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| Volume 8, Issue 7 |
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In This Issue:
 Culture shift: The ultimate hiring blunder
 Why does talent walk?
 Motivation mockery and the power business ballad
 Of MySpace & money: Don't try to muzzle millennials' salary talk
The best managers are the best listeners
Job description self-audit checklist
 Creating just enough anxiety
 10 reasons Gen Xers are unhappy at work
The reason for high oil prices
 18 programs that add skyrockets to your "genius phone."
 Make the connection: Effective employee evaluations
Vacation: the benefit many employees don’t take
 Does your company help you commute?
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Culture shift: The ultimate hiring blunder
INCENTIVE online "Culture Shift" columnist Paul Levesque is an author, seminar leader and public speaker with two decades' experience as an international business consultant specializing in the connection between employee motivation
and customer satisfaction. He is a senior consultant with Boston-based Novations Inc., and is also founder and CEO of Customer Focus Breakthroughs Inc.
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Hint: It has nothing to do with hiring candidates with the wrong qualifications or experience.
The Good News:
"We needed someone with solid technical computer skills in this department to sort out all our local network headaches. I was extremely lucky to find a whiz-kid who knows
this stuff inside out. The guy’s technical savvy just blew every other job applicant out of the water."
The Bad News:
"Turns out everybody in the department finds the guy too abrasive and cranky to deal with, so they continue to try and fix their problems themselves. Now I have as many computer problems as I did before, plus one more person on the payroll who basically
does nothing all day." It's the most costly and damaging hiring blunder of all—yet, sad to say, also the most common. It's the "temporary amnesia" that sets in during hiring interviews—when interviewers are so busy making sure each applicant has the
right technical qualifications for the job, managers forget all about checking to see if any of the applicants also have the kind of personality or value system that will
strengthen the organization's culture. [How to interview and hire for cultural alignment...]
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Why does talent walk?
Myra White teaches managing workplace performance and organizational behavior at Harvard University and is a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. She is the author of "Follow the Yellow Brick Road: A Harvard Psychologist's
Guide to Becoming a Superstar", a book based on her research into how over 60 well-known people became superstars.
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Retaining talent is a serious concern for organizations. Each time a talented knowledge worker walks out the door, they take valuable expertise and organizational knowledge with them.
In the past this wasn't a concern. People were considered replaceable. Organizational assets consisted of tangible things like the property and equipment that an organization owned. Not any more. Now people, particularly talented ones, are often an
organization's most valuable present and future assets. So why are organizations having so much trouble hanging onto talent? Why do talent become so disillusioned and leave? At the core of the problem is the fact that...
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Motivation Mockery and the Power Business Ballad
As far back as 1915, businesses used corporate songs as team-building and motivational tools.
Today, the tradition continues, sometimes spontaneous and on the cheap, but sometimes in team-building events supported by musician-motivators who—for fees of up to $100,000—will coach workers to write and perform songs extolling everything from a
product launch to a company’s core principles. In the age of YouTube and MP3 trading, however, there’s always the possibility that what seemed like harmless fun at last month’s management retreat will become tomorrow’s Internet ignominy. More than a year
after the video was uploaded to YouTube, it is still drawing viewers. In the clip, an audience of Bank of America credit card division managers listen as a bank employee, clad in a crisp white shirt and tie, strums the familiar chords of U2’s "One" on an
acoustic guitar. Meanwhile, his partner, clad in similarly businesslike attire, grabs the mike stand and belts out a revised set of lyrics, which convert the original’s tortured lament into a celebration of the bank’s acquisition of former rival MBNA...
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Of MySpace & money: Don't try to muzzle millennials' salary talk
You’d never discuss how much money you make, right? Dude, that attitude is so 20th century!
The 20-somethings you work with eagerly dish about salaries, bonuses and other work topics you might consider taboo. Managers tempted to forbid such talk? Don’t let them! Here's why. Younger employees of the Millennial generation don’t share the reticence
baby boomers and Gen-Xers have about discussing salary, according to a recent New York Times article. Whether bragging on MySpace.com about their raises, swapping negotiating strategies at happy hour or even comparing bonuses in the break room,
young workers aren’t shy about talking about pay. Older staff (read: management) often worry that salary talk hurts morale—and could raise awkward questions about pay equity
and fairness. So it’s understandable that they might want employees to keep a lid on it. That’s a bad idea...
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The best managers are the best listeners
5 bad habits to guard against
To be an effective listener, you must pay keen attention to the speaker. Seems like common sense but, too often, we don’t walk the talk. As managers, it’s important to model this behavior for employees
and teach by example. To check your own effectiveness, take the following listening quiz to make sure you’re not guilty of these bad habits...
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Managers spend a good part of their workday listening to other people. But bear in mind, there’s a big difference between “passive” and “active” listening.
In many cases, managers are too busy thinking about their response rather than listening to the employee’s full statement. In a business setting, this lack of attention can result in costly mistakes, wasted time, poor service and management
failure. By listening fully and in a way that shows understanding and respect for the speaker, you develop a rapport and build trust. That’s the true foundation from which you can manage and influence others. Effective listeners use a four-step process to
ensure understanding: Managers spend much of their workday listening. But too many focus not on what employees are saying, but on what they are going to say in response. That's bad for business. Share this “Memos to Managers” article with your supervisors.
They'll learn four strategies for making sure they really hear what employees say...
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Job description self-audit checklist
Clear, current job descriptions spell out the performance standards to which you hold every member of your staff.
We've got a 13 question audit guide you can use to thoroughly review all your organization's job descriptions. Download it now!...
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Creating Just Enough Anxiety
Robert Rosen is CEO of Healthy Companies International and the author of Just Enough Anxiety: The Hidden Driver of Business Success (Portfolio; March 2008).
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For more information please visit www.justenoughanxiety.com.
The most successful leaders create the right level of anxiety -- enough to drive workers forward without causing them to resist, give up or try to control what
happens. Anxiety is a powerful tool that can be used to drive organizations and their employees...
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10 reasons Gen Xers are unhappy at work
I'm worried about Generation X and corporations.
As far as I can tell, these two have a tentative relationship at best—and are likely headed for some rocky times ahead. Corporations really need Gen X—folks in their 30's to early 40's, who should begin to serve as our primary corporate leaders over the
next couple years. But I fear many current corporate executives are taking this small and therefore precious group for granted. Why are many X'ers uncomfortable in corporate life?...
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The reason for high oil prices
"One of the things I think is very important to realize is that the growth in the world oil consumption is not that strong." —David Kelly, chief market strategist, J.P. Morgan Funds; The Washington Post, May 4, 2008
"...There is substantial evidence that the large amount of speculation in the current market has significantly increased [oil] prices." —U.S. Senate Staff Report, The Role of Market Speculation in Rising Oil and Gas Prices, June 27, 2006
On May 13, the price of a barrel of oil briefly hit a record of $126.98 on the New York Mercantile Exchange The reason was ostensibly that Iran was cutting oil production. But there is no gas shortage. So why are prices still going up? In late
April the American Association of Petroleum Geologists held its annual invitation-only dinner in Dallas for, as my source put it, "the bigwigs" of the energy industry. During this meeting, influential and knowledgeable CEOs reached the consensus that
"oil prices will likely soon drop dramatically and the long-term price increases will be in natural gas." Of course, despite the pedigrees of those in attendance, their forming a consensus on the direction of energy prices does not mean that it's written
in stone or is even going to happen. The group is clearly bullish on natural gas. But petroleum keeps getting more expensive. [Why ?...]
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Star-Spangled iPhone: 18 programs that add skyrockets to your "genius phone."
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We had just turned off the video cameras after my interview with Mike Cannon-Brookes, CEO of the enterprise-wiki company Atlassian, when Mike pulled out his iPhone. He couldn't wait to start showing me all of the apps he had loaded, screens full of them, which he easily flicked through with his finger.
The only other person I know whose iPhone usage can match Mike's is my own 14-year-old son, Patrick, who got an iPhone the first day it was available. Patrick has had other devices but has never used them to research topics on Wikipedia or search Google. In
fact, Vic Gundotra, a VP of engineering at Google, tells me that people spend far more time using its services on the iPhone than any other mobile device. I've been keeping track of the best iPhone applications, and one night, I asked my more than 18,000
Twitter followers what they use. I got dozens of recommendations within a few hours. This month, there will be many more applications, as programs created with Apple's software-developers' kit become available. So what are my favorite iPhone apps?...
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Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations
Those who grew up in the 1970s may remember the age of the irascible boss.
Think grizzly character Lou Grant from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," who was known for phrases such as: "If I don't like you, I'll fire you! If you don't like me, I'll fire you!" These are the words of a manager who didn't pat his employees on the back,
yelled when things weren't looking good and gave performance evaluations via one-way conversation. In today's workplace, these behaviors won't work. As the fight for talent becomes more competitive, conducting effective evaluations and providing
valuable employee feedback become particularly important as development and retention tools. For an evaluation to work, managers can no longer sit down with an employee just once a year. The evaluation has to be part of a more expansive feedback system."I
hate to use the analogy of a parent, but it's so true," said Kathy Anthony, a Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and partner at accounting and consulting firm O'Sullivan Creel LLP. "If I only tell you to do something once, and then I don't come
back and reinforce [it], you lose a lot of that effectiveness. If you set goals and expectations, and you let people go a year failing to meet them and you're not having conversations throughout, you really lose credibility."Providing frequent feedback can
diminish some of the angst associated with evaluations. If employees know where they stand prior to the review, there's nothing to fear."When it comes time for a performance evaluation, there shouldn't be any surprises," said Melanie Holmes, vice
president of World of Work Solutions for Manpower, an employment services company. "If the manager is doing his or her job all year, they're not going to wait until performance evaluation time to say something either positive or negative."If done
correctly, reviews can be a powerful tool in retaining employees. When the evaluation is a two-way conversation, the employee walks away feeling his or her opinions are
valued. But a mutual discussion requires both employees and managers to be active participants. "The first thing an employee needs to do is...
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Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don’t Take
Take a vacation" is advice commonly given, particularly for those who seem stressed. For talent managers, however, dispensing this advice isn't quite so simple.
For a variety of reasons, employees, particularly in the U.S., are reluctant to take a vacation. Avoiding vacation time may mean avoiding productivity interruptions, but can have long-term effects that are detrimental to an organization's goals. Expedia's 2007
International Vacation Deprivation Survey found 35 percent of employed U.S. adults do not take all the vacation days they receive each year. Thirteen percent of these respondents indicated the need to schedule vacation time in advance is a barrier to
full use of vacation days. Twelve percent indicated being paid for unused vacation days led them not to use them. And 10 percent said it's just too hard to get away from work. Part of the problem may be that vacation time is not as generously given in
America as it is in other countries. Expedia's survey charted the average number of vacation days earned per year by country. In the U.S., workers earn 14 days a year. In the U.K., they earn 24 days; Germany, 26 days; Spain, 30 days; and France, 36 days a
year. The same survey also charted how many days workers are likely not to use. The U.S., U.K. and France all leave three days unused per year. Spain leaves just two
days, and Germany just one day unused. [What is the big deal about American workers not taking enough vacation?...]
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Does Your Company Help You Commute?
As gas prices creep closer to $4 a gallon, some employers are trying to ease the cost of commuting to work.
For years, many employers have offered to take pre-tax dollars out of their employees' paychecks to cover the cost of commuting via public transportation. And of course, telecommuting has been growing in popularity for years. Now employers are getting
quite creative in helping offset the cost of the commute. In many cases, there's an environmental benefit, too.Take Ft. Collins, Colo.-based New Belgium Brewing Co. When an employee reaches the one-year mark with the company...
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