Your Career: How To Spend The Hour Before Your Job Interview…Don’t Let Last-Minute Anxiety Spoil your Long-Term Preparation. Follow this Expert Advice to Feel Calm & Focused

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Your suit is ironed, tucked and free of cat hairs. Your own hairs are combed, your padfolio is organized and your employer research is thorough. And your mind? For this interview, you’ve packed it like a filing cabinet: Answers to typical interview questions are filed under A; smart questions you plan to ask your interviewers are under Q; and examples of your achievements are under E.

laptop cafe girl blonde

Do some last-minute LinkedIn research.

But although you’ve set yourself up for success, a shiver of doubt may slink up your suit in that darkest hour before the interview. Nerves set in. You try to appear relaxed, but not boring. Enthused, but not abrasive. Prepared, but not canned.

Don’t let last-minute anxiety spoil your long-term preparation. Follow this expert advice to feel calm and focused in the hour before a job interview:

Warm up your vocal cords. Talk about a quick confidence killer: introducing yourself to the interviewers only to have your voice crack or sound strained. Don’t let a weak, I-woke-up-an-hour-ago voice set the tone for the rest of the day. Lewis Lin, founder and CEO of Impact Interview, an interview coaching service, suggests warming up your vocal cords, especially before phone interviews. Before the interview — say, on the drive to the office — speak through your talking points loud and clear, “as if you were an actor or actress getting ready for an audition,” Lin says.

Do some last-minute LinkedIn research. Being likable in the interview is key, Lin says. After all, your interviewers are not only hiring, say, a product manager. They’re hiring someone they’ll encounter daily: at meetings, in the break room, at happy hours and in the buffet line of holiday parties. Show the interviewers you’re someone they should want to work with. “A great way to build that chemistry, that rapport with the interviewer, is to be able to relate to the interviewer,” Lin says.

He suggests using the hour before the interview to scan your interviewers’ profiles on LinkedIn and Twitter, as well as any personal website they have or articles written about them. Did you and one of your interviewers attend neighboring colleges? Do you both know Pete from Boston? Did you attend the same conference last summer? Breathe easier knowing you have a shared connection to mention come interview time.

Strike a power pose. Consider your pre-interview posture, says Susan Joyce, an online job search expert. She suggests looking at the research and TED Talk of social psychologist Amy Cuddy, an associate professor​ at Harvard Business School. ​Cuddy’s work shows that power poses can boost confidence, and as Joyce points out, what better time to feel confident than minutes before speaking to a prospective employer?

Joyce suggests ducking into a restroom stall before the interview and trying the starfish pose. With your feet spread apart, “you raise your arms up to the sky, you look up to the ceiling and you smile,” Joyce says. “It’s an amazing quick fix to confidence.”

Think happy thoughts. This will be easier to do after those poses, Joyce says. She and Lin say candidates often put tons of pressure on themselves: What if I blow this interview, and then I don’t get the job, and then I don’t get an interview for another six months, and then I can’t pay rent? And so on. “End-of-world-type scenarios start dancing through our heads,” Lin says, “and that’s clearly not going to be helpful when you’ve got that much pressure.”

Lin’s suggestion for showing you’re passionate about the position, but not crazy-eyed and desperate? “Have that kind of kid-like wonder,” he says.​ “Like, ‘Hey, I’m just going to have this conversation with another professional in the industry. I get to share my experiences, the things I’ve learned and I hope we get a chance to learn about the other person and the experiences they’ve had.’”

Joyce recommends repeating a few positive affirmations. Think: “I’m perfectly qualified for this job. I’m perfectly qualified for this job. I’m perfectly qualified for this job.”

Calm your nerves. “Nerves mess up a lot of interviews,” Lin says. “Whatever ritual [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][or] routine or habit that works for you to get in the right mindset to come across as relaxed and confident is really important.”  He suggests exercising if you have the time before suiting up or watching a clip from your favorite movie. Listening to music can help you focus, too. Watch pregame coverage of a professional sporting event​, and you’ll see most players entering the facility while listening to music on their headphones, Lin points out. (Ray Lewis, former NFL linebacker once told Men’s Journal that he listened to Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” before every game with the Baltimore Ravens to get fired up.)

Whether you’re about to tackle quarterbacks or a high-stakes interview, simply taking deep breaths will help settle your nerves, too, Lin and Joyce say. Before you enter the building, as you sit in the reception area and as you open wide in starfish pose, take a few long inhales through the nose and exhales through the mouth.

As Joyce sums up: “Take a big deep breath, put a smile on your face and roll with it.”

This article originally appeared at U.S. News & World Report. Copyright 2015. Follow U.S. News & World Report on Twitter.

 

Businessinsider.com |  January 26, 2015  |  LAURA MCMULLEN, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT

http://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2015/01/14/how-to-spend-the-hour-before-your-interview#ixzz3PxiF6Utb

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Leadership: Why Do Managers Hate Agile?…Agile Involves Self-Organizing Teams that Work in an Iterative Fashion & Deliver Continuous Additional Value Directly to Customers

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Why don’t Agile and management get along? In a poll last Wednesday of some 400 people working in many different firms where the practices known as Agile and Scrum are being implemented, 88 percent reported tension between the way Agile/Scrum teams are managed in their organization and the way the rest of the organization is managed. Only 8 percent reported “no tension.”

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Develop an Effective Knowledge Transfer System

Develop an Effective Knowledge Transfer System

Two different worlds

The reality is that “management” and “Agile” are two different worlds.

The world of “management” is vertical. Its natural habitat comprises tall buildings in places like New York. Its mindset is also vertical. “Strategy gets set at the top,” as Gary Hamel often explains. “Power trickles down. Big leaders appoint little leaders. Individuals compete for promotion. Compensation correlates with rank. Tasks are assigned. Managers assess performance. Rules tightly circumscribe discretion.”

The purpose of this vertical world is self-evident: to make money for the shareholders, including the top executives. Its communications are top-down. Its values are efficiency and predictability. The key to succeeding in this world is tight control. Its dynamic is conservative: to preserve the gains of the past. Its workforce is dispirited. It has a hard time with innovation. Its com1panies are being systemically disrupted. Its economy—the Traditional Economy—is in decline.

The Agile world is horizontal. Its natural habitat is in low flat buildings in places like California, although it also spreading rapidly like a virus and has already established footholds in most of the tall vertical organizations. The Agile mindset is horizontal. Its purpose is to delight customers. Making money is the result, not the goal of its activities. Its focus is on continuous innovation.

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Its dynamic is enablement, rather than control. Its communications tend to be horizontal conversations. It aspires to liberate the full talents and capacities of those doing the work. It is oriented to understanding and creating the future. It believes in banking, not necessarily banks. It believes in accommodation, not necessarily hotels. It believes in transport, not necessarily cars. It believes in health, not necessarily hospitals. It believes in education, not necessarily schools. Its economy—the Creative Economy—is thriving.

The adults in the room?

The vertical world of management likes to position itself as “the adults in the room.” The following from an interview with Sam Palmisano, former CEO of IBM, in June 2014 in HBR is typical:

“You’ve got companies in great runs right now, the Googles and the Facebooks. Good ideas, great returns, but then all of a sudden, you need an act two. Well, jeez, is act two going to propel you from $30 billion to $100 billion? That’s a little tougher. It’s the Microsoft challenge.

“So you have to say, ‘Well, I need a different view. I can still create shareholder value, but I can do it a different way. I can rethink capital allocation.’ Recognize where you are on your maturity curve, as a management team, and behave accordingly. Don’t give a speech as CEO as if you just got out of Stanford and you came up with an iconic interface and you called yourself a piece of fruit.

Sadly, the real world is the opposite of the imaginary world that Palmisano inhabits.

The firms with “names like pieces of fruit” are not “$30 billion firms.” In fact some of them are now much larger than the old 20th Century “giants.” Apple for instance is now more than four times the size of IBM.

Market capitalization

Apple $660 billion

Google $362 billion

Facebook $222 billion

IBM     $155 billion

GM       $ 54 billion

Whereas firms with a vertical mindset at the top, like IBM, are struggling with declining revenues andbloody cost-cutting reorganizations, firms in the horizontal world of Agile, like Apple and Google, are busy growing and inventing the future. Their second, third and fourth acts are already well under way.

What then is Agile?

For those managers who don’t know what the Agile is (itself a part of the problem), the horizontal world of Agile involves self-organizing teams that work in an iterative fashion and deliver continuous additional value directly to customers.

The practices of Agile that includes names like Scrum, XP, Kanban, DevOps and Continuous Development, grew out of lean manufacturing in Japan in the late 20th Century. As Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka wrote in “The New New Product Development Game” in HBR in January 1986:

This new emphasis on speed and flexibility calls for a different approach for managing new product development. The traditional sequential or “relay race” approach to product development… may conflict with the goals of maximum speed and flexibility. Instead, a holistic or “rugby” approach—where a team tries to go the distance as a unit, passing the ball back and forth—may better serve today’s competitive requirements.

In due course, Agile became a major force in software development, following the Agile Manifesto in 2001. More recently, it has been spreading to all sectors of the economy, not only in digital natives like Apple and Google, but also in significant pockets within large traditional organizations.

Agile was a response to hierarchical bureaucracy

Agile, Scrum and Lean arose as a deliberate response to the problems of hierarchical bureaucracy that is still pervasive in organizations today: falling rates of return on assets and on invested capital, a dispirited workforce, a decline in competitiveness andwidespread disruption of existing business models.

Given these problems, it’s easy to forget that hierarchical bureaucracy was a great advance when it was introduced over a hundred and fifty years ago. The basic idea of hierarchical bureaucracy is that work is organized with individuals reporting to bosses who tell them what to do and control their work. The roles, the rules, the plans, and the reports of hierarchical bureaucracy created order where previously there had been chaos.

Icons from TheNounProject

As Gary Hamel has noted, hierarchical bureaucracy solved two essential problems:

  • getting semiskilled employees to perform repetitive activities competently and efficiently;
  • coordinating those efforts so that products could be produced in large quantities.

In a stable environment, it had great strengths. It was scalable. It was efficient. It was predictable and it delivered reliable average performance.

It had some liabilities. It was vertical. It was non-collaborative. Its plans were linear. It couldn’t change direction very fast. It was dispiriting to staff but at least people had a job. And the customer was noticeable by being totally absent: the focus was internal.

In a stable environment, these liabilities didn’t matter much.

Change wasn’t important. A firm could go on, grinding out the same basic product for years without much risk of harm. In a stable context, it could predict what customers would buy. It didn’t need to worry about customers. They could be manipulated by advertising.

With semi-skilled employees performing repetitive tasks, collaboration wasn’t important. And who really cared if the workers were dispirited? It was enough that they had their job and their paycheck.

In a world where workers were only semi-skilled and information was hard to come by, it made sense to put the boss in charge. In that setting, managers generally did know best.

Then the world became turbulent

But the world changed and the marketplace became turbulent. There were a number of factors: Globalization, deregulation, and new technology, particularly the Internet. The Internet changed everything:

  • Power in the marketplace shifted from seller to buyer. Suddenly the customer was central, not something you could take for granted.
  • Now the new norm as “better, cheaper, faster, smaller, more personalized and more convenient.” Average performance wasn’t good enough. Continuous innovation became a requirement.
  • In a world that required continuous innovation, a dispirited workforce was a serious productivity problem.
  • As the market shifted in ways that were difficult to predict, static plans became liabilities.
  • The inability to adapt led to “big bang disruption.”

In this turbulent context, the strengths of hierarchical bureaucracy evaporated.

Scalability turned into unmanageable complexity.

The efficiency of economies of scale turned into diseconomies and inefficiency.

Predictability turned into a crippling lack of agility.

And reliable average performance wasn’t good enough for customers who wanted “faster, better, cheaper, smaller, more personalized and more convenient.”

The horizontal world of Agile

In the light of these problems, managers began to fundamentally rethink the way organizations are run. And so Agile was born. Scrum was notable among the approaches, but not the only one. The approaches all had certain features in common:

Work is done by self-organizing teams that could mobilize the full talents of those doing the work.

Work is focused directly on meeting customers’ needs.

A “lens” focuses attention on the customers’ needs (when the lens is a person, as in Scrum, the person is known as a “product owner”; in large scale applications, the lens is “a platform.”)

Work proceeds in an iterative fashion so that it can progressively satisfy customers’ needs better.

The arrangement can be pictured thus.

Icons from TheNounProject
In this way of organizing work, the basic dynamics of the traditional economy are reversed.

Instead of a vertical dynamic of hierarchical bureaucracy with people reporting upwards to bosses, the firm was operating horizontally was a focus on the customer.

Instead of a controlling ideology, the approach is one of enabling self-organization.

Instead of static linear plans, plans are iterative and continuously on the move.

Instead of a workplace that is dispiriting to staff, the workplace is interesting, even inspiring, because people have the autonomy to deliver their best.

Instead of the customer being absent, the customer is now central. The goal of the firm is to delight the customer.

Coming next: Part 2: Does Agile Scale?

And read also:

A Learning Consortium for Management Innovation

The best-kept management secret on the planet: Agile

The case against Agile: ten perennial objections

What manufacturing can learn from Agile

GE Healthcare Gets Agile

___________________

Follow Steve Denning on Twitter at @stevedenning

 

Forbes.com | January 26, 2015 | Steve Denning 

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Taxes: 10 Surprising Items IRS Says To Report On Your Taxes…Many Fringes from your Employer Aren’t Taxed, but Some Are

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This time of year, the IRS likes to remind us that just about everything is taxed. It isn’t just your paychecks that get tallied on a W-2 and end up on your tax return. Income means income from all sources. So as you start getting organized for the annual drudgery of filing taxes this year, don’t forget about some of the odder ones.

IRS

 

1. If you sell unwanted clothes, cars, furniture, even family heirlooms, are they taxed? You bet. If you sell something for $100 you bought for $50, that’s a $50 gain. But in many cases you may not know what your tax basis is. If you can’t prove your basis, IRS will view the whole $100 as income. Maybe its capital gain, but it’s still income.

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2. Barters and Trades are taxed. If you get paid to baby sit for your neighbor, take a friend to the airport or water your uncle’s garden, it’s income. Suppose you trade favors and don’t swap cash? IRS says each of you is taxed at the market value of the goods or services. 

3. Ticket scalping? Taxed. Even swapping tickets of even value can trigger tax. Selling for cash certainly does. And the fact that scalping is illegal is no excuse for failing to report it. Same for any other illegal activity. Income is income. Remember, they got Al Capone for tax evasion, not murder.

4. Gambling winnings are taxed too. If you hit the jackpot or win the lottery, it’s all taxed. Taxes are one of the main reasons some people choose to take annual payments when they have that choice. A lump-sum payout can generate a big tax bill.

5. Prizes and awards are taxed, even if you win a Nobel. They are taxed even if you don’t win cash. If you buy raffle tickets and win a car, the cash value of the car is taxed.

6. Tips on the job? IRS taxes tips just like everything else.

7. Many fringes from your employer aren’t taxed, but some are. Small value benefits in the workplace aren’t taxed. This includes coffee and pastries, occasional photocopying, occasional entertainment or sports tickets, occasional meal transportation money for working overtime. But these days the IRS is looking hard at benefits it thinks are too big to let go. Silicon Valley meal benefits could be next.

8. Cancellation of debt is a strange one. When you borrow money, you don’t have income because it’s not yours, you have to pay it back. But if the lender forgives it, you pay tax. COD is short for “cancellation of debt.” When a debt you owe is canceled or discharged, in many cases the tax code treats the wiped out debt as cash income to you. If you owe $500,000 to the bank, but the bank forgives it, it’s as if the bank just handed you $500,000 and Uncle Sam wants his cut.

9. Lawsuit recoveries are usually taxed. It may seem like you are just getting damages so aren’t being enriched, but they are usually taxed. One big exception is physical injury recoveries. But even there, punitive damages and interest are taxed. Sometimes, if you win a lawsuit, you have to pay the IRS—even on your attorney’s fees.

10. Treasure trove sounds like something from a pirate movie, but it’s a term used by the IRS. Cash or valuables you find are taxed. In Cesarini v. United States, a man bought a used piano for $15 and found $5,000 in cash inside. When the IRS said it was taxable, Mr. Cesarini went to court. He lost, and the treasure trove tax hit happens to others too. In 2013, an anonymous couple found $10 million in rare gold coins buried in cans on their property. It was the biggest and best coin discovery in U.S. history. And it was taxed.

For alerts to future tax articles, follow me on Forbes.com. Email me at Wood@WoodLLP.com. This discussion is not intended as legal advice, and cannot be relied upon for any purpose without the services of a qualified professional.

Strategy: 11 Productivity Tips That Will Make You More Effective…Every Project Requires an Action Plan. There is Always a Most Efficient Series of Steps for Each Project.

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With the abundance of demands on our time today, it’s easy to feel like we’re losing control. Even if we’ve decided what really is important, we still require a few sensible suggestions to assist us in organizing our time more effectively.

Messy Desk

That is the purpose of these 11 tips for time management and productivity.

1. Synchronize all calendars.

If you have a calendar on your PC, a wall calendar, a daily planner, and a handheld device, all of them must say the same thing.

Too many planners and calendars obviously may lead to unneeded confusion. Therefore, attempt to get by with just one, or, if that isn’t possible, be certain that all of them are synchronized.

 

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2. Every project requires an action plan.

There is always a most efficient series of steps for each project. To save effort and time, we must identify what that series is and follow it. Prior to starting any project, attempt to identify this series and jot it down.

3. Schedule the most vital activities first.

If you first deal with your most critical tasks first, it’ll be easier to discover time for less important tasks. If you permit yourself to become sidetracked on busywork or unimportant tasks, odds are you never will get to the things that really matter.

4. Track your time.

To figure out where your time is heading, attempt to keep a time log for one or two weeks. How much time is actually being lost on unimportant tasks? Where will the majority of your interruptions come from? Will they happen within specific periods of time or on certain days of the week? Once you have this data, it’ll be simpler to eliminate time-wasting tasks, along with interruptions and distractions.

5. Schedule less.

If you’re cramming too much into your schedule, you’ll always feel frustrated and rushed — and ultimately, you will not get much accomplished. Attempt to be realistic concerning how many things are scheduled into your day. One ounce of accomplishment is better than one pound of frustration.

6. Minimize all interruptions.

Block off parts of your day during which you aren’t to be distracted unless absolutely necessary. When possible, turn off your phone, instant messenger, pop-ups, Twitter notifications, and all other things that usually get your focus off the project. Learn to concentrate on one activity.

7. Expect the unexpected.

Things happen, that is just the way it is. If your schedule is so tight that you do not allow for the unexpected, you drastically increase your odds of feeling chaotic throughout the day. If you must be somewhere and you’re able to make it in 15 minutes, permit 25. Leave tiny, unscheduled time blocks all through your day in order for you to have a buffer against the unexpected.

8. Utilize transition time to your advantage.

If you’re commuting, attempt to utilize this time for something productive. Can you find a method of listening to crucial data that you normally would need to read later?

Have something around that you’re able to do whenever you’re stuck waiting around. Making use of time that normally would be wasted is an easy way to create more time for those things you have a desire to accomplish.

9. Take occasional breaks.

I utilize applied focus sessions where I do 45 minutes of focused effort, followed up by 15 minutes of something else. After 45 minutes, our ability to focus starts to taper off and we no longer optimally perform.

I utilize those 15 minutes for strolling around, getting something to drink, answering calls, or anything else that distracts me from the activity at hand. Oftentimes, that’s when my best ideas come to mind, and I wind up feeling invigorated and prepared to make things work.

10. Think on paper.

If you feel stuck, jot the issue down. Defining the issue on paper is going to assist you in sorting it out. Create a list of as many solutions as possible. Odds are, you have just solved your issue.

11. Be flexible.

These are just suggestions; they aren’t fast and hard rules. Experiment, discover what will work for you personally, and don’t be frightened of customizing the thoughts to match your individual needs and circumstances.

Some of them might work for you and some of them might not, yet you never will know until you try.

 

Businessinsider.com | January 21, 2015 | MURRAY NEWLANDS, INC.

http://www.inc.com/murray-newlands/11-awesome-productivity-tips-that-will-radically-improve-your-life.html#ixzz3PUpCsAsf

Strategy: The Complete Guide To Crafting A Perfect LinkedIn Profile…”Pledge to Banish Trite Buzzwords & Take These Easy Steps to Reinvigorate Your Profile,”

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January 21 is the most popular day of the month for LinkedIn users to update their profiles.  If you’re one of the millions of people rewriting your “summary statement” or uploading a new cover photo today, Catherine Fisher, a LinkedIn career expert, has some advice for you.

linkedin-pano_12204

“Pledge to banish trite buzzwords and take these easy steps to reinvigorate your profile,” she says.

 

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Here’s the complete guide from LinkedIn to having an all-star profile:

BYY_infograph

Strategy: These 8 Scales Reveal Everything You Should Know About Different Cultures…How Organizations Make Decisions Relates Closely to How they View Leadership, but with Some Important Differences

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Many people, perhaps especially Americans, underestimate how differently people do things in other countries.  Examples and insights for avoiding this can be found in “The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business,” a 2014 bestseller by INSEAD professor Erin Meyer (also check out those global communication diagrams from Richard Lewis).

japanese salarymen businessmen tokyo

Japan is the opposite of America when it comes to communication.

Meyer claims you can improve relationships by considering where you and international partners fall on each of these scales:

  • Communicating: explicit vs. implicit
  • Evaluating: direct negative feedback vs. indirect negative feedback
  • Persuading: deductive vs. inductive
  • Leading: egalitarian vs. hierarchical
  • Deciding: consensual vs. top down
  • Trusting: task vs. relationship
  • Disagreeing: confrontational vs. avoid confrontation
  • Scheduling: structured vs. flexible

Communicating

Americans are the most explicit or low-context culture there is (low-context meaning their conversation assumes relatively little intuitive understanding). This is not surprising for a young country composed of immigrants that prides itself on straight-talking.

Japan and other East Asian countries represent the other extreme.

Meyer offers strategies for negotiating these differences, but the most basic solution, as with all scales discussed in the book, is simply to be aware. Thus Americans in Japan should pay attention to what’s not being said; while Japanese in America should brace themselves for direct language.

culture map communicating“The Culture Map

 

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Evaluating

Americans may be very explicit communicators, but they are in the middle of the spectrum when it comes to giving negative feedback — as anyone who as been to an American school knows.

Israelis, Russians, and Dutch are among the most direct when it comes to negative feedback.

Japanese are among the most indirect.

culture map evaluating“The Culture Map

 

Persuading

Some cultures, notably the French and Italians, tend toward inductive logic, focusing on evidence and analysis of that evidence before reaching conclusions.

Others, notably English-speaking cultures, tend toward deductive logic, focusing on a theoretical argument and its applications.

This trait shows up in everything from how people give presentations or lead meetings to how they write emails.

culture map persuading“The Culture Map

 

Leading

“In Denmark, it is understood that the managing director is one of the guys, just two small steps up from the janitor,” a Danish executive told Meyer. This represents one extreme in attitudes toward leadership.

On the other side of the spectrum in countries like Japan and Korea, however, the ideal boss should stand far above the workers at the top of a hierarchy.

America’s outlook on leadership falls somewhere in the middle.

culture map leading“The Culture Map

 

Deciding

How organizations make decisions relates closely to how they view leadership, but with some important differences.

Notably, while Japan has a very hierarchical leadership system, it has a very consensual decision-making system. This is the famous ringi system, which involves building consensus at a lower level before bringing a proposal to a higher level, thus enabling broad corporate consensus.

culture map deciding“The Culture Map

 

Trusting

In some cultures, notably America, people don’t worry so much about trusting each other because they trust their legal system to enforce contracts, and so business negotiations focus on what’s practical.

In others, including many emerging market economies but also to a lesser extent Western Europe, personal relationships are much more important, in part because people don’t trust their legal system to enforce contracts.

culture map trusting“The Culture Map

 

Disagreeing

Some cultures embrace confrontation while others avoid it. This scale looks a lot like the scale showing the directness of negative feedback, though with some differences, such as Sweden being further to the left (direct) on negative feedback and further to the right (avoiding confrontation) on disagreeing.

culture map disagreeing“The Culture Map”

 

Scheduling

That different cultures treat time differently is one of the most common observations for anyone working or even traveling abroad. On one extreme you’ve got the exceedingly precise Germans and Swiss; Americans fall relatively close to this end of the spectrum; Western Europeans and Latin Americans tend to be more flexible; Africa, the Middle East, and India are extremely flexible.

culture map scheduling“The Culture Map

Thanks to Meyer for letting us publish these charts from “The Culture Map.”

 

Businessinsider.com | January 20, 2015  | Gus Lubin 

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-culture-map-8-scales-for-work-2015-1#ixzz3PSdrqtB8

Leadership: Why All Managers MUST Be Leaders…The Only Thing Worse ‘Than Working for a Manager that Can’t Lead is Missing Out on the Opportunity to Turn our Existing Leaders into Managers

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Anyone within an organization has the potential to become a leader, but managers MUST be leaders. In schools and in our organizations we have been taught and conditioned to believe that managers and leaders are two separate people which is quite a harmful assumption.

 

Directions Man

As a result we have managers who cannot lead and leaders who cannot manage. A leader who cannot manage has a vision of where they want to go but no idea of how to get there. A manager who cannot lead is not able to build trust and create engagement within an organization to get to where they need to go. Neither of these scenarios are practical or effective.

Management and managers are human inventions that were designed with a single purpose in mind, to enforce controls and protocols. The role of a manager was to make sure that employees showed up on time, did their jobs, didn’t cause any problems, and showed up the next day to repeat the process.

There was no emphasis on creativity, innovation, engagement, empowerment, or the like; nor was there a need for any of these things. However today we live and work in a very different world where all of these things are essential. This means that managers MUST be leaders. I believe we have reached an important tipping point which is forcing us to rethink managers and management altogether.

The stereotypical manager focuses on control, delegation, productivity, the bottom line, process, and efficiency. The leader focuses on vision, engagement, big ideas, empowerment, innovation, and transformation. One without the other is meaningless. Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs are of course considered to be great leaders in the world of business, but do you think that they didn’t know how to build a team, look at the bottom line, execute strategies, and improve productivity? Of course they did.

 

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We don’t need to look to the likes of Bezos or Jobs, any manager regardless of how junior or senior needs to be able to come up with big ideas, inspire employees, take on a certain degree of risk, or engage team members. We spend a lot of  time taking people in positions of power and trying to train them to be leaders when we should be finding the leaders inside of our organizations and training them to be managers.

The only thing worse than working for a manager that can’t lead is missing out on the opportunity to turn our existing leaders into managers. We need to stop assuming that “managers” is a dirty word, if managers must be leaders then they should be looked at with a positive lens.

Greg Schott, the CEO of Mulesoft is a MANGER that personally interviews every candidate that applies to work there.

Todd Etter, the chief collaboration officer of The Motley Fool is a MANGER who uses games to inspire and engage his employees.

Lynanne Kunkel, the VP of Global Talent Development at Whirlpool WHR -1.14%is a MANGER that recently helped introduce a program across the company that instills the values of leadership and innovation across all employees.

Bob Chapman, the CEO of Barry-Wehmiller Companies, is a MANAGER who measures “heart count” at his company to look at how engaged and happy the employees are.

Scott Abel, the CEO of Spiceworks, is a MANGER who has something called “slices with Scott” where he orders pizzas for the whole company who then get to spend hours asking Scott any questions they want whether it be “what’s our company strategy going forward” to “how come you don’t have kids?”

We can no longer afford to segment and separate managers and leaders, this does nothing but hurt our organizations. If you want to formally be placed in a position of “power” where you help drive your organization forward then the pre-requisite for this is that you must be a leader. That is, you have earned followers, you have built trust among your co-workers, and you are able to think big and inspire others. But if you are not a leader at your organization than you should also not be a manager.

Management and leadership need to be taught in schools as interconnected disciplines that cannot exist without the other. Leaders within organizations should be mentored so that they know how to properly manage. We must stop referring to leaders and managers as two separate people. And perhaps most importantly, we need to give leaders at our organizations the opportunity to be officially recognized as managers.

Only then will we be able to create organizations where employees are engaged, organizations that are able to attract and retain top talent, and organizations that are capable of surviving and thriving in a rapidly changing world.

 

Forbes.com | January 21, 2015 | Jacob Morgan

 

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Leadership: 7 Navy SEAL Sayings That Will Keep Your Team Motivated… “Everyone Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Face.”

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Asleep at your desk? Read this and get going.  Whether you are an entrepreneur, working in corporate America, or building a start-up, it is imperative to continually seek new ways to stay inspired and driven. Being a self-starter is a fantastic quality, but we are all human and get distracted by the minutiae of our day-to-day responsibilities.

Navy SEALs use their training to tackle any challenge.

Here are seven Navy SEAL sayings I keep top of mind while moving toward achieving my personal and professional goals.

1. The only easy day was yesterday.
This is one of the more well-known sayings of the SEALs. When constantly pushing yourself to excel, there will be challenges that make every day a battle.

As an entrepreneur, this concept keeps me motivated, because it puts things into perspective. If you wake up knowing that every day will pose new challenges and that you are ready to face them head-on, you will be well equipped to achieve any goal you set.

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2. Get comfortable being uncomfortable.

One exercise in SEAL training is “surf torture.” You link arms with your classmates and stand, sit, or lie in the frigid Pacific Ocean until your body reaches the early stages of hypothermia. During the initial phases of training, you do this daily. Then you cover yourself from head to toe in sand and stay that way for the rest of the day. You might follow this with running the obstacle course, weapons training, or classroom time, but you are expected to push the discomfort aside and stay focused on the task at hand.

There have been many times as a business owner that I have been in very uncomfortable situations. That could be a difficult conversation with a team member, a lawsuit, or dealing with a demanding board member. Discomfort comes in many forms. But the more you embrace that as a reality, the wider your comfort zone becomes. This boosts confidence and provides the tools for facing even larger challenges down the road. So as we like to say, “Embrace the suck.”

3. Don’t run to your death.

In the SEAL teams, this is not a metaphor. When conducting raids that put you in close-quarters combat scenarios, restraint is often the best approach. Once you breach and gain entry to the target, being slow and methodical often wins the race. Hence the phrase, “Don’t run to your death.”

Knowing when not to act is as important as knowing when to push forward. Restraint is crucial for business leadership. This is especially important if you are running or managing a rapidly growing business. Growth is fantastic, but smart growth is even better. Have a good plan, slow down, grow intelligently, and never, ever, run to your death.

4. Have a shared sense of purpose.

A shared sense of purpose is hard to continually communicate. The economy changes. New technologies emerge. Employees come and go. There are many moving parts, which is why it’s critical for the leadership to always be communicating the reality of the situation and what the “win” will look like when you get there. And, most important, what everyone’s role is in helping the team achieve that goal.

5. Move, shoot, communicate.

As a SEAL, you must be able to perfectly execute these three functions to ensure mission success. Move: You have to be able to work as one well-maintained mechanism with the ability to have constant fluid motion. Shoot: That’s self-explanatory. Communicate: All good teams have frequent, open, transparent communication. When the bullets start flying, everyone needs to know what the next move is.

The same philosophies apply in the fast-paced world of business and entrepreneurship. The team has to have the ability to communicate effectively to adapt to changing environments. Which takes us to the next saying.

6. No plan survives first contact with the enemy.

This is from Helmuth von Moltke, a German field marshal from World War I. Similar is this sentiment from Mike Tyson: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” That is why preparation and training are even more critical than planning.

When you have a team of the right people doing the right things, they will know how to adapt when the you-know-what hits the fan. And they will adapt with composure, not panic. This is why ongoing training and professional development are so important.

7. All in, all the time.

I wanted to close with another one of the more well-known SEAL sayings. Just being a good performer won’t cut it to make it into the SEAL teams. You have to give everything you have just to make it to the next day. Just like managing stress, you have to focus on one piece at a time. So don’t worry about the test you have in the afternoon. Your goal is to make it to breakfast. Then lunch, and so on.

Whether you are building a startup, leading a team in a large organization, being an active parent, battling cancer, or training for a triathlon, it’s got to be all or nothing. Mediocrity and moderation won’t get the job done. Give everything you do everything you’ve got.

My heart welled with pride when I heard my 8-year-old son’s flag football coach give the team one last piece of advice in the last couple minutes of its championship Super Bowl game. He said, “Now is the time to dig deep. Leave everything you’ve got on that field. If you do that, win or lose, you will be the champions!” So whether you are 8 or 58, get comfortable being uncomfortable, get well prepared, and be all in, all the time.

Follow Brent Gleeson on Twitter at @BrentGleeson or view his website atwww.brentgleesonspeaker.com.

Forbes.com | January 20, 2015 | Brent Gleeson 

Leadership: How Successful People Stay Productive & In Control…Unfortunately, Self-Control is a Difficult Skill to Rely On

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TalentSmart has tested more than a million people and found that the upper echelons of top performance are filled with people who are high in emotional intelligence (90% of top performers, to be exact). The hallmark of emotional intelligence is self-control—a skill that unleashes massive productivity by keeping you focused and on track.

You've got less than a minute to persuade the audience you're worth listening to.

Unfortunately, self-control is a difficult skill to rely on. Self-control is so fleeting for most people that when Martin Seligman and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania surveyed two million people and asked them to rank order their strengths in 24 different skills, self-control ended up in the very bottom slot.

And when your self-control leaves something to be desired, so does your productivity.

When it comes to self-control, it is so easy to focus on your failures that your successes tend to pale in comparison. And why shouldn’t they? Self-control is an effort that’s intended to help achieve a goal. Failing to control yourself is just that—a failure. If you’re trying to avoid digging into that bag of chips after dinner because you want to lose a few pounds and you succeed Monday and Tuesday nights only to succumb to temptation on Wednesday by eating four servings’ worth of the empty calories, your failure outweighs your success. You’ve taken two steps forward and four steps back.

Since self-control is something we could all use a little help with, I went back to the data to uncover the kinds of things that emotionally intelligent people do to keep themselves productive and in control. They consciously apply these twelve behaviors because they know they work. Some are obvious, others counter-intuitive, but all will help you minimize those pesky failures to boost your productivity.

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They Forgive Themselves

vicious cycle of failing to control oneself followed by feeling intense self-hatred and disgust is common in attempts at self-control. These emotions typically lead to over-indulging in the offending behavior. When you slip up, it is critical that you forgive yourself and move on. Don’t ignore how the mistake makes you feel; just don’t wallow in it. Instead, shift your attention to what you’re going to do to improve yourself in the future.

Failure can erode your self-confidence and make it hard to believe you’ll achieve a better outcome in the future. Most of the time, failure results from taking risks and trying to achieve something that isn’t easy. Emotionally intelligent people know that success lies in their ability to rise in the face of failure, and they can’t do this when they’re living in the past. Anything worth achieving is going to require you to take some risks, and you can’t allow failure to stop you from believing in your ability to succeed. When you live in the past, that is exactly what happens, and your past becomes your present, preventing you from moving forward.

They Don’t Say Yes Unless They Really Want To

Research conducted at the University of California in San Francisco shows that the more difficulty that you have saying no, the more likely you are to experience stress, burnout, and even depression, all of which erode self-control. Saying no is indeed a major self-control challenge for many people. “No” is a powerful word that you should not be afraid to wield. When it’s time to say no, emotionally intelligent people avoid phrases like “I don’t think I can” or “I’m not certain.” Saying no to a new commitment honors your existing commitments and gives you the opportunity to successfully fulfill them. Just remind yourself that saying no is an act of self-control now that will increase your future self-control by preventing the negative effects of over commitment.

They Don’t Seek Perfection

Emotionally intelligent people won’t set perfection as their target because they know it doesn’t exist. Human beings, by our very nature, are fallible. When perfection is your goal, you’re always left with a nagging sense of failure that makes you want to give up or reduce your effort. You end up spending your time lamenting what you failed to accomplish and what you should have done differently instead of moving forward excited about what you’ve achieved and what you will accomplish in the future.

They Focus On Solutions

Where you focus your attention determines your emotional state. When you fixate on the problems that you’re facing, you create and prolong negative emotions which hinder self-control. When you focus on the actions you’ll take to better yourself and your circumstances, you create a sense of personal efficacy that produces positive emotions and improves performance. Emotionally intelligent people won’t dwell on problems because they know they’re most effective when they focus on solutions.

They Avoid Asking “What If?”

“What if?” statements throw fuel on the fire of stress and worry, which are detrimental to self-control. Things can go in a million different directions, and the more time you spend worrying about the possibilities, the less time you’ll spend taking action and staying productive (staying productive also happens to calm you down and keep you focused). Productive people know that asking “what if? will only take them to a place they don’t want—or need—to go. Of course, scenario planning is a necessary and effective strategic planning technique. The key distinction here is to recognize the difference between worry and strategic thinking.

They Stay Positive

Positive thoughts help you exercise self-control by focusing your brain’s attention onto the rewards you will receive for your effort. You have to give your wandering brain a little help by consciously selecting something positive to think about. Any positive thought will do to refocus your attention. When things are going well, and your mood is good, self-control is relatively easy. When things are going poorly, and your mind is flooded with negative thoughts, self-control is a challenge. In these moments, think about your day and identify one positive thing that happened, or will happen, no matter how small. If you can’t think of something from the current day, reflect on the past and look to the future. The point here is that you must have something positive that you’re ready to shift your attention to when your thoughts turn negative, so that you don’t lose focus.

They Eat

File this one in the counter-intuitive category, especially if you’re having trouble controlling your eating. Your brain burns heavily into your stores of glucose when attempting to exert self-control. If your blood sugar is low, you are far more likely to succumb to destructive impulses. Sugary foods spike your sugar levels quickly and leave you drained and vulnerable to impulsive behavior shortly thereafter. Eating something that provides a slow burn for your body, such as whole grain rice or meat, will give you a longer window of self-control. So, if you’re having trouble keeping yourself out of the company candy bin when you’re hungry, make sure you eat something else if you want to have a fighting chance.

They Sleep

I’ve beaten this one to death over the years and can’t say enough about the importance of sleep to increasing your emotional intelligence and maintaining your focus and self-control. When you sleep, your brain literally recharges, shuffling through the day’s memories and storing or discarding them (which causes dreams), so that you wake up alert and clear-headed. Your self-control, attention, and memory are all reduced when you don’t get enough—or the right kind—of sleep. Sleep deprivation raises stress hormone levels on its own, even without a stressor present, which are a major productivity killer. Being busy often makes you feel as if you must sacrifice sleep to stay productive, but sleep deprivation diminishes your productivity so much throughout the day that you’re better off sleeping.

When you’re tired, your brain’s ability to absorb glucose is greatly diminished. This makes it difficult to control the impulses that derail your focus. What’s more, without enough sleep you are more likely to crave sugary snacks to compensate for low glucose levels. So, if you’re trying to exert self-control over your eating, getting a good night’s sleep—every night—is one of the best moves you can make.

They Exercise

Getting your body moving for as little as 10 minutes releases GABA, a neurotransmitter that makes your brain feel soothed and keeps you in control of your impulses. If you’re having trouble resisting the impulse to walk over to the office next door to let somebody have it, just keep on walking. You should have the impulse under control by the time you get back.

They Meditate

Meditation actually trains your brain to become a self-control machine. Even simple techniques like mindfulness, which involves taking as little as five minutes a day to focus on nothing more than your breathing and your senses, improves your self-awareness and your brain’s ability to resist destructive impulses. Buddhist monks appear calm and in control for a reason. Give it a try.

They Ride the Wave

Desire and distraction have the tendency to ebb and flow like the tide. When the impulse you need to control is strong, waiting out this wave of desire is usually enough to keep yourself in control. When you feel as if you must give in, the rule of thumb here is to wait at least 10 minutes before succumbing to temptation. You’ll often find that the great wave of desire is now little more than a ripple that you have the power to step right over.

They Squash Negative Self-Talk

A big final step in exercising self-control involves stopping negative self-talk in its tracks. The more you ruminate on negative thoughts, the more power you give them. Most of our negative thoughts are just that—thoughts, not facts. When you find yourself believing the negative and pessimistic things your inner voice says, it’s time to stop and write them down. Literally stop what you’re doing and write down what you’re thinking. Once you’ve taken a moment to slow down the negative momentum of your thoughts, you will be more rational and clear-headed in evaluating their veracity.

You can bet that your statements aren’t true any time you use words like “never,” “worst,” “ever,” etc. If your statements still look like facts once they’re on paper, take them to a friend or colleague you trust and see if he or she agrees with you. Then the truth will surely come out. When it feels like something always or never happens, this is just your brain’s natural threat tendency inflating the perceived frequency or severity of an event. Identifying and labeling your thoughts as thoughts by separating them from the facts will help you escape the cycle of negativity and move toward a positive new outlook.

Putting These Strategies to Work

The important thing to remember is you have to give these strategies the opportunity to work. This means recognizing the moments where you are struggling with self-control and, rather than giving in to impulse, taking a look at these strategies and giving them a go before you give in.

Travis co-wrote the bestselling book Emotional Intelligence 2.0 and co-founded TalentSmart, the world’s #1 provider of emotional intelligence tests and training, serving 75% of Fortune 500 Companies.

Forbes.com | January 20, 2015 | Travis Bradberry

Legal: Lowe’s $10 Million Settlement Provides 3 Lessons For Firms Working With Independent Contractors…Common Misconceptions Held by Today’s Businesses is that Working With an LLC Removes the Risk Associated with Misclassification

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Another Fortune 500 titan, another misclassification lawsuit. Lowe’s became the latest company this week to settle a legal dispute over the classification of its independent contractors. The home improvement outfit joined the likes of Google, FedEx FDX +0.72% and Uber, all who have been mired in similar controversies over the last year.

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Earlier this week, a federal court judge approved a settlement between Lowe’s Home Centers and a class of its home improvement contractors. The contractors claimed that they had been misclassified as independent contractors instead of employees. According to the lawsuit:

The plaintiffs in this case are home improvement contractors comprised of both individuals and businesses. The complaint alleged that Lowe’s had the right to control, and did control, all aspects of installation jobs. The complaint also alleged that:

  • Lowe’s Production Office managed each installation project
  • Lowe’s set the fees to be earned by each home improvement contractor
  • Lowe’s imposed a non-compete covenant on installers

The Lowe’s settlement gives us yet another chance to reflect on the growing trend of misclassification. More importantly, it allows us to highlight 3 key lessons every business should consider when working with an independent contractor.

     1) Retaining contractors who operate in the form of a business entity, such as an LLC, does not necessarily mitigate your compliance risk

One of the more common misconceptions held by today’s businesses is that working with an LLC removes the risk associated with misclassification. The idea that sole proprietors are somehow riskier to work with simply isn’t true. In the case of the Lowe’s, the original complaint filed did include installation contractors that operated in the form of a business entity.

Furthermore, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Court and the Kansas Supreme Court both found that FedEx Ground had misclassified employees as independent contractors who were operating as a business entity.

Businesses seeking to mitigate their compliance risk would be wise to acknowledge that contracting with a business entity does not automatically eliminate your misclassification exposure.

 

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     2) Billion Dollar Enterprises Are Just As Vulnerable To Worker Misclassification

The notion that the biggest, most prosperous businesses are somehow immune from regulatory oversight is simply ludicrous. These powerful megacorps are just as susceptible to labor violations as their small and mid-sized counterparts.

From Uber to Google GOOGL +0.35%, independent workers are playing a critical role in the growth of some of today’s biggest brands. That’s why it’s so surprising that many of these enterprises have yet to implement affordable freelance management software (FMS) they can use to track, manage and document their 1099 work engagements.

Worker classification has always been important, but with the federal government announcing new steps to crack down on this growing practice, now more than ever is the time to take labor compliance seriously.

     3) The Cost of Non-Compliance Can Be Staggering   

Fines levied by the IRS and State Labor Departments for worker misclassification can exceed millions, if not tens of millions of dollars, depending on the severity of the infractions. The threat of class action lawsuits (as was the case in the Lowe’s lawsuit) should also serve as a further deterrent for companies straddling the boundaries of improper classification.

The cost of the lawsuit to Lowe’s is likely to exceed $10 million when it’s all said and done (not to mention Lowe’s is reportedly involved in other misclassification lawsuits). The obvious question here is why would these businesses continue to expose themselves to such staggering financial risk when the cost to address misclassification is far less than the fines themselves.

It’ll be very interesting to see how businesses, especially the Fortune 500 giants, adapt to this new workforce dynamic and if they begin leveraging technology to improve their classification accuracy and reduce their compliance risk. Only time will tell…

Forbes.com |  January 20, 2015 | Jeff Wald and Jeffrey Leventhal