Leadership: How Big Data Is Changing The #CFO Role…Over the Next Decade, #Big Data is Going to be a Game-Changer & a Truly Disruptive Force Across the Globe

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As IMA found in its recently released 2014 Salary Survey, salaries remained stagnant or declined for accounting and finance professionals in traditional areas of responsibility, such as taxation and audit. The finance function is evolving and CFOs are expected to know more about the trends affecting businesses today, including big data and technological innovations. I recently spoke with Krish Venkataraman, CFO and COO, of Syncsort about this “new breed” of CFOs.

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IMAGE: Getty Images

IMAGE: Getty Images

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Jeff Thomson: You left NYSE Euronext after several years to join Syncsort, a much smaller company. What prompted you to make the change?

Krish Venkataraman: Syncsort is a thriving organization with a 40-year track record. It has reached a point where I can add significant value as it positions itself for aggressive organic and inorganic growth. It’s a case of it being the right role, at the right company, at the right time.

Over the next decade, big data is going to be a game-changer and a truly disruptive force across the globe, and Syncsort is poised to continue its role as a leader in this charge. The company’s management team knows how to deliver on its promises and I have a track record of doing the same, so it’s a great fit.

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JT: How would you describe the CFO’s relationship with the CIO? How can CFOs open the lines of communication with the CIO, as their roles continue to converge?

KV: The relationship between the CFO and CIO is crucial. As a CFO who also understands technology, I know this first-hand. After all, I came from an organization with over 2,000 engineers at NYSE Euronext. So when engineers come to me with an idea for a new product that requires financing, I don’t just see it as a cost, but as a potentially lucrative investment. On the flip side, because I understand technology, I can also smell a bad investment.

Back to your original question: How can CFOs and CIOs strengthen their relationship? For the longest time, CFOs and CIOs spoke different languages. Now, with the level of investment that companies are making in technology and the amount they must invest to protect themselves from a regulatory and security standpoint, CFOs and CIOs have to learn to talk to each other.

Here at Syncsort, I’m not only responsible for the traditional finance roles like treasury, banking, and M&A but, more importantly, I’m also responsible for the operational aspects of the business, from IT to legal. It really helps me keep the right balance between innovation and operational stability. I’ve learned that when finance and technology intersect, you can do great things.

JT: CFOs are increasingly looked to as bean “sprouters,” as opposed to just bean counters. How can the CFO leverage his/her understanding and use of technology to drive business strategy?

KV: As companies become more and more reliant on technology, and as technology becomes the driver of competitive advantage, it’s not enough for CFOs to just be audit folks anymore. They have to be drivers of innovation who are able to see technology not just as a cost center, but as a key driver of that innovation.

The role of the CFO has fundamentally shifted in the last decade. With more focus on bringing operational stability and efficiency into an organization, CFOs in many organizations are now championing this transformation. Here at Syncsort – as in my prior role at NYSE Euronext — I wear two hats and have two titles. I believe the role of a CFO is to be both a good steward and a good strategist. I have to provide strategic and implementation expertise, understand how to innovate through technology, and ensure that the firm’s risks are managed not only on the financial spectrums, but more critically on the operational aspects, as well.

In short, I am a hands-on CFO who believes in the power of understanding the business from within and helping the CEO and the management team transform the organization. I like to say that I am part of a new breed of CFOs who operate at the intersection of financial services, technology and big data.

JT: In late 2013, IMA released a report on the top 10 technology trends that have potential to significantly reshape the business landscape, including mobile, big data and the cloud. What do you believe are the most important tech trends CFOs should be aware of and why?

KV: Two words: big data. Over the next decade, big data has the potential to be a real game-changer. But it’s just rows and columns on a spreadsheet without the right tools. We have gone from a world in which firms have too little data to a world in which firms have so much data they have difficulty making sense of these data and drawing insights from them.

Here at Syncsort, we use our own technology to analyze what types of acquisitions we should be considering, and reduce the risk associated with acquiring companies that won’t be profitable in the future. That’s an example of how companies can harness the power of big data and predictive analytics to position their companies for success.

JT: How can aspiring CFOs prepare for the greater emphasis on technology? What skills are most important?

KV: CFOs have to get out of their comfort zones and learn to speak the same language as CIOs. In the past, CFOs viewed technology as purely a cost center. But it can also be the biggest driver of innovation at a company.

As a CFO you have to make sure that you approach technology from both angles. Both sides of your persona – the steward who contains costs and the strategist looking for lucrative investments and innovations – must be working at the same time, all the time. It’s a balancing act. CFOs who get it right will be transformational leaders inside their organizations.

Forbes.com | April 16, 2015 | Jeff Thompson

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffthomson/2015/04/16/how-big-data-is-changing-the-cfo-role/

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Leadership: An Amazon Exec Shares 20 Mistakes Inexperienced Managers Make…The Best Way to Deliver Unpopular Decisions is at a Team Meeting where you have Ample Time to Give the Reasoning behind the Decision & take Q&A.

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Below are some mistakes I made as a new manager or have seen other new managers make.

Directions Man

Be proactive, not reactive.

Experienced managers still make some of these mistakes, though hopefully fewer:

Performance Management

1. Being slow to deal with performance issues — Smoke becomes fire. If you take note of performance issues early you can give gentle corrective feedback. If you’re too slow to notice you have to give stronger feedback, and the performance issues may be harder to reverse.

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2. Not documenting poor performance — Documenting poor performance via email helps employees understand the gravity of the situation (“This email summarizes the discussion we just had”) and it is also helpful to have on hand if it comes time to terminate the employee.

3. Not documenting good performance — Documenting good performance via email, to the employee alone or to a wider audience, is a great way to recognize their contributions to the team and company. It’s also a good habit to regularly document good performance of team members for your own purposes, so you can remember what you want to praise them for at annual review time.

Career Development

4. Not getting to know your employees — It’s great to know the names of all your employees’ kids. It’s even better to know the type of work each employee most likes to do, their particular pain points within the team or company, what their career objectives are (depth, breadth, management), or why they might be thinking about taking a different job or moving to a different company. You need to develop a rapport and level of trust with each employee before they’ll start to share these things with you.

5. Not paying attention to your high-performing employees — If you’re very satisfied with how an employee is performing you need to turn the tables and invest in making them more satisfied with their job. Find ways for them to do more of what makes them happy and less of what doesn’t.

6. Not investing in developing your employees — Every employee needs to be developed, either to support the career development (and retention) of strong performers or to improve the performance of weaker employees. Every year you should be trying to raise the level of performance of every employee.

Leadership

7. Thinking too small — A successful leader is going to create growth and opportunity for their team. A leader who thinks small is unlikely to do either. Instead of planning how to grow your business 100%, plan how to grow it 10x or 100x.

8. Not explicitly allocating resources — Explicitly managing resources means prioritizing projects, specifying how many (or which) resources will work on each, and in what order. Highly effective teams may be able to self-organize extremely well. New managers give less effective teams too much freedom to self-organize, leading to sub-optimal resource allocation.

9. Poor delivery of unpopular decisions — The difference in how employees receive unpopular decisions often depends on how those decisions are delivered. The more important, or more unpopular, the decision, the greater the need to manage its delivery. In my experience, the best way to deliver unpopular decisions is at a team meeting where you have ample time to give the reasoning behind the decision and take Q&A. Good managers explain why the decision is made. Bad managers say, “Because the boss said so.”

10. Being slow to resolve team pain points — New managers don’t pay attention to or understand their team’s pain points. Good managers are always tracking their team’s pain points, devising strategies to reduce or resolve them, and then moving on to the next pain point.

Recruiting

11. Not investing in sourcing — Good managers source candidates themselves through their personal networks and take ownership over sourcing in other ways, treating any candidates that the recruiting department sends their way as gravy. Inexperienced managers are satisfied with whatever recruiting sends them.

12. Lazy recruiting — Good managers act quickly on any recruiting activity. They review resumes as soon as they come in, make time in their schedules for phone screens, sell their positions to candidates, make quick hiring decisions, and are aggressive in getting from offer to acceptance. New managers act more slowly. They trust the recruiting department to brief candidates on the position and handle other candidate communications. Lazy recruiting loses candidates to other companies or internal teams.

13. Reactive sourcing and recruiting — Bad managers wait until they have an approved position and a job description up on the company’s website. Good managers are always sourcing and recruiting, and may be chatting up a prospective candidate today about a position they may not have open for a year or more.

Hiring

14. Not being clear on the requirements of the role — Inexperienced managers don’t spend time thinking about exactly what they need from a new hire. They hire generic candidates with generic skills. Good managers have a more narrow profile in mind, which helps them write stronger job descriptions and generate more qualified candidates.

15. Lowering the bar — Inexperienced managers have low standards, or lower their standards, in an effort to make a hire. Good managers know that they’re much better off keeping a high bar and waiting for the right candidate.

Organizational Development

16. Letting dotted lines proliferate — It sucks to have two bosses. Good managers seek to have clear lines of authority and prevent their employees from getting caught in the middle between competing bosses. Inexperienced managers let other managers carve out chunks of their resources.

17. Letting the team get swamped — Inexperienced managers keep piling more and more work on the team. Experienced managers either grow the team size to handle the increased load, or deflect the increased work. It takes an experienced manager who’s earned the trust of leadership to push back effectively, or to effectively justify why the team needs more headcount.

18. Being reactive — Inexperienced managers need their bosses to tell them when their team is over or under-resourced or unbalanced. The team might have too few or too many resources, or it might be heavy or light on a certain role (e.g. QA:SDE ratio) given the other resources on the team. Experienced managers are anticipating how the needs of the team are going to change over time and then working proactively working to adapt their organization’s size and structure.

Visibility

19. Taking the credit — New managers let themselves take credit for their team’s work. Good managers attempt to redirect kudos and credit onto their team, or ideally, individual team members.

20. Forwarding the blame — New managers pin the blame on team members. “Joe was out of the office and wasn’t able to finish this in time.” Good managers put the blame on themselves and understand that any failing within the team is a failing of the leader.

Ian McAllister is GM and product leader at Amazon. For more from Ian, follow him on Twitter.

Quora is the best answer to any question. Ask a question, get a great answer. Learn from experts and get insider knowledge. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

 

Businessinsider.com | April 15, 2015 | Quora

http://qr.ae/d5Dmf#ixzz3XTOnYHsk

Strategy: 8 Simple Steps to Getting a Lot Done in a Short Period of Time…Keep in Mind that the Following isn’t Suitable for Everyday Use; Try that & You’ll soon Burn Out.

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Say you need to complete a major project or tackle a task you’ve been putting off. Or maybe you desperately need to crank out a ton of work in a short period of time, yet you never seem able to find that time.

Productivity

What you need is an extreme productivity day.

Keep in mind that the following isn’t suitable for everyday use; try that and you’ll soon burn out. But once in a while? It’s the perfect cure for the “I will never get that done” blues.

Let’s say you have a task that will take you 10 to 12 hours to complete. Here’s how to do it in just one day.

1. Tell everyone you won’t be available.

Interruptions are productivity killers, so letting people know you’re doing something special and will be out of reach for a day is an absolute must.

At a minimum, tell co-workers and family, but don’t forget important clients. Send a quick email a day or two before explaining that you will be tied up on a certain day and will respond to calls, emails, etc. first thing the following morning.

Some customers will contact you before Thursday; others will mentally note that you can’t be reached. Either way it’s all good.

And you get an additional benefit from telling other people your plan: Those important to you will know what you intend to accomplish, and they will know if you don’t succeed.

Peer pressure can be a great motivator. Use it.

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2. Decide how long you will work…

Don’t plan on the basis of “I’ll work as long as I can,” or “I’ll work as long as I feel productive.” Set a concrete target. Commit to working 12 hours or whatever period of time you choose.

Why? The longer the time frame you set, the quicker the early hours seem to go by.

When I worked in a factory we typically worked eight-hour shifts; the hours before lunch dragged and the last couple of hours each day always seemed like death. But when we worked 12-hour shifts, the morning hours seemed to fly by. Something about knowing you’ll be working for a long time allows you to stop checking the clock; it’s as if you naturally find your Zen (work)place.

When you know you’re in for a long haul, your mind automatically adapts. Trust me — it works.

3. … And totally commit to meeting that deadline.

You know what happens: Once you decide a task should take four hours it somehow ends up taking four hours, even when it should actually take only two. It’s natural to fill extra time with “stuff.”

The opposite happens when a deadline is seemingly too aggressive: We find ways to strip out the nonessential and get things done much quicker than we could have imagined.

So don’t just set a deadline. Totally commit to hitting that deadline.

And feel free to play any mental games that help: Make a bet with someone else, or make a bet with yourself (with losing meaning you have to do something you really don’t want to do) — in other words, make the stakes personal so you’re not just professionally but also personally invested in the outcome.

4. Start at an unusual time.

Have you ever taken a long car trip and left at 3 or 4 a.m.? I bet those first few hours flew by, because you stepped outside your norm.

The same trick works for an extreme productivity day. Start at 4 a.m. Or indulge your inner night owl and start at 6 p.m. and work through the night. Those first few hours will fly by.

An extreme productivity day is not a normal day. Set the stage for the unusual by breaking free of your usual routine.

5. Delay and then space out your rewards.

Say you like to listen to music when you work. On an extreme productivity day, keep the music off for the first few hours. That way, when your motivation starts to flag, a little music will provide a great boost to your morale.

However you tend to treat yourself, think of those treats as personal productivity bullets; use all your ammunition too early and you’ll have nothing left when you really need it.

Whatever typically carries you through your workday, hold off on it for a while. Delayed gratification is always better gratification.

6. Refuel well before you think you need to.

Waiting until you’re thirsty to drink when you’re exercising is already too late.

The same is true when you work. Plan to eat or snack a little earlier than normal. If you sit while you work, stand up long before your rear gets numb. If you stand, sit long before your legs start to ache. In short, when you allow yourself to feel discomfort your motivation and resolve will weaken — so do everything possible to keep that from happening.

And speaking of food, plan meals wisely. Don’t take an hour lunch break. Prepare food you can eat quickly without lots of organization or mess. The key is to refuel and keep rolling.

Remember what Isaac Newton said: A productive body in motion tends to stay in productive motion. That’s why you should…

7. Take productive breaks, not relaxation breaks.

Momentum is everything. Don’t take a walk, or watch a little TV, or goof around on the internet. You will need breaks, but those breaks should reinforce your sense of activity and accomplishment.

Pick a few productive tasks you like to perform — and gain a sense of accomplishment from — and use those for your breaks. Spending even a few minutes in the land of inactivity weakens your resolve.

8. Don’t quit until you’re done — even if finishing takes longer than expected.

Stopping short is habit-forming. If you quit this time, what will keep you from quitting the next time? (Answer: nothing.) Quitting is a habit but staying the course is also a habit, so make sure your first extreme productivity day is the start of a great new habit.

Plus you can gain a great side benefit from extreme productivity days: You’ll unconsciously reset your internal limit on your output.

How? We all have this little voice inside us that says, “I’ve done enough,” or, “I’m exhausted — there’s no way I can do any more,” which makes us stop. But that little voice lies: with the right motivation, or under the right circumstances, we can always do more. Stopping is a choice.

An extreme productivity day automatically ratchets your internal limits to a higher level. And after a few — maybe even just one — extreme productivity days, you’ll perform better every “normal” day too, because you will have unconsciously quieted that little voice and raised your own bar.

And isn’t your own bar the only one that truly matters?

Businessinsider.com | April 15, 2015 | Jeff Haden 

http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/not-for-the-meek-8-steps-to-an-exceptionally-productive-day.html#ixzz3XTHEsbZh

Strategy: Google HR Boss says Asking these Questions will Instantly Improve your Job Interviews…”Describe a Situation Where you were Responsible for Getting Others to Make a Change.”

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Managers may want to keep interviews conversational or unique — asking weird questions like “What was the last costume you wore?” — but you’ll be doing both yourself and the candidate a disservice, says Google’s SVP of People Operations Laszlo Bock in his new book “Work Rules!”

job interview

Interviews tailored to specific jobs and skills will yield the best results, says Google HR boss Laszlo Bock.

Instead, he recommends that managers of all companies, regardless of size or industry, stick to structured, job-specific interviews.

Bock cites a 1998 study from the University of Iowa’s Frank Schmidt and Michigan State University’s John Hunter that considered 85 years of hiring data from American companies. Schmidt and Hunter found that the best predictor of a candidate’s success is a work sample test, followed closely by a test of general cognitive ability and a structured interview. They found unstructured interviews to be notably insufficient predictors of success in a job.

Bock explains that Google uses an internal tool called qDroid that arranges a list of interview questions depending on what type of position is being filled. The questions are behavioral, dealing with past scenarios, and situational, dealing with hypothetical scenarios.

Bock believes that more companies don’t use these types of interviews because they require a lot of time creating questions and then testing which ones are most effective, but he insists the return on the time investment is worth it.

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He recommends looking at the questions included in the career resources section of the US Department of Veterans Affairs website. “Use them,” Bock writes, adjusting them as needed. “You’ll do better at hiring immediately.”

Below, we’ve highlighted 28 great interview questions from the VA, arranged by job level and skill:

Level I: Non-management staff.

Level II: Team leaders.

Level III: Mid-level managers.

Level IV: Executives.

Creative thinking

I. “Tell me about two suggestions you have made to your supervisor in the past year. How did you come up with the ideas? What happened? How do you feel about the way things went?”

II. “Tell me about a time when a co-worker had a good idea and you agreed but no one else was willing to listen. How did you handle the situation and what was the outcome?”

III. “What projects have you started on your own? Why did you start the projects? What did you learn from doing the projects? What were the results?”

IV. “Describe a creative endeavor you can take ownership for that impacted on the efficiency or effectiveness of your organization.”

laszlo bockNeilson Barnard/Getty ImagesGoogle’s SVP of People Operations Laszlo Bock.

Customer service

I. “Tell about a situation where you assisted a co-worker. What was the situation? What was your involvement and what was the outcome?”

II. “Tell me specifically which co-workers in your organization are your customers. What have you done specifically to improve the service you give these internal customers?”

III. “Tell me specifically how you have communicated to line staff that they have permission to go around the ‘chain of command’ to expedite resolution of a patient problem. What has been the result of such communication? Success stories?”

IV. “In the past, how have you obtained and incorporated customer feedback into your organization’s planning and service standards? Give specific examples.”

Flexibility/adaptability

I. “Tell me about the last new procedure you had to learn in your job. Tell me what specifically was the hardest aspect of learning the new procedure. Tell me specifically what you liked best about learning the new procedure. How well is the new procedure working now?”

II. “Describe a situation where you were responsible for getting others to make a change. What role did you play and what actions did you take? What was the outcome? If you had to do it again, would you do anything differently?”

III. “Tell me about a specific time when staff reductions required restructuring of the workload. How did you do the restructuring? Who specifically did you involve? How did you involve them? Why did you involve those whom you did?”

IV. “Describe an instance when you had to think on your feet to extricate yourself from a difficult situation. What caused the situation? How did your solution work?”

Interpersonal effectiveness

I. “Describe a situation where you felt you had not communicated well. How did you correct the situation?”

II. “Describe a time when you’ve had to work with strong-willed peers. What did you do? How did you handle them so you could influence their decisions?”

III. “Describe the most challenging negotiation in which you were involved. What did you do? What were the results for you? What were the results for the other party?”

IV. “Tell me about a time when you had to use your presentation skills to influence someone’s opinion. How did you prepare for the presentation? What points did you emphasize? How was the information received?”

Organizational stewardship

I. “Give an example of a time you defended your organization. How did you feel about doing it? How did you go about doing it? What was the response of the other party/parties?”

II. “Describe a time when you worked as a member of a team to accomplish a goal of your organization. What role did you play? Describe how the team worked together. What was the outcome?

III. “Describe a time when one of your staff or your work team was working above work expectations. What was your response? How did the other party/parties respond?”

IV. “Tell me specifically what you have done to create an atmosphere of trust and empowerment within your sphere of influence. What tangible results have you seen from your efforts?”

work rulesHachetteBock’s new book, “Work Rules!”

Personal mastery

I. “Name three things you have done in the past two years to grow in your job.”

II. “Describe a situation where you can take credit for the growth and development of a staff member or co-worker. Be specific about your role in terms of interactions and the outcome.”

III. “In a supervisory role, have you ever had to discipline or counsel an employee? What was the nature of the discipline? What steps did you take? How did that make you feel? How did you prepare yourself?”

IV. “Tell me about a specific time you sought specific feedback on your performance from subordinates. Specifically, how did you use the feedback? Cite specific changes resulting from the feedback.”

Systems thinking

I. “How does the work you are currently doing affect your organization’s ability to meet its mission and goals? Do you think your work is important? If yes, why? If no, why not?”

II. “In your current job, what organizational change have you made or contributed to that you are proud of? How did you go about making the change? What has been the impact of the change?”

III. “Describe a change you are responsible for that improved the performance of your work area or organization. How did: 1) you come up with the idea for the change, 2) you go about implementing the change, 3) staff respond to the change, and 4) you measure the outcome of the change? In looking back, what things would you do differently?”

IV. “Tell me about a specific decision that you made within your organization that had unexpected consequences outside your organization. How did you deal with those consequences?”

You can find many more questions at the VA’s website.

Businessinsider.com | April 15, 2015 | 

http://www.businessinsider.com/google-laszlo-bock-interview-questions-2015-4#ixzz3XOWKYByz

Strategy: 4 Techniques that will Make you a Better, more Confident Negotiator… Use your “BATNA” as a Secret Weapon. It Stands for the “Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement”

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Whether you’re looking to nab a deal with a new client or ask for a salary increase, you could benefit from learning some proper negotiation technique.

Interviewer

As Google HR boss Laszlo Bock notes in his book “Work Rules!,” a reluctance to negotiate may also be a major factor on the persistence of the gender pay gap in the US.

In an oft-cited Carnegie Mellon report from Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever from 2003, they found that among the university’s recent business school graduates, 57% had attempted to negotiate a higher salary in their first job, while only 7% of women did.

And even if you’re an aggressive negotiator, you may be making some common mistakes.

We spoke with University of Michigan Ross School of Business professor George Siedel, who has taught negotiation classes around the world and the Coursera course “Successful Negotiation,” to learn how anyone can become a better negotiator.

Here are four essential tips.

Listen.

A negotiation isn’t simply offering a deal and accepting either a “yes” or a “no” after a chance to persuade the other side.

“Good negotiators are the ones who walk into a deal in listening mode,” Siedel says. He recommends that you ask plenty of questions to understand where the other side is coming from and what they’re trying to get out of the deal.

You should be trying to gain the upper hand through the accumulation of knowledge regarding the deal at hand rather than just focusing on the sound of your own voice.

 

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Ease into it.

“You need to know the other side before diving in,” Siedel says, adding that Americans traditionally have a harder time than people of other cultures accepting this.

If you and your team are meeting with representatives of another company, consider meeting them for drinks or dinner the night before the negotiation. If it’s just you and you’re going to see your boss to negotiate a raise, ease into it with some chit-chat. It’s about building trust and easing tension.

Siedel says that his friend moderated a border dispute between Peru and Ecuador. This friend had the two nations’ prime ministers enter a room to talk and two generals do the same. After a long time passed, the two generals returned looking upset. They told Siedel’s friend that they wasted their time chatting about the medical condition that both of their daughters had rather than discussing the topic at hand.

He responded by telling them that their discussion was actually a huge success in moving the negotiation further, since they realized the other side was human rather than just a rival.

Go in with a clear sense of what you want.

“The richest people in the world go into a negotiation knowing exactly what they want,” Siedel says.

Before entering the negotiation, determine your target point, which is your ideal situation. Balance this with a reservation price, which is the point that you won’t cross. If you’re in a position to sell, this would be the minimum you’re willing to part with your assets. And if you’re in a position to buy, this would be the maximum you’re willing to spend.

Don’t be caught off guard by anything the other side proposes, and don’t get manipulated beyond your limits.

Have an alternative prepared.

One of the fundamental aspects of Siedel’s course is using your “BATNA” as a secret weapon. It stands for the “Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement” and refers to what you have to fall back on if the negotiation results in no deal.

If you’ve got a strong BATNA, you should let the other side know. In the course, for example, Siedel says that if Ford approaches a supplier it may say that if they do not agree on a price Ford is happy with, then it will take its business to one of five other suppliers it is ready to go to. If you can’t use your best alternative as leverage, refrain from explaining it to your opponent.

Siedel also recommends trying to find your opponent’s best alternative (or lack thereof) so that you can attempt to use it against them.

If you’d like to go beyond the fundamentals but don’t have time for Siedel’s class, you can check out his book, “Negotiating for Success: Essential Strategies and Skills.”

Businessinsider.com | April 14, 2015 | 

\http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-be-an-effective-negotiator-2015-4#ixzz3XNbDEjDb

Your Career:How To Look For A Job Without Your Boss Finding Out…The Conventional Wisdom Says that You Should Keep your Job Search a Secret from your Employer.

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The conventional wisdom says that you should keep your job search a secret from your employer. If your supervisor finds out, she will think your head is no longer in the game. She’ll stop giving you choice assignments, she won’t pick you for the team that’s prepping for the presentation at the annual meeting in Aspen, she won’t send you to the industry conference in Hawaii and if you have a salary review coming up, she won’t advocate for a raise.

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In this story I’ll tell you how to protect yourself from these bad outcomes. But first I must note an alternative scenario: She could realize that she’s in danger of losing you and offer you a raise and a promotion so you won’t leave. That’s happened here at Forbes more than once.

Nevertheless, in most instances it’s wiser to keep quiet about your job search until you have an offer letter in hand. At that point you can give your current bosses a chance to keep you. Also many people embark on a job search only to realize that the position they have is better than the new opportunities they discover. If you want to stay put, it’s usually best not to rock the boat.

Example: Greenwich, CT career consultant Debra Feldman, who works mostly with C-suite executives to put together search strategies, had a computer programmer client at a Chicago data analytics firm. He was the president of his company, which was taken over by Nielsen. After the acquisition, he found himself pulled into endless meetings instead of pursuing his true love, coding.

Feldman helped him run through several opportunities, including a job in India. But he realized his job wasn’t so bad and had irreplaceable perks, like the fact that he could bicycle to work. After a six-month search he decided that he didn’t want to make a change after all. “He decided the grass was really not greener,” says Feldman. “He figured out that he could manage internally to shift to a different situation where he was happier.” If he had let his job search get out into the open, it could have damaged his status at his old job and made it tougher to make that lateral move.

But there was an upside to his search. He did what we should all do all the time: He got out and networked with influential people in his field, building relationships that could bear fruit in the future. “The best kind of stealth job search is to develop contacts who will recruit you,” says Feldman.

In other words, if you’re great at maintaining your professional network, you won’t have to engage in the difficult and time-consuming process of seeking out contacts in companies where you might want to work, laboring over so-called “pain” letters that lay out what you can do for those companies, imposing on people and convincing them to take time out of their busy days to meet with you.

Instead those great opportunities will come to you and it will be much easier to take the advice I’m about to dole out below. Example: Our crackerjack young career writer Jaclyn Smith had stayed in touch with another top Forbes writer Jenna Goudreau, who had become the careers editor at BusinessInsider. Jenna came to Jaclyn and offered her a great new job that Jaclyn took. It even happened to me once when a former colleague recommended me for a position at CBS News that I sometimes regret that I turned down.

Here are tips for keeping your job search secret. Some of them may seem painfully obvious but Feldman says that people routinely fail to follow them.

1. Don’t use your work email or phone. I admit I’m guilty of this, blithely assuming that my employer isn’t burning up time searching through the 50-100 emails I write a day. But I’m being a fool. My boss could easily detect my actions and use them against me.

If your phone is not company-issued, go ahead and use it but if you have a company BlackBerry, buy yourself a personal phone. Hillary Clinton may claim it’s a pain in the neck to have more than one email address, but even I, one of the world’s most tech-challenged people, have figured out how to get both my gmail and Forbes account on my personal iPhone and Macbook Air (full disclosure: the Genius at the Mac store actually set it up for me).

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  1. Use headhunters but swear them to secrecy.Most recruiters are discreet but it doesn’t hurt to be crystal clear about wanting them to be careful not to reveal your name until things get serious. The recruiter could be working for your present employer.

3. Don’t use sick days for job interviews. I had a long argument with Feldman about this. Call me unethical but for a colleague who never gets sick or takes personal days I don’t see the harm in saying you’re under the weather on a day you have an interview. But Feldman insists that not only is it wrong, you could get caught. “It’s a benefit, not an entitlement,” she says. “What if your boss wants you to conference into a meeting by phone at 10am? Are you going to say you’re too sick?” Take a vacation day or a personal day. You don’t have to explain yourself.

4. When possible, schedule interviews when you’re not supposed to be in the office. Personally I am not a fan of breakfast meetings but that can be the best time to make a connection. Feldman says she has had several executive-level clients who have interviewed while traveling on business. “Many of my clients will coordinate their travel and meet in airports,” she says, “or they schedule a layover.” One Feldman client, now a chief information officer at a financial services company, regularly attends the World Economic Forum in Davos and had meetings there. He wound up leaving Minneapolis for a job in Frankfurt.

5. Don’t come to the office dressed differently than you usually do. We have a casual office at Forbes but in the summer I like to alternate jeans with nicer work attire like black silk pants and a blouse. If you do that, it won’t draw attention to your business look. But I’m surrounded by tattooed graphic designers and web developers who wear t-shirts and hoodies. They’d best change after their job interview. On the other hand, maybe web developers can take a page from Mark Zuckerberg’s book and go to an interview in a hoodie. Personally I’d say put on a tie.

6. When you update your LinkedIn profile, undo the “Notify your network” button on the right side of the page. I’m ambivalent about this piece of advice, since the smart folks among us update our profiles frequently to list new accomplishments and changes like promotions. But it’s probably best to play it cautious. Adding recommendations, which you should do, is a red flag.

7. Don’t tell your work friends or your brother-in-law. You need to have confidantes and ideally, mentors, to help you sort through your job search strategy and potential opportunities. But you need to make sure they can keep quiet. Work friends are dangerous as confidantes, though I’m proud to say I succeeded once in not only keeping a fellow Forbes writer’s job interview secret but convincing him he should go on the interview in the first place when Money magazine called, even though he was happy at Forbes. He got the job, which included a healthy pay hike and a step up to more opportunities.

8. Don’t post on social media. As my 18-year-old might say, “Thank you Captain Obvious,” but many of us are so Facebook- and Twitter-addicted we can’t help ourselves from blurting about what’s exciting in our lives. Even an oblique update like, “Watch this space for some exciting news,” can be a give-away. As with email, I have a hard time thinking my boss is going to waste time looking at my FB postings, though we are friends and Feldman says many bosses regularly check their colleagues’ social media postings. I’m probably being naïve, especially since I work in media.

9. Don’t print your résumé out at the office. More obvious advice that Feldman says too many people don’t heed. Go to Kinko’s or buy yourself a printer. “You need to assume a job search is going to cost you money and you can’t avoid it,” she says.

10. Get recommendations from past colleagues and managers. If you’ve been in the same job for a long time, your previous bosses may not remember you all that well. Look to colleagues and managers who have moved on from your company but know your work well, and of course tell them to keep your search on the down low. Another obvious piece of advice that some people don’t heed: Do not ask your current manager for a recommendation.
11. Don’t slack off. It can be very tough to keep up with your work when you’re looking for a job, which can seem like a full-time job itself, especially if you need to write proposals or in my business, story memos. But if you suddenly stop performing at work, people will know something is up.

If your supervisor catches you in the act, be honest and try to open up a discussion about your current role and how you might improve it. Describe the new challenges you’re seeking. That could lead to more happiness where you’re not expecting to find it.

But most important, assiduously keep up your network. Go to conferences, publish papers, establish a personal website, send interesting articles about your field to people you meet at events, grab drinks and coffee with former colleagues, and as they say, never eat alone. I confess I find this advice wearying and even somewhat unrealistic for many of us. But if you can do it, it most certainly will help your career.

Forbes.com | April 14, 2015 | Susan Adams 

Strategy: How To Stand Strong When Facing Adversity…It’s Funny How Sometimes the People you’d Take a Bullet for are the Ones Behind the Trigger.

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It’s funny how sometimes the people you’d take a bullet for are the ones behind the trigger. Actually it’s not that funny at all…it’s really sad when it happens to be true. It’s unbelievably hard when someone you love and respect and consider a friend does something to hurt you deeply. It’s downright brutal.

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I’m sure many of us have been through times where this has happened. We are betrayed by someone we once trusted and believed in, and that we thought trusted and believed in us. Then we find out later that this person we would have literally taken a bullet for is the one standing behind the trigger pointing the gun at us. It is a horrific experience to go through.

Whether it happens at the hand of a once valued friend or coworker, or a beloved family member, or a former spouse we once gave our heart to, or a business partner we once trusted…betrayal by anyone we once cared about is one of the most heartbreaking things to recover from.

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It becomes even harder to recover when that person goes on to do all they can to slander you, spread lies about you, and try to paint a picture of you that couldn’t be farther from the truth of who you are. But what can you do? You can’t force them to stop lying about you and slandering you. I suppose you could take legal action, and sometimes you might not have any other choice than to do that, but at the end of the day everyone loses in lawsuits except for the lawyers. So what then can you really do? I’ve put a lot of thought into this subject lately and here is what I have decided:

First and foremost, you have to accept the fact that you can’t control the lies other people will tell about you, and the more you try to the more frustrated you will become.

Second, remember that the only thing you do control is how you react to their lies. Don’t ever stoop to their level. Don’t pay them back by spreading lies and slander about them too. The only revenge you can allow yourself to get is to leave them behind to wallow in their misery while you simply move forward with your life.

Third, you have to accept that the most you can do to show the world who you truly are is to try every day to live your life in such a manner that anyone who truly knows you won’t believe their lies.

Fourth, never forget that what other people think isn’t what should matter at all – the only thing that matters is what God (or the universe, or whatever higher power you turn to) thinks, and what you know in your heart God thinks about you. That’s it. As long as you know God is proud of you then you don’t need to worry about anyone else’s opinion of you because God is the only one with a perfect knowledge of who you are and what you’ve done…everyone else is just guessing. God is the only one equipped to pass righteous judgement on you and thank heavens for that!

Fifth, is the one great lesson that we can learn from the unfair treatment we receive from others, and that is: Never allow yourself to judge someone else by the negative opinion of others! Recognize how horrible it made you feel when someone judged you unfairly or when believed lies and slander about you.

When you hear someone spreading lies or sharing mean gossip about someone else, stop yourself from taking their word for it. Always remember that you shouldn’t believe the unkind things you hear about someone are true just because someone with venom toward them said they are.

“What’s that?… You heard a bunch of stories about me? From someone who hates me?…Well then it must be true…!”

At the end of the day you can always tell when someone is miserable in their own life because they spend their life looking for ways to destroy someone else’s. When people betray you, spread lies about you and slander you, you simply have to make the decision to remove them from your life…and you can’t allow yourself to mourn the passing of these people from your life because the only purpose they serve is to drag you down.

“Life is like Twitter TWTR -1.14%. You can’t control what people say and do. You can just follow or unfollow them.”

My advice is this: Unfollow them. Then move forward with your life doing the best you know how to do, surrounding yourself with positive people who believe in you and inspire you. And never forget that you are amazing!

~Amy Rees Anderson (follow my daily blogs atwww.amyreesanderson.com/blog )

Leadership:10 Success Habits that will Dramatically Improve You/Your Business…Successful People Strongly Believe in Something & are Driven to Manifest It.

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In order to achieve success, you need to adopt the habits that will drive you to the top.  Successful people strongly believe in something and are driven to manifest it.

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Their path is so strong that it keeps them true to their ideas and principles, despite the inevitable times of adversity and disagreements.

Related: 5 Weekend Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs

Financial gain is not the sole definition here. “Success” means a deep commitment to the pursuit of the fullness of life.  Along the way, the following ten habits of success will serve to improve all areas of life, both personal and professional.

1. See the value in every detail.

To be successful, emphasize the results of your actions. Pay attention to each action as you strive for success and invest meaning and value into each step.

Any action lacking a clear purpose leaves you vulnerable to reacting to unexpected challenges. So, make a habit of directing each detail of your business toward your larger visions and goals. Train your mind to do the things that are especially hard and challenging.

When each detail has value, you have control over making it bold, determined and full of purpose. It is through this detail that you carve out your own personal fulfillment.

 

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2. Practice mental clarity.

Avoid getting bogged down in mental tasks. Learn to make quick and conclusive decisions. Mental clarity makes it easier to see which decisions bring you closer (or take you further) from your goals.

Before altering a decision, however, carefully consider the pros and cons of any change. Impulsiveness may lead to disaster. Any time you change a previous decision, use the opportunity to learn what needs to go better next time, and further clarify the details that will meet your standards.

Making decisions quickly and changing decisions intelligently leads to balance.

Related: Your Comfort Zone Is Killing Your Success

3. Listen by sensing messages, not just hearing them.

Listening takes a tremendous amount of self-control, to not only check your own impulses for getting what you want, but also analyzing those you work with to understand what is really being communicated.

Make a habit of paying less attention to the surface messages people convey and instead listen for what is underneath.Tune in to your gut to “sense” other people’s emotions and feelings. Most of what they communicate is nonverbal. Truth is often expressed through body language, tone of voice, eye contact and touch.

Without the discipline to listen and sense the underlying messages, you may derail your success and see it get “lost in translation.”Student Sitting and WritingFlickr / Patrick Gage Kelley

4. Make lists.

Adopt the habit of writing down what you want accomplish for the next day, week, month and year, then prioritize the list. This way, you’ll effectively allocate the time necessary to each task in accordance with its importance.

Remember that a list is a contract. The moment you write things down, you have agreed to make these things happen. Action items in written form are closer to being accomplished than are the things you merely think about.

5. Write down your thoughts in a journal.

Writing out your thoughts is a useful habit for translating your thoughts into tangible form. Writing gives perspective to what you want, where you are at, what things you do not want to repeat and what needs to be accomplished, to get to your goals.

When you write, the left brain is distracted by the task, making room for the more innovative right brain to express your out-of-the box, creative ideas which are necessary to navigate your way through your goals.

Journaling itself is the ultimate practice for finding perspective in solving problems.There is no better way to come up with practical solutions than to spend time ironing out patterns, successes, failures, improvements and the generation of new ideas.

6. Love what you do.

All the elite success stories we see, from Oprah to Bill Gates to Walt Disney, are people doing the things they most want to do, and earning substantial income as a result. To emulate these people, you must commit to channel your work in a direction where that work adds value to society.

Financial worth is merely a side benefit — a reflection of the value you have added to other people’s lives.

7. Be willing to pay the price.

Success takes sacrifice. Develop the habit of “showing up” — consistently and every day. Be committed to the long haul and be willing to expend unlimited time and energy working toward your goals.

There is no path to success through laziness. Many entrepreneurs are not as successful as they could be because they aren’t willing to “pay the price” to reach those higher levels of commitment.

Make it a habit to identify the distractions you need to give up that consume time but add no tangible value to your life or business. Place those distractions into the category of leisure and commit to putting work responsibilities first, and leisure second.

The number one focus in success is achieving the goals you set to get there.

8. Practice self-coaching.

Entrepreneurs who are exceptionally successful make a habit of maintaining a positive inner dialogue, so make positive self-talk your habit. You can either talk yourself through challenges or talk your way deeper into them.

Negativity takes no effort. That type of lackadaisical attitude has no room in your life. Adopt a positive outlook to be successful. This does not mean you have to be happy all the time, just that you do not let negative emotions drag you down.People Running MarathonFlickr / Chris Brown

9. Engage in physical activity.

There is no better way to clear your mind, connect with your creativity, increase your brain chemistry and improve your sleep quality than to engage in physical activity. Make it a habit to increase your “aliveness” and improve your health, happiness and longevity.

The brain gets tired when engaged in constant mental activity, while physical activity is a necessary pick-me-up. So engage in some type of physical activity every day.

10. Give back.

To be truly successful, you need a life mission that reflects your desire to make a significant difference in the lives of others. Your main motivation should not be money. The non-monetary purpose of your career is what will bring you the happiness, self-satisfaction and significance you are striving for.

Be clear on why you want to do what you do. If you are plagued with a hunger for money alone, then that is what you will be: plagued. Find the deeper purpose of your vision and drive it to better the lives of others.

In reality success is not something to be enjoyed by the select few. We all have equal opportunity. The main differences are limited to motivation, will, effort and habit. Therefore, be someone who attains success by being bold, determined, patient, creative and independent. Good habits lay the groundwork for your ability to make it to the top.

Related: Peter Thiel: Luck Is Just an Excuse For Not Working Hard Enough 

 

Businessinsider.com | April 13, 2015 | SHERRIE CAMPBELL, ENTREPRENEUR

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244651#ixzz3XE3AbHiC

Leadership: 3 Ways To Motivate Your Team In The Changing World Of Work…Leadership Today Demands both Influence & Inspiration. Which Require a Commitment to Meet People Where they Are.

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As the pace of change accelerates across the workforce, there’s a significant need for leadership to step up. Yet as the “Workforce 2020” study from Oxford Economics uncovered, barely half of surveyed CEOs said their leadership knows how to inspire and empower employees. That’s not going to cut it.

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Where Leadership Styles Come From

In my life, two learnings have shaped the type of leader I’ve become more than others – one from childhood, the other from parenthood.

As a native of South Africa, I grew up during both the apartheid era and the Rainbow Nation under Nelson Mandela. I watched a new chapter in the history of my country unfold before my eyes. I saw how a leader could unite people in spite of vast differences – color, socioeconomic situation, and life experience – to build a nation committed to reconciliation and transformation.

How many of you have taken the online quiz “what’s your superpower?” (Guilty.) Nelson Mandela’s superpower was revealed in the way he connected with people to engage and motivate them to work for a better life. Not just for themselves, but for others. And while I can say that’s not the superpower I apparently have, it’s something I work to emulate every day.

 

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Leadership today demands both influence and inspiration. Which require a commitment to meet people where they are. Nelson Mandela said it best, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, it goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”

Another key influence on my leadership style is something very personal, my two sons, now ages 8 and 11. They remind me I’m required to embrace an ever-changing balance of power and influence – both as a parent and in the workplace.  Access to information, data, and social networks has changed the dynamic in both. My boys ask questions, give opinions, and regularly question my authority (sound familiar?)  – empowered by that access to information. So just as I as a parent must adapt my style to match the exhausting pace at which my children learn and absorb the world around them, I have to do the same thing in business when dealing with my team.

So while leading may not be as easy as it used to be, successful organisations don’t panic by change – they embrace it.  As the world of work evolves, so must our approach to leadership

Effective leaders inspire and motivate talented employees to maximize their potential. And that’s never been more important, as our work forces become more diverse and more globally dispersed than ever. One day I may call an office in London or San Francisco my work location, the next it may be my kitchen table, and soon after a client’s office or British Air row 11.

To stay connected and motivated, employees need a simpler, standard way of collaborating and communicating – whether full-time or contingent, co-located or virtual, the youngest generation or the oldest.

Certainly there’s no “one size fits all” solution. But technology today is simplifying the landscape for employees and companies. Here are three things I keep in mind:

1. Keep things simple

When it comes to managing talent in this global and hyper-connected economy, simply automating old processes for recruiting, payroll, time tracking, expenses, and the like won’t work. Instead, you need simpler, standardized processes to motivate and align employees with business goals. And every faction of the workforce – full-time employees, a growing contingent workforce, and leadership – must be considered when determining whether you’re making the business simpler and not just more automated.

 

2. Invest in your employees

Today’s workforce does not yet possess the skills needed to keep up with technology advancements. Companies are complicit – too often talking about how to develop talent rather than actually investing in it. The “Workforce 2020” study found that only 40 percent of employees are given the opportunity to expand their skill sets. That’s not enough at a time when entire industries are obliterated with each advent of new technology.

What’s the answer? Creating a workplace culture that encourages learning starts at the top. Leadership teams must understand that new skills cannot just be acquired just through hiring – a very expensive and inefficient propositioncosting in the 1.25 to 1.4 times base salary range. Better to give your current employees easy access to resources that are relevant, insightful, and engaging – anytime and anywhere. The technology is there to support this: social platforms for collaborative learning and development, programs that track learning progress, and open content MOOC-style courses from the top content providers and universities around the globe.

 

3. Maintain a focus on customer success

Nothing unites a team better than customer success. Remember how your young kids were motivated by rewards to try harder? I can say a certain candy bar worked miracles in my house. With customer success at the center of everything you do, I believe organisations will innovate faster and more often, delivering better products and service, and helping customers remove complexity from their own businesses. The result? Happier customers and happier employees.

This story also appeared on the SAP Business Trends community.

 

Forbes.com | April 13, 2015 | Mike Ettling