Manager Tools Blog

Skills, Knowledge and Attitude

wendii — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:17:33 +0000

On PersonnelToday's website, there's a summary of a report of a survey by XpertHR which says that in the UK at least, employers say there are too few graduates to fill entry level positions. I was intrigued by this, because we hear a lot of 'the last 2/3 graduating classes haven't got jobs due to the recession and are therefore stuck'.

80% of those surveyed though, said that the problem was the actual number of graduates, but the quality. They 'faced difficulties recruiting graduates due to a lack of skills, knowledge or the attitudes of the candidates'. According to the article, this is the second survey in as many weeks to have this finding.

What strikes me about this statistic is that two of the three, graduates can easily change, themselves, without any cost. Changing your attitude is as easy as deciding to. Getting more knowledge is as easy as going to the library (and most graduates have access to their college library for several years after they leave). Skills is harder, but there's nothing to stop you practicing your excel skills at home. If the problem for graduates getting jobs really is just skills, knowledge and attitude, it's an easy problem to solve.

http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2012/02/01/58316/too-few-applican...

Phone Calls

wendii — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:17:33 +0000

I was watching a random cop program and one of the protagonists needed information on where the person she was hunting was. She called the office, pretended to be the firm detailing his car and got the information she needed.

When I was a recruiter, one of my jobs on a Thursday was to get the local paper and call all the other agencies trying to find out which clients of theirs were hiring. You'd be amazed what people will tell you, without you having to tell any lies, just by using a pleasant voice. I called a business locally recently and asked for someone, only to be told he was in rehab. I didn't even give my name.

There's two lessons to this. One, if you need to know something, just ask. You'll probably get the answer. And two, if you get random calls from people with pleasant voices, find out who they are and what they need to know before you give away confidential information.

Questions

wendii — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:48:38 +0000

Our recent London conference participants were the best we've ever had in terms of the amount of questions they asked. We always promise, whether you ask 5 or 500 questions, we'll get them all answered and we'll finish on time. I think in London, they did ask 500 and we barely finished on time!

Some people, we've noticed, need to ask a lot of questions about a concept. Once they've asked about all their concerns, they can accept the concept as valid and are often the strongest supporters of the idea. It's easy to assume that the reason they are asking questions is because they are distrustful of the person with the idea, rather than understanding that it's just their way of understanding the concept.

If your'e the one presenting and you're feeling defensive about the questions you're being asked, try to let it go. It's not you, or your idea. Work through it with the questioner. And, make sure you build in time for questions. If you don't get any, and your meeting finishes on time, all to the good.

False Extrapolation

wendii — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:09:08 +0000

There's (yet another) article in the Wall Street Journal today about resumes going away. The article gives examples of companies who are using social media presence or on-line questionnaires to get expressions of interest from candidates and to assess their skills before interviews.

The problem with this is that's there's two or three examples which the WSJ encourages you, by their headline, to think is a long-term, wide-spread change. It isn't. There are always companies experimenting with different ways of finding and assessing candidates. They are exceptions. They make good headlines.

But resumes haven't really changed in the last 50 years. When it comes down to it, hiring managers want to know what you've done and how well you've done it: issues the Manager Tools resume addresses head on. Don't be fooled by 'newsworthy' changes. Consider what YOU'RE being asked for the in the roles YOU'RE applying for. We'll bet 99.99% of the time, it's still a resume.

http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020375040457717303199...

Magazines

wendii — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:08:30 +0000

I'm a real magazine addict. I have been for a long time. Everything from Bloomberg Businessweek to Wired to Oprah and yoga magazines. You'll have noticed a lot of blog posts are inspired by my addiction. However, I buy them at a faster rate than I usually have time to read them, so I look forward to transatlantic flights when I can get through 10 or more. If you're sat next to me, there's a tearing sound every few minutes as I rip out pages that I find interesting.

I have two tricks, one which lightens the load and one which means the pages don't hang around forever. First, as we get to the gate, I rip the whole magazine vertically along the spine at the page I'm at, and leave the front part which I've read for trash. That way I'm only carrying the half I haven't read yet.

Second, whenever I stop, I make it a habit of working through the pile from top to bottom. I wishlist on Amazon any books I want to read or products I want to look at later as potential purchases. I look up any websites I've got interested in. I write blog posts which are inspired by the pages, and store them in an email for later. I end up with a few pages for filing later, and a big pile of ripped in half pages for the trash. I've been known to do this in airport lounges on layovers - the secret is to do it quickly, before you forget what the inspiration was.

Career Tools License Renewal Offer – Get The Interview Series Free

wendii — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:20:34 +0000

For our Career Tools Individual License annual renewal we're offering the Interviewing Series – a $150 value – for free for those of you who renew, upgrade or buy for the first time. Just go to: http://www.manager-tools.com/amember/member.php

But it’s more than that. We’ve also made the Interviewing Series better, for those of you who already have it as well:

Video: Many of the core podcasts in the series now have video in addition to the audio casts. Mark explains the concepts (again!) with the slides in support of the presentation.

Improved Shownotes: Some of the early Interviewing Series shownotes were in transcript form, which can be hard to read. Now all IS Shownotes are in our most modern form making them easier to use.

Outline Overview: We’ve taken all the slides, in order of the shows, and made a single Word (in pdf form) document so you can find the specific topic you’re looking for even more easily.

Every day we get emails letting us know of listeners who have been promoted and got pay rises despite the economy. We’re thrilled with others’ successes, and we want you to have your best chance at interviewing success too.

If you already have the Interview Series, you can find the updated shows and the video here: http://www.manager-tools.com/category/interviewing-series. You don’t have do anything – we’re offering this upgrade to you as a loyal subscriber.

Negotiation

wendii — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:50:27 +0000

An article in Bloomberg Businessweek profiles Lenn Rockford Hann, who has invented, according to the article 'the greatest running shoe never sold'. The story starts with Hann running a half marathon inside Chicago airport, which tells you he's pretty extraordinary.

The rest of the story is sad though. Despite his apparently having invented a way of replacing parts of a running shoe to allow runners to use less energy to run, the shoes are still not on the market. It's not that companies aren't interested. He's been in contract negotiations with Under Armor, New Balance and Adidas. Every time, the negotiations broke down.

The negotiations with New Balance didn't even get started. He set a high-price intending it as an initial starting point, and the company closed the discussions. A colleague says: “He would be way better off with an agent to represent him,” says Hartner. “He’s the inventor-scientist guy, you know it from movies. But in real life they sometimes end up shooting themselves in the foot, and it’s hard to watch. They’re not as good at the people thing.”

Most of us rarely negotiate for anything. New jobs and salary increases are at most once a year. They fall under Horstman's Christmas Rule: you do it infrequently, it's important to you, therefore you're not any good at it. Most of us would be better off taking the first offer we're given. Hann proves this by following the accepted wisdom: start high, and the negotiation falls apart. Good negotiators know that negotiations are FAR FAR more complex than this.

We're not saying don't negotiate if you want to. But weigh up the potential gains against the potential loses and also consider the goodwill you're burning. Still worth it?

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/the-greatest-running-shoe-never-sol...

Wondering About Linkedin?

wendii — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:35:40 +0000

Three things struck me about this article about Walmart's recruiting in Asia. First, if you're wondering about whether you should be in Linkedin or not - Walmart is recruiting for some very cool jobs - and they start with Linkedin. There is no mention of advertising in the article. If you wanted to be developing Walmart's e-commerce offering in Asia, you had to be on Linkedin. So, stop wondering. Yes, you need to be on Linkedin.

Two, if you thought the job you were hiring for was hard, consider what Walmart is trying to find: "six senior-level e-commerce pros in six weeks". Oh, and "you were in Hong Kong, the hiring executive is in San Francisco, the job is in China, and the req asks for Chinese-speaking, retail-savvy, online experienced, e-commerce marketers?". That's a challenge. Keep the bar high and keep looking.

Finally, Simon Heaton, Walmart’s managing director in Asia, has a pretty cool job himself: "Not even a year ago Heaton was working in Bentonville, Arkansas. Today, he’s building Walmart’s executive team in India, China, Japan, and wherever next in Asia the company grows." How did he get it? "I’ve always wanted to do a global role,” he says. To prepare, he would volunteer for projects that had a global component, and take on searches for overseas candidates or jobs." He recommends volunteering for the kinds of roles you want, and building your network. So do we.

http://www.ere.net/2012/01/11/walmarts-asia-team-goes-from-zero-to-onboa...

Ruts

wendii — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:11:58 +0000

My parents and I were in the States recently. Walking down Main Street, we had to stop at numerous crossings controlled by stop lights. Each time, we would stop, press the crossing button and wait for the signal to cross. Here, the symbol for stop is a red hand, and the symbol for go is a white colored walking man.

The red hand would be there, and we'd be waiting and talking and getting distracted by the shop windows, and then someone would notice we could cross. Each one of us said at one time or another 'it's green!'. The symbol for go in England is a green colored walking man. We KNEW the man we were looking at was a white light, and yet the rut in our brains that the man is green is so deep, that we couldn't overcome it. (For the same reason, I persist in calling Main Street, the high street).

It's hard to make the changes we know we should - not to check our phones every 20 seconds, to always do the important but not urgent work first, to do our filing once a week - because the ruts are so deep. Knowing that gives you the advantage though. You're smarter than your brain. You know it's a rut and it can be broken out of. It just takes a little effort. The man is not green, and it's Main Street!

500th Cast Winners

wendii — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:47:36 +0000

Because we had so many great submissions for the 500th cast competition, we awarded more prizes than we originally announced. Tom Baldwin won a seat at a Manager Tools conference and Individual licences for life for both Manager Tools and Career Tools. We also awarded Pierre N, Sven Kosack, Matt Brigance, Joel Bancroft-Connors and Nicholas Dominguez seats at a Manager Tools conference. Our two 'extra' winners, Linda Morton and Mathew Lingerich won a year's License to Manager Tools or Career Tools.

We don't have room to show you all the winning entries here, but you can read Tom's below. All the winning entries here on the website at: http://www.manager-tools.com/500th-cast-winners. And, you can read an ever changing selection of the other entries on the homepage.

In the course of all of our reading, we all exchanged numerous emails exclaiming about the stories. We were touched by the thanks and appreciation shared. Many of you told us you didn't even need to be entered, but you wouldn't us and everyone else to know how much we were helping. We promise you, it worked. We were all overwhelmed by the comments, and we thank you for them.

Performance Reviews

wendii — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:33:03 +0000

On Wednesday, I got to have a lovely dinner with a long time listener and friend of Manager Tools. As he began to describe his work and his team, he said something like 'I feel like I have to tell you I'm doing everything perfectly'.

We laughed, but it was a moment for a serious point. Please don't ever feel like this. Don't feel like you can't tell us you're struggling and ask for help. Don't feel like this should be easy and you're the only one who finds it hard. Management is hard. Work is hard (as I told my interns, if it wasn't, they'd call it play and you wouldn't get paid for it). Life is messy. Mike, Mark, Maggie and I regularly confess to messing things up - sometimes on air. We're not doing it perfectly either.

If you're here, you're open to critiquing your own performance and trying to do better. You're open to listening to guidance and trying it out. You're doing better than 50% of the other managers you know just because of that. Give yourself an A+ in your management performance review. Don't stop though, and keep trying to do better in 2012. We'll be here to help you.

Time

wendii — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:41:39 +0000

An article in Fast Company focuses on Jason Evanish, and his influence on the start up / angel investor / vc relationships in Boston. He runs a clearing house for networking events and startup resources, but he also 'turned himself into a gatekeeper, arranging strategic meetings to filter out the groupies'.

He says 'Everyone thinks entrepreneurs are short on money, when in fact their most scarce resource is time'. No one has more time than they need. I regularly wish for 48 more hours in the day. I've never had a job where I have had more than enough time to do everything - and I don't believe such a job exists.

Given that 'not enough time' seems to be a universal complaint, all we can do is work within that constraint. What are my priorities. What needs to be done now? What can I not do in order to get the stuff I need to do done?

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/160/jason-evanish-greenhorn-connect

Solutions

wendii — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:46:08 +0000

What's the solution to your building having a mailroom which may be targeted by someone sending a suspicious powder? An article in November's Fast Company describes the way Visa has solved the problem: the mail goes into a modular building near to their office. If a suspicious powder, 'the mail room can just be airlifted away'.

That wasn't the solution I'd have come up with, but it is genius. I admire anyone who is that creative. An engineer I once worked with told me the trick to thinking of ideas like this is to stay in the 'problem space' for longer. We tend to jump straight to the 'solution space', rather than really considering the problem.

But jumping there quickly, he told me, means you don't consider the more outrageous (and genius) solutions. Really fleshing out the problem - for example, that we don't want the suspicious powder to have any more contact than absolutely necessary - allows you to find the more creative solutions.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/160/visa-secret-security-center

It's the little things...

wendii — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:30:19 +0000

In a regular feature, Bloomberg Businessweek gathers a bunch of smart people to 'fix' a part of the economy, or a political or other situation. In the October 17 edition, the situation to be fixed was education. Obviously, the US education system (and from my experience living in other countries, the education system of any country) is contentious.

What interested me though was at the very end of the article, when one of the participants describes going to a KIPP school in Manhattan. The participant says to the co-founder, you're doing a great job. The co-founder then takes him to a classroom and shows him 5 things the teacher (who by everyone's standard is a great teacher) does wrong in five minutes.

For example, she hasn't checked the writing that's on the bulletin board for two days. The co-founder says: "What this job is about is a thousand of those things, not about some kind of silver bullet". It's true for all our careers. There isn't some miraculous project or promotion that makes you a super star. It's about getting results day after day, are day. It's about planning your work, doing the work and then looking at it critically to see how you could have done better. It's not about the little things in terms of your expenses, but in terms of making sure you do everything to the best of your ability and then pushing yourself to do better.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/how-to-fix-the-education-crisis-101...

Feedback

wendii — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:32:44 +0000

There's an article in December 19th's Forbes magazine about a new burger chain that started in Denver in 2007 and now has 143 locations. In it, CEO Dave Prokupek says: "We overinvest in the things that matter most". The article goes on, 'If a line cook fills orders in under six minutes on average, he gets an extra 50 cents per hour. Store managers can earn monthly bonuses...based on monthly revenues and customer reviews'.

This reflects the reasoning in the feedback model: the reason for the feedback model is to encourage effective behaviour - in other words, we use feedback to incentivise the behaviour we want to see in the future. Reducing the cook's pay by 50 cents for being slow would be much less effective.

It's much more effective to give positive feedback for the behaviour you want than to give negative for what you don't want. AND, reasons for positive feedback happen much more often. That's why we recommended a 9/1 ratio for positive behaviour. Look for the things you want to continue, and give feedback about them.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jjcolao/2011/11/30/meet-americas-most-promis...

Hire For Attitude

wendii — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:26:19 +0000

One of Manager Tools mantras around hiring is we’ll take less skill if we can get more attitude. Skills can be taught. Attitudes - the behaviours that we want in our team and our workplace - often cannot.

I was pleased to see an article reporting on a speech given by the former People and IT Director of Asda (one of the four biggest supermarkets in the UK), which began with this title.

In it, David Smith says, that the number one principle of seven he believes will turn around a failing business is hiring for attitude. He points out: “you can switch people on or off though the new people you’re hiring. Current staff will either say, of you’re new hire, ‘who’s that? She’s great’ or ‘who hired hm? He’s rubbish’.

Yet another reason to hire well – your hires have an effect on the productivity of your current staff. If they don’t believe you care enough to hire well, they won’t care enough to work hard.

http://www.recruiter.co.uk/news/hire-for-attitude-to-boost-business/1011...

500th Podcast Contest - Win An Invite To A Manager Tools Conference

wendii — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:54:18 +0000

On January 1, 2012, Manager Tools LLC is proud to release our 500th cast (Manager Tools & Career Tools). We're privileged to have been able to share our learnings with you, and humbled by your letters and emails which tell us how we've made a difference to you, your directs and your careers.

In celebration, we're going to give away 5 seats at our conferences in 2012. The overall winner of our contest will get a seat at a conference AND Individual Licenses for both Manager Tools and Career Tools for LIFE.

Of course, there has to be some skill in winning. What we'd like you to do is send us an email to: contest@manager-tools.com, with a 250 word essay: "What Manager Tools/Career Tools means to me". We'll be posting all the responses on our website.

The contest will close at midnight pacific on the 24 December. Between Christmas and New Year, the Manager Tools team will review your essays and we'll announce the contest winners on 1 Jan, with our 500th cast.

The list of all the 2012 conferences is here: http://manager-tools.com/effective-manager-conference.

It's taken us 6 1/2 years to get to this point, and they've been the best 6 1/2 years of our lives. Thank you, for being part of what makes Manager Tools great. We're looking forward to sharing the next 500 (and more) casts with you.

Infographics

wendii — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:59:03 +0000

A diagram in Fast Company shows the different forms of Infographics which have become more and more popular over the last 5 or 10 years. It seems we can’t cope any more with raw numbers, we have to have them prettily coloured and arranged like a tube map or a periodic table.

The problem with that is that there were always “lies, damn lies and statistics” and infographics often make understanding the raw data intelligently more difficult not less.

When we look at an infographic, we have to ask not only: what does the data say, but also: what does the data illustrator want us to believe. A critical mind is essential to proper understanding.

Fastcompany.com/infographics

Feedback - Part 2

wendii — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 17:42:19 +0000

An article in Bloomberg Businessweek talks about Amy Jo Martin – who is a ‘tweet coach’ to Shaquille O’Neal. In it he says: “Amy Jo always has my back. If I do something wrong, she calls me within five minutes”.

I thought this was an interesting perspective of feedback. Shaq doesn’t think of Amy Jo as behaving negatively towards him. He thinks of her as ‘having his back’. Of saving him from himself. Of being his support.

Feedback isn’t negative. Feedback just is. But one way of thinking about it if you’re giving feedback is to think that you just have your superstar’s back. Want to rant now? Somehow, that desire goes away when you think about it that way. And superstars, your manager is just showing you, he has your back. Like Amy Jo has Shaq’s.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/shaquille-oneals-allstar-twitter-co...

Feedback

wendii — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:44:33 +0000

Someone asked me recently if I liked feedback. My answer: I don’t like getting it, but I like that I get it. The actual moment of getting, (let’s assume negative here, since people don’t ask about positive) is not enjoyable. Which is not to say there’s screaming, shouting or any big deal going on – I just don’t like it.

If I didn’t get it though, I’d never know what unintended effect my actions had on others. Sometimes, my answer is ‘omg, I had no idea. Of course I’ll do it differently’. To makes someone else’s life more difficult over and over because I didn’t know any better, is a worse outcome than the pinch of a moment of feedback.

In an article in Fast Company, the CFO of Levono says: “The most dangerous thing is to be successful. You then think every decision is the right one. That’s why you have to review what you do.” If it’s working, do more. If it’s not, do it differently. That’s the essence of feedback. No big deal.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/161/lenovo

What Does Xerox Do?

wendii — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:42:28 +0000

One of the themes in Career Tools is that consumer goods companies are not the only companies. Fresh out of college, I remember thinking I’d join a bank graduate scheme. I knew the names of banks – they lined the high street where I lived.

Instead I worked as a temp for a long time, for everyone from P&G to Courage’s, to an elevator company, a health insurance company, a landscape gardening company, a recruitment agency – I even did some time in a bank. The experiences I had in such a variety of places was invaluable.

I was reminded of this by an article about Xerox in Fast Company. Xerox make photocopiers right? If I was going to start my career now, I’d probably think photocopiers were a) mundane and b) a dying market. Not so. Xerox make a light table which “correctly sorts information within dense legal documents as part of litigation research”.

I have no idea how it works – but I want to see it! I’m excited by the technology and the usefulness and the market potential. If I wasn’t here, doing what I love, I’d be applying to Xerox. Which just goes to show – don’t judge companies by what you know about them – do your research. They might be more exciting than you think.

Developing Relationships

wendii — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 10:33:04 +0000

An article in Wired describes research by Arthur Aron into developing relationships. He designed an experiment to see if he “could create lab conditions that would make strangers quickly bond and form close friendships after just a few minutes”.

He designed 36 questions which2 strangers asked one another and listened to the answers. The results: that the strangers reported feelings of closeness. The reporter in the article used the same questions at a conference, and reports: “reciprocal self-disclosure, under conditions which frame personal vulnerability as a social norm, can have dangerous consequences. But as a way to friend a stranger, it leaves Facebook trailing”.

We don’t recommend you share personal confidences with your directs, at least until they feel comfortable in One on Ones. We do recommend you spend time every week asking questions and listening to the answers. We don’t need research to know that that will develop your relationship with your direct – we get at least an email a day telling us it worked for someone who was willing to try it.

Stepping Down

wendii — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 01:39:50 +0000

One of the casts in the podcast hopper is about the necessity to be willing to step down a rung or two or more in periods of unemployment. Many people fear that having been a manager or a senior manager, that taking an assitant or an individual contributor role will harm their future career, and open themselves to financial problems.

It’s not true. Any hiring manager with sense, will look at the resume of someone who was a manager before this recession, see them laid off and would forgive a year or two or more working at a lower level. We can’t legislate against hiring managers without sense, clearly, but there are less of those than one might think.

In fact, we’d go further. An article in Bloomberg Businessweek said that the E-Verify requirement in some states is causing “worker shortages across industries from construction to food service”. Being a dishwasher is hard, hot, dirty work. But it’s honest and if it’s what you need to do to feed your family and there is a job there you can take… take it.

It’s only demeaning if you think it is. There’s plenty of people we’ve interviewed who have said – it was the only job I could find and my children need to eat. You know what, it was kind of fun to be finished at the end of the day. The people I met were interesting and gave me a different perspective on life and management. And, now I’m ready to get back to my career. There’s nothing a hiring manager can find unreasonable in that.

Start Over

wendii — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 21:39:32 +0000

Fast Company has an info-graphic entitled 'How To Lead A Creative Life'. It has two interesting parts for me. First, if you look carefully, you'll realize that every possibility is covered - get out of bed/stay in bed, have lunch with someone/meditate, go to a conference, attend panels/go to a conference, fall asleep. Their point, I think, is that it almost doesn't matter what you do - just doing something (or nothing) allows creativity to bubble up.

The second is that almost every line ends, "bad idea, start over". That's definitely my experience with ideas. One of my rules has always been "it isn't always a good idea, even when it's a good idea". Meaning, it can be a good idea, bad timing or a good idea, wrong person to pitch to, or good idea, just not a priority at the moment.

Every now and again, you get a good idea that really is a good idea. But it has to be tested, discussed, molded, made to be better, before it's implemented. If you want to 'be more creative' you have to learn to live with both the 'bad idea, start over' and the changing of your idea by others.

http://infographics.fastcompany.com/magazine/161/creative-life.html

Australia

wendii — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 22:47:30 +0000

This time next week, Manager Tools will be in Australia. I don't think we've had so many 'I'm excited to be coming to the conference' emails for any conference before - and Australia, we're really excited to be finally getting to meet you too.

It occurred to me though, that between americans, a brit and the australians, we might have some trouble communicating, even though we all supposedly speak english. On a conference call this week, I had to spell the word 'saucepans' before Mike, Mark and Maggie knew what I was talking about. Admittedly, it wasn't the most obvious word to be saying in a discussion about finances, but it did seem to be a communication sticking point.

Then I remember the fact I read somewhere, that 99.99% of all a human's DNA is the same as every other humans. If we were a whole 1% different, we'd be dolphins. I'm not sure I understand the science, but the point is, that humans are much much more similar than we are different. Americans, australians, brits; we all care about similar things and have similar experience - at least when you compare with non-humans. So, Australia, we'll get on fine. And if we get stuck, we can always spell the words out.

Just Admit It!

wendii — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 12:16:13 +0000

I am having some goods shipped from the UK to the US. Like most things, when you've never done it before, and it's important and expensive, it's a bit nervewracking. So far the information I'd had was that the goods would be landing in the US in New York.

Yesterday, I sent an email asking some questions, and the reply said that the goods would be landing in LA, but going to the New Jersey warehouse. I thought it was probable that the person who sent the email had typed LA instead of NYC by mistake, and I asked "has something changed, or was that a mistake?". The email response said: "The ship will dock in New York. Then the container will be transported to our warehouse in New Jersey to be unloaded. It is our closest warehouse."

No apology. No acknowledgement that a mistake had been made. No recognition that this process is stressful and that his error didn't make that any better.

It isn't a big deal that he typed LA instead of NYC. If he'd have replied, "I'm so sorry, you're right it's NYC, I mistyped", I'd have been happy. By not admitting he made a mistake and apologising, he's taken credit from our relationship bank account. It's a small thing, but it matters. In every situation where it might be reasonable, apologise. You'll find relationships get easier.

No

wendii — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:26:22 +0000

Seth Godin's blog post today is entitled 'No', and it goes on to list a bunch of things it's better to say no to. Two in particular caught my eye.

"'No, that's not good enough. Will you please do it again?'". How many of us actually say this, and ask for better? That's what the feedback model is all about - getting something better in the future, and yet we get so many emails saying 'I do one on ones and I love them, but I'm shamed that I haven't started feedback yet'. Things don't get better unless the person that's doing them knows that what they did wasn't good enough. We've got to be brave enough to say it.

The second was: "No, I'm not willing to lose my focus, and no, I'm not willing to compromise". While both of those can be taken to extremes, most of us could do better in some situations if we just concentrated for a few minutes longer, before email and IM and all the other distractions distracted us.

No isn't always bad. Sometimes, it's better than yes.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/11/no.html

Serious or Silly

wendii — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:07:25 +0000

On the BBC website today, there is an article about Larry, the Downing Street cat. Larry's job is to keep the Prime Minister's residence free of mice and apparently he has not been as successful as we would like. The article is worthy of The Onion, complete with quotes from the PM's spokesman as to whether the cat should resign.

Apart from amusing me as an article in it's own right, it also made me think about our workplace. Despite the fact we take our mission very seriously, Manager Tools is a fun place to work. In fact, most of the places I've worked have had moments of amusement - even when I've been in the C-suite.

Somedays, we can too wrapped up in the stresses of the day, the customer demands, the financial position. Work is work. But there's room for a bit of silliness too. If they can be silly at the very serious BBC, you can be silly ... as long as you're getting the work done too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15717341

Ideas...

wendii — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:34:32 +0000

As I was reading the news this morning on line, I saw an article called 'idea of the week'. If you're interested, the idea was a powered golf bag, a kind of combination of a segway and caddy: http://realbusiness.co.uk/news/idea-of-the-week-powered-golf-trolley. Apparently, it speeds up your 18 holes, which seems to me to be a little pointless if the people in front of you aren't going any faster. However, I'm no expert so perhaps I'm missing something.

The title made me think about where ideas come from. They don't come from hours in front of the computer or from doing email, usually. They don't come from doing the same thing you do every day, usually. They don't come from solitary thinking, usually.

They come from doing something different, somewhere different. They come from thinking about your work from a different perspective. They come from conversations, often not about 'what ideas shall we have?'. They come from reading, around the subject not on the subject. If you want two brain cells to smash together and come up with something new, you've got to be somewhere new. But I'd try and avoid being in the way of a man on a powered golf bag, if I were you.

The Impossible...

wendii — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:57:04 +0000

In yesterday's London Times, there is an article about Paul Mealor who wrote music for the 9/11 ceremonies in New York and the british royal wedding in April (paid for content, here: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/music/classical/article3219098.ece). In it, he says that he received 17,000 thank you letters and he replied to them all. No, that's not a typo. Seventeen thousand.

It made me think about two things. One, anyone who feels they don't have time to write at least one thank you note a week has a new goal. If Paul Mealor can write 17,000, you can write one. If you can't find one person a week, you're not looking hard enough. Even your doctor's receptionist who is always cheery and helpful, will appreciate a thank you note saying so.

Two, the unofficial US Army Corps of Engineer's motto: "The difficult we do at once. The impossible takes a little longer", should belong to us all. If someone asked me to write 17,000 thank you notes in a month, or even over several months, I'd say it was impossible. Quite clearly, it's not. So what's on your 'can't do, impossible' list, and how could you get it done?

Podcast Awards

wendii — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:32:03 +0000

The People's Choice Podcast Awards 2011 were announced on Saturday and the business category was won by NPR's Planet Money, and the People's Choice category by 4player. We'd like to send our congratulations to join all those that have gone to them.

We are very happy that both Manager Tools and Career Tools were nominated and we're thrilled that our members both nominated and voted for us. Thank you.

We have exciting plans for 2012, and we're looking forward to announcing new products and services in the coming year. It's a privilege for us to serve you.

When you can't do anything else...

wendii — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:33:34 +0000

I got on a train during rush hour this week. I had a book to read, but at the first station the train stopped at, half of humanity seemed to get on, and I couldn't read my book. I didn't have space to hold it up in front of me.

Instead, I amused myself by picking out the DiSC profiles of my fellow train-travellers. Man next to me, with Facebook up on both his Blackberry and his iphone? High I. Across the way, the lady instructing people to move down the carriage and telling them again when they didn't get it done to her satisfaction? High D. Man who carefully waited for his turn to leave the train and then apologised when someone else got it wrong? High C .. or an S.

WMarsha1 wrote in the forums after he attended one of our Effective Communications Conference: "I see behaviors". Once you start looking you do see behaviors everywhere. And after a while, you stop looking and just know. And, if you're bored, it's great fun to practice on public transport.

http://www.manager-tools.com/forums-6265

The Other Way Works Just Fine

wendii — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:16:15 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, IBM announced that Ginni Rometty would be their new CEO. There's been plenty of comment about the fact that she's the 18th woman CEO in the Fortune 500 and about what that says about our society. That wasn't what I was really interested in - though it's good to know that had I wanted to be CEO of IBM, I could have been.

What was interesting to me, was that she spent her whole career at IBM. She interned there and later joined the company as a systems engineer. There's lots of career guidance out there, that will tell you staying in one company for your whole career is a mistake. There's people who will tell you that the way to achieve seniority and salary increases quickly is to change roles and companies often - sometimes as often as every year to eighteen months.

And, it's true, that does work for some people. But as Ginni proves, the other way works just fine too. It's all about finding the right place and the right method for your career. (The other way works just fine is one of Horstman's laws. You can see the rest here: http://www.manager-tools.com/docs/Horstmans_Laws.pdf).

Lazy Delegation

wendii — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:54:51 +0000

An article in September's Inc magazine interviews the creators of Blogworld & New Media Expo. The interviewer asks: "Lots of businesses either hand their socia-media efforts to young employees or outsource it altogether. Good idea?" The answer is: "You have to do this yourself. You can't hire someone to do it for you. Would you take a kid out of college or an intern and make him your CMO?"

This is a great point. There's a lazy habit we've seen in companies where work is allocated according to arbritary rules. "We'll give all the detail work to Bob. He's quiet". "We'll give the customer work to John. He doesn't have a family, so he can travel more". "We'll give the design work to Steve. He went to art school or something". And, "We'll give that social media/technology stuff to Bill. He's young".

When Manager Tools talks about delegation, we talk about allocating work according to: what the person wants to do, what
you want them to do, what they need to learn and/or what they're good at. None of those are 'he's young' or 'he's not got a family'. It actually takes time and attention to decide who to give work to, if you want it to be effectively done.

http://www.inc.com/magazine/201109/social-media-for-small-business.html

Understanding The Job Market

wendii — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:06:47 +0000

Everywhere we look, it seems there are dire predictions and ever-worsening news about the job market. The news may or may not be good, but there are two things to remember about the information you see about number of available jobs.

One, good news doesn't sell. The number of jobs at any one time is just statistics, and we all know, there are lies, d*mn lies and statistics. No matter the numbers, they can be twisted to look bad. Two, the general job market doesn't have much to do with you. How many jobs there are in the entire economy isn't really relevant to your specialism, your level and your location.

I recently read an article about the employment brand at BP. They did a survey a year ago, and 80% of the people they surveyed didn't know they were hiring, or that other big oil companies were hiring. They knew that Google and Microsoft and other tech companies were hiring, but not about oil. There are 381 jobs in the US on BP's website today. If you're part of the 80% that didn't know BP was hiring, and there's even one opportunity there which would suit your skills, that's one less role you've applied for.

Multiply that by all the industries that we don't know are hiring, and we start to see there's a lot more opportunity out there than the news would have us believe.

http://www.ere.net/2011/10/18/re-branding-bp/

Interview with Jim Collins

wendii — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 21:34:33 +0000

We just posted our interview with Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, here: http://www.manager-tools.com/2011/10/interview-with-jim-collins-author-g...

If you're a manager and you don't know who Jim Collins is, you've been living under a rock. Jim is a student and teacher of how companies grow and attain superior performance. His book, Built to Last, is a business classic and one of our favorites.

Mark recently had a chance to sit down and talk with Jim about his most recent book, Great by Choice. You won't want to miss it.

Build Your Network

wendii — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:10:07 +0000

We often hear people say 'I know I should be keeping in touch and building my network, but...' And, I'll confess, I'm not much better at it than anyone else.

An article in the September Issue of Inc made me think again about the amount of effort I put in, though. In it, they describe an afghani interpreter who works at the Kabul Military Training Center, facilitating communication between the US and Afghani armies. He's also pursuing a degree in business administration.

In the article he says: "his success on the job depends upon building a close rapport with US Army officials. "I still have a connection with even those who have gone back to the States". If he can build and maintain a network, I can and you can to.

http://www.inc.com/ss/2011-inc-500-working-at-fast-growing-companies.htm...

What Not To Do...

wendii — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:10:45 +0000

I was reading an article entitled 'What to include on your not-to-do list' in Real Business, when I came across this: 4. Do not turn up to meetings on time. I'm not a fan of list articles anyway - they're usually to shallow to be useful - and reading this I took a sharp intake of breath, getting ready to rant to whoever was in the room.

The guidance however, was not to turn up late, but instead to be 15 minutes early for every meeting. In that time, you can gather your things, gather your thoughts, and most importantly for Manager Tools managers make time to meet people and build relationships.

I don't agree with al the advice in the article, but number 12 works for me too: Don't get in the negative feedback habit. As we say at conferences, 95% of what happens in your organizations is good - but you want 95% of your feedback to be negative. Don't start down that slippery slope. Notice the positive.

http://realbusiness.co.uk/advice_and_guides/what-to-include-in-your-not-...

Defeatist....

wendii — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:34:35 +0000

In a short piece in Recruiter Magazine, several employers respond to the news that at Goldman Sachs, candidates usually have to go through eight rounds of interviews. Danielle Boubert, Recruitment Office, Apex International Hotel says "Complex interview processes and assessment days can have many benefits, but turnover in hospitality is so fast-paced that it would be almost impossible to apply a process such as that described for Goldman Sachs".

If Apex had a better recruitment process their turnover wouldn't be so high. Turnover at the Ritz-Carlton properties for example, is around a quarter of those in the industry in general. Ritz-Carlton doesn't accept 'this is the way it is'. It says, this is the way it is and what can we do about it? They have a systemized employee retention programme which results in lower turnover.

It doesn't matter that you're just one manager amongst tens, hundreds or thousands in your company. You don't have to accept 'this is the way it is'. Say 'this is the way it is, and what can I do about it'. Activity feels better than resignation, every time.

http://www.recruiter.co.uk/opinion/sound-bites/soundbites/1010854.articl...

Job Search Is An Activity

wendii — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:11:14 +0000

In a long article about a survey of in-house recruiters on the recruiter.co.uk website, is a paragraph about the percentage of the survey respondents who use agencies. The reported results are summarized by industry sector and the percentage of roles which are filled by agencies.

The report says: Around 64% of respondents said agencies accounted for less than a quarter of hires in the past 12 months, with only 15% saying that more than half of their posts were agency-filled. What does this mean for you? What Career Tools has been saying, and will continue to say: there is no silver bullet, you have to do everything.

It's not enough to register with a recruiter and wait. It's not enough to register on a job board and wait. It's not enough to think 'I've got a network' and wait. Job search is an activity. You have to be doing something - better, a range of somethings in order to get results.

http://www.recruiter.co.uk/realities-revealed-of-in-house-recruitment/10...

Podcast Awards

wendii — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:04:09 +0000

We're proud to announce that Manager Tools has been nominated in the
People's Choice category and both Manager Tools and Career Tools have been
nominated in Business. Thank you to everyone who took the time to nominate
us.

Voting starts today, 12 Oct and runs until 27 October. You can vote once
each day at http://podcastawards.com/. Since Career Tools won last year,
we'd like you to vote for Manager Tools (but please vote for whom you
please).

The awards are important to us, as they allow us to reach a wider audience
and achieve our mission of changing management. We also know that many of
you vote as a thank you for the podcasts and we are extremely grateful for
that support. Thank YOU.

One on One For The Direct

wendii — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 21:06:33 +0000

Listening to this week's Manager Tools podcast about taking notes, I thought of this tip, which I find handy as a direct, and thought I'd share with you. Leave at least 45 minutes after your O3 clear of any of other appointments.

I usually end up with a bunch of quick things to do after my O3 and a few bigger things. Leaving time after the O3 to get those small things checked off means I feel successful, and I only have to copy the couple of big things onto my to do list. The rest just has a check mark next to it in my O3 book.

It might not always be possible, but that 45 minutes means that my O3 tasks are not spread throughout the week. Done, dusted and onto the next.

Communication

wendii — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 20:58:55 +0000

I don't often read the sports pages of a newspaper or a website, but the headline on one of the articles on the BBC intrigued me today. The story is about Carlos Tevez, an argentinian who currently plays for Manchester City.

Apparently, he refused to play as a substitute and then, during a press conference said: "I didn't feel right to play and so I didn't". There's now an investigation going on as he's been suspended, but he has said that's not what he meant. Part of the problem is that english isn't his first language, and therefore he presumably doesn't have the range of vocabulary which would have allowed him to communicate effectively.

Part of it though, is a problem we all share. In a high pressure, time-limited environment, we try and communicate more quickly. Quicker communication often is less effective. Even when there's pressure, or there's no pressure but you're trying to reply on your blackberry before your next meeting, take the time to read over your message before you hit send. It might save you from being in the same place as Mr Tevez finds himself.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/15187855.stm

Coaches

wendii — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 22:19:17 +0000

There's a long article in the New Yorker by Atul Gawande, who wrote the Checklist Manifesto. In it, he describes the research he did about the kinds of professions which have coaches, and those who don't. Professional musicians, for example, don't tend to have coaches. Surgeons, Gawande discovered in practice, do not. Athletes do.

The article suggests that it's not that musicians and surgeons can't learn from coaches, just that it's not 'done'. Athletes have coaches - we expect them to. Gawande decided that he would find a coach, not worry about what anyone else thought and see if it helped. His coach found hundreds of small things he could improve, and he has kept the habit.

Mark has said previously, 'everything decays'. Even if you are currently perfect, your performance will decay over time. We become lazy. We take short cuts. We learn bad habits and continue to fall into them. Admitting this, and asking for outside eyes to help you to keep optimum performance, and even surpass it, is commitment to the people you serve, whether they are hospital patients or printer purchasers.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/03/111003fa_fact_gawande

Drowning

wendii — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:28:51 +0000

Fortune has published an excerpt from Jim Collin's new book, 'Great by Choice'. Whilst 'Good to Great' has become more controversial in hindsight, this excerpt has some interesting parts - enough to make me pre-order the book.

One of the themes in Manager Tools is that you have to ask for more, and you have to measure in order to see if you're getting it. Whether it's individuals or your team, we believe that if your company grows by 10% and you only grow by 7%, you're not only not moving forward, you're going backwards.

In the excerpt, Collin's talks about the CEO of Stryker, who set a target that the company would grow at 20% every year. "Brown" the article says "created the "Snorkel Award," given to those who lagged behind; 20% was the watermark, and if you were below it, you needed a snorkel. If your division fell behind for two years in a row, Brown would insert himself to "help," working around the clock to "help" you get back on track."

In other words, the goals was set for the company, but each division was expected to make the goal in their own right. You can do this too. If the company goal is 20%, what do you need to do for your team to get to 20%? What do you need to do as an individual to get to 20%? Because if you don't, you're in danger of drowning.

http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/09/30/jim-collins-great-by-choice...

Communication

wendii — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:05:45 +0000

On the Fortune website, there's an article entitled 'Why you should cool it with the corporate jargon'. They list three pretty reasonable reasons as to why and how corporate jargon gets in the way of real communication.

I'd add one more reason: if your team is not the same age as you, didn't grow up where you did or now live where you do, they may well have no idea what the jargon and casual language mean. As a Brit, who speaks to Americans a lot, I've discovered there are words and phrases I use that mean the complete opposite in American. Equally, there's words Mark uses which I take as an insult - even though it's absolutely not what he means. Multi-national teams mean you have to work harder at communication.

The last paragraph of the article describes a trait which is really important and one I always looked for interviews - the ability to describe your technical area in layman's terms for others. I once interviewed for a role in submarine sonar development. After 5 interviewees, all who ignored me and who made no effort to explain the technology in terms I could understand, the person who got the job was the one who described what his software did in terms of supermarket shopping. Technical ability is nothing, if you can't help people understand what you're doing.

http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/09/28/why-you-should-cool-it-with...

Checklists

wendii — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 22:16:45 +0000

One of our friends recently went to a conference with 30,000 attendees. Knowing how much work we need to do to have 30 attendees at our conferences, the thought of 30,000 made me feel quite faint. I guess they have a team who do nothing but that, and the world's longest checklist.

I was reminded of this by this article on the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15065155, which describes the recording of all 205 national anthems by the National Philharmonic in preparation for the Olympics. On the day after you win the Olympic bid, do you start writing a checklist and realise... we need to record all the national anthems? It certainly wouldn't have occurred to me.

I think what probably happens is that the Olympic people have a checklist which they handover to the countries, made up of years of experience of holding the games. Of course, the other problem is that this list probably has lots of things on it which are now unnecessary, or that have changed significantly. There were probably special postal services originally, but now we better make sure the Olympic Village has wifi.

Checklists are great things - but they are not set in stone. If I had to advise the company who had 30,000 conference attendees, I'd say, start from last years list, but don't be a slave to it. Think critically about what's on it AND what's missing.

Things You Don't Notice

wendii — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:33:33 +0000

I was in my local shopping mall today, getting a coffee in a coffee shop I go to at least once a week. Today, I was thinking about opening a new bank account. I knew which bank I wanted to go to and I looked on the internet while I was drinking coffee to see if they had a branch in my town. According to the internet, there was a branch in the mall I was in.

There's all of 20 shops in this mall and yet, I had no idea where it was. I was convinced that the internet was wrong. Then I stood up, walked to the escalator, and at the top of the escalator was the bank I was looking for.

It's been there all the time, I just didn't need to go there, and so I hadn't noticed it. I've walked past at least once a week, and just not seen it. Which makes me wonder, what other opportunities am I missing because I haven't noticed them? What opportunities have you missed?

Podcast Awards 2011

wendii — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:18:09 +0000

The nomination phase for the People's Choice Podcast Awards has started. Please nominate us at http://podcastawards.com/ .

We have been privileged to receive your votes in previous years, and hope that you will nominate and vote for us this year. The awards are one way that we are able to reach more managers and individual contributors. Our mission is to change careers, and in order to do that we need to reach as many as possible. We appreciate your help in doing that.

Here's how the awards work. The nomination process is one time only. You will need to go to http://podcastawards.com/ and submit Manager Tools or Career Tools in the Business and People's Choice categories. Since Career Tools won last year, we'd like you to nominate Manager Tools (but please nominate whom you please). We're not voting yet, so you can only nominate once, but amount of nominations is 40% of the determination of who makes the voting slate.There's lots of other categories in which you can nominate your other favorite podcasts while you're there.

You'll need the URLS which are:

http://www.manager-tools.com/podcasts/manager-tools
http://www.manager-tools.com/podcasts/career-tools

Some of you may be asked to validate your nominations - that's part of the random security process for the awards.

When voting opens, you'll be able to vote every day for our casts if they get through nomination.

We're privileged to serve you and look forward to doing so for another year.

Effectiveness

wendii — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:05:35 +0000

Mark's definition of professionalism is doing what needs to be done, rather than what you want to do. I read a story in Fortune this week about Jim Skinner, CEO of McDonald's. (As a quick aside, did you know McDonald's has produced store on store revenue growth every month for the last 99 months? That's some record).

The company was doing tests on new coffee-cup lids. After extensive customer testing, they decided on a particular kind of lid - the kind you get when you to into McDonald's now. Skinner drinks a lot of coffee, apparently, and really doesn't like those lids. Rather than pulling rank and making them keep the lids he likes, he stockpiled the old lids for his use and the company moved the lids the customer liked.

It might be a minor example, but it demonstrates the principle well. Choose what works for the company, not what works for you.

http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/08/23/why-mcdonalds-wins-in-any-e...