Gemmy S. Allen is Management Coordinator and Faculty at North Lake College, Irving, TX of the Dallas County Community College District. She is the co-author of the textbook Management: Meeting and Exceeding Customer Expectations, published by Cengage. Her awards include being named Outstanding Mountain View College Faculty Member and receiving the Golden Oak Award, Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce; the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development Excellence in Teaching Award; and the award for Mountain View College Innovator of the Year. She served as a member of Microsoft Mentors, the Microsoft/Compaq College Advisory Council and the St. Philip’s College Model Electronic Commerce Curriculum Advisory Committee and is founding teacher, Virtual College of Texas — “Internet Teachers at Every College.” In addition, she has co-authored several discipline-specific, Internet-related books, developed several online classes, made numerous presentations to industry, and has led workshops in the United States, Australia and Mexico.
Franklin Walton, Ph.D., Principal, Franklin Walton LLC; Deputy Chair, Media and Communication Arts Department, City College of New York; Member, Measurement Commission, Institute for Public Relations says that President Obama's 2014 State of the Union "speech is still likely to go down in the history of professional communications as a new milestone in professional communicators’ responsiveness to new consumer media-consumption realities." He lists the standards for the future for a “best practice” speech:
1) The speech is live-streamed (the talking head part)
2) The setting for the live-streaming has been stage-designed to include all those supportive people and tableaus (the entrepreneurs, the military veterans, the beneficiaries of government programs, etc.)
3) The split-screen format provides graphics, images, etc. which illustrate and provide visual cues and emphasis beyond what the video recording of the live event can provide.
4) The smart use of presentation graphics must exemplify the most current and tested methods for PowerPoint-category software and other presentation methodologies. When the most important points are being made by the speaker, there are no graphics: focus only on the face and voice of the speaker (making the emotional connection). The graphics never repeat exactly (but complement) the speaker. And the speaker never, never, never reads the “slides.”
5) If your audience processes information better in “bits” and “tweets” – you can provide it with a live-stream of tweets echoing the live/videoed event.
How can managers incorporate the above best practices into their presentations?
In this video, McKinsey director, Katy George, explains how companies must take a next-shoring approach. This means companies must "think about understanding which segments need to be manufactured near demand and which segments need to be manufactured near innovative supply bases."
How are economics in manufacturing changing?
What are some of the new advances in manufacturing technologies?
How do companies get closer to demand?
When you want to learn something new, you have to study the material in several different ways. You have to engage with the content, as seen in the BrainMass infographic above.
For example, you could read the content. Then you could look for the answers to the learning objectives. Then you could summarize (in your own words) each new term or concept that you find. Then you could think of a management example. You could look for a current event article depicting the theoretical concept in the "real world". You could outline the material or draw a mind map. You could join a study group. Each person in the group may have gotten something different from the reading or the lecture and you could share your understanding. Practice with the flash cards, crossword puzzles, and practice test questions, which Cengage provides with most of its management textbooks.
Have you ever wondered why, after reading the material, you made a "D" on the test? Research tells us that if you have never seen the material, you need to work with the material in seven different ways to learn it.
What is your favorite method of studying? Which study methods will you add to your learning routine?
How could you use this information to train employees?
Lisa Siegel of Riverside Market & Cafe in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, discusses the honor system used for controlling the purchases of their 550 types of bottled beers available in their wall coolers.
Why do you think this system works?
What other companies could use the honor system?
All managers want to organize their work teams to be more productive. The above video was made in collaboration by AsapSCIENCE with Sparring Mind, the behavioral psychology blog. Some of the major points made in the video include:
What can science tell us about the human brain and productive work?
How do we become more efficient at working, and spend less time working overall?
Read the full productivity post: http://bit.ly/XRcYAY
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is a leadership communication consultant, body language coach, and author of The Silent Language of Leaders: How Body Language Can Help – or Hurt – How You Lead.and The Truth About Lies in the Workplace: How to Spot Liars and How to Deal with Them. In this video interview with San Francisco’s KRON-TV, she shares some tips about exuding confidence (even when you don't feel confident).
Which of her tips about projecting success through your body language will you use?
In this video, the International Franchise Association looks back at 2013 and ahead to what's coming up for 2014.
How does this relate to an environmental analysis?
What are the opportunities and threats for small business owners?
The infographic above says that every manager needs the following skills to be a good leader:
What skills do you think a manager needs to be a good leader?
In his video, Alex Gorsky, chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson (J&J), talks about his management style. In the interview, he says,
"I do believe that one of the best indicators of leadership is a leader’s track record in developing leaders. I will frequently focus on three areas when I’m interviewing or when I’m talking to people. One is certainly on performance because you always want to have leaders who are committed to high performance and … handling a wide range of different scenarios. Second, I always focus on what’s their track record of developing future leaders. One of my favorite questions is to ask people is, “If I asked you who had the biggest impact on your career and how they did that, who are those four people that you would name?” At a senior level, if they can’t name three or four fairly senior level people, then immediately I question their wherewithal in people development."
One measure of a good manager is to determine how many of his or her employees have been promoted. Why is promotion of work team members a good measure of leadership?
Why can’t some people stop procrastinating? Sue Shellenbarger reports in the Wall Street Journal that about 70% of college students may be chronic procrastinators.
Consequences of Procrastinating
Source: International Journal of Selection and Assessment and The Journal of Rational-Emotional Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
Timothy Pychyl, in the above video is an associate professor of psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. He researches procrastination and says that regulating emotions is the key to stop procrastinating. Dr. Pychyl, author of a 2013 book, "Solving the Procrastination Puzzle," advises "procrastinators to practice "time travel"—projecting themselves into the future to imagine the good feelings they will have after finishing a task, or the bad ones they will have if they don't" (Sue Shellenbarger, "To Stop Procrastinating, Look to Science of Mood Repair," The Wall Street Journal, January 7, 2014).
How can "time travel" help you to stop procrastinating this semester?
How could a manager use this research to motivate employees to get started and finish tasks?
Your Brain and Business: The Neuroscience of Great Leaders from Srini Pillay on Vimeo.
What makes a great leader? Neuroscientists are finding insights about leadership through their research. For example, hardwired biases can lead managers to make irrational decisions. Taking a break can lead to better management decisions.
Can companies maximize profitability by looking into the workings of their managers' conscious and unconscious business minds?
Is brain research the key to great leadership today?
The State of Social Media 2013 by Infographic Promotion
The notable social media moments of 2013, month by month, are noted in the infographic above.
Most important for managers is to note that people preferred their mobile devices (such as smart phones and tablets) over their computers. How should managers plan for this change in behavior?
Would you agree that 2013 was the year of social media? What do you think was the most notable social media moment in 2013?