Authentic leadership can be bad leadership too !

 

APRIL 07, 2011 Thursday 3 Steps to Changing Offensive Behavior Being authentic is not an excuse for being a jerk. Yes, we all have bad habits that feel innate, but don't claim "that's just the way I work" when your behavior hurts or impairs others' progress. Instead, face the truth and find ways to change your bad behavior: Find out what others think. You may not know what your worst habits are. Ask a trusted colleague what is difficult about working with you. Listen carefully, do not try to respond, explain, justify, or defend. Find an alternative. Next time you have the urge to misbehave, what will you do instead? Make a promise to your team or peers to act differently. Pay the price. Commit to a consequence for breaking your promise. Make sure it has a cost to you but is also constructive. Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Authentic Leadership Can Be Bad Leadership" by Deborah Gruenfeld and Lauren Zander.

Turn down the volume on yelling

 

MAY 06, 2011 Friday Stop the Shouting Matches You don't have to raise your voice to appear to be yelling. There are many ways to inaudibly be aggressive: sending nasty emails, enlisting others to exert pressure, and escalating disputes to your boss, to name a few. Yelling, even when done quietly, betrays your frustration and anger, and certainly doesn't encourage real understanding or acceptance of your message. If you find yourself in a silent shouting match, restart and reframe the discussion. Take a step back and ask the other party to as well. Work backwards by asking questions like: What are our shared goals? What do we want to accomplish? From this defused spot, you have a much better chance of making progress. Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Turn Down the Volume on Yelling!" by Ron Ashkenas.

3 tips in the fine art of delegating !

 

MAY 09, 2011 Monday

3 Steps to Choosing what to Delegate

Delegation is both a critical skill that successful managers must demonstrate, and one often neglected by overworked managers. Here are three steps to decide what can come off your plate: Identify tasks only you can do. Take a look at your workload and identify tasks, projects, or functions that require your specific skills or level of authority. Sort the rest. Take a look at everything else on your list and determine what others can easily do, what requires coaching for others to do, and what needs outsourcing. Keep what makes you happy. Don't give away the things that you most enjoy even if others can do them. Delegation should increase your job satisfaction, not detract from it.

Today's Management Tip was adapted from the Harvard ManageMentor module, "Delegating."

End moday morning blues

 

APRIL 22, 2011 End the Sunday Blues If you spend Monday through Friday doing what you have to do and Saturday and Sunday doing what you enjoy, Sunday nights can be a real downer. Instead of getting anxious about going back to work, find ways to make the weekend last all week: Find purpose. Work holds little worth if you don't believe what you do matters. Almost all organizations create some social value. Don't get lost in the humdrum; look up and remember that what you do has a purpose. Stop the meaningless tasks. Mind-numbing activities can make work torturous. Look out for tasks that don't add value and stop doing them. Keep it fun. Work doesn't have to be boring. Look for opportunities to engage in friendly competition or make your work more social. Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Make the Weekend Last All Week" by Ron Ashkenas.

USA home ownership returns

 

	MAY 09, 2011 Monday  ROI on Homes is Zilch Over Past 35 Years Even though the real rate of return of the U.S. national house price index was 1.3% from 1975 to 2009, the real rate of return on a typical home was below zero (–0.575%) over that period. That's assuming a 2.5% annual depreciation rate, a 1.5% property-tax rate, a 7% mortgage interest rate, and a 25% marginal income tax rate, according to Wenli Li and Fang Yang, writing in the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Business Review and quoted in Monthly Labor Review. "The case for trying to achieve a nation of homeowners needs to be rethought," the authors say. Source: The costs of homeownership

Over qualified job applicant, a golden goose

 

MAY 10, 2011 Tuesday Don't Be Afraid to Hire that Overqualified Candidate For years, the prevailing wisdom on overqualified candidates was to avoid them. But bringing in someone who has more skills or experience than the job requires can have many benefits for you and your organization. Don't narrowly define the hiring process as finding one person for one role. Instead, think broader than the job in question. Is there room to expand the position? Shaping a new role, or bringing someone on with the expectation of a future promotion can ensure you don't lose a promising applicant who doesn't match the job description perfectly, yet still has lots to offer. Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Should You Hire an Overqualified Candidate?" by Amy Gallo.

Network for quality, not just numbers !

 

MAY 11, 2011 Wednesday Network for Quality, Not Quantity If you were to take the advice of some self-help books on networking, you would amass as many Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections as possible. But research shows that bigger networks are not necessarily better. In fact, large networks can hurt your performance by putting too many collaborative demands on you. The people who network successfully tend to have more ties to people who are not very connected themselves. People with connections to the less-connected are more likely to hear about ideas that haven't gotten exposure elsewhere, and are able to piece together unique opportunities. Don't treat networking like a popularity contest. Find ways to connect with more than the usual suspects by reaching out to those who aren't surrounded by others. Today's Management Tip was adapted from "The Most Valuable People in Your Network" by Rob Cross.

Empathy when team mates fail

 

MAY 13, 2011 Friday  When Others Fail, Just Empathize When people fail at work, your instinct may be to go into problem-solving mode. You search out reasons for the failure, try to figure out how to avoid it in the future, and draw out the lessons to be learned. But when people who have failed are in the depths of despair, they need empathy more than your rationalizations and encouragements about the future. A concerned response is not only compassionate but productive. Empathy communicates trust, and people perform best when they feel trusted. Next time one of your people falls short, listen. Don't interrupt, don't offer advice, don't say that it will be all right. Just reflect back what you hear them say. There will be time to solve the problem later. Today's Management Tip was adapted from "The Right Way to Respond to Failure" by Peter Bregman.

2 tips to do To Do Lists !

 

MAY 16, 2011 Monday  2 Tips for Making To-Do Lists that Work For some people, to-do lists are life savers; they keep them organized and on task. For others, they're useless pieces of paper to ignore as they grow longer and longer. Next time you sit down to write a to-do list (or decide to face up to an existing one), follow these two tips: Break it down. To-dos are not the same as goals or projects. Only include specific tasks that move a project toward completion. If a to-do list item is too large to get done in one step, break it down further. Include specifics. Help your future self out by including details that will make doing the task easier. Instead of "Get in touch with Julie," try "Call Julie about next task force meeting at 555-5555." Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Guide to Getting the Right Work Done."

"The Strategic Pivot: Rules for Entrepreneurs and Other Innovators"

 MAY 17, 2011, Tuesday

3 Ways to Help Your Company Shift Courses

A sudden shift in strategic direction can transform a mediocre business idea into a winning one. This kind of pivot may be obvious in hindsight, but re-evaluating your strategy when you're deep in it isn't an easy task. Here are three ways to prime your organization for the shift you may need to make:

(1) Keep an idea compost pile.

 When ideas fail and customers aren't happy, don't assume you've failed. Recycle: mine these old ideas for new ones.

(2) Build a customer-focused culture, not a product-focused one. 

If your team is wedded to the product, it will stand in the way of a necessary shift. Instead, focus on pleasing your customers and giving them what they want.

(3) Don't limp along. 

Even if your venture isn't in danger of failing, don't settle for mediocrity. Look for the innovation that will raise your game.

 adapted from "The Strategic Pivot: Rules for Entrepreneurs and Other Innovators" by Caroline O'Connor and Perry Klebahn

New MBA s and good ethical standards

 

MAY 17, 2011 Tuesday New MBAs Would Sacrifice Pay for Ethics 88.3% of graduating MBA students say they'd take a pay cut to work for firms that have ethical business practices, and the average amount they'd forgo is $8,087, according to a survey of 759 students in North America and Europe. The researchers, David B. Montgomery of Stanford University and Catherine A. Ramus of the University of California, Santa Barbara, suggest that the finding should be seen by the public as a hopeful sign for the management profession. Source: Calibrating MBA Job Preferences for the 21st Century

Business Ethics for freshers

 

MAY 25, 2011 Wednesday Behave Ethically by Respecting Others There has been a lot of debate in the past few years about what is ethical in business. There are certainly gray areas, but recognizing that your actions impact others is the first step toward ethical behavior. Here are two rules to consider when trying to do what's right: Help others while respecting their dignity. Offering assistance to colleagues is ethical. But, no matter how intended, the offer could come off as patronizing. Balance your desire to help with their need for self-respect. Remember you are responsible to others. No one exists in isolation and while American work culture may emphasize individual achievement, remember that you rely on, impact, and collaborate with others. Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Students Teach Business Ethics" by John Paul Rollert.

Perils of Townhall meeting

 

MAY 18, 2011 Wednesday

Makeover Your All Staff Meeting

When executives want to communicate important messages or engage employees, they hold town hall or all hands meetings. Gathering everyone together is meant to convey the importance of the topic and get the biggest bang for your communication buck. Yet, employees often rank these meetings as some of the least effective. Don't give up on bringing everyone together. Instead, give your all staff meeting a makeover. Make your message resonate by explaining what's in it for everyone. Forego the PowerPoint presentation in lieu of a more personal communication. Make the conversation two-way and engage your people in a discussion. Lastly, don't hog the stage. Even charismatic leaders can sound like broken records. Staff often want to hear from others in leadership for a fresh perspective.

Today's Management Tip was adapted from "The Perils of the All-Employee Meeting" by Amy Jen Su and Muriel Maignan Wilkins.

how to create an effective, non profit mission statement

 

MAY 20, 2011 Friday Spend Time on Your Mission Statement An effective mission statement is a strategy: it must be a clear description of where the organization is headed in the future that distinctly sets it apart from others. Developing a mission statement shouldn't be a quick wordsmithing exercise. As much time and energy should be devoted to writing a mission statement as is to creating a sales and profit budget. And the process should involve the staff and the board to ensure that everyone embraces the organization's strategic direction and is willing to be held accountable for it. Today's Management Tip was adapted from "How to Create an Effective Non-Profit Mission Statement" by Francis Pandolfi.

stop micro managing

 Manage- Without Micromanaging ! ( wed 25 May 2011 ) 

-------------------------------

Both new and experienced managers can struggle with how be involved in their employees' work without micromanaging.

You want to be hands-on and provide support, but still give them autonomy to make decisions.

There are two stages where it makes sense to engage more deeply:
preparation and review.

(a) When the employee is laying out the plans for her work, your role is to ask crucial questions:
Who should be involved?
How does this fit into your goals?
These conversations will assure you the employee is prepared and ready to act on her own.

(b) When the project is complete, do a post-action review. Reflect on what worked, what didn't, and what the employee learned.
There's NO NEED  to get involved in between ( that is, DURING work is in progress ! )  unless (1) the employee is a fresher  or (2) problems arise in the middle , unexpectedly ! 

Time Management for busy managers

 

JUNE 08, 2011 Wednesday

Treat Every Task as Three Steps, Not One

Most managers complain of not having enough time. They rush through tasks so they can move on to the next thing. But this kind of haste creates more chaos than it avoids. Instead, approach every task in three parts: Prep-Do-Review. Spend a minute or two, or even a few seconds, thinking about what you're going to do before you do it. Ask yourself what you're trying to accomplish and who should be involved. Then, do the task. Once completed, think about what you did and what happened. What did you learn? What will you do differently? Being thoughtful allows you to accomplish more with each task. You may not be crossing things off your to-do list faster, but you'll find you have more control over the results.

Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Better Time Management Is Not the Answer" by Linda Hill & Kent Lineback.

"Solving the Rubik's Cube of Organizational Structure"

JUNE 03, 2011 Friday 

Save Your Company from Reorg Misery

In response to less than stellar results, many managers overhaul the team, unit, or organization. While reorgs give the appearance of action, they often create unnecessary complexity and dysfunction. Here are three ways to make your organization work the way it is:

(1) Analyze the current structure.

 Ask yourself whether the problem is structure or how you're managing it. Most organizations work if leaders set the right goals, hold people accountable, and streamline processes.

(2) Don't compensate for personalities. 

Don't design an organization around personalities. Instead of accommodating people, help them do the jobs they are slated to do.

(3) Align structure with strategy. 

Many leaders allow strategies to evolve without doing the same for the structure of their organizations. Don't hang on to an arrangement just because it worked in the past. Be willing to change when it's required.

 adapted from "Solving the Rubik's Cube of Organizational Structure" by Ron Ashkenas.

Democratic leadership instead of directive

 

JUNE 09, 2011 Thursday  Share a Hypothesis Instead of a Directive While it's your job as a leader to set the direction for your team, unit, or organization, being overly commanding deprives your people of a sense of ownership. Next time you sit down with your team, instead of saying, "This is my view about where the project should head," try proposing a hypothesis. You can say, "Here's my tentative view of the path we should take, but I could be wrong." Then encourage your team to disagree with you. Of course, you must be willing to discard or modify your hypothesis if someone comes up with a better solution. This approach will encourage debate and give people permission to voice concerns. Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Managing Yourself: Extreme Productivity" by Robert C. Pozen.

Air pollution and stock market returns in the USA

 

JUNE 08, 2011

Stock Returns Are Negative When Air Is Bad

Average daily returns on stock indexes for days with unhealthy air-pollution levels range from −0.45% to −0.26%, while on good days, returns are positive, ranging from 0.04% to 0.06%, according to Tamir Levy of Netanya Academic College and Joseph Yagil of Haifa University, both in Israel. Air pollution affects mood, which affects stock prices, the researchers say.

Source: Air pollution and stock returns in the US

Chinese button industry

 

JULY 20, 2011 Wednesday

Where Your Buttons Come From

China's button industry, started by two brothers in 1978, now accounts for 65% of world button production and has progressed from imitator to innovator, with foreign operators frequently visiting the "Button City" of Qiaotou in quest of new materials and designs. A study led by Rajah Rasiah of the University of Malaya found 26 companies there with exports exceeding 10 million yuan each. Button workers' monthly wages have risen from 200 yuan in 1980 to 1,000 yuan in 2008.

Source: Moving up in the global value chain in button manufacturing in China

Daily study of task completion at work

 

JULY 19, 2011 Tuesday

96 Minutes of Daily Interruptions

A diary study of employees at a multinational company found that just 73% of R&D engineers' planned tasks, on average, were completed by the end of the work day. 58% of the engineers cited interruptions as the reason for leaving tasks incomplete, and their reported daily interruptions (such as colleagues asking questions) averaged 96 minutes. Although urgent tasks tended to be completed, the researchers, led by Brigitte J.C. Claessens of Technische Universiteit Eindhoven in the Netherlands, found that less-important tasks were somewhat more likely to be completed than more-important tasks.

Source: Things to Do Today...: A Daily Diary Study on Task Completion at Work

Competent Management

 

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JULY 19, 2011 Tuesday  Grant the Right to Competent Management If an employee's success is intricately linked to how good his boss is, shouldn't everyone have the right to competent management? Give your direct reports what they deserve by being a boss who is the following three things: Trustworthy. Trust is grounded in competence and character. You should know what to do and how to do it. And, you should always do what you say you will. Influential. Your people rely on others to get their jobs done. Therefore, you need to cultivate relationships with those beyond your immediate group who make your people productive. Team-focused. A good boss knows that a team is better than the sum of its parts. To bring your group together, give them a compelling purpose, clear goals and plans, and a culture of "we" not "I." Today's Management Tip was adapted from "The Right to Management Competence" by Linda Hill & Kent Lineback.

Doing biz with friends, a few things to remember

 

JUNE 10, 2011 Friday  Don't Mix Business with Pleasure Working with friends can be fun. But to keep these relationships smooth, you need to follow a few rules. First and foremost, never send a business email disguised as a friendly "hey, how are you?" Conversely, if you're reaching out as a friend, don't talk shop. Maintain a healthy separation between business and your personal lives. When you do need to reach out to a friend about business, do it under separate cover. Send a friendly email asking about her new job and her kids and give her a heads up that you are going to contact her separately about the proposal you discussed. That way, she can forward your professional message onto colleagues without all of the personal details in it. It's important to be both sociable and professional. But with friends, keep those things distinct. Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Stop Mixing Business with Pleasure" by Jodi Glickman.

Effects of Chartered High schools on Educational Attainments

 

JUNE 13, 2011 Monday

Charter Schools Give Students a Boost

Students who attended a charter middle school and then went to a charter high school were 7 to 15 percentage points more likely to earn a standard diploma and 8 to 10 percentage points more likely to attend college than students who went from the charter middle school to a traditional public high school, according to a study in two U.S. states led by Kevin Booker of Mathematica Policy Research. The reasons for the differences are unclear, but expanding school choices may help promote college attendance, the researchers say.

Source: The Effects of Charter High Schools on Educational Attainment

R Biz schools in USA creating narcissistic young gen ?

 

JUNE 16, 2011 Thursday

Business Students Score Higher on Narcissism

Undergraduate business students scored significantly higher than psychology students on a widely used measure of narcissism (17.67 versus 15.19 on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory) in a study led by James W. Westerman of Appalachian State University. Although many jobs today require managers to be interpersonally skilled, "our future business leaders appear to be even more self-absorbed and entitled" than students in other disciplines, the researchers say.

Source: Are Universities Creating Millennial Narcissistic Employees?

Avoid 3 traps in sales forecasting & budgeting

 

JUNE 06, 2011 Monday 

Avoid 3 Traps of Performance Management

Few performance assessment systems measure what really matters: current and future performance. Here are three of the biggest sins when it comes to measuring your organization, and how to avoid them:

(1) Focusing only on you.

 Don't compare your company to itself; you need to know how you are doing relative to competitors. If this data is not easy to come by, bring in an outside expert or ask customers for their perspectives.

(2) Focusing only on the past.

 Beating last year's numbers is not the point. The numbers need to tell you whether the decisions you make today will pay off in the future.

(3) Focusing only on the numbers.

 Numbers never tell you the full sstory. Enhance quantitative data with sophisticated, qualitative assessments that give you the human side of the story.

 adapted from "Guide to Finance Basics for Managers."

Zen & the art of vendor development

 JUNE 07, 2011 Tuesday

3 Rules for Choosing the Right IT Vendor

When an IT project has enterprise-wide ramifications, you can't afford to change vendors mid-stream, or worse, start over from scratch. Here are three rules to get vendor selection right the first time:

(1) Don't make choices based on relationships.

 Be as objective as possible. Remember that relationships can cloud your judgment.

(2) Test for capability. 

Just because a company handled one type of project, don't assume it can handle a different one. If necessary, visit companies that have received the specific services you are looking for the vendor to deliver.

(3) Complete the formal specification before work starts. 

Be wary of "specify as you go" models; they can add significant cost and time to the project.

adapted from "I Broke All Six Rules for Finding the Right IT Vendor" by Robert Plant.

Break Silo culture

 

JUNE 17, 2011 Friday You Can Prevent Silo Thinking If you do your job well, and everyone else does their jobs well, everyone succeeds, right? Wrong. In fact, in any organization, it's not only important that everyone do what they are supposed to — everyone also needs to work together. Don't let a silo mentality take over your company. Recognize that you are all responsible for each other's work and if there is a problem anywhere in the organization, everyone fails. Refuse to allow people to go to their separate corners. Encourage people to meet regularly to share what they are learning. Have the courage to call out when one part of the organization is struggling and find a way to fix it together. Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Solving Your Organization's Open-Faced Sandwich" by Peter Bregman.

Stay at home fathers as parents

 

JUNE 17, 2011

U.S. Dads More Open to Staying Home with Kids

Although only 1 in 20 American fathers took more than two weeks off from work after their most recent children were born, men seem increasingly comfortable with the role of stay-at-home dad, according to a survey of nearly 1,000 fathers by the Boston College Center for Work & Family. 53% of fathers responding to the survey said they would consider not working outside the home if this option were financially feasible. Fathers who spend more time with their children report having more confidence as parents, the researchers say.

Source: National survey finds today's "new dad" caring, committed and conflicted about finding work-life fit

Investment & Finance basics for managers

 JUNE 20, 2011 Monday 

Know the 6 Steps in Cost/Benefit Analysis

We all know we should make an investment when the benefits outweigh the costs, but few people understand what really goes into the analysis. Here are the six steps:

(1) Understand the cost of status quo. 

You need this to measure the relative merit of an investment against the "do nothing" option.

(2) Identify costs.

 Consider up-front costs as well as any in future years.

(3) Identify benefits. 

Ascertain what additional revenue will come in from the investment.

(4) Determine the cost savings.

 What can you stop doing if you make this investment?

(5) Create a timeline for expected costs and revenue.

 Map out when the costs and benefits will occur and how much they will be.

(6) Evaluate non-quantifiable benefits and costs. 

Assess whether there are intangible benefits such as strengthening your firm's position with distributors, or costs such as creating unnecessary complexity.

 adapted from "Guide to Finance Basics for Managers."

nervous negotiators sell for less !

 

JUNE 22, 2011 Wednesday

Anxiety Makes You a Worse Negotiator

The prospect of negotiating often causes anxiety, and anxiety puts people at a disadvantage. Anxious negotiators made initial offers that were 7.5% lower on average than those from nonanxious participants, says a study by Alison Wood Brooks and Maurice E. Schweitzer of the Wharton School. Negotiators might be able to improve their performance by engaging in simulations and other activities to reduce anxiety, the authors say. Source: Can Nervous Nelly negotiate? How anxiety causes negotiators to make low first offers, exit early, and earn less profit

Business writing - 3 tips

 JUNE 14, 2011 Tuesday 

3 Rules for Making Your Writing Clear ! 

In business writing, you get points for clarity, not style. Instead of trying to wax poetic about your division's plans for the next 60 days, just make your point. Here are 3 ways to do that:

(1) One idea per paragraph. 

Novels hold several complex ideas and emotions in a single paragraph. In business writing, limit your thoughts to one per paragraph. When you have another suggestion, thought or idea, start a new paragraph.

(2) Put your point in the first sentence.

 Don't entice your readers with background information and build-up. No one has time for that. Make your primary point first. Then go into supporting detail.

(3) Make it "scannable."

 Few people read every word in an email. Use headers and bullet points so that your audience can quickly scan your message and understand your point.

adapted from "How to Succeed in Business Writing: Don't Be Dickens" by David Silverman.

Flexibility in public speaking

 

JUNE 15, 2011 Wednesday  Prepare Your Speech, but Be Ready to Change It Many people prepare for speeches by writing out the full text of their remarks and rehearsing to get the words exactly right. This often means you end up delivering a speech exactly as you wrote it, even if the audience isn't responsive. Speaking is different than writing. You need to connect with your listeners. Prepare for your next speaking engagement by jotting down a list of four or five brief, key points and a concluding paragraph. Then arrive early enough to talk with people before your speech. This allows you to grasp the mood of the audience and tailor your points to its state of mind. Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Managing Yourself: Extreme Productivity" by Robert C. Pozen.

Does scarcity really stimulation innovation ?

 

JUNE 16, 2011 Thursday  Use Constraint to Instigate Innovation Scarcity seems to have replaced necessity as the mother of invention in today's organizations. Far too many managers believe that depriving projects of resources will inspire innovation. While that's true sometimes, you're better off using constraints rather than starvation. The human brain reacts to stimuli, so while a blank sheet can terrify, one or two constraints can stimulate. Experiment with introducing a clearly defined problem and an urgent need. But, don't create false urgency by refusing to fund a project. The team you are asking to innovate shouldn't have to waste its creative energy scrambling to find resources. Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Necessity, not Scarcity, is the Mother of Invention" by Teresa Amabile and Steve Kramer.