MgmtWatchSM Helping you manage If you are having difficulty seeing this mail or images in it, you can view it in your Web browser. Volume 9, Issue 4      In This Issue:   Mastering the psychology of persuasion   Smart presentations: Don't get in the way of your message   Training soapbox: Disarming dangerous employee malcontent   Team-working benefits from an outsider on the inside   Trust-based workplaces   Office politics revisited   Choosing employees for promotion: A 6-step legal process   8 rules for recognizing and rewarding employees   AIG isn't the only employer with bonus problems!   Coping with seriously ill employees: 4 management steps to take   Rewards can backfire   Unearth hidden power in organizations   Taming Twitter: Did they really just say that?   Companies find inexpensive ways to promote wellness   Travel:The American plan Mastering the psychology of persuasion Think you're so smart at selling and managing? Test your "gut instinct" skills and answer these [9] questions: Which of these is better at recognizing a liar: police officers, teachers, or dogs? Are women or teenagers more prone to fear motivation? Who would you trust to hold your expensive camera while you went to the bathroom at crowded sporting event: a man or a woman? Read the article.  Back to top Smart presentations: Don't get in the way of your message Great content isn't enough when you're trying to influence someone. How we deliver that information is just as important—and some would say even more so. That "how" could range from the look of your slides to the pace at which you speak…even to the way you walk into the room. I'm not talking about technique, however. If you make a solid connection right at the start with your audience’s needs, interests, and goals, they won’t even notice minor mannerisms. On the other hand, if you make it harder for you audience to get the message—if your slides are unnecessarily complex or your delivery draws attention to itself—you risk losing them before you can win them over. And what can kill an audience's involvement? What muddles their attention, distracts them, or just gets in the way of their focus? Here's a sampling:... Read the article.  Back to top Training soapbox: Disarming dangerous employee malcontent Don't let malcontents sabotage your company. Instead, create an environment that gives them no power and is conducive to employee engagement. Malcontents…every company has them, and they are costly to have around. In spite of this, many companies are reluctant to get rid of their troublesome employees. Some malcontents manage to create the perception of having value because they are long-time employees and know many important things. Some companies may even fear that losing these disruptive people will have a negative impact on their business. The truth is that these employees have little or no value to any business, and according to statistics, have a negative impact on customer loyalty. Yes, if they are long-time employees they may be expensive to get rid of, but believe me, they are much more costly to your business if you decide to keep them. According to a recent Gallup Management Journal survey, these malcontents make up... Read the article.  Back to top Team-working benefits from an outsider on the inside It might be uncomfortable, but deliberately shaking up a team by installing an outsider with a completely different take on the decision-making process can lead to improved results and better team-working. Taking a team out of its comfort zone by introducing someone who is socially distinct will, in all likelihood, increase group discomfort, but it can also lead to better decision making and, ultimately, team performance, research by academics from Brigham Young University in Utah has concluded. In the study, which has been published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, researchers conducted a traditional group problem-solving experiment. But they added a twist in that a newcomer was added to each group about five minutes into their deliberations. And when the newcomer was a social outsider, teams were more likely to... Read the article.  Back to top Trust-based workplaces Why do organisations cling to the idea that they can boost productivity by measuring time?" We've long held the view that the principles and philosophies of flexible working are fundamentally flawed. The trouble is two-fold. Firstly, it all too often gets linked to time (and I'll deal with this later), and secondly it's irrevocably linked to government policies and that invariably means it's not 'owned' by operational leaders. Had Michael Porter, Tom Peters, or Gary Hamel written the philosophies of flexible working, it would have been mainstream practice in every single organisation and on the bookshelf of every self-respecting leader. Let's return to the first issue, time. Flexible working is often described as involving; part-time working, flexi-time working, annualised hours, compressed hours, staggered hours, job sharing, or home working. The problem here is that these terms share a common factor – to a greater or lesser extent, they all refer to time. As soon as the word 'time' is mentioned inside an organisation, the call goes out for someone to police it – be it HR or more often line managers. And this policing is commonly inadequate or random. Some managers get it, others don't. But reality is that most organisations don't give a damn about time. What they care about is creativity, output, outcomes and productivity. So why do organisations cling to the idea that they can boost productivity by measuring time? The answer can be traced to... Read the article.  Back to top Office politics revisited The perils of talking too much I wrote an article on office politics a few years ago that provoked a lot of comment here on Management-Issues. Given current economic circumstances and that the article attracted so much interest, the editor of this website invited me to add my own rejoinder to the debate. I believe that politics is alive and well – so I stand by my original comments. I still maintain that too many people spend their time complaining that life – particularly working life – is "unfair". Perhaps a promotion went to a rival who was less talented or the pay rise went to someone less hardworking. To many people, the mere mention of the term "office politics" instantly makes them angry and annoyed. It conjures up images of insincerity, backbiting, brown-nosing, manipulation and greed. However, there's another way of looking at it... Read the article.  Back to top Choosing employees for promotion: A 6-step legal process White Paper published by The HR Specialist, copyright 2009. If you’re like most organizations, you’re relying more heavily on internal promotions than in the past. And as greater numbers of existing employees compete for coveted "inside" jobs,... Read the article.  Back to top 8 rules for recognizing and rewarding employees Surveys of U.S. workers consistently show that employees want more than a paycheck from their jobs—they want to feel safe, secure and appreciated at work. Good recognition and rewards provide employees with three things:... Read the article.  Back to top AIG isn't the only employer with bonus problems! Bonuses are in the news, but you don't have to be a failed multinational insurance giant to find yourself tripped up by the tricky math of variable compensation. If you rely on a bonus plan to help retain valued employees and motivate them to work hard, beware this trap:... Read the article.  Back to top Coping with seriously ill employees: 4 management steps to take It’s sad enough when an employee becomes seriously ill. What makes it tougher is that work doesn’t stop. Deadlines remain, customers need service and paperwork piles up. That means you must deal with two major management challenges at once: understanding and appreciating the emotions... Read the article.  Back to top Rewards can backfire Layoffs, bankruptcies, the credit crunch, mergers, closings — the headlines are impossible to ignore. Companies across industries and around the world are dealing with similar complex challenges due to the declining state of the global economy. Now is not the time for employees to give in to fear and work less hard because they believe they will not be recognized for their efforts. Talent leaders can address these employee concerns while remaining fiscally responsible, encouraging greater productivity and sustaining growth by reconsidering employee recognition and reward programs. Such initiatives can be a lever to enable an organization to ride out the recession and position itself strongly for the eventual upturn. Strategic employee recognition programs reaffirm the value of employees' contributions, acknowledge the additional work and effort they likely are being asked to perform and can allay rumors through frequently updated executive messages. But accomplishing these goals requires careful planning. Without proper consideration, implementation and direction, employee rewards easily can backfire. Improperly applied recognition and reward programs can have the wrong impact, deliver the wrong reward and ultimately cost the company in reduced employee engagement and wasted investments on unwanted rewards... Read the article.  Back to top Unearth hidden power in organizations In recent years, use of the term "social network" has been trending upward, due in part to the increasing use of Web-based tools such as LinkedIn and Facebook. The rise is dramatic given the term has been operational in social science circles for more than a century. Social networks, the structure of interdependent relationships in a group, long have been studied to help researchers understand a tribe's culture or to explain the transmission of disease. Today the buzz about social networks centers on the power of relationships. For example, for many right now, corporate downsizing is an imperative, and doing more with less is an expectation. The power of the relationships needed to execute these imperatives is significantly higher than talent managers recognize and often goes untapped like hidden reservoirs of fossil fuel... Read the article.  Back to top Taming Twitter: Did they really just say that?    Social-Networking Policymaking As recent incidents have shown, on Twitter anything goes. But forward-thinking companies are mitigating risks of using the booming social network by designating Twitter reps and updating electronic communication guidelines. Perhaps by now you’ve heard of the PR guy whose snarky comments about Memphis, Tennessee, to his Twitter followers landed him in hot water with the Memphis-based client he was about to visit, a little company named FedEx. Or the congressman whose Twitter posts during a secret trip to Iraq had military officials worried he had compromised the mission’s security. And then there’s the very public and very profane exchange between a Canadian journalist and a product-marketing executive. As those instances show, organizations are using Twitter for almost anything and everything, often with unintended or even disastrous consequences... Read the article.  Back to top Companies find inexpensive ways to promote wellness Operating in a tough economic climate, employers increasingly are seeking alternatives to costly wellness programs. Seeking a low-cost way to boost physical activity among employees, the Health and Hospitals Corporation of Marion County, Indiana, last year devised a virtual challenge: A six-month "walk" from Indianapolis to the summit of Pike’s Peak in Colorado—a distance of 1,115 miles or more than 2 million steps. The competition challenged its 800 employees to count the number of steps they took daily and apply them to the total distance of the race. The challenge was divided into eight segments, with virtual checkpoints along the way. At the end, participants were entered into a raffle to win a gift certificate to a local sporting goods store. A total of 128 workers started the race, with 18 completing the entire distance. The total cost of the challenge was... Read the article.  Back to top Travel:The American plan Forget Bhutan or Sicily. This year's trendy "comfort travel" destinations are Gettysburg, Pa., and Yellowstone Park... Read the article.  Back to top Forward to a Friend: Do you have a friend that would like to receive MgmtWatchsm? 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! 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