It’s the part of being a manager that everyone dreads.  A less than stellar employee’s review is coming up, and you have to be the bearer of bad news.

Ideally, the feedback you are about to deliver shouldn’t be a surprise.  Good managers address negative performance as specific examples come up and immediately work with the employee to improve.  But in the real-world, this may not always happen, and even if it has, the annual or semi-annual review is the time to re-address past issues.  Here are a few suggestions to help you through what may be an uncomfortable task:

You will need to cite at least two instances of each area that needs to be improved, so go through your e-mails, notes, and other documentation to make sure you can present an air-tight case.  With negative feedback, it’s especially critical to be objective rather than subjective.

Whenever possible, use examples you witnessed first-hand.  It’s a dangerous game to rely on another of your reports for negative performance details because the details are hearsay and you don’t want to play the “he said she said” game.  Shifting responsibility for the feedback to another team member may also cause an interpersonal issue between those two, so try to avoid naming names.

Don’t put off the review conversation because that will just make things worse for both of you.  Sit down the week the review is due and don’t mince words.  While it may be easier to start off with small talk, asking about the employee’s child’s birthday party and telling her you’re disappointed in her performance in the next breath will sound insincere.

Speak to your positive feedback first, demonstrating that you are aware of her positive results and contributions.  Then, before you launch into the areas for improvement, thank the employee for her willingness to listen to and address these areas with an open mind.

Your employee may become defensive.  Do not let her emotions rile you.  Keep the discussion factual, don’t raise your voice, and never allow comments to veer into personal territory.  Your feedback should be related to the employee’s job performance – nothing more.

Work with the employee to develop concrete action items related to performance improvement.  If you need to put her on probation, make that clear.  Set up periodic check-ins to ensure that key issues are being addressed, and take responsibility for the fact that she is your employee to develop.  Document everything so that you can’t be dinged later for letting her go without cause or warning.

Related posts:

1. Doing Performance Reviews from Scratch
2. What to Do When You Can’t Give a Positive Reference
3. How to Orient a New Team Member

Communication is a key aspect of teamwork, and a team that works together well is crucial to high performance and achieving objectives. But little has been known about the role of communication styles in effective teams; in the past most research has focused on goals, individual roles, and group norms. Until now.

In the April 2012 issue of the Harvard Business Review Alex “Sandy” Pentland introduces us to his new research; MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory is uncovering the details of the role of communication and team member interaction within a working team. They have been studying patterns of communication in teams across multiple industries—gathering data on team members’ communication habits. Here is one success story:

A manager at call center was puzzled why some teams excelled while others struggled. The usual metrics (plentiful at a call center) gave no indication. Using an entire new set of metrics (tone of voice, gestures used, body positioning, and quantity of talking, listening, and interrupting) they were able to explain that one-third of the variation in dollar productivity among groups was due to energy and engagement outside of formal meetings.

Dr. Pentland writes, “drawing on that insight, we advised the center’s manager to revise the employees’ coffee break schedule so that everyone on a team took a break at the same time. That would allow people more time to socialize with their teammates, away from their workstations. Though the suggestion flew in the face of standard efficiency practices, the manager was baffled and desperate, so he tried it. And it worked: average handling time fell by more than 20% among lower-performing teams and decreased by 8% overall at the call center. Now the manager is changing the break schedule at all 10 of the bank’s call centers and is forecasting $15 million a year in productivity increases. He has also seen employee satisfaction at call centers rise, sometimes by more than 10%.”

At the call center, energy and engagement were the two most important metrics that differentiated successful versus unsuccessful teams. In a more creative environment, however, exploration is also important. All in all, there are three communication metrics that affect team performance:

• Energy – how much communication is going on and quality of the interaction (for example, a face-to-face exchange is rated as higher energy than an email or text, thus having a more positive impact on team performance).
• Engagement – who is communicating well with each other and who isn’t (equal and high energy between all team members=high engagement and high performance; partially engaged teams don’t perform as well)
• Exploration –communication with outsiders (outside team, outside company, outside industry, etc.). Excellent for teams who work on innovation.

Our energy is a limited resource, which creates tension between engagement and exploration for teams that require both—they can’t give 100% to each, a so team must correctly decide where to allocate resources as demands require.

The article specifies five characteristics of successful teams:

1. Everyone on the team talks and listens in roughly equal measure, keeping contributions short and sweet.

2. Members face one another, and their conversations and gestures are energetic.

3. Members connect directly with one another—not just with the team leader.

4. Members carry on back-channel or side conversations within the team.

5. Members periodically break, go exploring outside the team, and bring information back.

• 35% of team performance can be explained by tallying number of face-to-face exchanges among team members.
• The “ideal” number of communication exchanges is a dozen per hour—more will actually decrease performance.
• Social interaction between team members is critical to team performance—socializing often accounts for an improvement of at least 50% in communication patterns across many industries and vocations.
• Individual talent is less important to team success than expected; put less focus on selecting accomplished members and instead build a great team by learning how they communicate and providing training on successful communication patterns.

The “ideal” team member connects teammates, spreads ideas, approaches others often, talks and listens equally, communicates with everyone equally

No related posts.

Although hiring is not a process that should be rushed, you should do everything in your power to ensure that a decision is expedited and an offer is made to your top choice as soon as possible.  Presumably, a strong candidate will have had multiple interviews and may even have several other offers in hand by the time you come calling.  You don’t want to lose the person to another organization simply because you didn’t act quickly enough.

Just before you pull the trigger, you want to try to understand what the candidate is thinking.  Ask the candidate what would keep her from accepting an offer from the company, such as a counteroffer from her current company.  These kinds of pre-offer questions will illuminate how the candidate really feels about the position.

Every organization has a different policy regarding who makes the job offer, an HR representative or the hiring manager.  Understand how the process works and don’t attempt to buck the system.  If it’s your responsibility, make sure you speak to the candidate live, either in person or on the phone.  I’ve read that the best time to make a job offer is Monday morning, because if you wait any longer, you risk not hearing back before the weekend.

Start by saying congratulations in a tone that makes the candidate feel special that he has been chosen. Provide an overview of the job again and what you’re expecting in terms of a start date.  Ask the candidate if he has any questions or concerns, and if you can, find out the names of the other organizations he’s considering.

Unless you have a third-party negotiator (which some experts recommend) you’ll also re-address the issue of compensation.  By this time, you should have a good idea of what the candidate is looking for, and you want your numbers to fall within that range.  Ideally, your organization will have an approved salary associated with each job title, but if not, you may need to do some research to make sure your offer is in line with industry averages and what the candidate is likely to receive from your competitors.  An unappealing offer is likely to sour the candidate on your organization and the opportunity.

In the end, though, if the candidate has asked for a higher salary than you or your company is prepared to give, propose your own number but be prepared to compromise on other valuable items such as bonuses, benefits, vacation allotment, stock purchase, and relocation.

Depending on the candidate’s level of seniority, you may need to educate her on the value of some of these “extras.”  For instance, while the salary you’re offering might be a few thousand dollars lower, your extra week of vacation and superior health insurance plan could more than make up for it.  If the individual will be eligible for a raise or promotion within a specific period of time, mention that too.  Should any back-and-forth negotiation occur prior to a verbal acceptance, get everything – complete offers and counteroffers – in writing.

Tell the candidate you’re happy to give him 48 hours to think about the offer – and mean it.  Deciding whether or not to accept a job is a huge proposition, and any decent candidate isn’t going to be impulsive about it.  Over the course of the next few days, provide him with easy access to you in case he needs more information.  Be prepared that the candidate might come back and say that he’d like to work for you, but another company made a better offer.  If the candidate is top-notch, go a bit higher to match or exceed the competitor.  Remember that when it comes to talent, you often get what you pay for.

While you’re waiting to hear from your first choice, don’t reject the other candidates waiting in the wings.  It’s not over until it’s over, and you want to keep all your options open.

Related posts:

1. Hire with Less Risk
2. 15 Do’s and Don’ts for Better Interviewing
3. 4 Tips for Deciding What to Pay Someone

The best QuickBase solutions almost always spring from outstanding teams, so we’re big fans of studying team dynamics. We build solutions for customers using QuickBase because we understand its power to make profound, positive and lasting change. But that kind of success is also tied to a cohesive, collaborative team.

So, how would one create such a team? It’s almost always when people feel heard, valued and respected that they truly come together to solve problems, innovate and reach for seemingly impossible goals. They tend to see themselves – specifically, their talents, skills and expertise – more clearly within the context of larger groups and systems.

Common sense, right? Yet this foundation for success is tough to build. To put it in place, you need the right leadership – so it helps to understand the traits that make someone succeed in that job. We’ve identified three things these kinds of leaders have in common when it comes be being part of a team:

1. They see themselves as a team member – not as the person in charge.

2. They tend to understate how their contributions helped their team win.

3. They tend to overstate their contribution to a team loss.

Want a couple of examples? The 2011-12 NFL season was packed with them, but two players really stood out: former Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow and New England Patriots receiver Wes Welker.

Let’s tackle Welker first. When he missed a pass toward the end of Super Bowl XLVI, he obviously felt bad. Make that really bad.

“It comes to the biggest moment of my life, and I don’t come up with it,” Welker reportedly said after his team’s 21-17 loss to the New York Giants. “It hit me right in the hands. I mean, it’s a play I never drop, I always make it. It was the most critical situation and I let the team down.”

While some of Welker’s teammates – and at least one of their wives – might be content to blame the Patriots’ loss on that one play, that wasn’t the Patriots’ only missed opportunity during the Super Bowl. There were missed tackles, poor plays, bad calls, penalties, loss of focus – and even questionable passes thrown by his pro bowl quarterback. When Welker expressed remorse, he didn’t just demonstrate a strong sense of personal responsibility; he showed the humility that is one of the hallmarks of a great leader.

And then there’s Tebow, who, whether you like him or not, demonstrated some wisdom in leadership communication beyond his years. He made mistakes and missed opportunities – and then exalted his teammates for mitigating those weaknesses with strong plays of their own. His recognition and support inspired the people around him to work harder. Even when he executed with excellence, Tebow consistently spoke in terms of “we,” not “I.” By so many accounts, he conveyed a special understanding that the team’s success would be a confluence, not the direct result of one player – especially not him, the team’s quarterback.

Dropped balls can launch finger pointing and blame, or they can be the trials from which we learn, make improvements, and come together as a team. At TwinSuns, we try and help professionals prepare for the days when balls will be dropped - because they will be dropped. We help our clients use what they’ve learned from those experiences to plan for the future and to be proactive rather than reactive. We strive to help key stakeholders understand that how they react to adversity or success can either make their teams stronger – or divide them.

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1. Leadership Lessons from Santa Claus
2. Leadership Lessons From Painting
3. Leadership Lessons from Egypt

Businesses thrive by listening to employee input on what’s working – or not. New perspectives and experiences can be eye-openers for management, and they frequently lead to the implementation of new practices. However, approaching your manager can be a stressful and, at times, unsatisfactory process. Not every manager is willing to listen to feedback that might force change or suggest that the company isn’t running as smoothly as everyone thought. You can present your ideas in an effective way by first asking yourself pertinent questions.

Often, people lower-ranking in an organization see the need for change because they’re the ones speaking to customers, learning about competitors, and fielding complaints on a regular basis. Sales and customer service representatives often have the most reliable knowledge about product quality. You have information that many senior managers are insulated from in this scenario. Use it.

A memorable experience can certainly inspire change in a business. Often, the most effective, if not the easiest, way to persuade management is to invite them to experience a problem firsthand. A manager who goes on a sales call and learns why a customer prefers the competition will be more open to possible strategies to address that situation. Likewise, a senior manager who takes a call from an irate customer will witness how product quality can directly impact the customer – and the company’s success. Learning opportunities are abundant in a business’s daily operations. When these instances are used for reflection and improvement, the business is empowered.

Effective change is based on helpful data. By maintaining accurate records documenting customer feedback, financial trends, and competitors’ strategies, you can create an effective presentation of data that will command management’s attention. When preparing and delivering your presentation, it’s important to remember that the data interests your management team. Data presented in an unemotional and factual manner communicates clearly. Well-intentioned and well-researched presentations sometimes go awry because employees are too emotionally invested and can’t help but infuse that emotion in their presentations. By removing the possibility of clashing personalities, your impact becomes stronger.

Companies often respond to either opportunities or threats. Does your company work to minimize risks, or is it seeking to push boundaries? If you present your ideas in a manner consistent with the orientation of the company, you increase your chance of being heard. For the threat-oriented company, presenting the change as a loss in market share would resonate. For the opportunity-oriented company, change should be presented as a way to increase sales or achieve dominance in a particular market.

Change is what propels successful companies into the future. With key questions and strategies that effectively communicate your ideas, you can help create that change. The company benefits from your unique perspective, and you benefit by presenting yourself as a professional and helpful voice that recognizes when problems occur – and seeks to find solutions.

Related posts:

1. Minimize Change by Being a Proactive Team Leader
2. Four Simple Steps for Building a Case for Change
3. It Takes Work to Make Change Happen

Want to improve your relationship with your boss? Becoming the boss’s favorite isn’t about sucking up or manipulation; it’s about knowing how to work with her effectively, and understanding what a manager wants from you. Here are 12 habits that are guaranteed to lead to a better relationship with your boss.

1. Make sure you’re on the same page about expectations. Talk with your manager about your goals and priorities for the year and what success would look like for you, and make sure she agrees. This should include talking about what you won’t be prioritizing as well – an area that often goes unaddressed and ends up causing problems. Often explicitly discussing these topics can bring conflicting assumptions to the surface—and solve them.

2. Pay attention to what kinds of questions your boss asks so you get a better understanding of the types of things she cares about. By paying attention to what your boss asks or seems worried about, you can often draw larger messages about the sorts of things that she’ll care about in the future. For instance, you might notice that your boss always asks about your plan for ensuring the monthly mailing doesn’t get delayed, or how you’re covering X and Y while people are out for the holidays. If you learn to anticipate those things in advance and address them before she has to ask, you’ll be every manager’s dream.

3. Make your boss’s job easy. When your manager assigns you work, repeat back the assignment to her – including your understanding of the outcome she’s looking for, the deadline, and any constraints. For instance, you might say, “So it sounds like we’re looking for a vendor who can get us faster turnaround times, without going up significantly in price, and we need some options by July 10.” You might feel silly at first, but often simply repeating back your understanding of the assignment can stop miscommunications before they start. And from there, stay engaged by checking in with her on an ongoing basis, offering updates, and giving her chances for input.

4. Suggest solutions whenever you can. Sure, you could just bring your boss a problem and say, “What should I do about X?” But you’ll make it easier for both of you if you say, “Here’s the situation with X. I’ve thought about A, B, and C, and I think we should do C because ___. Does that sound right to you?”

5. Take responsibility for mistakes. If a project didn’t go as well as it could have, bring it up before your boss has to. Start a conversation with “In retrospect, I wish I had ___” or “Next time, I’m going to ___.” Your boss will be impressed that you’re thinking this way – plus you’ll be doing part of her job for her.

6. Focus on what you can control, not what you can’t. Inevitably, there will be things about your job or your boss that frustrate you and which you can’t change or control. Rather than focusing on things that you can’t do much about (like a manager who regularly cancels your weekly meeting), think about what you can do (such as saying, “I know you’re really busy, but can I talk to your assistant and get 10 minutes on your calendar?”).

7. Use the communication methods she prefers. If you’re an email person and she prefers talking in person, guess what? Her preferences win. You won’t get anywhere sending long emails to a boss who wants to hash things out face-to-face – and similarly, if your boss favors email, you’ll annoy her if you keep showing up in her doorway to talk. Pay attention to how she communicates, and mirror that back.

8. Speak up when you’re unhappy. If you’re frustrated about something, raise it, talk about the impact, and discuss what could be done differently in the future. Of course, be smart about this: Have this conversation at a time when your boss isn’t swamped or frazzled, and think about your delivery ahead of time, just as you would want her to do if she were raising something sensitive with you.

9. Don’t take things personally. There are going to be times when you have a different point of view than your manager. In these cases, you should advocate for what you believe, and if you think your boss is making a mistake, part of your job is to explain why. But if your boss ultimately picks a different route or sticks to her different opinion, it’s helpful to have reasonably thick skin. Don’t take things personally, and keep your ego out of it. Speaking of which…

10. Listen to feedback with an open mind, and don’t get defensive. It’s fine to disagree, but do it in a non-defensive way. For instance: “I see what you’re saying. The way I was looking at it was ___.”  And remember, you’re not in a courtroom and your manager isn’t looking to you to defend yourself. She’s looking for signs that you’re hearing what she’s saying and taking it into account.

11. Don’t forget that your boss is human. Your boss is human, so there may be times when she is grumpy, frustrated, or stressed out, or when she would appreciate hearing that she handled something well. Plus, realize that in the same way you might have sensitivities about the relationship, she might, too. For instance, if you’re taking on responsibilities that used to be hers, she probably won’t appreciate hearing that they used to be a disaster until you came along, or that you’ve solved all the problems that used to stump her. In other words, be thoughtful.

12. Have your own act together. Stay on top of things, ensure your boss only has to tell you something once, don’t let things fall through the cracks, and generally be someone she can rely on. Often when someone complains that they’re being micromanaged, it can be traced back to problems in this area, and fixing them can fix the micromanagement. You might be surprised how much easier your boss is to work with when you have your act together!

Related posts:

1. 12 Ways to Make Your Employees Love You
2. 5 Ways to Impress a New Boss
3. 7 Ways to Get Your Boss to Say “Yes”

Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg became a hero to many women when she publicly stated that she leaves the office at 5:30 p.m. every day to be with her children. Not only was this a call for the 40-hour week many of us have abandoned, it was a statement from a powerful, successful woman.

Unfortunately, according to a new study, not enough top-level women like Sandberg are speaking up – about anything.
A Yale School of Management study finds that women executives don’t express their views as often as their male counterparts because they fear they will be seen as too outspoken.

“When men talk a lot and they have power, people want to reward them either by hiring them, voting for them, or just giving them more power and responsibility at work. But when women do it, they are seen as being too domineering, too presumptuous. Women perceive this, and that’s why they temper how much they talk,” says Victoria Brescoll, assistant professor of organizational behavior at the Yale.

Many men may scoff at this idea, citing their own significant others as being completely assured in stating their opinions on a regular basis. But Brescoll turned to the U.S. Senate when investigating the issue, since every word is recorded in that chamber.

Brescoll looked at the 2005 and 2007 sessions, analyzing gender, amount of time spoken (using C-Span and the Congressional Record) and then assigned a “power score” to each person. That score was given based on the lawmaker’s position, indirect influence, legislative activity and earmarks established by Knowlegis, a non-partisan firm.

While powerful male lawmakers talked more, the same could not be said for powerful female lawmakers, Brescoll found.

Interestingly, the powerful women didn’t even talk more than their less-powerful female counterparts, although powerful men had no problem gabbing more than less-powerful male lawmakers.

Still, Brescoll decided to explore further and launched an experiment where the men and women were asked to rate a hypothetical female CEO who talked more than other CEOs.

What do you think happened?

This talkative female CEO was rated as “significantly less competent and less suitable for leadership” than a male CEO who talked an equal amount. For the female CEO who was quieter than everyone else , she was judged as competent – even though the male CEO talked more than she or anyone else did.

“What’s ironic is that good leaders tend to also be good listeners. So harshly judging female leaders for talking ‘too much’ could have negative consequences not just for individual women, but also for organizations,” Brescoll noted.

What do you think? Do you see women hold back at work because they’re worried they will be seen as “talking too much?”

Related posts:

1. Are Women Better Off Than Four Years Ago?
2. Do Women Undervalue Themselves? Yes, According to Sheryl Sandberg
3. 6 Ways Women Undermine Themselves at Work

You do not have to be the CEO of your company to set a strategy. As a manager, as a team leader, and as an individual contributor—nearly everything you do might benefit from a strategy. In fact, in many employee performance reviews, a failure to adopt strategic thinking is often a roadblock that keeps otherwise qualified candidates from scoring a promotion.

Strategic thinking is part of our personality traits; some of us are big picture thinkers while others do better focusing on the details. Big-picture thinkers might fight this article downright silly. But for us detail-oriented leaders who do not naturally take the big-picture view, a framework that guides our focus can be helpful in formulating our priorities.

Formulating a strategy involves deciding who or what you should be, how to best deliver value, and the plan of action that will achieve the desired goal. A clear strategy does three things:

• Defines a focus area—indicates where to direct effort
• Explains how to best utilize assets and resources
• Sets boundaries for what lies outside of scope or capability

Setting a strategy is quite similar to a problem-solving exercise:

Identify the problem that is keeping you from achieving a goal. Sometimes your problem is clear and all you need to do is get started on the solution. Other times, however, your problem is that you have selected the wrong goal. A SWOT Analysis can confirm you are answering the correct question or help you get clarification if your objective is vague.

Stretch goals can be intimidating. One-year, two-year, or five-year goals might seem so far away. These are emotional reactions to a goal and can create problems. To get away from that, structure your problem logically. Break a big, seemingly insurmountable objective into smaller bite-size pieces. Create short-term targets and action items. Going into problem-solving mode can be one of the best ways to keep fear and performance anxiety at bay.

Analyzing a problem requires not only systematic thinking, but also creativity. If you don’t consider yourself particularly creative, asking why or how–again and again–is an easy way to generate multiple hypotheses and get to the root cause of a problem quickly. Collect supporting data and begin making the case for the solution.

The solution is the plan of action that solves the problem that has been keeping you from attaining your goal. The solution is your new strategy. It defines who or what you should be, how to best deliver value, and the actions that will achieve your goals.

Related posts:

1. Importance of Knowledge Management Strategy
2. Marketing Like a Politician is a Bad Business Strategy
3. How to Choose Between Equally Great Candidates

Recently MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow faced off with Republican consultant Alex Castellanos on Meet the Press about evidence of an income gap between professional men and women. Since this argument was about a disagreement on the facts, we decided to do our own research and present some evidence on the topic of income and professional achievement in the Fortune 500.

Unfortunately, research demonstrates that there is still a large disparity in the number of high-paying positions held by women and men; and women haven’t made tremendous progress in the last six years in closing that gap.

According to the 2011 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Women Board Directors, Executive Officers and Top Earners and prior Catalyst Censuses, women have made no significant gains in the last year and are no further along the corporate ladder than they were six years ago:

• Women held 16 percent of board seats in 2011, compared to 15.7 percent in 2010.
• Less than one-fifth of companies had 25 percent or more women board directors.
• About one in ten companies had no women serving on their boards.
• Women held 14.1 percent of Executive Officer positions in 2011, compared to 14.4 percent in 2010.
• Women held only 7.5 percent of Executive Officer top-earner positions in 2011, while men accounted for 92.5 percent of top earners.
• Less than one in five companies had 25 percent or more women Executive Officers and more than one-quarter had zero.

This is not good news for companies that are hoping to remain competitive. Catalyst research also showed that gender diversity in the boardroom correlates with better corporate performance – by a huge margin.  Companies with three or more women board directors in four of five years, on average, outperformed companies with zero women board directors by 84 percent return on sales, 60 percent return on invested capital, and 46 percent return on equity. Whoa.

But how can companies with a dearth of female talent turn things around?  Here are four suggestions:

Women’s leadership and affinity groups are great, but it’s not enough to simply have them.  You have to fund them properly, publicize them properly, and also make them an ingrained aspect of your corporate culture so female leaders thinking about joining your team hear about them during the interview process.

Since male executives are more comfortable mentoring younger male professionals, there is a lack of guidance available for rising female professionals. Make an effort to tap senior and mid-level female managers for formal mentoring initiatives so that close one-on-one relationships will bind women together in your organization.

Catalyst recommends determining if the skills, knowledge, and experience of employees are evaluated differently depending on gender, and asking the tough questions, such as:  Is it harder for women in your organization to receive sponsorship from highly influential individuals?  Unfortunately, gender-based stereotyping is still alive and well in many companies.  By taking a hard look at your policies and procedures, you may be able to remedy unintentional slights.  If you find it difficult to be objective, you may find a third-party consultant helpful.

To that end, you should not presuppose that women of childbearing age or women with families want to step off the fast track in favor of greater work/life balance.  Provide all female managers with the same opportunities to advance and assume employees will take advantage of them unless you are explicitly told otherwise.

Related posts:

1. Do Women Undervalue Themselves? Yes, According to Sheryl Sandberg
2. 6 Ways Women Undermine Themselves at Work
3. Are Women Unfairly Judged for Being Vocal? Yes, Says Yale Study.

I recently had the opportunity to meet a talented career consultant, Steve Dalton, at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.  Steve has written a new book called The 2-Hour Job Search.  I know what you’re thinking: is he trying to become Tim Ferriss 2.0?  Well, there are certainly worse goals.

But I digress.  I mention Steve here because he has a refreshing view of the job search that applies to most if not all of us fully employed folks.  Steve says that because we are so busy, we need a job search plan that allows us to move our goals forward without devoting 40 hours a week.  Here are some of Steve’s top tips for cutting the time you spend on your job search way down:

A disproportionate amount of time is spent developing versus reviewing resumes.  It’s the interview, and to some extent your online profiles (LinkedIn, etc.) that matter.  Make your resume short and error-free and move on.

Rather than spending days perfecting that elevator pitch in anticipation of a conversation with a new contact, briefly think through questions you can ask them, such as where they see the market headed and why.  This builds likeability.

Stop thinking with the “school” mentality.  It’s not about how much you know, it’s about who you know.  Building up expertise won’t mean anything without a strong network, so focus on the latter.

Online job posting search engines like Indeed.com are great for a number of things, but they are terrible at getting you jobs.  If a job is online, often an employer already has a few internal referrals identified, so simply adding your resume to the employer’s “slush pile” is unproductive. 

Do you agree with Steve’s advice?  Why or why not?

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2. Working Extended Hours? You’re Not Alone
3. Managers – Set Limits on Long Hours

Each of our workplace experts has weighed in on the following question from a reader to give you four points of view. Here’s the question, with our experts’ responses below:

I started my first real job about a year ago and have a good rapport with my coworkers (as is necessary when working in a collaborative work environment). However, there is one, we’ll call him “Fred,” who is causing me some stress. Fred will frequently slam his keyboard into his desk, loudly curse, and generally disrupt the workplace environment. I never feel personally threatened, but it is disruptive and unprofessional. Fred and another coworker started dating last year, which led to a good amount of office drama, and their subsequent breakup (police were involved), led to more office drama that I cannot even begin to recount while keeping this brief.

Fred has been reported to HR several times, but most recently he was sent home because of a fight with his ex-girlfriend/coworker. This led to a meeting with HR and he may or may not be back tomorrow, depending on their decision. In the meantime, our boss has told us that if at any time we feel that our work environment is not safe, secure, professional, or positive, we are more than welcome to go talk to him and voice our concerns. My main question now is, in the event that Fred returns to the office, what is the difference between complaining about Fred’s workplace habits (again, I never feel threatened) and keeping our boss informed about the workplace environment? Where is that line drawn? I worry that if I go talk to our boss about him (or any other concerns I may have), that I will be seen as a complainer and a tattler. Can you help me figure out that line?

In general, I would refrain from complaining to your boss about your co-workers, because it will usually make you look immature and/or gossipy.  The fact that you are a recent grad underscores this point.  In this case, though, it sounds like your boss has purposely opened the lines of communication about Fred, so assuming HR doesn’t send Fred packing immediately, I think you could say something like:  “You mentioned that you wanted us to keep you informed about what’s going on with Fred, and I’m still pretty concerned about him.  What do you think is the appropriate way to respond when he says/does A, B, C?”  In this way, you are keeping your comments professional while showing empathy and asking for guidance, and you will likely protect your manager’s opinion of you.

Whether you should do this or not depends on how much the situation is eating at you.  Some people who are less caring might just let it go since what’s happening with Fred doesn’t affect them directly, but based on the fact that you wrote in with this question and are saying you feel stressed, it seems that it’s bothering you enough that action would make sense.

I think Alexandra’s answer is right on, but I have another concern. Because you don’t have a lot of workplace experience, you might not recognize some of the warning signs of a more serious threat. I’ve worked with someone who had similar behavior – loud cursing and fits of temper – I can tell you this is not a situation you want to take lightly.

Research shows that employees who recently have been disciplined, have an inability to control outbursts and have disagreements with co-workers are much more likely to become violent at work. Too often we hear about tragic consequences at work because no one recognized the warning signs and took the necessary steps to secure the workplace against violence.

At the very least, you need to express some concerns about Fred.  Don’t dismiss this as an overreaction and at least visit with your boss or human resources and ask them what steps they’re taking to ensure your safety. Even though you may feel no personal threat right now, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. If one day he escalates his anger, you don’t want to be anywhere around.

I love Alexandra’s suggestion to phrase this as a request for advice from your manager! “What’s the best way to respond when Fred does XYZ?” is a great way to make it clear to your manager that Fred is behaving this way without having to worry that you’re coming across as complaining.

However, you also shouldn’t even worry about complaining in this situation. This isn’t like complaining that your coworker chews too loudly or takes too many personal calls — this is serious stuff that significantly impacts your workplace. Any reasonable manager would want to know about this … and in fact, yours specifically asked you to keep her informed.

In general, when you’re trying to figure out when something is worth raising to your boss versus when it might come across as petty, the question to ask yourself is: How does this impact our work, and by how much? When something isn’t just mildly annoying but has a real impact, a good boss wants to know about it. In this case, you think Fred is creating — at a minimum — a disruptive and unprofessional work environment. (I’d actually even go further and add that even if his behavior isn’t making you feel unsafe, it’s easy to imagine it making others feel unsafe. And if they’re, say, interns or new employees, they might not feel comfortable speaking up.)  When I’m managing people, that’s exactly the sort of thing I want to be aware of.

This is a really good question and I have often wondered where the line between tattling/complaining and open communication lies. Over time, I’ve come to define complaining and tattling in the workplace as:

• Complaining: expressing negativity in an unproductive manner
• Tattling: escalating a situation to a higher up when unnecessary

For your situation specifically, keeping your boss informed about incidents falls under open communication. You may feel safe, but the behaviors you mention are definitely not professional, positive, or conducive to a productive team environment. I would consider it crossing the line to complaining if you mention a single incident more than once or pester your boss about what is being done about the situation. I’m not sure tattling applies at all since your boss specifically asked for information.

You express concern that you might be seen as a complainer. Do you worry that your boss, Fred, or your peers will think this? From your boss’s perspective, he has already asked for that specific feedback—unless he is also giving mixed signals, it sounds like he would appreciate your input. In order for your boss to do what he can to keep the atmosphere professional and collaborative, he needs your help to support making that decision. Fred, of course, would view this negatively but I think it is fair to say you can discount his opinion. Perhaps the only one who might judge you negatively for this would be a peer—but I suspect your conversation with your boss would remain confidential if you do it one-on-one and request it to stay private.

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When someone on the “front lines” of a business notices a problem that requires fixing, too often it’s ignored because it will be a hassle to convince others to change the status quo. Niccolo Machiavelli said in 1515, “There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things.” Attempting to bring about true change creates emotional and social disequilibrium; this disequilibrium must be carefully managed. I’m going to tell you a story of change from my own experience, but first, let me give you some pointers on how to do this yourself.

In order to encourage change and improvement, we must first create a sense of urgency. Asking guiding questions can build a desire to change. “Why do we need to correct this problem now?,” “What are the consequences if we don’t change?,” and “How will this change allow us to achieve our ultimate goal?” and similar questions will encourage colleagues to actively think about the problem. This is true for both co-workers and management.

Always try to identify the administrator who’s open to change, and avoid those you know will resist. You must show how the improvement has the potential to make his job easier and/or make him look good.

Keeping four simple steps in mind will help even those most stubborn to change come up with better solutions than the status quo:

1. Be careful not to dominate the problem-solving sessions.

2. Once you have identified the problem, sit back and take notes.

3. Read back others’ ideas and foster continued brainstorming.

4. Try to encourage workers who are not participating to share their ideas.

Unfortunately, we know not all people are open to change. When resistance becomes too great, the person leading the change needs to back off and slow down implementation. This was especially true as I tried to implement Gatorounds, a process that applies athletic principles to healthcare and focuses on a team approach and efficient communication in order to reduce the length of work shifts.  In the beginning, I didn’t understand the nature of adaptive leadership and I underestimated the profound resistance I would encounter. I now understand that when someone tries to truly change the way things are done, those in favor of the status quo will defend the old way because they feel threatened by change. After some time away from the university, the disequilibrium I had generated dissipated, and by the time of my return the following year, Gatorounds was a familiar term and had become the status quo.

Experiencing problems trying to overcome the status quo is not a new problem, as emphasized by Machiavelli’s famous quote; it’s something man has faced since the beginning of time. Once team members take on the problem as their own and begin to act to fix it, you and your team will begin to experience increased mental focus and active involvement, and will become part of the solution – rather than being part of the problem.

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Sometimes there is nothing more irritating than those trite phrases like “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” When you’re having a tough time in life, your first inclination may be to tell those full of such homespun logic to go suck a lemon.

Those people don’t have to deal with an ogre boss or a long commute, you think, so they don’t know that it’s difficult to just be so darn positive all the time.

But what if there was a way to flip the switch in your life? To start seeing negative aspects of your work in a way that helped you be happier and less eaten up by guilt or stress or unhappiness?

Christina Tracy Stein is a psychotherapist and co-author of Kiss That Frog: 12 Great Ways to Turn Negatives into Positives in Your Life and Work.

She says that as children, we respond to the caregivers in our lives. For example, that means if you had someone in your life that was responsive to your needs – such as knowing you needed a bit more comfort when life handed you lemons – then you may feel more comfortable with yourself and your feelings.

“Negativity often comes when you aren’t honored for being an authentic person,” she says. “If people in your life have encouraged you to be who you are, then you’re honored for being an authentic person. But if you can’t be honest and you’re constantly being a fake version of yourself, then that’s when you get frustrated and negative.”

Because of the difficult job market, many employees feel stuck in jobs that further sour their mood. Stein says in those cases, it can be helpful to lower your expectations. In other words, don’t expect so much from a boss or colleagues and then you’re not attaching yourself to an outcome that disappoints you and is “like a letdown every day,” she says.

If you’ve got a mean or angry boss, then Stein suggest learning not to take his or her behavior personally. Accept that the boss is in a bad mood and just let that person be in a bad mood.

“Acknowledge it and tell yourself just to stay away from that dark energy,” she says.

It can also be helpful to imagine that someone who is being unpleasant may be going through a difficult personal time – such as experiencing a troubled marriage – and that is the cause of the nasty mood, she says.

“Even if it’s not true, just imagining that can help you move past it and not take it personally,” she says.

One of the other causes of negativity in our lives in the guilt we may feel trying to juggle personal and professional demands. With three children under the age of five, Stein says she’s well aware of that struggle.

“I can tell you that it really is a case of quality versus quantity,” she says. “It really matters that you give the quality time. So, in my case, my husband and I have a date time every week. I schedule a ‘date’ with each of my children, just one-on-one time with each one.”

In her book with Brian Tracy, Stein writes that while two people” may have the same experience…one will rise above it, let it go, and get on with life. The other person will be crushed, angry, resentful, and unhappy for an extended period of time – same event, two different reactions.”

They provide several ways that you can be one of those people who moves beyond difficulty and transforms a negative into a positive. Among their suggestions:

• Accept life’s lessons. Don’t focus on the negative aspects of a failure at work, for example, but think about the lessons you learned from it. How has that experience helped you make better choices and decisions? What are the advantages or benefits you’ve gained from that experience?

• Look for change. If you’ve been struggling with a problem for a long time, such as a bad relationship with someone at work, it could be that when you look more deeply at the issue you’ll discover that’s it’s you who needs to change. You may discover that this struggle is similar to other work experiences and there seems to be a pattern of these kinds of problems. If you don’t drill deep and discover the root of the issue, you “subconsciously set up situations to repeat the experience,” the authors write.

They also caution that your ego may try to deny the lesson you need to learn, but find the courage to face the truth. Once you do, they write, all your stress will vanish and you will feel calm and “at peace.”

• Use positive language. Eliminate the word “problem” and substitute it with “situation” or “challenge.” Challenges are something that people rise to, and can bring out the best in yourself and others. Even better, try using “opportunity” to talk about setbacks.

• Practice zero-based thinking. To stop negative feelings and banish worry, ask yourself, “Is there anything that I am doing in my life that, knowing what I now know, I wouldn’t start up again today if I had it to do over?” the authors write. Instead of hanging onto the idea that once you’ve committed yourself to something you have to see it through to the end no matter what, give yourself the right to put on the breaks if you discover you may not have made the right decision. “As soon as you decide to take action to resolve a difficulty or get out of a bad situation, your stress disappears,” they write.

• Let go of regret. Don’t say “if only.” By accepting what has happened in your life and knowing that you cannot change it, you can be much happier. You are not a victim, but a confident person in charge of your future. Even if you lose your job, for example, you may still have your health, friends or family who care about you or many happy memories. “Let you inner dialogue be positive,” Stein says. “Give yourself a hug by recalling the positives in your life.”

Finally, becoming more positive may take some practice, the authors say. Begin by using positive self-talk, hanging around other positive people, taking good care of yourself physically and always expecting the best. The more you practice being positive, the easier it will become.

“Expect to be successful. Expect to be popular when you meet new people. Expect to achieve great goals and create a wonderful life for yourself,” they write. “When you constantly expect good things to happen, you will seldom be disappointed.”

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Do you and your team work more than 40 hours per week? When it comes to productivity, longer hours are not better. As Sara Robinson writes in “Bring Back the 40-Hour Workweek, ” decades of research during the 20th Century showed us that 8 hours a day/40 hours a week was the maximum workload for efficiency, safety, and well-being.

Somehow we have gotten away from that and a salaried position often comes with the expectation that you do what you must to get the work done, even if that means working longer hours. And so, we have become accustomed to simply adding hours as our way of dealing with more work. This is a bad idea. Before you resort to putting in longer hours, first try at being more efficient and productive with the first 40 hours. Encourage your team to do the same.

Strategies for maximizing productivity while capping the workweek at 40 hours:

Be Flexible – if the workflow is not consistent from week to week, be open to flexible schedules, such as going back and forth between 30-hour and 50-hour workweeks. Find a rhythm instead of seeking a perfect balance.  Mandating 40 hours will create stress when there is 50 hours of work and bad habits when there is just 30 hours of work.

Problem-Solve – if it’s consistently taking longer than 40 hours a week to do everything that needs to get done, you have a problem of a) overambitious goals, b) insufficient resources, or c) lack of prioritization.

Find Contractors – if your problem is insufficient resources, but it doesn’t make sense to make a new permanent hire, consider working with contractors to add an extra hand to your staff when needed.

Prioritize – when you label everything as important, you are really saying that nothing is important. Don’t fall into the trap of saying everything is top priority and must be done ASAP. Set realistic deadlines instead.

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Joel Garfinkle is an executive coach and author of Getting Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level. Recently, I  asked him some questions about some common problems faced by managers, and how best to deal with them.

AB: Let’s say I’m a manager and my staff just isn’t meeting its goals. How do I determine if it’s something I’m doing wrong or they’re just a bunch of losers?

JG: As a manager, you need to take responsibility for the situation by conducting one-on-one meetings with each staff member. During each one-on-one, you should focus on these important areas:

• Communicating clearly with defined goals and objectives for each staff member.
• Providing adequate support and resources for your staff to be successful.
• Clarifying expectations of what is required for each project or assignment.

After two to three months of meetings, some staff will make dramatic improvements toward meeting their goals. This process will also reveal the staff members who need to be phased out of the company due to poor performance. By communicating effectively, you’ll learn to address any concerns before they become full-blown crises, and you’ll realize that you aren’t the problem.

AB: My staff says they’re overworked, but I’m working 24/7. How am I supposed to deal with this added stress – don’t they appreciate I’m working as hard as they are?

JG: It’s certainly stressful to be in a situation where everyone feels overworked. That said, however, however overworked a manager may feel is a completely separate issue from whether his or her employees are also overworked. If you’re in this position, you should take a step back and examine how much time your employees are actually spending on the job. If they are indeed spending more time than their employment contracts or job descriptions stipulate, then it’s time to do one of two (or possibly both) things:

1. Figure out how best to collect information about what everyone’s responsibilities are. (This could be a paper form, an online questionnaire, interviews with individual employees, and/or a team meeting.) Once you, or perhaps an administrative assistant, have collated all the information, share it with your team members. Invite them to consider and discuss ways in which they could reallocate responsibilities or otherwise optimize the team’s workflow. It’s ultimately the manager’s responsibility to ensure that teams are working in as organized and efficient a manner possible.

2. Collect information about your team’s job responsibilities and the amount of time it’s taking them to complete their duties. Identify the additional positions that are needed to make your team work more efficiently. Create a proposal that details how adding those positions will increase your team’s productivity and bring it to your superiors. Remember that effective managers advocate to those above them for the employees under them.

AB: My boss is pressuring me to be more innovative, but how can I do that when I’m swamped with all my other duties? I barely have time to eat lunch every day, so how am I supposed to be more creative when I’m so exhausted?

JG: There are really two ways to approach this problem. The first is as an individual. Psychologists have found that “psychological distance” can dramatically improve creativity and innovation. Examples of psychological distance include thinking about a problem while in a very different place from its normal context (for example, while eating lunch in an outdoor park), talking to people who have many dissimilarities from your own position or perspective, considering the problem within the context of the distant future, or brainstorming solutions from the perspective of someone in a fundamentally different position (for example, a product engineer at one of your company’s vendors).

The second approach is team-based. Most managers have a team of talented people working with them. Don’t be afraid to lean on your employees and encourage innovative thinking. Hold regular discussions with employees and keep the lines of communication open. Also encourage employees to spend informal time discussing new ideas and solutions with one another. You can even consider incentivizing innovative ideas. Invite team members to submit emails or develop proposals of their own and find ways to reward their effort. Even if they don’t create any practical proposals, what they do share may spark an idea of your own.

AB: My budget is something that is set by the higher-ups. I’m worried that my best talent is going to walk out the door because I can’t compete with salaries some others are offering. Is there any way I can keep these people or is it a lost cause?

In the long term, one of the most critical things you can do for your employees is promoting their accomplishments and reputation to your superiors. Doing just that will go a long way toward earning the trust and appreciation of your employees. Most superiors will pay attention, which may by itself lead to raises for your team members.

In the short term, you can communicate your appreciation of valued employees and try to find creative ways to reward their effort. Possible non-monetary compensation could include greater schedule flexibility (including telecommuting), longer lunch breaks, invitations to networking and professional development events, and the opportunity to engage directly with senior management.

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In-person conversational interviews are notoriously ineffective for determining whether a new hire will be a good fit.  In many instances, a second interview is needed to more completely assess whether a particular candidate is well suited to an open position.  Work simulations, sometimes also known as case interviews, provide candidates with a real-life business problem similar to one that might be faced on the job.

Many experts suggest using real rather than fictional problems for work simulations, since real problems are always more complicated and difficult than anything you could make up.  For instance, if you are evaluating a marketing manager’s strategic thinking ability, perhaps you could have a candidate develop a potential launch plan for a product you rolled out last year.  On the other hand, if you need to test whether a bank administrator knows how to use your accounting software, you could ask him to complete an assignment using that tool.  If the position you’re hiring for isn’t your own, it’s smart to enlist the help of people currently doing the job in question in order to put together the most appropriate simulation.

While you should certainly be interested in the solution the candidate derives for your simulated problem, you should also pay attention to the process by which he arrived there.  Did he ask for a suitable amount of background information?  Were his questions pertinent and thoughtful?  Did he proceed through the right channels and call on the appropriate resources?  If relevant, did he develop a realistic timeline and budget?  Figure out how you will evaluate success on the simulation in advance (e.g. a rating scale from 1-5 on certain attributes, a checklist of completed steps).

Work simulations are advantageous in that they showcase a variety of the competencies you’re looking for, and help candidates to understand exactly what the job entails.  However, they do take much more time and effort on behalf of the team leader, so you’ll want to make sure you reserve this type of interview for candidates who are under serious consideration.

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Sherrie Haynie, a consultant with CPP, Inc., the publisher of the Myers-Briggs assessment, had this to say regarding introverts:

“Often, introverts describe how they interact with the outside world as a performance, and acting is work.  Similar to professional actors, introverts may appear enthusiastic, lively and entertaining.  However, many describe the experience as being ‘on stage’ – for an introvert to spend a significant amount of their day using non-preferred characteristics requires a great deal of energy.”

Wow.  I couldn’t have said it better myself, and I am, in fact, one of those introverts.

A little while back, our own Eva Rykrsmith wrote a great piece on how introverts can be more effective at work.  Here are some recent thoughts from Sherrie on how introverts can manage the stress of a role that requires extroverted behaviors.

• Don’t assume extraverts know how best to communicate with you – teach them.  For example, explain why you need time to process before responding to a question.

• Leverage your natural talent for depth by identifying the goal as far in advance as possible, so you’re prepared ahead of time when pressed in a meeting for input.

• Acknowledge the additional energy required to interact with others for long periods of time and allow yourself to tap into your energy reserve.

• Pay attention to the activities that require more of your energy such as insufficient time to work alone, brainstorming meetings and noisy environments.

• Depleting too much energy will lead to a stressful reaction, so look for early warning signs, such as withdrawal.

• If a stressful situation is unresolved, your unconscious functions will take over.  We typically act out of character under extreme stress, and for introverts, this reaction may show up as an outburst or other outward expression – opposite to your normal calm and reserved demeanor.

• Restore your energy level by finding time alone to reflect and direct your focus on thoughts, ideas and internal feelings. Schedule regular breaks throughout the day to recharge your batteries.

Here’s something I thought was interesting too. A few years ago, I was asked to take the Myers-Briggs assessment while I was working as a vice president at a PR agency. I was unsure about how to answer some of the questions, because while my natural inclination was to choose the introverted answers, my perception was colored by my current extroverted role.  When the results came back, I was still classified as an introvert, but just barely.

Has this happened to you?  Have you actually become more introverted or extroverted as a result of working in a certain type of job?

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