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
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.
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.
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 Ripple Effects You Create as a Manager - Monique Valcour by Monique Valcour | 8:00 AM May 7, 2013 Each one of us holds a set of beliefs and attitudes — a mindset — that determines how we interpret and respond to situations. That mindset shapes how we interact with others, and therefore it also affects the people we work with — in ways both subtle and profound. A person with a distrustful mindset, for example, views situations at work as competitive and acts to advance his own interest at others’ expense by politicking: shifting allegiances, taking credit, assigning blame, withholding or distorting information. What you might not appreciate is that the socially-transmitted impact of your mindset extends well beyond those people with whom you interact directly in the workplace. Happily, positive relationships in the workplace also have strong ripple effects. Let’s look at how a fairly common mindset plays out in the workplace and beyond. The problem is, it’s also flawed. Be a role model for work-life integration.
Five signs of a WOW professional | Bayt Spread the word: Does it truly matter to be a WOW professional? I mean, isn’t it enough to be really, really good at what one does? So what does it take to be a WOW professional? 1. “The more I live, the more I learn. 2. ‘Work hard, stay humble’ is how the age-old adage goes. 3. “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” 4. “Respect is a two-way street, if you want to get it you’ve got to give it.” 5. To WOW professionals, true success is beyond awards, accolades and rewards. Do you aspire to be a WOW professional? Tags: Career Advice
Your Innovation Problem Is Really a Leadership Problem - Scott Anthony by Scott Anthony | 9:00 AM February 13, 2013 When Karl Ronn recently said, “Companies that think they have an innovation problem don’t have an innovation problem. They have a leadership problem,” I listened carefully. I featured Ronn, a former P&G executive (and current executive coach and entrepreneur), in several places in The Little Black Book of Innovation, most notably for his rant against the evils of focus groups. Ronn’s basic idea was that four decades of academic research and two decades of conscious implementation of that work have provided robust, actionable answers to many pressing innovation questions. Yet, with all of this progress it still feels like a positive surprise when you see a large company confidently approach the challenges of innovation. In Building a Growth Factory, my co-author David Duncan and I suggested at least one root cause: too many companies use point solutions to address a systematic challenge: Let’s run an idea challenge!
5 Desirable Traits of Great Employees There is much debate among employers as to whether or not college qualifies people for useful employment. With the high cost of obtaining a degree, universities are anxious to prove their value in preparing graduates for the roles they'll play in the working world. Now 200 colleges have committed to offer a voluntary test called a Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA+) in Spring 2014. You can see a sample test question here. The pros and cons of this approach are still up in the air, but it raises plenty of questions: Will good test-takers be able to demonstrate consistent behavior? Can one game the system? Ultimately a solid interview process and thorough onboarding program will make for the best employees in the long term. 1. Employees can be smart, likeable and talented but, if you can't trust them to do what they say they'll do, you and everyone else will constantly waste time and energy checking up on their work. Want to read more from me? 2. Want to read more from Eric? 3. 4. 5.
Is Leadership Missing In Gov? Federal employees are losing faith in their agency leaders, according to a new report from Deloitte and the Partnership for Public Service. It was the first drop in effective leadership in 9 years. Employees gave effective leadership a score of 52.8 out of 100 points in the Partnership’s 2012 survey, a decrease of 2.1 points from 2011. Dan Helfrich is a principal at Deloitte Consulting. He told Chris Dorobek on the DorobekINSIDER program that the decline in leadership has been consistent with the overall reduction in the index for the Best Places to Work survey that we saw in 2013. "The results of the survey aren't that surprising but they are sobering. Complex Period of Time for Leaders "Great leaders lead in all different contexts. Empower Your Employees What the data tells us is that empowering employees to provide their perspectives on key issues is the number one thing. Let Employees Speak Leadership Development Feds Not Satisfied with their leaders Recommendations