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Your #Career: 6 Steps to be Viewed as more Powerful at Work… Striking a Confident Pose might be enough Significantly Impact how Powerful you’re Perceive at Work, but these Steps Can Get you There

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If there were any logic to our language, power could be a dirty word. Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer posits that the idea of power goes against most people’s idea that the world is a just and fair place. “It violates their basic belief that people can get ahead just on the basis of their hard work and good effort,” he says.  Even if the vast majority of people prefer not to acknowledge the presence of power in the workplace, Pfeffer says it’s as unavoidable as air or water in a recent segment he filmed for Insights by Stanford Business.

Photo: Flickr user Alfonso Jimenez]

Summoning power isn’t as simple as it used to be. The study that suggested striking a confident pose to signal a significant hormonal shift that had a positive effect on negotiation and closing a deal was recently cast in doubt. A study from the University of Zurich that tried to duplicate the previous results on a much bigger scale didn’t boost testosterone and reduce cortisol, which would enhance power.

Fear not. Pfeffer offers five other strategies for pumping up your power quotient at work, even if you’re slouching in your chair.

1. FIND THE MOST SIGNIFICANT PLAYER

This is a person you could easily overlook. According to Pfeffer, “Oftentimes, it’s an assistant or a secretary or people who aren’t necessarily that high up in the organization chart.” In order to make yourself more powerful, you need to know who these people are and what they do.

Gatekeepers and caretakers may be ordering gifts and booking travel for executives, but they’re also privy to high-level intelligence and scheduling meetings, the kind of influence that affects those at the top of the org chart. As one executive assistant atNBC Universal says, “People know I know everything.”

 

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2. MAKE A STRONG CONNECTION

 

 

With a power map in hand, it’s time to cozy up to the right players who can support your career goals. In addition to cultivating relationships with mentors and advocates, the person with their finger on the pulse of the organization is in a position to help you if you help them.

One way to do this is to build a relationship with them. Next to power, there’s nothing like uttering the wordnetworking to make a working stiff’s skin crawl. But Pfeffer maintains that strengthening a social connection with a power player is necessary to ramp up your own potential power.

3. BE A HELPER

Building relationships takes time. In the workplace, as at networking events, success doesn’t come from a one-and-done approach. The best way to negotiate is to make yourself available to help. Pfeffer recommends taking care of tasks that make those individuals’ lives easier.

Or, you could just do what the best networkers do and facilitate an introduction that could help your influencer. It also doesn’t hurt to get beyond the work environment and talk about personal interests.

4. FLATTERY WILL GET YOU EVERYWHERE

Most people have trouble networking because it feels self-promotional and inauthentic, even when they are employing the best tactics. So it’s likely that Pfeffer’s advice to flatter the person you’ve identified will seem counterintuitive, or downright wrong. But it can be quite effective, he says: “People like to think good about themselves, and we all love people who make us think well of ourselves.”

Just don’t confuse compliments with full-on brownnose behavior. “When someone is overly complimentary and positive, people find them to be disingenuous,” MIT professor Neal Hartman says. “It’s not flattering, and in some cases, it’s annoying.” And it could get you passed over for the promotion you are angling for.

5. PUT YOURSELF IN THE MIDDLE

If you simply can’t bring yourself to sprinkle your conversations with compliments, Pfeffer says there is another way to put yourself in the power seat. Figure out if there are any unexploited resources or a budget to put on a speaker series, a dinner, or even a lunch that will allow you to meet more people. The goal, says Pfeffer, is “to put yourself at the center of a series of relationships.”

Pfeffer believes work and life are all about social relationships: “The better they are, the better your career is going to go.” He encourages those seeking power to ask themselves not only who they need to know, but how they might reallocate their time to spend more of it with people who will be useful to their advancement and less with those who make us feel comfortable.

The reason is simple, he says: “People who you don’t know very well can link you in to different ideas and different social relationships, jobs, and networks.” It’s difficult, he admits, but the initial pain is usually overcome quickly, and most people find they like it, says Pfeffer.

STAY CONFIDENT

Above all, power and leadership go hand in hand, so stay confident. Pfeffer says, “Your job as a leader is not to be genuine or authentic; it is to be true to what the situation requires of you. The last thing you want to do is to signal to others that you don’t have confidence in your own success.”

 

Fastcompany.com |  April 30, 2015 | 

#Leadership: The 7 Habits Of Really Ineffective Managers…If You are an Expert on Everything & Never Wrong, you Prevent the Team Doing its Job.

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I thought it was about time I wrote a bestseller, but couldn’t come up with any very good ideas. Then I realised that I didn’t have to. I could hitch a ride on Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” It’s a great book, but Covey only covered half the topic. He talks about good habits, but someone needs to talk about the bad habits that get in the way, the ones that you need to get rid of as you develop Covey’s good ones.

ToughInterviewer

And this is where I have great expertise. I have been privileged (is that the right word?) to work with some of the world’s most useless, obstinate, short-sighted, value-destroying managers. I’ve been in situations where, if I’d had a number for a reliable hitman, I would have gone to the board for a budget and made that call.

 You see, I used to be a turnaround specialist. I was the guy they called when the previous guy had been found wanting and been fired. I met a lot of troubled companies, and noticed one very interesting thing. Some of them had been unlucky, in that a recession or sudden change in the market had caught them in a bad place, but there was always an element of rotten management involved.

So let me offer you the Seven Habits of Really Ineffective Managers, subtitle “They Made These Mistakes So That You Don’t Have To.” Avoid these seven and you will be doing well.

First habit: they have to be right. Always. About everything. I remember once, in casual conversation with a project manager, the question came up of which road it was that went from Derby to Stoke on Trent. I thought it was the A516. He thought it was the A50. The difference was, though, that he really cared about the answer. I was indifferent (I’ve been to Stoke once, and that was enough).

He, on the other hand, from his tone and body language, made it clear that he was ready for a big argument on the subject. I moved quickly to another topic. I checked a map later and it turned out, in the unlikely event that you care, that we were both half right. It’s the A516 as far as Uttoxeter, then the A50.

If he was so intent on being right even on this trivial, irrelevant, issue, what was he like on questions that mattered to the task at hand? You guessed it – a nightmare.

He had made two mistakes. The first was to attach his ego to be being right, and the second was to assume that the first answer that came into his head was right.

This habit is horribly damaging. It prevents you being an effective member of a team. The point of a team is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; team members cover each others’ weak spots and correct each others’ mistakes. If you are an expert on everything and never wrong, you prevent the team doing its job.

The antidote to this bad habit is simple. Practice saying two things:

“I think x is the case, but let me check..” and

“I might be wrong. ”

When did you last say anything like this? If your answer is “
can’t remember” or, even worse, “It never applies” then you know something is wrong.

Tomorrow: more bad habits from my Management Hall Of Infamy.

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Forbes.com | April 27, 2015 | Alastair Dryburgh 

#Leadership: 10 Tips For Better Business Writing…“Clarity is the Most Important Characteristic of Good Business Writing,” – Mignon Fogarty

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The ubiquity of e­mail means that everyone in business, from lords of finance to programmers who dream in code, needs to write intelligently. By using simple, clear, precise language, and following a few other basic writing rules, you can become a better communicator and improve the prospects for your career.

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“Clarity is the most important characteristic of good business writing,” says Mignon Fogarty, creator of the “Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing” podcast. “Often businesspeople will use big $10 words because they want to sound intelligent. Instead, they end up sounding like they’re trying too hard.”
Start by writing short, declarative sentences. Never use a long word where a short one will do. (No need to write “utilize” when “use” works just as well.) Be ruthless about self-­editing; if you don’t need a word, cut it. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or any kind of jargon if you can think of an English equivalent. Regardless of how many times your managers ask you to “circle back,” or “move the needle forward,” take a stance against tired business jargon. These expressions may sound important, and like the official language of a club you’d like to join, but you will express yourself more clearly if you say what you mean in plain language.

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When you’re composing an e­mail, make your point and move on. If your big idea isn’t in the first paragraph, put it there. If you can’t find it, rewrite. “Simplicity doesn’t mean simplicity of thought,” says Kara Blackburn, a lecturer in managerial communication at MIT Sloan School of Management. “Start by asking yourself what you want the person to do as a result of this email. Just asking yourself that question can make your communication much clearer.”

Be specific. Instead of mentioning “the current situation,” explain exactly what it is, whether it’s low company morale, or an SEC investigation.

Curb your enthusiasm. Avoid overusing exclamation points, regardless of how energized or friendly you might feel. Choose professional sign­-offs like “Best” and “Regards” over the too-­cute “xoxo.”

Whenever possible, use active instead of passive verbs. Active verbs help to energize your prose. Instead of writing, “The meeting was led by Tom,” write: “Tom led the meeting.” Use a straightforward sentence structure–subject, verb, object–that people can read quickly.

Choose pronouns wisely, and don’t be afraid to use “me.” “I often read versions of ‘Send the memo to Bob and myself,’” says Fogarty. “For some reason people think that ‘myself’ sounds more important or formal.” To avoid this mistake, Fogarty recommends thinking about how you would say the sentence if you removed mentions of other people. “Send the memo to me” sounds correct. If you add “Bob” to that clause, the “me” pronoun still works.

Beware of common grammatical mistakes. Know when to use “that” and “which.” “That” introduces essential information in what’s called a “restrictive clause.” “Which” introduces extra information in a “nonrestrictive clause.” Here’s an example: “I’m interested in speaking with you about our new product, which has the potential to increase sales.” The second clause provides extra information, and it isn’t essential to the first clause. Therefore, “which” is correct. In a sentence such as “Computers are the only products that we sell,” the clause “that we sell” is essential to the meaning of the sentence, so the correct word is “that.” You can’t remove the “that” clause without changing the meaning of the sentence.
Another common error is confusing “affect” and “effect.” Affect is a verb meaning “to influence.” “Effect” is a noun that means “result.” The weather affects our ability to travel, and it had a terrible effect on my flight to New York.

For more writing tips, consult classic books on writing and grammar, such as The Elements of Style, by William Strunk and E.B. White, The Associated Press Stylebook and The Chicago Manual of Style. On iTunes, download the “Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing” free podcast. Happy writing.

This is an update of a story written by Helen Coster.

Forbes.com | April 27, 2015 | Susan Adams 

 

Your Career: How To Survive Your New Boss…One of the Biggest Risks to your #Career is When you Get a New Boss

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One of the biggest risks to your career is when you get a new boss. Gone is the understanding of your performance and contribution and the good working relationship you had with your previous manager.

Now you have to start all over again.

woman holding small man

© ArtFamily – Fotolia.com

Even worse, sometimes that new boss was hired to make changes or they simply want to put their own stamp on the organization. Sometimes that change ends up being you.

During this critical change, you must be proactive and strategic. Here are some survival tips you can use to break in your new boss and keep your job:

Start Before You Get a New Boss

If most of your interactions at the level above you are solely with your old boss, and his or her peers don’t know you or value your contributions, you are at a major disadvantage when your boss leaves.

To prevent this, extend your interactions and work to build relationships within the company beyond your manager so other people can become part of your support network. This takes time and effort and sometimes a very light step depending on your current supervisor’s approach, but you will be rewarded when he or she leaves. It is also one way to get considered for replacing your boss. If the decision makers don’t know enough about you, it’s hard for them to consider you for the role.

Learn All You Can About Your New Boss
If you know in advance, do some research on your new manager. If not, you’ll have to wait until the person is announced or, sometimes, after they show up.

This research is crucial to understanding what makes the new person tick, what is important to them, how they have handled or managed staff before, and what issues or risks you need to look out for.

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Start with a LinkedIn search. If they are in your network, you can find out where they came from and what companies they have worked for. Find common connections or check your own connections to see if someone worked in their previous company, and ask your contact what they know. Do some legwork and try to learn as much as you can about your new boss, preferably before you first meet.

Beyond LinkedIn, you can do a simple Google search. That may reveal associations they are involved with, past initiatives, presentations or talks they have given, or other background information that can help you understand them better.

Even more important, when you finally do meet the person, ask what their preferred approach is when it comes to meetings, status reports, workplace communication, or anything else related to your position. Instead of assuming they will operate like your old boss or they will immediately like how you operate, you should ask. If it is different from your approach, you have an opportunity to sell them on your way of doing things—or at least know you will have to work with it until you can convince them to change.

More AllBusiness:
99 Inspirational Quotes for Entrepreneurs
A 12-Step Guide to Building Your Very First Mobile App
10 Invaluable Tools for Running a Small Business
The Top 25 Home-Based Business Ideas

Pass the Interview

Often, the new boss will meet with their new direct reports to learn as much as they can about you, your department, and issues or opportunities. Don’t look at this as a simple meeting where you are sharing information and “bringing them up to speed.” This is a job interview and you need to sell yourself.

If you managed to learn more about your boss before this meeting happens, you’ll be better equipped to sell yourself because you will know your audience. If not, you still need to consider what a new boss would need, what to share, what to hold back (at least for now), and how to best position yourself and what you do.

Understand What Others Will Say

Your new boss will be in a learning mode, particularly if they are new to your company or your division. They will talk to and listen to many others, including their new direct reports, their peers, and their own manager or other senior management they interact with.

You need to have a good idea of what others may say about you, your department, or your staff so you can provide a counterpoint to misinformation or misunderstandings in a proactive manner. Do this carefully; don’t just say, “So and so will tell you this, but they are wrong.”

Instead, knowing what might be said to your new boss, simply share background information and the facts so that, when they are told something, they will be better able to understand the issues in context.

Don’t Badmouth Your Colleagues

It’s tempting to tell your boss that your underperforming colleague isn’t doing a very good job, or point fingers at others around you to make your new boss think you are the high achiever on the team.

That would be a mistake. What you can do is arm him or her with information and even questions to ask so they discover for themselves what you already know. This is a much more powerful approach than saying bad things about others—even when they are true.

Evolve Your Style

Let’s face it: you may have to change to fit your new supervisor’s style or expectations. If you want to stay and thrive, you must be flexible enough to make any changes needed to satisfy your boss and develop the understanding and trust necessary to move forward together.

Read all of Michel Theriault’s articles on AllBusiness.com.

 

Forbes.com | April 27, 2015 |  Michel Theriault

 

Strategy: 3 Smart Ways To Regain Your Focus…When do you Tend to get Distracted? Ever Notice when you End up Browsing the Internet with No Particular Purpose in Mind?

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Working in a focused way can greatly boost our productivity.  It also helps us stay calm, as we tackle tasks with our full attention rather than flitting from thing to thing.

Cross Training

Here are some ways to regain your focus and combat distractions.
1- List it

Lists help because we don’t have to keep everything in our memory. That frees up space for us to focus on the task we’re doing in the present moment. If, instead, you try and keep a running To Do list in your memory, your mind will turn again and again to those things you need to remember to do. If you’re feeling overwhelmed about everything you have to do, try writing a list of all the tasks. This simple step can make a difference to feeling you are in control of the tasks – before you’ve even done any of them! Then, you can focus on doing one thing on the list at once (don’t try and multitask).

There’s no need to think or worry about the next thing on the list until you get to it – the list is doing that job for you. A list can also help direct your focus for making good use of your free time. This is a way to guard against a week or a month going by without getting round to anything you really wanted to do.

At the start of each month, think about what you want to get out of your free time in the month ahead. Set some intentions (big or small) and note them down. They might be as simple as meeting a friend for coffee or going for a run each Tuesday. You could also give each month a theme, if you wanted to concentrate, for example, on health one month, or creativity the next. Make sure the list is not so long it’s unachievable or overwhelming – remember there’s always next month.

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2- Monitor distractions

The first step in tackling distractions is to assess your level of distraction. Sometimes we don’t even notice that we’re repeatedly breaking off from our work and losing focus every time our smartphone beeps. Start to become aware, not just of your own distraction, but of the distraction of people around you. Look at how often people reach to respond to their phones. Notice when you switch to check email. Notice when you end up browsing the Internet with no particular purpose in mind.

When do you tend to get distracted? Is it always at the same time of day or when faced with a certain task? How long do you get distracted for? Start to time how long each distraction is taking up. Perhaps decide to have five minutes of deliberate distraction before you get on with a task (time it). How does that feel? Notice who is distracting you today.

Other people can be a major cause of distraction. Try saying you’ll get back to them later and write yourself a note (so you don’t have to remember). See what you can find out about what distracts you and when you get distracted. Try changing one thing about your behaviour so you begin to take control of distractions.

3- The feeling of focus

Most people enjoy the feeling of focusing on a task. Remind yourself what it feels like to concentrate fully on something. Turn off distractions or potential distractions, such as your smartphone and your email. Then sit down – for an hour if you can – and get on with something that really needs your attention. Enjoy the feeling of not being interrupted and of being able to give your 100% attention to this task.

If you feel tempted by distractions, or an urge to “just check” your messages, try getting up and walking around for five minutes instead of checking, then return to your task. One clear benefit to focused work is the boost in productivity it creates. Measure your output in your hour of focused work. How much did you get done? Is that more than usual? Choose times that suit you to work in a focused way like this.

Most of us work better at certain points in the day – so work with these productive times if you can. Make sure you take regular breaks and don’t expect yourself to sustain this level of focus for hours on end.

Frances Booth is author of The Distraction Trap: How to Focus in a Digital World. To get your free first chapter of The Distraction Trap, and for more productivity tips, join her mailing list here.

 

Forbes.com | April 22, 2015 | Frances Booth

#Leadership: 3 Success Traits Women Can Learn from Men…Men Brush off Criticism more Easily than Women — & We can Learn from Them by Doing the Same.

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Women are still not equally represented in the most senior leadership and executive roles in business. And one key question remains: Why?

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First, consider the facts, provided by Judith Warner, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and a columnist for Time.com. Although they hold more than half of all professional-level jobs, American women represent:

  • Only 14.6 percent of executive officers, 8.1 percent of top earners, and 4.6 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs.
  • Just 16.9 percent of Fortune 500 board seats.
  • 54.2 percent of the labor force in the financial-services industry, but only 12.4 percent of executive officers and 18.3 percent of board directors. None are CEOs.

The data speaks for itself — women are still struggling to get equal representation in top positions in the business world. The feminist movement did a lot for building awareness around the pay and power gap, but didn’t solve the problem.

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Today, the same challenges remain, but the solutions are evolving. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s COO and author of Lean In, and Katty Kay and Claire Shipman, longtime journalists and authors of The Confidence Code, identify a new, more relevant reason for the inequality in the numbers above: A confidence gap.

The good news? Confidence can be built. The bad news? According the to research cited in The Confidence Code, men are innately more confident than women in these three particular areas. But if women can work to overcome the three common confidence-killers below, then watch out, men — these statistics are going to change, and change fast.

Killer No. 1: Waiting to seize new opportunities. AHewlett-Packard study to identify ways to get more women into top management positions revealed that the women working at HP applied for promotions only when they believed they met 100 percent of the qualifications necessary for the job. Conversely, the men were happy to apply when they thought they could meet just 60 percent. Essentially, women wait until they are perfect candidates before reaching for new opportunities.

The takeaway: Women can learn from men to jump for opportunities that excite them and feel like a perfect fit with their strengths — no matter what the exact qualifications are.

Killer No. 2: Internalizing failure or dwelling on negative feedback. Legendary WNBA coach Mike Thibaulthas had the unique position of training both men and women (as an NBA coach and scout, he helped recruit Michael Jordan) and has been coaching women for 10 years. He had this to say the authors of The Confidence Code, about the difference in how his male and female players differed when it came to handling failure: “The propensity to dwell on failure and mistakes, and an inability to shut out the outside world are the biggest psychological impediments for my female players, and they directly affect performance and confidence on the court.

There’s probably a distinction between being tough on themselves and too judgmental” he said. “The best males players I’ve coached, whether it’s Jordan or people like that, they are tough on themselves. They push themselves. But they also have an ability to get restarted more quickly. They don’t let setbacks linger as long. And the women can.”

The takeaway: Men brush off criticism more easily than women — and we can learn from them by doing the same. Internalizing failure slows down the process of innovation and the ability to be your best self for the next opportunity that may be right around the corner.

Killer No. 3: Being held at the mercy of what others think. Other studies, according to The Confidence Code,suggest that men rely less on praise to feel confident than women do. I have seen this in my client work — men brush off criticism with ease, while women hold on it and spend way too much time wondering why it happened, what they can do to fix it, or beat themselves up for not being what those have criticized them for.

The takeaway: Women need to take a note from men on this one. The key to success is to not care what others think. While not an easy challenge to overcome, start noticing when you are making decisions or initiating action: Why are you doing this? Is this coming from your own truth or based on what others think? Once you notice how often you care what others think, you can begin to reverse the behavior. The more you can stay true to yourself in the face of opposition, the better.

While men certainly aren’t perfect, there are some key lessons in confidence and creativeness that they can teach women. While you can’t gain confidence with a snap of your fingers, it’s something that every woman can work on. My take? Once women start overcoming these confidence barriers, we will finally have a world that all women have strived for — one with balance and equal representation of the genders in all fields and levels of authority.

Forbes.com | April 21, 2015 | Laura Garnett

#Strategy: Here’s How to Win Any Argument…Attacking Someone’s Idea Puts them into a Fight-or-Flight Mode. Once on the Edge, there is No Way Getting Through to Them

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It’s easy for a calm debate to turn ugly. When this happens, it’s almost impossible to persuade your opponent. We created an infographic  of the most successful tactics to help you get your point across in a courteous and educated way.

argue-conflict-workplace

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How To Win Any Argument Graphic

Businessinsider.com | April 20, 2015 | 

#Leadership: 5 Ways To Make Your Teams More Engaged & Productive…By Following the Jeff Bezos “Two Pizza Rule” Organizations are Able to make Sure that Bureaucracy is Kept to a Minimum.

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This is part 2 of a post I wrote last week called “Why Smaller Teams Are Better Than Larges Ones.” In the first post I explored several concepts and research studies which all point to why smaller teams are more effective than larger ones.

interview-meeting-7

 

I touched on the Ringelmann Effect, Social Loafing, and Relational Loss; all theories that help explain why people don’t perform as well when their team size increases. Today I want to explore some things that organizations can actually do to help make sure their teams are more engaged and productive while countering some of the above. This is by no means an exhaustive list.

1- Invest in collaboration technologies

Internal social networks, video conferencing solutions and the like are a great way for employees to stay connected anywhere, anytime, and on any device. As a result employees will get a better sense of how their individual contributions are impacting their teams and the organization as a whole.

 Companies investing in these technologies are also much more likely to offer flexible work environments which helps with employee engagement. These technologies also make it increasingly easy for managers and leaders to “listen” the pulse of the organization to better understand what employees value and care about. Finally, as a result of collaboration platforms employees can start to reduce their reliance on email which can be a massive time-suck.

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2- Provide visibility into goals and objectives

At Morningstar Farms (who I will be writing about more in the future), employees create Colleague Letters of Understanding (CLOU) which is a personal mission statement for how the employee will help the organization including performance metrics. This CLOU is how employees hold each other accountable for various projects since they have complete visibility into each others goals, objectives, and performance metrics.

As a result employees are not able to hide behind ambiguity which makes “social loafing” much harder. Morningstar Farms is also unique because they don’t have any managers but that’s another story. Technologies such as BetterWorks are also making goal setting transparent and scalable across the entire company.

3- Keep teams small(er)

By following the Jeff Bezos “two pizza rule” organizations are able to make sure that bureaucracy is kept to a minimum. This also prevents group-think from happening as employees are forced to share their own individual ideas instead of just blindly agreeing with others.

While communication and collaboration are indeed good things it is certainly possibly to have too much of a good thing! As mentioned in part 1 of this post smaller teams are indeed more effective, productive, and engaged. If your team can’t be fed by two pizzas then it might be time to rethink the current structure or perhaps split them up into smaller teams.

4- Provide autonomy 

One of the things I have learned from interviewing, working, and speaking with many organizations of the past few years (some of whom I have interviewed on my future of work podcast series) is that autonomy is a crucial factor for productivity and engagement. Nobody wants or likes to be micro-management.

Instead of tracking hours organizations should focus on outcomes and outputs. As many organizations have told me, the role of managers is simply to help employees understand where the company needs to go, but how the company gets there is up to the employees. F5 Networks does an excellent job of this and they recently won a Glassdoor award for being one of the best companies in America to work for.

5- Challenge outdated management practices

Do annual reviews still make sense? What about strict hierarchy, centralized decision making, and constant expenses approvals? As the world of work continues to evolve and change organizations struggle to adapt. As the gap between the evolving workplace and our organizations grows, so do the disengagement rates. In fact, I believe this to be the single greatest cause for employee disengagement.

The best thing that organizations can do to continuously improve engagement and productivity is to evaluate and test common assumptions around how work is currently being done. Adobe recently got rid of all annual employee reviews in favor of more regular “check-ins,” Automatic- the company behind WordPress (on which this blog is powered) operates a distributed team around the world, Buffer- the social media scheduling platform recentlypublished their employee salaries for the world to see, Linkedin gives people a budget to take an “interesting person” out for coffee, Whirlpool abolished their managerial roles in favor of making everyone a “leader,” and the list goes on an on. All of these organizations are doing these things not just for fun, but to help improve engagement and productivity across the company. All of these organizations are challenging convention and thinking differently about work and so should you.

Jacob Morgan is a keynote speaker, author (most recently of The Future of Work), and futurist. You can get the first 30 pages of his book for free as well as weekly content on the future of work by subscribing to his newsletter.

Fores.com | April 20, 2015 | Jacob Morgan 

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#Leadership: The 3 People that Stand in the Way of a Productive Meeting…From the Person who Kills Every Idea to the One that won’t Stop Talking, here’s How to Keep People from Standing in the Way of Progress.

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It’s 7 a.m. and you see a 10 a.m. meeting on your schedule. Are you excited? Annoyed? Dreading it already?

BusinessChange

If you’re like 46% of Americans, you’d probably rather have any other unpleasant activity in that time slot according to a survey by project management software company Clarizen. But why? Is it because meetings are a time-suck or do certain personality types on your team make them more difficult?

For many managers, it’s the latter. Here are three personality types that destroy meeting morale and a few strategies for keeping them from causing too much damage:

1. THE IDEA KILLERS

Who She Is: Karen is an idea killer. She likes to be the center of attention and loves to make sure you and her teammates know why any idea won’t work. It’s not that she doesn’t want the meeting to go smoothly, she just likes to play devil’s advocate…a little too much. While hearing pros and cons for any idea can be productive during a meeting, Idea Killers often focus on the cons of an idea, which may discourage other employees’ creative impulses.

How To Fix The Problem: The best way to keep Idea Killers from destroying your meetings is to institute a two-for-one rule. When an employee wants to discuss the negatives about an idea or strategy, ask them to share two positives first. This may seem basic, but it will make Idea Killers like Karen consider every angle of an idea before trying to shoot it down. Karen will have less negative things to say, and the creative ideas at your meeting will flow.

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2. CHATTY CATHYS

Who He Is: Every office has a Chatty Cathy. They are the employees who try to chat with other employees while you are talking or while one of your employees is presenting. They like to make side comments and jokes that can often affect your employees’ focus and destroy the agenda for your meeting. They need structure.

How To Fix The Problem: Create a detailed meeting agenda, assigning a certain amount of time to every item you have to discuss. Be sure to let your team know that everyone will have time to speak, but that you need them to stay on-topic to help get everyone out the door on time. If you already prepare a meeting agenda, try handing it out as your employees walk through the door to give Chatty Cathys less time to think about what topics might be fodder for jokes and side comments.

If Chatty Cathy still tries to start side conversations, pause the meeting and ask your team to get back on track. Taking the time to build some structure into your meetings—and enforcing it—will help keep Chatty Cathys on task and make your meetings run smoother.

3. REPEATERS, REPEATERS, REPEATERS

Who He Is: Raymond is a repeater. Even though he is intelligent and creative, he often feels self-conscious about how his ideas are different from the rest of the team’s. So, he repeats ideas from earlier in the meeting, sometimes adding his own little twist at the end. This kind of idea repetition can kill the creative flow of a meeting and put you behind schedule.

Repeaters want the group to like their ideas, so they repeat ideas the group has come up with and try to add their personality to them. What they are really looking for is validation. Create a culture of praising original ideas to help encourage Repeaters to come up with creative ideas of their own.

How To Fix The Problem: In brainstorming sessions, use a whiteboard to record ideas and strike them off the list once a conversation is over. By providing a visual list you are helping Repeaters move on from old ideas and encouraging them to add to the discussion. Focusing Repeaters on adding original ideas to the discussion will help keep the conversation moving and the meeting on schedule.

Great ideas can happen at meetings, but not without strong leadership. It’s a manager’s job to make sure their team stays on task, encourages one another, and respects everyone’s creative impulses. As you prepare for your next meeting, think about the Idea Killers, Chatty Cathys, and Repeaters on your team and how you can apply these strategies to keep them from destroying your team’s creative flow.

—Molly Owens is the CEO of Truity, a California-based provider of online personalityand career assessments and developer of the TypeFinder® personality type assessment. Learn more about personality type and career achievement and connect with Molly and Truity on Twitter and Facebook.

 

Fastcompany.com | April 15, 2015 |  Molly Owens 

 

#Leadership: 18 Reasons Why You Need Every Employee Using #LinkedIn Every Day…What Does this Add up to? The Organizations that Build Comprehensive LinkedIn Programs, Engaging all their People in the Platform, Will have a Tremendous Competitive Advantage.

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Corporations are finally waking up to the fact that they need to engage all their people in social media. The impact of social media on a company’s brand is monumental, and it affects everyone throughout your organization – from the entry-level millennials you just hired to your CEO.

Attentive people

But where do you start? I say with LinkedIn. Why?

  • It’s the world’s largest professional network – growing with over 330+ million members
  • It’s the place where people go when they want to learn about your people. This includes customers or clients, business partners, employees, and potential hires. They can get information about your company on your website, but LinkedIn gives them a personal tour.
  • It’s an unbeatably efficient place to start. Not all social media have the influence that LinkedIn has. Those who aren’t actively engaged feel that they should be.
  • It has an unparalleled impact on your corporate brand, employer brand and the brand of your people. Let’s look at these benefits in-depth.

Senior management often balks at the need to be social savvy, but according to a study by BrandFog, “CEOs are better leaders who can strengthen brands, build trust in products and services, demonstrate brand values, and communicate accountability – all by simply being on a social network.”

 

Corporate Branding

1. Make your business more human. When your leaders and people throughout the organization are on LinkedIn, they increase the authenticity, transparency and humanity of your organization. People want to work with and buy from other human beings.

2. Increase the visibility of your communications. A SlideShare from LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman shows that HubSpot employees have twice the average number of LinkedIn connections. And that translates into eight times the average numbers of shares, likes and comments of company content.

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3. Grow sales and revenue. According to Weber Shandwick, employees with socially encouraging employers are significantly more likely to help boost sales than employees who don’t have that support – 72% vs. 48%.

4. Increase media mentions. When your people are using social media and are on LinkedIn, they become sources for journalists. ING’s Social Media Impact survey showed that dialogue on social media is gaining importance in the world of press coverage. In fact, 50% of the surveyed journalists say social media is their main source of information.

5. Express thought leadership. LinkedIn is one of the best places to share thought-leadership content. Why? Because there are 330+ million sets of eyes to potentially view and share the content. It’s the ideal place for sharing professional ideas and demonstrating your company’s expertise.

6. Turn employees into brand ambassadors. According to the Organization Communication Research Center, “Brand-centered human resources and corporate communications management positively affect brand psychological ownership of employees, which can ultimately lead to their constructive brand citizenship behavior.” Engaging your people in LinkedIn for their benefit and the benefit of the organization via talent development programs is a great way to demonstrate brand-centric HR.

7. Help your company stand out from the competition. A study conducted last year by CEO.com and DOMO revealed that 68% of Fortune 500 CEOs had no social presence whatsoever – not even on LinkedIn. Getting your CEO – in addition to all your people, whether they’re in leadership positions or not – on LinkedIn will help differentiate your company while making a statement about innovation.

Employer Branding

8. Make your company a more attractive employer. Today’s employees prefer to work in a socially savvy organization, and they use the web to determine social-savvy levels. According to Spherion Staffing, 47 percent of Millennials now say a prospective employer’s online reputation matters as much as the job it offers. And a study from Altimeter showed that 76% of executives say they would rather work for a social CEO.

9. Make your people talent magnets. One of the first places professionals go when they are looking for a job is LinkedIn. When your people are using LinkedIn regularly, they become visible to those who are seeking employment, attracting talent to your company.
10. Source staff. You don’t need to wait for people to find you. By being active in LinkedIn groups, with your connections and those who follow your long-form posts, you can directly identify and source staff as needed – without the cost or delay involved in hiring a recruiter. You build your own relationships with the future employees of your company.

11. Become visible to their fellow alumni. One of the most popular and valuable features of LinkedIn is the Alumni search. Finding others who share your alma mater is a powerful tool for recruiting and being visible to ideal potential candidates. It’s like a college campus recruiting campaign without having to be on campus.

Personal Branding

12. Open the door to clients and business partners. LinkedIn helps your people make special connections that are valuable to business development. Simply by having a stellar profile, they are more likely to get in to see a potential partner or client. Why? Because people are using LinkedIn as a filter to determine who’s worth their time – and who’s not.

13. Enable them to benchmark. LinkedIn is the best place to benchmark your organization against competitors inside and outside your industry. Through groups, your people can connect with others who can help you identify best practices, evaluate your systems and processes, and spur innovation.

14. Improve performance and productivity. Your people are looking for ways to streamline. According to a Microsoft survey of 9,000 workers across 32 countries, 31 percent would be willing to spend their own money on a new social tool if it made them more efficient at work. LinkedIn helps them compare systems and processes to enhance efficiency.

15. Learn and grow. According to PwC’s Global CEO Study, 66 percent of CEOs say that the absence of necessary skills is their biggest talent challenge. LinkedIn is on-the-job training. When your people engage in it fully, they stay on top of thought leadership and develop skills that are essential to remaining relevant.

16. Solve problems. Often the challenges your people are experiencing aren’t easily solved by their colleagues inside your organization. By building a solid network via LinkedIn, they’re able to reach out to experts who can help them push through challenges faster and more effectively.

17. Introduce them to social media. I consider LinkedIn to be the gateway drug when it comes to social media. It is the most straightforward social tool and comes with less resistance than, say, Twitter or Google+. But once in LinkedIn, people are hooked, and they’re open to trying other social media. It’s the foundation to building a truly socially savvy organization.

18. Expand their network. According to a studyfeatured in this post by Michael Simmons, the number one predictor of success is simply being in an open network instead of a closed one. LinkedIn is vast and provides the opportunity to connect with people in different functions, industries and geographies.

What does this add up to?

The organizations that build comprehensive LinkedIn programs, engaging all their people in the platform, will have a tremendous competitive advantage.

Are you ready to make this happen for your company?

Join me for a complimentary live webinar on May 5th, 2015 to learn how to engage your team or entire organization with LinkedIn. Register here.

Forbes.com | April 19, 2015 | William Arruda