to solving the barriers that are in the way of your practice goals being achieved. A true barrier is something that you must confront fully and handle or you will never get to the next step.

About the Author

Shaun Kirk is Co-Founder of Measurable Solutions Inc., a consulting firm engaged in all areas of business management. Measurable Solutions trains entrepreneurs and executives how to be consultants to their own businesses, so they not only can expand their own business but any business. With his partner, Jeff F. Lee, he has built the most rapidly expanding company of its kind in the world. Visit his website at www.measurablesolutions.com.

Management Policies

2008-01-05T12:37:00.001+07:00

Workforce Management Policies to Keep Skilled People by Lucy Caudle

You might be able to attract people with high value skills through a well-presented ad. However, to keep them with you, your organization must have put in place workforce management policies that make these people want to continue with the organization.

The policies must fit in with the organization and the place where it is located. If the policies are incompatible with the existing organization and place, they are likely to remain just book policies that will not be implemented in their true spirit.

We look at some standard workforce management policies that can create an environment that make people want to remain with you.

Organizational Culture: We mentioned how the organizational environment affects the policies that can be implemented in their true spirit in an organization. You could consider creating an environment that would facilitate the development of your workforce into a cohesive team of achievers. Basically, what you try to do is to create an organizational culture where people tend to help each other rather than blame or hinder each other.

Induction Training: Help new employees to quickly become a productive member of your team through an effective induction process. Introduce them to other team members and help them absorb your organizational culture, and to become familiar with the ways of working in your organization.

Clear Goals and Roles: Develop job descriptions that indicate clearly what team role each employee should seek to play, and what goals the person should seek to achieve.

Goals Aligned to Higher Level Goals: Carefully align employee goals with the team goals, which are aligned with successively higher level goals culminating in overall company goals. That way, the employee would find it easy to contribute in a meaningful manner, and be rewarded accordingly.

Work Environment: Arrange workstations, facilities and tools that help employees perform without undue stress. Uncomfortable workstations, high noise levels, having to find needed tools yourself, and so on are stressful and make employees look for better places to work in.

Credible Performance Measurement and Reward Structure: One of the best motivating factors is being recognized and rewarded for good performance. The performance must be measured in a way that the employee can understand clearly. Good performance, which can also be measured in terms of contribution to team effectiveness, should be rewarded consistently and without discrimination.

Skills and Career Development Options: Each employee should be able to develop his or her skill, and a career development path should be open for his or her progress in the organization. A certification program can add to the attractiveness.

An Effective Mentoring Program: A mentoring program that helps each employee achieve personal and company objectives should supplement the above. The mentor would try to help the employee meet company expectations in a way that also meets personal expectations.

Conclusion

Carefully developed workforce management policies that would fit in with the organization and the place where it is located could pay high dividends. Your organization would then find it easier to attract the right kind of people, with the right skill set that you need. More importantly, you would find it possible to retain these skilled employees in your organization.

We looked at standard workforce management policies that can help you develop a highly motivated workforce in your organization.

About the Author

About author:
Lucy Caudle, Marketing at SMART, writes about the benefits of Workforce-Management-Policies

Social Responsibility

2008-01-05T12:36:00.005+07:00

What is Corporate Social Responsibility? by Steven Ross

Corporate social responsibility is no longer a buzzword, but a permanent concept in the business world.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been defined differently by many different organizations. For example:

1. Your commitment as a company to operate economically, socially and environmentally conscious while balancing the interests of your stockholders.

2. How you manage the processes in your business to impact society positively.

3. The different types of activities you engage in and resources you use to increase your profits without excessive use of deception or fraud.

4. A process of integrating social and environmental concerns into the operation of your business, while seeking a profit.

No matter the definition you choose, Corporate Social Responsibility iis all about taking into consideration the interest of society, environment, shareholders, employees and all other types of social relationships. This is more than just about staying within the law, as far as your obligations are concerned. It is above and beyond that.

For example, there are certain emission laws, as they relate to pollution, to protect the environment. However, many people argue that these laws are ridiculously low in their standards. As a company, you have to consider how much you're willing to pollute the environment, in order to secure a profit. What is the balance? You have to answer that to determine your own social responsibility.

Most people approach corporate social responsibility, as it relates to developing community projects, or aligning with beneficial causes. For example, there are many different businesses who align themselves with breast cancer awareness, to increase the awareness and to help secure funds for research. In this instance, they are using their good standing in the community, as well as their high traffic areas to exercise good social and ethical behavior.

In fact, there are many different Corporate Social Responsiblity standards that a business can comply to, if they want to start enforcing more social responsibility within the corporation. For example, there is Global Reporting Initiative's Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, social accountability international SA8000 standard, and Verite's Monitoring Guidelines.

In conclusion, I have given you some information on what corporate social responsibility is, and how it affects the business world. Use this to determine your own social responsibility within your corporation.

About the Author

Want to learn more about Business Ethics? Steven Ross has written many more fascinating articles at http://www.businessethicsreport.com Business Ethics

Management for Organizations

2008-01-05T12:36:00.003+07:00

The Key Importance of Workforce Management for Organizations by Lucy Caudle

Unless yours is a one-man organization, you achieve your organizational goals, to a smaller or greater degree, through a workforce. If that workforce is not productive, the efficiency of goals-achievement suffers and costs of achievement go up.

To some extent, productivity can be ensured through use of fear. However, in modern organizations operating in a competitive environment, fear is becoming less and less effective. Workers have increasing choices for selecting their employers.

This is particularly true of IT workforce with the specific kind of skills that your organization needs. You have not only to find people with the right skills but you also have to retain them. Both productivity and customer service can improve significantly if you are able to maintain a stable workforce.

It is in this context that workforce management has become a key management area these days.

What Is Workforce Management?

Workforce management seeks to develop a workforce consisting of happy and productive workers through:

* Good payroll and benefits packages and administration
* Best HR practices that help recruit and retain the right kind of workers with the right set of skills
* Training and developing the workers into a team with the right mix of skills and fitting in with the organizational culture
* Monitoring performance and rewarding good performers
* Forecasting requirements and developing career and succession plans to meet the requirements

While the above is the generally accepted view of workforce management, newer and specialized definitions have also developed. These specialized kinds of workforce management cater to the emerging needs of service organizations and call centers.

Workforce management software can help service organizations through:

* Forecasting work orders
* Planning the number of skills of technicians needed to service these work orders
* Planning the tools and vehicles needed for the servicing
* Scheduling the workers, tools and vehicles in an optimal manner using predefined rules
* Assigning work orders to particular technicians in each area

For call centers, workforce management software can:

* Forecast call volumes throughout the day
* Plan shifts in a customized manner
* Schedules workers by skills and experience
* Forecast seasonal changes in volumes
* Monitor performance

Workforce Management Contribution to Bottom Line

The diversity of skill sets required in modern IT departments make it critical that these be assessed and managed properly. Otherwise, the IT department would rather be a drag on the resources of the organization instead of being a contributor to its bottom line. There would be an imbalance in the demands and availability of specific IT skills.

Service organizations need to optimize the contribution of their workforce through scheduling and routing of their field service personnel. This scheduling is a complex exercise that needs to consider the skills, nearness to the service sites, availability of needed parts and other factors. It would need specialist workforce management software to handle this complexity in a reasonably satisfactory manner.

Conclusion

A workforce with right skill sets and experience can make a real contribution to achieving organizational objectives. With an increasingly competitive marketplace for skilled workers, only a highly effective workforce management could help organizations hire, develop and keep their skilled workforce. Workforce management software can help IT and service organizations optimize worker satisfaction and performance.

We will look at different aspects of workforce management in a series of articles.

About the Author

About author:
Lucy Caudle, Marketing at SMART, writes about the benefits of Workforce-Management-Overview

Business Ethics Training

2008-01-05T12:36:00.001+07:00

Business Ethics Training - Why Important? by Steven Ross

Many people wonder if business ethics is just a buzzword that has been tossed around lately, due to some of the aggressive business tactics we have seen them as we enter the 21st century. I assure you, it is here to stay. What needs to be done is for more people to brush up on their ethics, as they relate to business, to make sure they always operate with a high standard of moral conduct. In this article, I will discuss with you why business ethics training is important to help you with your business.

Business ethics training comes in two forms -- one for the employer and one for the employee. For the employer, a good sense of what type of ethics are required as a business owner is needed, because the owner is the one who makes all the final decisions. They need to be a good leader and a representative of somebody who has strong moral and ethical ideology, if they are going to expect the same from their employees.

For the employee, business ethics training is even more important. Especially for somebody who is new on the job. If you start early, and instill a good sense of ethical conduct within your employees, or as an employee cultivate these ethics within yourself, then you can be assured of working in a company that will not fall prey to deceptive practices and fraudulent processes.

It is important that you take the time to develop your own sound business ideology, as it relates to ethics. You must consider what is acceptable, and what is not, as far as business practices are concerned. On your own, you can only do so much. But, if you consult with professionals to help you design your own code of ethics, you will be that much better off.

Consider the facts -- every day there are certain ethical codes in business that are being violated, even by people who otherwise have been upright and outstanding citizens. How does this happen? How can a three to seemingly honest person one day do something stupid, and jeopardize the company, or even worse -- get thrown in jail?

It was because they did not have a well developed ethical business code, which you can receive with the proper business ethics training. So consider this type of training a valuable resource, if you want to build a strong solid foundation and business environment.

About the Author

Want to learn more about Business Ethics? Steven Ross has written many more fascinating articles at http://www.businessethicsreport.com Business Ethics

Workforce Planning

2008-01-05T12:35:00.005+07:00

Without Workforce Planning, Your Organization Could Become Extinct by Lucy Caudle

Workforce planning is a key workforce management step for long-term survival in a situation where workers are aging or leaving, and business environments are constantly changing.

You need to replace over aged workers and workers who leave. You also need to adapt to new business environments by getting people with needed skills.

Workforce Planning Goals

Existing workload determines current workforce levels. So the first step of workforce planning is to assess this workload, its skills set composition and location requirements. To assess this requirement, you answer the following questions:

* What kinds of skilled workers do you need to achieve your organizational purpose?
* How many persons with each kind of skill are needed to achieve targeted performance levels?
* Where would these persons be needed - geographically and departmentally?

Answering the above questions is only the starting point of workforce planning. A complete plan would also identify the strategies needed to get the people required to man your workforce, and to keep the people with you.

For the longer-term, you need to estimate:

* The number of workers who would retire or leave and have to be replaced
* Additional numbers of differently skilled persons who would have to be added to meet expansion needs
* Likely developments affecting your business and the likely changes in the number and composition of your workforce under the new environments

Workforce planning is a continuous process that needs to be updated as the requirements and forecasts change.

Implementing the Workforce Planning Process

The key requirement for successful workforce planning is to get your managers to understand the significance and key importance of workforce planning. Without their active involvement, you cannot expect to develop realistic plans that are affected by diverse factors.

Create a workforce planning team consisting of employees from different departments, with required knowledge and interests. Define the team's role and responsibilities.

Use modern software tools and planning systems to speed up the processes of data collection, analysis and generating preliminary plans. These can then be human-reviewed for fine-tuning.

Start carefully with a smaller scope, review the processes, get feedback and improve the effectiveness of workforce planning exercise.

In the case of large enterprises with geographically spread operations, the workforce planning exercise should be decentralized and the unit plans should be consolidated.

Workforce Recruitment and Development Strategies

Workforce planning is not just an exercise with numbers, though numbers are important. You have to look at the labor market and competitive conditions, and develop strategies to attract and retain the kind of workforce you need.

Think through the policies and practices you need to attract and retain talented people. Build your brand as a good place to work in. Create working conditions and a managerial culture that would make your people want to remain with you.

Spell these out and include them in your workforce plan.

Conclusion

For organizations to survive in the long term, they must be able to attract the right kind of talented persons and to keep them. Workforce planning helps you to assess your people needs, in both skill sets and numbers, and start developing and implementing strategies and policies to attract, develop and keep the kind of workforce you need.

About the Author

About author:
Lucy Caudle, Marketing at SMART, writes about the benefits of Workforce-Planning

Workforce Management

2008-01-05T12:35:00.003+07:00

Work-Life Balance and Workforce Management by Lucy Caudle

Individuals face demands on their time from work and life requirements. If they cannot balance the requirements, it could mean an unhealthy life or unemployment. Work-life balance has become an important topic of study and discussion because of its impact on public health and business results.

Public health is affected as high-pressure work demands can lead to stress-related illnesses. The situation is aggravated because work can affect the way one lives, and unhealthy life choices are all too common.

Business results are affected because stressed employees are poor performers and unhealthy life choices lead to greater incidence of sickness absences.

With both governments and businesses interested in the issue, work-life balance has indeed become a center of considerable attention.

How Work Can Affect Life

A healthy life requires attention to important life areas such as family, children, friends and hobbies. A high-pressure work situation and time spent on commuting can eat into the time available for workers to attend to these areas. As a result, these important areas tend to be neglected.

Job security has also suffered with changing trends in industry. Information technology and competitive pressures have led to the practical disappearance of the earlier phenomenon of lifetime employment with one employer.

Employees are generally looking for better opportunities while employers might be seeking ways to reduce costs by replacing employees. Both these lead to frequent job changes and even to re-locations, adding to the stress and pressures faced by employees.

Add to these the stress of constant technological changes and the need to learn new things, and you get a future-shocked generation.

Results of Unbalanced Work-Life Situations

Rise in workplace violence, increase in levels of absenteeism and rising trend of workmen's compensation claims have made employers keenly aware of the need to attend more to the work-life balance of their employees.

In the personal lives of employees, inadequate time for family life and parenting lead to marriage problems and a generation of children increasingly addicted to harmful substances and ways of life.

Pressures created by the work situation are also affecting health and sexual lives.

Achieving Better Work Life Balance

Personal ambitions, a consumerist culture, an emphasis on "work-ethic" to the neglect of personal lives and the time squeeze caused by the demands of work, commuting and personal affairs are all contributing to the upset work life balance.

Remedial measures need to focus on certain key areas, including in particular:

* Personal training to focus employee attention on the important things for a healthy life of fulfilling relationships
* Employers realizing the benefits of helping their employees find a work-life balance, through training programs, flexible working hours, and other measures

Studies have indicated that by allowing some degree of control for employees to choose when, where and how they work, employers can realize significant business benefits.

Conclusion

When demands of work leaves little time for important areas of life like family, children, friends and hobbies, work-life balance gets upset. The result can be felt in employee health, levels of stress, marriage, problem children, low work performance, absenteeism and so on.

Achieving better work life balance requires both employee training and employer orientation changes.

About the Author

About author:
Lucy Caudle, Marketing at SMART, writes about the benefits of Work-Life-Balance

Mind Control

2008-01-05T12:35:00.001+07:00

Using Irrational Belief as a Tool of Mind Control by sas_mc101articles

You'll find that most people are in some way irrational, even superstitious. They may be "superficially" superstitious and base their behaviors on things that have no basis in reality. They may be literally superstitious and think that some action or inaction will irrationally effect their desired results.

Uncovering someones irrational belief is easier that you might think. Simply observe and you'll see it. You can also test it out. What would happen if you could uncover their irrational belief and use it as a tool to drive their thoughts and actions? You would be using their "map" of the world to influence them. That's true mind control.

To influence someone in this way, it's important to just assume that people have some irrational fear, belief or superstition. Then uncovering those fears, beliefs and superstitions is all a matter of just observing and asking yourself "Does this persons response have a logical origin?" What you'll find is that answer is almost always "No."

Most people will in fact behave according to events based on automatic reactions that are completely irrational. They often do this because that reaction has worked for them in the past... sometimes only ONCE, but it's enough for them to conclude that it's the best response they have.

Other people will be more overt with their superstitions and demonstrate what Karl Jung called a "complex" in which strong emotions are triggered automatically as if they were programmed to respond this way by trauma. Guess what? It's very likely they were!

Begin to look at peoples behaviors and run them through the "irrational belief" filter and you'll see just how often this behavior occurs.

You can test it by simply asking their opinion in a "what would do" type of fashion. Most people love to believe that you value their opinions and will tell you eagerly.

To take advantage of this new information see what you can do to use it to influence them your way. You can do this by presenting them an two options one of which would trigger this irrational belief.

In most cases it's always best to only point out the irrational belief to them as a last resort of influencing them.

Regardless of how you use this new insight you'll always seem much wiser than you are if you act unaffected and "above it all" as if you are wise, compassionate and filled great wisdom based on a rich life experience.

About the Author

JK Ellis is a researcher and author on the field of <a href="http://mindcontrol101.com">mind control. He proposes that in itself mind control is neither good nor evil but a <a href="http://theforbiddenbook.com">tool that can and should be used for self improvement.
Submitted by: Super Article Submitter

Great Leadership

2008-01-05T12:34:00.005+07:00

How to Design a Great Leadership Team Off-site Meeting by Dan McCarthy

Taking a leadership team off-site for a few days is a great way to develop strategy, get creative, develop a team, learn, and re-invigorate a team. Here's a proven design method I've used:

1. What's the overall purpose of the meeting? To develop a 3 year strategy? Improve teamwork? Solve a big hairy problem? Sometimes it's a combination of a few things, but try to keep it to just a few. A great off-site agenda should not look like an extended staff meeting. This is an opportunity to take the time needed to strategize, brainstorm, debate, reflect, and learn.

2. What's the "desired outcomes"? Desired outcomes are a tangible set of deliverables that describe what a successful meeting would look like at the conclusion. Examples: "A list of 3-5 three year goals", "A shared vision", "a shared understanding of each other's concerns". Desired outcomes give you a target to shoot for and a way to evaluate the success of the meeting. It also helps drive the creation of the agenda - a way to screen out the clutter that everyone always seems to want to bolt on.

3. Determine participants and roles. Usually there's one meeting leader, participants, maybe a facilitator, and sometimes guests.

4. Do a "stakeholder assessment". Who are all the key stakeholders for this meeting and what would a "win" look like for them. Stakeholders may be attending the meeting or they may not. For example, the manager of the meeting leader is a key stakeholder. You won't be able to pleased all stakeholders but it helps to least be aware of their needs.

5. Consider the context. What's going on in the environment that may influence the participant's behavior, mindset, or participation? For example, is their a pending downsizing? A new team member? A restructuring?

6. Establish the dates. Three days is often ideal, two is OK, and anything more than four can turn into a death march.

7. Notify the participants - just have them hold the dates for now.

8. Select an overall "theme" for the meeting. The theme will emerge based on the purpose, desired outcomes, and context. The theme could be "Leading change", or "A winning team", or "playing to win". Having a central theme allows you to creatively tie all of the meeting elements together: agenda, venue, activities, gift, etc...

9. Find the right venue. Work with your corporate meeting planners, your meeting facilitator, or do your own search. Most resorts and hotels cater to corporate meetings and can help you select the best room, meals, and activities. You'll probably work with a conference planner. Make sure you specify AV needs, room set-up, meals and breaks, and any other details.

10. Begin to work on the key design elements. This is a creative process, where you begin to come up with ways to accomplish the desired outcomes. There could be teambuilding activities, strategy or problem solving sessions, training, and/or presentations.

11. Design the high level agenda. The pieces begin to fit together like a puzzle. I often write the key agenda pieces on post-its, and move them around until they begin to form a nice flow.

12. Confirm any outside speakers or other guests.

13. Develop the detailed agenda. For each major agenda segment, determine the what, who, how, when, and how long.

14. Select activities. Activities are a great way to informally build the team and keep the energy high. Pick activities that support your meeting purpose and theme.

15. Send a high level agenda to the participants and any invited guests, including all of the logistical information, including maps, dress code, pre-work, and any activities.

16. Select a parting gift - some kind of special memento that supports the theme and creates a lasting anchor for the experience.

17. Fine-tune the agenda, trouble-shooting potential snafus and making the inevitable last minute adjustments.

Once the meeting starts, be prepared to make adjustments. Things never go as planned, but if you follow these steps, you'll improve you chances of having a great leadership team off-site. Good luck!

For more advice and information on leadership and leadership development, please visit my blog at http://greatleadershipbydan.blogspot.com/

About the Author

I've been a practitioner in the field of leadership development for over 20 years. I'm currently the Manager of Leadership and Management Development at a leading provider of payroll and human resource services outsourcing.

Succession Planning

2008-01-05T12:34:00.003+07:00

Succession Planning by Louis Jordan

If you are a front-line sales person - How much time does your supervisor spend genuinely helping you develop an existing skill or learning a new one? How much time do you spend developing skills for your next position rather than the one you currently hold?

If you are supervising sales people - how much time do you spend making them better, rather than just focusing on getting them to hit their quota?

It can be difficult, and often, you will not receive the full support of your superiors, but, to build a great team and to improve your skills you must look long-term and develop today, the skills you will need, for the challenges of tomorrow.

Thinking of personal development as "Succession Planning" can be a great help. It forces us to view the bigger picture.

- Could my development have a positive impact on those around me?

- Can my growth come as a by-product of focusing on others?

- Can I improve my skills by developing those of my direct reports, or influencing growth in my colleagues?

The simple answer is yes.

If you are already in a leadership position you need to develop those around you to back-fill your position within the organization. What can often hold strong leaders back is their inability to develop their own replacements.

If your team's performance is important to your organization what is the benefit to that organization of promoting you away from your team? Unless they have confidence that the team's performance will be maintained after your departure they will be better off leaving you where you are and finding someone else for the promotion.

Again, your development today must be to prepare you for the challenges of tomorrow. Thinking of your development as Succession Planning ensures you are focusing on the right skills, for the right reasons.

Good luck and good hunting.

My colleagues and I hold Sales Leadership positions within some of America's largest and most successful companies and have complained, often, about the lack of good quality sites our sales people could visit for advice and sales tips.

So, we decided to build the type of site that we would like our sales people to use. It has integrity as its corner-stone and relies on real sales people, real sales leaders and industry experts for its content.

About the Author

Our goal is to provide honest recommendations on all aspects of sales and leadership, including: Sales Strategies, Selling and Leading with Integrity, Cold Calling

Competition

2008-01-05T12:34:00.001+07:00

Running a Productive Sales Team Meeting - Part Two by Louis Jordan

Knowledge leads to confidence and confidence leads to better performance. During your meetings your Team should strive to:

Know their customers better than anyone else

Know their products better than anyone else

Know their competition better than anyone else

I understand the amount of pressure many of you are under to attain quota and sales goals. I have also experienced the urges generated by that pressure to focus exclusively on the present, on the numbers.

Too often, in our attempts to keep our teams focused on "this month's quota", today's performance or to make sure we are not "keeping them out of the field" we simply fail to provide them with tools for tomorrow.

Do not take this the wrong way. Staying in the present, not clinging to past victories or worrying about future issues is essential for great sales people. But, you are no longer a sales person, you are now their leader and, as a result, you need to be looking toward the future for your team to ensure they are prepared for it.

As an example, take a moment to think about how Tiger Woods approaches his profession. When competing in a golf tournament, the only thing he thinks about is his current shot. He never worries about what happened on a previous hole, or concerns himself with what will happen later in the round.

He is focused exclusively on the present.

He can only focus on the present because during his practice times he is able to learn from past experiences and look forward to future challenges.

He will work on specific shots for specific holes on specific golf courses he is scheduled to play in the future. So that when he reaches that hole he has already hit the shot hundreds of times and has complete confidence in his swing.

During his practice time he will also focus on areas of his game that he feels need improvement - thinking back to where he dropped shots in previous rounds. How he practices, and the fact that he does actually practice, allows him to fully focus on the present when competing - he is confident that he is prepared for anything, so he can relax, he can focus and execute his plan.

As their leader you MUST create an environment during meetings that allows your sales reps to become confident, prepared and relaxed, so they can focus and execute their plan.

One of the best tools I have used with my teams to increase their knowledge is a short quiz. Often referred to as the "dirty dozen", it contains twelve questions about products/policies, customers and competitors.

The team is given ten minutes to complete the quiz, in silence, so they are forced to think for themselves. Upon completion I would call on each member of the team to read a question and provide an answer. If you are animated about the answers, whether right or wrong your team will join in the fun and start calling on each other.

If you have a member of your team who struggles with policies or keeping up with current products, assign them to produce the quiz for a few weeks. You will quickly see an improvement in their knowledge, confidence and performance. If you announce that the person with the lowest score produces the following weeks quiz the level of competiveness increases and the whole concept takes off.

But, be consistent - if you decide to institute a quiz you need to have it on your agenda for every meeting, you should not cancel it because you are struggling for numbers. This is a tool for tomorrow's business. Do not sacrifice it because you are concerned about today.

For more information on this subject, and others like it, please join us at http://www.integrity-sales-leadership.com/Effective-meetings.html

Our goal is to provide honest recommendations on all aspects of sales and leadership, including: Sales Strategies, Selling and Leading with Integrity, Cold Calling, Telemarketing

About the Author

My colleagues and I hold Sales Leadership positions within some of America's largest and most successful companies and have complained, often, about the lack of good quality sites our sales people could visit for advice and sales tips.

So, we decided to build the type of site that we would like our sales people to use. It has integrity as its corner-stone and relies on real sales people, real sales leaders and industry experts for its content.

Productive Sales

2008-01-05T12:33:00.005+07:00

Sales Management

2008-01-05T12:33:00.003+07:00

Effective Sales Management - Using Competition by Louis Jordan

This article is closely associated with the articles titled "Running a productive sales-team meeting" because much of the competitive spirit needs to be generated during those staff meetings.

Competition can breathe life into any sales organization and is an essential element for sustainable growth. What is often overlooked, though, is how competition, if managed incorrectly, can lead to both successful reps and innovative managers holding onto their best-practices.

If this hoarding of information continues unabated the gap between the productive and non-productive employees widens. As the gap widens jealousy and resentment increases and any chance of cooperation is lost.

As the leader of a team, channel or organization it is your responsibility to force the issue and demand that all best-practices are shared and, as importantly, implemented.

The best sales people tend to be perceived as being selfish and having no interest in helping those around them. In my experience, this is not always the case.

Great sales people are like great athletes, they relish being challenged, especially if they will receive public recognition for meeting that challenge.

To better understand this take a moment to think through why recognizing performance can be such a powerful tool:

1. Targets are set.

2. The top sales people exceed their target.

3. Those employees receive public recognition.

4. The employees recognized thrive in the spotlight and enjoy being held as an example to their co-workers. They become determined to repeat their success to receive further recognition.

5. A large number of those who were not recognized become determined to be one of the sales people recognized next time - whether next month, quarter or year.

It is the deep desire for recognition, acknowledgment and acceptance craved by so many sales people that needs to be used to drive them to share their skills and to help develop those around them.

A few comments on a conference call or a few lines on an email can herald a new initiative or idea from one of your employees.

Take the time to think how best to position the message, give the person who developed the best-practice a chance describe how he/she has used it - this puts pressure on him/her to truly share and will quicken adoption of the initiative by his/her peers.

It only takes a handful of these instances to get the competitive juices flowing and suddenly you start to receive a regular flow of information which can then be shared with your entire organization.

The next step is to inspect which employees are actually using the new initiatives. Unfortunately, ego can often get in the way of using an idea or best-practice from a peer. You must force all leaders within your organization to understand how much more they could sell, how much more they could earn and how much easier they job will be if they become open to adopting ideas from their peers without prejudice.

To read more about this subject please join us at http://www.integrity-sales-leadership.com

Our goal is to provide honest recommendations on all aspects of sales and leadership, including: Sales Strategies, Selling and Leading with Integrity, Cold Calling, Telemarketing

About the Author

My colleagues and I hold Sales Leadership positions within some of America's largest and most successful companies and have complained, often, about the lack of good quality sites our sales people could visit for advice and sales tips.

So, we decided to build the type of site that we would like our sales people to use. It has integrity as its corner-stone and relies on real sales people, real sales leaders and industry experts for its content.

Sales Team

2008-01-05T12:33:00.001+07:00

Changing The Behavior Of Your Sales Team by Louis Jordan

Many sales people will not make changes unless they are made to feel uncomfortable.

EXAMPLE - If your team feels comfortable forecasting numbers below their quota, or reporting numbers below their forecast they will continue to do so. Unfortunately, that means you must be able, when necessary, to make them feel so uncomfortable that they would rather do anything other than report bad numbers. They must feel that doing the hard work, or prospecting, or telemarketing etc, is the more comfortable option.

If you have something to say to an employee, say it. If you just attended an appointment with them and they did something that you did not like just tell them. The same integrity and honesty you have coached them to use and elicit from their customers must be uppermost in your coaching of them.

If you know they will be disheartened or disappointed with your feedback use that to your advantage. You will probably have a temptation to make them feel better. That is exactly the wrong thing to do, at least initially. Most people only make changes when they feel a certain level of discomfort - how can you make them feel that discomfort if you start the coaching session by telling them how good they are at a different aspect of their job?

You should be coaching them to bottom-line the conversations they have with their customers, to get to the point, to ensure they set the tone for the relationship. Their one-on-one or coaching session needs to be conducted in an identical manner - it is the most effective way to make your point and can be used as an example of how they should be interacting with their customers.

Let us, for sake of argument, say you need to explain that they talked all over the customer and failed to use their ears and mouth in the ratio they have been provided on their head. Above anything else avoid starting the conversation off by trying to make them feel comfortable - "John, the agenda you set was very good, you got there on time, you sounded professional and ended the meeting well". The entire time you are trying to make yourself feel better about the coaching you need to deliver AND MAKE NO MISTAKE, YOU ARE TRYING TO MAKE YOURSELF FEEL BETTER, John is thinking "Okay, it must be bad if he waffling this much before telling me what I did wrong".

If there is no way I can convince to completely do away with the "touchy feely" comments, then at least put them at the end of your meeting. In the same way all sales meetings must always start with the "numbers" coaching sessions must start with the reason for the coaching.

Trust me, and please learn from my mistakes, doing it any other way simply dilutes the coaching. Your employee must leave the session with a clear understanding of what happened, what could have been done better and some tips on how to do it better next time. They should fully understand how making the change will help them sell more, they must feel grateful for your honesty and - where necessary, must feel that no matter how hard it may be for them to change it is a lot more desirable than having to explain to you why they have not made the change.

To read more about this subject please join us at http://www.integrity-sales-leadership.com

Our goal is to provide honest recommendations on all aspects of sales and leadership, including: Sales Strategies, Selling and Leading with Integrity, Cold Calling, Telemarketing

About the Author

My colleagues and I hold Sales Leadership positions within some of America's largest and most successful companies and have complained, often, about the lack of good quality sites our sales people could visit for advice and sales tips.

So, we decided to build the type of site that we would like our sales people to use. It has integrity as its corner-stone and relies on real sales people, real sales leaders and industry experts for its content.

Team Meeting

2008-01-05T12:32:00.003+07:00

Running A Productive Sales Team Meeting by Louis Jordan

A well run sales meeting can have an incredible impact on the confidence and development of your team. Conversely, badly run meetings will under-mine your leadership and retard the growth of your team.

It is possible to influence your employees simply by how you conduct a sales meeting - this is a much subtler method of coaching, as subliminal messages are to advertising and - if done correctly - as effective.

The structure, poise, professionalism and candor required for a great sales appointment must also be present in a great sales meeting. So, by running great meetings you are providing your team with a real-life example of how to run great appointments.

Your ability to create an environment that is receptive to this type of meeting is the first step in your team's growth.

The general rules for a successful meeting are:

Be consistent - with time, place and content.

Be prepared - spend time developing the content of the meeting and use an agenda.

Be concise - Be selective in your agenda items, if you can accomplish your goals in thirty minutes then do so.

Be respectful - avoid last minute changes, last minute cancelations or not being prepared. Never keep them waiting for you.

Be creative - Bring new ideas to the table as often as possible.

Be empowering - Give your employees opportunities to develop content and/or present to the group.

Be demanding - Demand that each member of the team becomes fully engaged in the meeting, to be prepared, to be on time, to know their business and to be positive.

In the second article on this subject we will review using meetings to increase your team's knowledge and confidence.

For more information about this subject, please join us at http://www.integrity-sales-leadership.com/Effective-meetings.html

Our goal is to provide honest recommendations on all aspects of sales and leadership, including: Sales Strategies, Selling and Leading with Integrity, Cold Calling, Telemarketing

About the Author

So, we decided to build the type of site that we would like our sales people to use. It has integrity as its corner-stone and relies on real sales people, real sales leaders and industry experts for its content.

Our goal is to provide honest recommendations on all aspects of sales and leadership, including:

Leadership Development

2008-01-05T12:32:00.001+07:00

6 Ways to Measure the Effectiveness of a Leadership Development Program by Dan McCarthy
Much has been written about the importance of measuring the impact of leadership development programs or systems. Over the years I ve been looking for practical, meaningful, and effective metrics. Heres what Ive settled on for now, and although Im not completely satisfied with any single measure, a combination of these should give you a pretty good dashboard.

1. Company performance. The ultimate measure, nothing else really matters. In most cases, consistent great company performance can usually be attributed to great leadership. And of course, lousy leadership is usually the root cause of business failures.

2. External perception of leadership. External perception can be measured by awards, such as CEO Magazine œBest Companies for Leadersand hundreds of individual leadership awards (CEO of the Year, CIO of the year, CFO of the Year, etc).

3. Internal perception of leadership. Internal perception can be measured in two ways. First, if you are using 360 leadership assessments, you can maintain an aggregate score of a singleoverall effectiveness question, or run a report that aggregates the average score for all questions. Second, you can pull questions out of your annual employee survey pertaining to leadership and look for year over year improvement. You can also compare your leaders to other companies if youre using questions provided by a third party vendor, such as Gallop or the Leadership Practices Inventory.

4. Succession planning measures. Keep tract of the number of key positions filled by internal candidates or the number of â€œready now candidates for each key positions (bench strength). Individual Development Plan (IDP) progress or completion. Track the completion of development activity for key leaders and succession candidate pools.

5. Leadership development training measures. Use the basic Kirkpatrick measures, satisfaction, knowledge, behavior change, and business results. Easier said than done for the last one, but it works in some cases. For example, you would expect a decrease in turnover and improvement in sales after the implementation of a successful sales manger hiring or coaching program.

6. Finally, the easiest measure and perhaps the one that has the biggest impact on your funding and career opportunities: ask your key stakeholders. Regular meetings with your top executives and other key stakeholders will ensure youre efforts are hitting the mark. These meetings are a great way to continuously assess current and future needs, communicate your accomplishments, and check for satisfaction

For more on leadership and leadership development, visit my blog at: http://greatleadershipbydan.blogspot.com/

About the Author

Ihave been a practitioner in the field of leadership development for over 20 years. Im currently the Manager of Leadership and Management Development at a leading provider of payroll and human resource services outsourcing.

Gemstones On The Internet

2007-12-12T17:15:00.001+07:00

So, you've been looking to purchase a quality gemstone on the internet and you need some help determining what characteristics you should be looking for in a quality gem. This article is intended as a resource to help guide you through a successful gemstone purchase by avoiding many of the common pitfalls that some consumers become entangled. These pitfalls can often leave a sour taste in your mouth and make you a little head- shy about purchasing gems of various types online.

I am aware that many people have had bad previous gemstone purchasing experiences, and some, in my opinion, were downright awful. The common themes in their communications include:

*Didn't really "know" the seller as good as I should have before purchasing my gemstone...

*Color in hand was significantly different than the gemstone image shown online...

*Didn't read the "fine print" regarding my gemstone purchase...

*Wanted to return the gemstone and the seller charged a hefty re- stocking fee...

*Didn't understand the importance of clarity,tone, hue and saturation before making my gemstone purchase...

And the list goes on and on... If you have notbeen through an experience like this, either you're a really web-savvy consumer or you have just been plain lucky. Many gemstone consumers have thrown a lot of their hard-earned dollars into gemstones that are of significantly less value than the money they have spent. This is unfortunate for them and quite disappointing to the "good guys" within the gemstone industry.

How many times have you wanted to know that you are making the correct assessment of a potential acquisition? I have been asked this question frequently and I am amazed that a large percentage of consumers simply do not do the necessary homework before making a buying decision. Certainly not due to the lack of credible resources that are available to the consumer, many people simply let the "want" of an immediate purchase get ahead of their good judgment. Proceed with caution is always the best place to begin.

Let's start with a generic list of things to consider in the process of making a gemstone purchase. The "generic list" includes such items as the "5 W's," namely, Who, What, Where, Why, When. If your inquiry covers several or even all of these questions, you have made a good start in obtaining the necessary information you need in making a wise purchasing decision on your next gemstone.

The Gemstone "Who" and "Where"

Who you are considering doing business with and where they are located can tell you much about a gemstone retailer. Is the gemstone retailer headquartered domestically or are they a foreign company with an online presence? This fact is generally known/disclosed at the time you make payment, but not always. The whole foreign vs. domestic issue is worthy of another discussion altogether, but you need to decide in your own mind what you're most comfortable with. Some foreign companies use a domestic mail drop to ship their gemstones. On the surface, they appear to be a domestic company, which would willingly submit to FTC rules and regulations, many of which protect you as the consumer, but some foreign companies couldn't care less about these guidelines. So, it never hurts to ask the question. This will help you to avoid the smoke-and-mirrors game that many foreign sellers implement in their marketing strategy. I know of one company, in particular, marketing gemstones that has many concurrent reincarnations, as I like to call them, on the internet at the same time. They have many websites, all with different looks, and sell essentially from the same inventory. While this type of masked marketing is not in and of itself "bad" nor "dishonest," it sure makes it difficult to get the answer to these first couple of questions and creates confusion for many gemstone buyers. Who am I considering doing business with and where are they located? You might want to cat around on google a bit to find available information and maybe even get some references. Testimonials and referrals represent a major portion of our business and we willingly share our customer references/experiences on our site to make our reputation "real" for would-be clients. Good stuff! So, understanding who you are about to do business with and where they are located provides you with a foundation of knowledge from which to proceed in the process of obtaining your first/next gemstone.

The Gemstone "What"

The What question may be answered by simply taking a look at the overall quality range of gemstones the retailer is offering on their site. Does the gemstone retailer carry low-grade gemstones, high-grade, or a broad range of quality? This should speak volumes to you. There are many retailers that simply carry the lower grades of gemstones for a cheap price and show out the best of these grades as top-quality stones. When you view the pictures of these stones, you may think you are looking at top color, relative to other gemstones listed, when in fact you may still looking at run-of-the-mill, poorly colored stones that may be slotted a bit higher in the color range than the others. And yes, there are a LOT of these types of stones available for around $300/ct by a growing number of vendors. The statements regarding the quality of this material are often exaggerated and the pictures on these stones may not even be close to representing the actual item. Caveat Emptor, which is a Latin phrase meaning: "Buyer Beware!" Good advice for us all. Other considerations related to What include a thorough understanding of the retailer's "fine print."

The Gemstone "Why"

The Why question is really self- explanatory.... because you want to own a quality gemstone. Right? In addition, you probably want to try to understand why the company, whose gemstone you are viewing, is in the gemstone business. What I mean by this is...other than the obvious reason, to sell their product for a profit, do they appear to have a good business interest in the type of gemstone you are considering or does the seller just offer it as another line of gemstones on their site. Your interests would be best served by shopping with a retailer that has a good stake and large general emphasis in the type of material in which you have an interest. This will provide you with your best chance at viewing a nice collection of gems from which to choose and competitive pricing. Additionally, I recommend that you purchase from sellers that are more than happy to work with you on a custom order. If they are hesitant to do this, it may indicate that they are getting their gemstones from other retailers and don't want to bother with an order like yours because they simply can't turn it around quickly. It is then possible for you to find yourself purchasing a stone which is only close to what you really desire. Why settle for something "close" when you are getting ready to drop a chunk of hard-earned change on a fancy gemstone for yourself?

The Gemstone "When"

And finally, the When question deals with such inquiries as: When will my gemstone order ship and by what method (carrier)? Are there any extra fees when shipping gemstones? When do you restock your gemstone inventory? When is the best time of year to purchase a quality gemstone? You get the idea. By asking these types of questions, you get to know your gemstone retailer better and can pave the way for a long-term, successful relationship with your gemstone dealer.

In summary, it is important that you have a good understanding of the company from which you wish to make a gemstone purchase AND their quality and price are in keeping with your overall expectations. In our company's experience, we have found it amazing how much repeat business we have done with our valued clients over the years by simply providing answers to these basic questions.

Shopping Tools

2007-12-12T17:11:00.003+07:00

Today shopping for trendy plus size clothing that fits well and looks great is easier than ever before. Clothing designers and merchants have finally discovered the huge market full figured women have to offer. We want stylish and comfortable clothing - and we are willing to pay for it.

Fabric choices, slimming cuts & shimmering glamor are available to us in abundance, but how to choose the best fit and most flattering size when shopping online? Trying clothes on before we buy is not an option.

But the good news is that as online shoppers, we have two very handy tools at our disposal:

Sizing Charts & Refund Policies

You will find plenty of websites online specializing in ladies plus size fashions. Before adding anything to your shopping cart (also called shopping bag or basket), check out the sizing chart on site. You will usually find this linked to in the same spot where you choose the size, quantity and color of the item to add to your shopping cart. If it is not there, look in the main menu navigation bar.

You will find that most stores offer sizing that is true to offline department store sizing. So if you are normally a size 2X, you should find that size fits the same when shopping online.

You will also want to know what the store Refund Policy is. The industry standard is between 30 and 60 days from time of shipment. You will see the date listed on the packing slip when your package arrives. With a generous Refund Policy, you are free to order 2 or 3 different sizes of the item you want! Try them on, keep the item that you are most happy with and return the other items for a refund.

What you will want to watch for is any shipping and handling charges. Most times the stores offer a full refund, but it is good to note any charges that may apply if you do opt for a refund. Sometimes it is still worth it if you find that perfect dress you just cannot get locally.

Because most of us do not have a lot of options when shopping for plus sized clothing at our local department stores, shopping online provides us with a happy alternative. Now we too can enjoy a wide variety and plenty of options for fun, trendy fashions!

Fashion Freedom

2007-12-12T17:11:00.001+07:00

Just ten years ago plus size women were limited to clothes shopping in the two back corner racks of the local department store. We didn't have a lot of selection in style and fit and really--we didn't enjoy shopping for ourselves all that much. It's hard feeling good about a wardrobe full of cartoon character t-shirts and too short stretchy pants, and it was disappointing to shop for more of the same.

Our choices in fashion were basic polyester stretch pants (remember those thick elastic waistbands ladies?), plain oversize t-shirts, and flowing, flowery polyester house dresses. Anything that was somewhat nice was stocked in limited quantities and at an exorbitant price.

Ladies we felt & looked frumpy and dowdy because that's all we had to wear!

Today however, full figured women can now enjoy trendy and comfortable fashions--at prices most can afford. And with easy online access, we are no longer limited to what the local department stores choose for us. We can choose from denims, cottons, silks & satins. Flower prints, stripes, solids and polka dots. Well fitted career wear, two piece bathing suits, short pants, long pants--the sky is the limit and we have more choices than ever before.

Want to wear a fun, flirty skirt? Or a trendy tanktini on that fabulous beach holiday? No problem! It's just a click away online. Your biggest dilemma will be choosing just one item out of the three or four that have caught your eye. What a shift from ten years ago!

Today taller plus size women can finally find those pants that fit both width AND length. And then there's petite plus size fashions for women who are shorter than average. We've got fashion selections now that fit all heights of fuller figured women--short, medium and tall.

With online shopping, plus size fashion freedom has finally arrived for full figured women. Choose all the figure flattering and trendy styles you want and say goodbye forever to frumpy and dowdy. It's time for us to shine like the beautiful women we truly are.

Customise Your Business

2007-12-12T17:10:00.003+07:00

Have you got a pair of cuff links but there is no cuff links shirts to go along?

Let me share with you a little trick you can do it if you don't have a cuff link shirt. Well, actually a tip from a friend which helps me saves some dollars on cuff links shirt.

I am sure everyone knows that the price of a normal cuff link shirt would be around 80 to 100 dollars. You might be hesitant to purchase your first pair of cuff links due to the shirt price is much more expensive then the cuff links.

Well then the more you should read this tips that I am about to share with you. Do you have many long sleeves shirts but none of them are cuff links designed ones?

How about this -> I can turn your normal long sleeves shirts into cuff links shirt in a few steps plus you get to wear your long sleeves shirts and cuff links enable shirt as and when you like it.

Sound too good to be true?

Then Try this:

Step 1: Remove the buttons on both sleeves of your business shirt. (Yes, both buttons)

Step 2: Align the sleeve button hole and mark at the place where the button use to be.

Step 3: Repeat for both side.

Step 4: Cut a hole size of the button hole and sew it nicely or you can get a tailor to do it for you.

Step 5: Sew one button next to the remake button hole on both sides.

Now, you have a cuff shirt and a conventional shirt which you can interchange!

To cut my story short in case you don't understand, I have included a picture to illustrate on my blog.

Hope this can helps you save some money on cuff shirts and get you interested in cuff links!

Remember we dress to impress others after all.

Classic Men’s

2007-12-12T17:10:00.001+07:00

I know not every man puts much thought into choosing the wallet he uses. After all, it’s just something that carries your cold hard cash. But to me, the wallet is arguably a man’s most essential accessory and the wallet he carries says a lot about him and his personal style.

So regardless of you’re buying a wallet for yourself or as a gift, you should really take your time to pick a good one. It’ll accompany you for many years to come.

Women are clearly spoilt for choice when it comes to handbags and small leather goods. Every season, designers crack their brain to come up the “It” bag that will be the object of every woman’s desire.

As guys, we aren’t that fortunate. We don’t have that many designers clamoring for our attention. But it doesn’t mean we don’t have choices. In fact there are men’s wallets and small leather goods that never go out of style.

I find these timeless classics very appealing because there’s always an interesting story behind its success. They may not come cheap but they’ll certainly elevate your status in the style department.

Meisterstuck by Montblanc

Montblanc turned 100 in 2006 and there are many reasons to celebrate. The success of the legendary Meisterstuck fountain pen launched in 1924 helped Montblanc become the de-facto market leader of fine writing instruments.

Today, Montblanc is more than just a maker of fine writing instruments. The company has launched its leather goods, its fine watches, eyewear, fragrance and even jewelry.

Montblanc’s foray into leather goods started in 1935 when it acquired a producer of leather ware in Germany. Riding on the success of its Meisterstuck fountain pen, Montblanc launched the Meisterstuck leather collection.

Using black calfskin fitted with its signature “star” logo, Montblanc creates a masculine line of fine leather goods that is an instant hit with its predominantly male clientele.

Must de Cartier by Cartier

Well-known for its jewelry and fine watches, Cartier is one of the top luxury brands in the world and its products are associated with very, very high price tags.

1974 was the year Cartier made a comeback in the world of leather goods with the Must de Cartier line. The color burgundy, with a slight raspberry hue, was chosen as a logical continuation to the Cartier red for this must-have collection of fine leather goods. Burgundy soon became the new black.

The influential Bordeaux color, the iconic double ‘C’ logo, and the distinctive gold hardware make the Must de Cartier line a timeless classic.

But to be honest, Must de Cartier is not for the weak-hearted. Not every guy feels comfortable carrying a burgundy wallet with gold adornments.

Monogrammed Canvas by Louis Vuitton

With more than 100 years of history, Louis Vuitton monogrammed canvas must be the classic of all classics. And no matter what Louis Vuitton does to the monogrammed canvas, it still sells like hot cakes.

They splattered the canvas with graffiti. They planted red cherries on the canvas. They painstakingly sewed the motifs on denim. And they got Takeshi Murakami who reinterpreted the motif in brilliant rainbow colors. It seems like you can’t go wrong with the monogrammed canvas.

Unfortunately they don’t have a good selection of men’s wallets in monogrammed canvas so your choices are rather limited.

Pocone Nylon by Prada

It was in 1978 when Miuccia Prada took over the dusty luggage business from her grandfather. Under her helm, Prada became a luxury powerhouse with far-reaching influence in the world of fashion.

The world took notice when Prada made a handbag out of black waterproof Pocone nylon. Fitted with its distinctive triangular logo plate, nylon never looked so good. Miuccia Prada single-handedly made nylon luxurious.

Of course, I’m not expecting you to carry the popular nylon handbag. Prada does make nice nylon wallets trimmed with cowhide for men. Although it’s now available in many different colors, black is always a classic.

Woven Leather by Bottega Veneta

Once a second-tier brand in the Gucci Group’s stable, Bottega Veneta has become the group’s rising star. With its ultra-exclusive and elitist appeal, Bottega Veneta is poised to become the next Hermes.

Recreating the brand’s popular woven bags from the 1970s, Bottega Veneta beats the trend of logomania with its handcrafted leather goods made from the finest napa leather.

And consistent with the brand’s slogan “When your own initials are enough”, you won’t be able to see any logo on the leather goods. But the beautifully woven leather, which ages very well with use, should be enough to announce that you’re carrying a Bottega.

Line D by S.T. Dupont

S.T. Dupont is so well known for its lighters that it’s easy for us to forget that Simon Tissot-Dupont founded the company in 1847 making leather briefcases for diplomats and businessmen.

The classic Line D collection of fine leather goods was launched in 1985 and featured the Dupont “D” logo in gold on black calfskin. In recent years, they also offer Line D fitted with the trendier palladium hardware. But whether it’s in gold or palladium, Line D still looks as timeless as ever.

Burberry Check by Burberry

When we think of Burberry, we invariably think of the red, camel, black and white check that has become synonymous with the brand. It’s hard to imagine that the Burberry Check actually has a humble beginning. It was introduced in 1920 as a lining to the iconic Burberry trench coat.

Burberry is enjoying a revival in recent years - all thanks to its creative director Christopher Bailey’s modern interpretation of the classic check, CEO Rose Marie Bravo’s dynamism, and Kate Moss’ star power. You just can’t go wrong with such rich Brit heritage.

Spring Is Here

2007-12-12T17:09:00.001+07:00

You think Crocs Shoes are just for women? Don't let the bright colors fool you.

I buy my man Crocs shoes every spring. Why? Because I was tired of his stinky smelly feet after spending his days at work. Crocs has men’s flip flops and clogs that will keep his feet cool and help prevent that horrible odor that comes with the heat of spring and summer.

My man works hard as a medical technician at the local hospital. He is on his feet all day and most men’s shoes just do not offer him enough support and comfort to make it home without being in pain at the end of every day. But I am tired of smelling that horrible stench every time he takes his shoes off.

So I decided to start searching for an answer to my own question. I started looking for shoes that would be comfortable for him and still keep his feet cool and ventilated. Not long after starting my search for men’s shoes I found the Crocs brand. Crocs look so cute that I thought there was no possible way a clog like that could actually be comfortable. So I bought myself a pair to test before buying my man his.

My feet felt like they were on little cushions. I could not believe that a shoe this light and stylish could actually be functional as well. The foot bed actually formed to fit my foot. The more I walked in the shoes the more comfortable they became. I saw that Crocs had a sandal and flip-flops available so I bought them for myself right away.

Before actually buying a pair of clogs for my man, I wanted to have some
specific information on the shoe and what it was made out of. I found out that the Cayman model, one of the most popular, weighs only 6 ounces. Crocs makes them from a closed-cell resin, which will not get hot or uncomfortable in the heat. Some models of Crocs have ventilation holes to keep the air circulating around the foot. The circulating air is what will keep his feet from smelling. So I went online and purchased a pair of Crocs Cayman shoes for my man.

I’m not going to lie. His first reaction was a little bit of shock. He had never seen anything like them before and was very reluctant to wear them. But after some coaxing he agreed to wear them for one day. When he returned home from work he was smiling and asked if I wanted to go to a movie. I could not believe it! He didn’t head straight to his chair and put his feet up. He thanked me over and over for buying him his first clog shoes.

Now that spring is coming we are buying him some Crocs flip-flops to wear around the house. Crocs has incorporated their relaxed design into a sandal that is unbelievably comfortable. Men’s shoes are no longer boring and stinky. Now men can wear stylish sandals to relax or comfortable clogs at work and their feet will never stink again!

Best Company

2007-12-12T17:08:00.001+07:00

The retail diamond market is comprised of three broad categories of diamond sources; jewelry stores, ecommerce diamond companies and diamond brokers.

Jewelry Stores

Until recent years, jewelry stores were the only option for most diamond shoppers. This was especially true for smaller towns and rural areas. These stores had a monopoly, much like Ma Bell with the phone systems during most of the 20th century. Jewelry stores were the only game in town and could set their prices at whatever markup they wanted.

Jewelry stores depend on impulse buying so they focus on having a selection to pick from, name recognition through extensive advertising, and being convenient so shoppers can walk in and make a purchase with no education or knowledge of the product. If it looks nice to an impulse buyer, they will pull out the credit card and have it gift-wrapped. To attract the impulse buyer, jewelers built elaborate stores with polished marble floors, expensive display cases, and lighting that makes everything in the store sparkle.

To pay for the stores, the decorations and all the expensive advertising, jewelry stores must maintain high markups on the items they sell. The more expensive stores have bigger inventory, higher rent and more advertising, which dictates the higher markup necessary to pay for all that overhead.

E-Commerce Diamond Retailers

The online shopping cart of hundreds of jewelry retailers has been one of the big growth areas for e-commerce. Shoppers can shop from the convenience of their home or work computer, look at the pictures of thousands of jewelry items online and place their order without ever talking to a human. E-commerce diamond retailers provide a list of diamonds owned by groups of wholesalers and let the shopper pick the diamond they want based on the specifications in the list. The shopper pays for the diamond in advance and then the wholesaler or the retailer ships the diamond to the consumer.

The online jewelry retailers offer the advantage of much greater selection than you can find in a jewelry store and the ability to ship the items all over the country, which provides greater options for shoppers in small towns and rural areas. Due to low overhead costs, online jewelers can provide lower prices than most jewelry stores. The disadvantage of the online jeweler is that there are few safeguards in place to keep the consumer from making a mistake. Picking the least expensive diamond from a list of options often means there is something less desirable about the diamond. Without an expert adviser to help, the consumer is mostly on their own to make their selection.

Diamond Brokers

There is a third type of diamond retailer, the diamond broker, that differs from the jewelry store or e-commerce retailer. Like most e-commerce retailers, brokers do not own inventory and have low overhead, but they differ in that they work as diamond consultants for the shopper to find the best diamonds meeting the consumer’s requirements.

To attract new clients, diamond brokers rely on word of mouth advertising. They typically have a website focused on online education and shopping advice instead of a list of inventory and the online shopping cart. Diamond brokers work with their client to find the best diamond on the wholesale market and present it to the client in the broker’s office or ship the diamond to the client to examine before they purchase. The result of the lower overhead and personal consultant service is that clients usually get a better diamond at a lower price than with jewelry stores or online retailers.

To determine which company is going to be the best supplier for your diamonds, know what retailer characteristics are most important to you then ask many questions. Be sure the company you select is going to be able to provide the personalized service, expert advice, high quality diamonds and low prices you deserve.

Sparkle in Your Diamond

2007-12-12T17:07:00.003+07:00

Diamonds are the hardest natural material. Only a diamond can scratch a diamond. Use great caution when wearing multiple diamond rings on the same finger. If the diamonds of one ring touch diamonds in another ring, both diamonds will likely end up scratched in a relatively short time. If you have a diamond wedding band next to your diamond engagement ring, be sure their design allows them to fit together so the diamonds do not touch.

The next most dangerous place for diamonds scratching each other is in the jewelry box. Do not throw your diamond rings, diamond earrings, and diamond bracelet together. Since diamonds will scratch diamonds, think of what they can do to other gemstones and precious metals. Keep your diamond jewelry in separate compartments or isolated by soft cloth to keep them from rubbing each other.

While diamonds are very durable, they can break or chip. You would not let someone hit your diamond with a steel hammer but your diamond ring faces the same type of danger every day. File cabinets, metal seat belt buckles, and car doors are just a few of the metal surfaces that can hit a diamond in the course of a normal day. Avoid sharp impacts with hard surfaces and you will avoid chips and cracks in your diamond.

Diamonds are natural grease attractors. Some diamond mines separate diamonds from the broken rocks by running the material over a conveyor belt covered with a layer of grease. Diamonds stick to the grease and the rocks slide off. At the end of the shift, they remove the grease and melt it away, leaving the diamonds.

Remember diamond’s attraction to grease when you touch a diamond with your finger. The oil from your fingertips will coat the diamond and reduce the sparkle. The same is true when your diamond ring touches the oil in your hair. Hand creams, lotions, hair spray, soap, and grease from food will create a film on your diamond that hides its beauty. When you put your hands in dishwater, the dirt and grease in the water will adhere to the diamond. Dust and powders also cling to diamonds.

Fortunately, diamonds are easy to clean. Put your diamond jewelry in a warm solution of mild liquid detergent and water. You can also use the containers of “Jewelry Cleaner” available at jewelry and department stores. These typically have a small basket the ring can sit in and a small, soft brush to clean the hard to reach places around the diamond. Swish the ring around in the solution, rinse it with warm water, and dry the ring with a lint-free cloth. While chemicals will probably not hurt your diamond, harsh chemicals like chlorine or bleach can weaken and discolor the metal in the jewelry. Keep in mind that swimming pools and hot tubs usually have high levels of chlorine and are not a safe place for jewelry.

There are many types of ultrasonic cleaners available to the public today. The piece of jewelry sits in a basket of water and detergent. The ultrasonic cleaner produces high-frequency turbulence that is an excellent way to clean the hard to get at part of jewelry. Not all gemstones are as durable as diamonds. Never put soft materials like emeralds, opals and pearls in an ultrasonic cleaner.

With a little common sense and regular cleaning, your diamonds will keep their sparkle and beauty for years of enjoyment.

Diamond Ring

2007-12-12T17:07:00.001+07:00

Most advertising campaigns by De Beers feature their famous slogan “A Diamond is Forever.” Consequently, women seldom sell a diamond and often feel uncomfortable buying diamonds previously owned by other women. There is a sentimental aspect to diamonds that is very different from other tangible assets like boats, houses or automobiles. However, there are occasions when consumers need to sell their diamonds and, unlike the used car market, there is not a well-developed method for consumers to sell their diamonds.

As a consumer, you face some unique challenges when trying to get the best price for your diamond in a safe and comfortable manner. Your starting point is to know exactly what you are selling. This is much easier if the diamond has a grading report from a major laboratory like the GIA or AGS. You have more of a challenge if there is no formal grading report. In this case, you need to find an independent appraiser who can evaluate the diamond and determine its quality and potential value.

Once you know your diamond’s specifications, you can find the current retail asking price by checking with online retailers to see what similar diamonds are selling for in today’s retail market. It is unlikely you will be able to get the going retail price for your diamond. Selling your diamond at 80% to 90% of that amount would make it sell quicker. Be realistic about your expectations. The lowest cost online retailers, not the expensive jewelry stores with double the price, set the value of your diamond.

You now know your target price and simply have to figure out how to find the right buyer for your diamond. There are several options available to sell your diamond and you need to determine which is best for maximizing your money and safety while minimizing your time and effort.

Your first thought might be to go to the closest jewelry store or pawnshop and sell them the diamond. The key to remember here is that they do not need your diamond. They can get all the diamonds they want on the wholesale market. The only reason they will buy your diamond is if the price is a fraction of the wholesale price. They hope you need the money bad enough to take 25%-50% of what you could be getting for your diamond elsewhere. They might offer you a little more if you “trade up” to something in their display case. However, this often results in you paying more for the new diamond and receiving less for your diamond than if you sold it elsewhere.

Several online brokers specialize in buying diamonds and estate jewelry from consumers. They typically have you ship the diamond to them so they can determine the amount they will pay you. All too often, this amount is much less than their preliminary estimate so you must either pay the return shipping, or accept their price. If your main priority is getting money fast, this is a valid option. If your main priority is getting top dollar for your diamond, there are better selling methods available to you.

Auctions like eBay are very popular for selling jewelry items but there is so much low quality jewelry listed, it is hard for potential buyer to find your quality diamond. You are competing with jewelry retailers whose entire business is selling on eBay so they are experts at writing the descriptions (often with exaggerated quality), taking impressive pictures and shipping their items. Even if a bidder does find your item, the odds of getting your target price are slim to nil because other retailers are advertising items with similar descriptions for about half the amount you want. Notice I did not say they are advertising similar quality, just similar descriptions. Do a search for diamond rings with GIA grading reports and you will see the vast majority of diamond rings have paperwork from sources you have never heard of before.

Other effective ways to find a buyer are classified ads in local newspapers and bulletin boards at church or work. The challenge is reaching enough people to find at least one buyer willing to pay your price. You have to be careful when doing this kind of transaction, especially if selling to a stranger. Do the transaction in a safe place and be sure you have a valid form of payment. You do not want to hand over your diamond and end up with a phony cashiers check or bad personal check.

Some jewelry stores and online retailers will sell your diamond on consignment. Online retailers with a local presence have an advantage in that they have large numbers of diamond shoppers on their website plus walk in traffic that can see your diamond in person. They also have lower overhead and prices so you can get a bigger share of the selling price. With jewelry stores often marking up prices over 100%, your share is likely to be less than half of the selling price.

Just be sure to get a written description of the item you are giving on consignment and the minimum amount you will accept for your diamond. All too often sellers are not being able to get their jewelry items back from a store or only receive a fraction of the amount they expected from the sale. However, if you have patience and a low priced, trustworthy retailer to broker your diamond, you have an excellent chance of getting an excellent price for your diamond without the hassle and safety issues of selling it yourself.

How To Buy Diamond

2007-12-12T17:05:00.000+07:00

The large range of diamond jewelry often makes it very difficult for men to decide what type of jewelry to purchase for their loved ones.

Diamonds symbolize love, commitment and friendship, which makes it hard to choose the right piece of jewelry from the large variety of Diamond rings, Diamond earrings, Diamond pendants, Diamond necklaces, Diamond bracelets and of course Loose diamonds- which are always perfect since they can be set in any type of jewelry.

We can’t choose the perfect diamond jewelry for you but we can help you with 5 easy steps:

Step 1- Knowing what she likes:

Narrow down the type of jewelry she likes to wear by observing the jewelry she wears in general, and on different occasions. The jewelry she wears may vary. For example, her daytime jewelry may be different from the jewelry she wears when she goes out or to formal occasions.

Step 2- Knowing the color and size of the jewelry she wears:

Now that you have noticed the type of jewelry that she likes, it’s time to look closely at the details of her jewelry style.

The first thing you should check is if she likes White gold, Yellow gold or Rose gold.

You should also check if she prefers conservative or flashy jewelry.
For example, her earrings. Are they small and conservative like studs or are the big and detailed like chandelier or hoop earrings.

Step 3- Knowing her ring size (if you are buying a ring):

Knowing her ring size makes her ring perfect for many reasons, one of which is the fact that she can wear her ring right away.

Another reason is saving the hassle of having the ring resized.

Step 4- Learning about diamonds:

Learning about diamonds will help you choose and understand the quality and prices of diamonds. Learning about the Four C’s will help you understand- Color, Clarity, Carat and Cut, and choose the perfect diamond.

Step 5- Begin shopping:

Now you have an idea for her perfect gift and you can start shopping. We recommend looking online at diamond jewelry websites.

Don’t forget! Buying diamond jewelry is an investment. Now that you are educated in diamond jewelry, you can finally give her the perfect gift.

Good luck !!

Buying Big Diamonds

2007-12-12T17:03:00.000+07:00

Few diamond shoppers can walk into a high-end jewelry store and buy a 5-carat, D color, Internally Flawless diamond with Ideal cut parameters. If you are like most diamond shoppers, you have a limited budget. However, you still want to get the biggest and most beautiful diamond within your budget. You can take some simple steps that will ensure you get the biggest diamond possible.

1) Diamonds have price per carat increases at the most popular carat weights (0.50, 1.00, 1.25, 1.50, 2.00, etc.) because that is what shoppers request when they go into a jewelry store. Your dollars can go further buying a diamond that has a carat weight just under those weights. For example, a diamond that weighs 0.90 carats can be the same millimeter diameter as a diamond weighing 1.00 carat but cost $1000 less.

2) The price of diamonds is very sensitive to color grade, yet most shoppers have a difficult time seeing the difference between some of the color grades. If you buy the lowest color grade that looks beautiful to your eyes, the lower price per carat allows you to buy a bigger diamond with your dollars. The highest color grades (D, E, and F) are categorized as “colorless.” The next color grades (G, H, I, and J) are “near colorless” and the source of beautiful diamonds at much lower prices.

3) A ring with several smaller diamonds is less expensive than a single diamond with the same total carat weight. For example, three 0.50 carat diamonds will cost a fraction of what a single diamond weighing 1.50 carats. The same holds true for a 1.0-carat center stone with 0.25-carat diamonds on each side. If you want a finger full of diamonds with a limited budget, consider several diamonds rather than a solitaire.

4) All diamonds have inclusions; the key is what you can see with your eye. Once a diamond is clean to the eye (VS2 or good SI1 for brilliant cut shapes), higher clarity grades have no impact on the beauty or appearance of a diamond, they only add to the expense. Get the lowest clarity grade you are comfortable with and save a lot of money will no sacrifice in beauty.

5) The shape of the diamond can affect the millimeter size. Of course, you should always get the diamond shape you like best but some shapes do look larger than other shapes. Ovals, marquises and pear shaped diamonds generally look larger than round or square diamonds with the same carat weight.

6) Even diamonds with the same shape and carat weight can be different sizes. The cut of the diamond can influence the millimeter size. Shallower diamonds tend to be bigger in length and width than deeper diamonds. It is similar to two men each weighing 200 pounds, where the smaller waistline probably results in a taller man.

7) The type of setting you select to hold your diamond can influence the diamond’s perceived size as well as affect the dollars you have to spend on the diamond. White gold settings cost about one-third of platinum settings, leaving more money for your diamond. Bezel set diamonds or diamonds with pave around the center stone can make the diamond appear bigger.

8) Perhaps the most important factor in getting the biggest diamond for your dollars is where you purchase. The retail markup on diamonds can range from well under 10% with online retailers to over 200% at high-end jewelry stores. Finding a retailer with very low overhead and low prices will ensure more of your dollars go for your diamond. Why spend your money for polished marble floors, fancy display cabinets, and elaborate store interiors, all things you cannot wear out of the store?

In the end, you want to go with the diamond that excites you and makes you happy every time you wear it. That is the best indicator that you have made the right decision and have the best diamond for you.