What is acceptable at home, may be offensive in other countries. Before traveling, look over the American customs considered offensive in other countries depicted above.

Which custom could affect business relations?

Why would this knowledge matter to business people?

You need a picture for your project or presentation and you find the perfect one online. To know, follow the chart from above from Curtis Newbold, The Visual Communication Guy. 

What is wrong with using a picture that you find online?

What is the difference between copyright, fair use, creative commons, and public domain?

You need a picture for your project or presentation and you find the perfect one online. To know, follow the chart from above from Curtis Newbold, The Visual Communication Guy. 

What is wrong with using a picture that you find online?

What is the difference between copyright, fair use, creative commons, and public domain?

Right now, most men in the U.S. are employed as truck drivers. Self-driving cars and trucks are already a reality. 

How will men earn money in the future without a truck-driving job?

Rocío Lorenzo and her team surveyed 171 companies to find out if diverse companies were more innovative. The answer was a clear yes. More diverse companies are more innovative. In the video above, Lorenzo explains how a company can start producing fresher, more creative ideas by treating diversity as a competitive advantage.

How can setting a measurable target make managers think more creatively about developing leaders?

Research by Zenger Folkman suggests that employees place a great deal of emphasis on receiving positive feedback from their manager. Most know that some feedback may be negative or constructive, but employees want positive feedback specifically for something that they are doing right.

Positive feedback does not mean that the managers says, "good job!" Be specific. What exactly did the employee do correctly? The praise can be very brief, but it needs to be specific. It should come as soon after the behavior as possible. Furthermore, the employee should be encouraged to keep up the good work.

Share an instance where an employee did something right and the manager gave specific, positive feedback.

Everyone wants to feel that others are listening to them. But, most of us do not learn to listen. We learn to speak. All parents are excited when their children say their first words. We take speech in school. But, for most employees, having the manager listen to them is important. Active listening is a skill needed by managers. In the graphic above, The Center for Creative Leadership, lists seven key active listing skills.

• Be attentive.
• Ask open-ended questions.
• Ask probing questions.
• Request clarification.
• Paraphrase.
• Be attuned to and reflect feelings.
• Summarize.

Think about your own listening skills. Which of the seven key active listening skills do you need to develop? How will you do that?

Business Backer posts, "This infographic features 36 useful tips to help you create a professional and courteous email."

Explain why your emails have been overly friendly or lack professionalism.

The San Jose Mercury News reported that Tesla had fired hundreds of employees following company-wide performance evaluations. “As with any company, especially one of over 33,000 employees, performance reviews also occasionally result in employee departures,” a spokesman said. “Tesla is continuing to grow and hire new employees around the world.” The paper reported that high performing employees had been rewarded.

Daniel Grant, a production assistant at the Tesla Fremont factory since 2014, told The Los Angeles Times, “The company didn't show me or others our most recent reviews when they fired us. I would like the company to release our full reviews, including peer reviews, to us.”

 The traditional way of handling performance problems is to apply a progressive discipline system based on progressively more severe punishment:

Step 1: Verbal reprimand,

Step 2: Written warning,

Step 3: Suspension without pay/probation/final warning,

Step 4: Termination. 

Some of the employees report that they were disciplined by their supervisors and stopped their behavior.

But, did most of those people return to work having decided once and for all to change, because they knew that if they did not change, they would be fired?

What would you do if you were a manager for Tesla? Would you feel like a failure if you had to fire someone? How many people do you think Tesla managers saved from termination by correcting problems? 

Dr Tom W. Smith, director of the General Social Survey at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, found office supervisor to be one of the most satisfying jobs. Over 27,000 people across a wide variety of social classes and occupations were surveyed. Dr. Smith explained the common thread in satisfying jobs by saying, “The most satisfying jobs are mostly professions, especially those involving caring for, teaching, and protecting others and creative pursuits.”

The top 12 most satisfying jobs:

1. Clergy
2. Physical Therapists
3. Firefighters
4. Education Administrators
5. Painter, Sculptors, Related
6. Teachers
7. Authors
8. Psychologists
9. Special Education Teachers
10. Operating Engineers
11. Office Supervisors
12. Security & Financial Services Salespersons

Most of these jobs involve helping others. How will you find a job that allows you to help others in some way?

The co-founder of The Weinstein Company, Harvey Weinstein, was fired last week after the New York Times reported that he had sexually harassed women.

Managers must be aware of the EEOC guidelines on sexual harassment.

Specifically, EEOC guidelines state that "unwelcome advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature" constitute sexual harassment when submission to the conduct is used as a basis for employment conditions. The conduct is illegal when it interferes with an employee's work performance or creates an "intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment." (See attached.)

In "Facts about sexual harassment", the EEOC, states: Sexual harassment can occur in a variety of circumstances, including but not limited to the following:

• The victim as well as the harasser may be a woman or a man. The victim does not have to be of the opposite sex.
• The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, an agent of the employer, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or a non-employee.
• The victim does not have to be the person harassed but could be anyone affected by the offensive conduct.
• Unlawful sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to or discharge of the victim.
• The harasser's conduct must be unwelcome.

How common is sexual harassment in the workplace?

What special precautions should managers take to prevent the sexual harassment of employees?

In this podcast,  Tim Ferriss, author of "Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers," shares 17 questions that changed his life. 

1) What if I did the opposite for 48 hours? 

2) What do I spend a silly amount of money on; how might I scratch my own itch? 

3) What would I do / have be if I had all the money in the world? 

4) What are the worst things that could happen; could I get back here? 

5) If I could only work 2 hours a week on my business what would I do? 

6) What if I let my employees make $100 / $1000 / $10000 decisions? 

7) What's the least crowded channel? 

8) What if I couldn't pitch my product directly? 

9) What if I created my own real world MBA? 

10) Do I need to make it back the way I lost it? 

11) What if I could only subtract to solve problems? 

12) What might I put in place to allow me to go off the grid for 4-8 weeks with no forward email? 

13) Am I hunting antelope or field mice? 

14) Could it be that everything is fine and complete as is? 

15) What would this look like if it were easy? 

16) How can I throw money at this problem? 

17) No hurry, no pause.

Each of these questions has simple solutions. Which question helps you? Why?

What question would you add to this list? Explain.

In an interview with Ron Shaich, founder and CEO of Panera Bread, Robert Reiss asked him, "What advice do you have to CEOs on transforming their enterprises?"

Ron Shaich and Robert Reiss

Ron Shaich said, "The success of our long-term transformations comes down to three things that the Panera team has always been able to do:

• First, we tell ourselves the truth about our circumstances and what we are up against.
• Second, we work hard to make sure we know what matters both in terms of what will matter most to our guests and also what is most important to accomplish to ensure a successful outcome.
• Third, we actually get the job done. Most people do not have the insight, foresight, or wherewithal to do all three. But you have to do all three to lead successful transformations." 

If you want to change your company, explain how you will tell yourself the truth about circumstances.

How will be able to act and not stall while waiting or the perfect strategy?

Inclusive leadership is about:

1. Treating people and groups fairly—that is, based on their unique characteristics, rather than on stereotypes
2. Personalizing individuals—that is, understanding and valuing the uniqueness of diverse others while also accepting them as members of the group
3. Leveraging the thinking of diverse groups for smarter ideation and decision making that reduces the risk of being blindsided

Individual differences can be a competitive advantage.

How do you think that traditional notions of leadership must change?

Douglas R. Conant is the former CEO of Campbell Soup Company. When he became CEO in 2001, Campbell's had lost half its market value, sales were declining, and employees were losing their jobs. He immediately worked with his team to implement The Campbell Promise: “Campbell valuing people. People valuing Campbell.” He supported the promise with a 10-point pledge.

DOUG’S LEADERSHIP PLEDGE:

1. We will treat you with respect and dignity.

2. We will create a high-performance, high-trust culture that is open, honest and committed to excellence.

3. We will work to develop a good understanding of your work situation and your career aspirations.

4. We will endeavor to help you learn, grow and realize your career ambitions.

5. We will work to clarify organizational expectations of you and to responsibly ensure that you have the resources necessary to do your job.

6. We will reward your performance with recognition and a competitive compensation program.

7. In a tangible fashion, we will work to continuously upgrade the environment in which you operate.

8. To the degree possible, we will share our assessment of our current circumstances and future potential with you, solicit your input and support, and responsibly empower you to act.

9. We will work vigilantly to keep our commitments to you. We will act with integrity. We will endeavor to do everything we say we are going to do.

10. If we fall short of a commitment, we will openly and honestly acknowledge our shortcoming and conscientiously work to remedy the situation.

Treating employees respectfully helped Campbell Soup recover.

How did publicly valuing employees under the principle of civility and setting clear relationship expectations, help Campbell Soup regain employees' trust?

How might this work for other companies?

You know it is important for your career to network. You would like to join a Facebook group to learn to deal with a perplexing management problem.

But you do not want your employees to know.

Before you decide to join a Facebook group, make sure you understand the differences between Public, Closed and Secret groups and the protections each provides.

Visit Facebook's easy-to-understand table that explains the privacy settings for all three types of groups. At the bottom, you'll find a link to directions on how group administrators can change their groups' privacy settings.

Which Facebook groups would you like to join to help your career?

Jack Ma, the founder and CEO of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, says you need LQ if you want to be respected.  LQ is "the quotient of love, which machines never have," Ma explained. 

 What sets humans apart is love, i.e. our feeling for justice, our creativity in the face of challenges, our ability to empathize deeply and respond wisely.

"A machine does not have a heart, [a] machine does not have soul, and [a] machine does not have a belief. Human beings have the souls, have the belief, have the value; we are creative, we are showing that we can control the machines," he insisted.

"We have to teach our kids to be very, very innovative, very creative," Ma said. "In this way, we can create jobs for our own kids." He went on to say, "Human beings should have the self-confidence," he concluded. "Human being[s] have the wisdom. Machine[s do] not have the wisdom."

Is LQ the secret to sucess?

How do you think that love separates us from machines?

Instead of asking interview questions, Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford University, Bob Sutton says to do his suggestions (below) instead.

• Use social media to research the person.
• Conduct a project with the person.
• Find people who have worked with the person before.
• Give the person a trial period.

What is the problem with finding people who have worked with the person and asking questions? Do you think that might be illegal? Explain.

What do you think about using questions to choose the best person for the job?

Managers must stay focused.

What are some ways you could remove distractions and get more focused in life?

Choose 3 actions to get more focused!

72andSunny Published a Diversity Playbook That It Wants All Companies to ‘Steal’ as part of the company's global mission to expand and diversity the creative class (advertising agencies and clients). The Playbook offers key insights as well as actions organizations can take.

“One of the things we’ve realized over the last six months to a year, was the more conversations we’ve had with people the more we’ve realized there’s an unmet need for sharing the basics of how to even get started. It’s a daunting thing to jump in to especially if you’re a smaller company, even a bigger company, figuring out how to do this,” Evin Shutt, COO, partner, 72andSunny, said. “[Diversity] is bigger than all of us and so important that we need to share it. As an industry the only way to move forward is through openly sharing and having these conversations. Our hope is it can be a catalyst for that,” Shutt added.

Read the playbook at the link above to find nine key points, or plays, which 72andSunny has learned about diversity.

Explain which play you think is the most important.

Merriam-Webster added 250 new words to the dictionary. 

Two words used in management are Internet of Things and Onboarding.

Internet of Things is the networking capability that allows information to be sent to and received from objects and devices (such as fixtures and kitchen appliances) using the Internet.

Onboarding is the act or process of orienting and training a new employee.

View the list and choose other new words that you find of specific interest to management. Explain your choice(s).

Are you a Millennial? If so, you were born between 1980 and 2000 and are entering the workforce. Millennials are fundamentally changing the rules of a game called “work”. The attached report "Collaboration Generation: The Rise of Millennials in the Workplace" breaks down this new species of employee.

How to managers get a multigenerational workforce to work together towards a common goal?

In the video above, Alexander Wagner explains why one in seven large corporations commits fraud each year.

Explain the importance of a code of conduct or ethics for managers and employees in a business.

What is the problem with appealing to benefits and costs to get people to behave according to them?

Explain why managers should hire employees who have the values that are in line with the business.