Goal setting can be a tightrope act for supervisors.
Set the bar too low and you end up with an unmotivated, unproductive employee. Set it too high and you’ll create frustration and the possibility the person will do something unethical to achieve the goal. To make sure you’re setting goals correctly for employees, ask yourself these eight questions derived by the Harvard Business School:...
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It happens to every manager: You sit down to prepare a staff member's review and realize you can remember only what the person has done the past few weeks.
Or you allow only a single incident (good or bad) to color your assessment. Supervisors should never rely solely on memory to evaluate employee performance. That makes appraisals far more difficult than necessary. Instead, it's best to institute a simple recording system to document employee performance. The most
useful, easy-to-implement way is to create and maintain a log for each person. Performance logs don't need to be complicated or sophisticated. They can simply be sheets of paper in a folder or a file on your computer. Choose whatever means you're comfortable with. The key is to establish a system that you will use regularly. No
matter how you take notes, make sure to keep them confidential. Many employee lawsuits can be quickly dismissed if performance logs can clearly demonstrate a history of performance problems leading to the firing...
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Employees are often the best sources of ideas because they are closest to the daily details of the organization.
But too often, employees are sitting on great cost-saving, business-generating ideas because they’ve never been specifically asked. Don’t depend only on an open-door policy...
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Are you leveraging the success pattern of America's most successful growth companies?
"During tough times, the tough get growing." That's an inspiring expression my father, now 86, shared with me when I was a "Mr. Fix-it" general manager trying to turn business units around and feeling as it was an impossible task. The "tough get
growing" is a management attitude I am seeing displayed by an increasing number of today's successful executives: reaching for the inner strength to grow during the most challenging of times. [This tough economic period is the growth-opportunity window to separate your company from competitors. These companies embody what I call the 7 Essentials of particularly good management,...]
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An offline conversation can clue you into nuances unfelt in e-mails—and ultimately deepen personal bonds, says Gina Trapani.
The first dot-com I worked at back in 2000 didn't survive, but one bit of office culture from that experience has stuck with me. In meetings, if a discussion veered too far from the agenda, someone would say, "Let's take this offline." Today I work at home, managing projects and communicating with co-workers and editors primarily
via email. Many of those exchanges could seriously benefit from literally "taking it offline"—by picking up the phone. Still, my tendency is to quickly type up a response and hit send. Email's benefits are hard to resist...
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Are you stuck with a group of negative, unmotivated colleagues? Just because you have no authority over them doesn't mean you have to play their game.
Every company has them. You know the type: complainers, excuse peddlers, and hermits. They've worked here forever, seen and done it all, watched bosses come and go. They follow routine and resist change. In essence, they're killing time and collecting a check. In business, they're called dead-enders. They arrive late and
leave early—and no one dares challenge them. Forget facts and logic: They crave innuendo and conspiracies. They gossip, bellyache, play games, and create drama. As a result, they consume valuable time, energy, and morale. Sadly, dead-enders are
often clustered together, a clique feeding off one another's misery. [What can you do when you're outnumbered and exposed? Consider these strategies:...]
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When leaders think they're trying improve the quality of other people's good ideas, they're often just trying to prove how smart they are.
A classic interpersonal challenge that I often see in brilliant, gifted, successful people is the desire to "add value," especially to other people's great ideas. These leaders are likely to display their brilliance continually by adding their input at the expense of others'. This occurs quite often. For instance, imagine you are an
entry-level employee, and I am your manager. You come to me with an idea that you think is great. You have been working on this idea for months, and are really excited about what you have developed. I like the idea. Rather than saying, "Great idea!" and letting it go, I must show my brilliance and tell you: "That is a very
good idea. Why don't you add X to it, and it will be much better?" This could well be a case of trying to add "too much value," and here's the problem:...
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Do this advance work and you'll be set for a smarter interview—and have the knowledge to make a smarter career decision.
It's a great to spot a job opportunity that sounds like a match for your talents. Unfortunately, the typical job ad doesn't tell you much more than the company's name. You need to know: What sort of place is it? Is the organization profitable? Does the company hire smart people and give them room to grow? Is the CEO a
tremendous leader or a dysfunctional tyrant? Following are nine ways to learn about your next prospective employer both before and after you enter its recruitment and selection pipeline. The research will require...
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Many of us put off giving feedback to our employees even though we intuitively know giving and getting honest feedback is essential, says Judith Lindenberger of The Lindenberger Group, LLC.
Maybe, she ventures, it is because there are so many ways to screw it up. The following, Lindenberger says, are the most common feedback mistakes:...
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Mentoring is one of the best ways to learn, to get feedback and to take your career to the next level.
Here are 10 tips for making the most of your mentoring relationships...
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THE year was 1989, and I had just joined one of the world’s financial powerhouses as a marketing manager.
My progression of jobs entailed planning, writing, editing and producing marketing materials. I enjoyed the thinking parts of the jobs the most. My days, however, were filled with meetings. One of my senior bosses wore fiery red suits and, in the conference room, held meetings that often spanned two mealtimes. People would
pontificate. Although I can be assertive, I struggled to lob a word over the net amid the frenetic volleys of my bosses and colleagues. Sometimes I was put on the spot with pointed questions and I’d think of snappy answers only later. In a hard-driving, deadline-oriented organization where instant decisions and constant
interruptions were part of life, I craved time to reflect. [One day, something clicked for me. I took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a popular personality assessment, as part of a team-building program at work. To my surprise, I discovered that I was an introvert... I left my last job and became a business communication
coach and author who helps introverts thrive in the business world... COULD I have thrived on Wall Street as an introvert? The quick answer is yes, it’s possible, and in many ways I did — and so do many of my clients. The secret ingredient I share with those who are introverts is...]
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They have what both they and you need to make it at the top.
The majority of business leaders I have worked with have a ravenous fascination with and curiosity about top-level sports. I have no doubt that most of them have secretly dreamed of being star athletes themselves. Whenever they find out about my involvement in the magical world of such people, they besiege me with questions.
How do their heroes cope with sometimes over-intrusive interest in their professional and private lives? What are those people like? [Elite sports is a powerful metaphor for business, and there are some striking parallels...]
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Middle-class folks are finding that a raise or second paycheck doesn't always mean living better. Time to work less?
Eighteen months after being laid off, Judith Lederman, a 50-year-old divorcee who lives in Scarsdale, N.Y., is ready to consider jobs paying half the $120,000 she earned as a publicity manager at Lord & Taylor. That's mostly because she's desperate, but it also makes sense when you consider how this country punishes work
effort. While the first $60,000 of her income would be lightly taxed, the next $60,000 would be hit with what is in effect a 79% tax rate. Given a choice between a part-time or easy job paying $60,000 and a demanding, stress-ridden job paying $120,000, Lederman would be wise to take the former. In the tougher job she would be
contributing twice as much to the economy. But she wouldn't be doing herself much good. It would make more sense to take it easy and spend more time with her high school senior daughter, Casey. How did a middle-class single mom wind up with a 79% marginal tax rate?...
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In this economy, you need to take advantage of every available resource to propel your career.
Finding a mentor—and preferably a network of mentors—is an easy and smart way to get started. And, it won't set you back financially the way hiring a career coach would. Here's how...
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H1N1 Fears Inspire a Boom in Alternative—and Unproven—Treatments; What Chicken Soup Can Do.
Heard the one about the raw onion? With concerns over the H1N1 flu rising and supplies of vaccine running scarce, it's no surprise that alternative remedies are circulating on the Web. During the flu epidemic of 1918 that killed 40 million people, one widely circulated email relates, a doctor visiting a farmhouse where everyone stayed healthy observed that the family kept an unpeeled onion in each room. He examined one under a microscope and saw that the onion had indeed absorbed flu virus. [This and other folk remedies are sparking a volley of discussion on blogs and bulletin boards. Some posters are adding their own twists, such as
chopping or boiling the onion and inhaling it with a towel over the head... According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the officially sanctioned vaccine is the only proven way to prevent the H1N1 virus, and the antiviral drugs oseltamivir (trade name Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) are among
the few proven ways to shorten its duration. "There is no scientific evidence that any herbal, homeopathic or other folk remedies have any benefit against influenza," the CDC says. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has adopted a "no tolerance" policy on bogus H1N1 claims, has sent 75 warning letters to
marketers of products that claim to fight the virus,...]
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The troubles of the impending health care reform are upon us.
I sit before my aging patient Julia for a few moments before my office nurse bangs on the door to say I'm running late. Julia looks at me across the desk, and in her pleading eyes, I can see her hopes for a reassurance or a cure. She hopes that I will tell her that nothing is wrong, or if there is something, that I can
immediately fix it. She is not thinking about health insurance reform. She is not worrying that the government is plotting to spread expensive insurance to pay for low-tech care for the entire population. She hopes only that her card will cover her in the case of illness. She is far more concerned about losing her connection with
me and my network of doctors than she is about whether health insurance is extended to more people. Thinking about her and those like her...
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