Kombis 2006

The Power of LEO: The Revolutionary Process for Achieving Extraordinary Results

2012-02-11T11:29:00.000-08:00

The Power of LEO: The Revolutionary Process for Achieving Extraordinary Results
Subir Chowdhury

A Simple Method of Continuous Improvement, October 12, 2011
By
John Chancellor "Mentor coach" (Spring Hill, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Power of LEO: The Revolutionary Process for Achieving Extraordinary Results (Hardcover)
As the market place continues to become more and more competitive and crowded, everyone seems to be looking for different ways to improve their product/services. There seems to be constant pressure to improve quality and at the same time cut costs. There are lots of different programs tailored to individual companies or industries, but these are generally too specific to apply across a wide range of company sizes, products and processes. LEO is a simple process which can be adapted to any size company in any industry or service.

Subir Chowdhury, the author, has written and interesting and informative introduction to LEO - the process which stands for Listen - observe and understand the what is happening currently; Enrich - explore and discover new and better solutions; and Optimize - improve and perfect.

The book is well written and easy to read. The layout, format of the book is extremely reader friendly, making it possible to read the entire book in a couple of hours.

Mr. Chowdhury shows how LEO can be used to put out fires - solve problems which are causing immediate problems, to fixing the flow - improving the process, to defining the future - creating new products. He then goes into detail using case studies to show each separate function of the LEO model. He shows how to Listen hard, how to enrich the product/process and finally how to optimize.

Finally he walks the reader through an all-out process where one company engaged in an 18 month implementation of the LEO method and gives a good overview of how the work was carried out.

As with any change process, he stresses that without buy-in and continual support from the CEO, the process will be doomed to fail. He takes great care to talk about the natural dissenters to any change process and how to effectively deal with them.

While this process will work for any business, this book is not a how-to manual. This book gives you a good understanding of the power of LEO - what it can do. You will learn some skills and techniques that make LEO work. But if you wish to implement LEO in your organization, you are going to need some outside help. There is a standard LEO program which Mr. Chowdhury's company starts with and then modifies for each specific assignment.

The final chapter of the book talks about how LEO - the quest for continual improvement can and should be adopt by individuals. "We have a choice. We can simply accept what's happening and spend our energy groaning and criticizing, or we can, as individuals, try to make a difference.

I believe we would all do a better job if we were to listen more carefully, look for better ways to do things and constantly optimize whatever we are doing in our lives - either work or personal.

The book offers lots of examples of how LEO has been applied to a very wide range of companies and problems. If your company is operating at less than peak, you certainly should consider using The Power of LEO to improve your results.

http://www.amazon.com/Power-LEO-Revolutionary-Achieving-Extraordinary/dp/0071767991

Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill

2012-01-20T07:48:00.000-08:00

Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill
By Dan Bowling On January 12, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In Psychology At Work

Catchy title, eh? Too bad I stole it from an article in this month’s Talent Management magazine. Don’t tell anybody over there, but do read Ronnie Reese’s article. It is an excellent overview of how talent acquisition in many successful companies is focused on the personality and character traits of recruits, more than their specific job skills.

I know hiring managers who spend more time learning about the background and makeup of the fish they are ordering in a restaurant (wild-caught or farm-raised? Bay or ocean? Cold or warm water? Was it a happy fish?) than of their new hires. Or they exhaustively review and test the skills and job experience of the candidate but make no inquiry into attitude.

Big mistake. “Eighty-nine percent of the time, if a new hire fails, they fail for attitude, not for skills,” says Mark Murphy, author of Hiring for Attitude, quoted in the aforementioned article. Famed research psychologist Chris Peterson bemoans the failing of many companies to hire for attitude in one of his academic articles, saying “strengths of character are a neglected but critically important resource for organizations.”

The good news is more and more organizations such as Apple, Google and Ritz-Carlton understand that the psychological makeup of their recruits is critical, and go to great lengths to ensure new hires can fit within their unique cultures. In fact, much of the aforementioned Talent Management article focuses on issues regarding cultural fit, providing examples from “great attitude” companies such as Southwest Airlines. The general rule – one I firmly endorse – is to figure out what strengths make your organization special and unique, and try to identify recruits who reflect those strengths.

But are there certain traits that are present in the all successful hires, regardless of the specific culture of the organization? Peterson, along with his research colleagues Martin Seligman and Nansook Park, suggest there are. Among the most common are:
Optimism
Hope
Curiosity
Zest

By now you are probably saying “sure, this makes sense, but we don’t have the resources to hire a bunch of Ph.D.s to redesign our talent acquisition processes to scope out these things.” The good news is that the Internet, as well as certain research foundations, have made measurement tools readily available, inexpensive and non-intrusive. I have written about several of these in past blogs, including Peterson’s free Values in Action inventory of strengths. In the time it takes you to read this article, you could have started taking one of these surveys yourself, and within moments have a printout of your strengths, traits and attitudes (links to the VIA can be found in the blog about it). Go ahead, give it a test drive, then try it out on a few people during the pre-hire process (there are far fewer legal implications than you might think). If you don’t like the VIA, several of my more dedicated readers have provided links to similar tests their firms provide, and I imagine in the comments posted under this you’ll be given some more examples to check out.

Even if you don’t want to institute formal measurement tools into your talent acquisition processes, you can accomplish much of the same thing by following one simple rule: hire optimistic people. Optimism is the mother of all good attitude traits. Evidence abounds that optimism, which is closely correlated with happiness, is a very strong predictor of workplace performance in almost all domains. Yes, law, actuarial work and some investment jobs find a dose of pessimism a helpful professional attribute, but even in those fields it is usually the more optimistic who rise to the top. Optimists close more sales, rebound from failure more quickly, miss less work and are less likely to sue their company if things turn sour.

And optimism is pretty easy to parse out during the hiring process. Ever interview a surly misanthrope who hated his last job and sees problems and roadblocks everywhere when you talk to him? Chances are he’ll find reasons to hate you, sooner or later.

Let the competition have him.

If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!

About The Author
Dan Bowling

Daniel S. Bowling III is an expert on the science of well-being and work and conducts empirical research on this topic through the University of Pennsylvania. Formerly, he was a partner in a major law firm and later, the global head of human resources at Coca-Cola Enterprises, where he directed all HR activities for more than 80,000 employees worldwide. He currently holds faculty positions at both Duke Law School and UPenn. He also leads a consulting firm, Positive Workplace Solutions, that works with some of the largest institutions in the country showing that well-being enhances not just life satisfaction but productivity and performance, and writes and speaks extensively on these topics. He can be reached at editor@TalentMGT.com.

http://blog.talentmgt.com/2012/01/12/hire-for-attitude-train-for-skill/

Starbucks Founder Howard Schultz on How to Overcome Success

2012-01-20T07:37:00.000-08:00

Starbucks Founder Howard Schultz on How to Overcome Success

6 Dec 2011

How do you know when your business is regressing? What do you do when you find out?

Last March, Starbucks founder Howard Schultz connected with Lewis Schiff, executive director of Inc. Business Owners Council, for an interview. Schultz was discussing his just-launched book, Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing Its Soul. He spoke with Schiff about Starbucks’s history in general, but he especially focused on his re-entry as CEO in January 2008, and his thoughts about what comes next. Here is some of what he said:
[Success meant] we were literally on this magic-carpet ride where everything we did, in every city, every country, almost without trying, was working. and it produced a sense of invincibility….Hubris and complacency began to establish themselves in the company, and I felt it was like a virus.
You get to thousands of stores, and people think money grows on trees. I had to remind people of the entrepreneurial heritage of the company.
[During start-up] I had such fear, because we couldn’t make payroll….I remember, literally, looking at pieces of paper, deciding what vendor we are gonna pay, and then what vendor we are gonna have to tell a story to.
I found this poster in a magazine—a photograph of hands in dirt, and I put it up in the boardroom. The poster says, “Those people willing to get their hands dirty are going to succeed.”
I wanted to say to our people that, when we started this business, we were in the roots of Starbucks and right now we’re managing the company at 30,000 feet. and from this minute forward, that is over.
I think great entrepreneurs must have the curiosity to metaphorically see around the corner. What’s coming? What can I anticipate that other people don’t see? And then you must have the courage of your convictions to execute the strategy.
There’s been such a seismic change in consumer behavior, and as a result of that, any business—small or large, consumer-based or not—that continues to embrace the status quo is, in my view, in deep trouble.
So the question is, How do you create the balance between preserving your core business but at the same time pushing for relevant innovation?
For us, I never imagined that people were going to be walking in with their computer and spending hours at Starbucks as their office. We certainly never got a rent check. But once we saw that, the question was, could we create something that could enhance the experience?
You’ve got to be curious. Where is technology moving? How is the consumer embracing it? And then you need to ask yourself, What can we do as an enterprise to be highly relevant to the seismic change in consumer behavior?

http://thebuildnetwork.com/2011/12/starbucks-founder-howard-schultz-on-how-to-overcome-success/

Building Better Business Acumen

2012-01-20T07:26:00.000-08:00

Building Better Business Acumen
E. Ted Prince - 7/25/10

Return to: http://clomedia.com/views/articles/building_better_business_acumen/

Developing business acumen enterprisewide is a difficult undertaking, but it meets a critical training and development need as well as restores much-needed street cred to the learning function.

What does business acumen have to do with leadership development? This is a common question among CLOs. The fact that it is still asked speaks volumes about where leadership development is — and where it is not.

We are just coming out of the deepest economic recession since the 1930s. Millions are out of work. Companies are still trying to figure out how to produce profits in the face of such challenges as carbon caps, health care reform and social sustainability. If nothing else, business acumen is a critical need for all companies if they are first to survive and then to prosper. Business acumen is a key requirement for being an effective leader.

Business Acumen Before the Great Recession

Flash back to two or three years ago, when companies were still prospering and no one was talking about business acumen in reference to leadership development. When everyone is making money, they all feel that they have high business acumen and that they don’t need any training or development in it.

However, today it has been made clear that many of these executives did not have high business acumen and sorely needed it. The results of ineffective or bad financial behaviors usually appear several years in the future rather than in the year they occurred. In fact, it is often precisely when enterprises are most profitable that business acumen is at its lowest, and anyone promoted into a leadership position will appear to have been responsible for that profitability, even if he or she had no business acumen at all.

Many senior executives in all industries tend to be deluded about their own levels of business acumen. The delusion may actually become stronger as they move up the corporate ladder since the progression reinforces the notion that they got there because of their business acumen.

Before the Great Recession, leadership development was essentially a boom-time phenomenon. It could afford to focus on traditional leadership competencies such as interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence and decision making. To some extent, leadership development had atrophied into the study of leadership when things are going well.

Today, we are in a very different place. Business acumen is all about showing how our behaviors directly impact and improve business outcomes, measured in financial and market value terms. Business acumen development aims to fill the chasm in traditional leadership development programs, which involves the behavioral skills that lead to increases in profitability and market value.

Business acumen is defined as the capability to bring about positive business outcomes. The precise definition we use in our work is the behavioral propensity to create capital. Note that “capital” used this way does not always, or even necessarily, refer to financial capital. It also can refer to the creation of social capital, as in nonprofits, or political capital, as in government organizations.

Desired Outcomes of Development

Before we discuss the approaches to business acumen, it’s important to identify the desired outcomes of a business acumen program. These include the increased likelihood that:
Participants are aware of their own impact on financial outcomes and change their behavior to improve this impact.
Participants are more cost conscious. They will know how to make the correct cost-value trade-offs.
Participants understand how their behavior impacts value-creating activities in the organization and, in turn, understand how this impacts gross margin. They will then make behavioral and process changes to increase the gross margin impact of their actions and decisions.

Participants know how to assess their own business acumen and that of their managers and effectively use this information to improve financial and business outcomes.

Participants understand how to improve their alignment with the organization’s financial performance, innovation and market-value goals.

Participants understand how to integrate this approach into other organizationwide approaches, both in the human capital realm and other areas, such as finance, marketing, sales, production and distribution.

You will notice one important omission in this list — nowhere does it state that the person will have more knowledge of finance or economics as a result of the business acumen program. The reason for this is that it is becoming increasingly apparent that business acumen and financial literacy are not the same thing. This is because business acumen is not a technical skill: It is a set of behaviors that are independent from intelligence, technical skills and financial knowledge. This has some important ramifications for business acumen programs.

Business acumen programs aim to have a measurable impact on financial outcomes. Three main approaches to measuring and developing business acumen have been evolving in the market:
Building financial literacy.
Conducting business simulations and games.
Using behavioral tools for assessment and intervention.

Building Financial Literacy

This is perhaps the most common approach, and unfortunately it is also the most misguided. It usually involves either conducting in-house financial training, or for more senior executives, sending them off to a program at a university.

In addition to the fact that having high financial literacy has nothing to do with making money, there are other reasons why this approach generally does not result in the desired outcomes listed above. First, most managers sent off to universities already have business qualifications, so they are getting more of the same — not something different — in the area of improving their own financial behaviors.

Second, universities do not have a model of business acumen. They also do not possess the tools to measure the individual business acumen of their students to establish a behavioral base line against which an intervention program for them can be devised. Furthermore, university courses are not designed to teach business acumen; they are designed to teach the understanding of accepted financial and economic models.

However, there is one exception to the above: conducting internal programs for more junior managers who have no formal business qualifications. Such programs will not provide them with business acumen, but may offer them some knowledge that will help them better understand business outcomes.

Conducting Business Simulations and Games

A second approach is conducting internal business simulations and games. While this approach is a step in the right direction, it comes with its own issues. These include the likelihood that:
These games never involve obtaining a behavioral base line for the participants so one can never know if they had any measurable behavioral impact.
Participants are usually rated by observers; however, the Hawthorne effect states that people act differently when they know that they are being observed. We have no way of knowing how they will actually act if they are not being observed and how they will act in a real business situation.

Often the simulation is too artificial to be of real-world relevance.

One other factor to note is that business simulations are usually conducted with relatively junior staff. It appears that there is the perception by senior managers that these simulations are not real-world enough to meet their own needs at their particular levels. It is relatively unusual for this approach to be conducted with senior managers.

That said, however, simulations and games can be a useful component of a business acumen program — as long as they are not the only component.

Behavior-Based Assessment and Development

In this approach, there is a formal behavioral model of business acumen as well as behavioral assessments based on this model. Participants start by completing these assessments as a basis for an assessment of their business acumen and to provide the behavioral data required for an intervention program targeted at their unique behavioral needs. These assessments are used not only for the assessment of individuals, but also for the assessment of the financial impact of teams they are on, including the impact on the company’s market value.

The rationale for behavioral assessment is that different individuals respond in different ways to financial cues and signals. If we don’t understand these differences, we can’t get a clear picture of individuals’ current capabilities — meaning we won’t be able to address their intervention needs.

In particular, the team behavior data is necessary so that we can understand alignment issues in the financial mission of the individual compared with that of the team, as well as that of the overall organization. As such, behavior-based programs for business acumen are also really team effectiveness programs, in which the aim is to increase the effectiveness of the team in terms of financial and market value outcomes.

Behavior-based business acumen programs are new. Conceptually, they derive from the new disciplines of behavioral finance and behavioral economics, although they also leverage the more traditional topics of personality and competency. We can expect this area to be a key channel for advancing business acumen development in leadership programs, especially at the more senior levels.

The Future

Leadership development has to adapt to become relevant in bad or even “normal” times instead of only in good times. This will require some major changes in leadership development programs and in the mindset of the people who run them.

Many learning leaders may not feel comfortable in the area of business acumen, since often they do not have a business background. Yet, in order to keep abreast of the field, they will have to get acquainted with it. The good news is that this will make leadership development professionals more attuned to the needs of the business side of organizations and provide them with the street cred they need to accomplish important learning and development — and broader strategic — goals.

http://clomedia.com/articles/view/building_better_business_acumen/print:1

Making Ethics Part of the Brand Identity

2012-01-20T07:25:00.001-08:00

Making Ethics Part of the Brand Identity
Community: Talent Leadership Track: Leading Ethical Organizations
Webcast: Webcast Airs: February 9, 2012

Many companies strive to stand for something greater than themselves. For example, Apple is synonymous with innovation, and Google is synonymous with search. But the branding of a company and its’ defining culture and mission is the result of a well-executed strategy that incorporates many different leaders and business units aligned to achieving the same goal.

In the same vein, ethical companies are no accident. A culture guided by morality and principles is result of organizations shaping that brand internally, externally, and through the work environment. Internally, ethics must be championed through engagement, diversity and empowerment among employees, while they are externally shaped by social media, consumer confidence, and press exposure. Don’t miss these key takeaways:

Learn what components must be in place to build a climate where employees and clients are advocates of an ethical brand
Discover how fostering a moral organization culture affects employees and customers
Find ways to strengthen ethical climates in your organization

http://www.hci.org/lib/making-ethics-part-brand-identity?utm_source=HCI_Members_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=01-20_DD_Lead_Mbr&utm_content=pemimpin2001%40yahoo.com

Fuel-Injected Leadership

2012-01-20T07:23:00.000-08:00

Fuel-Injected Leadership
BLOG: Author: Joy Kosta

Years ago, when taking a family drive on Sundays was a typical outing, we would inevitably get lost. This would perturb my older sister (who became a scientist), but for me, being someplace new was when the sense of adventure began (in retrospect, our respective career choices make great sense). My parents used to say (this was before there was GPS and i-phones), "You're never lost as long you have gas in the tank." So I appreciate them encouraging my quest for what's new. And Yogi Berra said, "We're lost, but making good time." However, in today's business world, organizations don't have unlimited fuel (either tangible assets or intangible assets) to find out where they're going. Our individual competitive advantage as a leader is the fuel injection for how our organization runs, stalls, idles, or performs at full throttle.

The #1 question on Gallup Q12 (questions that indicate engagement and productivity) is: "Do I know what is expected of me at work?" According to Wagner and Harter, in The Elements of Great Managing, groups that have high scores on this item are more productive, profitable and creative. Clear expectations account for productivity gains of 5 to 10%. It's hard to achieve your objectives without alignment of your people, yet fifty percent of employees don't know what is expected of them at work, and the more complex the job, the higher the uncertainty. So if you've launched an updated business strategy to kick off the year, don't neglect the follow-up regarding how does this break down into what will people do differently and what actions will they continue. This is what creates a line of sight and cascaded goals that achieve objectives by design.

Bill Kling, founder of the American Public Media Group, in a recent NY Times interview, says, "…There is not one formula for leadership. There are…people who are really good at motivating people. There are innovative leaders who are really good at conceiving of products or spotting talent and have great vision for the company… Every CEO needs an executive team to be balanced to fit their strengths." Marcus Buckingham might recommend that we ask ourselves, what is our individual leadership strength/competitive advantage? And then round out our team with other strengths to compliment ours. Cisco and Lockheed Martin practice "the branding of a company and its defining culture and mission is the result of a well-executed strategy that incorporates many different leaders and business units aligned to achieving the same goal."

Often a leader's primary strength needs to match what the organization needs at that point in time — innovation for start-ups, financial health to stay in the game, and leveraging talent assets all along the way. Bill Kling thinks the strongest criterion for leaders is creativity and innovation. Jim Clifton, CEO of Gallup, in his new book, The Coming Jobs War, says, "The competition or 'war' for good jobs…is a war for the best customers first. He who wins that war, wins the jobs war. Almost no leader has this figured out." In a Forbes interview of Clifton by branding expert Dan Schawbel, they both cast their vote with the entrepreneurial leader who can conceive of new products and services (and hence create value-adding jobs) that will win customer market share.

We ignore the obvious, that a fresh perspective reveals surprising insights. What if an outside trusted leader toured your company to recommend opportunities? (It might seem like a blend of the reality TV shows, Undercover Boss and Wife Swap!) But if you returned the service, it could be a consultative exchange of shake-up innovative ideas, because after all it is human to have blind spots. Or, what if a board member went undercover to id areas of opportunity? Especially when your board is hiring for a Chief Executive, these insights would provide dialog that prioritizes the qualities needed in the new leader for the company at that point in time.

An HCI executive workgroup member from a fairly conservative (aka highly regulated) industry places high value on innovation, says, "It's time for leaders to do more than think outside of the box. Sometimes it's time to break the box." These questions about maintaining competitive advantage may not keep you up at night, but they are worthy of scheduled reflection and exchange with peers:
What is your personal competitive advantage?
How are you guiding the execution of your new business strategy?
How do you deploy your top team to complement your personal strengths?
How do you invite a fresh perspective (i.e. from a trusted colleague or a Board member) to id blind spots and areas of opportunity?

------------------------------------------------------------
Joy Kosta, HCS, SWP
Senior Director, HCI Talent Communities, Education Faculty , Human Capital Institute (HCI)

As Senior Director of the Talent Development and Leadership Communities at The Human Capital Institute, Joy brings twenty-five years of experience in multiple facets of organizational development, human resources and business management with an emphasis in customer satisfaction, service quality, process improvement, and applying the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. As founder and President of Performance Partners in Health Care, a company dedicated to building better patient experiences, she has authored several curriculums in leadership and staff development, and co-authored with Harold Bursztajn, MD Senior Clinical Faculty member, Harvard Medical School, "Building a Treatment Alliance with Patients and Families."
Experience
Enterprise Practice Leader, Team Leader Talent Development and Leadership at Human Capital Institute
January 2006 – Present

Joy Kosta, Human Capital Strategist, is Senior Director of Talent Communities and Enterprise Practice Leader at HCI. Drawing on three decades in organizational and talent development in multiple industries and as CEO in her former consultancy, she builds robust communities of practice at HCI in Development and Leadership. Joy brings twenty-five years of experience in multiple facets of organizational development, human resources and business management with an emphasis in customer satisfaction, service quality, process improvement, and applying the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, and frequently contributes to articles on talent management and HCI events in addition to Leadership Community webcasts.
Senior Director, HCI Talent Communities, Education Faculty at Human Capital Institute (HCI)
Present

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Building & Implementing a Balanced Scorecard: Nine Steps to SuccessTM

2012-01-17T15:09:00.000-08:00

Building & Implementing a Balanced Scorecard:
Nine Steps to SuccessTM

The Institute’s award-winning framework, Nine Steps to SuccessTM, is a disciplined, practical approach to developing a strategic planning and management system based on the balanced scorecard. Training is an integral part of the framework, as is coaching, change management, and problem solving. Emphasis is placed on “teaching clients to fish, not handing them a fish”, so the scorecard system can be sustained.

A key benefit of using a disciplined framework is that it gives organizations a way to ‘connect the dots’ between the various components of strategic planning and management, meaning that there will be a visible connection between the projects and programs that people are working on, the measurements being used to track success, the strategic objectives the organization is trying to accomplish and the mission, vision and strategy of the organization.

More Information:
How does all of this terminology fit together logically?
What is a balanced scorecard?

http://www.balancedscorecard.org/BSCResources/TheNineStepstoSuccess/tabid/58/Default.aspx

http://www.balancedscorecard.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=D%2bEwibKKLeA%3d&tabid=58

The Two Core Fears and the Fear of Failure

2012-01-17T14:31:00.000-08:00

The Two Core Fears and the Fear of Failure by Lisa Jimenez

All of these surface fears fall into two categories, which are the core fears: Fear of Failure and Fear of Success. If you experience fear of commitment, responsibility, growing up, or change, your core fear is the fear of success. If most of your anxiety comes from fear of rejection, confrontation, or not measuring up, your core fear is the fear of failure.

Let’s talk today about the fear of failure. The fear of failing is more common to the person who experiences anxiety from confrontation, rejection, or a feeling of not measuring up (the perfectionist). Your fear of failure has held you back. I see it in the new consultant who will not give a class or an opportunity meeting until they can be sure it will be perfect. So they read and reread their training manual to exhaustion. The reality is there is no better training than real-world, in-the-trenches experience!

Failure is part of your journey of success. Psychologists tell us that if a child has not had a serious fall within the first year of life, they are being too closely guarded (smothered). It’s the same with your life. Is your life too closely guarded? Are you being smothered in safety? Do you allow yourself to risk? Give yourself permission to make a big mistake! Every successful life is sprinkled with failure. It means you’re growing! Failure is a part of success. When you change your beliefs about failure—and what it’s about—you’ll silence your fears. Failures are stepping stones taking you closer to success. Give yourself permission to risk, try something new, make a mistake, and live a bold, imaginative, daring life!

Face Your Fear of Failure

Have a great day!
Lisa Jimenez

50 Jenis Kelainan Seks July 13, 2011

2011-10-22T06:02:00.000-07:00

50 Jenis Kelainan Seks
July 13, 2011
siarin

Perilaku seks menyimpang sering kita temui di lingkungan sekitar kita, tidak semua jenis penyimpangan membahayakan tergantung tingkatannya apakah masih wajar atau sudah kronis. Apa saja jenis-jenis kelainan seks itu, berikut 50 daftar jenis kelainan seks yang mungkin perlu anda ketahui.

1. ABLUTOPHILIA
Ini adalah perasaan terangsang kalau memikirkan mandi dengan air hangat, orang ini pasti mandinya lama.

2. ACROTOMOPHILIA
Tergila gila dengan amputasi. bukannya orang ini senang diamputasi, tetapi ia bergairah kalau melihat tubuh manusia yang bagian tertentunya, misalnya kaki sudah diamputasi.

3.AMAUROPHILIA
Punya kegemaran berhubungan seks dengan orang buta atau orang yang ditutup matanya.

4. ANACLITISM
Hubungan seks dimana salah satu pelakunya berpura pura menjadi bayi dan diperlakukan seperti bayi juga, misalnya belajar pipis, mengenakan popok atau bermain boneka.

5. AUTAGONISTOPHILIA
Orang ini juga senang pamer diri, tapi agak berbeda dengan exhibitionist yang terang-terangan, dia lebih suka menciptakan suasana yang memudahkan orang lain untuk melihatnya telanjang, misalnya membiarkan tirai jendelanya terbuka dan ia akan berjalan-jalan di rumah sambil telanjang.

6. AUTOEROTIC ASPHYXIATION
Bahasa simpelnya mencekik dalam kegiatan seksual biasanya onani agar rasanya lebih nikmat. Vokalis INXS, Michael Huthcence yang ditemukan tewas tergantung diduga bukan bermaksud bunuh diri, tapi ingin mempraktekkan teknik ini.

7. AUTOPEDERASTY
Suatu obsesi yang biasanya timbul pada masa puber, untuk memasukkan penis ke dalam lubang pantat sendiri.

8. BACKSWINGING
Ini adalah anal seks yang dilakukan dengan posisi si obyek yang digarap tidur tengkurap.

9. BASTINADO
Bentuk penyiksaan dengan cara memukuli telapak kaki berulang ulang untuk memperoleh kepuasan seksual.

10. BELONEPHILIA
Ini perasaan bergairah kalau melihat benda-benda kecil dan tajam seperti jarum. Orang ini juga merasa terangsang kalau ditindik.

11. BEASTIALITY
Ini kegiatan berhubungan seks dengan binatang. Kegiatan ini konon sudah dilakukan sejak jaman Romawi kuno. Mungkin karena pada waktu itu populasi manusia masih sedikit.

12. BDSM
Singkatan dari Bondage and Discipline, Sadism and Masochism. Istilah ini berhubungan dengan permainan seks yang melibatkan ditimbulkannya rasa sakit untuk memperoleh kenikmatan.

13. BUKKAKE
Kegiatan yang berasal dari Jepang. Intinya, seorang wanita dikubur di tanah sampai sebatas kepalanya saja lalu beberapa orang mengelilinginya melakukan masturbasi bersama-sama dan menembakkan spermanya ke kepala si cewek.

14. C & B TORTURE
Cara-cara penyiksaan terhadap penis dan dua teman bulatnya, yaitu digigit, dicubit, ditampar, ditarik sampai melar, disundut dan sebagainya.

15. CANDLING
Aktivitas pemuas kebutuhan seksual dengan cara melelehkan lilin cair yang masih panas ke bagian tubuh tertentu.

16. CATAGELOPHILIA
Mungkin orang yang menderita ini adalah orang yang humoris, pasalnya dia akan merasa terangsang kalau merasa dipermalukan.

17. CRHEMASTITOPHILIA
Ini adalah perasaan terangsang yang dirasakan orang kalau dirampok.

18. CLOT
Kegemaran mengintip wanita melakukan hal-hal yang berhubungan dengan menstruasi, misalnya cewek memasang pembalut ke vaginanya atau mencopotnya.

19. COPROPHILIA
Merasakan kenikmatan seksual dengan bermain-main dengan kotoran tinja.

20. COPROPHAGIA
Hampir sama dengan yang di atas, sama-sama menyukai kotoran, tapi yang ini merasa puas kalau memakannya.

21. CUTTING
Sesuai namanya, ini kegiatan menyayat kulit untuk mendapatkan kepuasan seksual.

22. DACRYPHILIA
Carilah pasangan yang cengeng, ini kepuasan seksual yang dirasakan penderitanya kalau melihat pasangannya berlinang air mata.

23. DAISY CHAINING
Sekumpulan cowok berkumpul membentuk semacam lingkaran dan saling memasturbasi satu sama lainnya.

24. DOGGING
Disebut juga park and ride. Ini kegiatan bercinta dalam mobil di tempat parkir yang terpencil dengan ditonton orang yang mengelilingi mobil itu.

25. DOUCHING
Berasal dari bahasa perancis, douche. Ini berarti menyemprotkan air ke dalam vagina untuk memperoleh kenikmatan seksual.

26. ELECTROPHILIA
Sesuai namanya, dia terangsang kalau mendapatkan kejutan listrik.

27. EXHIBITIONISM
Perasaan puas yang timbul kalau memamerkan organ seksualnya atau melakukan aktivitas seksual di muka umum.

28. FISTING
Memasukkan seluruh bagian tangan ke lubang pasangannya, umumnya vagina, tapi bisa gunakan imajinasi untuk lubang yang lain. Kegiatan ini biasanya dilakukan oleh orang yang sudah ahli.

29. FLASHING
Penggemarnya suka memamerkan alatnya di depan umum, mirip exhibitionist, tapi barangnya itu hanya dikeluarkan sekilas. Kalau ada orang seperti itu di dekat anda dan anda tidak cermat, bisa-bisa anda melewatkan pemandangan langka itu.

30. FROTTAGE
Ini sering dilakukan oleh para lelaki yang sering naik kereta api dalam kota ataupun bus yang penuh sesak. Orang ini mendapatkan kepuasan dengan menggesek-gesekkan anunya ke obyek terdekat, bukan bangku, tapi ke cewek.

31. URTLING
Kegiatan menghidupkan tokoh di majalah anda. Pada gambar cewek yang ada di majalah atau foto dilubangi pas di selangkangannya atau di bagian lain sesuai selera, lalu si pelaku akan memasukkan anunya ke lubang guntingan itu dan bermasturbasi dengannya. Rasanya mungkin mendekati aslinya, tapi awas teriris kertas.

32. GYNOTIKOLOBOMASSOPHILIA
Tidak penting kalau anda tak bisa mengeja istilah super panjang dan rumit ini, yang penting anda tahu artinya, bahwa orang ini mempunyai kegemaran seksual memasukkan anunya ke dalam telinga pasangannya.

33. HUMMING
Ini variasi oral sex, dimana si cewek mengoral sambil menyenandungkan lagu favoritnya. Yang dicari adalh sensasi vibrasi pada nada rendah yang ngebass.

34. HYBRISTHOPILIA
Kepuasan yang diperoleh setelah melampiaskan amarah, misalnya dengan memaki-maki atau bersumpah serapah.

35. KERAUNOPHILIA
Hati hati kalau sedang berteduh di halte bus sewaktu hujan deras kalau ada yang mengidap kelainan ini, artinya kepuasan setelah mendengar suara gemuruh kilat.

36.KLISMAPHILIA
Kenikmatan seksual yang diperoleh dengan cara memasukkan cairan pencuci perut melalui anus.

37. KNISMOLAGNIA
Perasaan terangsang kalau digelitiki sampai kegelian.

38.MAIESIOPHILIA
Penderitanya merasa bergairah kalau melihat wanita hamil.

39. NARRATOPHILIA
Kalau punya pasangan seperti ini, anda perlu mengoleksi stensilan yang banyak. Dia merasa terangsang kalau diceritakan kisah jorok oleh pasangannya.

40.NECROPHILIA
Ini dia, aktivitas menyetubuhi mayat. Konon ini sudah dilakukan oleh orang mesir kuno. Dalam beberapa kasus, mereka tidak memperbolehkan pembalsem mendekati mayat seseorang yang baru meninggal selama beberapa hari.

41. OPHIDICISM
Kalau ini agak repot, mesti pergi dulu ke pet shop. Ini kegiatan seks dengan memanfaatkan jasa reptil, misalnya ular tak berbisa atau juga bisa belut.

42. PRISON HUMPING
Ini bisa diterjemahkan menjadi bercinta ala tahanan di penjara. Ini adalah kegiatan anal seks tanpa menggunakan minyak pelumas, mungkin bisa pakai ludah sedikit.

43. RIPPING
Terangsang kalau merobek celana atau stocking perempuan.

44. SNOWBALLING
Kalau si cewek masih mengulum sperma pasangannya (setelah oral) lalu mereka berciuman dan dia memindahkan cairan itu ke mulut pasangannya itu.

45. STIGMATOPHILIA
Sedikit beda dengan clot. Kalau yang ini merasa terangsang kalau melihat darah yang keluar akibat menstruasi.

46. TEA BAGGING
Artinya teh celup. Mencelupkan scrotum atau â€œkantung tehâ€ anda ke mulut pasangan anda berulang-ulang. Tapi ingat, jangan diperas.

47. TRANSVESTIC FETISHISM
Lelaki yang senang mengenakan pakaian perempuan. Bukan untuk mode, tapi untuk kepuasan seksual.

48. UTASSASSINOPHILIA
Seseorang merasakan kepuasan seksual kalau dia melakukannya sambil dia berkhayal bahwa dia sedang berada dalam situasi berbahaya yang bisa membuatnya tewas.

49. VOYEURISM
Perasaan terangsang yang didapat dari mengintip cewek telanjang atau pasangan yang sedang berhubungan seks.

50. WATER SPORTS
Mandi, minum ataupun bermain air seni pasangannya untuk mendapatkan kepuasan seksual.

http://siar.in/2011/50-jenis-kelainan-seks

Five Ways For Managers to Resolve Conflict By Steve Tobak

2011-10-22T05:37:00.000-07:00

Five Ways For Managers to Resolve Conflict
By Steve Tobak | October 15, 2008

Today another blogger and I mixed it up. Our editor loved it. Wonderful.

As conflict goes, it was pretty lightweight stuff. I said one thing, he said another; so what? We never have to see each other or sit in the same room together. For all I know we’re not even on the same continent.

It got me thinking. Bloggers can agree to disagree and readers can decide what resonates with them. But it’s different in the corporate world. You have to work, travel, and sit in endless meetings together. And sometimes you even have to come to … consensus. Sends a shiver down your spine, doesn’t it?

It’s tough for management teams. Sooner or later they have to agree on stuff, important stuff like operating plans, strategic goals, customer requirements, product specifications, marketing plans, budgets, channel strategy, hiring plans, layoff plans, it goes on and on.

I’ve worked with management teams that bickered about everything and couldn’t agree on anything. I’ve worked with CEOs who acted out their childhood dramas on everybody, passive aggressive managers who said one thing and did exactly the opposite, and back-stabbers who had it in for me since day one. And I was no angel either, that’s for sure.

Management teams are a veritable Petri dish for conflict. It makes you wonder how anything gets done at all. Really.

But guess what? After decades of pain and agony, I’ve actually learned a few effective ways of resolving conflict. They’re guaranteed to work. No kidding.

Five ways for managers to resolve conflict
Embrace conflict. Conflict isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If it’s open and direct, it helps in dealing with issues and building consensus. Intel’s famous for having a culture that embraces conflict called “constructive confrontation” and a useful tool called “disagree and commit.”
Challenge your own assumptions. I had a CEO who used to say that conflict is the result of people making different assumptions. Ask yourself what assumptions your position is based on, then do the same with the other person. Perhaps she has experience different from yours that might change your perspective.
Focus on the issues, not the person. When you criticize or attack someone personally you burn bridges you may never be able to repair. Stop whining and get over yourself. Focus on the real issues - technology, products, customers - you know, what the company’s actually paying you to do.
Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Remember, he’s human too. Ask for his viewpoint and test your listening skills by articulating it back to him. Then try to get him to do the same in reverse. It’s an age-old technique that works in negotiations, too.
Be open and honest. I can’t overstate this point. Much conflict comes from long-standing issues that build up over time. Since they’re never brought to the fore, they never heal and leak out in all your interactions with that person. Meet one-on-one and air it out. She probably feels the same way you do.

Last Word

The ability to drive consensus among diverse executives with unique perspectives and opinions is a serious leadership skill that’ll facilitate your climb up the corporate ladder, assuming that’s where you want to go. Happy climbing.

http://www.bnet.com/blog/ceo/five-ways-for-managers-to-resolve-conflict/1434

What Every Manager Should Learn From Sales By Steve Tobak

2011-10-22T05:35:00.000-07:00

What Every Manager Should Learn From Sales
By Steve Tobak | May 12, 2009

Business is all about customers and selling. That’s why every manager and executive should be a salesperson once in his career. The skills and lessons are indispensible and difficult to learn any other way.

I don’t care if you manage engineers, marketing, operations, or customer service; you’re still a salesperson. You sell every day. You don’t just sell products and services; you sell your projects, budget, ideas, and capabilities. And your customers aren’t just the paying kind; they include everybody you interface with.

I spent years in sales, even took a step back from a management career to learn the skills. It was the best career move I ever made. I learned some critical lessons along the way; here are five:

What Every Manager Should Learn From Sales
Shut up and listen. Nothing you’ve ever read or learned is nearly as important as what the person across from you is about to say … if you just shut up and listen. When you talk first, you lock yourself into a position or path. But if you listen, you gain far more information.
Problems create opportunities. Your biggest and best opportunities to make a difference will always be when things go wrong. How you respond in time of crisis, when somebody needs you, is a window into your true capability. And that spells opportunity if you rise to the occasion.
It’s all about relationships. There are no companies or businesses, just people. Business is all about individuals and their interrelationships. When things go wrong, that’s the glue that holds everything together. There’s no such thing as a self-sustaining business.
Your customer always does come first. Call it business Karma, but whatever you have going on, whatever you expect to accomplish on any given day, when somebody, anybody comes to you with a problem, help them first. Remember: you have way more customers than you think.
Understand motives. When you think about what you’re going to say or do, you miss an opportunity to make a difference. If, on the other hand, you ask, “how can I help you,” or ask yourself “what’s in it for her,” you’ll be in a far better position to help … and recognize opportunities.

Last Word
The beauty of selling is that you learn under fire, which naturally accelerates the learning process. There truly is no better way to learn how business really works. For more resources, check out Five Critical Negotiation Skills and Five Ways to Resolve Conflict.

http://www.bnet.com/blog/ceo/what-every-manager-should-learn-from-sales/2205

Secrets of the Top 10 Most Powerful Retailers

2011-08-30T22:47:00.000-07:00

Secrets of the Top 10 Most Powerful Retailers
By Michael Hess | August 25, 2011

This week RetailSails released its report on the top retail chains in the U.S. ranked by the industry standard of sales per square foot. One glance at the list and you’ll see that these retailers are throwing haymaker, knockout punches, with numbers that are off the charts for their categories. That they’re posting these stats over the last four quarters in a dismal economy makes it all the more impressive.

Despite the fact that these companies represent a diverse sampling of industries — from gadgets to gold to golf shirts — almost all of them have woven their success from common threads, which I’ll get to in a moment.

Here’s a look at the top 10 retailers and their sales per square foot:

1. Apple: $5,626

2. Tiffany & Co.: $2,974

3. Coach: $1,820

4. Lululemon Athletica: $1,731

5. GameStop: $1,009

6. Costco Wholesale: $998

7. Signet Jewelers: $955

8. Polo Ralph Lauren: $904

9. Whole Foods Market: $867

10. Best Buy: $831

For perspective, consider that a hot and much-admired retailer like Target has sales per square foot in the neighborhood of $290, typical of many retailers in many segments. That means that an Apple store — which might dedicate the same display space to one phone as Target does to a full rack of clothes — extracts almost 2000% more revenue from that real estate.*

So what is it that these star performers are doing to put up such extraordinary numbers? Not all of the same rules apply to every one of these companies, but all of them excel at one thing: creating “gotta have it” retail environments, products, and experiences in one or more of these ways:
They turn “I want” into “I need“: Other than Costco selling staple groceries, not one of these companies sells anything that anyone genuinely needs. But through a combination of drool-worthy products, exceptional merchandising, buzz, and fomenting what amounts to peer pressure among their target customers (”I’ve gotta have what she has!”), these companies pull off masterful manipulations of customer psychology. A discretionary want becomes a can’t-live-without need. I might get myself into trouble here, but no woman needs another handbag. If she does, she certainly doesn’t need a $1,000 Coach python handbag. But so-and-so is carrying one… and besides, they last forever, and really, you haven’t treated yourself to a nice new bag in ages. Suddenly, you need that bag. The product and the store elicit an emotional response, and emotion trumps reason.
They aren’t afraid of high prices: On the contrary, high prices are a key part of the formula for nearly all of these companies (Costco being the most notable of one or two exceptions, but it works its magic in other ways). More expensive suggests better (even if it’s not) and more exclusive (or elusive). A high price offers entry into a club of sorts. Anyone can buy a polo shirt for $20, but one with a horse on it, folded just-so on a fancy table, in a store that smells great? That screams status, and that’s worth $85. The $85 shirt buys a “membership” that the $20 shirt does not. Same goes for a $300 MP3 player, $100 yoga pants, or anything in an iconic, light blue box.
They employ “strategic scarcity”: It’s hard-wired from childhood that one of the best ways to make someone want something is to tell him he can’t have it. And many of these killer companies use this weapon, either in reality by controlling production (wait in line or you might not get one), or perception (only one purse in a heavenly-lit cubicle in a sparsely-stocked boutique). Both fuel rabid desire and support high prices. Luxury items — even some as outrageously extreme as the $2 million Bugatti Veyron supercar — often have waiting lists of buyers in the worst of economic times. Most of us aren’t in the market for that kind of transportation, but the same psychology applies when the newest video game console is predicted to sell out on release day.

For sure, the high-end usually takes a hit when times are tough. But in the long run, there is always a market for the best, or what we are made to believe is the best. Me-too companies come and go, but companies synonymous with exclusivity, aspiration, and want-over-need are often the oldest and most enduring: Rolex since 1905; Louis Vuitton since 1854; Rolls Royce since 1904.

In many ways these companies and their strategies fly in the face of conventional business wisdom. They don’t fill needs or solve problems — especially the ones typically associated with a crummy economy. They don’t necessarily target the largest possible audience. With some exceptions, they don’t even try to price competitively. What they do is trigger powerful, visceral emotions: They provide the most excitement, desire, pleasure, lust, envy and happiness per square foot.

[* It will be interesting to see if anything changes post-Jobs, but Apple has a pretty colossal lead, knows the formula, and Jobs will still have a voice for the time-being, so early bets are that they'll be just fine.]

Michael Hess is founder and CEO of online retailer Skooba Design, which designs and manufactures an award-winning line of carrying cases for laptops and other applications. He also has a background in merchandising, sales, marketing, and purchasing for bricks & mortar retailers.

Flickr photo courtesy of nechbi, CC 2.0.

http://www.bnet.com/blog/customer-relationship/secrets-of-the-top-10-most-powerful-retailers/780?promo=713&tag=nl.e713

The Secrets of Attending College Without Student Loans

2011-08-26T12:32:00.001-07:00

The Secrets of Attending College Without Student Loans

By Lynn O'Shaughnessy | Aug 25, 2011

The majority of students, who graduate from college, leave with a diploma and student loans. Two out of every five undergrads, however, earn a degree without borrowing for college. In the most recent reporting year available, that equals about 1.7 million undergrads.

Who are these lucky students? Mark Kantrowitz, the founder of FinAid, a comprehensive financial aid website, decided to find out what kind of students managed to graduate debt free.

Here is what Kantrowitz discovered:

1. 85% of students who graduated with no debt attended public colleges and universities and 78% enrolled in in-state institutions.

2. Selecting an inexpensive school was the best way to dodge student debt. Eighty eight percent of students, who graduated debt free, attended schools where the tuition was less than $10,000.

3. Only 30% of students graduating from private, nonprofit colleges left without loans.

4. Fifty-one percent of graduates of public institutions weren’t burdened with debt.

5. The best way to accumulate debt was to attend a for-profit school. Only 7% of students who enrolled in for-profit colleges graduated with zero student loans.

6. About 75% of students with no debt spent $1,000 a year or less on textbooks.

7. Fifty six percent of affluent students left college without debt.

8. More than two thirds of students, who avoided loans, received financial help from their parents.

9. Students whose parents earned advanced degrees were more likely to graduate without debt.

10. Forty-five percent of middle-income students incurred no student loans.

11. Thirty-six percent of poor students graduated with loans.

12. Half of students, who graduated with no debt, earned a degree at a community college.
Bottom Line:

While it might seem from media reports that nearly all students are reeling from college debt, a significant minority aren’t. Just as importantly, three fifths of students graduate with less than $10,000 of college loans, which should be a manageable amount for many young Americans.

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is author of The College Solution, an Amazon bestseller, and the Shrinking the Cost of College workbook. She also writes her own college blog at The College Solution.

http://moneywatch.bnet.com/spending/blog/college-solution/the-secrets-of-attending-college-without-student-loans/6414/

Today’s Students Want to Learn in New Ways

2011-08-26T12:24:00.000-07:00

Today’s Students Want to Learn in New Ways
by Ladan Nikravan on August 22, 2011 · Comments · in Ask A Gen Y

Millennials want to learn. Organizations want a return on their investment. By building the right infrastructure, leveraged by technology, companies can define new competencies and skills and align learning to them to improve performance – ultimately boosting the bottom line. Today’s students, and freshmen in the working world, want to participate in this learning — not just be receivers of information. They want an innovative way to learn; one that brings together discussions with the aid of technology. They want immediate, consistent access.

The University of Central Florida’s College of Medicine has developed a program that allows its students to use an electronic telescope to view magnifications of human cells, label those cells, take notes and quizzes on the information and email their assignments back to their instructor for feedback. Because the material is computer-based, students have access to it 24/7. This electronic lab manual encourages team learning and interaction with educational materials, characteristics that appeal to millennial-aged learners such as UCF medical students, according to Mohammed Khalil, assistant professor of anatomy at UCF. The feedback Khalil has received so far as been encouraging, and this isn’t surprising. As I’ve mentioned before, Millennials want online, collaborative learning.

Much like the generations before them, Generation Y employees bring specific learning values and ideals to employee education that will alter learning and development strategies. Companies that make an effort to understand and act upon these employees’ viewpoints will find themselves with a dedicated and ambitious group of workers.

Younger employees are joining the workforce with a background in collaborative technology; this is why they expect it from employee education. Designed by Digital Millennial Consulting, with support from Microsoft and Qualcomm Inc., Project K-Nect allows students to use smartphones to communicate with each other as they solve problems in secondary school math classes. Students videotape themselves solving a problem, and then they post the video to a blog. Students having trouble with a problem can consult the blog and see how their classmates solved it. In 2008-09 more than 90 percent of Project K-Nect Algebra 1 students achieved proficiency on end-course assessments, compared to 70 percent of Algebra 1 students in their district and 68 percent in the state. First implemented in North Carolina, this program is broadening its reach to other states to create more learning communities in the classroom.

Learning institutions that want to lure millennial students understand Gen Y’s needs. For example, Richard N. Landers, an assistant professor of psychology at Old Dominion University, created an online social network for his university’s psychology classes that encourages students to take optional multiple-choice quizzes during their free time to earn badges certifying mastery of a subject. Those badges then appear next to the player’s name in the online discussion rooms for each class. These ribbons encourage students to take extra quizzes that have absolutely no effect on their grade. This encourages learning but doesn’t make it forced or intimidating. This sort of employee education in the office classroom could yield the same enthusiasm for learning.

Attracting and keeping the best and brightest members of the young workforce requires a transformation in how learning leaders manage employee education’s motivation and tools. The newest crop of workers is collaborative and team-oriented, and at times takes access to technology for granted. But millennials’ use of technology creates a seamless environment that mingles business information with team communication, a process that can enhance personal and organizational growth.

Ladan Nikravan

Ladan Nikravan is an associate editor of Chief Learning Officer magazine. She is from Chicago, and graduated from the University of Missouri School Of Journalism, where she majored in magazine journalism, in May 2010. Prior to joining MediaTec, Ladan worked as a reporter for the Columbia Missourian newspaper, Vox magazine, Chicago Home Improvement magazine and American Builders Quarterly. Although a writer at heart, she has dipped her toes into most facets of the publishing world: feature writing, hard news and column writing; freelancing; copy editing; page design; Web design and some photography. She can be reached at lnikravan@CLOMedia.com.
Visit Authors Website →

http://blog.clomedia.com/2011/08/the-current-generation-of-students/

The Jim Rohn One-Year Success Plan

2011-06-06T15:04:00.001-07:00

Experience the power of The Jim Rohn One-Year Success Plan!

It's a one-year game plan covering the 12 pillars of success and created to help you achieve a 10%-40% increase in the following

Month 1 Personal Development - Become the person you truly desire to be by engaging in a life-long strategy of skills, knowledge and self-improvement (which will also place you in the upper echelon of your particular industry).

Month 2 Goal-setting - Achieve a sense of purpose behind every action as well as multiply your long-term success quotient by having a set of clearly defined 10-year goals.

Month 3 Health - Spiritual/Physical/Emotional - Improve your looks, confidence, energy, quality and length of life by having a consistent health/fitness philosophy and maintaining a health plan.

Month 4 Money - Financial Independence/Getting Out of Debt/Saving/Giving - Place yourself ahead of 85% of the population and increase by 90% your odds of achieving financial independence by retirement age simply by having a sound financial philosophy and proven investment plan.

Month 5 Relationships - Improve your ability to be a more effective and loving parent, spouse and friend by improving your relational skills.

Month 6 Time Management - Gain between 10 and 15 additional forty-hour work weeks per year (multiply one to two hours a day by 365 days a year) by applying more productive time management methods each day.

Month 7 Networking/Referrals - Tap into one of the greatest resources we possess and have a greater, more positive influence in the marketplace by utilizing your current relationships and networking base.

Month 8 Selling/Negotiating - Increase your production by 10%-50% without investing more time or effort by improving your selling, networking and negotiation skills.

Month 9 Communication/Presentation - Increase every level of performance related to your company, staff and individual performance, as well as all your personal relationships, by mastering the art of communication.

Month 10 Leadership - Multiply your efforts and have a positive influence over a larger sphere of people by learning effective leadership and management skills.

Month 11 Accelerated Learning - Quickly improve your skills and aptitude to gain and retain knowledge in any area (communication, time management, leadership, etc.) through Memory and Speed Reading techniques and more.

Month 12 Legacy/Contribution - Take the time to apply your skills in making a difference in your community and world; something that will have an impact on future generations.

http://www.jimrohn.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=1130&zenid=9c50679498d7737a30b86eb6f71a44bb

"Vitamins for the Mind"

2011-06-06T15:01:00.000-07:00

Vitamins for the Mind
by Jim Rohn
Service

One customer, well taken care of, could be more valuable than $10,000 worth of advertising.

Good service leads to multiple sales. If you take good care of your customers, they will open doors you could never open by yourself.

How do you deserve a fortune? Render fortunes of service.

You have to do more than you get paid for because that's where the fortune is.

Whoever renders service to many puts himself in line for greatness—great wealth, great return, great satisfaction, great reputation and great joy.

"Vitamins for the Mind" is a weekly sampling of original quotes on a specific topic taken from The Treasury of Quotes by Jim Rohn. The burgundy hardbound book with gold-foil lettering is a collection of more than 365 quotes on 60 topics gathered from Jim's personal journals, seminars and books and spanning more than 40 years. Click here to order The Treasury of Quotes.

The Miracle of Personal Development by Jim Rohn

2011-06-06T14:59:00.000-07:00

The Miracle of Personal Development by Jim Rohn

One day my mentor Mr. Shoaff said, “Jim, if you want to be wealthy and happy, learn this lesson well: Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job.”

Since that time I’ve been working on my own personal development. And I must admit that this has been the most challenging assignment of all. This business of personal development lasts a lifetime.

You see, what you become is far more important than what you get. The important question to ask on the job is not, “What am I getting?” Instead, you should ask, “What am I becoming?” Getting and becoming are like Siamese twins: What you become directly influences what you get. Think of it this way: Most of what you have today you have attracted by becoming the person you are today.

I’ve also found that income rarely exceeds personal development. Sometimes income takes a lucky jump, but unless you learn to handle the responsibilities that come with it, it will usually shrink back to the amount you can handle.

If someone hands you a million dollars, you’d better hurry up and become a millionaire. A very rich man once said, “If you took all the money in the world and divided it equally among everybody, it would soon be back in the same pockets it was before.”

It is hard to keep that which has not been obtained through personal development.

So here’s the great axiom of life:

To have more than you’ve got, become more than you are.

This is where you should focus most of your attention. Otherwise, you just might have to contend with the axiom of not changing, which is:

Unless you change how you are, you’ll always have what you’ve got.

http://www.jimrohn.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=1400&utm_source=jrn-2011_06_06&utm_medium=email&utm_content=toparticle&utm_campaign=ezines

The 7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Managers

2011-06-06T14:32:00.000-07:00

The 7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Managers
By Geoffrey James
Sales Machine Blogger

http://www.bnet.com/photos/the-7-habits-of-highly-ineffective-managers/6239073?promo=713&tag=nl.e713

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FOREWORD

The world has changed. Things are different than they were. Nothing is the same, except one thing: bad management, which is as eternal as death and taxes.

The sweeping changes in society and rumbling shifts in a globalized marketplace are giving the business world a massive tummy ache. What's needed to address this problem is a huge square "Alka-Seltzer" made out of paper.

And that's the reason for this book.

In today's world, we face challenges of many different kinds, ranging from "How should I order my coffee at Starbucks?" to "How can I get that damn 'Whip My Hair' song out of my brain?"

Our problems and pain are universal, which is why we need universal, timeless, self-evident principles common to every management team throughout history. I did not invent them and take no credit for them. I've simply identified and organized them into a coherent framework.

If you want to achieve your highest aspirations and overcome your greatest challenges, buy this book. Better yet, send me $1,000 in unmarked bills. I could use the money.

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Habit #1: Be a Know-It-All

The powers that be made YOU the boss. That's proof positive that you're smarter, better and faster than any of your employees. Make sure that they know that you could do their job better than they could do it... if you weren't so busy doing important manager stuff.

For instance, if you were in sales back when the Internet was just a twinkle in Al Gore's eye, feel free to tell your sales team exactly how to they should be approaching their opportunities.

Similarly, if you once programmed in COBOL, it's entirely appropriate to tell a programming staff exactly how to write C++ code. In fact, you should probably get into their files and make some changes, just so that they know that you're on top of their game.

Here's the thing. Everyone knows that an employee will not respect a manager who knows less than his or her employees. If you let them think that you're not as smart, they'll be clamoring for raises and bonuses! And that's money that could be going into your own pay package!

Make sure that EVERYONE in your team ALWAYS knows that you're a cut above the hoi polloi that tremble at your feet. That way they won't get uppity.

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Habit #2: Manage Numbers not People

Management pundits go on and on about empowerment and teamwork, but the simple truth is that the only thing that's REALLY important is the bottom line. Business is all about making money, and if that means making people miserable, well, so be it.

Does this mean that you shouldn't worry about employee morale? Certainly not! You should always make a point to explain, in fulsome detail, that employee morale is vitally important to the company. In fact, send out a memo to that effect! And make sure that everyone has a coffee mug with the company logo on it.

Problem solved!

Now that you've dealt with that pesky morale thing, turn your attention to the real business of management, which is squeezing out every last drop of productivity out of each employee. For example, it's always a great idea to put everyone on salary and then insist upon 60 hour weeks. It's just like getting 50 percent more people at the same price!

Hand out raises and bonuses as if each extra dollar is a major concession. Make sure that everyone knows that they're replaceable. If you deal with customers, make sure that you never, ever leave money on the table, even if it means sticking them with crap they'll never need or use.

Follow this habit religiously, and you'll always have wonderful Powerpoint decks to present to the bigwigs in board room. After all, what those guys care about are the numbers, right? Employees? Screw 'em.

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Habit #3: Embrace the Status Quo

Forget about all that crap about innovation. If something ain't broke, don't fix it.

The entire structure of the corporation is specifically designed to ensure that those in power stay in power. Since you're now in a position of power, the status quo is, by definition, the best of all possible worlds. Why would even think about making alterations?

Remember: the only people who like really changing are urine-soaked babies. For everyone else in God's green world, it's far easier to let everything stay as much same as possible.

Now, does this mean that you should reject all the wonders of modern technology? By no means! Technology is to be embraced, wholeheartedly, and then harnessed to buttress the status quo.

Take the Internet, for instance. If you don't get your employees plugged into the Web, they won't be able to get their work done. Just make sure that you monitor everything that they do and filter out any site that you don't like. That way, you make sure that whatever they do fits within the circumscribed boundaries of the status quo.

What's more, a corporate Internet is an excellent way to keep tabs on your employees. Give them smartphones and track their locations. Be sure to check all their emails, texts, and entries on social media sites. If anyone does anything you don't like, call them on the carpet, or give them the ol' heave ho.

That will teach those losers what happens when they dare to think for themselves.

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Habit #4: Divide and Conquer

The best way to manage a team is to make sure that one half hates the other half. Ideally, you want the entire group to be a seething swamp of resentment and pique -- all of it aimed at co-workers rather than you!

There are many ways to do this. First, make sure that people doing the same job are paid differently and receive different levels of recognition. If possible segment by gender or race!

Second, never pass up an opportunity to set two employees at each other throats by repeating unkind things they've said about one another. Hint: if all else fails, make something up!

Third, always have a scapegoat to take the blame if something goes wrong. Ideally, you should rotate this role, so that everyone has a chance to feel miserable... and then to beat up the next guy who gets to take the blame.

Finally, and most importantly, make certain that you're always the person to put the finishing touches on a successful project, if only to "keep peace in the family." That way, you can take the lion's share of credit while throwing some crumbs on the floor for your underlings to fight over.

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Habit #5: Do It Yourself

Here's a truism for the ages: "If you want something done right, do it yourself!"

The great heroes of this world (and that means you, bucko!) don't rely upon drones to get the job done. Heroes swoop right in and do the job right!

For example, if you're a sales manager, it's always a good idea to take over an account right before it closes. Demand to be in on a customer meeting and do the negotiations yourself! After all, why should you depend on an underling to do the job, when you can do it so much better??

Similarly, if you're managing engineers, wait until the job is almost done and then jump right in and make the changes that will make the product truly wonderful. After all, that's why you're the manager, right? It's your job to make sure that everything is high quality.

And don't believe any of that BS about the importance of delegating. Delegating is for sissies who can't think strategically. Think about all those books you've read by top CEOs like Jack Welch! Did they delegate? Of course not! They captained the ship and keel-hauled the flunkies.

Another side benefit of this habit is that your employees may eventually conclude that they can do nothing without you. Now that's job security!

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Habit #6: Expect Mindreading

The best way to keep employees on their toes is to make sure that they never know exactly what you're thinking.

If you're asked your opinion on something, always say: "Well, that depends." If you're asked for a decision, always say: "I have it under consideration" or (if you're feeling particularly frisky that day) "I have it under active consideration."

When you assign projects, always be as vague as possible about what you'd like to see. Think of it as a way to spur creativity! Then, when you're asked to review the project when it's complete, simply say: "That's not it." Then smile, give the employee a friendly pat on the back, and say: "Back to the drawing board!"

Think of it this way. Business is like poker, and if you're going to win at poker, you can't let your opponent know when you're bluffing or whether you're holding four aces. You don't want to be the kind of moon-faced fool who gives away his strategy to all and sundry, do you?

Remember: Your ability to remain in power is directly dependent upon your ability to keep your employees confused and disoriented. After all, if they know what they're supposed to be doing, why would they need a manager?

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Habit #7: Sharpen the Axe

As the Boy Scouts say: "Be Prepared!" And in the world of management that means being prepared to fire your underlings at a moment's notice.

Of course, you can't (unfortunately) kill underlings with an axe any longer, so you must now interpret the 7th habit metaphorically. In this case, "sharpen the axe" means making certain that you don't care a rat's behind whether your employees live or die.

One way to "sharpen the axe" is to select role models from the most successful CEOs of the past 20 years. Most of them have built their careers on exporting jobs and downsizing domestically. Why, some have even managed to build supply chains that depend upon slave labor and child labor in the third world. Then they can fire U.S. workers by the thousands!

Go ye forth and do likewise!

Another way to "sharpen the axe" is to read plenty of Ayn Rand, whose philosophy of business is tantamount a "soul-ectomy." After you've read enough Rand, you'll find it impossible to care about all those moochers and losers who aren't as successful as you.

Finally, if all else fails, you can "sharpen the axe" simply by remembering the motto immortalized in The Sopranos: "It's not personal... it's just business."

Five tips for dealing with presentation nerves

2011-05-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

Five tips for dealing with presentation nerves
by Les Posen

"Starting about 60,000 years ago, our brains developed a marvelous system of providing us with remarkable defenses against environmental threats. Sometimes, those defenses are set-and-forget types, such as automatically blinking when a bug hits your windscreen, even though you “know” you’re protected. Other times, an evolutionary newer part of our brain where we make decisions and plans—the part that makes us most human—warns us of an upcoming threat. In the case of presenting, it might be fears of not connecting, or of our ideas not being accepted, or of going blank in front of 500 pairs of eyes. In historical terms, we still possess the fear of what it means to be stared at by so many people: Either we are the monarch, or more likely, we are the next sacrifice! Through evidence-based research and practice, clinical and performance psychologists have developed ways to help suppress these learned and ingrained fears, especially when we know we can perform well if only we give ourselves the chance. There are five interventions I teach and want to share with you:

1. Chunking and exposure.
Identify and break down your presenting challenges into small manageable chunks, and deliberately expose yourself to each of them step by step.
2. Rehearsal.
Beyond just practicing your slide timings, actually visualize and hear yourself say the words with your slides. You see yourself in front of the crowd and rehearse your presentation to a variety of audience reactions, both positive and negative.
3. Self-talk.
Anxiety grabs onto self-critical talk such as “I’ll do a terrible job. What happens if the slide show fails. What happens if they don’t laugh at my jokes.” Your task is not to feed your anxiety with this type of talk, but to change it into “I can do this. I will follow my rehearsed plans. This is manageable.”
4. Arousal control via diaphragmatic breathing.
Calm your brain’s fear center with slow, deliberate breaths with slightly longer exhales. Slower rhythm (rather than deep breathing) is helpful for fear management.
5. Deliberate practice.
Practice your beginning, identify challenging concepts, and practice, practice, practice—out loud. These techniques work, and I use them myself as well as with clients. They are powerful and will prove useful in scenarios other than presenting."

The tips from Les Posen above are not the last word on dealing with presentation anxiety, but these bits of advice can certainly help. One of the biggest tips to remember as well is to be well prepared. A big source of difficulty comes when speakers simply have not prepared. The only thing scarier than presenting in front of a crowd is doing so while being ill-prepared and unsure of yourself and your content.

http://www.presentationzen.com/

Why You Don't Feel Rich

2011-05-28T18:02:00.001-07:00

Why You Don't Feel Rich

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/05/27/why-you-dont-feel-rich.aspx

Morgan Housel
May 27, 2011

A Princeton study last fall showed extra income didn't affect most people's happiness above about $75,000 a year. Another study by Gallup found the happiest people in America earn $120,000 a year.

These folks may be happy. Just don't call them rich.

Survey after survey shows many Americans wouldn't consider themselves "rich" until they had a net worth of $5 million-$10 million. British publisher Felix Dennis says you aren't rich until you have at least $150 million. Russian oligarch Sergei Polonsky says anyone without a billion dollars "can go to hell."

The question over what's considered "rich" became important a few years ago after some politicians suggested anyone making more than $250,000 could afford a tax hike. Plenty found this absurd, and perhaps rightly -- what $250,000 buys varies wildly depending on geography. A quarter-million bucks in North Dakota buys a ranch. In New York City it (literally) buys a parking space.

But there's more to it than that. Consider this chart, showing household income distribution by percentiles:

Source: Tax Policy Center.

Those earning $250,000 a year might not feel rich, but in reality they're in the 97th percentile nationwide -- they earn more than 97% of tax filers. Objectively looking at the data without considering what earning $250,000 feels like, it's hard to call that level of income anything other than … dare I say … rich. Most who scored higher than 97% of the nation on a test would consider themselves smart. Those who run faster than 97% of everyone else would consider themselves in good shape. Income is an oddity in that many of those statistically near the top still feel inadequate. Daniel Gross of Slate put it more bluntly: "For those of you making more than $250,000, I regret to inform you: Yes, you are indeed rich -- any way you slice it."

Why so many disagree with that statement could also be explained by this chart. What's important is how flat income distribution is until you get to the upper-90 percentiles, where the slope explodes skywards.

Affluence is an enormously subjective measure. The field of behavioral finance shows that the feeling of wealth isn't based on how much money one earns, but how much money one earns in comparison to peers. Michael Shermer, author of Mind of the Market, points out that most people would rather earn $50,000 when the average is $25,000 than earn $100,000 when the average is $250,000. Similarly, the increase in how wealthy additional income makes us feel has less to do with the amount of income than it does how many of our peers that additional income pushes us ahead of.

The flatness throughout most of the income distribution gives a huge boost to this phenomenon. If someone earning $35,000 a year doubles their income to $70,000, they move from the 43rd percentile to the 67th percentile -- a massive move that pushes them ahead of many peers. They've gained social ground. They feel much better off.

But then the slope explodes. If someone making $250,000 doubles their income to $500,000, they move from the 97th percentile to the 98th percentile -- almost no gain at all. They may not surpass a single peer even after doubling their income. They don't feel better off because, socially, they're not.

The upward climb becomes more onerous from there. Increasing your income from $800,000 to $2.1 million pushes you from the 99.5th percentile to the 99.9th percentile. Financially, you're making millions more. Socially, you've gained almost no ground whatsoever. And remember, it's the latter that guides how rich you feel.

Jason Zweig, in his excellent book Your Money and Your Brain, shows how powerful this can be. In a survey of 800 people with a net worth of at least $500,000, 19% said that having enough money was a constant worry. For those with a net worth of at least $10 million, 33% felt this way. "Somehow," Zweig writes, "as wealth grows, worry grows even faster."

That, more or less, is why those making $250,000 don't feel rich. It's not that they don't earn a lot. It's that passing new social hurdles becomes so difficult that relative wealth -- all that really matters -- declines. To paraphrase Pablo Picasso, they're poor people living with lots of money.

Check back every Tuesday and Friday for Morgan Housel's columns on finance and economics.

3 Must-Have Investments for Your Retirement

2011-05-28T18:01:00.001-07:00

3 Must-Have Investments for Your Retirement

http://www.fool.com/retirement/general/2011/05/27/3-must-have-investments-for-your-retirement.aspx

Dan Caplinger
May 27, 2011

Planning for a financially secure retirement may seem like an impossible task, but it's not. With the right investments in your portfolio, you can reach goals you might have thought were out of your reach. The key, though, is making sure you have all your bases covered with a coherent, sensible plan.

The danger of haphazard planning
All too often, people's portfolios end up looking like the financial equivalent of a teenager's bedroom. See if this looks familiar to you: Many people end up with a hodgepodge of different stocks and funds picked up at various times and then forgotten about. And for those fortunate enough to have a 401(k) or similar employer-sponsored retirement plan at work, plenty of folks simply pick a single investment option and let things roll on autopilot for years without any attention.

Obviously, that's not the right way to plan for retirement. Using a simple asset allocation strategy is the best way to build a diversified portfolio that will build your wealth throughout your career. But there are some key components that many people leave out of their asset allocations, and without them, you could be putting your financial health at risk. Let's talk about three of those key elements of a successful plan.

1. Own international investments.
For a long time, financial professionals recommended that investors keep most of their money close to home. With political turmoil around the world and a lack of information, investing in little-known foreign stocks involved quite a bit of risk.

But now, times have changed. The global economy has made it not only possible but essential to keep your finger on the pulse of worldwide news and business conditions. Moreover, with the rise of foreign economies, keeping all your eggs in the U.S. basket is risky -- as the fall of the dollar in recent years has reminded investors.

Fortunately, ETFs have made international investing simple. Vanguard Total International ETF (Nasdaq: VXUS ) provides balanced exposure to both developed and emerging markets around the world. If you prefer to focus only on the faster-growing emerging economies, iShares MSCI Emerging Markets (NYSE: EEM ) owns many big stocks in countries including Brazil, China, and India. Either way, going beyond your borders can enhance your returns.

2. Keep it real.
Many companies thrive by taking raw materials and creating products that add significant value. But as some of the world's biggest countries grow more prosperous, demand for those raw materials may well supplant the value added later in the production process.

We've certainly seen that trend play out in recent years. Despite plenty of bumps along the way, oil and gasoline prices remain at high levels. Shareholders in rare-earth metal play Molycorp (NYSE: MCP ) have profited handsomely as concerns about supplies of strategically important metals have led to international trade restrictions and raised national security issues. From Suncor's (NYSE: SU ) big investments in oil sands to unconventional oil and gas plays throughout the world, the race to secure natural resources has heated up.

Increasingly, you have several options to invest in this trend. Mining and energy stocks are the longtime favorite, but ETFs like Sprott Physical Gold Trust now exist whose sole purpose is to hold raw commodities. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages, but no matter how you get it, some type of exposure to the vital inputs to economic production is essential.

3. Get some income.
Historically, investors haven't worried about income until they've actually reached retirement and need the money. But now, you need to plan for the contingency of having to draw income from your investments before you reach retirement age.

That's where income investments come in. Bonds and bank CDs are traditional ways to avoid the risk of stocks, but their rates are at rock-bottom levels right now. Meanwhile, several blue-chip stocks have very attractive yields at current prices. Combined with more exotic investments including real-estate investment trusts and master limited partnerships, it's easy to generate the dividend income you need to supplement your cash flow. With REIT Chimera Investment (NYSE: CIM ) yielding well over 10% and MLP Cheniere Energy Partners (AMEX: CQP ) pushing the 10% mark, there's no shortage of reasonable -- though definitely not risk-free -- choices for you to consider.

Don't miss out
A comfortable retirement may seem out of reach given today's economic challenges. But don't give up. By making sure your investment portfolio includes these three types of investments, you'll improve your chances of having the retirement you've always dreamed of.

If you're trying to retire rich, you need to know the basics. Our 13 Steps to Investing Foolishly will get you on track to a great financial plan in no time.

Are You a Good Boss—or a Great One?

2011-01-02T07:31:00.000-08:00

Are You a Good Boss—or a Great One?
by Linda A. Hill and Kent Lineback

“Am I good enough?”

“Am I ready? This is my big opportunity, but now I’m not sure I’m prepared.”

These thoughts plagued Jason, an experienced manager, as he lay awake one night fretting about a new position he’d taken. For more than five years he had run a small team of developers in Boston. They produced two highly successful lines of engineering textbooks for the education publishing arm of a major media conglomerate. On the strength of his reputation as a great manager of product development, he’d been chosen by the company to take over an online technical-education start-up based in London.

Jason arrived at his new office on a Monday morning, excited and confident, but by the end of his first week he was beginning to wonder whether he was up to the challenge. In his previous work he had led people who’d worked together before and required coordination but little supervision. There were problems, of course, but nothing like what he’d discovered in this new venture. Key members of his group barely talked to one another. Other publishers in the company, whose materials and collaboration he desperately needed, angrily viewed his new group as competition. The goals he’d been set seemed impossible—the group was about to miss some early milestones—and a crucial partnership with an outside organization had been badly, perhaps irretrievably, damaged. On top of all that, his boss, who was located in New York, offered little help. “That’s why you’re there” was the typical response whenever Jason described a problem. By Friday he was worried about living up to the expectations implied in that response.

Do Jason’s feelings sound familiar? Such moments of doubt and even fear may and often do come despite years of management experience. Any number of events can trigger them: An initiative you’re running isn’t going as expected. Your people aren’t performing as they should. You hear talk in the group that “the real problem here is lack of leadership.” You think you’re doing fine until you, like Jason, receive a daunting new assignment. You’re given a lukewarm performance review. Or one day you simply realize that you’re no longer growing and advancing—you’re stuck.
Most Managers Stop Working on Themselves

The whole question of how managers grow and advance is one we’ve studied, thought about, and lived with for years. As a professor working with high potentials, MBAs, and executives from around the globe, Linda meets people who want to contribute to their organizations and build fulfilling careers. As an executive, Kent has worked with managers at all levels of both private and public organizations. All our experience brings us to a simple but troubling observation: Most bosses reach a certain level of proficiency and stop there—short of what they could and should be.

We’ve discussed this observation with countless colleagues, who almost without exception have seen what we see: Organizations usually have a few great managers, some capable ones, a horde of mediocre ones, some poor ones, and some awful ones. The great majority of people we work with are well-intentioned, smart, accomplished individuals. Many progress and fulfill their ambitions. But too many derail and fail to live up to their potential. Why? Because they stop working on themselves.

Managers rarely ask themselves, “How good am I?” and “Do I need to be better?” unless they’re shocked into it. When did you last ask those questions? On the spectrum of great to awful bosses, where do you fall?
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Linda A. Hill is the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Kent Lineback spent many years as a manager and an executive in business and government. They are the coauthors of Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader (Harvard Business Review Press, 2011), from which this article is adapted.

Three Year-End Innovation Takeaways from Asia

2011-01-02T07:29:00.001-08:00

Three Year-End Innovation Takeaways from Asia

10:00 AM Wednesday December 29, 2010
Scott Anthony
On: Disruptive innovation, Technology, Competition

Our soon ending year, 2010, has been fascinating. I've had the good fortune to move to a new place (Singapore), which has served as a springboard to experience different cultures and do work in countries like the Philippines and South Korea. I've also had the chance to experience the world of venture capital investing through the small fund that our team in Singapore manages on behalf of the Singapore government.

There are three important things I will take away from this year:

The West is overly discounting Asia's growth potential. I argued a few months ago that the innovation axis was shifting from the West to the East. Silicon Valley remains the global hot spot of innovation, and America continues to churn out innovative companies like Groupon and Bloom Energy. But Eastern companies and entrepreneurs are gaining traction. Chinese companies like BYD are well positioned to lead the electrical vehicle market. Indonesia features a vibrant Internet ecosystem, with emerging startups providing unique services to the local context. Singapore is positioning itself as the global exchange, where West meets East and where India and China are both reachable via relatively short direct flights. And India's nation of entrepreneurs is driving change in market after market. The period of growth that Asia is enjoying still involves a heavy dose of replication and leveraging raw resources, but Western companies that discount the region's innovation potential do so at their own peril.

Innovation has never been more accessible. In October, I described how two entrepreneurs told us about the business they had built — featuring a fully functional website and lead customers — for less than $10,000. I argued in that post that the increasing ease of innovation meant that entrepreneurs were destined to become commodities. That point led to spirited discussion with my VC friends. All things being equal, of course, you'd rather have a skilled entrepreneur than an unskilled one. But just like Autotune and other technologies that allow passable music talents to turn into global powerhouses, lower costs and increased understanding of the process of innovation can allow anyone to be a competent entrepreneur. Companies in industries with fraying barriers to entry need to think about shifting their focus from fighting upstarts to working with them. Companies in industries with strong barriers to entry should think about taking advantage of the increased understanding of innovation to create businesses that only they can.

We're on the verge of a golden age of innovation. The 20th century innovator who had the most impact was probably Henry Ford. By showing the power of scale economics, he ushered in an era where behemoths created processes to spread their businesses around the globe. This quest for efficiency naturally crowded out more exploratory innovation efforts. Entrepreneurs and venture capitalists filled the void in some sectors of the world economy. Academic researchers began to focus more deeply on what historically seemed like the black art of innovation. Big companies began to attempt to manage innovation in a systematic way. As this knowledge continues to build and propagate, I believe there could be a wave of powerful innovation that addresses global challenges like poverty and resource scarcity. In particular, watch for markets that historically were inhospitable to entrepreneurs. There are some businesses that really could only be launched by large, established companies. As these companies figure out how to realize their full innovation potential, we could see some amazing things.

There is lots of work to be done, of course. There are two areas in particular that I think need greater attention from the innovation community:

The human side of innovation must be addressed. Innovation is, of course, an intensely human behavior. Increasingly, I've heard people at large companies ask how to create human resource systems that support innovation. The first thing I tell them is to make sure they aren't following policies that penalize innovation, particularly policies that punish prudent risk taking. But that's obviously not enough. We need to figure out how to create more systematic ways to track, measure, and reward people following behaviors consistent with successful innovation. We need to make sure we have systems that balance short and long term performance. Finally, we need to develop training programs that give leaders the necessary skills to master the paradoxes that increasingly appear on management's agenda. One book that I'm looking forward to reading next year on this topic is Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen and Clayton Christensen's work on The Innovator's DNA.

More focus must go to solving the first mile problem. I've been increasingly telling people that the key to successful innovation is to become a Latter-Day Edison. I particularly point to two great Edison quotes: "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration," and "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Most big companies are built to scale businesses, not start them. In my experience, the biggest challenge is the first mile — when a company takes that critical first step from a plan that looks great on paper to a revenue- and profit-producing business. Of course they can outsource the creation of new businesses to entrepreneurs, but they then have to pay hefty acquisition premiums for the successful opportunities, and they lose the ability to leverage all of their capabilities. Earlier this year, my colleagues Matt Eyring and Clark Gilbert wrote a must-read Harvard Business Review article that provides a conceptual way to address this challenge ("Beating the Odds When You Launch a New Venture"). The next step is developing the processes, tools, systems and structures to help companies more reliably pave the first mile of growth.

Next year, I plan to continue to do my best to make the best innovation thinking accessible to readers, with a particular focus on the ideas in this article. Happy holidays, and thanks for reading.

12 Things Good Bosses Believe

2011-01-02T07:25:00.001-08:00

12 Things Good Bosses Believe

9:32 AM Friday May 28, 2010

Bob Sutton
On: Managing people, Managing yourself, Motivation

What makes a boss great? It's a question I've been researching for a while now. In June 2009, I offered some analysis in HBR on the subject, and more recently I've been hard at work on a book called Good Boss, Bad Boss (published in September by Business Plus).

In both cases, my approach has been to be as evidence-based as possible. That is, I avoid giving any advice that isn't rooted in real proof of efficacy; I want to pass along the techniques and behaviors that are grounded in sound research. It seems to me that, by adopting the habits of good bosses and shunning the sins of bad bosses, anyone can do a better job overseeing the work of others.

At the same time, I've come to conclude that all the technique and behavior coaching in the world won't make a boss great if that boss doesn't also have a certain mindset.
My readings of peer-reviewed studies, plus my more idiosyncratic experience studying and consulting to managers in many settings, have led me identify some key beliefs that are held by the best bosses — and rejected, or more often simply never even thought about, by the worst bosses. Here they are, presented as a neat dozen:
I have a flawed and incomplete understanding of what it feels like to work for me.
My success — and that of my people — depends largely on being the master of obvious and mundane things, not on magical, obscure, or breakthrough ideas or methods.
Having ambitious and well-defined goals is important, but it is useless to think about them much. My job is to focus on the small wins that enable my people to make a little progress every day.
One of the most important, and most difficult, parts of my job is to strike the delicate balance between being too assertive and not assertive enough.
My job is to serve as a human shield, to protect my people from external intrusions, distractions, and idiocy of every stripe — and to avoid imposing my own idiocy on them as well.
I strive to be confident enough to convince people that I am in charge, but humble enough to realize that I am often going to be wrong.
I aim to fight as if I am right, and listen as if I am wrong — and to teach my people to do the same thing.
One of the best tests of my leadership — and my organization — is "what happens after people make a mistake?"
Innovation is crucial to every team and organization. So my job is to encourage my people to generate and test all kinds of new ideas. But it is also my job to help them kill off all the bad ideas we generate, and most of the good ideas, too.
Bad is stronger than good. It is more important to eliminate the negative than to accentuate the positive.
How I do things is as important as what I do.
Because I wield power over others, I am at great risk of acting like an insensitive jerk — and not realizing it.

What do you say: does that about cover it? If not, tell me what I missed. Or if you're not quite sure what I mean in these brief statements, stay tuned. Over the coming weeks, I'll be digging into each one of them in more depth, touching on the research evidence and illustrating with examples.

If you're like most people I meet, you've had your share of bad bosses — and probably at least one good one. What were the attitudes the good one held? And what great, workplace-transforming beliefs could your worst boss never quite embrace?

Robert Sutton is Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. He studies and writes about management, innovation, and the nitty-gritty of organizational life. His new book is Good Boss, Bad Boss.

http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=307422170&gid=102813&type=member&item=38977176&articleURL=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs%2Ehbr%2Eorg%2Fanthony%2F2010%2F12%2F31_innovation_questions%2Ehtml%3Futm_source%3Dtwitterfeed%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter&urlhash=H0nV&goback=%2Egde_102813_member_38977176

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Shankar Raman 7 months ago

Bob,

Thanks. This is terrific.

I like Tara's reformulation. I have two additional rules that I try to follow: I will put people in positions where their strengths are used to the best effect and will not put them in roles where their strengths are not used.

Additionally, I am accountable and responsible for the success and failure of my people. If some one in my team screws up it's because, more often than not, they were not set up adequately for success.

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Tara Rodden Robinson 7 months ago in reply to Shankar Raman

Hi Shankar,

Thanks for the kind feedback and kudos for the additions. Well done!

Thanks,
Tara

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hezi Lapid 7 months ago in reply to Tara Rodden Robinson

I would add: Keep your ears and mind "open" to your people

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Silas 6 months ago in reply to hezi Lapid

I would add the very popular one (in DK anyway): Even though I'm the boss, I too can be replaced, and on that note I'm equal to my employees and should act accordingly.

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Tathagat Varma 7 months ago

Bob,

This is super stuff. I treat this as human-centric leadership - this leadership is really all about being one of the regular guys and not someone who was hand-crafted by the angels (or the elite campuses) as someone special! This takes away the notion of a Superman / Demigod leader and establishes a leader who is as fallible as his/her followers, is vlunerable, is not a perfect ten, and so on.

If I were to just add one more thing to make it a Baker's Dozen, that would be developing the followers - the best bosses I have seen and worked with were the ones who generously gave away their territory to their not-yet-quite-so-ready followers and without feeling intimidated or uncomfortable about loss of their own 'position' or 'power'. I think the good bosses manage businesses very well, the very good bosses lead followers very well, but the excellent ones grow leaders better then themselves, often at the cost of making themselves redundant.

regards,
Tathagat
(Edited by author 7 months ago)

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Mmartinak 6 months ago in reply to Tathagat Varma

The part about followers is wonderful. You have to be generous enough to help your followers to the leadership role, even if that means they leave to go to a better job elsewhere.

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Reader 6 months ago

When I was working at IBM I pleaded for evidence-based evaluations through all the channels available to me as an employee. One manager told me "You won't get examples" when I asked for examples regarding my performance. Other colleagues were also stunned, if not mentally shocked by their evaluations, by both written and verbal comments. A few colleagues brought there evaluations to me and I was stunned too by how they were being evaluated. The managers appeared to be extremely insecure and lacked the emotional intelligence required to even consider the 12 things good bosses believe. Sadly, the company culture is based on severe intimidation and disrespect and promotes competition amongst it's employees. Myself and a number of other colleagues had to get treated for trauma and left the company. I would like to see workplace bullying or workplace abuse become a health hazard that companies by law have to warn their employees about. Unfortunately, HR is a watch dog for the company regarding labor laws and human rights. HR only ensures that the company is not sued and is completely indifferent to the "human resources" as human beings. Big changes are needed in these types of people abusing corporations.

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Christine 6 months ago in reply to Reader

Many years ago, I remember telling a boss I worked with, that he should not confuse hatred and fear for respect. Meaning that his management style earned him hatred from his employees and the first chance they would get, they would jump ship and watch him drown alone.
I would agree that companies have a responsibility to ensure that bullying and abuse is not tolerated. I also agree that HR has a responsibility to enforce the company's respectful workplace policy. If your organization has a clear policy, it must include training, education and awareness. It should also include consequences. As an HR representative and a Training and Development Specialist, I encourage all employees to say it if they see it. I believe that if you allow your team the courage to address issues, challenge inefficiencies or inequalities, and confront any behaviour that goes against the organization’s values, you will have a solid and healthy organization. In my experience, Bosses, who encourage this, are rewarded with dedicated teams who will not let him/her drown alone.

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Brivera215 6 months ago in reply to Christine

I so agree with you. At my last two jobs I would have abandoned ship because my boss saw nothing further than the sight of his nose. HR was oblivious to the abuse and the harassing environment the workers were put through everyday. My co-workers like to intimate their subordinates and it was of no consequence to them. Unfortunately, turn-over was constant but not in the right places. I now have a great boss, and she is smart, respectful, doesn't micro-manage and has a great team. I would never want her to get in trouble by her boss due to our lack of diligence. I would not let her drown alone. We should all be able to work in an environment as I do now. If we follow these steps in not just our work place but in everyday challenges we to will have much success. Thank you for your reply.

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UK 6 months ago in reply to Reader

This is so relevant to my scenario. I worked for LG. My Manager never gave my Performance Review and when I asked him for it. He said you were not at your desk. What a sign of an excellent Manager? There are only 45 engineers in all and every year 20 of them leave to find best opportunities. HR doesn't care about losing valuable employees and VP cares less. In all, I am happy I left this place. I worked hard, spent so many nights at my workplace in part screwing my personal relationships and on top of it, a Manager who gained his spot solely because he wouldn't confront VP (Because of Culture - you come to Land of Opportunities but can't leave forbidden culture behind - Excellente). What a wonderful match made in Management Matrimony.

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shirley dockerill 6 months ago in reply to Reader

and what happens when it's the bullies who inhabit HR?

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joanie 7 months ago

Great insight! I really like what you've said here and I may have missed what I'm going to say in the follow-up, but I don't see anything about expectations. A wonderful global HR director once told me...people need 3 things...To know what's expected. To know how they are doing in terms of those expectations and to know how you(as their boss) are going to help them get there.
Seems to me, a good boss would have to buy into this.

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Ashok Kumar J. 7 months ago

Hi Robert,

All the 12 points were terrific. I believe the 13th should showing Love to the employees.... haha! you can stop laughing now, I ain't kidding. Sit and talk with the employee and make them feel special and make them feel like its their own firm at the same time have control over them. Engage them at the work place. This works for me!

Thanks.

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Judy Nelson, JD, MSW, CPC 7 months ago

The high number of responses to this post is an indicator of how important your words are. In fact, looking back on 30 years as a CEO, my own cluelessness about how I came across was the biggest barrier to greater effectiveness. Now, how can we help upcoming leaders figure this out early in their careers rather than at the end?

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Demetrius Nunes 6 months ago

I only disagree with number 10. Sometimes, focusing on what's right (ie. doing more of it) is as or more important than trying to fix what's wrong.

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Christian Maurer 5 months ago in reply to Demetrius Nunes

I support your view. Gallup has extensively researched the benefits of building on strengths rather than eliminate weaknesses.

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Geri Stengel 7 months ago

Your 12 attributes of leadership are a valuable contribution because they emphasis two dimensions of leadership that is sometimes overlooked: Daily behavior and treatment of employees. Every good leader stands on the shoulders of good employees.

Happily, our beliefs are supported by new research that showed even employees on the bottom-rung of the ladder can improve profitability if treated well.

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penyart 7 months ago

I think the optimism of the boss, and not just towards the job and career, but towards the people and life in general, lead to a team that outperforms others. With an optimistic approach the other 12 points occur without them seeming overbearing.

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Orangeball 6 months ago

How about: Good bosses (aka leaders) ask lots of questions. Bad bosses (aka managers) make lots of statements.

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Charlie Derr 7 months ago

Maybe it's just me but I find the tone of many of these a bit obnoxious. The content is good, but the constant use of the "possessive" form is really grating to me. Wouldn't we all rather work for someone who doesn't convey ownership when speaking about us?

To be explicit I'm referring to phrases such as "my team" or "my people". I think creative humans deserve more autonomy than that.
thanks for listening,
~c

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Monica 4 months ago in reply to Charlie Derr

I see it as rather a matter of affiliation than ownership of the team. People in my team refer to my team as "my team" just as well.

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Bryan 7 months ago

A very interesting article, and discussion to follow.

I cannot help but think that rule number 1 for me is to show my people sufficient respect that they know that I will correct them if they are doing something wrong, for otherwise they can never have confidence that they are doing anything right.

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Bob Sutton 7 months ago in reply to Bryan

Bryan,

I think this is a key point, and consistent with evidence that the best bosses and workgroups and subordinates do not let mistakes slide. Their is constant error identification, correction, and learning in an atmosphere of trust -- Amy Edmondson's research shows this for example. Thanks, Bob

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Nathan 1 month ago in reply to Bob Sutton

Bob,

"There...", A bit anal retentive I accept, but extremely pertinent to your comment.

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Peter 1 month ago in reply to Bob Sutton

And as long as they recognise the good work and regularly praise this. This will realy boost confidence.

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Luis Eduardo Dejo 7 months ago

What about life-work balance? Is there anything there in good bosses?

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Elizabeth Chee 7 months ago

Great article! I couldn't help chuckle over #5. Two more to think about would be an article that I have read in the NY Times, "The secret to happy employees", some time back which I thought was really true.
1. Bad Management can make good employees dysfunctional while Good Management may not always make a dysfunctional employee good.
Something more pragmatic below:
2. To keep employees happy - Continue to treat the happy ones well and let the unhappy ones go. (This one reinforces #10 :) )

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Bob Sutton 7 months ago

I want to thank everyone for the very thoughtful comments, but I especially and struck by Marc and Richard. Marc wanted more specificity about the context and Richard wrote commented how hard it was to do all this stuff. Those are both excellent comments, and to me, get at two elements of leadership that I did not explore here, but are important to emphasize. Both stem from my belief that management is a craft that -- although it can be practiced better by people who know the evidence -- can only be learned through experience and a process of trial and error. And just because you can practice the craft well in one place does not mean you can practice it well in another, as there is organizational specific knowledge to learn. To me, this means that -- although evidence-based guidelines like these can help over the long haul, if anyone tells you that they have magic list that will make you a great boss, they are lying. At the same time, and this is for Marc, if I carefully parsed the conditions under which each of these or any other guidelines should be used more or less, and all the other boundary conditions, it would be so complex that the list would be dull and useless. I also believe that it is generally useless to do so because management requires so much craft knowledge and experience and local knowledge that academics are ill-suited to make such precise pronouncements. I believe the best we can do is to help bosses practice their craft a bit better, to learn from setbacks a bit faster, and suffer a bit less along the way, but I have no magic to offer.

Thanks again for the great comments. I will be explaining these points during the coming couple weeks, which i hope will answer some of the questions raised, and provoke many others as well.

Bob Sutton

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Abhijit Kar 7 months ago

Hi Bob, thanks for sharing these thoughts. Another important point in my opinion is: The art of listening and interpreting the intended message correctly, followed by an appropriate and visible action - whatever the issue is, and however small it may be - once it reaches your ears. Listen, listen and listen....then act decisively, is the sign of a true leader/boss.

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Richard Guha 7 months ago

It strikes me that these excellent findings are incredibly difficult to do. As someone who has both experienced others' failures in this area, and done a fair bit of failing myself (hindsight is always 20:20), the level of self-awareness required is as much as challenge as in relationships in our personal lives. Perhaps each of needs to learn from the mistakes of others and ourselves. I have seen so many people, who experiencing flawed bosses, determined to do better, but when given the opportunity, failed to do so. Sadly, in most cases they thought they were great bosses, even to the extent of publicly self-congratulating themselves. I wish there were a way to hold a mirror up to each of us, other than the ridiculous 360 reviews, which I have seen used to pay off old scores or for political purposes more than for valid feedback. So how do we get managers to learn how to become closer to this ideal?

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Christine 7 months ago

Bad is definitely stronger than good. It only takes one bad experience for a person to choose to leave an organization or a customer to stop buying from one. Inevitably people are more likely to avoid and / or complain about bad service or products than recommend and / or give positive feedback about good ones. There is a lot of different research to support this. I'm interested to see what people think about it when presented.

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garymonti 7 months ago

Robert, This is succinct. In line with this, I've found when hiring people a question worth asking is, "What do you do when you make a mistake?" The conversation around this question reveals the most about myself and the prospective hire and is a good indicator of how we could (or could not) move forward.

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Cathy MacMillan 7 months ago

Having worked for a very cruel boss and now being a boss myself, I think the most important rule is to treat your employees as you would like to be treated as an employee. Let them be in control of their lives in all aspects. It's empowering, respectful, and deserved. After all, your business is built by the sweat of their labour.

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Carmilla5 5 months ago

In all my years of working (30+) I have yet to work with a 'good boss'. Most leaders/managers cannot manage themselves, let alone anyone else. It seems the best managers are actually not managing as part of their job description it comes as part of someone's nature.

As a 'boss' you are not going to keep everyone happy all of the time but I believe honesty, clear communication, vulnerability, clear boundaries & an intent of the best in every dealing will certainly help any boss along to get the best out of their team.

I think it is a fine line but the guy I work for at present is probably about 16 emotionally, is off the planet most of the time worrying about his marriage and not doing very much to help it whilst being no support to his team, oblivious to really the running of the place yet marching out orders continually without any forethought to what he actually wants. I am critical because his ineffectual behaviour is teaching me how to be a better team player and seeing when things don't work then knowing how things might work better.

After asking him for more feedback, appreciation, praise, I have had one thank you in 5 months which was said as a rather sarcastic throw away line. You ask why I stay? Well I have learnt much in this job (PA for a busy surgeon) and will take away much good fodder for my next career after a wonderful 2 month stay in Paris/UK for my 50th birthday in November, so I am not here much longer, thank goodness!

Carmilla x

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Bob Sutton 5 months ago in reply to Carmilla5

Carmilla,

Thanks for the thoughtful comment. In fact, speaking of thanks, as your story imply, it just amazes me how some bosses -- and peers and yes subordinates too -- don't bother to say those little words. One of my favorite management books ever, Up The Organization, by the late Robert Townsend (which was written before blogs existed, but is sort of a series of great blog posts) has an entire page that says only "THANKS. A really neglected form of compensation." In fact, I think I will put this on my blog right now! Bob

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Carmilla5 5 months ago in reply to Bob Sutton

Bob, thanks for your reply. After watching the Undercover Boss last night on telly, it just hammered this thank you issue in even more. Watching big boss from White Castle, acknowledge, give thanks, support & financial backing to many staff who as 'small fry' or a blip on the map was absolutely moving. I imagined myself receiving such praise & support and my heart lifted and I could feel a change in my whole being from just being seen. I am upped with the future of work/life because what I see 'out there' in media of all types is that we are questioning more and more why we work, how we work and who we work for. This has to be good! You are doing this work and I thank you for such groundbreaking service! warmest wishes Bob, Carmilla x

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Bob Sutton 7 months ago

Jeff and Tara,

I am a big fan of appreciative inquiry. But I look forward to talking about this point more as there is a quite strong empirical case that wallop packed by "bad" experiences and such is so much stronger (typically 5 times stronger) that getting rid of the negative should be the first order of business. Also note I am NOT encouraging people to BE BAD rather to get rid of it. Stay tuned, I will do a post on this and the other 12 points. And thanks for your comments.

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OConnorKA 5 months ago in reply to Bob Sutton

Bob - when you write more about getting rid of the negative, I would love to hear more about when to balance it with a focus on the positive. It's depends on the context, it seems to me. In running a social media site inside my organization's firewall, I've been trying to decide whether or not to tackle the negative or highlight the positive. I was told an old "online community maxim" which is - some people are mean, and some people are weird, and they'll take those attitudes with them no matter what technology you're using. The best way to control it is to elevate good content instead of bad..."

Another HBR article in which appreciate inquiry of sorts has been influential to me was "Your Company's Secret Change Agents" from May 2005 that discussed "finding areas of 'positive deviance' and fanning their flames."

It would be helpful to get thoughts on when to focus on accentuating the positive over the negative and when eradication of the negative is key.

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Ruchir 5 months ago

I really like and agree with number 2. Its too easy to focus on the big and the fluffy picture. Don't get me wrong, it is important as the point says. However, in my opinion the big picture only needs to be visited a few times to make sure the team is on track. Talking about the 'magical', the fatastic and the "visionary" breakthroughs always brings in praise and is impossible to disagree with, but it doesnt do much for the business or team. Its the uncelebrated, the mundane and the routine that defines a well run business. A good manager masters and perfects this. The author is spot on with this. Thanks a lot of putting this high up on the list.

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Bob Sutton 5 months ago in reply to Ruchir

Ruchir,

Thanks for the comment. It has struck me that this is sometimes a problem among bosses who love the concept of being leaders, with big bold plans and visions, but treat the managerial work required to turn vision into reality as dirty work that is beneath them, as something that the little people do. And in fact too many leaders paint lovely strategies and big goals but lack the skill required to break it into pieces so it gets done. It is a little harsh, but there is a great saying from Army Corp of Engineers that I have always liked: "Strategy is for amateurs; logistics are professionals," not bad.

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mark allen roberts 7 months ago

Great content I plan to share,

Some of the best leaders were not those in the spotlight, but humble and were constantly seeking new information to make decisions based on current facts not gut and intuition as I discuss in my blog : Your “gut” and “intuition” are not enough…today http://nosmokeandmirrors.wordp.../
.

Mark Allen Roberts

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Annan Sohail 5 months ago in reply to mark allen roberts

agreed as well said by writer of emotional intelligence, year 2003, intuition is not a research based method

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Naveen Goel 4 months ago

Hi Bob,

I just read your article. Great list! I hope I am not too late to post my comments. My thoughts on similar topic are shared ar my newly started blog: http://naveenpgoel.blogspot.co.../.

All feedback, suggestions and related thoughts are welcome!

Regards,
Naveen Goel

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Gayle Watson 7 months ago

I like the list of 12 Things Good Bosses Believe. It affirms our experience establishing values-based leadership at JetBlue and other companies. I think it goes beyond beliefs, to real behaviors. Leaders need to decide what they stand for, then have the discipline to live it every day. How leaders treat people, both employees and customers, is at the heart of the 12 Things Good Bosses Believe. Here is a video I like with Ann Rhoades speaking about leading with values: http://www.peopleink.com/Video....

I'd like to hear more discussion about the evidence of relationship between 12 Things Good Bosses Believe, people-centric corporate cultures, and high performing companies.

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@jyi 7 months ago

Robert, I had to read your intro twice to reorient myself that you were specifically addressing the leader’s MINDSET. My first reading left me feeling like the list was self-absorbed – which I believe is quite the opposite of your intent. Ironically, this may also be one of the key downfalls of managers with good intent to be good bosses. They mentally THINK a certain way – and sincerely believe they are delivering it, but somehow the execution or delivery doesn’t quite match the mindset.

I fully agree a good boss has high “emotional intelligence” and is keenly aware of self and their impact on the team; however, ultimately their teams only know and benefit from the outward actions. The gap between “knowing” and “doing” is often glaringly large. I suppose, my bias for good bosses lean toward those who SHOW me they care and want ME to succeed. In that vein, I offer these additions to your list:

• Realizes that just because one “did it” does not mean they “got it”. Good bosses own the burden of showing/telling it again or in a different way, because they perceive it as their duty to communicate and not “their” problem if they missed it.
• Does not fear one’s own value. Good bosses are continuously working themselves out of a job by identifying and grooming future leaders.
• Humbles oneself so that others may be praised. The good bosses realize that they are curators or facilitators, not the stars.
• Understands that (most) people can’t read minds. Good bosses are clear and consistent.

Thanks for the article, made me think this beautiful Friday morning!
Judy Yi

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brsa 7 months ago

I think regarding #10...it feels better to focus on the positive, but I think that can come across as somewhat Pollyanna. I think Appreciateve Inquiry is "nice" but not necessarily appropriate in all situations. I've certainly been in the room with the AI types, and even with my own preference for optimism or positivity, I'm often left with a bit of a toothache from the vernacular ;)

I'd be interested the the author's evidence leading to #10 vs the feeling side that pushes many to the positive.

I think there's a balance - too much on either side is dangerous.

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Titanium cranium 7 months ago in reply to brsa

I like to explain #10 this way: Think of Michaelangelo carving a statue. What does he do? He focuses all of his effort on removing everything that doesn't look like David. He doesn't spend any time on the "positive" aspects of his work: parts that do look like David. Why should he? His work is all about "eliminating the negative."

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Tara Rodden Robinson 7 months ago in reply to brsa

Hi brsa,

Good point--AI has to be tempered by what Jim Collins referred to as "confronting the brutal facts."

Best wishes,
Tara

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Bob Sutton 7 months ago in reply to Tara Rodden Robinson

Tara and Brsa,

I like your comments on balance. This is one of those things I have been fretting over and reading research on for decades (and I published a few papers of me own early in my career), and at least my reading of the current research is that the most effective people and teams are high in both positive and negative emotion -- and to go beyond these data and to add my experience observing and coaching bosses and teams -- I would say that some of the best bosses are "happy worriers," optimistic about the outcome of what they are doing and pushing people forward with their positive energy, but constantly worrying over he details of what they are trying to accomplish at the moment. This is exactly how I would describe IDEO's rather magical founder, David Kelley.

P.S. In the name of intellectual honesty, however, not all studies support my happy worrier idea. Harvard's Teresa Amabile and others did one of the best longitudinal studies ever done of creative teams, and her research showed that pure positive emotion -- not a mix of positive and negative -- was the hallmark of the best teams. And I would add that even if I think about the Happy Worrier stuff, a ratio of about 80% happy and 20% worry seems about right to me as negative emotions are so powerful and so destructive (see my point "Bad is Stronger Than Good") that a little bit goes a long way. I will be expanding on both these points here, thanks for giving me something to thinka bout.

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Tara Rodden Robinson 7 months ago in reply to Bob Sutton

Hi Bob,

Thanks so much for taking the time to read and respond. You're probably already familiar with the work of Barbara Fredrickson, yes? Her research shows that three positive emotional experiences are needed to balance (or overcome) each negative one. So negative seems a bit heavier, perhaps, than positive. All the more reason to cultivate happiness day in and day out.

Thanks again,
Tara

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Ted L. Simon 7 months ago in reply to Tara Rodden Robinson

I like Tara's point. It's pretty universal. Ask anybody who's coached Little League or youth soccer -- good coaching clinics will tell you "Praise positive performance AT LEAST 3 times for every critical comment." Guess that means if you can motivate a group of 11 and 12 year old kids to perform on a baseball diamond, you may have at least some of what it takes to lead a group of adults.

Cheers,
Ted

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Tara Rodden Robinson 7 months ago

Hi Bob,

Wow, thanks for both the terrific post and the tease for the upcoming book--I'm looking forwarding to reading it! In the meantime, a couple of comments.

Part of what's implied in your beliefs, but perhaps not stated explicitly, is the willingness to allow others to contribute one oneself. It's the ability to encourage trust and create an atmosphere in which people can "speak truth to power" that's key. If leaders/bosses are unwilling to listen to and for things that are hard to hear, then they risk becoming "bad" bosses.

Many best wishes,
Tara

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khaleel 5 months ago

the most essential things for a boss in any organization are AAA
Alive, Alert, Aggressive towards work.effective utilization of these, i.e right word at the right time & place will decide he/ she weather Good or Bad Boss.

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Steve Korn 6 months ago

Very good list. To these I would add half dozen of my own:
1. Compensation is important. Pay people fairly, review compensation on time, and most importantly pay incentives consistently on time—don’t make people wait or guess. Consistency and timeliness are more important than amount.

2. Compliment in public with specifics. Criticize and coach in private

3. Workplace is not a democracy. However, take the time to listen to other points of view, and then decide. People will value being listened to

4. Give people projects that stretch them, and they learn something

5. Use stories to make your point

6. Move negative people out of the organization.

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Elizabeth Garber 6 months ago

My best boss - the only great boss I've ever really had - believed in all of these. There was something else too: she believed in helping her people understand the concepts (including many of these) that would help them win politically and make them more effective in the organisation. In so doing, she became more effective.

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Mike 6 months ago

Excellent list Bob, and great stuff in many of the comments.

Here are two points I'd add, though I'm not sure if the second has wide applicability:

1. I have to understand that being in my company is just one segment of my employees' career. Someday they'll leave. And it's part of my job to help them do so when the time is right. This means helping them with their career development from the day they join the company, and often long after they've left. Having an overly possessive attitude (or alternatively, an apparent uncaring attitude) is as unseemly in a boss as it is in any other relationship.

2. I don't manage my employees' time, and this includes not managing their other projects. Most of my employees have outside projects going on, and I do what I can to help them with those, so long as they don't get in the way of what we're doing. But I find that this helps them trust me more and paradoxically helps them focus on what we're doing more, since they're not having to scuttle around in the dark trying to keep something secret.

Overall, I do my best to treat my employees as adults and professionals. If I wanted serfs I would track their hours, their dress code, their bathroom breaks, etc. What I want is people who work with me to the best of their ability and all our ability, and that means treating them as people who are bought into the same vision (and when they're not, letting them go).

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Lisa Bruckner 7 months ago

Thank you for this very nice article. The only addition I might humbly add from personal experience is:

Offer quality training opportunities, then get out of the way. A good boss isn't a bottleneck.

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Bob Sutton 7 months ago in reply to Lisa Bruckner

I like the advice about knowing when to get out of the way... one my personal blog www.bobsutton.net I have a list of 17 Things I Believe and the first one is "Sometimes the best management is no management at all." Thanks,

Bob

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tsai 6 months ago in reply to Bob Sutton

I think we need to be careful when we say '... get out of the way ...' and '.... no management at all.' 'No management at all' is a form of management; a higher form of management that can be exercised because:
1) your people are knowledgeable, competent, equipped and empowered
2) you and they share the same value system

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Steven Hudson 7 months ago

Number 10 is a killer…the old saying “one bad apple spoils the whole bunch”.

Having the best skills is great but if the person is negative it can destroy a complete team with one negative comment. That’s why I will always employ someone with a positive attitude, even if they have still don’t have the skill levels over some one with Master level skills but down right negative to the bone, particularly if it is a team environment.

Who was it that wrote “Success through a positive attitude”?

Cheers

Steven Hudson

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Jess Flynn 7 months ago

Fantastic post Bob - thanks for the inspiration at the start of the week. This new boss appreciates the perspective. I'd add - never underestimate the power of the personal in business. The phrase ‘it’s just business’ is all well and good, but at the end of the day emotions and personalities run through the veins of every aspect of business. Ignoring that takes the soul out of what you do.

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Monal_bhattad 5 days ago

its a very value addition article with thought provoking blogs. The value can be liquidified only when such these qualities are implemented while practising leadership. But 1 thing I need to add is that implementation of qualities depends on follower to follower, circumstances to circumstances . The best leader is the 1 who understand the circumstance, follower,consequences and acoordingly implement the most suitable quality.
And I thoroughly supposrts the point that leader should always look for their followers growth & well being. It is this quality which leads to the success of the leaders success.

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Bob Sutton 1 week ago

I want to thank HBR readers for making this the most read post of 2010. I am delighted but also slightly troubled because I still have two more points to finish -- it feels like getting an A on an unfinished paper! I will wrap it up in the next few weeks or so, and once again, thanks so much for supporting this post and the ideas in Good Boss, Boss, the book these ideas are drawn from. Here is the story about the top HBR posts of the year:

http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/hbred...

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RobertoR 3 weeks ago

Great stuff Bob..Thanks

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Mirela (Mgr) 1 month ago

I would add here as well "supporting my people to develop their career towards their own aspirations", even if this means losing that individual from the team at some point. If one of your team members feels that they cannot achieve their goals in your team, or you do not support them, they would go anyway - so rather help them develop, maybe even have them stay with the company and fullfill their dreams here, rather than letting them go for a competitor.

Do you also feel that developing your people is key to your succes as a manager?

http://projectmanager1.blogspo...

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guest 2 months ago

They are not "your people"; Lincoln freed the slaves and what you say reflects how you feel about the people you work with.

If your team has a boss, you do not have a team. You have a 1970s top down management scheme but you are calling it something else to try to be hep; the employees know the difference.

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Lance Equinen 3 months ago

Why doesn't the last two out of the dozen contain hyperlinks?

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Sarah Green 3 months ago in reply to Lance Equinen

Hi Lance,

The series is still in-progress, and the last two posts in the series are yet to be published. Once they're live, we'll make sure to update this post with the hyperlinks.

Thanks for your interest in the series!

All the best,
Sarah Green
HBR Associate Editor

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Christine Korza 1 month ago in reply to Sarah Green

It's been two months since the last article. When is this series going to be finished? I was really liking it...

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Ricardo Costa 4 months ago

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Bob Sutton 4 months ago in reply to Ricardo Costa

Ricardo, nice suggestions. I spent a couple days at IDEO this week, the renowned design firm, and one of the partners said almost the same thing you are suggesting that, in essence, the reason they do things -- how they treat people and do human-centered design -- is just as important as what they do. I need to write that post, but you will see that, when I do, I will emphasize that explaining to people WHY you as a boss do things is an an important part of HOW you do things... but your point is a little different and I think crucial. Thanks again.

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Kevin Kane 3 months ago in reply to Bob Sutton

Bob, I speak for the mob when I say that we're anxiously awaiting the next article in this series. Stellar work! Your writing is exemplary for combining the empirical evidence needed to credibly support your assertions, along with colorful anecdotes that entertainingly illustrate your message.

I shared some tips that I believe successful writers like you have mastered at
http://www.kevinkane.com/2010/.../

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Jo Ayoubi 4 months ago

Self-awareness has got to be the starting point for anyone in a 'boss' position. As a leader, even if it's only leading one other person, you are constantly broadcasting messages about what to do and how to do it. If you don't understand how those messages are coming across, you are doing yourself and your people a huge disservice.

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Bob Sutton 4 months ago in reply to Jo Ayoubi

Jo,

I second the thought! The tough part is that there is so much evidence that we humans often have such dim self-awareness, and the more power we wield over others, the worse it gets. Being a self-aware boss is easier to say than to do.

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Ebox01 5 months ago

Bob - you are a breath of fresh air in this world of business. It's almost as if we could have fun - all of us - if we opened our hearts to this kind of existance. Thanks!

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Annan Sohail 5 months ago

agreed with Carmilla "I believe honesty, clear communication, vulnerability, clear boundaries & an intent of the best in every dealing will certainly help any boss along to get the best out of their team.
"

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Emre8877 5 months ago

As leaders we are evaluated by subordinates and viewed somewhat on the basis of our confidence and empathy for others. One of the areas I like to focus on is their mental and emotional states as it relates to hope and worry when some action is required. I remind them that hope is like saying, "Wouldn't it be nice if ......?" while worry is "Wouldn't it be awful if .....?". It is always more productive to focus on solutions than problems and I find it is more joyful to be around hopeful people than the worriers.

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Bob Sutton 5 months ago in reply to Emre8877

Emre,

Great points. The power of framing things as positive and in terms of constructive action is at the very heart of a small wins strategy, which I dig into on point 2. I love the "nice" versus "awful" framing.

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Annan Sohail 5 months ago

great leaders never develop great followers, infact, develop great leaders and that is all about great boss. in my 10 years of experience as HR person, have worked in Telecom,IT,FMCG and NGO Sector, interacted with many bossess and worked with many bosses, it was hard to find a great leader.

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Baltazar Acevedo 5 months ago

I believe that first of all there is no such thing as a boss. To me it implies that I am superior to you, my subordinate, because I am higher on the organizational chart. In times of crisis, such as now with the economy, it is becomes obvious that organizations that are led by individuals who are constantly immersed in the middle of the action, with their sleeves rolled up and always on the prowl to listen and engage workers as equals with talents and assets to share are going to get moving faster than those led by "bosses" who may or may not be the brightest ones in the room. My perspectives and biases are grounded in my experiences as a farm worker during the 1960's when bosses were viewed as overseers who saw us as nothing more than hired muscle. As a professor of Research and Leadership I now sense that students and the tech savvy workforces do not want to be Bossed around but rather led by someone who is invested in the middle of the melee.

Baltazar Arispe y Acevedo, Jr

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ShirtsGoneWild 6 months ago

A Boss or a Capo, as we are called, are open to any ideas that have open end and impartial factors. A true wise man, will be accepting to his or hers, employees sentiments, since great companies have moved on to be conglomerates, thanks to the innovative ideas brought forth. Now it's the executive management turn to give back to the employees. Profit sharing is a start.

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Todd Curry 6 months ago

Though pithy, the statement "Bad is stronger than good" is arguable, prima facie.

I would suggest "Bad multiplies; good adds," which seems to summarize my feelings and those listed by others:
- one bad customer experience can be devastating; it takes many good customer experiences to add up to great customer experiences
- one bad financial or strategic decision can be catastrophic; one must add many small wins together to succeed
- bad behavior is indeed a cancer that spreads through organizations, often multiplied by followers of bad bosses; good behavior takes longer to inculcate

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Bob Sutton 6 months ago in reply to Todd Curry

Todd. Good points. Please wait for my longer post and see what you think. The argument is evidence based and basically is that eliminating the negative packs more wallop at least in interpersonal relationships than accetuating the positive. Bad people and bad emotions pack more wallop than good ones. Thanks. Bob

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I/OMarketer 6 months ago

I love this thread, and thank you for the wonderful insights into being a good boss. I have recently taken on a team of my own within a small company and this is my first time having people who directly report to me. What a challenge! Being in a small company (less than 10 in our office) with a huge market share in our vertical, presents an incredible amount of obstacles both internally and externally. One thing I particularly struggle with internally is being viewed as a friend rather than a boss. I try to cultivate and motivate my employees through brainstorming sessions and feedback sessions, however, because of my encouraging nature, I find it difficult to draw the friend/boss line for them when issues arise. I think another key that bosses should live by is: I will maintain sanity in less than ideal situations with my employees. Furthermore, I will evaluate my responses to these situations thoroughly (24 hours if need be) before making myself look like an ass or saying something in haste because I have held it in for so long. Food for thought from a newbie :)

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hltran 6 months ago

While what Robert says here is very helpful, I have to say that eliminating the bad should come after developing the employees. As, it is easy to detect things that aren't working. But, the true work lies in "fixing" the issue, which start with the employees. Sometimes, when an employee is shown concern by management over what he/she is going through, the "problem" may correct itself. Because this increases trust, it may also increase loyalty, and as a result improve processes. In this way, excellent bosses groom better employees.

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Saduddin shajjan 6 months ago

I really learned a lot from all of you.
thanks for all the wonderful comments.

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Guy Farmer 6 months ago

Great ideas Robert. I'd be interested to see if excellent listening skills and praise enter into the equation. I've found that people who help build others up tend to create a more motivated workforce. We could say that good bosses believe in helping employees use their talents and abilities. Also, good bosses believe in listening to their employees without interruption or need to direct the conversation. I think excellent leaders also believe that success isn't about them, it's about their people. With respect to #10, I think leaders that focus on the bad exclusively may forget to create a strengths based workplace or be too busy putting out fires to help people grow.

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Bob Sutton 6 months ago in reply to Guy Farmer

Guy,

I think listening skills are huge. It is suggested above in :fight as if you are right, listen as if you are wrong," but that is the tip of the iceberg. The best bosses really listen, they don't just pretend. They ask questions because they want to listen to the answers, not because they want to pretend that they care about what others think.

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RPS 6 months ago

Great dozen! I particularly like your book ends. Numbers 1 and 12 speak to a boss who demonstrates humility. Showing humility and vulnerability builds trust. An arrogant boss is always a bad boss. The best bosses give credit to others for wins and take responsibility for losses.

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Natalie Rudow 6 months ago

There are so many good ideas and I have just one thought to add.
Empathy, you must have empathy for employees, peers, bosses, customers and other relationships. This is one of my guiding principals that helps me understand people and their drivers. In return I am better suited to support different/new ideas for innovation, problem solving and personal needs.
I'm not sure if this would help anyone else but it works well for me.

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Tigran 6 months ago

Article is very interesting and teaching. Thank you. At the same time I think that every great leader have to strive for perfection in the assigned area in terms of technical and systems knowledge and be able to apply possessed knowledge in a best possible way.

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K Brahma 6 months ago

Dear Bob / Tara
A few thoughts besides your comprehensive list :
1) Growth of my subordinates is also my responsibility - I should be able to mentor them to take over my position.
2) I need to honestly transmit the directives of the top management to my subordinates to which I am privy but the others may not be.
3) A department / group/ team is as good or as bad as portrayed / presented by the head - It is therefore to my responsibility to project the correct picture of the department / group/ team to the management.
Would love to hear your comments on my points

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Larry Baxter 6 months ago

Interesting article, thanks for sharing those thoughts on important beliefs prevalent among great bosses. I must say, they are a *very* different list from what I would see as describing an excellent boss. (It's possible we have in mind very different work environments in which these bosses are working?) The need to listen and to show humility is one I would call very important. But on my list I would also have to include things like: cares about the people he supervises as individuals, places great priority on developing and supporting them, likes to set very clear expectations and give immediate feedback with respect, ask what I think on decisions that affect me, and make sure that the work we do aligns very clearly with the mission of the organization and provides clear value to others.

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Peter Blokland 6 months ago

I agree with your 12 things good bosses believe and I think there are many more believes to add to them. I have studied leadership a bit over the past 30 years and came to the following 10 commandments of leadership. Or rules to be a good boss. Maybe you'll find something to add to your list.

1. Know your mission, know your goal(s)
2. Develop a clear vision on how to reach your goals, how you will fulfil your mission
3. Communicate your vision in a clear and easy to understand way towards yourself, your collaborators and other people surrounding you.
4. Actively listen to yourself, your collaborators and other people surrounding you
5. DECIDE! Immediately if necessary, after consultation if possible
6. Behold integrity and take up your responsibility! Walk your talk! Be honest and just towards yourself, your collaborators and other people surrounding you
7. Be respectful towards yourself, your collaborators and other people surrounding you
8. Be flexible! The most flexible system is the best performing one!
9. Be empathic. Don’t deny your own feelings and have sympathy for your collaborators and other people surrounding you
10. Have compassion and understanding for yourself your collaborators and other people surrounding you.

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Mohammad Waheed 6 months ago

Great post, thank you so much. I am not going to explain the behavior of bad bosses as many of bad bosses have many things common. However, one of my ex boss was Don Buskard and he was master of making you comfortable in any situation, especially when you make a mistake, he wouldn't criticize you. It was easy to approach to him, and we as employees shared ideas with him so we do not make mistake. I have not seen many bosses like him.

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Douglas Chalmers 6 months ago

This is utter garbage, uhh. It is no more than a system to conceal incompetence + mediocrity in management.

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Robin Donovan 6 months ago

Usually when the deliverable does not meet my requirements I have contributed by not being crystal clear in my expectations.

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Ullas 6 months ago

Fantastic piece! Most people managers are deluded into thinking that their job is to 'get work done'. My experience tells me that nothing helps pep up an employee more than a manager who is willing to spend time with them and provide at least some high-level guidance. It is not just about instructing people but working with people.

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Julian Keniry 7 months ago

Dear Adam,

Thank you for offering these insights. This post, and the responses, are lively, insightful and surprising.

They apply as well to the non-profit world as to business. In our case, we are working to bring about a new, clean energy future and protect wildlife for our children's future in the face of a massive oil spill in the Gulf, denial of climate science, and a growing trend of children spending most of their time indoors.

Finding that balance of happiness and hopefulness, removing the negative, worrying about the right issues and details, resisting the urge to try to compete for recognition, respecting and elevating the staff, being self-aware and getting out of the way of good ideas, while empowering and funding innovation, seem all the more important when the stakes are so high. I look forward to the posts on the next 11 points.

-Jules

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Faris Salama 7 months ago

Couple of thing remain in my mind as good boss
Manage your self befor managing people
Be role model for your direct reporter

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Sandra Benoit 7 months ago

Really thought-provoking article.

One of the other thoughts that struck me over the years is from Peter Senge. What leaders pay attention to matters. I have found that so many poor leaders and managers say, "but I said that I wanted things done this way." Because they then didn't pay attention to how things were done, people followed the path of least resistance. On a positive note, when I wanted my team to start working more strategically, I started paying attention and rewarding comments that demonstrated strategic thinking. Interestingly, a year later all my employees had read the new corporate strategic document before I asked them (and before I had a chance to read them). There is a lot of power in what you pay attention to, so be careful.

Like several others, I struggle a little with #10. I guess the struggle is with what does it mean to eliminate the bad. I agree that one bad employee can really sour the workplace, but I think it is also important to understand why they are a "bad" employee. Are they in the wrong job? Has no one managed their behaviour in the past? I would like to link this more closely with #3. Here is my story:

I had an employe who was considered a "bad" employee, to the point where other employees and managers refused to meet with her. My ultimate objective was that she worked well in a team environment (essential in her position), but I didn't wait to reward her behaviour for perfection. My focus on her small wins kept her motivated. I rewarded her for progress, then set a new target. She will probably never be the best team player, but she improved to the point required by her job. In the end, the bad was eliminated, but I took time to do it.

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Paul Smith 7 months ago

Bob-I would like to add #13: Sometimes the best way to control situations is to give up control over it and just yield.
My explanation behind this is too large for a comment space. The reasoning can be found on my blog, Welcome To The Occupation, in an article entitled, The Great Control Trick.
Thanks for 1 to 12. They are great food for thought.

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Alberto 7 months ago

I really think that your post captures many ideas on this tricky and complex issue: indeed, the complexity of the question asks for a direct and compact communication for all the people understanding. I would like to contribute with a suggestion on its communication.

You perphaps will capture better the attention of the readers and improve their understanding by sorting your points somehow. I am sending you my suggestion below. My congratulations and encouragement for your task.

Regarding the selfmanagement of the leader: Points: 1, 7, 12.
Regarding his team management: Points: 4, 6, 8
The execution and goal pursuing: "How centric" Points: 2 and 3, 9, 10, 11.
Outsite people and powers: Point 5

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Robert Davis 7 months ago

This is an excellent list but I would add an item around the idea of "purpose" in the workplace. A good manager needs to understand the overall purpose of their team within the organization and effectively communicate the purpose to employees so that the team's work is focused on the most important goals. It is possible for employees to do a great job focused on the wrong goals and a happy group would result but they might not contribute anything to the overall organization. This goes along with the idea that a good boss helps their employees advance; guiding employees to focus on the goals that are important to the organization can help them succeed in title, promotion, salary, recognition, etc. It also connects with motivation as employees are much easier to motivate when individual and team goals are aligned with overall goals.

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Paul 7 months ago

Thanks Bob!! That was a great article. I would like add a couple of things about Bad bosses based on my experience. Some bosses wouldn't trust their team and try to do the entire work by themselves event though the team is completely capable of handling that work. If the boss trusts the team and coach, lead them to do the work, it would build the team's confidence and gain respect for him.

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Dan 7 months ago

Thanks for this, Bob, especially Point #1. To really understand this point in our hearts and souls, I believe, will take us a long ways and probably will help us touch on all the rest of the points, as well.

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Joe T 7 months ago

Wow, this is crazy. I've felt this way so many times as president of my fraternity but just didn't know how to describe how I run things to new members. This is perfect.

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Bernie Walko 7 months ago

Fundamentally sound advice. I agree with all, practice many and wish I could articulate as well as Mr. Sutton.

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Bob Sutton 7 months ago in reply to Bernie Walko

Bernie,

It is easier to talk about being a good boss than to do it! And doing it is what really matters

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William J Reynolds 7 months ago

Excellent! I might move #5 further up the list, and perhaps add something about giving employees loyalty as opposed to merely expecting it from them. Thanks for a well-considered article!

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Mary_Pat_Whaley 7 months ago

I interpret #5 as my effort to make it safe in the organization (at least the part I manage) to make mistakes and to be human. The tricky part is walking the line between making it so safe that people feel that mistakes don't matter, and making it safe enough to stand the pressure of healthcare every single day. I tell the staff that my job is to free them to do their job.

I enjoyed this very much.

Thanks, Bob.

Mary Pat

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Bob Sutton 7 months ago in reply to Mary_Pat_Whaley

Mary Pat,

A great comment, and it turns out that some of the best research here is in health care, that when there is a climate of fear, the same mistakes are made over and over because people are afraid to admit it and teach others how to avoid the mistakes they have made. But none of us wants to be the person who is victim of the mistake.

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Chris Young 7 months ago

Awesome post Bob! I've included it in my Rainmaker top five blog picks of the week (http://www.maximizepossibility...) to share this wonderful example of how a great boss should think.

Be well!

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Bob Sutton 7 months ago in reply to Chris Young

Chris,

Thanks! I appreciate it.

Bob

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Chris Oestereich 7 months ago

Bob,
These 12 Things are launching points for valuable introspection, and as such are going up on the wall of my office. Thank you for sharing these thought provoking ideas. Those of us who are up the challenge are sure to find fodder for personal growth. Those who give themselves an easy pass on all points are certainly oblivious to their own failings.
-Chris Oestereich

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Bob Sutton 7 months ago in reply to Chris Oestereich

Chris,

This is really an interesting comment. I just came back from talking about bosses with a group of CEOs and two of them made a very strong argument that they wished that business schools and companies would teach and support introspection more strongly.

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stilltimeforabetterone 7 months ago

The best boss I ever had, early in my career, employed what he referred to as the "Davy Crockett" rule: "Be sure you're right, then go ahead". Working by that rule, I felt trusted and empowered to take appropriate risks to achieve goals, knowing that he would support my decisions or at the very least, the process behind them.

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wfjbin 7 months ago

guys, i think the philosophy is about how employers, as human being, modify their behavior and mindset for the benefit of people around him and also himself. After all, he should know that he is in the same boat with his staff. A bad boss is not absolute; under the skin, we are the same except that some part of us is calling out for humanity and has ourselves start to care about others. Anyway, the world won'st stop because there are bad bosses of half of the population.

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Tom Sebastian 7 months ago

Hi Jeff and Tara,

Very interesting interpretations on #10. On the contrary i feel do agree with Robert when saying "Bad is stronger than good" and the reason for this is that doing something bad always sticks out like a sore in they eye or is something that causes biases against a person or organisation.
Its the ability of 'bad' to stick onto mindsets is what makes it such a formidable mercinary that you need to have to acknowedge that it is stronger. Doing a million things right can be nullified with one wrong doing!

Looking forward to your thoughts on this,

Cheers,
Tom

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Joseph Ludford 7 months ago

I want to complement you on taking an evidence-based approach. Too many writers on the subject of leadership and management seem to be giving us anecdotal evidence and opinion rather than fact. Before I saw this I only knew about Kouzes and Posner and Warren Bennis who have based their work on research over a long period of time. I'm looking forward to reading more of your work.

I had a negative feeling as I read through the 12 things good bosses believe. I think its because the bosses you are talking about are managers, and I've been studying executive level leadership. My mind is full of concepts such as vision, alignment and transformational change, and the positive behaviors needed to implement those concepts. I think values and beliefs both determine effectiveness of managers and leaders and I look forward to your writing on the subject.

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Doru Stancu 7 months ago in reply to Joseph Ludford

I studied exec level leadership as well, but I still believe the 12 rules posted by Robert Sutton really are at the core of great leadership. They may not be complete, but they talk about most of the matters a leader (at managerial or executive level) has to deal with. The fact they are based on true stats & facts hints towards a distillation process. Also, the wording is important, one needs to read these statements carefully, to get their real meaning - at least those who got the right stuff to become great leaders will get the message... :)
Thanks Robert.

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Adil 7 months ago

Top ten ponits showing excellent ideas. management is really becoming pretty mathematical and scientific. The top bosses will need to have a very special brain to cope with the upcoming challenges-they will have to be the fittest to survive and more than that if they wanna conquer. Isnt it?

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Paul Andrew 7 months ago

This is a great and well written article... what is clear is that BALANCE is a key responsibility of the leader

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Marc Ventresca 7 months ago

Bob, all:
This is a powerful set of 12, with additional wisdom from other colleagues. The precepts you identify speak directly to how a 'boss' recognizes her/his role and puts this recognition into practice. But the boss here is in a bit of an under-specified space. How does the boss' own situation, resources, local 'rules of the game' impact the boss' ability to stay true to these practices?
With appreciation, Marc V.

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John L Painter 7 months ago

I'm surprised at the amount of questions around item #10, which seems to me quite obvious. As the director in a community mental health agency in Maine, I am constantly trying to clear ground for my staff. They are confronted by any number of obstacles; client deaths, fiscal uncertainty, interpersonal conflicts (though within the team it's very rare, it does happen within the larger agency and of course in the larger community), changes in public policy, etc, etc.

What I find most exciting to think about, and hard to practice is item #4. I really never know when I'm doing this correctly other than to gauge whether my staff stay on or leave in droves, which I take as some measure of whether they feel there's a balance, obviously there's more to it but this is one aspect I can gauge from. There is a concept in what's presented that I disagree with, since I don't think it's reasonable to be painted into the either/or game; you're assertive or you're passive, or for that matter truly being in the middle. Rather what I think goes on, much like a switch in a circuit, you're rapidly going between passive and assertive maybe that's a type of balance but balance isn't what it's about. It's about right or wrong as an approach in each circumstance, or maybe a better way to describe it the shaping of what's reality and what isn't. I like #4 there's a lot going on in that one.

Brilliant work, I can't wait to read more!

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Alvin Ong 7 months ago

One thing i want to add to be a good boss is an example of being a good leader. Having to know what they needs, caring for them, showing them how importamt they are in the company, and showing them that what you say is sincere and understanding what they are doing. Most employees doesn't believe a boss if they're always talk and doesn't have an understanding what they are doing. The best boss is having to gain their employees trust, caring and understanding them, and knowing that they're there for them. In the end, we are all the same people regardless of race and color.

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Ronn Kolbash 7 months ago

Having been an avid reader of Work Matters (Bob's blog), I strongly concur with #10. Bad is stronger than good. I wish it were not true, but as I am confident the evidence will show that it is. A good/healthy boss or work environment does not have the same impact across various levels (personal health - your own as well as friends/family you interact with, personal/professional development, job satisfaction, etc) as does a bad/negative environment.

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Moti Karmona 7 months ago

Very insightful - Thanks!
IMHO #1, #4, #5, #6, #7, #11 and #12 really touched the heart of leadership.

-- Moti

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Matt Nelson 7 months ago

This is great work and very helpful. I'd like to add a #13 which is similar to what Judy wrote above.

#13 - I don't have to convey that I am better than my employees at what they do. Realize that if I hired my team correctly there will be levels of expertise that is unique to each individual and I shouldn't pretend that I know it all.

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John Clevenger 7 months ago

The article overall points out 12 items for which I largely agree and certainly find to be true, with two exceptions: Point #1 : Are you really trying to indicate that a good manager has a flawed and incomplete view? I believe a good manager really needs to regularly assess their 360 degree view and understand well what it is like to work for them. This is very key to assessing your staff and assuring continued long term performance of the organization. 2. While master of the mundane and obvious is certainly important, really, it is deeper than that. A good boss truly helps one think through situations and coach and mentor to train my successor.

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Alistair Cockburn 7 months ago in reply to John Clevenger

John, I think you overlooked the key words at the start of #1: "I have a flawed and incomplete understanding of what it feels like to work for me." is not saying the boss /has/ a flawed and incomplete understanding etc, but "feels like" he or she has such.

That difference is key to me ... bosses who /think/ they know what they're like to work for will make myriad painful mistakes because they're probably wrong. By keeping open the question of what they're like to work for, they're open to new information.

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Bob Sutton 7 months ago

Tara,

Thanks for your comment. But please wait for my post in a couple weeks on Bad is Stronger Than Good. I wish it wasn't true, but as you will see from some very rigorous research, the best bosses can have a lot bigger impact by eliminating the negative than accentuating the positive. I am all for positive thinking and emotion, but I am making an evidence-based argument here, as you will see. Thanks again.

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Barry Schnur 7 months ago

I like Rule 10 as stated, and believe you are making this too relational.

People leave 'bad' environments all the time that, on balance, offer all sorts of amazing benefits. Think, for example, of a sexually harrassing boss in an otherwise top rated organization. That single characteristic will certainly negate all other positives initiatives. The bad can be overridingly toxic.

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Jeff 7 months ago

Great food for thought Robert. Thanks for sharing. I like that these beliefs focused on the relational aspects of leadership (rather than the technical). I love Number 8. It's easy to talk the "we allow mistakes" talk, and quite another thing to walk it.

One question though. Are you sure about Number 10? It flies directly in the face of Appreciative Inquiry theorists. I wonder if there's more grey area in there than you've allowed.

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Tara Rodden Robinson 7 months ago in reply to Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Great point about #10. I don't accept that bad is stronger than good. It does seem that bad (or doing "bad") can be easier, however, than taking the high road and doing/being good. This ease can make it seem as if bad is stronger when, in fact, bad is just lazy.

Here's my attempt at restatement of #10 in more of an appreciative inquiry vein (with some liberties taken on revising a teensy bit): Good is stronger than bad. It is more important to emphasize the positive than to focus solely on eliminating the negative.

Comments? Thoughts?

Best wishes,
Tara

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adam napell 7 months ago in reply to Tara Rodden Robinson

Tara,

Its funny. When I read #10, I thought the same as you. After re-reading his comment, I think the comment about "bad" is right on. Negatives are like a cancer, and can spread and fester, while positives or "goods" are quite often taken for granted. Positives always need to be accentuated; it's just that negatives always get accentuated as well. They need to be stamped out as quickly as possible so that the positives can really shine. In our business, one bad customer experience can take on a life of its own, especially with the many ways people are connected today.

Stay positive!

Adam

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Bobbi Kahler 7 months ago in reply to adam napell

Adam,
Great point about the customer experience! There has been a lot of interesting research about emotional contagion and one thing that is clear is that negative emotions are very strong and very contagious. They can override positive ones. (As a former student of David Cooperrider’s at Case Western, I have great respect for the power of positivity. So, I don’t like that this is true!) In talking with others about this -- especially managers -- it seems that most people have experiences that demonstrate the power of negative emotions. We've probably all been in a meeting where the mood was upbeat and then a higher-ranking manager entered the room in a foul mood. It doesn't take long for that foul mood to permeate the meeting. For managers to be truly effective and develop their team, they have to be aware of how they might be getting in the way of performance.

Bobbi

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adam napell 7 months ago in reply to Bobbi Kahler

Thanks, Bobbi. We've all had the experience you mentioned. I like the part about "getting out of the way" of your people. I need to be more aware of my behavior and effect it has on my people.

Just out of curiosity, what business are you in?

Adam

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Bobbi Kahler 7 months ago in reply to adam napell

Hi Adam,
It's rather sad that so many of us can relate to those types of experiences. I respect your comment about being more aware of your behavior and the effect it has on others. I don't want to violate any rules, but to answer your question, I work with managers to help them become great coaches for their team. It's extremely rewarding.
All the best,
Bobbi

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ray leigh 6 months ago in reply to Tara Rodden Robinson

I wrote a while back what to do when your brand hits a crisis and how its a fabulous time to get things done. That was your brand now something for leaders to think about when leading their business through crisis.

Leaders must face reality. Reality starts with the person in charge. Leaders need to look themselves in the mirror and recognize their role in creating the problems. Then they should gather their teams together and gain agreement about the root causes. Widespread recognition of reality is the crucial step before problems can be solved. Attempting to find short-term fixes that address the symptoms of the crisis only ensures the organization will wind up back in the same predicament. In order to understand the real reasons for the crisis, everyone on the leadership team must be willing to tell the whole truth. Leaders can’t solve problems if they don’t acknowledge their existence.

No matter how bad things are, they will get worse. Faced with bad news, many leaders cannot believe that things could really be so grim. Consequently, they try to convince the bearers of bad news that things aren’t so bad, and swift action can make problems go away. This causes leaders to under estimate what is required in terms of corrective actions. Inevitably, they wind up taking a series of steps, none of which is powerful enough to correct the downward spiral. It is far better for leaders to anticipate the worst and get out in front of it. If they restructure their cost base for the worst case, they can get their organisation healthy for the turn around when it comes and take advantage of opportunities that present themselves.

Build a mountain of cash, and take to the high ground. In good times leaders worry more about earnings per share and revenue growth than they do about their balance sheets. In a crisis, cash is king. Forget about earnings-per-share and all those stock market measures. The question is: Do you have sufficient cash to survive the most dire circumstances?

Get the world off your shoulders. In a crisis, many leaders act like Atlas, carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. They go into isolation, and think they can solve the problem themselves. In reality, leaders must have the help of all the people around them, to devise solutions and implement them. This means bringing people into their confidence, asking them for help and ideas, and gaining their commitment to painful corrective actions.

Before asking others to sacrifice, first volunteer yourself. If there are sacrifices to be made – and there will be – then the leaders should step up and make the greatest sacrifices themselves. Everyone is watching to see what the leaders do. Will they stay true to their values? Will they bow to external pressures, or confront the crisis in a straight-forward manner? Will they be seduced by short-term rewards, or will they make near-term sacrifices in order to fix the long-term situation?

I wrote before about attempting to stay cool and not panicking. Now is the time to make use of a good crisis. When things are going well, people resist major changes or try to get by with minor adaptations. A crisis provides the leader with the platform to get things done that were required anyway and offers the sense of urgency to accelerate implementation.

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R1ckBennett 7 months ago in reply to Tara Rodden Robinson

Bad is stronger than good because we have to work on the good everyday just to break even and the bad can wipe it out in an instant.
Good is stronger than bad in that it can hold the bad at bay.
So how to solve this paradox?
My opinion is that all too often we ask "what were you thinking" only after a bad event; a good manager should be checking up, asking "what are you thinking" as she goes. It might be attitiude, it might be training, it might be illness, it might be stress, but somewhere is a developing weak link that might allow bad to worm its way in; your job is to snuff out the small ones so the big ones do not have time to develop. Your points 5 and 8 seem to apply.

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12 Things Good Bosses Believe

2011-01-02T07:25:00.000-08:00

Dave Ramsey: Lessons from the Personal Finance Guru

2011-01-01T20:01:00.000-08:00

Dave Ramsey: Lessons from the Personal Finance Guru
The recession does have a silver lining.

Mary Vinnedge

(Watch Dave Ramsey and Neil Cavuto discuss money and SUCCESS here.)

Author-radio host Dave Ramsey dispenses advice on personal finance with the fervor of a country preacher and the common sense of Ann Landers. He colorfully pounds home his core mandate— eliminate debt—with a tried-and-true, step-by-step program to achieve fiscal fitness.

His message hasn’t changed, even as the U.S. economy trembles from the most crippling recession in decades. “What the recession has done is turn up the volume, so [that consumers] sometimes experience more hopelessness,” Ramsey tells SUCCESS. “We try to show that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, not a train. Hope is a major product of ours.”

Ramsey guides people toward financial stability through his radio show, classes, counseling and coast-to-coast how-to events. He started in 1992 with the book Financial Peace. That same year, he launched The Money Game on a small Nashville radio station— mainly as a way to hawk the book. That show, now syndicated and renamed The Dave Ramsey Show, has 4.5 million listeners per week. And Ramsey has added two more best-selling books to his résumé: More Than Enough and The Total Money Makeover. The three books have combined sales of about 5 million copies.

Ramsey says the recession adds one major complication to financial rescues, however: reduced income from job losses, which impairs the ability to erase debt. “It’s easier to get them out of the hole if they have a good-size shovel.”

Having made and lost a small fortune while just in his 20s, Ramsey speaks from experience. With parents in the real estate business, Ramsey caught the bug early, attending sales conferences as a teen. After graduating from the University of Tennessee with a finance and real estate degree, he and wife Sharon started with nothing as he began buying and selling real estate. By age 26, he had built a $4 million portfolio and had a net worth of a little over $1 million—“which, for a kid from Antioch, Tenn., is what we called rich,” Ramsey says.

Keeping Up with the Joneses

Only I borrowed too much money, of course, and this was back in the go-go ’80s, and our bank got sold to another bank and they called our note, and we spent the next two and a half years of our life losing everything we owned. We were sued and foreclosed on, and finally with a brand-new baby, a toddler, a marriage hanging on by a thread, we were bankrupt.”

The pressure and stress were tremendous. “We were freaked out, awake at night and fighting a lot,” he says. “

I had such an empty feeling,” Sharon Ramsey recalls in Financial Peace. “I felt that the whole world was crashing in on us.”

Dave Ramsey pauses to calculate the length of their struggle. “It took four years to get everything paid off. It wouldn’t take me as long now, because I know how to do things now.”

While he rebuilt, Ramsey was a self-employed real estate broker and took a giant dose of the medicine he now prescribes for others. He worked 80 hours a week and drove an embarrassingly beat-up, older-model car.

He blames many of his past money problems—and those of most financially troubled consumers—on the keeping-up-withthe Joneses mentality. And that’s a product of the great American marketing and advertising machine, he says. “We’re the most marketed-to culture in the world, and we have the highest spending in the world. “

We see someone with something nice, and we think, ‘I want one,’” regardless of its affordability. “The nature of marketing is to create discontentment, so that we think we need to make a purchase.”

After working his way out of that financial hole, Ramsey was intent on learning about money by talking to “old rich people,” he says. “I didn’t want to talk to young rich people; I’ve been him, I didn’t want his opinion. And when I did that, I discovered this disturbing thing called common sense: Live on less than you make; get out of debt; have some money set aside for a rainy day, because it’s going to rain; invest for the future; learn to give.”

"The trick is to get fired up and wired up, and become sacrificial to win, living like no one else, so that later you can live like no one else."

Money Fundamentals

Practicing these money basics is key, and Ramsey has remained consistent in his message despite these wobbly economic times. “We’re still trying to get them to plan, write it down, budget. It’s that much more critical to budget in today’s economy,” he says. “We’re trying to get people to slow down, to have a long-term strategy on investing, to think long term and invest when real estate is down, when mutual funds are down.”

Ramsey’s message is getting through. “Every Friday people call my radio show with stories of becoming debt-free. They call and scream, ‘I am debt-free,’ after one-two-three years. They are increasing their income [even during the recession]. They take on more jobs. And because they’re focusing on income, they tend to get raises,” he says. “

One guy—he owns a landscape company—he doubled his income in the recession. He really, really wanted to get out of debt. He worked twice as much, and he worked twice as hard to get clients. He refused to participate in the recession.”

In analyzing the financial crisis, Ramsey concludes the real estate market dragged down other sectors of the economy. Job losses are a symptom of the recession, not a cause, he says. “During the 1982 recession, unemployment was higher and the interest rate on mortgages was 18 percent. The mortgage rate has stayed around 4 percent in this recession. In ’82, energy costs were up and we had double-digit inflation. “

All recessions have more than one element. This one is unusual because it was the first time we’ve seen real estate values plummet. That scared people because their homes weren’t worth as much. The unemployment and stock market losses aren’t that unusual in a recession.”

Recession’s Silver Lining

But Ramsey, 49, sees an upside to today’s economic turbulence. “The wonderful news about this recession is it will permanently change some people’s attitudes about spending and debt. It’s this generation’s Great Depression. People in their 30s have never experienced anything like this. They’ve learned their lessons. They’ll limit their lifestyle to stay under their income for their lifetimes. They’ll curb their spending and stay out of debt.”

And Ramsey isn’t just talking about white-collar, middle-class success stories. His case studies include people with low, five-digit incomes as well as those in the six-figure range.

Ramsey’s egalitarian plan requires that everyone who signs on must build an emergency fund, write a budget, pay off smallest debts fi rst, and carefully invest in simple, understandable instruments such as mutual funds.

He insists that both halves of a couple must be committed for his program to work, and he gives tips for enlisting the reluctant spouse. After all, Ramsey says, they’re in it together, and disagreements over money are a leading cause of divorce. A united financial front can strengthen their marriage.

The couple must function as a budget committee, Ramsey writes in Financial Peace, with the Nerd of the couple preparing the budget and the Free Spirit giving input as a fully participating partner.

His wife, Sharon—the Free Spirit of the couple— says the budget committee has made her husband a better listener. “We don’t make major decisions without each other’s and God’s direction. The budget committee has really helped us have a place to discuss things, and that meeting is one where Dave practices taking my input,” she says in Financial Peace.

To bring around a disinclined spouse, the one who’s already on board with Dave Ramsey’s program must tactfully point out the prudence of having a common goal and agreeing on a course for getting there.

Next he charts a no-skipping-around game plan (see “Baby Steps to a Money Makeover” above). He takes the participants from building a $1,000 emergency fund, which is Baby Step One, to debt-free wealth-building, which is Baby Step Seven.

Road to Prosperity

His most important advice is to “pay attention. Most people spend more time watching reality TV than picking their 401(k) investments. They don’t pay attention to the college fund until their kid is 18.”

And Ramsey’s No. 2 pearl of wisdom? “Get control of your most powerful wealth-building tool, your income.”

He acknowledges that knowing what to do and doing it are two different issues, and that’s why his message includes equal parts education and motivation.

For instance, his “snowball ” approach to eliminating debt— paying down the smallest, lowest-interest debt first to gain momentum for attacking the bigger debts— might seem counterintuitive. And Ramsey agrees on one level. “People say, ‘Why don’t we pay off the highest-interest rate first?’ That’d be mathematically correct. But, darling, if we were doing math, we wouldn’t have had credit card debt in the first place,” he says.

People need the quick wins to stay motivated and keep at it, he says, comparing the satisfaction of paying off one entire credit card after another to seeing slow and steady weight loss while dieting. “You need something that shows you’re getting traction. It keeps you moving. This is behavior modification. That’s why this works.”

And providing that motivation and hope is why Ramsey’s strategies work, helping people pull themselves out of dire situations and get on track to prosperity. Working up his best country-preacher fervor, he says, “The trick is to get fired up and wired up, and become sacrificial to win, living like no one else, so that later you can live like no one else."

http://www.successmagazine.com/dave-ramsey-debt-reduction/PARAMS/article/944

Whose Success Are You Searching For?

2011-01-01T20:00:00.000-08:00

Whose Success Are You Searching For?
Redefine your idea of success before it's too late.

Ken Dychtwald

Early in the 1970s, I had the good fortune to partner with Dr. Gay Luce in an innovative holistic program known as the SAGE Project in Berkeley, Calif. Our goal was to examine how the bodies and minds of men and women past the age of 65 might be refreshed so they could remain sufficiently engaged to enjoy their later lives.

This pioneering project received global acclaim, and most results were truly uplifting. However, a disturbing theme emerged early in our research that has haunted me to this day. In one assignment, our 20 initial subjects were asked to chart the highs and lows of their life on a single sheet of graph paper. We asked them to draw a line across the center and then map a line above and below for all the years of their lives, much as you might chart a stock price. Above the line were periods when they enjoyed their lives; below the line were periods when life didn’ t measure up to their expectations. (You might try this exercise!)

To our surprise, by their own judgment, several of them had lived vast parts of their lives below what I’ll now call the success line. For example, Herb, 81, told us, sure, there were great moments, but overall his life had been a colossal disappointment. He hadn’t loved his job, though he’d stayed with it for decades. His long marriage was OK, but he felt he had let his true love get away when he was a young man.

His life had been wasted in many ways, he realized, and it was too late to do anything about it. Herb said that if he had it to do over, he would have focused far more on the people who mattered to him. He would have switched careers to something that would have challenged and stimulated him more. He would have taken more risks and pursued his passions.

Overall, the participants’ peak moments revealed a pattern. They tended to cluster around three types of success—rich personal relationships, accomplishment or personal growth of almost any kind, and activities that transcended their own self-indulgences and made them feel their lives had meaning.

Rather than waiting until we’re too old to do anything about it, perhaps it’s time to rethink the rules of success. We need to be feeling, talking and thinking again about what’s really important in our lives. We’ve become so taken by the lifestyles of the rich and famous (and often foolish) that we’ve lost a little bit of what really matters and truly satisfies in life.

As a young adult, we generally begin to define success by position, wealth or power. We are practically bred to embrace the model of measuring success from the outside-in. The reality, though, is that you must decide for yourself what defines success for you. If you rate yourself against someone else’s definition, you will never know the kind of success that truly matters.

More is not necessarily better when it comes to enjoying life and feeling satisfied. More may be more, but it is never enough. We’re caught up in the myth that by achieving and going up the ladder and having more stuff, we’ll feel full inside. Yet it isn’t necessarily so.

Perhaps the concept of success needs an overhaul for the next chapter of our lives. Maybe it shouldn’t be primarily about money and advancement; maybe it should also be about personal growth, loving relationships, genuine happiness, purpose in work and a contribution to the greater good. S

Ken Dychtwald is a psychologist, gerontologist, successful entrepreneur, business consultant and the author of 16 books, including With Purpose: Going from Success to Significance in Work and Life by Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D., and Daniel J. Kadlec (Collins Life, March 2009), from which this column has been adapted.

http://www.successmagazine.com/whose-success-are-you-searching-for/PARAMS/article/993

"Learn it Anyway!" 11 Lessons from Grade School (That Still Apply)

2010-12-29T16:47:00.000-08:00

"Learn it Anyway!" 11 Lessons from Grade School (That Still Apply)

Posting Date: December 16, 2009

By: Vince Crew
Everybody Gets Picked for Something—Even if It's Nothing! People are watching, whether you know it or not. They are sizing you up to be on their team, to associate with you, to take advantage of your skills. Even if you're chosen last or not at all, realize the only one who knows your true talents is you. Keep going, no matter what.
Mothers Beat Alarm Clocks. Despite all the technology in the world, a concerned person's interaction, intervention, and inspiration is incredible. Never underestimate the passion of a leader, the dedication of a manager, the commitment of an employee, or the love of a parent. To succeed, everyone needs someone to believe in them, encourage them, and hold them accountable.
You Always Hate Your Best Teacher, Until...There is always one or more persons in our lives who are demanding, relentless, and seemingly cruel task masters. They are disciplinarians who push performance standards and us to the limit. Yet these are the very people we remember and cherish for instilling in us the drive to excel and achieve, often beyond our own imagination.
Learn It Anyway. How many classes did you sit through, thinking all the while that you'd never need the knowledge? How much of that subject matter has come in handy—when you least expected? We never know what the future holds, what will be demanded of us, what skills we’ll need. So do and learn everything possible. Careers, situations, and opportunities change.
She May be Cute but Is She Nice? Her name was Anita and she was the object of every 5th grade boy's dreams. So one day I asked her if I could carry her books (yeah, it was hundreds of years ago). She was totally rude, obnoxious, and loud in making sure I was thoroughly embarrassed. From that point on I realized that the “substance” of people has nothing to do with their looks. Even the shyest, most awkward, seemingly less-than-stellar worker can contribute to the organization’s success, IF they're put in the right position and given the proper support and supervision.
You Can't Get Beat-Up If He's Laughing. There's always a bully. I was a skinny little kid with asthma who couldn't fight. I learned that humor can be an incredible tool, used properly, in diffusing a tense or difficult situation. The person with a good sense of humor often rises above downturns. With a bit of optimism, wit, and laughter, present difficulties can be lessened.
Being the Smartest Kid in the Class Isn't Everything. I was never the kid with all the answers, but I bet my life has been more incredible than most. What I lacked in straight As, I made up for in other ways. Things like creativity, diversity in experience, adaptability, and the ability to work with different kinds of people trumps the “brainiac” every time. Even Bill Gates needed more than good grades to become "America's richest man" and to make Microsoft a legend.
Recess is the Coolest Part of the Day. No matter how much you may or may not have enjoyed studying, learning, and tests, playing in the schoolyard was always fun. There's an old axiom, "Do we stop playing because we get old, or do we get old because we stop playing?" No matter the intensity or rewards of work, realize that you need some fun and play time.
Heads Down for Naptime. Just as important as showing up on time, working hard, and getting along with others, getting a little rest is always a good thing. Get a good night's sleep, take a vacation, and take a little time each day for thought, meditation, or just closing your eyes for 20 minutes. You'll reenergize.
When You Fall Off, Get Back On. Even in the midst of great times like bike racing with Clay and Nickey, sometimes I'd skid and fall. I'd skin my knee or elbow, but I ALWAYS got back up. Resilience and perseverance are great traits. Develop and nurture them; they are often what separates winners from losers.
Bad Boys and Girls Are Fun, but...We all remember them—the ones who defied the rules. Everybody thought they were cool, but they all ended up in trouble eventually. Taking short cuts, breaking the law, or defying wholesome values are a sure route to trouble, misery, and loneliness. So, for goodness sake, be good.

About the Author(s)

Vince Crew Vince Crew is founder of Reach Development Services (www.reachdevelopment.com) a strategic growth services firm. He is also a syndicated columnist and author.

http://www.amanet.org/training/articles/Learn-it-Anyway-11-Lessons-from-Grade-School-That-Still-Apply.aspx

The 'Weakness' Question

2009-02-17T08:41:00.000-08:00

Recruiter Roundtable: The 'Weakness' Question
Yahoo! HotJobs, Yahoo! HotJobs

The Recruiter Roundtable is a monthly feature that collects career and job-seeking advice from a group of recruiting experts throughout the United States. The question we put before our panel this month is:

Being asked about one's own "biggest weaknesses" in a job interview is considered (by many job-seekers, at least) one of the worst interview questions. Do you ask candidates this, and how would you recommend candidates answer this question in a job interview without being phony?

Be Upfront

There are times when I ask job candidates this question. It's not that I want to nitpick or make people feel uncomfortable, but rather I want to see in which areas they feel they need to improve and what they are doing about it. In order to advance professionally, we all need to be able to honestly identify not just our strengths but also our weaknesses and how we can upgrade in these areas.

I recommend that job candidates be upfront during interviews. Don't say you have "no weaknesses" or "work too hard." Instead, tell hiring managers what you are working on improving and what you've done to build your skills in these areas.

One thing to keep in mind: If one of your weaknesses is directly related to the position and could potentially take you out of the running, the opportunity may not be right for you.
-- DeLynn Senna, executive director of North American permanent placement services, Robert Half International

Let the Job Description Guide You

First, make sure you truly understand the job duties before the interview starts. Match the job duties with your strengths. What is a strength you have that someone may consider as a weakness?

For example, if you apply to a sales job, your weakness could be "not quick to close": "I really take a lot of time to listen to a customer before I provide recommendations. A lot of sales people are quick to answer, but I spend time making sure I understand the customer's needs." Sales people need to be good listeners although they don't always come across that way.

Another example is if you applied to a very detail-oriented job, your weakness is you are a perfectionist. The hiring manager needs someone that pays close attention to the little things.

In summary, a weakness on one hand is a strength on the other.
-- Amanda Mertz, lead recruiter, Wells Fargo Home and Consumer Finance Group

Will It Match Your References?

The importance of this question is often not the candidate's answer per se, but whether or not the candidate's references respond in a similar manner. In short, it is a way for employers to assess the candidate's awareness of his or her own strengths and weaknesses.
-- Yves Lermusi, CEO, Checkster

Choose Wisely

This is definitely a popular question that we often ask, and a lot of our clients also like to include when interviewing candidates. While "weakness" is a harsh word, remember that nobody is perfect, and we all have areas of development that we need to work on.

Employers are cognizant of this and ask the question for two reasons -- first, to make sure your weakness isn't a skill they need someone to have mastery of immediately, and second, to see how you handle yourself under pressure and when asked tough questions.

We advise our candidates to be honest and focus on a weakness that is not one of the top three qualities required for the job. Also, be sure to describe how you've already taken steps and made strides in strengthening this skill, showing your ability and desire to constantly learn and grow.

-- Kathy Gans, Senior Vice President, Ajilon Professional Staffing

http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/jobseeker/tools/ept/printallept.html?post=526&eptTemplete=careerarticles

Keys to Success in 2009

2009-02-17T08:40:00.000-08:00

Recruiter Roundtable: Keys to Success in 2009
Yahoo! HotJobs, Yahoo! HotJobs

The Recruiter Roundtable is a monthly feature that collects career and job-seeking advice from a group of recruiting experts throughout the United States. The question we put before our panel this month is:

In light of the troubling economic climate and tightening job market, what is the one thing that job-seekers must do in order to be successful in landing a good job in 2009?

Exhaust All Options

Tell everyone you know about the type of position you are looking for, network online and at industry events, go on informational interviews, work with a recruiting firm, take on temporary assignments, and be flexible when meeting with prospective employers.

When developing your cover letter and resume, quantify the value of your contributions to previous employers, including how you helped cut costs, reduce inefficiencies or improve profitability. There are opportunities available, but job seekers will have to work harder to find them and cannot afford to leave even one stone unturned.
-- DeLynn Senna, executive director of North American permanent placement services, Robert Half International

Network With Smarts

Candidates must be building and strengthening their network -- ideally before it's needed. Find networking events to go find other like-minded individuals and connectors. Build your online presence through your social networks and be an active participant in the community. And remember to give more than take -- share your knowledge, help others be better, and invest time in building strong, long-lasting relationships. These are the relationships that could turn into future job leads.
-- Lindsay Olson, partner, Paradigm Staffing

Flexibility Is Key

Stay open to opportunities in new or related industries, companies of a different size, or in a different location; and be aware that with the advent of technology, a new location just may be your home office.

Be flexible. You may or may not have to travel a bit more, take a different title, or give up some of the perks you've had in the past to assume your new role. All things being equal, if you're flexible around these topics you're chances of getting hired increase considerably.
-- Cheryl Ferguson, recruiter, The Recruiter's Studio

Diversify and Listen

My advice is two-fold: Be ready to diversify the ways in which you communicate your experiences AND listen well.

First, make a laundry list, just for yourself, of all the projects, contributions, ideas, etc., from your last three positions. This is what's not on your resume. It jogs your memory about how you have differentiated yourself. You'll recall and distill examples of your success, and you'll be ready for more questions.

Second, listen closely to what the recruiter and/or hiring manager is asking you. They are looking for something very particular, whether the opportunity is leadership or entry-level. Walking someone through your resume or citing examples that they're not seeking could hinder your ability to seem specific to their job. You want to be very clear about your transferable skills and your willingness to adapt to their environment.
-- Ross Pasquale, recruiting/sourcing consultant, Monday Ventures

Tailor Your Resume

The most important thing that job seekers must do in 2009 to be successful is to diversify the content of their resumes based on the roles that they are applying for. For example, a job seeker may have worked in the past as a Java engineer, and also obtained project management along the way. However, a resume that is oriented strongly toward being a Java engineer has only a slight chance of being considered for a project-manager position.

For job seekers to increase their chances at success, they should shape their resumes to reflect relevant matching skills with the job posting(s) they are applying to. By doing so, a recruiter and/or hiring manager will more easily understand how a job seeker's past experiences apply to the posted role. This method increases the chance of being considered a strong candidate, receiving an interview, and, ultimately, a new position.
-- Joanna Samuels, senior account manager, GravityPeople

http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/jobseeker/tools/ept/printallept.html?post=621&eptTemplete=careerarticles

10 Hot Professions for 2009

2009-02-17T08:20:00.000-08:00

10 Hot Professions for 2009
Joy Victory, Payscale.com, Yahoo! HotJobs

As the global economy continues to falter, job prospects for 2009 are expected to slow. But if you're lucky enough to be in one of these top fields, your job future is still quite bright. Take a look at this list below and either thank your lucky stars that your job is already on it, or consider seeking the education and experience for the career that most interests you.

Auditor. With all of the economic upheaval, businesses are being watched more carefully than ever. "There is a lot of money flowing into companies right now due to the stimulus package," says Ron Mitchell, CEO and co-founder of GottaMentor, a career coaching service located in New York City. "And, we've all seen some issues with, 'Where is this money going to?'" He adds that auditors are mostly working for the big four [accounting firms] and also as internal auditors. Average Yearly Salary - $64,914

Career Counselor. More folks than usual are starting off the new year without a job in sight. How can the out-of-work find gainful employment? From outplacement agencies to government programs, career counselors and coaches will be very busy in 2009 helping make things easier. Mitchell encourages those seeking work to get professional help, saying, "Many individuals will need to completely re-engineer their careers. In order to do that, people need personalized guidance and feedback from an expert counselor." Average Yearly Salary - $54,426

Counselor. Besides their bank accounts, people's self-esteem and confidence are getting hit hard these days. "People's self worth is tied up in their job, so you have a huge identity crisis happening. Counseling and mental health services will be in high demand," says Mitchell. Guidance and some soul-searching can result in new and better careers for those in transition. Average Yearly Salary - $40,275

Public Relations Specialist. Rather than promoting a line of sparkly, new products or an exciting initiative, many public relations professionals will spend the upcoming year smoothing over unfortunate events. Mitchell predicts: "Being able to tell a story about major layoffs, reduced sales, and failed mergers, without causing a panic in the market, will become even more important." Average Yearly Salary - $44,334

Factor. A what? Didn't you study those in algebra? While this career is fairly foreign to most folks, now that bank loans are hard to come by, factoring allows small business to get funding based on their current accounts receivable -- the money they expect to have coming in. Factoring works well for retailers and other businesses that have big receivables. Mitchell explains that factoring is a legitimate source of funds in hard times. He says, "It's a huge business and, at a time when people can't get other types of lending, factors are skilled experts at lending against accounts receivables." Average Yearly Salary - $79,846

Health-Care Technician. You may know that nurses are in demand, but what about the folks they work with? "There's never enough of them, like radiology technicians, lab assistants, and home health aides. Health-care is the largest industry in the country, and in the more technical aspects of those careers we have a huge shortage of personnel," says Mitchell. Average Yearly Salary (Pharmacy Technician) - $32,531

Mechanical Engineer (and all engineering fields). With every passing year, more skilled-labor jobs are replaced by complex automation or robotics systems. For example, some hospitals have turned to "robotic pharmacies" to help dispense medication. It's the engineers who help build these automated systems, says Jim Turnquist, director of career services at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Mich. "In the U.S. we only graduate 70,000 engineers per year, but we're going to need 100,000 per year. The demand is going to go way up." Average Yearly Salary - $71,490

Networking/System Administrator. Since almost all business transactions these days are done with the assistance of a vast computer network, the people who understand how to keep computer networks running smoothly are critically important -- and consequently, in high demand. "Network and system administrators maintain the company's infrastructure. People need people to fix and monitor their infrastructure, keep them updated," Mitchell says. Average Yearly Salary - $54,193

Nurse. The health-care field has been booming for a long time, and all signs indicate it will continue to do so, says Turnquist. He also says college students and people looking for a new job field would be wise to consider physical therapy and similar "exercise science" fields, since aging Baby Boomers will be looking for ways to remain active long into their later years. Average Yearly Salary (Registered Nurse) - $53,840

Software Designer/Developer. Companies from all sectors of the economy are looking for software engineers and programmers, says Turnquist. This is because society in general is becoming more tech-dependent -- just think of how rapidly cell phones change with each passing year -- requiring software developers that can stay abreast of all the changes. Average Yearly Salary - $72,070

Source: All salary data is from PayScale.com. The salaries listed are median, annual salaries for full-time workers with 5-8 years of experience and include any bonuses, commissions or profit sharing.

http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/jobseeker/tools/ept/printallept.html?post=633&eptTemplete=careerarticles

What's Your Job Interview IQ?

2009-02-17T08:18:00.000-08:00

What's Your Job Interview IQ?
C.J. Liu, PayScale.com, Yahoo! HotJobs

After networking, sending resumes, and waiting patiently by the phone, all your hard work has paid off with an invitation to interview. But, how do you prepare? What do you wear? And, how should you explain any layoffs or gaps in your resume?

Below is a quick quiz to test your interview savvy. Read through the following true-or-false statements to assess your Interview IQ.

1. If I prepare too much for an interview I will seem desperate. (True/False?)

False. There is nothing worse than an unprepared interviewee. Make sure you have done your homework about the organization and the job skills required before the interview. This will help when you're asked, "Why do you want to work here?" Plus, you can ask knowledgeable questions when your turn comes around.

2. Before the interview, put yourself in the interviewer's shoes to see things from their perspective.

True. Typically, interviewers are busy and easily distracted. Remember that you may be one of 10 people that they have talked to in the last five hours. Don't make them struggle to get answers out of you or make sense of your rambling replies.

3. Role-playing to prepare for typical interview questions is really important.

True. Practicing your responses to typical interview questions is paramount. Role-play with a friend and get feedback on how you come across. For example, if you say that you are really excited about the job but sound hesitant, you will not seem credible.

4. If you have reservations about your abilities or skills for the position you should tell the whole truth.

True/False. You should not tell a lie and say you have five years of experience when you really have two. Nor should you fully disclose your inadequacies. If you left your last job because you were fired, there's no need to bring that up. When the employer asks you about your biggest mistake, pick a less emotionally charged experience and emphasize what you learned from it.

5. A job interview is a one-direction conversation, like on a talk show.

False. Having a one-sided interview can be exhausting for both parties. Make sure to prepare at least 10 engaging and relevant questions to ask. Even better, have some questions about their favorite subject - themselves. An example is, "Tell me about your job and what you love about it?"

6. Interviewers are like dogs; they can smell my fear.

True. Interviewing is the quintessential example of dogs sniffing each other out. Like a dog, the interviewer will be trying to determine your overall confidence. Your body language indicates your level of self-esteem. Remember, a shaking leg or deer-in-headlights expression can matter more than how well you answer the questions.

7. The "real me" will shine through whether I'm dressed in pajamas or a suit.

False. Whether we like it or not, what we wear helps form a first impression. Before the interview, see if you can get some insider information on the dress code and whether it is more casual or formal. If you don't know, opt for formal. For women, remember it's about getting a job, not a date. Stay away from low cut or short anything.

8. Sending a thank you note is an important way of standing out.

True. Thank you notes are not only about good etiquette but self-marketing, too. How can a simple card help you seal the deal? Start by mentioning something you learned about your interviewer. You could say, "I really enjoyed our conversation about your first years at Boeing." Then, write a quick summary of the conversation and why you are perfect for the job.

9. Making demands for your ideal salary and vacation in the initial interview is a risky proposition.

True. While you are aching to know the starting salary and benefits right off the bat, it's a bit risky to ask these types of questions initially. Reserve negotiations on these matters until you have a job offer.

10. It doesn't matter if I'm five minutes late. Everyone runs late to interviews.

False. It's OK for your interviewer to be late, but the interviewee needs to be on time or 5-10 minutes early. Even if you have a good reason for being late, the interviewer will make assumptions about your level of organization and how you treat others. Plus, getting there early gives you time to compose yourself and shake off your coffee jitters.

C.J. Liu is a certified, professional coach who helps professionals define success on their own terms. C.J. offers?life, business, and career coaching and?can answer your questions at cjliu@mywholelife.net.

http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/jobseeker/tools/ept/printallept.html?post=636&eptTemplete=careerarticles

Keep Your Presentations Simple

2009-02-12T04:56:00.000-08:00

Keep Your Presentations Simple

by Stephen Boyd

When delivering a presentation, keep things simple. To help the audience remember what you say, focus on one idea for your listeners to take away. As you prepare your speech, keep in mind the one idea you want the audience to remember, such as your expertise that will help the client’s business. In a presentation I often deliver, “Be Present When You Are Present,” my main idea is to pay attention in a multi-tasking world.

Don’t take too long to get your message across to your audience. History supports the principle that audiences prefer short speeches. One of the greatest speeches of the 20th Century was John F. Kennedy’s 1960 Inaugural Address—only fourteen minutes long. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln’s obligatory two minutes became famous as the Gettysburg Address. Edward Everett, a well-known orator and a former Senator, presented the two-hour keynote address that day at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg. Everett wrote to President Lincoln after the event, “I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes.”

Less is usually more in delivering a presentation. Don’t overload the minds of your listeners with too many pieces of data. The audience won’t remember much, but if they feel you are giving them too much information they will tune you out and remember nothing.

Never use three words when you can say it in two. Leave out clichés, filler words, and hackneyed words such as “You know,” “OK,” and “All right.” Leave out phrases such as “Let me be honest/blunt/frank.” (Have you not been being honest before that point?) Speak in short sentences, short phrases, and short words. Word choice should be instantly clear to an audience. Make it a goal that every word will have impact in your speech. Use language that triggers specific action. Begin a sentence with “Here is what I want you to do as a result of my presentation…,” or, “Remember this one piece of information….”

Ask the introducer to keep your introduction brief; in fact, it is best to type out an introduction and give it to him or her to read. Include only vital information that qualifies you on your topic. Your life history is not necessary in the introduction.

Finally, don’t tell all you know about the subject. The content of your presentation should be from the overflow of your knowledge. Only say what’s necessary to fulfill your purpose. The content of your presentation should influence the audience to want to come back for more, and you should know more than you’ve given.

As communication professor and researcher Josh Boyd wrote, “In physics, power is defined as work divided by time. In other words, more work done in less time produces more power. In the same way, a speaker’s message is most powerful when he or she can deliver a lot of good material in a short amount of time.”

In a culture where time is in demand, a speech presented simply enhances the audience’s acceptance of the content. At the least, a simple approach will encourage the audience to pay attention to your message.

Sales Managers: Invest in the Best

2009-02-11T10:28:00.000-08:00

Sales Managers: Invest in the Best

Sales managers make a difference to your company every day in many ways.

They help top producers produce even more. They help high potential sales people develop into stars. They help the consistent, steady producers keep chugging away. They weed out the underperformers who can't make the grade and they help others to improve.

You would think that you'd want to pick the best sales managers you could find, give them the training they need and support them. But, in many companies, that simply doesn't happen.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us that 2.2 million Americans have some kind of sales management job. They work in all kinds of settings, large and small, retail and business and industrial. The majority of them have three things in common.

They were promoted for the wrong reasons.

They received no training in supervisory or management skills.

They have people working for them. That means that if they sink instead of swim, they can take a whole sales team to the bottom with them.

It doesn't have to be this way. To change things, you need to pick people who have a shot at being successful managers, give them training in supervisory skills, and give them the support they need to grow and develop as managers.

Pick people who have a shot at being successful managers.

It's almost a cliché that top salespeople often make poor sales managers, yet that's exactly who many companies promote. Instead of looking at sales success alone consider the following.

Pick people who like helping others succeed. That's a big part of any manager's job. Select candidates who've gone out of their way to help others and seem to be good at it.

Pick people who are willing to talk to others about behavior and performance. This is a tough one.

Many salespeople have a strong need to be liked. In management that can be deadly. Select people you've seen deliver tough messages to their colleagues and customers without setting off a nuclear conflict.

Pick people who are willing to make decisions. You can't teach this. You can teach techniques to improve decision making, but your candidate needs to show up willing to make decisions and be held accountable for them.

Pick people who are credible. Almost all promotions to sales manager are from inside. That means that a person's reputation follows him or her. Part of that reputation involves sales skills.

I've found a difference between retail and industrial selling here. In industrial sales management, the manager spends less time with his or her salespeople than the retail sales manager, who works the floor and usually sells.

The difference is important when you're considering someone for promotion. In retail, you want a person who delights in helping others and who is also a great salesperson. That's because he or she is on the floor all the time. How the sales manager sells sets the example for everyone every day.

Pick people with integrity. This is another one of those things you can't teach, but it's essential. You have to be able to trust your managers. Their team members have to be able to trust them.

Pick people who like to learn. A good sales manager will always be learning. He or she will learn about technical matters, about sales techniques and about supervisory skills. That learning starts with training.

Give them training in supervisory skills.

Get a bunch of top company executives and ask them what they do to train their salespeople and the noise level in the room rockets upward as they describe one thing after another. Ask those same executives what they do to train their sales managers in management and the room goes silent.

Supervising salespeople is a distinct kind of work. To do it well, you have to shift your thinking from being an individual salesperson on a team to being the leader of the team. And you have to master some specific skills.

Help them understand their new role. New sales managers need to spend time clarifying their new role. As sales managers they are responsible for making goal through the group. As sales managers they are responsible for helping their people succeed and develop.

Help them develop skills necessary to talk to people about their behavior and performance. New sales managers need to learn the basic tools. They need to practice them in exercises before they go back on the job.

Help them identify good role models and possible mentors. Initial training should point out the importance of role models and mentors. It should help new sales managers identify good ones. And it should teach the new sales manager how to use them.

Help them put together their own development program. New sales managers will leave their first training with most of their learning still in front of them. Give them tools and connections that will help them learn on the job.

Give them the support they need to grow and develop.

Supervising others is an apprentice trade. You learn a small portion of it in classrooms and from books. You learn most of it from others and on the job.

Give your sales managers lots of feedback. Feedback is the key to improved performance. New sales managers, especially, need lots of feedback on their management work in the months immediately following promotion.

Help them connect with peers. Strong peer groups can help a new sales manager get advice, feedback and support.

Bring them back for frequent training during the transition period. My research says that it takes twelve to eighteen months for most new sales managers to settle in to their new role and their new job. During that time, training on analyzing performance issues and talking to people about performance can really help.

Sales managers don't just have an impact on the top line by increasing sales. They also have an impact on the bottom line by reducing turnover and keeping selling expenses under control. They're important you need to select, train and support them like the valuable assets they are.

This article first appeared in the Three Star Leadership Blog.

It is based on material in Wally's Working Supervisor Support Kit.

You may reprint or repost this article providing that the following conditions are met:
The article remains essentially unaltered.
Wally Bock is shown as the author.
The notice Copyright 2007 by Wally Bock or similar appears on the article.
Contact information for Wally is included with the article. You may refer readers to this Web site as a way to meet this requirement, or use the information on our contact page.

http://www.threestarleadership.com/articles/salesmanagers.htm

Career Development: 20 Tips for the Young

2009-02-11T10:24:00.000-08:00

Career Development: 20 Tips for the Young

After watching careers for almost forty years, I've got a clear idea of what you should do to build yours. Here's some advice if you're starting out.

1. Seek and use feedback. Feedback will turbocharge your career and put you on the path to continuous improvement.

2. Get help. You can't know it all yourself. Get help from mentors, friends, peers, books, classes and role models.

3. Seek out challenges. That's how you grow.

4. At some point you will fail. It will be painful. Instead of sitting in the ashes of your life and shaking your fist at the sky, pick yourself up, learn from what happened and keep going. Ask my mother's favorite question for all challenges: "What good can we make of this?"

5. Build on your strengths and help others build on their strengths. Figure out what you do both well and joyfully. Do the same for your team. Spend your time on developing and using strengths. Make weaknesses irrelevant.

6. Admit your mistakes, graciously. Forgive the mistakes others make. Figure out how to move on and learn from experience.

7. Say "Thank you." Write thank-you notes. Send thank-you emails. People will remember you.

8. Learn to write lucid memoranda. You can't communicate if you can't write.

9. Learn to make good presentations. In today's world this is a requirement. Learn to marshal the research. Learn to tell relevant stories.

10. Help your boss and your employer look good. That's part of your job and it pays dividends over the course of a career.

11. Learn to keep your mouth shut when it's important. Don't discuss sensitive issues or your customer's business on your cell phone in a public place. Don't gossip. Keep sensitive documents secure.

12. Clarify expectations until they are crystalline. Make sure you understand what your boss wants from you. Make sure the people who work with you understand what you want.

13. Fight for the important stuff and give in gracefully otherwise. There are very few things in business or in life that are worth messing up a relationship for.

14. Develop habits and checklists that help you get the routine work done routinely and well. You will develop a reputation for reliability.

15. You don't know when an opportunity to stand out from the crowd will appear. Read and study and listen so that you're ready when a big opportunity comes your way. Create learning programs for yourself.

16. Ambition can be a driving force but it needn't be obvious and self-serving. It certainly needn't be aggressive. Let others become known for their ambition while you build a reputation for excellence.

17. Keep your promises. Nothing can destroy a career faster or more thoroughly than a reputation as untrustworthy.

18. Every day identify the most important thing you need to do. Then do it.

19. Work hard. Some people succeed without working hard, but some people win the lottery, too. Very few people achieve meaningful and lasting success without working hard.

20. When in doubt about what to do, act like the person you want to become.

Remember that careers are built from the things you do every day. You're more likely to succeed in the long run if you take every opportunity to develop yourself, your skills, your friends, and your relationships. Good luck.

This article first appeared in the Three Star Leadership Blog.

It is based on material in Wally's Working Supervisor Support Kit.

You may reprint or repost this article providing that the following conditions are met:

The article remains essentially unaltered.

Wally Bock is shown as the author.
The notice Copyright 2007 by Wally Bock or similar appears on the article.

Contact information for Wally is included with the article. You may refer readers to this Web site as a way to meet this requirement, or use the information on our contact page.

http://www.threestarleadership.com/articles/careertipsforyoung.htm

Public Speaking:

2008-10-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

7 Secrets of Great Public Speakers -Article

By Ranju Kumar Published 01/19/2008

The major secret of great speakers is that they do not think about themselves during a talk. Great speakers prepare and practice before the big event and when the big event comes, they think about their audience.

At its core, public speaking is not about your image or ego. It is about communicating a message and that means connecting with an audience.

Here are seven ways of creating an experience that will wow audiences and make sure they come away with your message:

1. Respect Your Audience.This means you view your audience as your equals. You neither look down on them nor crawl before them in hopes of winning their approval. You make some effort to find out what information they already have. That way, you can offer a presentation that gives them something new and does not insult their intelligence.

2. Listen to the Audience. Communication is a two-way street. Even when you are the only one talking, your audience will communicate with you through facial expressions and body language. Listen to these communications, so that you can give the audience what they need. If you see a lot of confused looks, slow down, back up and repeat your last statement. If you see sleepy body language, speak up, use gestures and visual aids to inject energy into the room.

3. Maximize Learning. The most effective speeches cover enough material to be engaging, but not too much. Ideally, you should make three to five clear points, but never more than seven. Give an overview of the main points in your introduction and a recap of them in your conclusion. The rest of your material should be facts that accurately support those points. If you can state the main points concisely, your audience can learn them.

4. Speak Their Language.In most cases, the shortest, most direct words are the best. However, there are some situations that call for academic, technical or other jargon. Even in the most academic settings though, listeners appreciate easy to remember words and phrases. Unless you are a comedian with a very tolerant audience, absolutely avoid profane or crude language.

5. Make Them Comfortable.Make the audience stiff and unresponsive by memorizing your speech. As much as possible, speak as if you are having a conversation with a very comfortable friend about something you care about. That does not mean being loud and obnoxious: it means you capture the feeling of sharing something you are excited about. If you think your topic is not exciting, do some work to identify why it is important. This helps your audience feel comfortable with you and enthusiastic about your topic.

6. Show Them What You Are Talking About. Use high-quality visual aids to help drive your message home. It does not need to be complicated. For instance, a talk about the life of Benjamin Franklin would benefit from something as simple as his portrait. Other aids are PowerPoint slides with a minimum of text listing your main points or slides of art prints.

7. Be Honest. When you give a presentation, you are trying to change something about your audience like increase their knowledge, change their beliefs or habits and convince them to take a particular action. A great speaker does any or all of that by giving an ethical speech. That means you avoid plagiarism, falsehood or exaggeration. Even in a persuasive speech, you never try to force, coerce or deceive. What you want is to teach and convince with clean, logical argument and concrete evidence.

Connecting with an audience is an art with foundational rules like any other art. You have learned these seven methods in just a few minutes. You can devote a lifetime to mastering them and so become a truly great public speaker.

Article Source: http://www.discoveryarticles.com/articles/66872/1/Public-Speaking-7-Secrets-of-Great-Public-Speakers/Page1.html

How To Prepare A Professional Presentation Or Speech

2008-10-13T16:46:00.000-07:00

How To Prepare A Professional Presentation Or Speech

Submitted Friday, November 24, 2006

Submitted by: Jonathan Farrington

As with all things in life, the quality of the preparation affects the final outcome and this is certainly true when it comes to planning and preparing a presentation.

I have experimented with a number of methods over the years but I do believe that the simplest are usually the best.

The Collection:

Over a period of time think all round the subject and note down on a large sheet of paper or indeed several sheets, everything that comes into your head about the subject of your presentation. This is rather like a personal brain storming session and should be done roughly, in the order in which the thoughts occur; do not attempt to write a speech at this stage

The Central Theme:

This second method requires you to decide on the exact message you want to get across and writing it down in one simple sentence. Then you think all around the sentence, scribbling down the ideas as they come to you - this method is almost identical to ‘mind-mapping

Before selecting or rejecting any idea, it is important to decide:-

• Who are my audience?
• How much do they know already?
• How much time will I be allowed?

Having taken account of the answers to those three key questions, it should be possible to answer one further one -

• What do I want to say?

This is the stage at which you can decide your headings and sub-headings and put them into a logical order. Your structure then begins to take shape. Essentially you go back to the notes you made during the ‘ideas’ stage and select which ones you wish to use - and then put them in the right order.

Remember you probably will not have time to tell your audience all you know about your subject – after all this is not an ‘information dump’ Use only what is relevant and what can be dealt with in the time at your disposal – this may involve a ruthless reduction exercise.

It is suggested that if possible leave the speech, once written, for 24 hours. Then re-read and revise, removing any jargon or unnecessarily flowery phases or faulty reasoning.

The actual notes that you speak from can be the final draft of the speech but this will normally cause you to read most or all of the presentation and the audience will find this dull.

It is much better, therefore, to read the final draft and put it to one side. Then, without referring to it, write short, key-word notes or, if you are very experienced, headings only, on to numbered post-cards.(Numbering your cards will prove to be an invaluable exercise in the unlikely event you drop them half way through your presentation!)

You can now re-look at the final draft to check that you have included all the major ideas on the cards, but be careful, the chances are that if you forgot that idea when making out the cards, you will forget it when you make the presentation.

And Finally -Final Notes:

Unless you are a very good actor with a phenomenal memory, do not dispense with notes by memorising a speech ‘parrot-fashion’. Unless your audience are ornithologists, they do not want to listen to a parrot! Also, it is easy to lose your way when giving a memorised presentation and easier still to lose an audience.

Copyright © 2006 Jonathan Farrington. All rights reserved

Jonathan Farrington is the Managing Partner of The jfa Group http://www.thejfagroup.com. To find out more about the author, read his latest articles or to subscribe to his newsletter, visit: http://www.jonathanfarrington.com

You can now also read his weekly blog for dedicated sales professionals: http://www.thejfblogit.co.uk

5 Super Tips to Get Rid of Your Public Speaking Fear

2008-10-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

How to Overcome Public Speaking Anxiety or Fear
By Charles Wilson

I have seen many people around who most of the times hesitate to make a public speech. Many of the times it happens because those people really have fear in their minds for public speaking. I have personally experienced the feeling of inferiority or fear of not having much knowledge about the topic of speech. These are the major reasons for having public speaking fear. And after a lot of hard work and continuous practice I managed to overcome my public speaking fear. Here are my 5 super tips for you people who want to get rid of their public speaking fear.

1) Don't get scared to make mistakes: Yes when it comes to public speaking you are bound to make some minor or major mistakes. But it is the part and parcel of public speech. Don't be afraid of doing mistakes during your public speech. Only thing is that you should learn from your mistakes and try not to make those next time when you are presenting. Even if you make a mistake during your speech then don't get panic and try to remain calm and cool which will definitely help you to present yourself in a better way.

2) Be creative and select your topic which you are most passionate about: When you are going to present yourself in public speaking, it is the primary thing that the topic of the speech should be the one which you know very well and you have a real passion about that topic. Because when you are going to speak about that topic then your heart and mind will produce the most effective and most creative presentation you have ever presented. This is very important as you already are very confident and well knowledgeable about the subject and your audience will also take keen interest in your presentation.

3) Build a strong, positive attitude in yourself: When it comes to any kind of public speech it is mandatory that you should have the requisite confidence in yourself and you should have a s strong belief in your abilities. This will only come when you will look at yourself as a most knowledgeable and highly positive person in your life. So it is the most important factor in making your public speech successful and without any fear.

4) Practice in front of your mirror: This is the most successful idea behind making your public speech successful. This activity will really boost your confidence because you have already rehearsed what you want to speak in front of your audience. And this is the most successful technique which many well known speakers were using it. This is the most important confidence building method I have ever seen in my life. Believe me after 4-5 practice sessions in front of your home mirror; it will tremendously increase your confidence and belief in yourself.

5) Use props creatively during your presentation: This is truly confidence boosting method. You get enough time to calm your nerves and build confidence in yourself as you effectively use props during presentation. Using PowerPoint slides and other props gives your audience visual aid to make them comfortable with the topic and that can also increase the interest of your audience in the topic and most importantly it gives you enough time to prepare yourself with the next points to be delivered which also reduces the fear and nervousness in your mind.

By applying these simple tips you can easily overcome your public speaking fear and can confidently present yourself in front of your audience.

================================================================

Takeaways
Don't get scared to make mistakes
Be creative and select your topic which you are most passionate about
Build strong positive attitude in yourself

Tom Peters on Presentations

2008-09-12T16:37:00.001-07:00

July 20, 2005

In May, Tom Peters gave his insights on what he calls "Presentation Excellence" on his website. Great, great, great stuff from a guy who knows a thing or two about speaking to a crowd.

Tom also posted his tips — 56 in all — for Presentation Excellence. It's all great advice from someone who has a lot of experience speaking to groups big and small. Below I list what I believe are the "best 11" of Tom's 56 tips, just to give you a quick look. Tom posted his tips in a PowerPoint file on his site which you can download and then port into a Word file, reformat, and save as a good looking PDF to share with your staff. Here, I have combined some of his tips to keep it to 11 and added my brief comments below each of Toms' tips. (So why a "Best 11"? Hint: Have you seen Spinal Tap?)

(Download the Presentation Excellence PowerPoint document from Tom's site).

My "Best 11" of Tom Peters' 56 Tips (Tom's words in bold)

(1) Total commitment to the Problem/Project/Outcome

Authenticity. From the heart. You have to mean it. Absolutely fundamental. If it matters to you (deeply), it will matter to them.

(2) A compelling “Story line”/“Plot”

There's that word "story" again. Great presentations just don't contain great stories or anecdotes — the entire presentation is one grand story.

(3) Enough data to sink a tanker (98% in reserve). (Know the data from memory; ability to manipulate the data in your head)

Research. Facts. Evidence. Proof. Got to have them. But you probably only give them 2% of your knowledge in a typical presentation. But what if they want another one percent? Or what if they want an entirely different two percent from what you had prepared? Got to be ready for anything. If you know your topic inside and out — deep and wide — then there is nothing to worry about.

(4) Data are imperative, but also play to Emotion.

The brain has a logical left hemisphere an emotional right. We are presenting to people, who like it or not, are emotional beings. Even very technical presentations should not be data dumps alone. We must appeal to people's emotions.

(5) CONNECT! CONNECT! CONNECT!

Absolutely crucial. And where you connect with people is on the emotional level. You have great data, but is it the right data for them? Can you feel their pain? Can you tell a story?

(6) No more than ONE point per slide! NO CLUTTER!!!!!!!!! (no wee print/charts/graphs). Good quotes from the field. (Remember you’re “telling a story”).

Simple visuals for the screen, always. More technical, complicated data presentation can appear in the handout. (But what about Tom's PPT slides? We'll get to that another day....). QUOTES! Use them. This is one of the great things about slideware (PPT or KEY): the ability to bring in quotes from experts and display them in 58pt Gill Sans on a 20-foot screen. Wonderful.

(7) There must be "surprise"... some key facts that are not commonly known/are counter-intuitive (no reason to do the presentation in the first place if there are no Surprises)

Right. If you are just giving information, why present? Surprise, delight, challenge, engage the audience. People are busy — if they can get the same info from a book or an email, why bring them in to listen to a presentation? Make it matter.

(8) SMILE! RELAX (to a point) (fake it if necessary) ("up tight" is disastrous) (remember you are doing them a favor by sharing this Compelling Opportunity!)

This is one important way to connect. A smile may be the single most powerful form of nonverbal communication. By "fake it" I don't think Tom means be disingenuous and paint on a phony smile. The audience knows phony anyway. I think Tom means for us to remember that the presentation is also an "act" and the act must go on, even if we do not feel like smiling. We owe it to our audience (and ourselves) to be totally engaged in the present with our audience...and smile.

(9) EYE CONTACT!!!!!!!

Again, you want to make a powerful connection? You have to look people in the eye. In large rooms (and small) look directly at individuals. Do not just cast a general gaze to the back of the room. And of course, do not look at the screen (except in glancing), look into the eyes of the people you are talking with. What's a conversation without eye contact?

(10) Energy! Enthusiasm! .... Enjoy it! This is a Hoot! Remember your Goal: Change the world! ... A Presentation is an Act (FDR: “The President must be the nation’s number one actor”)

A presentation — big or small — is a performance, whether you like to think of it that way or not. Some think "performance" means "fake." Not at all. Have you ever seen a DVD performance of Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, or the 1968 Elvis Presley comeback special? Those cats (and chick) performed like crazy. They brought energy, enthusiasm, and had the time of their life on stage...and so did the audience. OK, we are not professional entertainers. But we must remember that our presentations are important opportunities to, in our own small way, have an impact...and change things for the better.

(11) Becoming an Excellent Presenter is as tough as becoming a great baseball pitcher. THIS IS IMPORTANT … and Presentation Excellence is never accidental! (Work your buns off!)

No, it ain't easy. In fact, it's hard. But careers have been advanced or derailed based on a presentation. Deals have been won or lost depending on the outcome of a presentation. Non-profits and volunteer organizations have won funding or folded up their tents depending on their performance in a presentation. Presentations matter. And it is something very worthy of our commitment and lifelong study.

HR Interview Questions and Answers

2008-09-07T05:06:00.000-07:00

Tell me about yourself ?
Start with the present and tell why you are well qualified for the position. Remember that the key to all successful interviewing is to match your qualifications to what the interviewer is looking for. In other words you must sell what the buyer is buying. This is the single most important strategy in job hunting.

So, before you answer this or any question it's imperative that you try to uncover your interviewer's greatest need, want, problem or goal.

To do so, make you take these two steps:
Do all the homework you can before the hr interview to uncover this person's wants and needs (not the generalized needs of the industry or company)

As early as you can in the interview, ask for a more complete description of what the position entails. You might say: “I have a number of accomplishments I'd like to tell you about, but I want to make the best use of our time together and talk directly to your needs. To help me do, that, could you tell me more about the most important priorities of this position? All I know is what I (heard from the recruiter, read in the classified ad, etc.)”

Then, ALWAYS follow-up with a second and possibly, third question, to draw out his needs even more. Surprisingly, it's usually this second or third question that unearths what the interviewer is most looking for.

You might ask simply, "And in addition to that?..." or, "Is there anything else you see as essential to success in this position?:

This process will not feel easy or natural at first, because it is easier simply to answer questions, but only if you uncover the employer's wants and needs will your answers make the most sense. Practice asking these key questions before giving your answers, the process will feel more natural and you will be light years ahead of the other job candidates you're competing with.

After uncovering what the employer is looking for, describe why the needs of this job bear striking parallels to tasks you've succeeded at before. Be sure to illustrate with specific examples of your responsibilities and especially your achievements, all of which are geared to present yourself as a perfect match for the needs he has just described.

What are your greatest strengths ?

You know that your key strategy is to first uncover your interviewer's greatest wants and needs before you answer questions. And from Question 1, you know how to do this.

Prior to any interview, you should have a list mentally prepared of your greatest strengths. You should also have, a specific example or two, which illustrates each strength, an example chosen from your most recent and most impressive achievements.

You should, have this list of your greatest strengths and corresponding examples from your achievements so well committed to memory that you can recite them cold after being shaken awake at 2:30AM.

Then, once you uncover your interviewer's greatest wants and needs, you can choose those achievements from your list that best match up.

As a general guideline, the 10 most desirable traits that all employers love to see in their employees are:

A proven track record as an achiever...especially if your achievements match up with the employer's greatest wants and needs.

Intelligence...management "savvy".

Honesty...integrity...a decent human being.

Good fit with corporate culture...someone to feel comfortable with...a team player who meshes well with interviewer's team.

Likeability...positive attitude...sense of humor.

Good communication skills.

Dedication...willingness to walk the extra mile to achieve excellence.

Definiteness of purpose...clear goals.

Enthusiasm...high level of motivation.

Confident...healthy...a leader.

What are your greatest weakness ?

Disguise a strength as a weakness.

Example: “I sometimes push my people too hard. I like to work with a sense of urgency and everyone is not always on the same wavelength.”

Drawback: This strategy is better than admitting a flaw, but it's so widely used, it is transparent to any experienced interviewer.

BEST ANSWER: (and another reason it's so important to get a thorough description of your interviewer's needs before you answer questions): Assure the interviewer that you can think of nothing that would stand in the way of your performing in this position with excellence. Then, quickly review you strongest qualifications.

Example: “Nobody's perfect, but based on what you've told me about this position, I believe I' d make an outstanding match. I know that when I hire people, I look for two things most of all. Do they have the qualifications to do the job well, and the motivation to do it well? Everything in my background shows I have both the qualifications and a strong desire to achieve excellence in whatever I take on. So I can say in all honesty that I see nothing that would cause you even a small concern about my ability or my strong desire to perform this job with excellence.”

Alternate strategy (if you don't yet know enough about the position to talk about such a perfect fit):

Instead of confessing a weakness, describe what you like most and like least, making sure that what you like most matches up with the most important qualification for success in the position, and what you like least is not essential.

Example: Let's say you're applying for a teaching position. “If given a choice, I like to spend as much time as possible in front of my prospects selling, as opposed to shuffling paperwork back at the office. Of course, I long ago learned the importance of filing paperwork properly, and I do it conscientiously. But what I really love to do is sell (if your interviewer were a sales manager, this should be music to his ears.)

Tell me about something you did – or failed to do – that you now feel a little ashamed of ?

As with faults and weaknesses, never confess a regret. But don’t seem as if you’re stonewalling either.

Best strategy: Say you harbor no regrets, then add a principle or habit you practice regularly for healthy human relations.

Example: Pause for reflection, as if the question never occurred to you. Then say to hr, “You know, I really can’t think of anything.” (Pause again, then add): “I would add that as a general management principle, I’ve found that the best way to avoid regrets is to avoid causing them in the first place. I practice one habit that helps me a great deal in this regard. At the end of each day, I mentally review the day’s events and conversations to take a second look at the people and developments I’m involved with and do a double check of what they’re likely to be feeling. Sometimes I’ll see things that do need more follow-up, whether a pat on the back, or maybe a five minute chat in someone’s office to make sure we’re clear on things…whatever.”

“I also like to make each person feel like a member of an elite team, like the Boston Celtics or LA Lakers in their prime. I’ve found that if you let each team member know you expect excellence in their performance…if you work hard to set an example yourself…and if you let people know you appreciate and respect their feelings, you wind up with a highly motivated group, a team that’s having fun at work because they’re striving for excellence rather than brooding over slights or regrets.”

Why are you leaving (or did you leave) this position ?

(If you have a job presently tell the hr)

If you’re not yet 100% committed to leaving your present post, don’t be afraid to say so. Since you have a job, you are in a stronger position than someone who does not. But don’t be coy either. State honestly what you’d be hoping to find in a new spot. Of course, as stated often before, you answer will all the stronger if you have already uncovered what this position is all about and you match your desires to it.

(If you do not presently have a job tell the hr.)

Never lie about having been fired. It’s unethical – and too easily checked. But do try to deflect the reason from you personally. If your firing was the result of a takeover, merger, division wide layoff, etc., so much the better.

But you should also do something totally unnatural that will demonstrate consummate professionalism. Even if it hurts , describe your own firing – candidly, succinctly and without a trace of bitterness – from the company’s point-of-view, indicating that you could understand why it happened and you might have made the same decision yourself.

Your stature will rise immensely and, most important of all, you will show you are healed from the wounds inflicted by the firing. You will enhance your image as first-class management material and stand head and shoulders above the legions of firing victims who, at the slightest provocation, zip open their shirts to expose their battle scars and decry the unfairness of it all.

For all prior positions:

Make sure you’ve prepared a brief reason for leaving. Best reasons: more money, opportunity, responsibility or growth.

The "Silent Treatment"

Like a primitive tribal mask, the Silent Treatment loses all it power to frighten you once you refuse to be intimidated. If your interviewer pulls it, keep quiet yourself for a while and then ask, with sincere politeness and not a trace of sarcasm, “Is there anything else I can fill in on that point?” That’s all there is to it.

Whatever you do, don’t let the Silent Treatment intimidate you into talking a blue streak, because you could easily talk yourself out of the position.

Why should I hire you?
By now you can see how critical it is to apply the overall strategy of uncovering the employer’s needs before you answer questions. If you know the employer’s greatest needs and desires, this question will give you a big leg up over other candidates because you will give him better reasons for hiring you than anyone else is likely to…reasons tied directly to his needs.

Whether your interviewer asks you this question explicitly or not, this is the most important question of your interview because he must answer this question favorably in is own mind before you will be hired. So help him out! Walk through each of the position’s requirements as you understand them, and follow each with a reason why you meet that requirement so well.

Example: “As I understand your needs, you are first and foremost looking for someone who can manage the sales and marketing of your book publishing division. As you’ve said you need someone with a strong background in trade book sales. This is where I’ve spent almost all of my career, so I’ve chalked up 18 years of experience exactly in this area. I believe that I know the right contacts, methods, principles, and successful management techniques as well as any person can in our industry.”

“You also need someone who can expand your book distribution channels. In my prior post, my innovative promotional ideas doubled, then tripled, the number of outlets selling our books. I’m confident I can do the same for you.”

“You need someone to give a new shot in the arm to your mail order sales, someone who knows how to sell in space and direct mail media. Here, too, I believe I have exactly the experience you need. In the last five years, I’ve increased our mail order book sales from $600,000 to $2,800,000, and now we’re the country’s second leading marketer of scientific and medical books by mail.” Etc., etc., etc.,

Every one of these selling “couplets” (his need matched by your qualifications) is a touchdown that runs up your score. IT is your best opportunity to outsell your competition.

Aren’t you overqualified for this position?
As with any objection, don’t view this as a sign of imminent defeat. It’s an invitation to teach the interviewer a new way to think about this situation, seeing advantages instead of drawbacks.

Example: “I recognize the job market for what it is – a marketplace. Like any marketplace, it’s subject to the laws of supply and demand. So ‘overqualified’ can be a relative term, depending on how tight the job market is. And right now, it’s very tight. I understand and accept that.”

“I also believe that there could be very positive benefits for both of us in this match.”

“Because of my unusually strong experience in ________________ , I could start to contribute right away, perhaps much faster than someone who’d have to be brought along more slowly.”

“There’s also the value of all the training and years of experience that other companies have invested tens of thousands of dollars to give me. You’d be getting all the value of that without having to pay an extra dime for it. With someone who has yet to acquire that experience, he’d have to gain it on your nickel.”

“I could also help you in many things they don’t teach at the Harvard Business School. For example…(how to hire, train, motivate, etc.) When it comes to knowing how to work well with people and getting the most out of them, there’s just no substitute for what you learn over many years of front-line experience. You company would gain all this, too.”

“From my side, there are strong benefits, as well. Right now, I am unemployed. I want to work, very much, and the position you have here is exactly what I love to do and am best at. I’ll be happy doing this work and that’s what matters most to me, a lot more that money or title.”

“Most important, I’m looking to make a long term commitment in my career now. I’ve had enough of job-hunting and want a permanent spot at this point in my career. I also know that if I perform this job with excellence, other opportunities cannot help but open up for me right here. In time, I’ll find many other ways to help this company and in so doing, help myself. I really am looking to make a long-term commitment.”

NOTE: The main concern behind the “overqualified” question is that you will leave your new employer as soon as something better comes your way. Anything you can say to demonstrate the sincerity of your commitment to the employer and reassure him that you’re looking to stay for the long-term will help you overcome this objection.

Where do you see yourself five years from now?
Reassure your interviewer that you’re looking to make a long-term commitment…that this position entails exactly what you’re looking to do and what you do extremely well. As for your future, you believe that if you perform each job at hand with excellence, future opportunities will take care of themselves.

Example: “I am definitely interested in making a long-term commitment to my next position. Judging by what you’ve told me about this position, it’s exactly what I’m looking for and what I am very well qualified to do. In terms of my future career path, I’m confident that if I do my work with excellence, opportunities will inevitable open up for me. It’s always been that way in my career, and I’m confident I’ll have similar opportunities here.”

Describe your ideal company, location and job.

The only right answer is to describe what this company is offering, being sure to make your answer believable with specific reasons, stated with sincerity, why each quality represented by this opportunity is attractive to you.

Remember that if you’re coming from a company that’s the leader in its field or from a glamorous or much admired company, industry, city or position, your interviewer and his company may well have an “Avis” complex. That is, they may feel a bit defensive about being “second best” to the place you’re coming from, worried that you may consider them bush league.

This anxiety could well be there even though you’ve done nothing to inspire it. You must go out of your way to assuage such anxiety, even if it’s not expressed, by putting their virtues high on the list of exactly what you’re looking for, providing credible reason for wanting these qualities.

If you do not express genuine enthusiasm for the firm, its culture, location, industry, etc., you may fail to answer this “Avis” complex objection and, as a result, leave the interviewer suspecting that a hot shot like you, coming from a Fortune 500 company in New York, just wouldn’t be happy at an unknown manufacturer based in Topeka, Kansas.

Why do you want to work at our company?

This question is your opportunity to hit the ball out of the park, thanks to the in-depth research you should do before any interview.

Best sources for researching your target company: annual reports, the corporate newsletter, contacts you know at the company or its suppliers, advertisements, articles about the company in the trade press.

What are your career options right now?

Prepare for this question by thinking of how you can position yourself as a desired commodity. If you are still working, describe the possibilities at your present firm and why, though you’re greatly appreciated there, you’re looking for something more (challenge, money, responsibility, etc.). Also mention that you’re seriously exploring opportunities with one or two other firms.

If you’re not working, you can talk about other employment possibilities you’re actually exploring. But do this with a light touch, speak only in general terms. You don’t want to seem manipulative or coy.

Why have you been out of work so long ?

You want to emphasize factors which have prolonged your job search by your own choice.

Example: “After my job was terminated, I made a conscious decision not to jump on the first opportunities to come along. In my life, I’ve found out that you can always turn a negative into a positive IF you try hard enough. This is what I determined to do. I decided to take whatever time I needed to think through what I do best, what I most want to do, where I’d like to do it…and then identify those companies that could offer such an opportunity.”

“Also, in all honesty, you have to factor in the recession (consolidation, stabilization, etc.) in the (banking, financial services, manufacturing, advertising, etc.) industry.”

“So between my being selective and the companies in our industry downsizing, the process has taken time. But in the end, I’m convinced that when I do find the right match, all that careful evaluation from both sides of the desk will have been well worthwhile for both the company that hires me and myself.

Tell me honestly about the strong points and weak points of your boss (company, management team, etc.)
Remember the rule: Never be negative. Stress only the good points, no matter how charmingly you’re invited to be critical.

Your interviewer doesn’t care a whit about your previous boss. He wants to find out how loyal and positive you are, and whether you’ll criticize him behind his back if pressed to do so by someone in this own company. This question is your opportunity to demonstrate your loyalty to those you work with.

What good books have you read lately?
Unless you’re up for a position in academia or as book critic for The New York Times, you’re not expected to be a literary lion. But it wouldn’t hurt to have read a handful of the most recent and influential books in your profession and on management.

Consider it part of the work of your job search to read up on a few of these leading books. But make sure they are quality books that reflect favorably upon you, nothing that could even remotely be considered superficial. Finally, add a recently published bestselling work of fiction by a world-class author and you’ll pass this question with flying colors.

Tell me about a situation when your work was criticized ?
Begin by emphasizing the extremely positive feedback you’ve gotten throughout your career and (if it’s true) that your performance reviews have been uniformly excellent.

Of course, no one is perfect and you always welcome suggestions on how to improve your performance. Then, give an example of a not-too-damaging learning experience from early in your career and relate the ways this lesson has since helped you. This demonstrates that you learned from the experience and the lesson is now one of the strongest breastplates in your suit of armor.

If you are pressed for a criticism from a recent position, choose something fairly trivial that in no way is essential to your successful performance. Add that you’ve learned from this, too, and over the past several years/months, it’s no longer an area of concern because you now make it a regular practice to…etc.

Another way to answer this question would be to describe your intention to broaden your master of an area of growing importance in your field. For example, this might be a computer program you’ve been meaning to sit down and learn… a new management technique you’ve read about…or perhaps attending a seminar on some cutting-edge branch of your profession.

Again, the key is to focus on something not essential to your brilliant performance but which adds yet another dimension to your already impressive knowledge base.

What are your outside interests ?
Try to gauge how this company’s culture would look upon your favorite outside activities and be guided accordingly.

You can also use this question to shatter any stereotypes that could limit your chances. If you’re over 50, for example, describe your activities that demonstrate physical stamina. If you’re young, mention an activity that connotes wisdom and institutional trust, such as serving on the board of a popular charity.

But above all, remember that your employer is hiring your for what you can do for him, not your family, yourself or outside organizations, no matter how admirable those activities may be.

The “Fatal Flaw” question
As every master salesperson knows, you will encounter objections (whether stated or merely thought) in every sale. They’re part and parcel of the buyer’s anxiety. The key is not to exacerbate the buyer’s anxiety but diminish it. Here’s how…

Whenever you come up against a fatal flaw question:

Be completely honest, open and straightforward about admitting the shortcoming. (Showing you have nothing to hide diminishes the buyer’s anxiety.)

Do not apologize or try to explain it away. You know that this supposed flaw is nothing to be concerned about, and this is the attitude you want your interviewer to adopt as well.

Add that as desirable as such a qualification might be, its lack has made you work all the harder throughout your career and has not prevented you from compiling an outstanding tack record of achievements. You might even give examples of how, through a relentless commitment to excellence, you have consistently outperformed those who do have this qualification.

Of course, the ultimate way to handle “fatal flaw” questions is to prevent them from arising in the first place. You will do that by following the master strategy described in Question 1, i.e., uncovering the employers needs and them matching your qualifications to those needs.

Once you’ve gotten the employer to start talking about his most urgently-felt wants and goals for the position, and then help him see in step-by-step fashion how perfectly your background and achievements match up with those needs, you’re going to have one very enthusiastic interviewer on your hands, one who is no longer looking for “fatal flaws”.

How do you feel about reporting to a younger person (minority, woman, etc)?
You greatly admire a company that hires and promotes on merit alone and you couldn’t agree more with that philosophy. The age (gender, race, etc.) of the person you report to would certainly make no difference to you.

Whoever has that position has obviously earned it and knows their job well. Both the person and the position are fully deserving of respect. You believe that all people in a company, from the receptionist to the Chairman, work best when their abilities, efforts and feelings are respected and rewarded fairly, and that includes you. That’s the best type of work environment you can hope to find.

On confidential matters…
Your interviewer may press you for this information for two reasons.

First, many companies use interviews to research the competition. It’s a perfect set-up. Here in their own lair, is an insider from the enemy camp who can reveal prized information on the competition’s plans, research, financial condition, etc.

Second, the company may be testing your integrity to see if you can be cajoled or bullied into revealing confidential data.

What to do? The answer here is easy. Never reveal anything truly confidential about a present or former employer. By all means, explain your reticence diplomatically. For example, “I certainly want to be as open as I can about that. But I also wish to respect the rights of those who have trusted me with their most sensitive information, just as you would hope to be able to trust any of your key people when talking with a competitor…”

And certainly you can allude to your finest achievements in specific ways that don’t reveal the combination to the company safe.

But be guided by the golden rule. If you were the owner of your present company, would you feel it ethically wrong for the information to be given to your competitors? If so, steadfastly refuse to reveal it.

Remember that this question pits your desire to be cooperative against your integrity. Faced with any such choice, always choose integrity. It is a far more valuable commodity than whatever information the company may pry from you. Moreover, once you surrender the information, your stock goes down. They will surely lose respect for you.

One President we know always presses candidates unmercifully for confidential information. If he doesn’t get it, he grows visibly annoyed, relentlessly inquisitive, It’s all an act. He couldn’t care less about the information. This is his way of testing the candidate’s moral fiber. Only those who hold fast are hired.

What would you say to your boss if he’s crazy about an idea, but you think it stinks ?

Remember the rule stated earlier: In any conflict between values, always choose integrity.

Example: I believe that when evaluating anything, it’s important to emphasize the positive. What do I like about this idea?”

“Then, if you have reservations, I certainly want to point them out, as specifically, objectively and factually as I can.”

“After all, the most important thing I owe my boss is honesty. If he can’t count on me for that, then everything else I may do or say could be questionable in his eyes.”

“But I also want to express my thoughts in a constructive way. So my goal in this case would be to see if my boss and I could make his idea even stronger and more appealing, so that it effectively overcomes any initial reservation I or others may have about it.”

“Of course, if he overrules me and says, ‘no, let’s do it my way,’ then I owe him my full and enthusiastic support to make it work as best it can.”

How could you have improved your career progress ?

You’re generally quite happy with your career progress. Maybe, if you had known something earlier in life (impossible to know at the time, such as the booming growth in a branch in your industry…or the corporate downsizing that would phase out your last job), you might have moved in a certain direction sooner.

But all things considered, you take responsibility for where you are, how you’ve gotten there, where you are going…and you harbor no regrets.

What would you do if a fellow executive on your own corporate level wasn’t pulling his/her weight…and this was hurting your department?

Try to gauge the political style of the firm and be guided accordingly. In general, fall back on universal principles of effective human relations – which in the end, embody the way you would like to be treated in a similar circumstance.

Example: “Good human relations would call for me to go directly to the person and explain the situation, to try to enlist his help in a constructive, positive solution. If I sensed resistance, I would be as persuasive as I know how to explain the benefits we can all gain from working together, and the problems we, the company and our customers will experience if we don’t.”

POSSIBLE FOLLOW-UP QUESTION
And what would you do if he still did not change his ways?

ANSWER: “One thing I wouldn’t do is let the problem slide, because it would only get worse and overlooking it would set a bad precedent. I would try again and again and again, in whatever way I could, to solve the problem, involving wider and wider circles of people, both above and below the offending executive and including my own boss if necessary, so that everyone involved can see the rewards for teamwork and the drawbacks of non-cooperation.”

“I might add that I’ve never yet come across a situation that couldn’t be resolved by harnessing others in a determined, constructive effort.”

You’ve been with your firm a long time. Won’t it be hard switching to a new company ?

To overcome this objection, you must point to the many ways you have grown and adapted to changing conditions at your present firm. It has not been a static situation. Highlight the different responsibilities you’ve held, the wide array of new situations you’ve faced and conquered.

As a result, you’ve learned to adapt quickly to whatever is thrown at you, and you thrive on the stimulation of new challenges.

To further assure the interviewer, describe the similarities between the new position and your prior one. Explain that you should be quite comfortable working there, since their needs and your skills make a perfect match.

May I contact your present employer for a reference ?

Express your concern that you’d like to keep your job search private, but that in time, it will be perfectly okay.

Example: “My present employer is not aware of my job search and, for obvious reasons; I’d prefer to keep it that way. I’d be most appreciative if we kept our discussion confidential right now. Of course, when we both agree the time is right, then by all means you should contact them. I’m very proud of my record there.

Give me an example of your creativity (analytical skill…managing ability, etc.)

Remember from Question 2 that you should commit to memory a list of your greatest and most recent achievements, ever ready on the tip of your tongue.

If you have such a list, it’s easy to present any of your achievements in light of the quality the interviewer is asking about. For example, the smashing success you orchestrated at last year’s trade show could be used as an example of creativity, or analytical ability, or your ability to manage.

Where could you use some improvement ?

Keep this answer, like all your answers, positive. A good way to answer this question is to identify a cutting-edge branch of your profession (one that’s not essential to your employer’s needs) as an area you’re very excited about and want to explore more fully over the next six months.

What do you worry about ?

Redefine the word ‘worry’ so that it does not reflect negatively on you.

Example: “I wouldn’t call it worry, but I am a strongly goal-oriented person. So I keep turning over in my mind anything that seems to be keeping me from achieving those goals, until I find a solution. That’s part of my tenacity, I suppose.”

I’m concerned that you don’t have as much experience as we’d like in...
This question is related to “The Fatal Flaw” , but here the concern is not that you are totally missing some qualifications, such as CPA certification, but rather that your experience is light in one area.

Before going into any interview, try to identify the weakest aspects of your candidacy from this company’s point of view. Then prepare the best answer you possible can to shore up your defenses.

To get past this question with flying colors, you are going to rely on your master strategy of uncovering the employer’s greatest wants and needs and then matching them with your strengths. Since you already know how to do this from Question 1, you are in a much stronger position.

More specifically, when the interviewer poses as objection like this, you should…

Agree on the importance of this qualification.

Explain that your strength may be indeed be greater than your resume indicates because…

When this strength is added to your other strengths, it’s really your combination of qualifications that’s most important.

Then review the areas of your greatest strengths that match up most favorably with the company’s most urgently-felt wants and needs.

This is powerful way to handle this question for two reasons. First, you’re giving your interviewer more ammunition in the area of his concern. But more importantly, you’re shifting his focus away from this one, isolated area and putting it on the unique combination of strengths you offer, strengths which tie in perfectly with his greatest wants.

How do you feel about working nights and weekends ?
First, if you’re a confirmed workaholic, this question is a softball lob. Whack it out of the park on the first swing by saying this kind of schedule is just your style. Add that your family understands it. Indeed, they’re happy for you, as they know you get your greatest satisfaction from your work.

If however, you prefer a more balanced lifestyle, answer this question with another: “What’s the norm for your best people here?”

If the hours still sound unrealistic for you, ask, “Do you have any top people who perform exceptionally for you, but who also have families and like to get home in time to see them at night?” Chances are this company does, and this associates you with this other “top-performers-who-leave-not-later-than-six” group.

Depending on the answer, be honest about how you would fit into the picture. If all those extra hours make you uncomfortable, say so, but phrase your response positively.

Example: “I love my work and do it exceptionally well. I think the results speak for themselves, especially in …(mention your two or three qualifications of greater interest to the employer. Remember, this is what he wants most, not a workaholic with weak credentials). Not only would I bring these qualities, but I’ve built my whole career on working not just hard, but smart. I think you’ll find me one of the most productive people here.

I do have a family who likes to see me after work and on weekends. They add balance and richness to my life, which in turn helps me be happy and productive at work. If I could handle some of the extra work at home in the evenings or on weekends, that would be ideal. You’d be getting a person of exceptional productivity who meets your needs with strong credentials. And I’d be able to handle some of the heavy workload at home where I can be under the same roof as my family. Everybody would win.”

Are you willing to relocate or travel ?
First find out where you may have to relocate and how much travel may be involved. Then respond to the question.
If there’s no problem, say so enthusiastically.
If you do have a reservation, there are two schools of thought on how to handle it.
One advises you to keep your options open and your reservations to yourself in the early going, by saying, “no problem”. You strategy here is to get the best offer you can, then make a judgment whether it’s worth it to you to relocate or travel.
Also, by the time the offer comes through, you may have other offers and can make a more informed decision. Why kill of this opportunity before it has chance to blossom into something really special? And if you’re a little more desperate three months from now, you might wish you hadn’t slammed the door on relocating or traveling.
The second way to handle this question is to voice a reservation, but assert that you’d be open to relocating (or traveling) for the right opportunity.
The answering strategy you choose depends on how eager you are for the job. If you want to take no chances, choose the first approach.
If you want to play a little harder-to-get in hopes of generating a more enticing offer, choose the second.

Do you have the stomach to fire people? Have you had experience firing many people ?
Describe the rational and sensible management process you follow in both hiring and firing.

Example: “My whole management approach is to hire the best people I can find, train them thoroughly and well, get them excited and proud to be part of our team, and then work with them to achieve our goals together. If you do all of that right, especially hiring the right people, I’ve found you don’t have to fire very often.
“So with me, firing is a last resort. But when it’s got to be done, it’s got to be done, and the faster and cleaner, the better. A poor employee can wreak terrible damage in undermining the morale of an entire team of good people. When there’s no other way, I’ve found it’s better for all concerned to act decisively in getting rid of offenders who won’t change their ways.”

Why have you had so many jobs ?
First, before you even get to the interview stage, you should try to minimize your image as job hopper. If there are several entries on your resume of less than one year, consider eliminating the less important ones. Perhaps you can specify the time you spent at previous positions in rounded years not in months and years.
Example: Instead of showing three positions this way:
6/1982 – 3/1983, Position A;
4/1983 – 12/1983, Position B;
1/1984 – 8/1987, Position C;
…it would be better to show simply:
1982 – 1983, Position A;
1984 – 1987 Position C.
In other words, you would drop Position B altogether. Notice what a difference this makes in reducing your image as a job hopper.
Once in front of the interviewer and this question comes up, you must try to reassure him. Describe each position as part of an overall pattern of growth and career destination.
Be careful not to blame other people for your frequent changes. But you can and should attribute certain changes to conditions beyond your control.
Example: Thanks to an upcoming merger, you wanted to avoid an ensuing bloodbath, so you made a good, upward career move before your department came under the axe of the new owners.
If possible, also show that your job changes were more frequent in your younger days, while you were establishing yourself, rounding out your skills and looking for the right career path. At this stage in your career, you’re certainly much more interested in the best long-term opportunity.
You might also cite the job where you stayed the longest and describe that this type of situation is what you’re looking for now.

What do you see as the proper role/mission of…
…a good (job title you’re seeking);
…a good manager;
…an executive in serving the community;
…a leading company in our industry; etc.

Think of the most essential ingredients of success for each category above – your job title, your role as manager, your firm’s role, etc.
Identify at least three but no more than six qualities you feel are most important to success in each role. Then commit your response to memory.
Here, again, the more information you’ve already drawn out about the greatest wants and needs of the interviewer, and the more homework you’ve done to identify the culture of the firm, the more on-target your answer will be.

Would you lie for the company ?
Try to avoid choosing between two values, giving a positive statement which covers all bases instead.

Example: “I would never do anything to hurt the company..”

If aggressively pressed to choose between two competing values, always choose personal integrity. It is the most prized of all values.

Looking back, what would you do differently in your life ?
Indicate that you are a happy, fulfilled, optimistic person and that, in general, you wouldn’t change a thing.

Example: “It’s been a good life, rich in learning and experience, and the best it yet to come. Every experience in life is a lesson it its own way. I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Could you have done better in your last job ?
Again never be negative.

Example: “I suppose with the benefit of hindsight you can always find things to do better, of course, but off the top of my head, I can’t think of anything of major consequence.”

(If more explanation seems necessary)

Describer a situation that didn’t suffer because of you but from external conditions beyond your control ?
For example, describe the disappointment you felt with a test campaign, new product launch, merger, etc., which looked promising at first, but led to underwhelming results. “I wish we could have known at the start what we later found out (about the economy turning, the marketplace changing, etc.), but since we couldn’t, we just had to go for it. And we did learn from it…”

Can you work under pressure ?
Absolutely…(then prove it with a vivid example or two of a goal or project accomplished under severe pressure.)

What makes you angry ?
Give an answer that’s suited to both your personality and the management style of the firm. Here, the homework you’ve done about the company and its style can help in your choice of words.

Examples: If you are a reserved person and/or the corporate culture is coolly professional:

“I’m an even-tempered and positive person by nature, and I believe this helps me a great deal in keeping my department running smoothly, harmoniously and with a genuine esprit de corps. I believe in communicating clearly what’s expected, getting people’s commitment to those goals, and then following up continuously to check progress.”

“If anyone or anything is going off track, I want to know about it early. If, after that kind of open communication and follow up, someone isn’t getting the job done, I’ll want to know why. If there’s no good reason, then I’ll get impatient and angry…and take appropriate steps from there. But if you hire good people, motivate them to strive for excellence and then follow up constantly, it almost never gets to that state.”

If you are feisty by nature and/or the position calls for a tough straw boss.

“You know what makes me angry? People who (the fill in the blanks with the most objectionable traits for this type of position)…people who don’t pull their own weight, who are negative, people who lie…etc.”

Why aren’t you earning more money at this stage of your career ?
You like to make money, but other factors are even more important.

Example: “Making money is very important to me, and one reason I’m here is because I’m looking to make more. Throughout my career, what’s been even more important to me is doing work I really like to do at the kind of company I like and respect.

(Then be prepared to be specific about what your ideal position and company would be like, matching them as closely as possible to the opportunity at hand.

Who has inspired you in your life and why?
Have a few heroes in mind, from your mental “Board of Directors” – Leaders in your industry, from history or anyone else who has been your mentor.

Be prepared to give examples of how their words, actions or teachings have helped inspire your achievements. As always, prepare an answer which highlights qualities that would be highly valuable in the position you are seeking.

What was the toughest decision you ever had to make?
Be prepared with a good example, explaining why the decision was difficult…the process you followed in reaching it…the courageous or effective way you carried it out…and the beneficial results.

Tell me about the most boring job you’ve ever had.

You have never allowed yourself to grow bored with a job and you can’t understand it when others let themselves fall into that rut.

Example: “Perhaps I’ve been fortunate, but that I’ve never found myself bored with any job I have ever held. I’ve always enjoyed hard work. As with actors who feel there are no small parts, I also believe that in every company or department there are exciting challenges and intriguing problems crying out for energetic and enthusiastic solutions. If you’re bored, it’s probably because you’re not challenging yourself to tackle those problems right under your nose.”

Have you been absent from work more than a few days in any previous position?
If you have had no problem, emphasize your excellent and consistent attendance record throughout your career.

Also describe how important you believe such consistent attendance is for a key executive…why it’s up to you to set an example of dedication…and why there’s just no substitute for being there with your people to keep the operation running smoothly, answer questions and handle problems and crises as they arise.

If you do have a past attendance problem, you want to minimize it, making it clear that it was an exceptional circumstance and that it’s cause has been corrected.

To do this, give the same answer as above but preface it with something like, “Other that being out last year (or whenever) because of (your reason, which is now in the past), I have never had a problem and have enjoyed an excellent attendance record throughout my career. Furthermore, I believe, consistent attendance is important because…” (Pick up the rest of the answer as outlined above.).

What changes would you make if you came on board?
You, of course, will want to take a good hard look at everything the company is doing before making any recommendations.

Example: “Well, I wouldn’t be a very good doctor if I gave my diagnosis before the examination. Should you hire me, as I hope you will, I’d want to take a good hard look at everything you’re doing and understand why it’s being done that way. I’d like to have in-depth meetings with you and the other key people to get a deeper grasp of what you feel you’re doing right and what could be improved.

“From what you’ve told me so far, the areas of greatest concern to you are…” (name them. Then do two things. First, ask if these are in fact his major concerns. If so then reaffirm how your experience in meeting similar needs elsewhere might prove very helpful).

How many hours a week do you normally work?
If you are in fact a workaholic and you sense this company would like that: Say you are a confirmed workaholic, that you often work nights and weekends. Your family accepts this because it makes you fulfilled.

If you are not a workaholic: Say you have always worked hard and put in long hours. It goes with the territory. It one sense, it’s hard to keep track of the hours because your work is a labor of love, you enjoy nothing more than solving problems. So you’re almost always thinking about your work, including times when you’re home, while shaving in the morning, while commuting, etc.

What’s the most difficult part of being a (job title)?
First, redefine “difficult” to be “challenging” which is more positive. Then, identify an area everyone in your profession considers challenging and in which you excel. Describe the process you follow that enables you to get splendid results…and be specific about those results.

Example: “I think every sales manager finds it challenging to motivate the troops in a recession. But that’s probably the strongest test of a top sales manager. I feel this is one area where I excel.”

“When I see the first sign that sales may slip or that sales force motivation is flagging because of a downturn in the economy, here’s the plan I put into action immediately…” (followed by a description of each step in the process…and most importantly, the exceptional results you’ve achieved.).

The “Hypothetical Problem”

Instead, describe the rational, methodical process you would follow in analyzing this problem, who you would consult with, generating possible solutions, choosing the best course of action, and monitoring the results.

Remember, in all such, “What would you do?” questions, always describe your process or working methods, and you’ll never go wrong.

What was the toughest challenge you’ve ever faced?
This is an easy question if you’re prepared. Have a recent example ready that demonstrates either:

A quality most important to the job at hand; or

A quality that is always in demand, such as leadership, initiative, managerial skill, persuasiveness, courage, persistence, intelligence, etc.

Have you consider starting your own business?
Again it’s best to:

Gauge this company’s corporate culture before answering and…

Be honest (which doesn’t mean you have to vividly share your fantasy of the franchise or bed-and-breakfast you someday plan to open).

In general, if the corporate culture is that of a large, formal, military-style structure, minimize any indication that you’d love to have your own business. You might say, “Oh, I may have given it a thought once or twice, but my whole career has been in larger organizations. That’s where I have excelled and where I want to be.”

If the corporate culture is closer to the free-wheeling, everybody’s-a-deal-maker variety, then emphasize that in a firm like this, you can virtually get the best of all worlds, the excitement of seeing your own ideas and plans take shape…combined with the resources and stability of a well-established organization. Sounds like the perfect environment to you.

In any case, no matter what the corporate culture, be sure to indicate that any desires about running your own show are part of your past, not your present or future.

The last thing you want to project is an image of either a dreamer who failed and is now settling for the corporate cocoon…or the restless maverick who will fly out the door with key accounts, contacts and trade secrets under his arms just as soon as his bankroll has gotten rebuilt.

Always remember: Match what you want with what the position offers. The more information you’ve uncovered about the position, the more believable you can make your case.

What are your goals?
Many executives in a position to hire you are strong believers in goal-setting. (It’s one of the reason they’ve achieved so much). They like to hire in kind.

If you’re vague about your career and personal goals, it could be a big turnoff to may people you will encounter in your job search.

Be ready to discuss your goals for each major area of your life: career, personal development and learning, family, physical (health), community service and (if your interviewer is clearly a religious person) you could briefly and generally allude to your spiritual goals (showing you are a well-rounded individual with your values in the right order).

Be prepared to describe each goal in terms of specific milestones you wish to accomplish along the way, time periods you’re allotting for accomplishment, why the goal is important to you, and the specific steps you’re taking to bring it about. But do this concisely, as you never want to talk more than two minutes straight before letting your interviewer back into the conversation.

What do you for when you hire people?
Speak your own thoughts here, but for the best answer weave them around the three most important qualifications for any position.

Can the person do the work (qualifications)?

Will the person do the work (motivation)?

Will the person fit in (“our kind of team player”)?

Sell me this stapler…(this pencil…this clock…or some other object on interviewer’s desk).
Of course, you already know the most important secret of all great salesmanship – “find out what people want, then show them how to get it.”

If your interviewer picks up his stapler and asks, “sell this to me,” you are going to demonstrate this proven master principle. Here’s how:

“Well, a good salesman must know both his product and his prospect before he sells anything. If I were selling this, I’d first get to know everything I could about it, all its features and benefits.”

“Then, if my goal were to sell it you, I would do some research on how you might use a fine stapler like this. The best way to do that is by asking some questions. May I ask you a few questions?”

Then ask a few questions such as, “Just out of curiosity, if you didn’t already have a stapler like this, why would you want one? And in addition to that? Any other reason? Anything else?”

“And would you want such a stapler to be reliable?...Hold a good supply of staples?” (Ask more questions that point to the features this stapler has.)

Once you’ve asked these questions, make your presentation citing all the features and benefits of this stapler and why it’s exactly what the interviewer just told you he’s looking for.

Then close with, “Just out of curiosity, what would you consider a reasonable price for a quality stapler like this…a stapler you could have right now and would (then repeat all the problems the stapler would solve for him)? Whatever he says, (unless it’s zero), say, “Okay, we’ve got a deal.”

NOTE: If your interviewer tests you by fighting every step of the way, denying that he even wants such an item, don’t fight him. Take the product away from him by saying, “Mr. Prospect, I’m delighted you’ve told me right upfront that there’s no way you’d ever want this stapler. As you well know, the first rule of the most productive salespeople in any field is to meet the needs of people who really need and want our products, and it just wastes everyone’s time if we try to force it on those who don’t. And I certainly wouldn’t want to waste your time. But we sell many items. Is there any product on this desk you would very much like to own…just one item?” When he points something out, repeat the process above. If he knows anything about selling, he may give you a standing ovation.

http://techpreparation.com/hr-interview-questions-answers/64-hr-interview-questions-answers8.htm

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2008-08-29T20:06:00.000-07:00

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