#Leadership : Follow the 70-20-10 Model to Train Your Employees … Only 32% of Employees in the U.S. are Engaged, Involved in, Enthusiastic about & Committed to their Work & Workplace, according to Recent Surveys by Gallup. That means More than Two-Thirds of Employees are Not Engaged.

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Today’s rapidly evolving workplace requires employees to constantly upgrade their skills. They must be equipped to find knowledge quickly, be proficient with technology and be able to interact and collaborate using a variety of communication tools.

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The new reality of training is the 70-20-10 model, in which learners get 70 percent of their knowledge from job-related experiences, 20 percent from interactions with others and 10 percent from formal educational events.

Forward-thinking training initiatives can help employees be successful in a rapidly evolving environment. Yet many companies continue to use old-school training methods that have failed to keep pace with major trends affecting the workplace.

A survey by Boston Consulting Group found that companies spend tens of billions of dollars globally each year to train employees, but the money often is wasted because “the training is not geared to drive business results.” It also discovered that business leadership training and talent development often overlook frontline leaders, who create value for customers and that the training employees do receive often doesn’t have a meaningful impact on business results.

According to “The Impact of Employee Engagement on Performance,” a 2013 report by Harvard Business Review Analytical Services, having a highly engaged workforce “not only maximizes a company’s investment in human capital and improves productivity, but it can also significantly reduce costs, such as turnover, that directly impact the bottom line.”

 

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Yet only about 32 percent of employees in the U.S. are engaged, involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace, according to recent surveys by Gallup. That means more than two-thirds of employees are not engaged.

Meanwhile, Millennials and Gen Xers are a growing majority of the workforce. Millennials last year surpassed Gen X as the largest cohort of the U.S. labor force.

These trends are driving many companies to take a hard look at costly, ineffective and time-consuming traditional training – the kind involving daylong workshops and “death by Powerpoint” presentations. Today’s employees want opportunities for on-demand, on-the-job training and feedback.

Progressive companies are opting for a more immersive, interactive and ongoing training approach that typically involves technology. Toward this purpose, many are utilizing microlearning – delivering training content in a bite-sized, on-demand format.

Microlearning can include anything from simple methods, such as directing employees to research topics online and reporting what they discover, to customized digital libraries that offer leaders and employees on-demand access to a constantly evolving set of topics.

Companies that utilize microlearning effectively focus on providing rich content in a variety of formats so learners can focus on the right knowledge and skills in multiple ways. Here are some tips for building more agile, effective and efficient training.

Offer flexible options.
Learners are no longer tied to their laptop or PC. They use Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and other social media networks to get information. Give them specific skill-building content they can use in a moment of need via social media or other online tools.

Provide both short and long learning opportunities.
These can range from a 30-second video available on their phones, focusing on a specific job challenge, to in-depth e-learning courses and one-on-one coaching.

Make it practical and interactive.
Effective training shows employees the connection between what they are being asked to do and why. It should connect them with the specific skills and information they need to do their jobs, and give them opportunities to learn, practice and get feedback.

Make it social, and fun.
Including a social element that involves community sharing and learning, and perhaps gaming elements, will intrigue learners to return frequently.

The new reality of training is the 70-20-10 model, in which learners get 70 percent of their knowledge from job-related experiences, 20 percent from interactions with others and 10 percent from formal educational events.

I expect interactive, on-demand, on-the-job learning solutions will remain critical to helping companies remain agile and adapt to rapidly changing business environments, though the form of these solutions will undoubtedly continue to evolve. Be open to experimenting with new modalities to ensure learners get what they need.

 

Entrepreneur.com | July 5, 2016 | Amy Fox

Your #Career : 7 Face-to-Face Networking Mistakes That Could Kill Your Professional Image…While Face-to-Face Networking can result in Prospects(Jobs) Gravitating to you, it also Holds the Potential to Drive Them in the Opposite Direction. Could your Networking Habits be Turning Off other Professionals & Causing you to Lose Out on Business(Job) Opportunities?

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Despite all the online ways to link up with potential clients, I still believe making in-person connections needs to be a part of every business person’s networking regimen. When you’re face-to-face with people, you can form bonds more easily because they get a more complete picture of who you are through your voice, body language, and appearance.

networking

That’s powerful and wonderful … unless you get careless.

While face-to-face networking can result in prospects gravitating to you, it also holds the potential to drive them in the opposite direction. Could your networking habits be turning off other professionals and causing you to lose out on business opportunities?

Avoid these networking no-nos:

1. Interrupting conversations. “How rude!” That’s what I think when someone walks up without apology and interrupts a conversation I’m having with another person.  Although discussions won’t typically be too in-depth at networking events, it’s still in bad taste to cut off conversations between others.

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2. Practicing the “hard sell.” Want a surefire way to make connections eager to avoid you? Then push your products and services right from the start when meeting them. Doing so makes you appear aggressive as well as desperate—definitely not the impression you want to make!

3. Complaining. Remember, you’re there to connect with other professionals. While commenting on the venue location, décor, hors d’oeuvres, or other amenities can help ease you into a dialogue with someone, it can have a negative impact if your words are uncomplimentary. Others might perceive you as snide and ungracious.

4. Being all “me, me, me” and not taking an interest in others. Sure, you’re doing great things and everyone should know more about that. But you’ll do yourself a greater service if you forgo making yourself the center of attention and instead listen to what others have to share about their businesses. By asking open-ended questions and turning a keen ear to their needs, you can assess whether or not they may be a viable prospect. And then later you can follow up to share more about what you can offer them.

5. Having a few too many cocktails. Woot! Yes, networking functions often come in the form of mixers with a bit of a party atmosphere. But I’ve seen otherwise polished professionals turn into hot messes because they didn’t control their alcohol consumption at events.

6. Speaking ill of someone else in the room or about your clients. No, no, no. Don’t EVER do this. You never know who knows whom. Need I say more?

Despite all the online ways to link up with potential clients, I still believe making in-person connections needs to be a part of every business owner’s networking regimen. When you’re face-to-face with people, you can form bonds more easily because they get a more complete picture of who you are through your voice, body language, and appearance.

That’s powerful and wonderful … unless you get careless.

7. Dressing like you don’t care. Although many networking events are relatively casual, take care not to go too far with the informality. If you’re not sure what the dress code is, I recommend erring on the side of slightly overdressed. Worst-case scenario will be that you look a tad more professional than everyone else. No one will think less of you for that.

Done with attention to making a first-rate first impression, face-to-face networking can open doors to lasting professional relationships. Put your best, most engaging you out there every time—and take care to avoid networking missteps that could turn off prospective customers.

While face-to-face networking can result in prospects gravitating to you, it also holds the potential to drive them in the opposite direction. Could your networking habits be turning off other professionals and causing you to lose out on business opportunities?

 

Forbes.com | July 5, 2016 | Nellie Akalp, Contributor

 

 

Your #Career : 6 Things You Should Never Tell Human Resources…HR Reps want to Help you Out, But only IF it’s for the Good of the Company Where you’re Employed.

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Human resources managers can be great people to know. If your company has employee assistance programs, they’ll hook you up. If you need help filling out disability paperwork or you’d like to know more about your salary and benefits, they’re the people you want to befriend.

HR rep Toby from The Office

But HR reps have a unique position in the company. One of their main job roles is to support employees and help them through any rough spots, but they also are employed by the company first. In other words, they’ll want to help you out, but only if it’s for the good of the company where you’re employed.

“A good many HR pros go into this as a career path because they are passionate about helping people. But remember, the HR department’s job is to retain a highly-skilled and productive workforce. Anything that demonstrates you are not going to live up to this goal, including anything you disclose that could potentially be harmful to the company, is subject to their discretionary action,” wrote Tess C. Taylor, a human resources expert at PayScale.

In most cases, you won’t (and shouldn’t) have a relationship with your HR rep that’s as filled with animosity as The Office‘s Michael Scott and Toby Flenderson. But still, there are reasons you also can’t be best buddies. Here are six things you’re probably better off not mentioning.

1. “I found a second job at night.”

As an addition to this, “moonlighting” shouldn’t enter your vocabulary if you’re in the HR office. You might really need the extra cash, and you might be keeping that second job completely separate from your main position. But even so, it will make your HR rep question your commitment to your full-time gig, human resources expert Susan M. Heathfield wrote for About.com. “They become concerned that you may be job searching because the current job either doesn’t pay for your living expenses or you need additional challenges,” she said.

If this is the case, you’re more likely to be passed over for promotions, and if you are late or unavailable for certain projects, your HR rep will likely blame it on the second job, whether that’s accurate or not.

If your company requires you to disclose second jobs in your employee contract, don’t try to hide it — that will likely be worse for you. But make sure when you have that discussion, you’re able to give specifics about your availability, and stress that this job comes first. Discuss the second job as little as possible, suggests U.S. News & World Report, focusing instead on how you’ll continue to excel at the one paying for your benefits.

 

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2. “Please don’t tell … “

In many cases, what you tell your HR rep will remain confidential. But a good rule of thumb is that if you’re discussing something illegal going on in your company, or you’ve been harassed or assaulted in any way, it won’t stay quiet for long. In many of those situations, HR will have a legal requirement to report wrongdoing.

In addition, expect anything you say to your HR rep to get back to your boss eventually. “HR works in that difficult space between employees and management, and must act on serious issues they learn about, whether you want them to act or not. Go to HR for help in solving problems, but not as a substitute for a best friend or neighbor,” Bruce Clarke, president and CEO of CAI, a human resource management firm, told CBS.

3. “My FMLA leave was the best vacation yet.”

Chances are, if you were helping a sick family member or your first child just arrived and you were on paternal leave, you couldn’t say this honestly anyway. But don’t come back to the office focused on your previous time off — come back and talk with HR about how to move forward. Otherwise, they’ll question your commitment, and you’ll stunt your chances of moving upward.

“You don’t want to dwell on why you took any leave (parental or otherwise) because it’s not relevant, and you want to move on to what’s relevant” — like how your skills and experience can continue helping the company, Caroline Ceniza-Levine told CBS.

What’s more, don’t start your extended paternal leave by telling your HR rep you’re thinking about making it a full-time gig. You might find yourself reassigned to less-desirable projects — or a less amenable office — when you return, even if you come back knowing you’d like to stay in the workforce. It’s happened before.

4. “I slept with … “

Maybe kissing and telling is your thing. If it is, save it for your buddies at the bar — not the HR office. This is the case even if it’s an in-office relationship — especially if it was with someone you work with on a daily basis. Most of the 2,300 respondents in a Business Insider survey said they don’t believe they should have to notify HR in the first place (92%), and more than 80% of respondents said it’s generally OK to sleep with someone who works for the same company.

However, you don’t want your work judged on your romantic abilities, or your mistakes chalked up to office love triangles. Plus, most HR managers don’t need to be a part of the office gossip in the the first place. “I have better things to do than deal with who slept with who, or who’s talking about you behind your back. Sometimes I feel like a high school guidance counselor,” one HR manager told Reader’s Digest.

5. “I finally settled the lawsuit with my last employer.”

You might have had totally legitimate reasons for filing a legal complaint against your last boss or company and be ready for a fresh start at your new position, but there’s never going to be a good time to bring that up to HR.

“HR departments live in fear of lawsuits – even the good, ethical, painstakingly fair departments,” writes Heathfield. Not only will this make them suspicious of your motives, but it could also be perceived as a menacing tactic. “HR staff also regards the fact that you share this information with them as potentially threatening to them and your employer,” she said.

What’s more, nothing will get a HR rep’s hackles up like the mention of litigation. “HR professionals are truly an employer’s first line of defense against employment law claims like discrimination and retaliation,” says the Society for Human Resource Management. If you want to stay in the good graces of your company, avoid mentioning this unless you plan to actually sue and likely walk away from your position.

6. “My spouse might be transferred to another city.”

Unless you know for sure that your significant other’s job is moving — and you’re going with him or her — don’t bother giving HR a heads-up that’s longer than your customary notice. It’s in situations like this where you’ll need to be your own advocate, because the HR department will only be concerned about limiting the fallout. You won’t get promoted, you won’t get extra projects, and you might even start to see some of your job duties given to other people — all to prepare for the possibility that you might move away.

“This is more career busting than telling your employer that you are job searching, because the employer will perceive that you have less control over the outcome,” Heathfield writes.

Follow Nikelle on Twitter @Nikelle_CS

Cheetsheet.com | July 5, 2016 | 

#Leadership : Sage Advice for Entrepreneurs From America’s Greatest Risk Takers…With the Founding Fathers as your Ancestral Mentors, Here are 5 Sage Pieces of Advice that will Inspire Every Entrepreneur/Manager on their Journey.

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Today, on Independence Day, many are thinking of summer BBQs, water sports and beer drinking in celebration of our national holiday. However, there’s much to remember about the Fourth of July for entrepreneurs. As the founding fathers came together to write the Declaration of Independence, and consequently started the American Revolutionary War, there was something very entrepreneurial about their actions.

Sage Advice for Entrepreneurs From America's Greatest Risk Takers

They took a great risk, perhaps the greatest risk, and followed their vision through all the hard work and impossible odds to create an independent America. They collaborated, invested in and gambled on the world they saw fit to create.

With the founding fathers as your ancestral mentors, here are five sage pieces of advice that will inspire every entrepreneur on their journey.

There! His Majesty can now read my name without glasses. And he can double the reward on my head! — John Hancock

Be bold.
John Hancock signed America’s Declaration so big and large that his name alone has now become synonymous with the word signature. You have to remember that signing this document was not just a declaration for America — it was a declaration of war and treason. They risked their lives, the safety of their loved ones and everything they owned to be independent from England. There is a bold brilliance about the outright madness, stubbornness and defiance of Hancock’s confidence in that risk.

To be an entrepreneur, you have to be unapologetic about your purpose and your vision. Hancock certainly was bold in his risk. Are you?

 

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Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. — Thomas Jefferson

Take action.
Much like risk requires boldness, achievement of your goals requires action. Thomas Jefferson pointed this out more than 200 years ago. Asking will only get you so far, then you need action. Take action and start creating your vision now!

Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee. — Benjamin Franklin

Mind your business.
Not only is Benjamin Franklin one of the original signers of the Declaration, he was an entrepreneur and inventor. His printing press was famous for producing materials like his still-treasured Poor Richard’s Almanac, which dispensed all kinds of wisdom and sage advice for then and now.

Franklin knew that to run a successful business, you have to mind your business properly. Ignore it or overdo it and your business won’t last long. Franklin believed in solid business practices. As an entrepreneur, so should you.

Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order. — John Adams

Always learn.
John Adams signed the Declaration on July 4, 1776, and would go on to become America’s second president.

This quote sums up the truth that all entrepreneurs already know: never stop learning. You must always be innovating, trying, tinkering and playing to keep your mind ahead of the curve. Innovation comes from constant learning. Don’t ever stop.

It is better to be alone than in bad company. — George Washington

Choose your company wisely.
Perhaps one of the most recognized and best known men in all of American history, General and later, President, George Washington led a courageous life of risk, sacrifice and service to his ideals. He knew it was better to forge a path alone than to wait on the sidelines with the wrong company.

Entrepreneurs know the same and risk the scorn, criticism and naysaying of others to forge their own path and live their own vision. Being an entrepreneur can mean holding true to your ideals in periods of doubt or isolation.

Stay true to your unique mission and know that your company is better kept alone than mixed with a life that is someone else’s.

Note: This piece was originally published on July 4, 2014.

 

Entrepreneur.com | July 4, 2016 | Andrew Toren

Your #Career : 5 Signs That Your Job is Wrong for You…You were Excited to Get the Job but Now you’re Miserable & Dread Monday Mornings. What Happened?

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It’s possible you could simply be working at a job that’s a bad fit. Maybe you didn’t realize this was the wrong job for you, or maybe you didn’t care because you were desperate for work, but there comes a time when you need to decide whether it makes sense to stay.

free- Office Space

Here are five ways to know you’re in the wrong job.

1. You’re undervalued

If you haven’t received a merit raise or promotion (or at the very least, acknowledgement of your hard work) and you’ve been with the company for a while, you should evaluate whether it is time to take your skills and talent elsewhere. If you feel undervalued by your employer, you’re not alone. Roughly half of employees say they feel undervalued at work, according to the American Psychological Association. Good work should be acknowledged and rewarded. You can start by having a discussion with your boss to see if there are any areas that need to be improved. However, if you have already had this meeting and you have successfully met your target, you may want to consider moving on.

 

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2. There’s a values clash

If you don’t agree with the mission of the company or there are ethical issues, it’s time to reevaluate your work situation. If there are practices at your company that don’t align with your moral values, it’s time to go. KateWendleton, founder of The Five O’Clock Club, says when your values are not symmetrical with your co-workers or managers (for example, there is illegal activity occurring on a regular basis), this is a clear sign you need to leave.

“[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][You should leave if] your values don’t match. The people you work with are uncouth, dishonest, focused on getting ahead regardless of legal or moral barriers. They win by cheating,” said Wendleton.

3. You’re not good at your job

Are you doing a job that’s not a good match for your skills simply because you’re trying to pay the bills? One way to tell your job is a poor fit is if it takes you a very long time to complete tasks and you dread every assignment. The job just doesn’t come naturally to you and takes significant effort. Perhaps you were promoted too soon or you were hired for a position you knew was a bad match. Regardless of how you got where you are, it will only be a matter of time before you make a mistake that’s impossible to recover from. Get out now before the decision to leave is made for you.

“Perhaps you’ll realize [your boss] pointing out things in your work that you can/should change, and you can work on changing them. If this happens, let [your boss] know. Otherwise, you’ll realize [he or she] is pointing out things you can’t easily change (or don’t particularly want to change). If this is the case, the best thing you can do is to start looking for other work,” said Alison Green, management expert and author of the Ask a Manager blog.

4. Your career has stalled

If you have reached a point where there is nowhere else to move but out, you should start dusting off that resume. Perhaps your colleagues plan to stay in their current roles until they die or your company is structured in such a way that there are very few opportunities to be promoted. Either way, time to start looking.

“Careers can stall when your company does not have a position for you to grow into. There’s a ‘blocker’ above you—usually your boss—who’s doing a fine job and has no plans to retire, change industries, or move to Toledo…The main culprit is lack of growth; your company, industry, or the economy overall is in a hard place, standing still, or even contracting. In such situations, opportunities for upward mobility are necessarily hard to come by…. If you’re in a blocker situation, you really only have one choice, and it’s to decide how long you’re willing to endure stasis, and we mean, decide. Put an expiration date on your patience. ‘If something doesn’t change within a year, I’m putting out feelers, and within two years, I’m out of here,’ you might conclude,” said Jack Welch, executive chairman of Jack Welch Management Institute.

5. Your work-life balance is nonexistent

If all you do is work, go home, shower, and then do it all over again, it’s time to make a change. Jobs require a certain amount of dedication, but things are out of hand if you’re constantly working and rarely take a vacation despite efforts to bring some balance to your life.

“When your entire life revolves around your job and your work troubles start to follow you home, you have a problem. If you’re overdoing it, you might lose yourself along the way,” said career expert Arthur Joyce.

Follow Sheiresa on Twitter and Facebook.

CheatSheet.com | July 3, 2016 | Sheiresa Ngo

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Your #Career : 5 Tips To Help Women Work Longer…Women are Working Longer before Retiring, or Working Part-Time in Retirement, & That’s a Good Thing.

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Let’s start with the big picture and why I find this trend to be a silver lining for boomer women — both financially and spiritually. Then I’ll offer some advice on ways women can successfully stay on the job and use these bonus working years to strengthen their finances as they age.

portrait of Young pretty business woman work on notebook computer in the bright modern office indoors

A recent study, Women Working Longer: Facts and Some Explanations, presented by Harvard University economists Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz at the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Women Working Longer conference last month, reported that women have been working longer for a long time. Their labor market participation increased decade after decade during the 20th century, as more women entered the labor force.

The New Story About Working Women

But that’s an old story, they wrote. “The new story is that a large fraction of women are working a lot longer, past their sixties and even into their seventies,” said the report.

In fact, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that by the end of this decade, about 20% of women over 65 will be in the labor force.

“Women’s increased participation beyond their fifties is a change of real consequence,” according to Goldin and Katz. “Rather than being an increase in marginal part-time workers, the higher labor force participation of older women consists disproportionately of those working at full-time jobs. Women are remaining on their jobs as they age rather than scaling down or leaving for positions with shorter hours and fewer days.”

Four factors that have influenced the uptick: More women have been holding jobs with greater advancement, have been college graduates, were not currently married or were married to men who also extended employment into their later years.

 

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Working for the Money — or Not

Sometimes, the women aren’t working because they need to, financially.

“From my work with Katz, we find a strong increase in employment among the most highly educated of those women older than fifty-five and for those who are in managerial and professional occupations — even if their financial security appears to be reasonable,” Goldin told me. “Higher levels of employment for women older than fifty-five years also appear to be among those who are healthier and whose occupations are the most rewarding and least physically taxing.” (This echoes the survey conducted by Elizabeth Fideler for her book, Women Still at Work.)

In other cases, however, money is very much a factor.

Olivia S. Mitchell, executive director of the Pension Research Council at The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania Mitchell and Annamaria Lusardi, a professor of economics and accountancy at The George Washington University School of Business, report in their new study, Older Women’s Labor Market Attachment, Retirement Planning, and Household Debt:

“When we explore the reasons for delayed retirement among older women…household finances also appears to be playing a key role, in that older women today have more debt than previously…In large part this can be attributed to having taken on larger residential mortgages due to the run-up in housing prices over time and lower down payments as well.”

Other gauges of financial distress, they said: few women are able to easily cover their expenses in a typical month or have set aside emergency fundsto cover expenses for three months. Many women also said they didn’t pay off credit card balances in full, paid only the minimum due and were charged fees for late payments or exceeding the limits.

Catherine Collinson, president of Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies and Transamerica Institute, recently told a U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing that her organization’s surveys found that only 42% of women workers say they are building a large enough nest egg to retire without financial worries, compared to 55% of men.

“Women age 50 and older — especially unmarried women — face extreme financial risks and potential poverty in retirement,” Collinson told me when I interviewed for a previous Next Avenue article. Many women Transamerica surveyed say they plan to work until age 70 or later — or don’t plan to retire at all.

The Financial Bonuses for Women Working Longer

Fortunately, when I touched based with Mitchell this week, she noted that there were a host of financial bonuses for women extending careers.

“Longer work reduces the drawdown on financial assets,” she told me. “Longer work could lengthen the time one is covered by employer-based health insurance, hence diminishing personal spending on health care costs. And a longer worklife can contribute to enhanced well being due to continued relationships with co-workers and social networks.”

And, as they say on late night TV infomercials, there’s more!

“Work can provide important resources for women — such as a sense of meaning and purpose, a positive identity, and a social network — in addition to financial benefit,” said Colorado State Assistant Professor Gwenith Fisher, who has been studying when and why people retire. Fisher was on a Future of Work and Retirement panel I recently moderated at Columbia University’s 2016 Age Boom Academy.

Moreover, added Fisher, “continuing to work is also associated with cognitive and health benefits: research that has studied patterns of cognitive functioning has shown that working in jobs that involve thinking, problem solving, and creativity is related to less cognitive decline, and retirement is also linked to earlier mortality, even among people who did not retire due to their health.”

Of course, men can enjoy these benefits by working longer, too.

(More: A Sneak Peek Into the Future of Work and Retirement)

Working Longer and Social Security

Working longer can provide women with a significant financial boost from Social Security, too.

Women are more dependent on Social Security than men and their average Social Security income is roughly 77% of that of men, according to research by Aine Ni Leime of Case Western Reserve University. Moreover, said Ni Leime (who recently presented research at the Work and Family Researchers Network annual conference in Washington, D.C.), women are 56% of all Social Security beneficiaries age 62 and older and 66% of all beneficiaries age 85 and older.

The potential gain in Social Security benefits alone from working longer is enough to place married women on equal footing with married men in terms of Social Security wealth at age 70, according to research by Harvard economist Nicole Maestas, an expert in the study of aging who was also on my Age Boom Academy panel.

“Working beyond the Social Security early retirement age until age 70 would make a sizable increase in the magnitude of lifetime Social Security benefits to which married women are entitled,” she found. “The gain in years worked at older ages would be sufficient to offset early gaps in the earnings record, and would place women on par with men in terms of lifetime resources available to them in the latter part of life. This is because the additional years of earnings at these ages replace earlier years of low or zero earnings in the retirement benefit computation formula.”

5 Tips for Women Who Want to Work Longer

So for women who’ve been persuaded that it’s worth staying on the job beyond the traditional retirement age, here are five tips to make sure youdon’t burn out, do stay employable and can use the bonus years to prepare for a financially secure retirement:

(More: How to Love Your Job Even If You Don’t Like It)

1. Never stop learning and adding skills. It’s crucial to keep your skills sharp if you want to stay on the job. Sign up for continuing education, or professional development programs offered by your employer.

2. Keep up on trends in your industry. Then, when attractive opportunities arise at work, you’ll be ready to raise your hand for them. One suggestion: set up a Google Alert to alert you about the latest news in your field.

3. Ramp up your financial literacy. Learn all you can about investing, retirement savings and Social Security strategies. Mitchell and Lusardi found that women who were more financially literate were more likely to plan for retirement, were less likely to have excessive debt and were less likely to be financially fragile.

4. Calculate your retirement savings needs and save at a level to achieve them. Among women who estimated their retirement savings needs, 62% say they “guessed,” according to Transamerica. Only 7% had completed a worksheet or done a calculation and just 3% consulted a financial adviser for the figure.

5. Continue participating in your employer’s retirement plan. The longer you work, the longer you can keep contributing and stave off dipping into those funds, allowing them to grow tax-deferred. That way your money works longer, too.

Forbes.com | July 3, 2016 | Next Avenue

#Leadership : 7 Ways To Re-Think Performance Management…The Following 7 Topics are Fundamental when Re-Thinking any Performance Management Process & Culture.

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The concept of Performance Management sounds simple, but of course it isn’t. Humans have a lust for control and have developed quite a few mental concepts to ‘control’ performance management; processes, ratings, manuals, competency frameworks, forms, collective labor agreements, etc. While all these things once had a purpose, the sum of it is not fit for duty 16 years into the 20th century.

Free- Project Sticky Notes

People connecting and leaving each other valuable feedback to improve the way you work? That will drive performance.

The following seven topics are fundamental when re-thinking any performance management process and culture.

1. Workforce Alignment is fundamental

Aligning the employees to the right set of objectives remains the success factor. Showing employees thepurpose of the company and what is expected of him/her is the most important factor in performance management.

Without workforce alignment, any performance management process – annually or instantly – has no frame of reference and is entirely useless.

If your mission and strategy is sound and your workforce is connected and engaged, then all they need is real time meaningful feedback, peer coaching and mentoring.

Ask yourself: How is goal alignment incorporated in your new Performance Management process?

 

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2. Feedback is magic

Feedback is essential for people to connect and learn from each other. The better people can exchange feedback, the stronger their network and its outcomes in terms of collaboration and cooperation. This feedback needs to be constructive and authentic to become meaningful and instrumental in animating teams and corporate culture.

And it needs to be real-time! Why? Well if there is one thing our multitasking social media world is messing with, it’s our ability to remember. If I make mistakes helping out a client, then immediate feedback is needed. Not 11 months later in my performance review. You have to make hay when the sun shines! This has nothing to do with generations Y (Millennials) or Z (iGeneration). It’s the world turning faster.

Ask yourself: How have you integrated real time, continuous, open feedback in Performance Management?

3. Space for mistakes is crucial

Everybody knows that people learn from mistakes. That’s how children grow up and how we evolve as a species. But how many performance management processes allow employees to make mistakes? They are often constructed to do the opposite. Employees covering up mistakes, because their sole focus of the performance management meeting is to get a salary increase. And managers are breaking their minds on how they should apply the mandatory forced rankings. Both are not helping to create an environment for healthy mistakes.

Ask yourself: How do you allow people to make errors and learn?

4. From judging to mentoring

Too many performance conversations are one way traffic where the manager is ‘judging’ the employee. Stop managing. Start leading. Don’t tell employees what to do. Involve them, explain things to them and demonstrate how it’s done. Not annually, but constantly and empathically.

Coaching and mentoring programs are often separated from the performance management process. While rethinking the performance management process it’s worth to rethink a tighter integration between them. Coaching and mentoring are the real-time components that drive the effectiveness and productivity of teams. A crucial component of performance.
Ask yourself: How are protégé, coach and mentor relationships incorporated in your new performance process?

5. Time to rethink performance vs compensation

This might be the biggest paradigm shift for organizations, their work councils and the trade unions. Let’s rethink the way that performance and compensation are connected. Yes, money can stimulate performance, but it remains an extrinsic motivation. It’s theintrinsic motivation that deserves more attention, because that is what really motivatesus in a deeper and sustainable way.

And if it’s the intrinsic motivation we need, then we can ask ourselves to what extend we can decouple the compensation from the performance ‘cycle’, without losing a performance culture.

Why not decouple remuneration from tenure and yearly performance cycles and move towards compensation based on certain gigs, projects and/or roles that are performed by the employee? Trusting people to do their job and only act if they don’t. And then coach them to better performances and keep on giving them other challenging gigs. Preferably even connected to customer satisfaction ratings.

The biggest naysayers are usually work councils and trade unions, responsible for complex collective labor agreements, that have the lion’s share in HR’s attention span. The focus should be on creating an open, authentic and constructive feedback culture. Only such a culture will enable the company to progress and that will be the most significant contribution to employee happiness and engagement, which ultimately drives revenue. A disrupted bankrupt company pays no compensation at all.

Ask yourself: How is customer satisfaction connected to compensation?

6. Time to rethink the purpose of ratings

If you don’t pay based on performance ratings, do you then still need them? Well… ratings have a purpose on its own. Ratings can drive performance, but also the opposite.

There are studies that show big benefits of using ratings in a competitive way, utilizing the competitive nature of people and driving performance in that way. Other studies show reverse results; using ratings in the wrong way can also demotivate people.

It ultimately comes down to thinking carefully about what you like to rate and why. And in which way to create transparency in those ratings. If you measure rating, you better do it right, otherwise it will backfire on your ultimate goal: increasing performance.

Ask yourself: How are performance ratings contributing to a performance culture?

7. Performance of contractors needs to be managed too

Teams deliver results, not individuals. This aspect is often addressed with a team target that is rarely motivating the individuals of a team to step up their game. What’s really needed is a collaboration platform where the entire team can monitor its own performance. Where they can instantly give feedback to each other to steer the team in the right direction.

The rise of the freelancer is adding a layer of complexity. This group of contractors is growing exponentially (globally), but are often excluded from performance management, because presenting contractors with a yearly performance form is like asking Kanye West to spend a year in a silent monastery.

Presenting a yearly form is not the goal . Improving performance is the goal. If you want to manage the performance of the entire team, then flex workers are part of it and the ability to share instant feedback should go beyond employees on the payroll.

The ‘simple’ compensation model of freelancers is an blueprint of how we can deal with compensating performance as discussed earlier (point 5). Free lancers have a job for which they get paid. They receive feedback and gain experience to improve their skill set, which they use to take on other gigs, for which they get paid a different compensation.

Ask yourself: How is your new performance model supporting team output including contractors?

Where to go from here?

A new performance management ‘system’ can only be applied in a new paradigm. I do not believe that you can have a hierarchical management structure/culture and then move to team based feedback. This would be a step back from traditional performance rating as most of us have today.

There is no way around it: to be successful you have to animate the culture, management style and attitude that propels performance management to the next level.

This story originally appeared on the SAP Business Trends community.

Forbes.com | June 29, 2016 | By Patrick Willer, Workforce Innovation Consultant, SAP

 

#Strategy : How To Cut Your Email Time In Half…Would you Like a Simple Way to Dramatically Cut the Time you Spend on Emails?

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According to a survey conducted by the McKinsey Global Institute, office workers spend 2.6 hours per day reading and answering emails. This equates to 33% of a 40-hour workweek.

Free- Time Mans Watch

What’s worse is that smartphones, laptops, and other mobile devices have many checking their email constantly: while commuting (yes, I see you checking your phone while driving), waiting at the doctor’s office, at mealtimes, and every other situation imaginable.

But is there a better way to manage your email? Over the years, I’ve found out that the key to mastering email (instead of letting email master you) is to have a system.

Ergo, seven steps to master your email:

1. Unsubscribe from email newsletters.

Do you really need to subscribe to all those fashion websites? Those flash deals-of-the-day offers? Those viral clickbait “news” headlines? Don’t give permission to all those companies to intrude on your day, to interrupt your flow, and to tempt you with their offers. They’re trying hard to get into your head, but they can’t if they’re not in your inbox to begin with.

Just go into your email and search for “unsubscribe” and then unsubscribe from all the email newsletters that you find. There’s also a great website called Unroll.Me that will let you easily unsubscribe from the newsletters you want to trash. It will then consolidate the newsletters you want to keep into one big daily email.

 

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2. Turn off all email notifications.

Email is not intended to be an urgent form of communication. Nowadays, when most of us are getting 50 to 500 emails a day, getting email notifications is a sin. Notifications interrupt your concentration, your work sprints, and your ability to be present during meetings and conversations.

Whatever notifications you’re using, whether an audible ding, a phone vibration, or a little window that pops up with every new email–turn it off.

3. Think twice before you forward, cc or bcc.

As reported in an August 9, 2013, article in the Wall Street Journal, London-based International Power reduced total email traffic by 54% just by encouraging their top executives to “think twice” before they forwarded an email or added anyone to the cc: line. Too often we forward or cc someone in the spirit of keeping them “in the loop,” but in reality we are contributing to the information overload problem.

Remember, every email you send and every cc you include means you are likely going to get a reply back into your own email box. If you send less email, you’ll also receive less email.

4. Use the subject line to indicate the action required.

An ideal subject line doesn’t just indicate the subject of the email, but also the type of action it requires. This helps email recipients to process your email in less time. And they’ll learn to reciprocate. The idea is to preface your subject line message with some meta-information. I like to use all caps to make this part of the subject stand out from the message. Here are some examples:

“FYI: [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][subject]”—Use the FYI designation when you are just passing info along as a courtesy.

“ACTION REQUIRED by [DATE]: [subject]” or “TO DO by [DATE]”—Use ACTION REQUIRED when your recipients should take an action, but they don’t report to you; use TO DO when you are giving a directive to someone who reports to you.

“NRN: [subject]”—NRN stands for “no response needed” and can be used to eliminate the polite response emails that people often send like “Thanks” or “Looks interesting” or “I’ll take a look at this next week,” etc.

“[subject]–EOM”—My personal favorite, EOM stands for “end of message” and lets you put super short messages right in the subject line. EOM tells the recipient, don’t bother opening this one because all the content is in the subject line.

5. Keep emails short—really short.

Realize that being brief isn’t rude; it’s a sign of respect for the other person’s time (in addition to your own).

There is even a movement that suggests we consider email messages to be similar to text messages. The website five.sentenc.es suggests you limit all your emails to five sentences or fewer and then add a footer message that directs people to the website for an explanation.

6. Use the 321-Zero system.

I’m a firm believer that you should only process email three times a day.

Schedule three times to process your email (morning, noon, night), set the timer on your phone for 21 minutes, and try to get to inbox zero in that time. Make a game out of it—21 minutes is typically not enough time to get to zero, and that’s intentional. But this goal will keep you focused, ensure that your responses are short, and keep you from clicking links out onto the wonderful world of internet distractions.

7. Immediately apply the 4 D’s.

Every time you open an email, you should be ready to Delete it (archive), Delegate it (forward), Defer it (move to your calendar), or Do it.

• Delete: When you think “delete,” in most cases you should really just archive. These days, with virtually unlimited storage space, it’s easy to just hit the Archive button on most things, knowing that you can use the search function to get it back again in the future.

• Delegate: If someone else should be handling this, forward it immediately.

• Defer: If you defer an email, in most cases that means immediately adding an entry to your calendar—“moving” the email to a calendar entry.

• Do: If you can handle this in five minutes or less, do it right away.

After each of first three actions, either archive the email or delete it.

In addition to the 4 D’s, consider F for File it. In my opinion, this is just another form of archiving, but it can be helpful especially if you’re nervous that you might not be able to find something again. Just create folders for all your projects, clients, or even something like “Respond to Someday,” and then drag emails related to those topics into the folders to keep your inbox nice and clean.

There they are—seven simple steps to master your email. Try using these to keep your email under control, and you’ll suddenly discover hours per week that you didn’t know you had.

–

Kevin Kruse is the author of 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management and “The Millionaire Day Planner: A Free 1-Page Planning Tool.”

 

Forbes.com | June 27, 2016 | Kevin Kruse 

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#Leadership : This is How you make Better Decisions, According to Science…Yeah, it Can Really be that Simple: Thinking about How you Would Help Others is Often the Best Way to Help Yourself.

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Life would be a lot easier if we just knew how to make good decisions. Research shows we all make a lot of bad ones, according to Chip Heath’s “Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work.”

Free- Direction Rail Tracks

With careers:

“More than half of teachers quit their jobs within four years. In fact, one study in Philadelphia schools found that a teacher was almost two times more likely to drop out than a student.”

In our jobs:

“A study showed that when doctors reckoned themselves ‘completely certain’ about a diagnosis, they were wrong 40% of the time.”

And in our personal lives:

“… an estimated 61,535 tattoos were reversed in the United States in 2009.”

We get a lot of sketchy tips based on unreliable sources. So what does the scientific research say about how to make good decisions?

For starters, you might think you would be better off if you just had more information about the choice at hand.

And you’d be wrong …

 

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You don’t need more info, you need the right info

In the past 20 years we went from a world where information was difficult to come by to a world where we can’t get away from the stuff. The phrase “TMI” is now more true than ever.

When doctors are diagnosing heart attacks, the glut of information isn’t just a nuisance — it can be deadly, according to “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking”:

“What Goldman’s algorithm indicates, though, is that the role of those other factors is so small in determining what is happening to the man right now that an accurate diagnosis can be made without them … that extra information is more than useless. It’s harmful. It confuses the issues. What screws up doctors when they are trying to predict heart attacks is that they take too much information into account.”

Solution?

Spend less time trying to amass all the information and more time better defining the problem so you can find the right information.

As Dan Pink explains in his bestseller, “To Sell Is Human“, research shows one of the hallmarks of great advances in both the arts and sciences is spending more time on clarifying problems.

Via “To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others“:

“‘The quality of the problem that is found is a forerunner of the quality of the solution that is attained…’ Getzels concluded.”

And people who focus on the problem instead of the answer end up more successful in their careers.

Via “To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others“:

“In 1970, Csikszentmihalyi and Getzels tracked down these same artists, now out of school and working for a living to see how they were faring. About half the students had left the art world altogether. The other half was working, and often succeeding, as professional artists. The composition of that second group? Nearly all were problem finders back in their school days.”

(To learn what Harvard research says will make you more successful and happier, click here.)

Alright, you’re clarifying the problem and focused on getting the right info. Good. So now you need to be ultra-rational and logical, unswayed by emotion in order to make a good choice, right? Wrong again …

Feelings are your friends

Being calm definitely helps when trying to make good decisions — but ignoring emotions is silly.

As Stanford professor Baba Shiv explains, choices can’t be made without feelings.

Via “The Most Human Human: What Talking with Computers Teaches Us About What It Means to Be Alive“:

“In the late ’80s and through the ’90s, says Shiv, neuroscientists “started providing evidence for the diametric opposite viewpoint” to rational-choice theory: ‘that emotion is essential for and fundamental to making good decisions.'”

And not only do we need feelings to make decisions, engaging them also leads to betterdecisions.

Professor Timothy Wilson, author of “Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change“, says feeling beats thinking when it comes to relationship predictions:

“It was the people in the ‘gut feeling’ group whose ratings predicted whether they were still dating their partner several months later. As for the navel gazers, their satisfaction ratings did not predict the outcome of their relationships at all.”

And matters of the heart aren’t the only place where feelings help. Empathy can be a big positive when trying to make good choices. Research shows doctors who feel empathy make better decisions for their patients.

Wharton professor Adam Grant, author of the bestseller “Give and Take“, told me:

“There is a great study by Turner and colleagues showing that when radiologists saw a photo of the patient whose x-ray they were about to scan, they empathized more with the person. They saw that person as more of a human being as opposed to just an x-ray. As a result, they wrote longer reports and they had greater diagnostic accuracy, significantly.”

Certainly there are times when we need to think things through and be very rational. So how do you know whether to go with your gut or not?

  • For simple decisions without many factors involved (What soda should I buy?) be rational.
  • For very complex or weighty decisions (Am I in love?) trust your gut.

Via “How We Decide“:

As Dijksterhuis demonstrated, when you ask the prefrontal cortex to make (complex) decisions, it makes consistent mistakes… It might sound ridiculous, but it makes scientific sense: Think less about those items that you care a lot about. Don’t be afraid to let your emotions choose.

Now what about when you’re tired and it’s hard to think? Don’t worry — research says go with your gut.

And what about when you’re really really tired? Just go to bed. Studies show the old saw is true: “sleeping on it” works.

(To learn the #1 decision-making secret of astronauts, samurai, Navy SEALs and psychopaths, click here.)

Okay, you’ve defined the problem, got the right info and you’re not ignoring your feelings. What’s a key tool most people ignore that will let you know you should trust your decisions?

Know your strengths

Modern science is awesome but here you may wanna take a lesson from the ancient Greeks: “Know Thyself.”

There are few things that can truly guide powerful decisions more than knowledge of who you really are and what you’re good at. And the research agrees.

Definitely trust your gut on a subject — if it’s something you’re an expert at:

A new study from researchers at Rice University, George Mason University and Boston College suggests you should trust your gut — but only if you’re an expert… Across both studies, participants who possessed expertise within the task domain performed on average just as well intuitively as analytically. In addition, experts significantly outperformed novices when making their decisions intuitively but not when making their decisions analytically.

I know what some of you are thinking: But I’m not sure what my strengths are.

No sweat. All you need is a pen, paper and time. Keep a “decision diary.”

Peter Drucker, author of “The Effective Executive“, and one of the most influential thinkers on the subject of management, recommends monitoring what you do and noting what gets results over time:

“Whenever you make a key decision or take a key action, write down what you expect will happen. Nine or 12 months later, compare the actual results with your expectations… Practiced consistently, this simple method will show you within a fairly short period of time, maybe two or three years, where your strengths lie — and this is the most important thing to know.”

Don’t trust your memory. Write it down. Make it a game. See where you score highly and not so highly.

Good at work decisions but bad when it comes to your personal life? Now you’ll know when you can trust your gut and when you may need some help.

(To learn the 4 lifehacks from ancient philosophy that will make you happier, click here.)

All the ideas so far are great but there’s one critical thing that’s missing: when do you stop deciding? When is it time to pull the trigger?

Make a ‘good enough’ decision

Don’t sweat making the absolute 100% best decision. We all know being a perfectionist can be stressful — and neuroscience backs this up. Trying to be perfect overwhelms your brain and makes you feel out of control.

Via “The Upward Spiral“:

“Trying for the best, instead of good enough, brings too much emotional ventromedial prefrontal activity into the decision-making process. In contrast, recognizing that good enough is good enough activates more dorsolateral prefrontal areas, which helps you feel more in control …”

As Swarthmore professor Barry Schwartz said in my interview with him: “Good enough is almost always good enough.”

Sound too easy? Too simplistic? Okay, let’s look at a real world example of how people at the highest levels make decisions.

James Waters was Deputy Director of Scheduling at The White House. (Word on the street is they make some pretty big decisions there.) What did James tell me?

“A good decision now is better than a perfect decision in two days”:

“Being able to make decisions when you know you have imperfect data is so critical. I was always taught that ‘A good decision now is better than a perfect decision in two days.’ Many people I know in business recoil at that statement. Many colleagues in graduate school had come from places where they were analysts at a company and their job was to analyze and analyze and analyze. They couldn’t believe somebody would say that you should actually encourage people to make a decision with imperfect information — but I firmly believe you should. I think that’s really important for leaders to incorporate. It’s something that the White House has to do all the time. It’s great to analyze things but at some stage you’re just spinning your wheels.:

So focus on “good enough” instead of overthinking the problem. And if you do, you get an extra bonus: research shows your decisions are more likely to be ethical ones.

(To learn the four rituals that neuroscience says will make you happy, click here.)

Alright, we covered a lot. Let’s round everything up — and learn the one simple question that can help you make solid decisions when you’re crunched for time …

To sum up

Here’s how to make good decisions:

  • You don’t need more info, you need the right info: Clarify the problem and get relevant data, not all the data.
  • Feelings are not the enemy: For simple choices, use raw brainpower. For complex choices, trust intuition.
  • If you’re an expert in the area, trust your gut: Not sure if you’re an expert? Keep a decision diary.
  • “Good enough is almost always good enough”: Trying to be perfect makes your brain miserable.

And if you forget everything above, what one thing should you remember?

In my interview with Duke professor Dan Ariely (author of “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions“) he said you’re more likely to make a good decision if you “take the outside perspective.” What’s that mean?

Just ask yourself, “What advice would I give to someone else in this situation?”:

“If I had to give advice across many aspects of life, I would ask people to take what’s called ‘the outside perspective.’ And the outside perspective is easily thought about: ‘What would you do if you made the recommendation for another person?’ And I find that often when we’re recommending something to another person, we don’t think about our current state and we don’t think about our current emotions. We actually think a bit more distantly from the decision and often make the better decision because of that.”

Yeah, it can really be that simple: thinking about how you would help others is often the best way to help yourself.

Read the original article on Barking Up The Wrong Tree. Copyright 2016. Follow Barking Up The Wrong Tree on Twitter.

Businessinsider.com | June 27, 2016 | Eric Barker