Strategy: Here’s the Morning Routine that Experts Recommend for Peak Productivity…You Have 2-2.5 Hours of Peak Productivity Every Day. You May Actually be 30% More Effective at that Time

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What’s the best way to start your day so that you really get things done?  Laura Vanderkam studied the schedules of high-achievers. What did she find? Almost all have a morning routine.

philz coffee, phil jaber

Phil Jaber, founder of Philz Coffee.

I’ve interviewed a ton of top experts about their productivity secrets: Tim Ferriss, Cal Newport, Dan Ariely, Charles Duhigg, and others.  But you’re busy. You don’t have time to read all that stuff. You need a plan.

So many readers have written to me saying what my friend Jason always does: “I don’t have time. Eric, now that you’ve talked to all these people, what do you do?”

Okay, time to round up what the experts have said and build a roadmap.

1. Stop reacting.

Get up before the insanity starts. Don’t check your email or anything else that is going to dictate your behavior.

When I spoke to productivity guru Tim Ferriss, bestselling author of “The 4-Hour Workweek,” what did he say?

Here’s Tim:

I try to have the first 80 to 90 minutes of my day vary as little as possible. I think that a routine is necessary to feel in control and non-reactive, which reduces anxiety. It therefore also makes you more productive.

Most of us get up and it seems like things are already in motion. Gotta race to something. Emails coming in. We’re already behind.

So of course you aren’t achieving your goals. You immediately started with what the world threw at you and then just reacted, reacted, reacted as new things came in until the day ended or you were too exhausted to do what was important.

You need to wake up before the insanity starts. Before demands are made on you. Before your goals for the day have competition.

(For more from Tim Ferriss on what the most productive people do every day, click here.)

Okay, you’re ahead of the maelstrom. What do you need to do before things get thrown at you?

 

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2. Decide the 3 things that matter today.

Cal Newport is so productive it makes me cry. He’s a professor at Georgetown, cranks out academic papers, has written 4 books, and is a dad and a husband. And he’s done by 5:30PM every day. What did Cal have to say?

All tasks are not created equal. Most of us deal with two fundamentally different types of work, Shallow and Deep:

Shallow work is little stuff like email, meetings, moving information around. Things that are not really using your talents. Deep work pushes your current abilities to their limits. It produces high value results and improves your skills.

Shallow work stops you from getting fired — but deep work is what gets you promoted. Deep work must get priority.

In his book “The ONE Thing,” Gary Keller applies the “Pareto principle” to the workday:

Most of us get 80% of results from 20% of the work we do. So focus on that 20%.

What really creates progress vs treading water? What gives disproportionate results? Do those things.

And don’t be vague. Specify what you need to get done. Research shows having concrete goals is correlated with huge increases in confidence and feelings of control.

Via The 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People:

People who construct their goals in concrete terms are 50 percent more likely to feel confident they will attain their goals and 32 percent more likely to feel in control of their lives. – Howatt 1999

(For more from Cal on how to stop being lazy and get more done, click here.)

Okay, you know what is important. Now you need to think about when.

3. Use your “magic hours” for your 3 goals.

Just like all tasks aren’t created equal, all hours aren’t created equal either.

Dan Ariely is a behavioral economist at Duke University and the New York Times bestselling author of “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions.”

Dan says you have 2-2.5 hours of peak productivity every day. You may actually be 30% more effective at that time. Here’s Dan:

…it turns out that most people are productive in the first two hours of the morning. Not immediately after waking, but if you get up at 7 you’ll be most productive from around from 8-10:30.

And Dan’s findings line up with other research. I’ve posted before that 2.5 to 4 hours after waking is when your brain is sharpest. You want to waste that on a conference call or a staff meeting?

Studies show that alertness and memory, the ability to think clearly and to learn, can vary by between 15 and 30 percent over the course of a day. Most of us are sharpest some two and a half to four hours after waking.

But does this really work? In studies of geniuses, most did their best work early in the day.

Those are the hours when you should be working on your 3 goals. Designate that part of your day as “protected time.”

Maybe you know that you’re a night owl. Fine, then protect those hours. The important thing is to do your key tasks during your key hours.

(For more on the schedule the most successful people use every day, click here.)

You know what’s important today and you know when your best hours are. But maybe you’re not motivated or you feel like procrastinating. How can you get going?

4. Have a starting ritual.

Charles Duhigg is a reporter for the New York Times and author of the bestseller “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business.” What did he say about fighting procrastination and getting things done?

Finishing things isn’t as much of a problem as just getting started in the first place. Here’s Charles:

One way to use habits to fight procrastination is to develop a habitualized response to starting. When people talk about procrastination, what they’re usually actually talking about is the first step. In general, if people can habitualize that first step, it makes it a lot easier.

Maybe getting that cup of coffee is the signal that you’re getting down to business. Or do you have a spot where you’re usually productive? Go there.

Wendy Wood, a professor at USC explains how your environment activates habits — without your conscious mind even noticing.

Via Habit: The 95% of Behavior Marketers Ignore:

Habits emerge from the gradual learning of associations between an action and outcome, and the contexts that have been associated with them. Once the habit is formed, various elements from the context can serve as a cue to activate the behavior, independent of intention and absent of a particular goal… Very often, the conscious mind never gets engaged.

(For more on the fun way to be more successful, click here.)

Some days it just isn’t going to happen. You can’t get going on that #1 task. What should you do when all else fails?

5. Use “positive procrastination.”

Yes, procrastination can be a good thing — but it has to be the right kind of procrastination.

When do you usually get 1000 things done? When you’re avoiding that one thing that absolutely terrifies you.

If you know you can’t do that scary thing right now, do not turn to Facebook or video games. Tell yourself it’s okay to avoid it — as long as you’re doing the #2 thing on your to-do list.

Dr. John Perry, author of “The Art of Procrastination,” explains a good method for using this to trick yourself into massive productivity:

The key to productivity…is to make more commitments — but to be methodical about it. At the top of your to-do list, put a couple of daunting, if not impossible, tasks that are vaguely important-sounding (but really aren’t) and seem to have deadlines (but really don’t). Then, farther down the list, include some doable tasks that really matter. “Doing these tasks becomes a way of not doing the things higher up on the list,” Dr. Perry writes.

A similar tip is described by Piers Steel, author of “The Procrastination Equation:”

My best trick is to play my projects off against each other, procrastinating on one by working on another.

Dr. Steel says it’s based on sound principles of behavioral psychology:

We are willing to pursue any vile task as long as it allows us to avoid something worse.

(To learn a Navy SEAL’s secrets to grit and resilience when things get hard, click here.)

I know what some of you are saying: Where are the bullet points? I need bullet points to follow! 

No problem. Here you go:

Sum Up

Here’s what we can put together from listening to all the experts:

  1. Stop reacting. Get up before the world starts making demands so you can figure out what’s important to you.
  2. Decide what matters today. You won’t get everything done, so what will move the needle? What will let you end the day feeling like you accomplished something? No more than 3 goals.
  3. Use your “magic hours” for those three things. Your peak productivity time is probably an hour or two after you wake up. If you know your best hours are at another time, fine. Protect your “magic hours.”
  4. Have a starting ritual. Go to the place where you get stuff done. Get your coffee. Anything that tells your brain it’s time to rock.
  5. When things go sideways, use “positive procrastination.” If you can’t tackle the super scary thing, do the pretty scary thing. Designating a super scary thing in advance as a decoy can make that pretty scary thing much easier.

We’re all trying to achieve work-life balance. You’re not going to get everything done. But start the day right and you can definitely accomplish what matters. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:

You can do anything once you stop trying to do everything.

Join over 175,000 readers and get a free weekly update via email here.
Forbes.com | March 9, 2015 | ERIC BARKER, BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE
http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2015/03/morning-routine/#ixzz3Tvi61Bu0

Your Career: LinkedIn Tags 10 Careers Where Job Networks Matter Most…These Fields Did at Least 26% of their Hiring from Existing Employee Networks

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How will you find your next job? Everyone wants a better strategy than simply clicking on an endless blur of hiring notices. A fresh study by LinkedIn highlights 10 types of careers where a strong personal network of contacts may pay off the most.

(Photo credit: Simon Cockell via Flickr/Creative Commons)

(Photo credit: Simon Cockell via Flickr/Creative Commons)

In a blog post published today, data analytics specialist Peter Rigano examined the range of LinkedIn contacts held by each member of the social network that got a new job in October 2014. His objective: to see what percentage of them — at least six months before switching jobs — had established at least one connection with an employee or manager of the company that eventually hired them.

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On average, he found, 16% of all hiring involved job candidates with well-established connections into their new employer. In some cases, Rigano writes, those connections may have led to formal job referrals. In other cases, candidates may simply have learned about job openings informally, through their professional network of friends, acquaintances and other contacts.Rigano’s analysis unearthed some wide differences among industries, in terms of how common it is for new hires to have existing contacts with their prospective employers. The most tightly networked fields, according to LinkedIn data, include computer games, computer and network security, venture capital/private equity and political organizations. As the table below shows, all of these fields did at least 26% of their hiring from existing employee networks.

(Source: LinkedIn)
(Source: LinkedIn)
At the other end of the spectrum, industries such as restaurants, freight delivery, medical practice and luxury goods conducted less than 10% of their hiring from existing employee networks, according to LinkedIn’s data.
(Credit: LinkedIn)

From what I’ve seen of game development, management consulting and private equity, LinkedIn’s suggestion that these are highly clubby, close-knot fields is probably correct. LinkedIn’s roster of more than 300 million users is famously comprehensive for such knowledge-intensive, high-profile fields.

But the full picture on restaurants and medical practices may be more complex. Such domains aren’t traditionally thought of as hotbeds of LinkedIn activity. It may be that people in those fields rely significantly on their networks of work contacts to help them find jobs, too. The low scores could reflect, at least in part, a lower percentage of such workers’ networks that are found within LinkedIn’s databases.

All the same, as Rigano points out, highly specialized technical industries are looking for people with uncommon skills, and a good way to find such people is to tap into recommendations by existing employees. Something similar is at work in relationship-driven professions such as finance and politics, where companies like to tap into employees’ existing networks to find people who are good at “closing deals and winning clients.”

 

Forbes.com  | March 9, 2015  |  George Anders Contributor

I write about innovation, careers and unforgettable personalities.

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Leadership: What The Best Managers Do Differently…Only 34% can Name the Strengths of their Employees & Only 32% have Had a Meaningful Discussion about Their Employees’ Strengths in the Last 3 Months

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Could your manager name your top five strengths – you know those things you’re good at and actually enjoy doing at work? And if yes, have they sat down with you recently and had a conversation about how you can build on your strengths as you go about your job?

SheepHerder

If you’re shaking your head, you’re not alone.

The 2015 Strengths At Work Survey shows that when it comes to our managers, only 34% can name the strengths of their employees and only 32% have had a meaningful discussion about their employees’ strengths in the last three months.

But the managers who do are outperforming their peers.

Gallup research has previously found that the highest performing managers (based on composite performance) are more likely to spend time with high producers, match talents to tasks, and emphasize individual strengths in making personnel decisions. As a result, these strengths-focused managers nearly double their likelihood of success, and are 86% more likely to achieve above average performance levels than their non-strength focused colleagues.

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This newest data sheds light on just how these managers are delivering superior results. They have more engaged, more energized and higher performing employees. The reason is simple – when we are using our strengths, we enjoy what we do much more than when we aren’t using them. And when we enjoy what we do, we do it better! Michelle McQuaid, who co-authored this latest survey says, “It’s clear that focusing on people’s strengths is good for the employee, good for the manager and good for the organization .” You can watch a segment of my interview with Michelle about leveraging our strengths on RawCourage.TV below.

The survey results are illuminating both for us as individuals, managers and leaders trying to harness the full potential of those in our organization. For example:

  • 71% of employees who believe their managers can name their strengths report feeling engaged and energized by their work.
  • 78% of employees who report having a meaningful discussion with their manager about their strengths feel that their work is making a difference and is appreciated.
  • 65% of these employees describe themselves as flourishing (as opposed to functioning or languishing) and able to make things happen.

So, what can managers do to make the most of their employees’ strengths? Here are three simple steps to get started.

  • Discover your employees’ strengths – Start to pay attention to the moments your people are clearly engaged, energized and enjoying what they’re doing. What talents can you see them using? How are they acting upon the values they hold? What interests are they demonstrating? If you’re struggling, ask them to complete the free 10 minute strengths assessment at www.viacharacter.org and together explore how they’re putting these strengths to work.
  • Offer guidance on their development – Ask them how they’d like to be drawing on these strengths more as they go about their job. If they had the opportunity to do what they do best each day – at least for part of it – what would they be doing more of? How can this be aligned to the goals your team and organization are trying to achieve? What development support – on-the-job experiences, coaching or training – might they need to develop these strengths further?
  • Give strengths-based feedback – Start looking for the different ways your employees are using their strengths. Let them know when you value and appreciate the way they’ve applied a particular strength to get a good result. Help them to understand when they’re overplaying a strength and how to dial it back in these moments. Encourage them to stop underplaying specific strengths when you see them hesitating or holding themselves back.

Adopting a strengths-focus is a small shift that delivers big rewards for managers. Best of all it doesn’t require an organizational stamp of approval or any budget to execute. Managers need only to be willing to start looking for what their employees are doing best, and talking with their employees about ways to build up on their strengths.

Margie Warrell is a bestselling author of Stop Playing Safe and Find Your Courage.   Connect on Facebook and Twitter and or check out her new book BRAVE at www.TrainTheBrave.com

Strategy: 5 Simple Things Super Productive People Do on Mondays…Starting Monday Firefighting will Put You Behind Schedule for the Entire Week

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Monday can totally feel like a drag. You just had a great weekend of fun and play and now it’s back to the workweek. Even those who love their job can find Mondays a real buzz kill.

Clocks

But Monday can also be an exciting beginning. With the right approach it can stimulate efficiency and productivity for the entire week. It takes a strong constitution to start the week with focus and determination, yet, this is exactly what the most productive people do. Here are 5 key ways they use Monday to their advantage.

1. They start with a positive attitude.

So much time and energy is used up by a bad mood. Super productive people don’t like to waste any energy and they certainly don’t want the week to lag from a bad start. They focus their mind on joyful productivity from the moment their feet hit the ground in the morning. They revel in the excitement of what they can accomplish. Instead of lamenting going to work, focus on where you truly want to be and what will take you forward.

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2. They dedicate time for organization.

Starting Monday firefighting will put you behind schedule for the entire week. Super productive people understand that organization doesn’t happen magically on its own. Time is required to think things through and create process. Otherwise, a haphazard approach will create chaos and eat the very time you thought you might save. Block out an hour first thing Monday morning and get your ducks in a row.

3. They prioritize their objectives.

If you don’t have clear objectives on Monday, you will find yourself with a short week to get things done. Super productive people assess the entire week so they can manage their resources accordingly. That gives them the ability to meter out the week and adjust as necessary. Make your lists and calendar your time. It will free your mind for the week.

4. They anticipate obstacles.

Obstacles are an inevitable part of every project and work environment. Monday is a great time to focus on the obstacles of the week. Super productive people incorporate room for unknown speed bumps into their plan, so that when the inevitable happens, they don’t get tripped up.

5. They line up their allies.

People are busy and you can’t assume that they will use Monday to set up their own week. Super productive people take into account the human resources required and schedule appointments right away so they don’t have to chase people later in the week. A colleague asked early for help is much more likely to respond and act than someone who is jarred into action by a surprise S.O.S.

Businessinsider.com | March 9, 2015  |  KEVIN DAUM, INC.

http://www.inc.com/kevin-daum/5-simple-things-super-productive-people-do-on-monday.html#ixzz3TttHjFEG

Leadership:You Don’t Have To Be A People Manager To Have A Successful Career…Did you Know Research has Shown that Only about One in 10 Employees has the Necessary Traits to be a Good People Manager?

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At a recent coffee talk with several young people I mentor, the discussion took an interesting turn. When I asked the group what it meant to be successful in their careers, almost every person said that success meant being promoted into higher and higher-level jobs and eventually managing a large team of people.

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Don't try and fit square pegs into round holes — change the shape of the hole.

Don’t try and fit square pegs into round holes — change the shape of the hole.

So I asked the group if they thought someone could have a successful career if they weren’t a people manager. Most started squirming in their chairs. Then they looked at each other, hoping someone else would answer my question.

“Did you know research has shown that only about one in 10 employees has the necessary traits to be a good people manager?” I asked. Many raised their eyebrows in surprise.

“And what do you think happened with companies as they downsized during the recession and laid off workers?” I added.

“They let go a lot of managers,” one person responded.

Another said: “Companies flattened their organizational structures. That’s what happened where I work. Managers used to have about six employees. Now most of the managers have at least 15 to 20 people working for them.”
“What does that mean if you want to become a people manager?” I asked the group. You could have heard a pin drop in the silence that followed.

 

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One person leaned back and crossed his arms. “It means that it really sucks for us if we want to be a manager. Now it’ll be even harder because there are fewer and fewer management jobs.” The rest nodded their heads in agreement.

That’s when I changed the direction of the discussion to try and understand why so many of them felt the need to measure their career success against whether or not they became a people manager. Turns out that most had seen successful people managers being touted in the media or had listened to business speakers during college, all of whom were people managers, not individual contributors.

What this conversation with my mentees taught me is how important it is for mentors, career coaches, writers and the media to demonstrate to the next generation that you don’t have to be a people manager to have a successful career. There are successful individual contributors in all kinds of jobs, in almost every industry.

I know computer programmers, insurance agents, sales reps, supply chain engineers, artists, graphic designers, writers, medical personnel, lawyers and even consultants (and the list could go on forever) who are highly successful in their careers – and all are individual contributors. They love the independence they have in their jobs and that they don’t have to deal with a lot of the issues and stress that comes with managing other people.

Bottom Line: Don’t let peer pressure or what’s being shown in the media drive your definition of career success. Determine your unique differentiators and then build on those strengths to create the kind of career you want – because you don’t have to be a people manager to have a successful (and fulfilling) career.

~ Lisa Quast, author of the book, Secrets of a Hiring Manager Turned Career Coach: A Foolproof Guide to Getting the Job You Want. Every Time.   Join me on Twitter @careerwomaninc

 

Businessinsider.com | March 9, 2015  |  Lisa Quast

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Strategy: 6 Verbal Tricks Bosses use to Manipulate Employees…Now it’s Your Turn. Any Deceptive (or Just Irritating) Conversation Moves You’d Like to Add to the List?

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We all notice when people overuse certain words or phrases. (I love him, but as I write this somewhere Howard Stern is saying, “In other words…”)

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I’m guilty too, having once carried on an all too public affair with, “That’s neither here nor there.” (In my defense I always thought it was neither here nor there.)

You probably have your own verbal tics too… but at least you’re trying to say what you mean. What’s worse is when people — especially leaders — use certain expressions to divert attention, hide what they really mean, or simply fail to do their jobs.

Like these all too common moves:

1. The Fake Agreement: Pretending to agree while expressing the opposite point of view.

Example: “I definitely see what you’re saying… but I don’t think we should take on that project.”

In fact you don’t really see what I’m saying because otherwise you would agree with what I’m saying. Beginning a sentence with, “I hear you…” is like a condescending pat on the head.

Don’t try to couch a different opinion inside a warm and fuzzy Fake Agreement. If you disagree, say so.

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2. The Unsupported Closure: Ending a discussion or making a decision without backup or solid justification.

Example: “At the end of the day, we’re here to sell products.”

Really? I had no idea we’re supposed to sell products!

Unsupported Closure is the go-to move for people who want something a certain way and don’t feel like — or more likely can’t — justify why. Whenever you feel an, “At the end of the day…” coming on, take a deep breath and start over; otherwise you’ll spout inane platitudes instead of objective reasons that may actually help people get behind your decision.

Quick note: A Fake Agreement combines nicely with an Unjustified Closure: “I hear what you’re saying, but at the end of the day it’s my job to make the decision.” Win-win!

3. The Double Name: Using a person’s name twice — especially your own — in the same sentence as a way to justify unusual or unacceptable behavior.

Example: “Hey, what can I say? That’s just Joe being Joe.” (Even worse, “Hey, what can I say? That’s just me being me.”)

The Double Name is just a way to excuse behavior that wouldn’t be tolerated from others. You just being you… is you just being a jerk.

(And everyone knows it.)

4. The False Uncertainty: Pretending you’re not sure when, in fact, you are.

Example: “You know, when I think about it I’m not sure shutting down that facility isn’t actually the best option.”

Oh yes, you’re sure; you’re just trying to create buy-in or a sense of inclusion by pretending you still have an open mind… or you’re planting seeds for something you know you will eventually do.

Never say you are not sure unless you truly are not — and are willing to consider other viewpoints.

5. The First Person Theoretical: Pretending to be another person in order to explore different points of view.

Example: “Let’s say I’m the average customer. I walk in your store. I want to buy a shirt…and so on.”

You can get away with this occasionally, but more than once a year is really irritating.

Think about it. Let’s say I’m the average reader and I know someone who uses the First Person Theoretical to pretend they’re putting themselves in someone else’s shoes. And let’s say I’m thinking it’s really irritating.

And let’s say I’m thinking we should just move on… and circle back to where we started:

6. The Favorite Word: Using a word so often… that word becomes the only word anyone hears.

Examples: Endless.

Not really deceptive, but still diverts attention.

For example, I had a boss who never met a sentence he couldn’t find a way to shoehorn “in other words,” “in general,” and “regarding” into. Often he could cram all three into the same sentence. I once kept track and counted thirty-seven “in other words” in four minutes. (Hey, I’m not proud.)

When you fall in love with a word or expression other people not only tire of it but they start to hear nothing else — and whatever you hoped to get across gets lost while people think, “Oh jeez. For once could he leave out the ‘that’s neither here nor there'”?

Trust me. I know.

Now it’s your turn. Any deceptive (or just irritating) conversation moves you’d like to add to the list?

 

Businessinsider.com |  March 2, 2015  |  JEFF HADEN, LINKEDIN

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/6-verbal-tricks-bosses-use-deceive-employees-just-jeff-haden#ixzz3To7RemCe

Leadership: We Are All Temporary Workers…It Will all be Over Sooner Than you Think. Whether you Love or Hate your Job, it is Not Permanent

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Nothing is permanent. It is easy to forget that.  Day after day, you take the same commute to work. Month after month, someone – your client or boss, perhaps – manages to annoy you. They are unreasonable, over-demanding, insensitive. You long for the day when no one is your boss.

Clock Man

Not so fast.

It will all be over sooner than you think. Whether you love or hate your job, it is not permanent. No human being has yet managed to hold a job for, say, five centuries. No one has been VP of Business Development for 87 years.

In the midst of day-to-day routines, your life can seem static, unchanging, even boring. This is a misperception. It is a failure of imagination.

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On any given day, you can approach your tasks with a fresh perspective. You can bring to the front of your mind the recognition that some day you will yearn for what you take for granted today: responsibility, obligations and routine. You can understand that you have room for improvement. Even more importantly, you have room for gratitude.

Some days, I wake up and everything seems to be a struggle. The weather seems oppressive, perhaps gray, dreary and chilling. People around me are in a bad mood. My mood is worse. I yearn for something different, for anything new.

Other days, everything seems to be a miracle. The sun is shining brightly, as it is today. It may be freezing in the morning, but the hint of spring is in the air. There are five projects that demand my attention, and I’m excited about each one.

You know what I mean. The main difference between these days is not some external factor. It is you. Inspiration comes from inside. So does joy, satisfaction and pride.

Across the span of my life, one lesson rises above all others:

We have a much greater ability to change than we believe.

When people say, “Change is the only constant,” it implies that change is something that happens to us, something out of our control. In fact, that is only partially true.

You have the ability to take control of far more change than may be obvious.

You can change how proactive you are.

You can change how positive you are.

You can change how much effort you exert.

You can change how grateful you are.

You can change your expectations.

You can change your willingness to be honest and open.

You can change the level of grit you display.

You can change how curious and imaginative you are.

You can change how respectful you are.

This point in time is YOUR point in time. Make it matter. Make it special. As a marketer might say, “For a limited time only, you get the deal of a lifetime.”

Love your work. Love your life.

Bruce Kasanoff is a ghostwriter and speaker.

 

Your Career: How To Conduct A Pain Interview With Your Hiring Manager…You May have to Ask Several Pain-Related Questions. Even Very Competent & Astute Managers Don’t Always have a Clear View of What’s Working Well & What isn’t. You Will be a Consultant to your Hiring Manager, Even Before you Get a Job! Practice Pain Interviewing & ee if you don’t find what other Job-Seekers have Found: That it’s More Interesting, more Intellectually Stimulating, More Fun & More Likely to Lead to a Job Offer to Talk about Pain & Solutions Than to Stick to the Interview Script!

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Pain Interviewing begins when you shift your hiring executive’s focus from the standard interview script to the actual business matters he or she is responsible for.

pain-hypothesis-banner-1024x3701111

We call it Pain Interviewing because in the same way that a Pain Letter deals with the real Business Pain behind the job ad, a Pain Interview digs into what isn’t working right now in your hiring manager’s world. That’s the meat of the matter.

Who cares what kind of soup you would be if you were a can of soup, or what you think your greatest weaknesses are or what you had for breakfast? An interview is a business meeting, so let’s talk about business!

 

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You can help your hiring manager get off the interview script and begin the Pain Interviewing process.

You’ll do it by answering one of your hiring manager’s questions, often the question “Tell me about yourself!” with a short answer and then ‘spinning the table’ to ask a question of your own.

Here’s a script to illustrate the Spin the Table processand get your hiring manager off the interview script into a human conversation about real business issues.

Once you begin to get off the script and talk about the Business Pain behind the job ad, you’ll find that the conversation gets easier and more interesting. All you can do when you’re being asked traditional interview questions is sit and answer them.

You are not an active participant in the interview process as long as you’re answering questions like a person taking an oral exam or a citizenship test.

You have to get off the script to get to the heart of what’s going on in the organization you’re thinking about joining.

Here are some Business Pain questions you can ask your hiring manager at your job interview. When you ask these questions and talk about your hiring executive’s business obstacles, you’ll be in a Pain Interview!

You have to start with a Pain Hypothesis that you formulated long before the interview, maybe a week or two ago. You researched the organization. You read your hiring manager’s LinkedIn LNKD -1.38% profile from top to bottom. You thought about the question “If I were this manager, what would be keeping me up at night?”

Is it customer service hold times, or the fact that the company has no social media strategy from what you can tell? Is it problems with financing for new product development? You know a lot about your industry and your function. Let’s put that learning to use!

Here’s how you’ll advance a Pain Hypothesis to get the Pain Interview party started!

MANAGER: So, how long have you been using Excel?

YOU: Oh, about five years I guess – I love Excel. I’m a spreadsheet geek, for sure. Listen, can I ask you a quick question about the job?

MANAGER: Sure! (He’s bored with the dumb scripted interview questions, too.) 

YOU: Fantastic. I’m wondering about your product roadmap. You launched the edible nail-polish line about 18 month ago, right?

MANAGER: Give or take.

YOU: And it looks like it’s doing well, but it’s more of a novelty than your other products. I see it in the novelty gift stores at the mall, rather than chocolate shops.

MANAGER: Yeah, that product didn’t really work in chocolate shops.

YOU: But it was a big seller when it launched. I’m curious what your product roadmap looks like now, and how you’re feeling about the new product release schedule for 2015.

MANAGER: That’s an insightful question. It’s one of the reasons I’m hiring a Number Two here in Marketing. I have my plate full. We need to keep coming out with new products.

YOU: What would your ideal release schedule look like?

Now you are talking about something real. You’re talking about what’s working and what isn’t. You are way too polite and professional to point out that when you asked your manager about the schedule for new product releases this year, you didn’t get an answer. That’s good! You love to hear about Business Pain. Business Pain is your favorite topic, because you can solve your hiring manager’s pain.

You can’t ask your hiring manager “What isn’t working here?” You have to advance a Pain Hypothesis and let him or her react to it.

You may have to ask several pain-related questions. Even very competent and astute managers don’t always have a clear view of what’s working well and what isn’t. You will be a consultant to your hiring manager, even before you get a job!

Practice Pain Interviewing and see if you don’t find what other job-seekers have found: that it’s more interesting, more intellectually stimulating, more fun and more likely to lead to a job offer to talk about pain and solutions than to stick to the interview script!

Forbes.com | March 6, 2015  |  Liz Ryan 



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Strategy: Tips for Dealing with Employees Whose Social Media Posts Reflect Badly on Your Company…Today, Employees Share Gripes & Gossip Online, as They Used to Around a Water Cooler

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In early February 2015, a Texas pizzeria owner “terminated” an employee before she’d even had her first day of work after she tweeted vulgarities about her future job. In January 2015, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found that a Mississippi police sergeant, fired in 2012 after she posted Facebook comments criticizing her police chief, had no First Amendment protections for her statements.

One Way Sign

And in December 2014, Nordstrom fired an Oregon employee who had posted a Facebook comment seeming to advocate violence against white police officers. So, are employees’ off-duty social media postings fair grounds for termination? They can be—but be sure to keep the following tips in mind.

1. Employees’ Off-Duty Social Media Postings May Constitute “Protected Concerted Activity.”

Today, employees share gripes and gossip online, as they used to around a water cooler. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) has long protected employees who use any avenue, including social media, to discuss working conditions, including pay and benefits. Such “protected concerted activity” cannot support a termination. Importantly, however, this protection is not extended to employees who merely vent individual gripes. Nor does it protect categories of employees expressly excluded by the NLRA, such as supervisors.

Last August the scope of protected activity was expanded to nonverbal online communication. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found that an restaurant employee who had merely clicked a button “liking” a Facebook post critical of his employer had engaged in protected concerted activity and was unlawfully discharged as a result. Employers should consider that similar online activity, such as retweeting and pinning, may merely indicate approval of another’s content regarding workplace concerns or grievances, and may therefore be found to constitute protected activity.

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2. State Laws May Protect Employees’ Off-Duty Conduct.

State laws may prevent employers from firing or taking adverse employment actions against a person based on that employee’s lawful off-duty conduct. New York, for example, prohibits employers from taking adverse employment actions against employees who engaged, off-duty and off-premises, in (a) legal political activities; (b) legal use of consumable products; (c) legal recreational activities; and (d) membership in a union or exercise of rights relating to union activity. Employment actions may be taken, however, if the offensive activity “creates a material conflict of interest related to the employer’s trade secrets, proprietary information or other proprietary or business interest.”

Employers must thus take into account both federal laws such as the NLRA and any applicable state laws.

3. Broad Social Media Policies May Be Invalid.

Employers often rely on social media policies to define the scope of what employees can or cannot publicize about the company online. Such policies, when enforced uniformly, can indeed help validate the firing of an employee who criticizes customers, reveals trade secrets, or creates a hostile environment for co-workers. However, a grey area arises when employers seek to ban social media posts that are critical of the company itself, or prohibit exchange of certain information. Those policies may run afoul of NLRB advisories and rulings, which apply even if the company does not have any unionized employees. In general, the NLRB has been critical of policies that prevent employees from disparaging a company or its employees, or from discussing their own compensation information, on the grounds that such policies may improperly discourage employees from taking protected actions in efforts to improve their working conditions.

4. Employers Should Consider Potential Public Relations Backlash.

In recent years, racist, sexist or otherwise offensive social media posts by employees have gone viral, often resulting in the employment of the poster being terminated. In early July, for example, SiriusXM fired an on-air personality who posted what the company described as “racially-charged and hate-filled remarks on social media.” In December 2013, the IAC media company fired its senior director of corporate communications after she tweeted what many characterized as a racially offensive comment about AIDS.

Both firings were lawful. Indeed, subject to federal and state laws, employers may terminate employees whose off-duty comments, online or otherwise, negatively affect the company’s reputation, affect morale, or pose potential liability to the company.

Sometimes, however, the firing itself can generate negative publicity—especially when it is discussed on social media. For example, last fall, Uber was the focus of attention when it terminated, and later reinstated, a driver who had tweeted a link to an article claiming that driving for Uber wasn’t that much safer than driving a taxi. In early 2013, Applebee’s president fired a waitress who had posted a customer’s receipt, but was then forced to publically justify its decision after social media criticism of the termination.

A well-crafted social media policy, which takes into account the law, covers the type of activities that led to the terminations, and is consistently applied, can help employers deal with such situations.

Like the Texas pizzeria owner, the Mississippi police department and Nordstrom, you may be within your rights to fire employees for off-duty social media postings. Following the above tips and having appropriate social media policies in place can help ensure that you are.

Joel J. Greenwald, Esq., is the managing partner of Greenwald Doherty, LLP, an employment and labor law firm, representing exclusively management, and can be reached at (212) 644-1310 or jg@greenwaldllp.com.

DISCLAIMER: The foregoing is a summary of the laws discussed above for the purpose of providing a general overview of these laws. These materials are not meant, nor should they be construed, to provide information that is specific to any law(s). The above is not legal advice and you should consult with counsel concerning the applicability of any law to your particular situation.

Forbes.com |  March 6, 2015  |  Joel J. Greenwald, Esq.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/entrepreneursorganization/2015/03/06/tips-for-dealing-with-employees-whose-social-media-posts-reflect-badly-on-your-company

Leadership: To Get To The Top, Know What You Want & Be Prepared To Take Risks…So, If you Want to Make Waves in the Office, Treat your Career Like an Adventure. Be Single Minded, be Determined, Listen, & Learn

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Last week I spoke to Shellye Archambeau, CEO of Silicon Valley based Governance, Risk and Compliance Cloud Apps company, MetricStream. Additionally a Board Director of Verizon, Nordstrom, Watermark, and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, in 2014 Shellye featured at #2 in Business Insider’s list of the 25 most influential African Americans in Technology.

Shellye Archambeau

One of four children, Shellye knew from an early age that she was destined for a role in management; “I always wanted to be leading organisations and clubs in my teens; getting things done together as a group was what inspired me” she says. Sporty at school, Shellye turned to academic groups and societies after a growth spurt left her with long term damage to her knees.

Her career began at IBM in the mid 80s when the tech industry was beginning to explode, where she held numerous executive positions including an overseas posting in Tokyo, undefined“Quite an experience for both myself and my family, and the first time IBM had ever posted an African American woman overseas”, as she recalls.

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Shellye subsequently joined Blockbuster as President of their nascent e-commerce division, before realising the company “lacked the vision” to overcome a growing trend towards online streaming film rentals

 

Headhunted to Silicon Valley to become CMO & EVP of sales at Northpoint communications, Shellye was thrilled to become part of the Palo Alto community. She describes it as “one of the most energetic and creative environments I have ever worked amongst”, but was surprised by the lack of diversity at the management level in the Valley.

She puts this down to a pervasive “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality; “there is no conspiracy here, but you could call it pattern recognition; it’s natural for people to have bias towards what they have seen succeed in the past. In the Valley, what they have seen is male dominated with a skew towards certain educational pedigrees. Silicon Valley is surrounded by some of the very best universities and colleges, so there isn’t a pressing need to cast the net wider. The Valley has always been a prolific builder of companies, folks have always known where the next great leaders were going to come from, without having to be overly innovative about it.”

“Leaders and bosses find it easier to manage people who talk and act like they do, and if it has worked before, why change it? There’s no glass ceiling, but it’s proven that if you send a company the same CV, one with a male name and one with a female, the male one will receive more call-backs than the female one; the number drops off further if it’s an African American sounding name.”

Does Shellye think it can change? “We need to keep talking about the issue until conscious awareness changes the unconscious decision making process; change happens in small increments so we have to be patient; I see it with almost every group I take over; a lot of people still regard a man’s role in the family as the sole wage earner, for example.”

“In a sense, a lack of diversity can be identified as a vulnerability. The more diverse a team is, the more its members will push one another and help them to grow as people. It’s fine to keep dipping into the same pool of talent but eventually that pool will begin to shrink, and that is beginning to happen within the Valley; there is a shortage of appropriate talent.”

In Shellye’s case, she has never concerned herself with “calls I may have never gotten” because of her sex or race, and certainly does not believe that MetricStream, the company she has led for over 10 years, lacks diversity or direction. The company helps other firms manage their financial and operational risk, helping them to make “better risk based decisions”. MetricStream has a global client base and a strong focus on the financial, retail and pharmaceutical industries.

In 2002, when Archambeau joined Zaplet, Inc. as the company’s CEO, the company was struggling: “We didn’t have a strong product market fit, and I was hired to fix things.” Archambeau oversaw it through the merger with MetricStream in 2004, and as the CEO of the newly formed company, drove forward with the vision to create an entirely new GRC industry, and cater to a market of substantial size and scale.
So how did she do it? “People say it all the time, and it’s fundamentally true; it’s all about the team! There is only so much a CEO can physically do; you have to create a vision, communicate it and make sure that everybody buys into it. Staff must understand the strategy, and be accountable to it. Every member of the team has to be able to clearly articulate what the culture is, and they must be able to execute it in every business transaction that they do on behalf of the company.”

“I am in the business of making sure that our team is customer focused, exhibits strong teamwork, and most importantly, I try to instil a “never say die” attitude that drives innovation. The culture starts at the top and is shaped by the management team. It’s down to them to hire the right people to make sure the vision becomes a reality.”

Shellye believes that being a mother or having a maternal instinct helps: “It helps you to understand what needs to be done. Taking over at the top of a company, you treat it like your first baby; you learn more and more about it and begin to understand how it needs to change and evolve in order to survive and flourish in the world”, she explains.

“But, and I can’t tell you how important this is, you must never fall in love your product”, she cautions. “You know how hard you have worked on it and you might believe, just like you believe about your own children, that it is the best thing out there. You have to try and see it from a critical perspective, be constantly innovating and trying to make improvements. Being your own worst critic is a tactic that pays off in the fullness of time.”

There are two things that Shellye believes more than anything else have helped her achieve her business goals and to rise as far as she has. Mentoring, and not being afraid to take risks. “Take advantage of other’s experiences, because you can’t experience everything yourself”, she advises. “Find mentors that you respect and ask them how they overcame the toughest problems that they have had to face. Go to them with your own problems and find out how they would have dealt with them. Follow their advice, and, and this is important, feed back to them what you did and what the result was. They will appreciate the fact that you listened to them and will be interested to hear how it panned out.”

Secondly, “never be afraid to take risks. This goes particularly for women and minorities who tend to be more risk averse. If you don’t try, you’ll never learn! You always have more to gain than to lose in business.”

Now that she has been in Silicon Valley for some time, Shellye, who lives not far from Google’s headquarters, is starting to feel like one of the family, but laughs at the idea that raising money in Palo Alto is easy to do. It’s a myth that has grown up around the area; start-up businesses around the world look on with envy at the apparently inexhaustible supply of funding for companies which start out as little more than ideas, but can achieve multi-million dollar valuations in what seems like only a matter of months.

“It’s not that easy”, she tells me, “there is definitely money here for sure, of course there is, VCs, Private Equity, Angels, but these companies invest with the expectation that the founders they back will make and deliver returns. Everyone’s trying to go out and conquer the world but you have to have the right team, the right business model, and the right market to get funding.

Leadership is about inspiring the people around you, bringing the best out of them and encouraging them to go beyond what they thought they were capable of. In order to do that, you have to be prepared to do all of those things yourself. Shellye’s career has been full of “so many wonderful teams and locations”, and throughout she has never doubted her abilities and has never been afraid to go out on a limb, be outspoken or seek advice from somebody in a more senior position. So, if you want to make waves in the office, treat your career like an adventure. Be single minded, be determined, listen, and learn. And, as Shellye clearly does, enjoy every minute of it!

Forbes.com | March 4, 2015  |   Edmund Ingham Contributor

I cover entrepreneurship and focus on London’s Silicon Roundabout

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/edmundingham/2015/03/04/to-get-to-the-top-know-what-you-want-and-be-prepared-to-take-risks/

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