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Volume 7, Issue 6      In This Issue:   Iacocca’s nine Cs of leadership   Be kind to your bad boss - Or pay the price   Eleven tips for managing millennials   Progress reporting meetings: Employee empowerment   Group mentoring: Strategies for success in mentoring   Gateway to better hiring   Orientation from the ground up   Storytelling and the art of persuasion   How to make a microserf smile   The nine most common hiring mistakes   Leadership skills training survival kit   Keep your keepers: 16 cost-effective ways to grow your company   Silence kills, dialogue heals   Retaining high potentials   A hire calling   Wasting time at work   Indoor air pollution a menace   Why we aren't as ethical as we think we are   Moving on without burning bridges   Medical symptoms you shouldn't ignore   Ten eating habits to avoid   10 Fashion trends you can't ignore Iacocca’s cine Cs of leadership I've never been Commander in Chief, but I've been a CEO. I understand a few things about leadership at the top. I've figured out nine points—not ten [I don't want people accusing me of thinking I'm Moses]. I call them the “Nine Cs of Leadership” - says an excerpt from former Chrysler Chairman and CEO Lee Iacocca’s Where Have All the Leaders Gone? Enter, Robert Nardelli, who private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management named the new Chrysler’s CEO and one with numerous sobriquets, including “The Turnaround Specialist”, “The Hatchet Guy”, “Tough Job, Tough Guy”. The list goes on...When asked by Fortune in April, what he would be doing if he were to be back as CEO of Chrysler, Iacocca, in his characteristic style, put it bluntly: [Here’s Iacocca’s C-list, not only for Nardelli, but for all corporate leaders, as listed in his book...] Read the article.  Back to top Be kind to your bad boss - Or pay the price So you think your boss is inept, arrogant or just plain lazy? You're not alone. A recent Gallup Poll found that a bad relationship with the boss was the No. 1 reason people gave for leaving their jobs. But if you want to keep moving up the corporate rungs, you better make nice.... Read the article.  Back to top Eleven tips for managing millennials The millennials joining your workforce now are employees born between 1980 and 2000, or 1981 and 1999, depending on the author. Unlike the Gen-Xers and the Boomers, the Millennials have developed work characteristics and tendencies from doting parents, structured lives, and contact with diverse people. Millennials are used to working in teams and want to make friends with people at work. Millennials work well with diverse coworkers. Millennials have a “can-do” attitude about tasks at work and look for feedback about how they are doing frequently – even daily. Millennials want a variety of tasks and expect that they will accomplish every one of them. Positive and confident, millennials are ready to take on the world. They seek leadership, and even structure, from their older and managerial coworkers, but expect that you will... Read the article.  Back to top Progress reporting meetings: Employee empowerment We’ve started an annual tradition at our company. Company reviews are held twice a year during which every department and every product team reports out to the whole company about their progress during half of the year. Every employee is invited to voluntarily attend. Looking around the room during the sessions, it appeared that most employees took us up on the offer. There are many reasons why you might want to hold these sessions, but, in a company that believes in employee empowerment, one of the critical reasons is that employees need to understand the big picture. To make good decisions about their job, project, product, or work area requires each employee to have an overall understanding of the company goals and direction. They need to be able to see where they fit inside of this big picture. These sessions encourage cross-departmental thinking, too. They help people see the impact of their decisions on others. They help employees decide who needs to be involved for ownership and making projects happen. The sessions also build a sense of “all one team,” that none of us is an island; everything each of us decides or does can potentially impact the job of every other employee. Expensive to spend eight hours in these meetings? You bet. But, it is the right decision for our employees and the business, it brings us that much value in the long run... Read the article.  Back to top Group Mentoring: Strategies for Success in Mentoring Effective relationships and learning are the mainstays of organizational success today. Organizations that find meaningful ways for their employees to connect are more likely to realize greater productivity, enhanced career growth, freely flowing innovation and overall improvement in employee performance. Group mentoring is a value-added tool for connecting employees and advancing learning within the organization... Read the article.  Back to top Gateway to better hiring The ease of applying for jobs online means more competition for applicants and more work for recruiters. A "logical gate" would up the ante. Technology is a great boon, except when it's not. Every working person has had at least one experience where technology let him down in a big way—whether it's the inexplicably dead cell phone during a crucial call, or the "blue screen of death" in the middle of a presentation. I'm not advocating for a return to carbon paper and Wite-Out, but it's fair to say that at times our dependence on technology can create as many problems as it solves. Take the job-search arena. In the old days, it took a little time and energy to apply for a position. You had to write a letter, get an envelope, and find a stamp. That small expenditure of effort might not have taxed any of us too much, but compare it to the typical present process... Read the article.  Back to top Orientation from the ground up "Onboarding": Easing In New Executives New employee orientations are both dull and overwhelming. It may be time to rethink how to welcome new workers and reduce their uncertainty. In the business world, we take a lot of things for granted. Just as we don't need to be told that Paris Hilton is in the news today, we don't need to be informed that certain aspects of Corporate America's workplace are broken. We know it. We know that there is bureaucracy and sloth, that organizations do silly things, and that not all employees love their jobs. And we know that certain processes are bad, and we don't expect otherwise. One of the worst is the new employee orientation. In most organizations the new employee orientation is so bad that people look forward to it the way they look forward to a root canal. [When companies sit down to develop their plans and strategies for the upcoming year, they seldom say, "Hey! I know! Let's revamp the new employee orientation so that it's helpful and pleasant!" But they should.] Stick to the basics... Read the article.  Back to top Storytelling and the art of persuasion Our columnist talks to author and executive coach Robert Dickman, coauthor of Elements of Persuasion, about telling your story and making sales. Robert Dickman is an executive coach who teaches about using stories and narrative strategies as they relate to corporate communication. I do a great deal of coaching myself and I have found his five story elements very useful for understanding why some leaders achieve long-term changes in behavior, while others do not. He and his partner, Richard Maxwell, both of whom have backgrounds in the entertainment business, have just written a book, Elements of Persuasion, that lays out their whole theory in a light, breezy style. I met with them recently. Here is an edited version of our conversation: In the last few years storytelling has gone from something tolerated around the water cooler to a recognized skill in organizational communication. Why is that? There are two things everyone in business does on a daily basis... Read the article.  Back to top How to make a microserf smile While Google was turning heads with its employee perks, an unlikely manager took on morale in Redmond. Steven A. Ballmer had an epic morale problem on his hands. Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT ) stock had been drifting sideways for years, and Google envy was rampant on the Redmond (Wash.) campus. The chronically delayed Windows Vista was irking the Microserfs and blackening their outlook. So was the perception that their company was flabby, middle-aged, and unhip. Ballmer decided he needed a new human resources chief, someone to help improve the mood. Rather than promoting an HR professional or looking outside, he turned to perhaps the most unlikely candidate on his staff, a veteran product manager named Lisa Brummel. No one was more stunned than Brummel. The 47-year-old executive is about as un-HR as you can imagine. She shuns business books (her taste runs to historical nonfiction); she takes the bus to work (using the 20-minute ride to zone out); and her wardrobe (shorts and sneakers) is in flagrant violation of the HR fashion police. When Ballmer floated the HR job in April, 2005, Brummel said: No way. But Ballmer wasn't about to take no for an answer... Read the article.  Back to top The nine most common hiring mistakes Mistake 1:Relying only on interviews to evaluate a candidate. A study conducted by the International Personnel Management Association in February 1999 analyzed how well job interviews accurately predict success on the job. The surprising finding: The typical interview increases your chances of choosing the best candidate by less than two percent. Mistake 2: Using successful people as models... Read the article.  Back to top Leadership Skills Training Survival Kit Executives need to realize that the application of leadership hasn't changed in a millennium. Sure, some of our demographics may have changed but all that does is forces us, as leaders, to apply the basic concepts and theories in alternative ways. So, why don't we "just do it?" It's because both new and old leaders can lose sight of the most fundamental tenets of leadership. Sometimes we aren't motivated. Sometimes the "time" just doesn't seem right. Maybe we sometimes forget some of the basics. Leadership Skills Training Survival Kit for New & Experienced Managers Leadership Law #1:... Read the article.  Back to top Keep your keepers: 16 cost-effective ways to grow your company Employees matter. No, really, think about it: Your competitors have access to the exact same resources as you—which means infinite choices exist for your customers, and for your employees as well. According to Joanne G. Sujansky, Ph.D, CSP, if you're not seeking ways to nurture employees and meet their needs, they will seek greener pastures—and your customers will follow them over the fence. "Many leaders don't realize that the rules of business have changed almost overnight," says Pittsburgh, Pa.-based KEYGroup's founder and CEO Joanne Sujansky. "The old paradigm says that your primary focus should be on keeping your customer happy. The new paradigm says the employee has taken over that spot. Keep her engaged and she'll keep your customers happy. Neglect her needs and she won't be so concerned about keeping her end of the bargain. In the end, not only will she go elsewhere, your customers may follow suit." Make no mistake: when employees start searching for greener pastures, it's a bona fide disaster. So the million-dollar question is: What are the secret little things that will help you keep your employees engaged and productive? And how can you do it without breaking the bank? Here are 16 easy-to-plant and inexpensive "seeds" that will help your pasture be the greenest for your future and current employees:... Read the article.  Back to top Silence kills, dialogue heals For more information, visit www.silencekills.com. The reluctance of American workers to confront questionable workplace practices takes an extensive toll on results such as productivity, quality, job satisfaction, and especially safety. Here's how to use crucial conversation skills to address issues, solve problems, and save lives. Why do fatal auto accidents occur when the passengers in the car are fully aware their driver is driving under the influence? Why do commercial airliners crash when members of the cockpit crew have reason to believe the aircraft is unsafe or the conditions are treacherous? Why did the seven crew members of the space shuttle Discovery lose their lives when qualified scientists and technicians had reason to question the safety of the space vehicle before launch? The propensity to remain silent rather than confront unsafe practices is embedded deeply in our culture. Sometimes it has dire consequences, and sometimes the consequences are fatal. The reluctance of American workers to confront questionable workplace practices takes an extensive toll on results such as productivity, quality, job satisfaction, and especially safety. Unfortunately, health care is not immune from these same destructive tendencies. Even in an industry where the stakes are especially high and errors can mean the difference between life and death, people are reluctant to speak up about questionable practices. Indications that people hesitate to confront unsafe practices include:... Read the article.  Back to top Retaining high potentials According to a recent study by the Society for Human Resource Management, 12 percent of the workforce, on average, voluntarily resigned January through August 2006. More-current statistics do not look any more promising — a February 2007 survey by Salary.com revealed that nearly 66 percent of tenured employees (people who have been in their positions for three to 10 years) plan to look for a new job in the next three months. The threat of increased turnover is grabbing the attention of management, as well as human resources. The productivity costs of losing 12 percent of your workforce is certainly enough for companies to take action, but when combined with the financial and market impact, addressing retention issues quickly escalates to the top of upper management's priority list. Studies show employee turnover can cost companies up to 40 percent of their annual profit. That's for the turnover of all employees, regardless of their performance levels. The financial impact of losing a significant number of high- potential employees (those who have been identified as your future leaders) can be exponentially higher. Who are these people who can dramatically affect a company's bottom line? The criteria for being identified as a high potential varies among organizations, yet nearly all share these traits... Read the article.  Back to top A hire calling Steps to Implement Green Recruiting Some companies are starting to tout their green initiatives during the recruitment process to lure top talent and gain an edge over competitors. You do all the right things to recruit top talent. You offer competitive salaries and good benefits, and you pay attention to work/life balance. But other companies do, too. So what's your edge? Do you even have one? Don't look now, but what may be the next big thing in recruiting is already here -- and some of your competitors are taking full advantage of it. They're thinking green. And we're not talking about the color of money. In recent months, a small but growing number of large companies have begun touting their environmental records not just to the general public, but to prospective employees as well. You might call it green recruiting. Home Depot, for example... Read the article.  Back to top Wasting time at work A recent survey shows the average U.S. employee wastes about 20 percent of the workday -- an average of 1.7 hours during an 8.5-hour day. And younger workers are the most likely to be ones wasting time. Conducted by Salary.com, the 2007 Wasting Time Survey polled 2,000 employees across all job levels about how they spend their working hours. The top time-wasting activities included using the Internet for non-work-related purposes, socializing with co-workers and conducting personal business. The average time wasted represents a decrease from the previous year's survey, when workers reported wasting an average of 1.89 hours a day. In the survey, 20- to 29-year-olds admitted they waste an average of 2.1 hours a day, with the wasted time dropping with age: Those aged 30 to 39 reported wasting 1.9 hours a day while those 40 to 49 wasted 1.4 hours. But some of the differences may be a question of semantics... Read the article.  Back to top Indoor air pollution a menace Americans spend 90% of their time indoors--and much of that at work. According to the EPA, air pollution is up to five times worse inside than outside. Harsh cleaning chemicals contribute to the problem. In fact, one-third of the cleaning products that janitors handle contain chemicals that can cause skin and eye irritation, cancer, or reproductive disorders. And approximately 37 million Americans suffer from chemical sensitivity, so increased absenteeism and health costs can stem from using... Read the article.  Back to top Why we aren't as ethical as we think we are Max Bazerman is the Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Full Working Paper Text (PDF) Abstract This paper explores the biased perceptions that people hold of their own ethicality. We argue that the temporal trichotomy of prediction, action and evaluation is central to these misperceptions: People predict that they will behave more ethically than they actually do, and when evaluating past (un)ethical behavior, they believe they behaved more ethically than they actually did. We use the... Read the article.  Back to top Moving on without burning bridges In Pictures: Don't Look Back In Anger Richard Edsall left his job at Chubb twice. After each resignation, the company hired him back. Was this a case of a recruiter asleep on the job? Absolutely not. Edsall is known in human resources parlance as a "boomerang"--an employee who leaves a company to get other experience and then returns to the original employer. In many cases it creates an ideal employee, one who knows the original company's culture and brand and gained additional skills while at another firm. Granted, to be a boomerang you have to be a high performer. Equally as important is the way you resign. Give plenty of notice, explain why you're leaving and maintain relationships with co-workers. With aging baby boomers leaving the workforce and taking their years of experience with them, boomerangs are likely to become more valuable... Read the article.  Back to top Medical symptoms you shouldn't ignore In Pictures: 10 Symptoms You Shouldn't Ignore When people have heart attacks in the movies, they clutch their arms to their chests and double over in pain, crying out for help. In reality, the signs of a heart attack are much more subtle. Since symptoms can include mild pressure in the chest, lightheadedness and sweating, it's often hard for the average person to identify one. That's what researchers at the Yale School of Medicine found in a study of 24 women 55 and under who'd had heart attacks and were admitted to a hospital. It showed that 42% didn't recognize the warning signs. Despite the fact that 88% of the women had a family history of heart disease, many thought they had indigestion or heartburn, and half waited more than an hour to go to the emergency room, says Judith Lichtman, associate professor in epidemiology at Yale and lead author of the study. Why the laid-back approach to their health?... Read the article.  Back to top Ten eating habits to avoid In Pictures: 10 Eating Habits To Avoid You've probably heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But did you know it also tends to be our most habitual? Many eat breakfast--typically a heavily time-constrained meal--in the same place every day, and as a result, make the same kinds of nutritional choices. For some, that's a bowl of cereal and fruit, while for others, it's a glazed doughnut. In moderation, doughnuts are fine. Everyday? Not so much. But bad habits like this are hard to break. Whether you started eating poorly because of your hectic schedule, as a way to deal with stress or if you grew up on fast food, the impulse becomes ingrained over time. Changing these behavioral patterns also takes time, as well as motivation and patience, says Jenny Lindsey, a registered dietitian at Virginia Tech... Read the article.  Back to top 10 Fashion Trends You Can't Ignore In Pictures: 10 Fashion Trends You Can't Ignore   David Wolfe, creative director of The Doneger Group, a fashion-forecasting firm in New York City, is like a typical 20-something. He spends his time listening to the latest indie bands, hanging out with hipsters in the park, watching countless hours of MTV and browsing trendy boutiques, trying to spot the next fashion trend. But one thing sets Wolfe apart from his peers: He is almost 70 years old. "Just because I am well past retirement age doesn't mean I can't see a trend," muses Wolfe. "I've been doing this since the '60s. I can spot a trend before you can say 'Wow, that's cool!'" As one of the nation's leading fashion forecasters, Wolfe advises companies like Liz Claiborne Inc. on what executives, designers and creative directors should be paying attention to in fashion. The big trends he is predicting for 2008:... Read the article.  Back to top Forward to a Friend: Do you have a friend that would like to receive HRWatchsm? Perhaps you know a peer within your organization, or associate at a partner company that would benefit from applying to receive this publication. Inviting a friend to experience the benefits of joining the BusinessWatch Network is easy! Just FW: this newsletter to the person you know who may have an interest and ask them to click here http://www.businesswatchnetwork.com Your friend will be glad you did! 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