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Volume 7 Best of 2007      In This Best of 2007 Issue:   Iacocca’s nine Cs of leadership   Does everybody hate HR?   Your personal best: A magical team building activity   Top 10 toughest questions - asked and answered   Top 10 ways to be happy at work   How to hold a difficult [employee] conversation   The five causes of employee negativity   Top 10 ways to retain your great employees   Eleven tips for managing millennials   Work dress codes and image collection   [Google’s] Top ten ways to show appreciation   Employment ending checklist   Performance management process checklist   Be kind to your bad boss - Or pay the price   The nine most common hiring mistakes   7 Lessons from a bad manager   Do your employees qualify for overtime?   10 Fashion Trends You Can't Ignore   6 ways to kill your credit score   Pay me to go away 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 Does everybody hate HR? Factors That Drive High Performance Driving to lunch with a manager, I supported the employee view about the need for HR support. The response was interesting: "Do they 'really' want an HR Director? They should be careful what they wish for. After all, everybody hates HR." The comment reminded me that I had blogged an earlier article from Fast Company about why people hate HR. I've heard this view before, in fact, many times. Isn't this amazing? Why do you think so many people hate HR? I hate to tell you this, but "Why We Hate HR" from Fast Company is the best article I've read in ages... It puts its finger on the pulse of the problems with HR in organizations today. The article also confirms for me that I am on the right track - have miles to go before I sleep - but my writing and teaching, and actions usually, too - are on the right track. Can you say the same for yours? Take a look at Why We Hate HR... Read the article.  Back to top Your personal best: A magical team building activity Picture this. I'd been asked to lead the final team building activity of the day before drinks and dinner. The audience will have been in meetings since eight in the morning. The attendees would be police officers who are experts at making what they call "cop faces," expressionless features that don't provide much information or feedback for the facilitator. I had to come up with a prize winning team building activity. I think I did; if it worked with them - and it did - it will work with your teams, too. Take a look at the new team building activity: Your Personal Best: A Magical Team Building Activity. It's magical because it was a huge success with a tough-to-please and involved audience... Read the article.  Back to top Top 10 toughest questions - asked and answered Regular emails from readers ask hundreds of questions each year. Patterns emerge about the toughest situations you face in your organizations. These are the ten toughest, but most frequent, questions you send my way. I’ve written a how-to piece to answer each question you’ve asked. These articles address and answer your toughest questions. 1. How to Deal With a Negative Coworker: Negativity Matters Some people exude negativity. They don’t like their jobs or they don’t like ... Read the article.  Back to top Top 10 ways to be happy at work Working at Google sounds very cool I'd be the first to tout Google as a motivating employer: free food, engineers who are enabled to spend 20 percent of their time on their own projects, and a work environment that fosters play and creative thinking. At Google, Genentech, and other Fortune magazine top 100 companies, employers provide best workplaces... Read the article.  Back to top How to hold a difficult [employee] conversation Employees are not always perfect. Sometimes, they mess up, fail to show up, miss deadlines and commitments, trample expectations, sport messy work areas, and behave inappropriately with coworkers. I have witnessed screaming matches in the middle of work areas; I've had employees purposefully fail at their jobs, in order to be fired. Others have presented false documentation about funerals, lied on their applications, and abused intermittent FMLA time. All of these situations, and many more not mentioned, require difficult conversations. You can become effective at holding difficult conversations. Practice in a variety of situations, and these steps, will help you build your comfort level to hold difficult conversations. After all, a difficult conversation can make the difference between success and failure for a valued employee or, at least, an employee in whom you have invested valuable training and time. Care enough to hold the difficult conversation before the employee is unsalvageable... Read the article.  Back to top The Five Causes of Employee Negativity The typical workplace has its ups and downs in terms of employee negativity. Many workplaces are trying to be employee oriented. But, even the most employee oriented workplace can shudder under the weight of negative thinking. When employers understand the causes of employee negativity and put in place measures to prevent employee negativity, negativity fails to gain a foothold in the work environment. I’ve written about how an employer can prevent negativity from occurring at work. I’ve also written about what to do about workplace negativity that already exists. The persistent question I receive from managers is: What really causes employee negativity?... Read the article.  Back to top Top Ten Ways to Retain Your Great Employees Set Them Free: Two Musts For Employee Motivation Why Retention? Four Tips for Employee Retention Key employee retention is critical to the long term health and success of your business. Managers readily agree that retaining your best employees ensures customer satisfaction, product sales, satisfied coworkers and reporting staff, effective succession planning and deeply imbedded organizational knowledge and learning. If managers can cite these facts so well, why do they behave in ways that so frequently encourage great employees to quit their jobs?... 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 Work dress codes and image collection I went crazy writing dress codes for workplaces over the past few weeks. I was regularly receiving questions about what to wear for business casual workplaces, so I developed several of those dress codes awhile ago. But the questions increased recently about casual dress codes which more employers, especially employers who don't host customers in their workplace, were asking me to define. There is, indeed, a difference between business casual and casual. And, the more comfortably you allow your employees to dress, the happier they tend to be at work. Think about it. The less an employee needs to think about his or her attire for work when dressing in the morning, the better. You have removed a whole layer of stress from their lives. Since I was defining casual and business casual, I added a formal dress code for the possibly unfortunate people who still need to dress to the nines. I am careful here, however, because many people still enjoy dressing up for work. And, there is some research that indicates that productivity suffers in more casual workplaces. Off to find it, and when I do, I will share it, because my experience differs. See my complete dress code and work image collection... Read the article.  Back to top [Google s] Top Ten Ways to Show Appreciation Attending an ad club event last week, I listened to a Google manager, Grady Burnett, describe his company and their corporate culture. Sure, you've read about the free food, the fact that developers are enabled to spend twenty percent of their time on projects of their choice - many hallmarks of a successful company that is making money. But he gave us ideas for simple employee motivation and team building factors, too... Read the article.  Back to top Employment ending checklist Employees leave your organization for good reasons and bad reasons. On the positive side, they find new opportunities, go back to school, retire or land their dream job. Less positively, they are fired for poor performance or poor attendance or experience a layoff because of a business downturn. In each instance, you need an employment termination checklist to help the employee exit process go smoothly... Read the article.  Back to top Performance management process checklist Regular emails from readers ask hundreds of questions each year. Patterns emerge about the toughest situations you face in your organizations. These are the ten toughest, but most frequent, questions you send my way. Performance development planning in most companies should have concluded by now. The third quarter is underway and employees deserve a concise understanding of their expectations for this quarter. They also like timely feedback about how their work was perceived during the second quarter. That said, the best goals are measurable and employees should "know" how they performed. Still participating in an old-fashioned, traditional performance appraisal system? Your organization needs this information... 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 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 7 Lessons from a bad manager Many people work for bosses who are horrible at what they do. It is an enviable situation that is fairly common. When circumstances such as these arise, most dwell negatively on the situation while complaining about how terrible their plight is. Naturally, this does not yield productive results. Nonetheless, the individual seems to take solace in the whining. A much better approach when confronted with this scenario is to attempt to learn all you can from the situation. The changing of jobs is so common in this era that 5 years is considered long term tenure. People facing this dilemma often only need to deal with it for a short period of time. Typically, either the manager or the employee move on within a reasonable time frame. If an individual tries to gain all the knowledge possible from that person, he/she skills will grow. I encountered a working relationship similar to what others experience... Read the article.  Back to top Do Your Employees Qualify For Overtime? The answer may surprise you. She's well compensated. He's a manager. They're all on salary. These are some of the common reasons employers give to explain why they do not pay their employees overtime. But in many cases these reasons are not legally valid. That's something business owners have been learning the hard way. Indeed, the number of overtime lawsuits has exploded over the past couple of years. In 2005, class-action suits involving wages surpassed discrimination cases as the most widespread work force class action, according to a recent study by Chicago law firm Seyfarth Shaw... 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 6 Ways to Kill Your Credit Score A low score means higher rates. Here's how you may be doing yourself harm. Lenders, insurers, landlords and others will charge you more or flat-out reject you if you show up with a low FICO score. Here's how you may be doing yourself harm... Read the article.  Back to top Pay me to go away You and your job no longer a good fit? There may be an alternative to either quitting outright or waiting around to get fired Nine months after its publication in this space, the column illuminating the seamy HR practice of fake job interviews is still generating lots of mail (see BusinessWeek.com, 6/10/05, "Was That Really an Interview?"). As I wrote, you can be the victim of a fake job interview if the company suddenly closes an open job requisition after your interview was already scheduled. In that case, rather than embarrass itself by calling you to cancel, the company may subject you to a for-appearances-only interview, which you'll doubtless find one of the easiest interviews you've ever experienced. No surprise. There's not actually any "there" there, and no incentive for the interviewer to do more than spend a pleasant hour in genial conversation with you. You'll walk away thinking you've got the job wrapped up, when there was no job available in the first place. The large amount of mail that this column still generates got me thinking recently about other unexplored corners of the HR underworld. There's plenty that goes on behind closed corporate doors that ordinary working folks don't understand. One of these shadowy practices—understand, it's not well-known, but perfectly legitimate—is the one I call "The Third Path."... Read the article.  Back to top Forward to a Friend: Do you have a friend that would like to receive HRWatchsm? 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