Management Secrets: Core Beliefs of Great Bosses A few years back, I interviewed some of the most successful CEOs in the world in order to discover their management secrets. I learned that the "best of the best" tend to share the following eight core beliefs. 1. Average bosses see business as a conflict between companies, departments and groups. Extraordinary bosses see business as a symbiosis where the most diverse firm is most likely to survive and thrive. 2. Average bosses consider their company to be a machine with employees as cogs. Extraordinary bosses see their company as a collection of individual hopes and dreams, all connected to a higher purpose. 3. Average bosses want employees to do exactly what they're told. Extraordinary bosses set a general direction and then commit themselves to obtaining the resources that their employees need to get the job done. 4. Average bosses see employees as inferior, immature beings who simply can't be trusted if not overseen by a patriarchal management. 5. 6. 7. 8.
New Survey: Majority of Employees Dissatisfied Right Management, a subsidiary of the giant staffing firm ManpowerGroup, just released a new snapshot survey that underlines the dissatisfaction among American workers. At a time of high unemployment, lackluster job growth and major uncertainty in world financial markets, many employees feel stuck in their jobs, unable to consider a career move even if they’re unhappy. Right Management ran the online survey between April 16 and May 15, and culled responses from 411 workers in the U.S. and Canada. Only 19% said they were satisfied with their jobs. Staffing firms and consultants release employee engagement and loyalty surveys periodically. What’s the message to employers?
Career Advice: Keep the Boss Happy My recent column, 8 Core Beliefs of Extraordinary Bosses, drew a flood of responses. But there's one thing I didn't mention: An extraordinary boss communicates his expectations clearly to his team. That way, everyone understands what it will take to make your company succeed. With that in mind: If you are the boss, you'll want to share this column with your team, because it will make your job a heck of a lot easier. And if by chance you're not the boss, memorize this column–because it contains the key to long-term success. Here are the rules for keeping your boss happy: 1. Your boss wants to trust you. 2. The secret fear of every boss is that employees are screwing up but are not saying anything about it. 3. Your boss wants to believe you're competent and on top of things. 4. Bosses appreciate individuals who truly care about what they do and willing to take the time to achieve a deep understanding of their craft. 5. 6. Complainers are the bane of your boss's existence. 7. 8.
untitled Three-minute timed test. 1. Read everything before doing anything. 2. Put your name in the upper left-hand corner of this paper. 3. Emotions Can Get the Better of You at Work Silicon Valley needs to end its snobbery about computer science degrees I don’t have a computer science degree. There, I said it. At too many companies around Silicon Valley that would make me unemployable. I’ve been amused by the scandal surrounding Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson’s embellishment of his resume to include a computer science degree he didn’t earn. For starters, it’s important to keep in mind that three of the best product and business minds in tech never got computer science degrees: Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Steve Jobs. I am certainly not any of those guys. I’ve gone toe-to-toe with top executives, investors, and technologists. I bring a lot of valuable skills and experience with me to a company, whether at a startup or a big company. While I’m disclosing things, I should also disclose that I don’t have an accounting degree. For many years, I left my major off my resume. About five years ago, I met with a senior executive from a large Internet company about a role in local. A similar snobbery applies to schools. It comes down to objectives.
Welcome to the Bossless Company Twelve Things You Were Not Taught in School About Creative Thinking 2382 516Share Synopsis Aspects of creative thinking that are not usually taught. 1. You are creative. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. And, finally, Creativity is paradoxical. Tags: adversity, contemporaries, creative education, creative geniuses, creative life, creative thinker, creative thinking, education, lighting systems, masterpieces, minor poets, motions, picasso, practicality, profitability, rembrandt, self-help, shakespeare, sonnets, special person, symphonies, thomas edison, wolfgang amadeus mozart
The 6 Habits of Strategic Thinkers In the beginning, there was just you and your partners. You did every job. You coded, you met with investors, you emptied the trash and phoned in the midnight pizza. Now you have others to do all that and it's time for you to "be strategic." Whatever that means. If you find yourself resisting "being strategic," because it sounds like a fast track to irrelevance, or vaguely like an excuse to slack off, you're not alone. This is a tough job, make no mistake. After two decades of advising organizations large and small, my colleagues and I have formed a clear idea of what's required of you in this role. Anticipate Most of the focus at most companies is on what’s directly ahead. Look for game-changing information at the periphery of your industrySearch beyond the current boundaries of your businessBuild wide external networks to help you scan the horizon better Think Critically “Conventional wisdom” opens you to fewer raised eyebrows and second guessing. Interpret Ambiguity is unsettling. Decide
How To Raise a Group’s IQ What makes a group intelligent? That is: What enables a team of people to effectively solve problems and produce solutions? You might think a group’s IQ would be simply the average intelligence of the group’s members, or perhaps the intelligence of the team’s smartest participant. (MORE: Four Ways to Give Good Feedback) Rather, a group’s intelligence emerges from the interactions that go on within the group. 1. (MORE: Why I Want Women to Lean In, by Sheryl Sandberg) 2. 3. (MORE: Highlighting Is a Waste of Time: The Best and Worst Learning Techniques) 4. (MORE: Can Mindfulness Really Help You Focus?) 5.
Eight Qualities of Remarkable Employees Great employees are reliable, dependable, proactive, diligent, great leaders and great followers... they possess a wide range of easily-defined—but hard to find—qualities. A few hit the next level. Some employees are remarkable, possessing qualities that may not appear on performance appraisals but nonetheless make a major impact on performance. Here are eight qualities of remarkable employees: 1. When a key customer's project is in jeopardy, remarkable employees know without being told there's a problem and jump in without being asked—even if it's not their job. 2. People who aren't afraid to be different naturally stretch boundaries and challenge the status quo, and they often come up with the best ideas. 3. Remarkable employees know when to play and when to be serious; when to be irreverent and when to conform; and when to challenge and when to back off. 4. 5. 6. An employee once asked me a question about potential layoffs. 7. 8. Great employees follow processes. Forget good to great.
The Seven Elements of a Creative Personality The 5 Traits of High-Potential Employees As your company grows too big for you to do everything--the way you do now--you're going to give over some of the leadership. (Relax. This is a good thing!) Some have reached their potential and are quite comfortable where they are. How do you decide who among your longtime lieutenants have what it takes? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Though you don’t want your next generation of leaders to be clones of you, you do want them to have the traits that drove you to build a growing company. To build a business, great ideas and charisma only go so far, says Samuel Bacharach, Cornell professor of labor management. Why Flexible Hours Inspire Performance "What time do you want me to start work?" That's the question a new hire recently asked me. She looked a little startled by my reply. "I don't care." But it was the truth. I'm relaxed about timekeeping in part because I had great bosses early in my broadcasting career. And so that's how I've always managed people who worked for me. I have also always taken the same approach to maternity leave. I cannot remember a single instance of being disappointed by this approach. 'But weren't you afraid of being ripped off?'