Category Archives: Adapt, Innovate, Win

Are Standing Meetings More Productive?

Adapt, Innovate, Win

Are Standing Meetings More Productive?

In a study at Washington University, St. Louis, MO., researchers found increases in the performance of people working in groups.

Beginning with the knowledge that standing and working is healthy, the researchers, Andrew P. Knight and Markus Baer, created their study to learn how standing affects the performance of groups.  They published their study in Social Psychological and Personality Science: “Get Up, Stand Up, The Effects of a Non-Sedentary Workspace on Information Elaboration and Group Performance.”

Broader Implications of Standing Meetings

Further study on group interaction while standing will no doubt come later, perhaps from Andrew P. Knight and Markus Baer.  They have developed methods of measurement and an environment for this type of research. What is especially meaningful about this study is how standing affects the performance of all worker performance, not just workers in groups.  Could standing to work make all workers more productive?

Standing at work is exercise.  According to Jennifer Cohen, wellness coach to executives, Forbes.com, exercise makes you smarter and more effective.

Standing at Work has Grown in Popularity

Standing while working burns calories at a rate that adds up to running marathons.  Because of the increase in the number of workers at desks with computers, some people consider sitting at a desk a health hazard.  Endurance athletes who sit at work damage their health as though they were smoking.

Is Your Desk Killing You?

5 Keys to Business and Career Success

Adapt, Innovate, Win

Create a flexible plan and continue to develop new skills for success.

The first key to business and career success is a flexible plan built around continued innovation and skills development.

The needs and interest of consumers will always change. Successful businesses and people change with the needs and interest of consumers.  At one time, nearly every strip mall in my neighborhood had a movie rental store. Changing technology made these businesses obsolete. Redbox, Netflix, Amazon, on-demand television movies channels, and other companies offer better ways to get the same movie products.  Creating these businesses required the flexibility to develop skills that the people in video rental stores did not have.

Build on your strengths.

The second key to business and career success is to build on your strengths.  Know you natural talent.  Recognize that there are things that you can do more easily than other people can. Those are your strengths. They are also probably the things that you enjoy doing.

For example, learning languages is something I enjoy.  For me, building language skills is fun and easy.  Computer languages are similar to the languages people speak.  You can write spoken languages, and you can write computer languages.  The part of the brain that processes spoken and written languages also processes computer languages.

If you have excellent language skills, you might find that learning computer languages comes naturally for you.  Much of computer language has to do with punctuation, vocabulary, syntax, and proofreading.  The functions are part of all languages, including science languages.

On the other hand, I am curious about math and science.  There are elements of computer programming for managing data.  These skills are harder for me to develop.  If you have strong math skills as well as strong electrical engineering, you might want to develop these skills for computer application development or other emerging businesses.

For example, environmental companies have needs for people with science, cartography, and engineering skills. To move into the environmental industry, you may simply need to develop or expand your skills for environmentally specific tasks.

Think of ways to help others.

Another key to business and career success is to think of others.  Whenever I get to thinking too much of myself, I feel stress.  Self-absorption takes my mind off solving problems to seeing nothing but problems.  Taking time to check my ego and help other people relieves me of self-absorption.  Doing volunteer work helps me become more effective at work.
Giving a bit of myself away helps me regain focus in my job.  I see it as a key to business and career success.  I use this key to overcome feeling discouraged.  It is hard for me to feel discouraged when I am thinking of ways to help other people.

It is a key to business and career success that reminds me that success is not all about me.  It is about helping other people get what they want.

Practice persistence for business and career success.

Persistence is a key to business and career success.  If every sales representative quit after the first person said “No” to a proposal, no one would ever sell anything.

Turn frustration into solutions and inventions.

Everyone has frustrations.  We can learn from them.  We can use them to create solutions and inventions.  These are keys to business and career success.

“I’ve missed over 9,000 shots in my career.  I’ve lost almost 300 games.  Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over in my life.  And that is why I succeed.”  Michael Jordan

I heard Ed Land say that as an inventor, he “imagined things before they happened.”

Instead of sitting around angry and frustrated, look at the situation and ask yourself, “How can I solve this problem?”  Starting with this question is how successful people build business and career success.

Humility and Team Success

Adapt, Innovate, Win, Leadership

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” C. S. Lewis”

Research on Humility and Teams

In an article “The Best Leaders Are Humble Leaders,” HBR.org, Jeanine Prime and Elizabeth Salib reviewed research they had conducted on leadership.

The research involved six countries and twenty-two companies.  It showed that employees who believed that their managers cared for and respected them were more innovative.

The research further showed that humility is one of the four elements that helps employees feel “included,” that is, feeling “unique” yet “belonging.” These employees developed a sense of “citizenship” in the company.

My Personal Experience with (out) Humility

When I am hungry or tired, I can become self-centered and irritable. I want control. I lose patience.

When I focus too much on what I want and what I feel, I am a target for frustration. I can see people as being in the way instead of being there to help me. I lose humility.

I focus on what I don’t like in other people. I focus on what someone else is doing differently from the way I want it done. I am not enjoying my day. I become less available to other people. I lose the benefit of their help.

When I act self-centered, I annoy people. I frustrate people. I make them feel that they are not on the team with me.

I make things harder for myself and for the people on my team.

Humility and Team Productivity

When I can respect and have patience with other people, I feel better. The people around me benefit from my respect and thoughtfulness.

When I stop thinking about myself, working with others becomes easier. I can do my part. I can let other people do their part.

Thinking of others as well as myself, I can get out of my mind and into the present moment. I become more effective. I become more pleasant. I can listen to people. I can help them with solutions. I can benefit from their solutions.

When I am with a team that has members who respect each other’s ideas, everyone enjoys the job more. Even when I am working with a team in dealing with a difficult situation, if we all respect each other and let everyone contribute to the solution, everything moves faster and more effectively.

Do Leaders Need Humility?

I am more effective when I have the humility to listen to other people and to respect their ideas. I enjoy my work more. The people working with me enjoy their work more.

Research shows that companies with humble leaders benefit from employees who feel included and empowered. They are more reliable, innovative, productive, and committed to being members or “citizens” of the company.

Are You in the Wrong Job?

Adapt, Innovate, Win, Job Search

If you feel unappreciated, are you in the wrong job?  By unappreciated, I mean that you experience these things.

  1. Your turn has come up for promotion, but the promotion goes to your peers or perhaps people who have come into your company and moved past you.
  2. Your company brings in management from the outside for jobs that should have.
  3. Your peers repeatedly get credit for the work you are doing.
  4. Your boss takes credit for your work.
  5. Your pay raise is smaller than the pay raises everyone else gets.
  6. Everything people say about you is negative.
  7. No one asks you to join in at breaks or after work.
  8. You believe that nothing you do makes a difference.
  9. You feel like an outsider.

What to Do When You Feel Unappreciated

Determine the cause of your problem.

Are you doing the things to deserve praise and promotions?  If you are not doing what you should be doing, get busy.  Correct your mistakes.  Eliminate under performance.

Is Your Boss the Reason You Feel Unappreciated?

In an article titled “Are you appreciated at work?” in SFGate, Kim Thompson wrote,

“If you asked the majority of employees the reasons for leaving a good job you might hear comments that involve a lack of appreciation rather than compensation.  Resigning from a job may sound like an impulsive choice.  However, according to a Gallup poll, at least 75 percent of the reasons for voluntary turnover can be influenced by managers.”

Is your boss the reason you feel unappreciated?  Can you work with your boss to makes changes?  If not, you can consider your options outside your current company.

Steps to a Job Change

  1. Prepare your resume.  Make it factual.  Use a bullet format.  Highlight your accomplishments.
  2. Build a contact list for your job change.
  3. Expand your network.
  4. Set up a specific job-change email address that includes your name.
  5. Turn to your friends outside the company for referrals and references.
  6. If you have a friend working where you would like to work, ask that person for help in getting an interview.
  7. Find companies that are hiring for the job that you want.
  8. Build relationships with people in the company and ask them to help you get an interview.

Find a place where you can do meaningful work with people who will reward you and appreciate your efforts.

Don’t get stuck in a job where you feel unappreciated.  Get another job!

What Do You Do When There are No Jobs?

Adapt, Innovate, Win

What do you do when there are no jobs?  Change the way you do your job hunting.

One way to find out if a company is hiring is to ask them.  Instead of looking for job listings, look for companies who hire people with your skills.  When looking for companies that hire people with your skills, you are taking advantage of the fact that many companies do not use recruiters or advertise their jobs.  They rely on internal referrals and online or walk-in applications.  Some of these companies allow you to apply anytime.  If they do not have an opening, they will call you when they see a need that matches your experience.

Buy a franchise.  When my wife and I moved our family from Texas to California, we hired a professional moving company. The person in charge of the move was a retired Navy captain who owned a moving franchise of a national moving line.

When you buy a franchise, your new company has the products, advertising, and brand recognition of an established business.  Entrepreneur.com lists the top 500 franchises.

Imitate a franchise.  Another approach to starting a business when there are no jobs is to imitate the franchises.  You face some challenges.  You have to find sources for products.  You have to decide what equipment is best for your business.  You have to build brand awareness.  The positives are that you do not have the restrictions of limiting your business to the guidelines of a franchise.  Starbucks and west-coast sensation In-N-Out Burger are two companies that have created quality products by not having to comply to franchise guidelines.

Buy a franchise and break the mold. The greatest success story of a person breaking out of the franchise mold is that of Sam Walton.  He started with a Ben Franklin variety store franchise. Then he ran his store based on the business model of the most successful mass merchant at the time, KMart. Instead of buying from the franchise suppliers, he found from cheaper suppliers and passed the savings on to his customers.

Buy an established business.  With baby boomers nearing retirement, you can find businesses that will disappear if no one buys them.  If you see a business that looks attractive to you, state your interest in buying the business.  If you are a novice, you will want to get guidance.  The U.S. Small Business Administration has information on all aspects of starting, financing, and running a business.

If you have the business experience and financing, you might have a lot of fun.  The late Edwin H. Shutt Jr., who was CEO of Clorox and later Tambrands, became interested in the ownership of a BMW dealership when he was taking his car in for repairs.  A veteran of acquisitions at Clorox and Tambrands, he bought the dealership.

Create a new business.  Do you have a service or a product that you love and that helps other people?  Get busy selling your service or products.

Become a broker.  There are several ways to become a broker.  You can contract with manufacturers to sell their products for them.  You can become an agent on eBay or Craigslist by connecting suppliers with buyers.  The advantage of brokering is that you do not have the cost of inventory and manufacturing.

Become a contractor or third-party service company.  With economic downturns, jobs for some skills drop dramatically.  Electricians, plumbers, carpenters, and other construction workers have a difficult time during slow construction periods.  However, some companies hire construction workers for maintenance and ongoing projects.  The point is to use your vision to picture what companies need to hire people with your skills and apply for work with those companies.

20-70-10 Employee Stack Ranking

Adapt, Innovate, Win, Leadership

Many companies have used 20-70-10 employee ranking or “stack ranking” as part of the process in performance evaluations.  Some companies once viewed the process as the staircase for success.

Jack Welch used forced employee ranking at General Electric.  He popularized the concept through his writing and consulting.  In a “Bloomberg BusinessWeek article ‘The Case For 20-70-10’“, Jack and Suzy Welch explain the principle for ranking employees into performance categories.

The process of forced ranking includes firing the bottom 10%.  Critics call this process “Rank and Yank.”  Many critics state that “stack ranking” polarizes managers and employees and stifles innovation.

Even though fewer companies use “rank stacking” today (read more via Forbes.com, Peter Cohan), most companies still do annual performance reviews.

According to Fortune/CNNMoney.com contributor Anne Fisher, only two percent of human resources executives say that yearly evaluations are actually useful.
On its company blog, Adobe published an article about its decision to drop annual performance reviews.

“The dreaded performance review? Not at Adobe.”

It’s the bane of managers’ and employees’ existence at corporations around the world — the annual performance review.

Adobe abolished its performance review system in favor of ongoing “check-ins.” The story of how it came about and the way it works is a perfect example of how Adobe does what makes sense regardless of trends — and winds up setting some new trends in the process.”

Adobe did a specific thumbs down on stack ranking.

“In most corporations, managers must divide employees into groups — for example, maybe 15 percent of people can be assigned the highest rating. Those ratings then determine salary increases. Employees are also typically ranked, meaning that every interaction with a teammate could be viewed as a competition rather than a collaboration.”

In conclusion, performance feedback is important.  All companies do use some form of evaluations.  Managers must direct employees to focus on the job and on ways to do a better job.  The method of performance review should vary from company to company.  Each company has different circumstances.   For some companies annual reviews work well.  For other companies such as Adobe, regular feedback alone works well.  Many companies use a combination of methods for reviewing performance and giving employees feedback.  Although some companies still use stack ranking in various forms, many companies have found that forced ranking of employees neither creates better employee performance nor gives an accurate of understanding of the skills and abilities of the total organization workforce. 

Picking A Career

Adapt, Innovate, Win, Job Search

In picking a career, start with an understanding of what you want to do and what you need to do to have that type of career.

First, answer these questions.

    1. How well do you relate to other people.  If you enjoy helping people, jobs in service industries, health care, hospitality, and other jobs requiring people skills will interest you.  If you have no interest in human relations, you may prefer performance jobs: writing, computer programming, sales, or other jobs where the focus is on a task more than interaction with other people.
    2. Are you a leader, team member, teacher, or worker?  Leaders need opportunities with companies that use more people.  Team members work well in companies with a focus on planning or innovation.  Teachers find jobs in education or training.  Workers should focus on jobs where the company expects them to do their job but does not need that they accept responsibility in management.
    3. What are your interests?  Answering this question will help you pick a trade or industry.
    4. How much do you like risks? If you need security, you may want to work in large institutions or government.  If you love risks, self-employment or start-up companies will excite you.
    5. Where do you want to live?  Some jobs exist in abundance in some places.  Other jobs only exist in specific locations.  If you want to sell surfboards, you should consider living near beaches.
    6. How important is income?  Your focus on income can affect the risks, amount of education or training, and the levels of responsibility you will accept.

Second, answer these questions.

  1. What skills do you need?  When you are planning your career, consider what skills you will need to move through the stages of your career.  You can build your skills through volunteer, hobbies, training, and at your workplace.
  2. What education do you need?  Understanding the education can save you a great deal of time and money.  For example, if you need specific classes to get a teaching credential, you can include those classes in your curriculum and save returning to complete those courses after you graduate.
  3. What experience do you need?  Similar to planning your career based on the skills that you will need, you can get specific experience through your work and education as well as hobbies and volunteering.
  4. Where do you need to live?  Often people have family or health needs that limit their choices for where they can live.

6 Things to Know Before Accepting a Job Offer

Adapt, Innovate, Win, Job Offers

6 Things to Know Before Accepting a Job Offer

When a company makes you a job offer, you have done a lot of hard work and now you are in control of the process.   You have the power to accept or decline the offer. You are also in a very important part of the process. This is the time for you to make certain that the job is as nearly right for you as you can find.
Here are some job offer questions as to help you evaluate the offer.

1. Have you met your supervisor?  When I went to work at Procter & Gamble, I did not meet my supervisor until the day I started to work.  I was in a division that Procter & Gamble had created to expand the field sales organization in the West.  Procter & Gamble conducted the interviews in an office of a recruiting firm in San Francisco.  The people who interviewed me were charismatic, outgoing, and personable sales people.   I had expected someone who was a fire-in-the-belly mentor who would raise my performance to new levels and teach me how to move ahead in one of the finest companies in the world.

However, on the first day at work, I met my supervisor, and he was anything but what I had expected.  He had been in the same first-line management job for fifteen years.  He was unenthusiastic about what he did.  He emphasized getting the job done as quickly as possible and heading home.  He was a good person, an excellent father and husband.  He was just different from what I had expected based on the people I had met during my interviews.

2. Is there anything in the job description you do not understand?  I have learned from working on recruiting assignments that job descriptions can create confusion.  Here are some things you might want to clarify before you take a job.

  • If the job involves travel, where will need to go and how often?
  • What are the reporting relationships in the new company?  If the job title includes a word such as “manager,” what does that mean?  Will you manage a budget or perhaps manager an overwhelming number of direct reporting relationships?
  • What is the job?  If you think that you are joining an innovation team and you find that you are joining a planning team, you will need to do a lot more analysis that creative thinking.
  • What is the promotion opportunity or expectation?  If you want promotions and there is little opportunity, you are facing frustration.  If the company expects you to take promotions and you want to settle into a career position, you could find that you face pressure to leave for people who can keep the promotion pipeline fluid.

I saw one instance at Polaroid where the company hired a person who quit when he found out he had to fly to a sales meeting in the Bahamas.  The man was afraid to get on an airplane.

3. Is the workplace right for you?

  • How long is the commute?
  • What type area surrounds the office?
  • Does the job allow you to work at home or require that you commute daily?
  • Do you have affordable transportation?

4. Do you have any special conditions that you want to set up?  Perhaps you sunk a few thousand dollars into a family vacation that will start six months into your new job.  If you cannot get your money back or if this vacation has special importance to your family, the time to raise the subject is before you accept the offer.  I married my wonderful wife four months after I started to work for Procter & Gamble.  The management team at Procter & Gamble fully supported my taking time for my wedding honeymoon.  I discussed the matter with them before I accepted the job.

5. Do you understand the benefits? There are a few things for you to consider about benefits before you accept a job offer.

  • When do the benefits start?  This information is critical to transitioning your healthcare coverage from your current coverage to the coverage at your new job.
  • What are the out-of-pocket costs for the benefits?  There are differences from one company to the next.  I placed people with a company that had terrific coverage for people who lived in California, the home state of the company.  However, the costs to people who lived outside of California were several thousand dollars a year.
  • What benefits are you giving up in the transition?  If you have prescription, major medical, primary care coverage, dental, and optical coverage at your current company, and the new company does not cover some of these things, based on your health, you might find a big gap between what you are getting and what the new company will give you.
  • What are the deductibles in the plans at your new company?  Insurance companies offer lower rates for higher deductibles.  You not need in any surprises in these potential gaps.

6. How often will the new company pay you?  If the new company pays you twice a month, you get 24 checks a year.  If the new company pays you every two weeks, you get 26 checks a year.  Companies often state income in the amount that the company will pay an employee per paycheck.

The Side Hustle: Finding New Ways to Make Money

Adapt, Innovate, Win

With the Internet expansion and coincidental high unemployment starting with the 2008 recession, companies began to spring up to connect personal assets into ways of making money.

The “sharing economy” or “gig economy” exploded as a major economic force, powered by the proliferation of digital platforms that connect people who need services with freelance workers who can provide them on demand for everything from rideshare and home rentals to delivery services. Companies like Uber and Airbnb are considered the quintessential examples of this phenomenon.

Finding Opportunities for Income in the Sharing Economy

The internet drives the gig economy. Knowing how to use the Internet to find opportunities is critical to your success. Knowing keyword for the sharing economy will help you locate opportunities on the Internet. Here are some of the categories of gigs and asset sharing:

• Vehicle or equipment renting
• Home sharing for vacation accommodations
• Ridesharing alternatives to taxis and busses
• Delivery services from store to consumers
• Ad-supported video sharing
• Sharing Economy
• Peer-to-Peer Redistribution Markets
• Social Commerce
• Crowd Funding
• Collaborative Consumption

Knowing the Risks of the Gig Economy

The gig economy, with its promise of flexibility and freedom, has undeniably reshaped the modern workplace. But beneath the allure of independent contracting and flexible schedules lie some significant drawbacks.

Income Instability:
• Fluctuating Earnings: Gig work often involves unpredictable income streams. Earnings can vary wildly from week to week, making it difficult to budget and plan for the future.
• Lack of Benefits: Gig workers typically lack access to employee benefits such as health insurance, paid leave, and retirement plans.

Job Insecurity:

• Platform Dependence: Gig workers are often at the mercy of the platforms they work for. Algorithms can change, demand can fluctuate, and platforms can deactivate accounts with little warning.
• Competition: The competitive nature of the gig economy can make it difficult to find consistent work and maintain a stable income.

 

19 Top Job Interview Questions

Adapt, Innovate, Win, Interviewing

19 Top Job Interview Questions

You can never know what questions an interviewer will ask you. However, here are some of the more popular questions.

  1. Why are you leaving your current job?
  2. What is your greatest achievement?
  3. Who was the best supervisor you have ever had?
  4. Who was the worst supervisor you ever had.
  5. What makes you the best person for the job?
  6. What is your greatest strength?
  7. What is your greatest weakness?
  8. What are your long-term goals?
  9. What do you plan to do the first 90 days on the job?
  10. What do you do to grow professionally?
  11. What qualities to you seek in building a team?
  12. What are your career passions?
  13. What did you want to become when you were a kid?
  14. What is your typical day?
  15. What is your greatest failure and what did it teach you?
  16. Have you ever told a lie?
  17. Whom do you most admire?
  18. What is the most difficult problem you ever had to handle and what did you do handle to the problem?
  19. Where did your parents work?

Add to these questions some other questions to ask yourself some questions before you go to the interview.
The first questions are the things you will do for the hiring company.

  1. What five things you will do for the company the first 30 days on the job?
  2. What five things you will do for the company the first 60 days on the job?
  3. What five things you will do for the company the first 90 days on the job?

The next questions are how your professional goals will do for the company.

  1. What are your short-term professional goals that match the short-term company goals?
  2. What are your long-term professional goals that match the long-term company goals?
  3. What goals do you have that can create innovation at the hiring company?
  4. What professional development goals do you have that will make you more effective for the company over time?

The next questions are what you want to work for this company.

  1. What do you think of the company’s products?
  2. What do you think of the job place?
  3. What do you think of the company’s mission statement?
  4. What do you think of the company’s business sector?

Writing out these questions and writing out your answers will help you be ready to show the hiring manager how you are the best person for the job.