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| Volume 7, Issue 7 |
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In This Issue:
 Your personal best: A magical team building activity
Have you had a nightmare interview?
Work dress codes and image collection
Celebrate halloween at work
 Is your Blackberry lowering your IQ?
Wage wars [over time]
Managing your boss
How much is too much information at work?
I can get your kid into an ivy
 7 lessons from a bad manager
10 ways project management skills can help your career
Effectively manage absenteeism
Public speaking panic
 Delivering effective feedback
 MP classic: 10 online writing concepts that work wonders offline, too
What is advertising's most important word?
MP 'Classic Truths': The best metrics for managing marketing performance
Micro branding—Macro results
 The new road warrior
Analysis of paralysis
 How to beg for your job back
The thirty-somethings running your company
Most expensive places to heat a home
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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...
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Have you had a nightmare interview?
Looking for a little inspiration on a rainy fall day, I visited Alison Doyle's job searching site to see what she was talking about.
I found interviewing the topic of her day as well as interviews over lunches, a favorite way of mine to get to know a candidate in a more relaxed setting. So, I'll tell you a story about the last time I took a
candidate to lunch for a client company. She had applied for a sales position and I genuinely liked her and found her qualified for the role. Her potential manager had some concerns about her sales abilities but was comfortable with her experience in business
development. But, the sales role would have taken her on the road with clients quite a bit, so I thought a lunch meeting was in order. Midway through our lunch...
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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...
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Celebrate halloween at work
Traditions are important in companies just as they are in families. And, Halloween is one of the best holiday traditions to establish and to celebrate at work.
Halloween has climbed right up the holiday charts and is now the second most popular holiday, second only to Christmas, so it's popular with employees, too. Celebrating Halloween at work appeals to the child in each of us and helps create a motivational, team work-oriented work culture...
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Is your Blackberry lowering your IQ?
Researchers have found that communication overload causes a professional's IQ to drop 10 percentage points. Think about that before you bombard the staff with e-mail
An on-again, off-again player, I attended my first tennis clinic of the summer this last weekend. I was taken aback by the BlackBerry addled behavior which newly seems de rigeur courtside. Between each drill at least two of the five participating players would scurry
off to sidelines, rummage in a sports bag, pull out a BlackBerry and check their email. In 50% of cases this was then followed by a furtive phone call. The tennis pro rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath but seemed to have learnt to tolerate these goings-on. Along
with tennis whites telephone etiquette seems to have gone out the window. So what's the deal here? Have the demands of our professional lives become...
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Wage wars [over time]
Workers—from truck drivers to stockbrokers—are winning huge overtime lawsuits.
There's a place in Reno, Nev., that practically mints money. It's not one of the many casinos in town. Nor is it one of the legal brothels that operate in the area. It is a law firm, located in a wing of a private home nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas.
From a utilitarian office, with a view of horses grazing in a neighbor's paddock across the road, attorney Mark R. Thierman pursues a practice that in recent years has won his clients hundreds of millions of dollars from some of the biggest names in Corporate America—and
produced tens of millions for himself. A Harvard Law School grad, Thierman, 56, spent the first 20 years of his career as a management-side labor attorney and self-described union buster. He has been pelted with eggs by construction workers and his tires have been
slashed by longshoremen. But in the mid-1990s he brought a series of cases on behalf of workers in California and established himself as a trailblazer in what had long been a sleepy, neglected area of the law...
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Managing your boss
It's not manipulation—it's forging ties based on mutual respect and understanding.
The Idea in Brief
Managing our bosses? Isn't that merely manipulation? Corporate cozying up? Out-and-out apple polishing? In fact, we manage our bosses for very good reasons: to get resources to do the best job, not only for ourselves, but for our bosses and our companies as well. We
actively pursue a healthy and productive working relationship based on mutual respect and understanding—understanding our own and our bosses' strengths, weaknesses, goals, work styles, and needs. Here's what can happen when we don't...
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How much is too much information at work?
Once you share even a seemingly benign personal story with colleagues, people may perceive you differently—and some may question your judgment.
When I was starting out in the white-collar world, it was a very different social environment from the typical workplace of 2007. We talked about work, work, work, with a little personal gossip thrown in now and then. From time to time, we'd say something like
"I saw a good movie this weekend." People didn't bring their personal lives to the office as much as they do now. Of course, the dress codes were more formal, the use of titles was more formal, and workplaces in general were more hierarchical and buttoned-down then. I'm
not complaining about the changes. But the loosening up of many workplace cultures has made it more difficult to determine just which elements of one's personal life should be made public in the office. Loose Lips Sink Careers...
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I can get your kid into an ivy
Michele Hernandez boasts that 95% of her teenage clients are accepted by their first-choice school. Her price: As much as $40,000 a student.
As I listened to my 8th period English teacher drone on for the third time about how Finny, a character in A Separate Peace, was indeed the main character although he was not the narrator, it finally dawned on me that this was not the exciting world of high school that I had hoped for. This is how Andrew Garza began an essay in his application to Haverford College. It was a 1,200-word piece that established him as an intellectually curious young man. It was crafted to appeal specifically to the admissions officers at the small liberal arts school. And it was the idea of his high-priced college admissions coach, Michele A. Hernandez. Garza attended a private school in Switzerland, and that worried Hernandez: She thought he might appear to be a privileged teenager without much substance. So she advised him to write about why he had left his public high school in suburban New Jersey. "We had to make it seem like he didn't want to be around so many rich kids. We spun a whole story about him taking the initiative to leave in order to broaden his experience," Hernandez says. "It was his initiative. But he wouldn't have written about it."Today Andrew is a senior at Haverford, studying sociology and economics. His father, John, paid Hernandez $18,000 for 18 months' worth of advice. "It is a lot of money," says Garza, a manager at Abitibi-Consolidated (ABY ) in New York. "But if you look at it as an investment, it's not a bad one."Hernandez may well be the most expensive college coach in America, charging as much as $40,000 to get a student into an elite college. As one of this fast-growing industry's most visible practitioners, she uses methods that are publicly scorned by rivals but are nonetheless becoming part of the profession's standard operating procedures. She is a divisive figure in an already controversial field, regularly drawing condemnation from admissions officers who say she is selling advantage to people who least need it. What makes her own story so compelling is that Hernandez is an insider-turned-outcast. [A former admissions officer at Dartmouth College, she dared to reveal secrets of the opaque selection process in her book, A Is for Admission: The Insider's Guide to Getting Into the Ivy League and Other Top Colleges, and then to build a thriving business that helps people game the system. As she says to parents: "You don't want to pay $180,000 for some piddling school when, by spending a little extra, your kid could get into Yale."]...
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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...
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10 ways project management skills can help your career
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I know that I can always count on her to get the job done." |
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In today's digital world, what employers are looking for may surprise you.
They assume you're going to be technologically literate and that you have the skills that are specific to your industry. Once you have the basics, they want to know that you can perform, achieve results and play well with others. According to the "National Association
of Colleges and Employers Job Outlook 2007" survey, employers rated communication skills, and honesty and integrity equally at the top of their list of what they look for in potential employees. Following closely behind communication, and honesty and integrity
were: interpersonal skills, motivation/initiative, strong work ethic and teamwork skills. What struck me as I read those skills was that all of them are inherent in Project Management, and it emphasized what I've believed for years: Project Management is a career accelerator. Here's how you can use Project Management to put your career in high gear...
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Effectively manage absenteeism
What's a manager to do when cubicles remain empty?
According to the most recent CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey, employers are losing ground when it comes to keeping workers on the job. Unscheduled absenteeism is on the rise and rates of absenteeism are at their highest level since 1999. And what continues to be of
most concern is that almost two out of three employees who don't show up aren't physically ill at all. The responsibility of addressing absences in most companies has fallen primarily on immediate supervisors. These supervisors are often the only people aware that
a certain employee is absent and are in the best position to understand the circumstances surrounding that absence. Their active involvement in the company's procedures is pivotal
to the overall effectiveness and future success of an absence program. But sadly, most supervisors...
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Public speaking panic
Public speaking ability isn't a talent reserved for politicians and telemarketers—corporate trainers find it useful, too. Here, seven steps to steady your shaking voice and spice up your monotone delivery.
Just because you love education, and the intersection between learning and corporate profit, doesn’t mean people are lining up to hear you speak. As acute as your understanding
of the human brain is—what with your psychology and higher education degrees—getting your own fears of public speaking under control can be daunting. Some tips:...
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Delivering effective feedback
You hear so much these days about providing employees with feedback: more feedback, better feedback, useful feedback, relevant feedback, positive feedback. And that's just the beginning.
Is this a recent phenomenon related to a new generation of workers, or have we just become more enlightened about the value of providing employees with regular updates on how they're doing? If you're a manager, you've probably been told you need to keep your employees
engaged, motivated and informed. You must ensure they know how their job relates to the organization's strategic objectives. You need to constantly tell them what they're doing well and then deliver coaching and mentoring for "areas that need improvement." The
previous generations of workers simply...
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MP classic: 10 online writing concepts that work wonders offline, too
After all the agonies we suffered some years ago when some tried to make offline text work online, we've finally turned the tables. Now we can borrow back a number of online writing concepts and use them to sharpen up our paper-based marketing communications.
Remember how early Web site text could make you cringe? Squinting at all 2000 solidly crammed words so obviously lifted straight from an equally cringe-making corporate brochure? Peering at that fat, uniformly gray column of garbage scrolling hypnotically up
through the browser window? Well, nearly all of that has gone to the Great Delete Tab in the sky, thanks to people like Jakob Nielsen (and many others) who showed us how to get real and write for the Web as it should be done.
What Goes Around, Comes Around...
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What is advertising's most important word?
If you had to guess the single most important word in advertising, what would it be? Free, special, discount, sale, new, improved, bigger, better...?
So many words have lost their meaning or been corrupted by misuse or abuse that it is not an obvious choice. The terms "luxury," "exclusive," and "world-class" have been rendered meaningless after being applied to everything from 800-square-foot condos to restaurants
that serve microwave frozen dinners. We can't even rely on "light," "diet," or "low-carb" to actually describe what's inside a package. What advertisers have done is create a hyper-cynical marketplace, where the audience for whatever you sell has lost faith in what
is being said. But the Web with its emphasis on content gives advertisers an opportunity to redeem themselves and to deliver meaningful information to its audience.
All Content Is Advertising, All Advertising Isn't...
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MP 'Classic Truths': If you don't measure, you can't manage: The best metrics for managing marketing performance
Without metrics to track performance, marketing and business plans are ineffective.
Businesses need to know which success factors require measuring, and they must understand the differences between measurements (the raw outcomes of quantification), metrics (ideal standards for measurement), and benchmarks (the standards by which all others are
measured). For marketers, three primary metrics constitute a starting point for tracking their performance. Once companies are aware of their competitive position, their desired outcomes, and what it will take to achieve those outcomes, companies will be better able to
identify the success factors, benchmarks, and appropriate metrics to meet their target.
Why Measure?
Metrics are a part of our everyday lives: from our heart rate, to our bank balances; from our weight, to the gas mileage on our cars. If we don't pay attention to these numbers, we create a risk for getting a heart attack, being overdrawn, or running out of gas. The same
is true in the business environment. If a company doesn't identify and track important performance measures, it increases its risks...
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Micro branding—Macro results
When I was visiting India recently, a rather unusual product and branding concept came to my attention.
Lijjat Papad is a bread product, known to all throughout India. The fascinating thing about the product lies not in the taste of the bread but in its production and distribution. You see, this bread is not mass-produced by a commercial bakery. It's baked by thousands of
women in their own homes. During the early hours of the day, the Lijjat Papad trucks visit these countless cottage bakers to collect and deliver the popular staple to the millions of mom-and-pop stores across India. In the context of this economic model, the term "homemade"
takes on real meaning...
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The new road warrior
If you're like me, you're on the road a lot. From February to September this year, I put 13,000 miles on my car driving around Silicon Valley, plus I'm regularly on a plane headed
to conferences. Of course, I need to stay in touch with people back home and get work done even when I'm running around.
In the past year, a series of new services for road warriors have hit the market, and they go way beyond email and calendaring. It's now much more possible to live away from your computer and stay fully connected. You do need a smartphone--such as an iPhone, Nokia N95,
or a newer BlackBerry--to use most of these apps, but if you're hard core, you've probably already got one. Spend a few minutes at home outfitting your phone, and you're all set. Oh, yeah: All the services are free, unless otherwise noted...
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Analysis of paralysis
"Keep it simple, stupid." That's the advice every executive has received on how to share strategy with employees. The subtext is often, "Keep it simple, because your people are stupid."
But you don't need to embrace simplicity just so your people can comprehend your message. The point of simplicity is more fundamental: Simplicity allows people to act. Researchers Eldar Shafir and Donald Redelmeier helped prove this point in an article in The Journal of
the American Medical Association. They gave doctors the medical history of a 67-year-old man who'd been suffering chronic hip pain from osteoarthritis. He'd been given drugs to treat his pain, but they had been ineffective, so there was only one viable option:
hip-replacement surgery, which would involve a long and painful recovery. Then a final check with the pharmacy uncovered one medication that hadn't been tried. Would the doctors like to give the drug a shot? Forty-seven percent of doctors chose to try the medication in
a final attempt to keep the patient from going under the knife. Another group of doctors saw the same facts, except they were told that the pharmacy had discovered two medications that hadn't been tried. If you were the patient with the bum hip, you'd be thrilled--two
nonsurgical options are better than one. But when the doctors were presented with two nonsurgical options, only 28% chose to try either one. What happened here is...
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How to beg for your job back
Sherry Bruck took a chance when she hired a creative copywriter who commanded a salary significantly higher than her other staffers. It was a financial strain on her business, but the investment paid off in new clients and a higher caliber of work.
Four months later, he quit. He took a job that offered about twice what he was making at Bruck's company, Harquin Creative Group. So when he called a year later asking for his old job back, Bruck and her business partner husband were understandably reluctant to give him
another chance. Holding your tail between your legs and asking for your old job back is not only embarrassing, it's rarely successful. But there are ways you can keep your dignity intact and convince your former manager to rehire you. It starts with...
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The thirty-somethings running your company
In case you haven't noticed, the stereotypical image of a silver-haired 50-something chief executive wearing a perfectly dimpled necktie is fading.
The top dog at the company no longer has to fit that mold to gain the trust of his or her peers and shareholders. Authority and competence are no longer found just in a look--and age and experience don't always dictate performance. Take the youthful...
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Most expensive places to heat a home
If you're like most Americans, you have by now shut down your home's air conditioning unit, ready to enjoy the fall season of moderate weather and lower energy bills.
Not so fast. Colder weather is fast approaching, and with it the high cost of heating. Nowhere will winter's heating bills be felt more than in Boston, where the average
household will spend $1,635 to heat its home in the next 12 months, based on a Forbes.com study...
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