Management

Are you a risk taker?

2013-05-22T16:19:00Z

Do you think of yourself as a risk-taker? Risk-taking behavior is associated with innovators, entrepreneurs, and intrapreneurs. Elke Weber, a professor of international business at Columbia University and a leading researcher on risk, says, that understanding the roots of risk-taking can guide people in making better decisions. (See, "What Makes a Risk Taker" Wall Street Journal, May 22, 2013). The Wall Street Journal reports, "Most people overestimate the probability of something going wrong" when they venture into unfamiliar turf, says Margie Warrell, a Melbourne, Australia-based authority on risk-taking who has coached many U.S. executives and employers. "They also overestimate the consequences of things going badly," says Ms. Warrell, author of "Stop Playing Safe." With experience, they become more realistic, and learn they can handle the consequences of failure. "The more often we step out of our comfort zone, the more we build our tolerance for risk-taking," she says.

As depicted in the graphic below, the five areas where people take gambles are health and safety, ethical, social, recreational, and financial. Answer the questions on the graphic below. When do you take chances?

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324102604578497133593217870.html

Take the attached risk assessment. What are your biggest risk areas?

Human Skills Needed by Managers

2013-05-21T18:09:00Z

An occupation group in the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook is management.

There are many management occupations, but all managers need technical, conceptual, and human skills.

Have you already developed the human skills to be a manager? Score yourself on each of these 10 human skills using the following rating scale.

Never - 1
Seldom - 3
Often - 5
Regularly - 10

I challenge employees to set objectives.
I coach employees to resolve performance issues.
I encourage employees to contribute new ideas.
I take an interest in my employees' personal lives.
I delegate fairly.
I communicate my goals clearly.
I resolve conﬂicts in a productive way.
I behave as a professional.
I inspire my employees to do their best work.
I am a good listener.

What is your score. (The top score is 100.)

Prioritize the areas you need to develop.

Which area will you develop first? Once that goal is achieved, what is the next area you need to develop?

Yahoo Buys Tumblr

2013-05-20T21:26:00Z

CBS MoneyWatch reports, "Per the agreement and our promise not to screw it up, Tumblr will be independently operated as a separate business," Yahoo said in an unusual pledge for a formal acquisition announcement. Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp will continue on in his role. Yahoo said the "service and brand will continue to be defined and developed separately with the same Tumblr irreverence, wit, and commitment to empower creators."

Do you have a Tumblr account? Do you have a Yahoo email address? Which Internet sites do you visit regularly?

What does Tumblr have that Yahoo needs? Is buying "hip" Tumblr a good management decision for "old" Yahoo? Explain.

The Entrepreneurial Mindset

2013-05-17T21:19:00Z

Millenials want freedom, and this desire is driving them towards independent (and often entrepreneurial) career paths. Many are planning their escape from corporate jobs. If organizations embraced intrapreneurs, would this help employees stay in organizations?

3 Secrets of Highly Successful Graduates

2013-05-17T20:57:00Z

Do you feel ready for the new world of work? Explain.

Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, shares three things that successful professionals eventually figure out about their careers.

The 3 Secrets of Highly Successful Graduates from Reid Hoffman

The Young and Influence

2013-05-17T19:16:00Z

If you have ever felt like you don't have any influence, then look at this infographic. Young adults 18-24 are on the top of the influence pyramid.

How do their new languages and behaviors inspire people that are both younger and older than them?

How is the incredible power of today's youth directly related to those who came before them?

What relevance does this have for organizations and managers?

We All Want to be Young infographic

Bad Managers Top the List of Employee Complaints

2013-05-14T15:24:00Z

Courtesy of: ej4

Do you agree? What is your top employee complaint?

Bill Gates on Steve Jobs

2013-05-13T00:40:00Z

In this 60 Minutes interview, Charlie Rose asks Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, about his competitor, the late Steve Jobs, founder of Apple.

If you aren't familiar with these entrepreneurs, browse the Triumph of the Nerds, a history of the personal computer and the people who helped shaped it.

How important is a computer to you? How do you use a computer? How important is the computer to business? Which jobs don't use a computer? Explain.

Credit Reports used to Screen Job Applicants

2013-05-12T15:14:00Z

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found in a 2012 study that about half - 47 percent - of employers check credit reports when making a hiring decision. Furthermore, the study found that the leading reasons organizations conduct credit checks on job candidates are to decrease/prevent theft and embezzlement (45%) and to reduce legal liability for negligent hiring (22%). (See slides below.)

2012 backgroundcheck credit_final from shrm

Employers want trustworthy employees. But, is there a connection between a credit report and an employee’s trustworthiness? Gary Rivlin in a New York Times story, reported, “One study published in 2008 in the International Journal of Selection and Assessment suggested a correlation between a person’s financial history and workplace theft. But a 2011 study in the Journal of Applied Psychology found no link between a person’s credit score and what it called “deviant” behavior like workplace theft. (It did, however, find a correlation between a low credit score and an agreeable personality.)”

Should credit reports be used to screen applicants? Are there exceptions? How relevant is a credit check is for a particular position?

The Ideal Organization

2013-05-09T15:23:00Z

Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones identified the six most essential imperatives for creating an ideal work environment.

Let people be themselves.
Unleash the flow of information.
Magnify people's strengths.
Stand for more than shareholder value.
Show how the daily work makes sense.
Have rules people can believe in.

How can a manager create a work environment with the above 6 elements? To get more ideas, look at the following statements created by Goffee and Jones.

How close is your organization to the ideal?

To find out, check off each statement that applies. The more check marks you have, the closer you are to the dream.

Let Me Be Myself

☐ I'm the same person at home as I am at work.
☐ I feel comfortable being myself.
☐ We're all encouraged to express our differences.
☐ People who think differently from most do well here.
☐ Passion is encouraged, even when it leads to conflict.
☐ More than one type of person fits in here.

Tell Me What's Really Going On

☐ We're all told the whole story.
☐ Information is not spun.
☐ It's not disloyal to say something negative.
☐ My manager wants to hear bad news.
☐ Top executives want to hear bad news.
☐ Many channels of communication are available to us.
☐ I feel comfortable signing my name to comments I make.

Discover and Magnify My Strengths

☐ I am given the chance to develop.
☐ Every employee is given the chance to develop.
☐ The best people want to strut their stuff here.
☐ The weakest performers can see a path to improvement.
☐ Compensation is fairly distributed throughout the organization.
☐ We generate value for ourselves by adding value to others.

Make Me Proud I Work Here

☐ I know what we stand for.
☐ I value what we stand for.
☐ I want to exceed my current duties.
☐ Profit is not our overriding goal.
☐ I am accomplishing something worthwhile.
☐ I like to tell people where I work.

Make My Work Meaningful

☐ My job is meaningful to me.
☐ My duties make sense to me.
☐ My work gives me energy and pleasure.
☐ I understand how my job fits with everyone else's.
☐ Everyone's job is necessary.
☐ At work we share a common cause.

Don't Hinder Me with Stupid Rules

☐ We keep things simple.

☐ The rules are clear and apply equally to everyone.
☐ I know what the rules are for.
☐ Everyone knows what the rules are for.
☐ We, as an organization, resist red tape.
☐ Authority is respected.

How could the above statements help you in your job search?

The 3 Habits of Great Creative Teams

2013-05-08T22:50:00Z

Keith Yamashita, founder of SYPartners, says collaborative teams have an awareness beyond the day-to-day, respect the unique talents of team members, and actively cultivate meaningful one-on-one relationships.

Think about a time that you've been part of a great team, at school, at home, at work, or on the athletic field. What made it a great experience?

CEO of Rapid Realty Rewards Tattooed Employees

2013-05-08T01:58:00Z

Anthony Lolli, the CEO of Rapid Realty in New York City, rewards employees tattooed with the company logo. The company pays for the tattoo and gives employees an extra 15 percent in commission. The CEO says employees with the company logo tattoo are "passionate about the brand."

Tattoos are one thing that separates older employees from younger employees. Many younger employees have tattoos. But, older employees associate tattoos with negative connotations.

What do you think about tattoos? Are they are professional? Should managers encourage them? Why?

Twitter CEO Costolo's Commencement Speech

2013-05-06T16:48:00Z

"When I was your age we didn't have the Internet in our pants," Twitter CEO Richard Costolo joked during his speech at the University of Michigan commencement. "We didn't even have the Internet not in our pants - that's how bad it was."

When talking about innovation and Twitter's impact on the world, he said, "Not only can you not plan the impact you're going to have, you often won't recognize it even while you're having it."

What has been Twitter's impact on the world? What do managers need to know about Twitter?

The Sharing Economy

2013-05-03T15:33:00Z

Managers scan the external environment to determine problems, opportunities, and trends. An important element in the external environment is the economy. In this video, Loic LeMeur states that people will share possessions instead of owning them.

Can you imagine no possessions? Is this a trend of the future? How might it affect business?

Do you have content on Facebook that you don’t want the world to see?

2013-05-02T19:50:00Z