The "Sandwich Approach" Undermines Your Feedback - Roger Schwarz by Roger Schwarz | 10:00 AM April 19, 2013 Have you ever used the “sandwich approach” to give negative feedback to your direct reports? You sandwich the negative feedback between two pieces of positive feedback. It’s a common method, but the sandwich approach may be undermining both your feedback and your relationships with your direct reports. First, let’s look at why leaders use the sandwich approach and why it doesn’t work. In my work with leadership teams, the majority of leaders say they have used the sandwich approach to give negative feedback. They think it’s easier for people to hear and accept negative feedback when it comes with positive feedback. They assume the sandwich approach provides balanced feedback. They believe that giving positive feedback with negative feedback reduces discomfort and anxiety. Effective leaders are transparent about the strategies they use when working with others. Identify your strategy for the conversation.
The Manager as Maker These days, I see evidence of the rich potential of radical openness everywhere. More and more companies are shunning the insular, opaque business practices of the past and rethinking commonly held beliefs about the workforce. In the process, they are discovering that human capital can come from surprising places and take myriad forms. To access these untapped sources of human capital, companies may need to remake work settings and adopt new approaches that eschew the dictates of command-and-control management in order to enable and truly empower employees and other collaborators. The excerpt that follows provides a dramatic example: At a Danish software testing and consulting company named Specialisterne, three-quarters of the staff members are autistic. As you might expect, Specialisterne must provide its people with unusually high levels of training, customized work settings, and managers who are able and willing to support them in unconventional ways. — Don Tapscott
The (Not So Difficult) Trick To Get Your Emails Read We spend hours sorting through the 150 billion or so emails that ricochet around the Internet every day. So which ones get the click? Popular email clients like Gmail show the first 50 or so characters of the body copy in the inbox view. So a clear subject line and a concise, actionable lead sentence will make it most likely to get chosen. Here's how to craft a clear email that will make the recipient click and actually read it once they do. The Less fluffy words, the more actionable the message As Kuhcoon CEO Andrew Torva writes at Medium, our email habits are in need of an epic defluffling. Hey Andrew I just wanted to email you and tell you about an interesting opportunity. Instead, we need to write like a time-pressed chief executive might. Andrew, I'd like to help you solve problem X. The conciseness works because it's thoughtful; you're taking into account the reader, the user experience, if you would, of the person on the other side of the message. Hat tip: Medium
Your Optimism Might Be Stifling Your Team - Liz Wiseman by Liz Wiseman | 2:00 PM May 1, 2013 I admit that I’m prone to an optimistic outlook, a belief that most problems can be tackled with hard work and the right mindset. I’ve read the research that indicates that positive thinkers tend to do better in school, work and life. Perhaps I even assumed that optimism was infectious and that people wanted to work with a confident, hopeful leader. In the true spirit of optimism, how could this possibly go wrong? Then I found out from a colleague that he didn’t find my optimism nearly as reassuring as I did. To me, this seemed like a feasible, interesting challenge, and I enthusiastically dove in. “Saying what?” “Saying that thing you always say — ‘How hard can it be?’” “But why?” He paused and said, “Because what we are doing is actually really hard, and I need you to acknowledge that.” He wasn’t opposed to the idea that our enormous task was doable; he simply wanted me to acknowledge the reality of the challenge and recognize his struggle.
Avoiding fear by indulging in our fear of fear Every day, we make a thousand little compromises, avoid opportunities, actions and people--all so that we can stay away from the emotion of fear. Note that I didn't say, "so we can stay away from what we fear." No, that's something else entirely. The alternative? Are we trying to avoid the unsafe? Due to 'enhanced security' a recent bike event in New York City forbade the 30,000 riders from carrying hydration packs. The upcoming exam doesn't get studied for, not because studying is risky, but because studying reminds us that there's a test coming up. We loudly keep track of all the failures of commission around us, but never mention the countless failures of omission, all the mistakes that were made by not being bold. There's no other reason for not having a will, a health proxy, an insurance policy or an up to date checkup. It's simple: the fear that used to protect us is now our worst enemy. Easier to avoid the fear than it is to benefit from living with it. Hence the opportunity.
Fortune Management & Career Blog FORTUNE -- Dear Annie: I'm graduating from college at the end of May and have already been interviewed by two companies that might want to hire me, with two more interviews (at different employers) scheduled in mid-March. I could really use some guidance from you and your readers on how to go forward after these meetings. For example, I sent thank-you notes by email to the hiring managers I've met so far, but a friend says a handwritten note would have made me stand out more. Should I do that next time? Also, how soon after the interview is it acceptable to ask whether I'm still being considered for the job, and how often should I get back in touch if I don't hear anything? Dear N.N.: Great question, and one that plenty of seasoned jobseekers puzzle over, too. MORE: Microsoft culture must change, chairman says The time to get a feel for how soon you should hear back from the employer, he says, is during the interview. Dan Finnigan, CEO of social recruiting platform Jobvite, agrees.
(167) How to master your time - Leading a better life - Quora Imagine you were a Jedi master called Bob (your parents, whilst skilled in the ways of the force weren’t the best at choosing names). The love of your life - Princess Lucia – is trapped in a burning building as you hurry to save her. You might think of Lucia as the embodiment of your dreams, your aspirations – she is your most important thing. Unfortunately, before you can reach her an army of stormtroopers open fire. The incoming stream of lasers demand your attention – if you fail to dodge them, you’re dead. You might think of them as an urgent distraction from saving your princess. We all know how a hero resolves this dilemma. The secret to mastering your time is to systematically focus on importanceand suppress urgency. {*style:<ul>*}{*style:<li>*}{*style:<b>*}Schedule your priorities.
Why the best leaders have a bit of self-doubt Skip to main content Browse All Briefs by Topic Why the best leaders have a bit of self-doubt Forward to a friend 05/3/2013 | CBS MoneyWatch When it's time to pick a new boss, those in charge "shouldn't be seduced by the smug and the brash but should look out for the smart leaders who don't quite know how good they are," writes Margaret Heffernan. View Full Article in: CBS MoneyWatch Education | Educational Leadership | Business | Best Practices Series Published in Briefs: SmartBrief Job Listings for Education View More Job Openings ©2014 SmartBrief 10 Jobs That No Longer Exist Plenty of jobs exist today that didn’t exist 10, 20 or 30 years ago – social media analyst, app developer, etc. – but we’re not exactly awash in jobs, either. So what happened to all of those old jobs? This list of pictures will go over a few jobs that have gone the way of the dinosaur. The disappearance of the majority of these jobs can simply be attributed to technological advances. Modern bowling alleys have elaborate systems that collect balls and pins, so pinsetters are no longer necessary. With the spread of proper refrigeration, ice cutters became a thing of the past. While the world’s hordes of unemployed students may disagree, it’s probably a good thing that most of these jobs are gone. Update: The Milkman still exists, so it was removed from the article. 1. Image credits: shorpy.com Bowling alley pinsetters were young boys employed at bowling alleys to set up the pins for clients. 2. Image credits: laboiteverte.fr Image credits: imgur.com 3. Image credits: sharenator.com 4. 5. 6.
Raghuram Rajan | Why India slowed Updated: Tue, Apr 30 2013. 11 47 PM IST For a country as poor as India, growth should be what the US calls a “no-brainer”. It is largely a matter of providing public goods: decent governance, security of life and property, and basic infrastructure such as roads, bridges, ports, and power plants, as well as access to education and basic healthcare. Why, then, has India’s gross domestic product growth slowed so much, from nearly 10% year-on-year in 2010-11 to 5% today? I believe that it was not, and that two important factors have come into play in the last two years. First, India probably was not fully prepared for its rapid growth in the years before the global financial crisis. In short, strong growth tests economic institutions’ capacity to cope, and India’s were found lacking. India is a vibrant democracy, and, as the economic system failed the poor and the weak, the political system tried to compensate. A similar story played out elsewhere.
How to Influence People with Your Ideas - John Butman by John Butman | 11:00 AM April 30, 2013 One of my young clients, let’s call her Julie, is on a mission. Julie has an idea, one that has been gestating in her mind for quite some time, but now she realizes that for her idea to have any impact at all she will have to “go public” with it. Julie believes there are countless intelligent, talented but disadvantaged kids who, for a variety of reasons, have been shut out of traditional educational pathways and are therefore at risk of never achieving their full potential. Her idea, which she is passionate about, is to help these forgotten kids realize their potential by offering them practical guidance for achieving their goals and dreams. She asked me: What do I have to do to get my idea out there? Aspiring idea entrepreneurs are everywhere: in businesses, classrooms, and communities of all kinds, all over the world. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Strategies Quick Learners Use To Pick Up Anything The European Union: A Failed Experiment - Bill Lee How long can this go on? According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, the 17-nation euro zone remains the “weakest link” in our global economy after years of economic stagnation, mired in high unemployment, plagued with stalled or contracting economies, and paralyzed by political dysfunction. Similarly, The Economist also lambasts eerily complacent EU leaders for “sleepwalking through an economic wasteland.” The resulting human suffering is sobering — tens of millions of Europeans who want work can’t find it, and many of them are facing truly desperate situations. In a phrase, it’s time to throw out the EU project itself. The EU has failed the most important test. For more than three years now, EU officials have addressed the economic downturn with remarkable single-mindedness. The region has just completed its six straight quarter of recession. A growing number of officials around the world are getting this. The EU system is undemocratic. Consider Portugal.