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July 31, 2007
Save the Endangered Workplace Species!
CEO Dad’s Tuesday Tirade....
The Zoological Society of London has launched a new program to protect what they are calling some of the most bizarre and unusual animals in the world; ones they say have been completely overlooked by those in the world of species conservation.
We all know that every workplace has its share of bizarre and unusual species, too, and may I be the first to wake up the world to their imminent extinction if something is not done soon.
THE NORTH AMERICAN IBM SELECTRIC OPERATOR. Often found hiding in dusty unused storage areas, this unique breed of mammal is the only one still familiar with how to operate an electric typewriter. Though at first they appear frightening, they are actually quite docile creatures that believe a keyboard should still emit loud, clanging, industrial-age type noises to be effective. This species is quite adept at showing you how it’s still faster to type an envelope than to try and figure out your printer’s highly-confusing methodology for same. Once printer technology becomes more user-friendly, the Selectric Operator could face certain annihilation.
THE GREAT CRESTED TELEPHONE RECEPTIONIST. The need for this plucky but doomed creature has been rapidly declining ever since a one-time fee could be paid to a non-union voice-over actress for recording every possible numerical combination and then saying, “for English, press one.” This vanishing breed is a close cousin to the Front Desk Receptionist, who has not yet become obsolete, but could well be wiped out once people realize that tele-conferencing, much like e-mail, allows one to never again endure a face-to-face meeting with some jerk they can’t stand.
THE PUFFY-CHESTED ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT OF INTER-DEPARTMENTAL COMMUNICATION AND INTERNATIONAL MARKETING AND DEVELOPMENT. Come on. Nobody has ever known what this person does. It’s a miracle they haven’t become extinct already. Start letting folks with titles like this know you’re onto them, and you could hasten the evolutionary process.
THE TOXIC BOSS. Yes, thanks to Oprah and the various enlightened self-help authors who appear on her show, we have entered a golden age in which people in positions of power have looked inward at their own work/life imbalance issues and will never trouble any of us subordinates ever again. And if you believe that, perhaps you’ll like my new book, “The Seven Habits of Hans Christian Andersen.”
Well, I have to go. They’ve just outsourced blogging to a warehouse in Bombay. In the meantime, have you spotted any other soon-to-be extinct species around your workplace?
Posted by Tom Stern at 6:37 AM
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July 30, 2007
Innovation: Tired of DIY Travel Bookings?
Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.
For me, that sometimes is when I have to book travel online.
Don't get me wrong. Online travel websites are a wonderful thing. Unless, of course, you have to book a complex trip with all kinds of connections and different modes of transportation, or are traveling to an unfamiliar or exotic locale. Then even the most ardent DIY (Do It Yourself) advocate might want to seek out a true travel pro.
Continue reading "Innovation: Tired of DIY Travel Bookings?"Posted by Robert Buckman at 4:19 PM
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Careers: Overcommunicate
Talk to me, you never talk to me.
Ooh, it seems that I can speak.
But I can hear my voice shouting out.
But there’s no reply at all.
-Lyrics from the song “No Reply at All” by Genesis
There’s nothing like a little inspiration from Phil Collins and Genesis for this week’s entry. But as you’ll soon see, for this topic, I need no inspiration. Anyone who has been around me for more than four seconds will tell you that I’m passionate about follow up. In an earlier entry, I talked about the importance of following up with candidates but I think it’s actually bigger than that.
It’s not just how we treat applicants; everything we do affects our personal brand. The way we treat our boss, our colleagues, or even the random person we bump into for five minutes at a conference goes a long way in how we are perceived. Yet, day in day out I’m amazed at how many people don’t respond to emails and phone calls for days, weeks or sometimes ever. It’s almost like there are a group of people out there with only a hard drive, monitor and mouse but with no keyboard. They’re able to open your email, but since they don’t have the keyboard they can’t respond. Or better yet, maybe their phone is missing the numbers two and nine and that’s why they aren’t able to give you a call back. Am I the only one that thinks follow up is a big deal? Say it ain’t so.
The reasons why people under-communicate are no doubt vast. But the reasons they give are often similar. Let’s take a look at some of my favorites.
“I’m swamped” (also known as “I have more important things to do than to follow up with you.”) I think we’d all agree that even when we’re absolutely swamped, somehow we’re still able to make time to fit in the things that are really important to us. Make following up a personal commitment. Take 15 seconds to shoot a quick email saying “Thanks for the message. I’m under a tight deadline. I’ll give you a call early next week.” Simple as that.
“Out of the office” Not just “out of the office” but habitually being out of the office without setting an out of office greeting. You know who you are. The person trying to contact you looks like a pest because they’ve sent you three emails over a two-week period. You’re frustrated because your inbox is filled with a bunch of follow up to follow up emails. Last time I checked, it only takes a few seconds (3 minutes tops) to set an out of office greeting.
“Waiting to hear” The best of the excuses for not following up because it actually means the person you are waiting to hear from is actually doing something to help you. Unfortunately, they dropped the ball by failing to let you know. So you end up thinking they’re blowing you off. If you’re waiting to hear back from someone or for information before you can respond, say so.
And then there’s the no-excuse behavior…
“Avoidance” I’ll use this as a catch all for the no-excuse excuse. If “waiting to hear” is the best excuse, this has to be the worst. If tables were turned and you needed information from someone and he or she never followed up or never gave a good reason as to why it’s been three phone calls and four emails and six months and you haven’t heard a peep, how would you feel? I’m guessing you’d be pretty frustrated. It’s almost like running into someone you went out on a date with once but instead of saying hello, he or she diverts eye contact and makes a b-line for the door.
I realize that there are times when it’s impossible to juggle everything we have on our plate; we’ve all been there. But that doesn’t necessarily mean we have to ignore emails and phone calls for days, weeks, and months on end. When people contact us, there is a good chance they’re contacting us for a reason. Take a few minutes each day to follow up with people. When you think you’re too busy, ask yourself if you would be too busy to follow up with your boss the day before your annual performance review.
Have other excuses for not following up or other work-place pet peeves? Post a comment.
Shawn Graham is an Associate Director with the MBA Career Management Center at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School and author of Courting Your Career: Match Yourself with the Perfect Job (courtingyourcareer.wordpress.com).
Posted by Shawn Graham at 8:54 AM
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July 28, 2007
Leadership: Living Through the Rear View Mirror
My business cards have a shadow of a person driving with a reflection in the rear-view mirror. Why? Because I tell my clients “If you live your life by constantly looking in the rear-view mirror, you’ll eventually crash and burn. Objects (or past history) in rear view mirrors do appear larger than they really are. Our pasts seem to be magnified exponentially in our memories.
To build on my post for a moment from July 11th 2007 Direction Defined or Not , you can’t live your life through your past. You can build on it and move forward because of it, for good or bad but you can’t live on your laurels forever. You’ll have to start living your future right now or before you know it, you’ll be looking at just more of the same and no movement whatsoever. For leaders, that could very well mean being put out to pasture and replaced by those who build a future by the choices they make right now. Successful leaders celebrate their successes, build on them and move forward. They constantly reinvent.
Recently I was with a group of people working together to create business plans. What an amazing experience! Each person asked for help and support in making their professional (and in some instances personal) dreams a reality. Yet there was one who started off every sentence by “Oh I used to do that, and when I did, I did it this way!” His was the only way, the best way, and he seemed to have done it all. If there were twenty projects and directions the others wanted to take you can be sure he said he had done all of them at some point in his life, and yet he was the only one who had no definitive direction as to where he wanted to go for his future. The others around the table gave him some ideas he might want to work with. He nodded as if he was actually listening but ran with none of them. Through the week we kept hearing “When I used to do that…”
Continue reading "Leadership: Living Through the Rear View Mirror"Posted by Donna Karlin at 3:40 PM
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July 27, 2007
Technology: Navigating the New Web
You have your bookmarks, maybe even your social tags of your favorite web sites, tools and communities ... you are very connected - or are you? The folks at iA, Japanese strategic design agency, have taken the journey of web trends to entirely new lever with the transit map of the 200 most successful websites with measurement of category, success, popularity, proximity and perspective growth. This clickable map will take you to places you had not imagined! How many stops have you visited and where do you want to go? iA Web Trendmap 2007
Posted by Peter Fasano at 9:48 AM
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D’oh! Ten Reasons Homer Simpson Understands Work/Life Balance
If ever an occasion marked the need for quiet contemplation, the opening of the Simpsons movie is it. Okay, so you can sense the sarcasm. After all, Homer Simpson lives for beer, is easily antagonized by his son Bart, and has no qualms about revealing a bit of his posterior whenever he bends over. Not exactly the model citizen, he. Yet, if he was all that repugnant, why would he hold our interest for almost 20 years? Sure, you could argue that it’s fun to live vicariously through someone so hopeless, as in: no matter how bad we get, we’ll never be like him. However, I think the opposite is true. It might just be that, in more ways than we know, Homer shows the work/life balance challenged how to live. Here are a few reasons why:
1. Unlike us obsessed, overworked types, Homer can’t wait to get the heck out of work.
2. While at work, Homer does not take things too seriously, innately understanding that the everyday duties we get so stressed about are ultimately not that important. (All right, so he works in a nuclear facility. We’ll let that slide.)
3. Homer maintains active and enjoyable leisure time with his colleagues from the job. Belching contests in a bar are just as valid a bonding technique as, say, golf. And you can’t slice a belch into a sand trap, thereby ruining your entire day.
4. Homer often goes to his wife Marge with problems that have been weighing on his mind, and even solicits her support and affection. Maybe it’s just that reassuring beehive of blue hair that makes him know he has a safe place to unburden.
5. As has been indicated in many episodes, Homer and Marge still enjoy a healthy love life. And I’ve heard that cartoon make-up sex is even better than in real life.
6. Despite his run-ins with Bart, Homer goes to great lengths to be there for his children, often enduring physical harm to his own person in the process. (Who can forget the Bart skateboarding episode in which Homer hit a series of tree branches in an epic fall that contained an uninterrupted string of “D’oh’s”?
7. Homer supports his daughter Lisa’s many attempts at coming into her own, even though he is so pitifully her intellectual inferior.
8. As a dad, Homer is not afraid to get mushy with his children, often talking baby talk and letting his own inner child out to play. You go, Homey!
9. Homer is rightly afraid of Mr. Burns, who represents the emptiness of wealth and achievement. Mr. Burns is the embodiment of that famous quote “for what does it profit a man if he gaineth everything but loseth his entire muscle mass?”
10. Finally, Homer Simpson is a big goofball and proud of it. And that is the last thing anyone who thinks the world revolves around them would ever admit. Homer knows who he is. Do we?
Well, repressed goofballs, I’m sure there are more reasons Homer can teach us a thing or two. Any you’d like to add?
Posted by Tom Stern at 6:19 AM
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July 26, 2007
Innovation: Todd And’s POWER 150 Now by AdAge – Will This Change Things?
Does Advertising Age taking over Todd And’ Power 150 represent a coming of age of the blogosphere or just more advertising? The blogosphere has always had its lists – Top 10 reasons Why, 5 Ways to, 3 Tips for and The Power 150 marketing blogs. And everybody loves them. That’s why they are so popular.
The delightful subjectivity of these kinds of lists is one of the things that differentiates blogs from commercial publications like Advertising Age.
Continue reading "Innovation: Todd And’s POWER 150 Now by AdAge – Will This Change Things?"Posted by Valeria Maltoni at 8:40 AM
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Change Management: The Day Mumbai's Music Died
Today marks the second anniversary of the great Mumbai floods of 2005. The day when Mumbai stood still. The day when Mumbai’s façade of a mega polis was shattered. The day when all problems plaguing this great city came to the fore. The day Mumbai's music, truly, died.
Continue reading "Change Management: The Day Mumbai's Music Died"Posted by Anupam Mukerji at 7:10 AM
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July 25, 2007
Careers: If Only You Could Work Here
Have you ever wandered into an office staffed by 55 employees who are mostly 24-years-old and in their first job out of college? It might be kind of fun, right?
And in this particular office above Union Square in New York City, they throw the occasional staff party billed as the "Thursday Night Hang." The workers in this firm called Connected Ventures run three pretty cool companies: a site called CollegeHumor.com; a t-shirt company called Busted Tees; and a video community site that predates YouTube called Vimeo.com.
One evening at a company party, they recorded the following video, for fun, on a single take. It wasn't intended to be a recruitment video; it just turned out that way. Note, it takes about 40 seconds or more to get grooving and some of the words in a song you will hear are mature. Don't worry, nothing else about the video is mature, it's all in fun.
Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from Vimeo.
There were unexpected outcomes to this exercise:
- Four million people have "viewed" this video since it was posted in May
- The video has been widely discussed on blogs around the world, including on Tech Crunch's CrunchNotes site. Many of the comments are variations of this: "I want to work there"
- In homage to Connected Ventures' groundbreaking effort, an office of Paris-based designers (Heaven.fr) recorded a lip-dub to Weezer's Sweater song. (Some say it is better, but I don't think so.)
- Résumés are streaming into Connected Ventures
"We put it on online so we could share it with friends and so people," says Ricky Van Veen, one of the founders of the company and Editor-in-Chief of CollegeHumor.com. "It didn't occur to us that anybody outside of the office would want to see it."
Amandalyn Ferri, who works in marketing at Busted Tees, has won a lot of admirers for her "performance" that marks the beginning of the video - a "lip-dub" to Harvey Danger's Flagpole Sitta. "I work here and I think that people are under the impression that as a company we all just sit around and do nothing," she says. "We definitely give off the impression that we hang out and it's like a college dorm 24x7. Realistically it's not a surprise to come back and see people working at 8 or 9 p.m."
If most of us could stop working by 9 p.m. we would be pretty happy.
"It has been such a great recruiting tool for us," says Van Veen, who performs in the video. "We saw a couple of hundred résumés just blindly. People said, 'I don't know what you do but I just want to work at your company.'" They're hiring.
Rusty Weston, My Global Career • San Francisco, Ca • http://www.myglobalcareer.com/ •
Posted by Rusty Weston at 1:14 PM
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Leadership: Commissioners in Crisis
It is not often that you see three commissioners of three major sports make news within the same 24-hour news cycle. This time none of the three was promoting anything; each was responding to threats to the integrity of the games they represented.
Roger Goodell of the National Football League banned Michael Vick from attending training camp in the wake of his indictment for participation in a dog fighting ring. Bud Selig of Major League Baseball issued a statement saying that he would personally attend upcoming games to watch Barry Bonds, an alleged abuser of performance enhancement drugs, try to break baseball’s all-time home run record. And David Stern of the National Basketball Association gave a press conference in which he laid bare the facts about a referee who as been accused of gambling on and fixing games.
None of these admissions reflect positively on the leagues they represent. Instead of making news to help shape, enhance, and protect the images of their leagues, each commissioner was reacting to bad news. In doing so, however, each provided a glimpse into what senior leaders must do in crisis situations.
Continue reading "Leadership: Commissioners in Crisis"Posted by John Baldoni at 12:02 PM
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Careers: Personal Branding Reinvention
Sometimes it takes the proverbial fork in the road to discover our true strengths.
Take marketer Marti Barletta, who during her 20-year agency career, never dreamed of being a thriving entrepreneur with three books under her belt and major companies seeking her expertise.
Yet Barletta, 52, is proof that we can remake ourselves at any age. It all comes down to smart personal branding, a well-executed strategy and the confidence to take the road less traveled. All of which Barletta has in spades.
In the late 1990s, Barletta was working at Chicago ad agency Frankel heading up a team researching marketing to women. After immersing herself in the subject for two years, she knew more about the topic than most people -- including the fact that most marketers were clueless about marketing to women. Consider, for example, that 80 percent of purchase decisions in all categories are made by women, including big ticket items like cars. Meanwhile, the prevailing opinion was that women influenced only small purchase decisions like which pasta brand to buy.
Recognizing the makings of a business in marketing to women, Barletta thought about starting her own company even though she was a novice entrepreneur. The idea was blessed by her employer Frankel who had decided to go in another direction.
Barletta says she still needed a little push to get started and was fortunate to have found it in a mentor.
“I wasn’t sure I could go on my own. There are a lot of marketing consultants out there,” she recalled. However, her mentor reminded her that she was different and had expertise others lacked. “He told me I had an ability to warm up a room like no one he had ever seen. And that five years from now he’d be telling people he knew Marti when she first started out.”
For Barletta, that was an observation that changed her life. “I had never realized that about myself,” she said, and it was just the inspiration she needed to launch her business, The TrendSight Group.
Barletta also was expert at creating opportunities. Thousands, if not millions of people have probably heard Tom Peters speak and left it at that. Not Barletta. Meeting Tom Peters at a conference, she subsequently wrote to him asking if he would write the foreword to her first book . Peters not only wrote the foreword but also became a big fan of Barletta, inviting her to speak at one of his “Cool Friends” gatherings and referencing her work in his presentations. In addition to her own books, she and Peters in 2005 co-authored a book, Trends, about marketing to women.
Marti’s mentor proved right. Today she is a recognized authority on marketing to women, and a sought after speaker and consultant.
Her advice to people wanting to launch a new venture:
Focus on your ability to solve problems. “While it’s important to establish your credentials and marketing materials, people care less about you and more about your ability to solve their problems.”
Be confident. “People will treat you the way you encourage them to treat you.”
Position yourself as an expert. Consultants are a dime a dozen but experts are unique. “You are treated differently as an expert, especially an expert with a book, than you are as a consultant. As a marketing consultant you’re viewed as temporary and expendable. As an expert, you’re seen as needed and someone worthy of respect.”
Get feedback from others. “Do market research on yourself. You don’t always recognize your own unique abilities. Seek out people you know to help you discover them.”
Wendy Marx • Public Relations/Marketing Communications • President, Marx Communications, Inc.
Posted by Wendy Marx at 8:52 AM
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Innovation: Are We Happy Yet?
A couple of surveys of airline customer satisfaction have been released in recent weeks, and the results should surprise nobody:
Passengers are ticked.
Reason number one is that the nation's Big Six carriers are sliding toward a 60 percent on-time average.
Reason number two is that the Big Six are "mishandling" (airline code for "losing") record numbers of checked baggage.
If you've gotten the feeling lately that the airline industry is going backward when it comes to customer satisfaction, you have proof in the quarterly results of the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) released by the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.
Continue reading "Innovation: Are We Happy Yet?"Posted by Robert Buckman at 8:00 AM
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Leadership: What If You Said No?
What would happen if you said no? Would you begin to panic once you heard the words leave your mouth? Start to scramble to backtrack and end up doing what you said no to in the first place?
Part of my last piece about react vs. respond encompasses this very question. I watch clients every day react to being tasked with something they really can't do. Either they are already so bogged down with work this might be the straw that broke the camel's back or they have no resources to do it properly in the first place and no clear mandate as to why they have to do it. And yet they automatically say yes.
When I ask them the question, "What if you said no?", most of the time the answer I get back is "I don't think I can say no" or "It never occurred to me to say no or that I could say no!" or "I've automatically said yes for so long, it's a habit and I'm no longer aware I'm doing it.
Think about it for a moment. Hasn't that happen to you more than once when you wanted to just kick yourself?
What would happen if you pushed back and said "What can I drop in order to do this?" How many of you have the guts to say no, it can't be done and not fear for losing your job? What does leadership have to 'get' in order to accept that not everything is possible right now? Once that tiny three-letter word (yes) leaves your lips, it's rare you can go back, and yet isn't this one of the quickest reactions of all jumping in without testing the waters first?
Has it ever happened to you and if so, what did you ultimately do about it?
This can be one of your most amazing learning curves. Not an easy one, granted, but definitely a steep curve. That dialogue has to happen. It has to happen when there are no pressures, as a hypothetical conversation that shows example. Then it's much easier to implement when you have that dialogue to refer to. When you set boundaries and say no strategically, leadership will learn that you're not saying no randomly. You're saying it for valid reasons and unless there are some fundamental changes in the status quo there is no way you can do one more thing without burning out or burning everyone else around you and as well, giving shoddy results. Where's the win-win in that?
So how do you say no and not only live with it but thrive because of it, as saying no leaves you space to say yes to the things you should be doing. That's what priorities are all about. Defining those priorities is one of the key skills of leadership. If they don't know that, this could be a great learning curve for them as well.
Thoughts on this?
Donna Karlin • Executive and Political Shadow Coach™ • Ottawa, Canada • •www.abetterperspective.com
Posted by Donna Karlin at 12:38 AM
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July 24, 2007
Whole Foods Fight; John Mackey’s Yahoo Rants Are The Dark Side of Entrepreneurship.
When it was revealed that John Mackey, the celebrated founder of Whole Foods Market, had posted hundreds of messages, using an alias, over an eight-year period on Yahoo finance message boards -- some blasting competitors, others lavishing praise on himself (even his own haircut) - most were shocked.
How could the subject of such business hagiography, an entrepreneur who transformed the face (and the aisles) of supermarket retailing, a vegan who made the organic lifestyle the New American Badge, a passionate advocate of small producers who introduced us to more kinds of honey than we thought there were bees, behave in well, such an inorganic fashion.
After all, Whole Foods Market is all about transparency. You know in sometimes excruciating detail about where you persimmons and your pork chops come from, but in the case of John Mackey’s opaque postings, you were completely in the dark about where they were manufactured them.
Continue reading "Whole Foods Fight; John Mackey’s Yahoo Rants Are The Dark Side of Entrepreneurship."Posted by Adam Hanft at 2:16 PM
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It’s a Dirty Job But Someone Else Had Better Do It
CEO Dad's Tuesday Tirade...
I don’t know about you, but when I hear about someone having a “personal assistant,” I think of movie stars like Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt. Well, according to a recent report on NPR, now anyone can have one. That’s right, personal assistants are available by the hour to anyone who needs a body to take care of all the things they are too work/life unbalanced to take care of themselves. At first, this news gave me pause: a convenience, once the province of the rich and powerful, has become commonplace, giving people who don’t know how to slow down another handy reason to keep multi-tasking. Pawn off the daily tasks of living to a third party, and take more time to focus on work, work, work.
But then, the light bulb went off. Literally. So I hired a personal assistant to change it for me, then I got a great idea. Why throw money at someone you don’t know, when you can delegate unpleasant tasks AND spend more time communicating with the family you’ve been de-prioritizing for so long? That’s right, hire your offspring as members as personal assistants! You’ve long been trapped in the dysfunctional behavior of buying your children’s love. And let’s face it, they’ve been seeing through that horrible charade for years now, and now matter how many Benjamins you give them, their response is desultory at best. Now, you can pay the young’uns and get something more tangible out of them at the same time. Like picking up your dry cleaning, organizing the documents on your PC into a series of new folders, or simply watching “Lost” for you and telling you what the heck it means so you have something to talk about at parties. You already pay them allowance to take out the trash and do the dishes, so why not up the ante and have them pick you up at the airport after that three-day productivity conference in Seattle?
Of course, the by-product of all this is that you interact with your children more! Sure, it’s mostly giving them orders and calling on a bad cell phone connection to make sure the orders are getting carried out, but your kids will hear your voice several times during the day, and that is something they will remember when they get older and start deciding on your long-term care options. Besides, if you’re not too busy, you can toss in a question about how their school was that day, or what they think of the whole Harry Potter oeuvre. You can’t buy that kind of bonding. Oh, wait, maybe you can.
Oh, one word to the wise. I got the idea of hiring my kids as personal assistants because my first instinct was to see if my wife wanted to do it. Well, the doctors tell me the cut didn’t need stitches, and that I was lucky I ducked in time to avoid the plate she threw at me causing any serious damage. To tell you the truth, I haven’t run the idea by my kids yet, either. I’m just too busy to find the quality time I need to thoroughly present the idea. Maybe I’ll hire a personal assistant to ask my kids if they would like to be personal assistants.
Meantime, what other hare-brained schemes might we think of to avoid getting the balance right?
Posted by Tom Stern at 6:17 AM
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July 23, 2007
Innovation: Paper or Plastic?
I invariably have a tough time with the easy decisions, such as when the grocery clerk asks me whether I want to tote my purchases home inside a dead tree or an oil byproduct.
Now, at least at the airport I never need to pick paper again.
That is, if I am flying WestJet.
Continue reading "Innovation: Paper or Plastic?"Posted by Robert Buckman at 6:18 PM
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Careers: Why Traditional Job Interviews Don't Work
Traditional job interviews are flawed. Instead of evaluating interviewees on the skills and abilities they need to succeed in the job, they focus on softball questions the responses to which interviewees often memorize. As a result, you get canned answers; responses that have been rehearsed over and over again. If you’re looking for actors who can memorize lines, that’s great. But if you want to know if he or she can do the job, you’re going to have to look beyond traditional interviews. In response, corporate recruiters increasingly tell me they prefer to use more of an organic approach that allows the interview to ebb and flow more like a conversation instead of an interrogation.
The first method is what I like to call the “deep dive.” With this technique, your entire interview could revolve around only one or two questions. But, unlike traditional interviews where the candidate will walk you through his or her resume, with the deep dive you ask about key projects, accomplishments, and other information on the resume that might normally get glossed over. For example, you can ask probing questions along each step of the way such as “What was your role?”, “What was the outcome?”, and “What would you do differently?”
The benefits are twofold. First, it requires the candidate to be quick on his or her feet. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a definite must for almost any position out there from the storeroom to the boardroom. Second, it allows you to drill down on things you might otherwise pass over. More than 70% of the resume walks I’ve seen in my more than 10 years working with clients have involved nothing more than hitting the high points almost word for word from the resume. Why take 2-5 minutes of an interview covering something you could read from the resume yourself?
You can also use this technique on other common interview questions. Instead of asking for a biggest strength or weakness which most interviewees will be expecting and prepared to answer, ask them to list their next biggest strength or weakness, and their next biggest, and their next biggest. That way, you’ll get spontaneous and genuine responses, not scripted sound bites like “My biggest weakness is that sometimes I’m a perfectionist.” Give me a break.
For inspiration for the next technique, I look to a quote from a character named Patches O’Houlihan from one of my favorite movies, Dodgeball who said “If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.” As I mentioned above, if you’re trying to evaluate whether someone can do the job, the best predictor of that is to have them do the job. I know that can be difficult during a 30-60 interview, but simulations can still be very effective.
Similar to case studies used by marketing and consulting firms, simulations ask candidates to address actual challenges they’d face on the job. For example, if you are looking for people to evaluate stocks, ask them to evaluate stocks. If you’re looking for someone to deliver presentations and that’s a significant part of the job, block off some time for a presentation. It can be stressful for the candidate, but there’s no better way to see how they’d do in the job then trial by fire. If an interviewee can succeed with a simulation, chances are they will succeed in the job. I know there are no guarantees, especially when it comes to interviews, but in my option this interview format is a much better predictor of success then traditional behavioral interviews.
If you’re not using one of these techniques, ask yourself whether you could benefit from using one or both of these interview formats. As I know you’ll agree, it’s much better to spend your energy identifying and hiring the right people then it is trying to figure out what to do with the bad hires already onboard.
Shawn Graham is an Associate Director with the MBA Career Management Center at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School and author of Courting Your Career: Match Yourself with the Perfect Job (courtingyourcareer.wordpress.com).
Posted by Shawn Graham at 5:13 PM
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July 22, 2007
Leadership: Reacting vs. Responding
People limit themselves without realizing it by reacting to situations, rather than responding and broadening their horizons.
That statement is one of many in a new program we're launching this week called "It's All About You...and Others". It's in the final tweaking stages and is being proofed and reviewed by some of my colleagues and clients before going live. Out of the 26 segments of this mini self-coaching course, this one statement is pushing more buttons than any other, and let me tell you, as a self-awareness behavioral course, there are a lot of very edgy truths besides this one that one might think would push more buttons than this.
Perhaps it's taking responsibility for how we react to situations that are out of our comfort zone and then get angry and react in the process or perhaps it's an in your face "look at when you react and act yourself why" question that comes to mind.
I'd love to hear how you look at a statement like that and how, if at all, it might apply in the context of your world. That's what it's all about, though isn't it? Awareness of self and our place in our world.
What's your immediate gut reaction to this?
Donna Karlin • Executive and Political Shadow Coach™ • Ottawa, Canada • •www.abetterperspective.com
Posted by Donna Karlin at 11:47 AM
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July 20, 2007
Work/Life: Wine/Cheese Balance
Even criminals need a little work/life balance. A Washington, D.C. patio party was winding down last week when an armed, hooded gunman burst in and demanded valuables on pain of death. But things did a 180 when one of the guests blurted out that maybe he’d like a glass of wine. After a couple of sips of the vino, and a nibble on some cheese, the thug concluded he was robbing the wrong people, and even asked them for a group hug before he left.
By the time this posts, it could well come out that this story was a hoax, and my belief in the healing power of love will take a beating. Just the same, it makes one think about how a little balance in the lives of some of our more toxic driven personalities may have changed the course of civilization. Here’s a few sample headlines it might have been fun to read:
STALIN TAKES BREATHER FROM OPPRESSION TO TAKE IN DAUGHTER’S CELLO RECITAL. Dateline Moscow. According to Central Committee officials, more than three hundred dissidents were spared execution today when Joseph Stalin took time off to attend a solo cello performance given by his daughter at her elementary school. Not as lucky was the unfortunate man who coughed during Haydn’s Cello Concerto in E minor.
IDI AMIN ENCOURAGES ALL UGANDANS TO TRY DEEP BREATHING EXERCISES. In a televised speech yesterday, Idi Amin urged his citizenry to cope with the recent round of horrible violence he has brought upon the country by taking a long breath in through the nose and then slowly letting it out of the mouth. He also suggested getting in touch with the rhythms of one’s breathing to help calm the desire to kill those with whom you disagree.
ATTILA THE HUN ACCEPTS SELTZER, BRIE IN LIEU OF HEADS OF ENEMIES. UPI, Gaul. Moments away from lopping off the heads of people who were in his way, the warrior Attila was swayed from performing another decapitation by the kind offer of bubbly water and aged Brie served on Carr’s Table Water biscuits. The mighty Hun described it as a “delightful repaste,” before getting back on his horse and practicing deep breathing. The citizens who escaped Attila’s wrath described him as “exceedingly pleasant.”
Well, we can dream. And, we can take no small consolation in the fact that being a workaholic is hardly the blight on society that a dictator is. Still, any fake headlines about a work/life balance casualty you’d like to write?
Posted by Tom Stern at 6:22 AM
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July 19, 2007
Technology: Blogging as a Web 2.0 Entry Point or You Still Have Time to Catch the Cluetrain!
Last post I looked at the John Mackey disaster and introduced the idea of blogging as an entry point to Web 2.0, an idea that needs to be clarified before continuing. Rather than attempting to answer the question, "What is Web 2.0", I will focus on some key aspects of blogging for business communicators with a special nod to The Cluetrain Manifesto.
Speaking to humans in a human voice:
Catch the Cluetrain! Even before Web 2.0 the WWW was undermining the monolithic corporate voice and introducing human voices to business communication. Blogging is a great way to develop a human voice, one post at a time, in a relatively controlled environment. You can get into trouble on a blog but you can also discover the joys of building community by joining the conversation.
Posted by Clyde Smith at 12:38 PM
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Innovation: The REAL Magic of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is Customer Service
It started as a kind gesture. It has become the ultimate party. To the children lining up to wait for the sales of the last installment of Harry Potter magic the bookstores’ opening doors at midnight on Saturday (July 21) represent a portal to a new world. What changed an occasion to the ultimate event was just plain good customer service.
Continue reading "Innovation: The REAL Magic of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is Customer Service"Posted by Valeria Maltoni at 7:15 AM
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July 18, 2007
Leadership: Mutiny Before the Hurricane
There’s a saying in sports that says you don’t want to be the coach who follows the legend. You want to be the coach who follows the coach who follows the legend. Bill Proenza, the former director of the National Hurricane Center, knows what it is like to follow a legend. He succeeded the very popular director, Max Mayfield who was seen by millions on television during hurricane season.
Proenza was reassigned after more than half his staff signed a petition to have him removed from office. Proenza got in hot water for complaining publicly that the QuickSAT satellite could not be counted on to provide accurate hurricane forecasts. Those comments irritated his bosses in the Bush Administration as well as his staff who said that QuickSAT was only one tool in their forecasting instrumentation process.
Proenza, according to a report on NPR’s All Things Considered , is a highly experienced and competent forecaster who has worked for the National Weather Service for many years. His appointment was endorsed by Mayfield, the well-respected head of the NHC who retired at the end of last year. Courtly and avuncular Mayfield led by consensus. His management style was the exact opposite of Proenza who keeps his own counsel and sometimes “shoots from the hip.” So it seems that when Proenza got into trouble over his remarks, there was no one on his staff to back him up. Proenza had burned his bridges. So what can we learn from the Proenza firing?
Continue reading "Leadership: Mutiny Before the Hurricane"Posted by John Baldoni at 12:00 PM
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Change Management: Combining Management with Ancient Philosophy
New Delhi is getting a makeover in preparation for the 2010 Commonwealth Games to be held in the city. And the government has gifted the capital city its latest showpiece, the state-of-the-art Tube, the Delhi Metro Rail. Already 600,000 daily commuters on the Metro Rail have cut their travel time by 75%. And Delhi’s pollution has reduced by a third since this clean and fast mode of transport began. But what makes the Rail extra special is that it’s testimony to how modern management techniques can combine with ancient Indian philosophies to build a truly efficient, ethical and empowered organization.
Continue reading "Change Management: Combining Management with Ancient Philosophy"Posted by Anupam Mukerji at 11:49 AM
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Leadership: Attitude is Contagious
Enthusiasm is contagious, as is laughter. The same could be said for the negative ways of being. Have you ever watched a few people at the coffee machine (the new version of water cooler talk) trying to outdo one another? “I have had the worst day”. (only to hear back) “If you think you had a bad day, just listen to what happened to me!” and so it goes….
As a Shadow Coach I always begin my partnership with a client by having a conversation. Years ago I might have done some assessments and in some cases, still do, but for the bulk of clients I work with, we go somewhere quiet to just talk. It’s amazing how their story emerges in conversation which gives me a wealth of information. This is the starting point and from there, as I work with them in the context of their worlds, I pick up the rest as it unfolds.
My clients become “Problem-free zones”. They make it very clear they are not a dumping ground for problems, rather they are a solution resource to help others work through issues and challenging situations. Last week I started working with a new client and arranged to meet her for a coffee to talk before beginning our sessions together. My first question to her was “What’s working really well?” She was flabbergasted! For a few minutes she didn’t know how to answer me. She was expecting me to ask what wasn’t working and instead we started talking about what was great. As her focus was on what was really good, she started recognizing the same in her staff. We implemented a “I caught you doing something good” policy in her division. Nothing like hearing that from your boss, right? Their collective attitude changed. They’re now speaking to the best in each other and getting more of it.
Staff gets to know me as I Shadow Coach my clients through the chaos of their days. No matter what’s happening, and often it’s global crises that we’re living through, there is always a spring to my step, a smile not far off and an energy that is tangible. That goes well beyond the moment in time. It’s also contagious.
Next time you find yourself complaining and negative, remember attitude is like a virus, not only contagious but reaches far beyond present company. Instead of negativity, spread the enthusiasm virus and see how much farther it gets you. Remember powerful people attract powerful people and whiners attract whiners. Which group do you want to be a part of?
Donna Karlin • Executive and Political Shadow Coach™ • Ottawa, Canada • •www.abetterperspective.com
Posted by Donna Karlin at 5:01 AM
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July 17, 2007
Careers: Personal Branding Instant Expert
Last week I wrote about how long it takes to become a true expert. Today, I want to look at the opposite side of the equation -- at how quickly it takes to become an instant expert. By instant expert, I mean someone who has a bit more experience than the next person and capitalizes on that. Think about all the bloggers you enjoy reading who were as well known as your Uncle Jim a few years ago and now are “must reads.”
As a fascinating article in the New York Times puts it:
“ A generation ago, you went to the doctor to find out about the pain in your knew; now you go to WebMD, diagnose it yourself and tell him what medicines you want. People used to trust stockbrokers and insurance agents; now they buy and sell at E*Trade and compare policies online. American voters who once looked to newspaper columnists for guidance on politics now blog their own idle punditry. Suddenly, experience is downright suspect.”
Calling it the “cult of the amateur,” the article reflects on the fact that inexperience has almost becoming a qualifier for a US presidential run.
Of course, the article is not advocating inexperience, which often masquerades as arrogance unshaped by judgment. But it is reflecting on the times – the fact that there is now unprecedented opportunity to brand yourself as an expert. Where else, for example, would a junior senator like Barack Obama with just a few years experience on the national scene be running for president? Where else can someone who was unknown last year suddenly become an expert in politics or marketing or podcasting?
Are you taking full advantage of this historic opportunity to brand yourself as an expert and expand your reach of influence? If you are doing just that, I’d love to hear your story.
Posted by Wendy Marx at 9:12 AM
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Work/Life: What About Bathroom/Life Balance?
CEO Dad’s Tuesday Tirade….
A TV channel in India is launching a new talent-contest/reality show in which they will attempt to discover people who are gifted at singing in the shower.
Of course, we all know that the reason we sing in the shower is that it has enough echo (not to mention the sound of running water) to mute our shortcomings as crooners. Still, I believe this very human pastime is an un-ahem-“tapped” source of work/life, ahem, “harmony.” You never hear the gurus on the PBS fund drives talking too much about it, but it seems logical that if one makes a commitment to at least two shower songs each morning, one’s outlook on the day would substantially improve. And with that improved outlook, you face your family with a more open heart, and can face the worries of the workday with aplomb. Carry that off-key belting-out of songs into the car during your commute, and by the time you’re at your job you’ll be rallying your co-workers like that guy with the straw hat in The Music Man.
In fact, why not treat the entire working day as a musical? The Monday morning meeting is West Side Story:
(TO THE TUNE OF “AMERICA”)
We need to work on our teamwork more!
Why don’t you work on your teamwork more?
Think of how much we need teamwork more!
Doughnuts and coffee help teamwork more!
The lunch meeting is Grease:
(TO THE TUNE OF “YOU’RE THE ONE THAT I WANT”)
You better shape up
Cause I’m getting lunch
Just to keep you on our side
We want your bucks
We want you on board
So the expense is justified
Have some bread, have some salad, have some fries
Cause you’re the one that we want!
You’re the one that we want!
The one we need
Oh yes indeed!
And the uncomfortable downsizing is Cats:
(TO THE TUNE OF “MEMORY”)
Midnight, what’s that sound from the pavement?
Why it’s you selling pencils
Cause you don’t have a job…
See, even the harshest sentiments go down easy when you sing. So start the day crooning in the bathroom, and watch your life improve. Meantime, anyone want to take bets on how soon American TV will pick up the singing-in-the-shower idea? “American Tile Idol?”
P.S.: Lyrics to other work-related songs welcome.
Posted by Tom Stern at 6:13 AM
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Careers: When HR Goes Too Far
While the streets of Madrid team with anti-globalization demonstrators, a multinational corporation pits seven candidates for a senior position through a cut-throat job selection process. The winner must be chosen by the end of the day no matter the cost.
This is the premise of a terrific Spanish movie called The Method (El Método), now in limited release (with subtitles) in the U.S.
This bold film starring Eduardo Noriega took several years to reach our shores and, after this brief distribution by Palm Pictures, will go to DVD on August 14th. The New York Times among others have compared it to Hollywood classics such as Twelve Angry Men.
Adapted from the stage, The Method mostly takes place in a conference room (with a couple of intriguing bathroom breaks); however, The Method might have been aptly called Survivor Madrid.
The candidates are put through a series of vicious tests based on the company's "Grönholm Method," requiring candidates to negotiate, compete, collaborate and then vote one another out of the room. No blood is spilled - this is a study of psychological violence. In the movie the MNC is portrayed as unethical - they even videotape candidates in the rest room.
Job interviews are a subject ripe for satire. In the real world it's not unusual for corporations to put a candidate through five or more hours of tedious job interviews - often facing the same questions each time. Those of you who have experienced the horrors of an intense job selection process - and would like some validation about your feelings - this is your movie.
Rusty Weston, My Global Career • San Francisco, Ca • http://www.myglobalcareer.com/ •
Posted by Rusty Weston at 2:27 AM
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July 16, 2007
Careers: Regulate Your Inner-Elephant
Glenn M. made a great point in response to my recent post about hiring rock star candidates. Being a rock star doesn’t mean you haven’t, or won’t, fail. In fact, as he pointed out, many of the most successful leaders in corporate America have failed, and sometimes failed big time before rising to the C-suite and beyond. Even the great Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple, was unceremoniously let go after lackluster results in the 80s. There are an infinite number of reasons why people fail on the job, but for this week’s entry and because it’s impossible to cover them all, I thought I’d focus on two common career killers for new employees with a little help and inspiration from Stanley Bing.
I know most of you are familiar with Bing and the Bing Blog. If you’re not, I encourage you to check him out. His site contains some great stuff (my favorite of which is the section on crazy bosses). He is also the author of the bestselling book Throwing the Elephant in which he calls upon ancient Zen philosophy to address the topic of managing up. But let’s not worry about throwing the elephant yet, instead, let’s focus on managing in; regulating your inner-elephant. Because, after all, when we start a new job, we’re going to make an impact on the organization in one way or another; that’s what makes us elephants. Which ones should you avoid behaving like if you want to start off on the right foot?
Mammoth Destructus. Many of you have either been, worked next to, or under, this species. This elephant is by far the most dangerous and typically leaves a path of devastation in its wake. You know the scenario. New employee joins a team and wants to make a name for his or herself but, instead of hanging back for a minute to get a feel for the politics of the organization, he or she just comes in with both barrels blazing. And once the damage is done, it can take years to reverse the damage.
I know we’re all anxious to make a great first impression and to climb the ranks, but the way you handle yourself the first week, first month, and first year on the job will often make or break you. People often have strong emotional attachments to projects they once owned, loyalty to the colleague you’re replacing, or can be just resistant to change. Before making sweeping changes, get to know your colleagues, the history of how and why things are done the way they are.
Elephantus Comparitus. Although never seen in the wild, this species constantly reminds fellow employees of the way things were done at a previous organization.
“When I was at (insert company here)”
“and that reminds me, when I was at…”
“You know, at…, we had all of the answers.”
Well guess what? You aren’t there anymore. And if you keep it up, you won’t be at your current job for long.
It’s great to come in as a new employee and share lessons learned from a previous job or company, but if you take things too far, people will shut down. If there’s one thing a herd of elephants doesn’t want to hear, it’s how great your old watering hole was. I’ve been guilty of this on more than one occasion. And in the interest of full disclosure, I should also mention that I went through a period as a Mammoth Destructus. Luckily, my colleagues were very patient with me and I found my way before I became extinct. Always be aware of your blind spots--the things others know about you that you don’t know about yourself. If you notice colleagues cringing following your hour-long litany of “helpful” recommendations or rolling their eyes when you bring up a previous employer, take their not-so-subtle hint.
Elephants, by their very nature, have an impact on their team and on their organization; some positive, some negative. Do you want to be an Elephantus Effectivus, someone who successfully navigates office politics, assimilates into the culture, gains the trust of colleagues, and, as a result, is able to secure buy-in for projects and ideas? OR are you going to risk career extinction by behaving like the elephants above?
Shawn Graham is an Associate Director with the MBA Career Management Center at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School and author of Courting Your Career: Match Yourself with the Perfect Job (courtingyourcareer.wordpress.com).
Posted by Shawn Graham at 5:19 PM
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Innovation: Age of Conversation
(Author Note: This post is partly about innovation, and partly about shameless self promotion)
Today marks the official release of Age of Conversation.
What is Age of Conversation? It is a precedent setting collaborative book-writing effort between 100+ bloggers and other new media types. It is a model for how information will be produced and shared in the future. Oh yeah, and its a book - something you can go online today and buy (with all proceeds going to charity) and get creative insights from the best minds in the new media space.
There is more information online at www.ageofconversation.com.
Keep reading for a little background on how it all came together:
Posted by Brian Reich at 9:26 AM
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July 15, 2007
Work/Life: Don't Talk About Kids to People Without Kids
Right at the outset, I'll do the politically correct thing and say, I've got nothing against kids.
In fact, I'd happily trade places with a lot of them right now: I'd get fed, watered and put to beddy-bye under duvet dotted with cotton tail bunnies with a gentle kiss; I'd get adored and cuddled when I least want it but that's OK, it's better than begging for it; I'd get driven around to a smorgasbord of expensive activities like soccer and baseball (remember when the school throw-the-beanbag P.E. session was free?); I'd get handed the latest iGizmo (some tots are already killing this blog entry on their iPhone) and told to go fly my Millenium Falcon XIII. I could smear jam all over my face and get called 'cute' rather than be committed. Oh to be a kid!
But if you want my business, or even friendship, then as one of the handful of people who don't have kids, please spare me the harping on about your kids, and see what turns up.
Posted by Lynette Chiang at 7:15 PM
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Technology: John Mackey & Blogging as a Web 2.0 Entry Point
The undercover online discussion board activity of Whole Foods' CEO John Mackey is already a great lesson in the challenges faced by corporations in a Web 2.0 communication environment and an excellent place to start my fresh emphasis on the business of blogging.
As a former Whole Foods employee who has deep issues with rich men who profit from progressive rhetoric, I'm viciously biting my tongue to focus on the useful takeaway rather than my very personal response. But I think this current drama is a strong example of how blogging can provide an entry point and focus for understanding Web 2.0 business communication.
Let's break this down and introduce some of the practical aspects of business and blogging that I will pursue in greater detail over time.
Continue reading "Technology: John Mackey & Blogging as a Web 2.0 Entry Point"Posted by Clyde Smith at 11:36 AM
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July 13, 2007
Leadership: The Boss and The Real Boss
I recently went to the far-away province of Ontario, Canada to a small island called Barrie Island. I have done this all of my life, as has my mother, as had her father. Now my sisters and I torture the fourth generation of our family, our children, with the same trek. It takes two days, three modes of transportation and 18 hours of driving, with the reward that once you get there, you will be in the middle of no-where, in a log cabin, with just each other, for eight days.
Continue reading "Leadership: The Boss and The Real Boss"Posted by Grace Andrews at 9:19 AM
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Work/Life: Friday the 13th: When Work Superstitions Attack!
With the aid of a little Googling, it wasn’t hard to find references to superstitions in the workplace. There was a guy who claimed his whole day went wrong after he broke his lucky mug. Another woman said was nearly fired after misplacing her magic ballpoint pen. Still another man has aced every interview he has ever had while wearing a tie bearing the logo of his favorite baseball team.
The medical profession has its own walking-under-ladders moments (apparently, hospital staff are not allowed to say that things are looking “quiet,” or “slow,” for this will guarantee an onslaught of major trauma cases), but only the acting profession has thought to devise different ways of saying the things you are not supposed to say. Some of you may be familiar with the fact that it is bad luck to utter the title of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and that it must only be referred to in the theater as “the Scottish play” or “the Scottish tragedy.” And I’ll bet most of us make use of a very common acting term “break a leg” to mean “good luck,” a phrase that is, apparently, bad luck for the acting profession.
While it’s a slippery slope to claim that we have anything to learn from actors, I would suggest that they might be onto something with this substitute-phrasing thing. To that end, here are a few suggestions, for both work and life that might take the jinx out of certain things we say:
IN THE WORKPLACE
“How was your weekend?” only opens up the possibility that one’s weekend was actually lousy, or that none of the exciting things one had wanted to do with their time off were accomplished. To take the edge off, this phrase will be replaced with “I see you’re still alive!”
“Can I see you in my office?” Taking a cue from the “break a leg” lesson, which puts a bad spin on a positive phrase to reverse the curse, all requests for time alone in the boss’s office will be requested with the words “Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here.”
Starting today, the words “productivity,” “synergy” and the phrase “outside the box” will be replaced with the single term “bull.”
AT HOME
“Have you seen the remote?” should make the swift transition to “try not to hate me.”
“You can watch TV when you’ve finished your homework” is too direct for the confrontational mind of the adolescent. Again, using the reverse effect, try “Life is a beautiful flowing river with bouncing happy bunnies all along its banks.” With luck, the child will be so confused that they will bend to your will.
Finally, as Macbeth is to be called “the Scottish tragedy,” the phrase “quality time” must not be spoken. Instead, you can say, “you’re in my Blackberry, baby.”
Anyone else got some little-known workplace superstitions, or suggestions for taking the curse off other common phrases?
Posted by Tom Stern at 6:29 AM
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July 12, 2007
Innovation: Keep 'Em Flying
There's no future in flight if planes have no place to park.
Yet that's exactly the future we face, with 14 U.S. airports and eight metropo