Small Town, Big Word, Major Issue; New York Times, 12/28/10

Robin Pogrebin, New York Times; Small Town, Big Word, Major Issue:

"Deaccessioning is the kind of word that makes eyes glaze over and can seem to be the preserve of dusty intellectuals and large museums. But it’s just a fancy name for the sale or giving away of art and artifacts by museums and other cultural organizations, and the dust-up here in this city of about 5,000 demonstrates that such debates occur in all kinds of places, big and small, where people feel protective about materials in their care.

With her personal gesture of protest in late September, Ms. Phillips stepped into a growing public controversy surrounding institutions that have sold or considered selling parts of their collections, which have been entrusted to them for the public’s benefit."

Are You a Good Boss—or a Great One?; Harvard Business Review, January/February 2011

Linda A. Hill and Kent Lineback; Harvard Business Review; Are You a Good Boss—or a Great One? :

"The whole question of how managers grow and advance is one we’ve studied, thought about, and lived with for years. As a professor working with high potentials, MBAs, and executives from around the globe, Linda meets people who want to contribute to their organizations and build fulfilling careers. As an executive, Kent has worked with managers at all levels of both private and public organizations. All our experience brings us to a simple but troubling observation: Most bosses reach a certain level of proficiency and stop there—short of what they could and should be."

Interview with Cathleen P. Black, former chairwoman of Hearst Magazines; New York Times, 12/19/10

Adam Bryant, Corner Office, New York Times; Interview with Cathleen P. Black, former chairwoman of Hearst Magazines, If Opportunity Knocks, Open the Door:

"Q. If you could ask someone only two or three questions in a job interview, what would they be?

A. How will you judge your success here? And what would be the first things you would do in the first 30 days?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/business/19corner.html?scp=2&sq=corner%20office&st=cse

How to Bring Out the Best in Your Boss; Harvard Business Review, 12/13/10

Liz Wiseman, Harvard Business Review; How to Bring Out the Best in Your Boss:

"Why do some leaders drain intelligence and capability from their teams while others leaders amplify it? That question prompted me to spend years researching the two types of bosses I now classify as "diminishers", who get less than 50% of the capability of people around them, and "multipliers" who get virtually 100%, as outlined in my May 2010 HBR article."

Incivility Can Have Costs Beyond Hurt Feelings; New York Times, 11/20/10

Alina Tugend, New York Times; Incivility Can Have Costs Beyond Hurt Feelings:

"...fundamental notion of all ethical principles — actions have consequences for others. Good manners are the training wheels of altruism.”...

There are solutions, although they are not easy. “First, leaders can put something into their orientation code or credo that they expect employees to be treated with respect,” Professor Pearson said. ”It’s amazing how many expect their employees to treat customers with respect and how few worry about how their colleagues treat each other.”

Most important, she said, people at the top have to be willing to model civility, discipline those who act badly and be consistent — that is, not let someone considered a superstar get away with rudeness."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/20/your-money/20shortcuts.html?pagewanted=2&ref=business&src=me

Corner Office [[Interview with Bob Brennan, President and C.E.O. of Iron Mountain]; New York Times, 11/28/10

Adam Bryant, Corner Office, New York Times; [Interview with Bob Brennan, President and C.E.O. of Iron Mountain] Defensive? It Leads to Destructive:

"Q. Talk more about the kind of culture you try to create.

A. We have a set of core values that are important to us, and they’re mostly around candor -- really to generate speed, action orientation and a sense of security. We’ve got 21,000 people, so we have a lot of people who are managing others. What are the traits we want in leaders? How do we help them understand in very descriptive terms what we expect on a day-to-day basis? That’s different from driving clarity around outcomes, or how they link to broader strategy.

We want managers to display confidence and optimism, and to give constructive feedback, never destructive. And managers need to seek constructive feedback themselves."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/business/28corner.html

Leadership Begins at Home; Harvard Business Review, 11/23/10

Tony Schwartz, Harvard Business Review; Leadership Begins at Home:

"One of the greatest gifts you can give your kids is help in foregoing immediate gratification, by setting boundaries for them and by modeling the behavior yourself.

That's also one of the greatest gifts you can give to those you lead or manage."

http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2010/11/one-of-the-greatest-gifts.html

Libraries strive to keep quality despite cuts; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 11/18/10

Candy Woodall, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Libraries strive to keep quality despite cuts:

"Their budgets may be getting smaller, but that has only inspired directors of some of the South Hills' biggest libraries to get more creative."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10322/1104123-55.stm

[Podcast] Can Introverts Lead?; Harvard Business Review, 11/12/10

[Podcast] Francesca Gino, Harvard Business Review; Can Introverts Lead?:

"Francesca Gino, associate professor at Harvard Business School, explains how quiet bosses with proactive teams can be highly successful. She is the coauthor of the upcoming HBR article "The Hidden Advantages of Quiet Bosses."

http://blogs.hbr.org/video/2010/11/can-introverts-lead.html

[Podcast] Putting Performance Reviews On Probation; NPR's Talk of the Nation, 11/9/10

[Podcast] NPR's Talk of the Nation; Putting Performance Reviews On Probation:

"Performance reviews are a predictable part of office life. Whether the employees write their own, or sit before a panel of bosses, it can be a grueling process. Often, managers only conduct them because they're told to, and workers embellish and obscure their accomplishments and failures. Some business leaders argue the reviews are all but worthless."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131191535

When Are Facebook Updates a Firing Offense?; Harvard Business Review, 11/10/10

Brian Elzweig and Donna K. Peeples; Harvard Business Review; When Are Facebook Updates a Firing Offense?:

"Privacy in social media is another tricky issue in the law that has not been thoroughly addressed."

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/11/when_are_facebook_updates_a_fi.html

How to Interject in a Meeting; Harvard Business Review, 11/3/10

Jodi Glickman, Harvard Business Review; How to Interject in a Meeting:

"Speaking up in meetings — to interject, correct someone else, or ask for clarification — can be extremely intimidating. Having a few useful phrases at hand can go a long way towards giving you the confidence and tools you need to be able to interject your thoughts and opinions effectively in group situations and meetings."

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/11/how_to_interject_in_a_meeting.html

The Eight-Word Mission Statement; Harvard Business Review, 10/22/10

Eric Hellweg, Harvard Business Review; The Eight-Word Mission Statement:

"...Starr insists that companies he funds can express their mission statement in under eight words. They also must follow this format: "Verb, target, outcome." Some examples: "Save endangered species from extinction" and "Improve African children's health.""

http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/hbreditors/2010/10/the_eight-word_mission_stateme.html

Defend Your Research: People Often Trust Eloquence More Than Honesty; Harvard Business Review, November 2010

Todd Rogers and Michael I. Norton, Harvard Business Review; Defend Your Research: People Often Trust Eloquence More Than Honesty:

"The study: Todd Rogers and Michael Norton showed subjects different videos of a political debate. In the first, one of the candidates answered the question asked. In the second, he dodged it by answering a similar question. In the third, he dodged it by answering a completely different one. When the candidate answered a similar question, subjects failed to notice the switch. They also liked him better if he answered a similar question well than if he answered the actual one less eloquently."

http://hbr.org/2010/11/defend-your-research-people-often-trust-eloquence-more-than-honesty/ar/1

[Free Online Conference] December 1 - 2, 2010, free online conference sponsored by WebJunction: Serving the 21st Century Patron

December 1 - 2, 2010, free online conference sponsored by WebJunction: Serving the 21st Century Patron:

[Sample Session] "21 Ideas for 21st-Century Libraries
Discover best practices for 21st-century public libraries with 21+ examples of practical ideas and tips from both libraries and other organizations. Topics will include space planning, marketing, staffing, community collaborations, customer service, and technology. With over 40 years of library and industry experience between them, Kim Bolan Cullin and Rob Cullin know how to manage – in good times and in bad – while still innovating and excelling at every turn."

http://www.webjunction.org/conferences/-/articles/content/106453434

Bouncing Back from a Negative 360-Degree Review; Harvard Business Review, 7/29/10

Amy Gallo, Harvard Business Review; Bouncing Back from a Negative 360-Degree Review:

"Unlike traditional reviews and other types of feedback, 360-degree reviews include input from a comprehensive set of people: peers, managers, direct reports, and sometimes customers. One of the most valuable aspects of this tool is that the opinions are voiced anonymously, which encourages a higher level of honesty than you might normally get. However, the truth is not always pretty, and receiving a negative 360-degree review can be upsetting, especially when the opinions are echoed at many levels. But with the right attitude, you can still create a positive experience. How you handle a bad 360-degree review is far more important than the content of the review itself."

http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2010/07/bouncing-back-from-a-negative.html

What "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Really Costs; Harvard Business Review, 10/8/10

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Karen Sumberg, and Lauren Leader-Chivee, Harvard Business Review; What "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Really Costs:

"Smart companies recognize that an inclusive workplace is good for business. Deloitte's GLOBE (Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual Employees) Business Resource Group, for example, provides a forum for networking, professional development, recruiting and building relationships with local communities. Ernst & Young's Inclusive Leadership Program pairs high-potential performers with executive board members for formal mentoring and career development. It originally targeted women and minorities, but last year the program was expanded to include LGBT partners and principals. Cisco Systems covers the tax on imputed income that LGBT employees pay when they extend their health insurance to cover their partners. Pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingelheim lobbies Congress in support of anti-discrimination acts.

Such policies do more than foster engagement and boost productivity. They are also strong recruitment tools. "In today's marketplace, Gen X and especially Gen Y, irrespective of their sexual orientation, are looking for companies that are progressive," says Nancy DiDia, Chief Diversity Officer of Boehringer Ingelheim. "Whenever we go to career fairs or do recruiting events on college campuses, the two areas we get questioned on are: How socially responsible is your company? What's your position on LGBT policies?""

http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/hewlett/2010/10/what_dont_ask_dont_tell_really.html

The Gap Logo Debacle: A Half-Brained Mistake; Harvard Business Review, 10/8/10

Umair Haque, Harvard Business Review; The Gap Logo Debacle: A Half-Brained Mistake:

"So argue with me if you like, bring the full arsenal of overquantified pseudomathetical Wall Street analyses to the table if you want — but I'd gently suggest: most companies don't take design seriously, but they damn well should. What standing in their way? Yesterday's tired, increasingly stale assumptions that what really matters in hard-nosed, tough-as-nails business is the left-brained stuff: negotiation, calculation, and, to it bluntly, intimidation. Hence, cutting-edge design as a nice-to-have, not a can't-live-without."

http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2010/10/the_gaps_logo_debacle_a.html

Management Tip of the Day: 3 questions before seeking a new job; Harvard Business Review via Reuters, 10/8/10

John Baldoni, Harvard Business Review via Reuters; Management Tip of the Day: 3 questions before seeking a new job:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66T18I20101008?type=smallBusinessNews

Corner Office, Interview with Howard Schultz, chairman, president and C.E.O. of Starbucks; New York Times, 10/10/10

Adam Bryant, Corner Office, New York Times; Interview with Howard Schultz, chairman, president and C.E.O. of Starbucks: Good C.E.O.’s Are Insecure (and Know It):

"Q. How do you hire? What are you looking for in, say, somebody who would be a direct report?

A. I want big thinkers. I want people who are going to be entrepreneurial. I want people who are going to have important things to say and the courage to say them. I want people to challenge the status quo, but I also say something to everyone I hire, and that is: “You don’t have to come in here and try to hit a home run, and let me tell you why. You’re coming in here because I and many others believe very strongly in who you are and what you can bring to the company. So you don’t have to come in here and prove something right away.”

People who succeed at Starbucks are going to demonstrate a healthy level of respect and understanding of the culture of the company and the people who have come before them. There have been great people who have come into the company who haven’t succeeded because they have not embraced the culture and values of the company, so you need to do that.

I think the first 30, 60 days after a new person arrives at Starbucks is the most critical stage. So I will spend more time with that individual on the front end than I probably will that whole year, ensuring that they understand the deep level of sensitivity around the heritage and tradition of the company.

Q. A lot of the qualities you’ve mentioned are intangibles. How do you find out if a job candidate has them?

A. I think one of my strengths is that I have a very good antenna about people. I’ll ask a few things that are probably different from a traditional interview. First off, I want to know what you’re reading and then I’ll ask you why. Tell me what work-life balance means to you. I would want to know specifically their level of understanding about our company and Starbucks culture, and I’ll see early on who’s faking it and who’s not."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/business/10corner.html?scp=2&sq=corner%20office&st=cse

How to Identify Your Disruptive Skills; Harvard Business Review, 10/4/10

Whitney Johnson, Harvard Business Review; How to Identify Your Disruptive Skills:

"In my previous post, I talked about the importance of re-evaluating your portfolio of skills and leading with those that are unique — your disruptive skills. These may be capacities that are so innate you may not even consciously recognize them, or skills you have honed over years of practice. These are the skills that can help you carve out a disruptive niche — consequently upping your value in the marketplace."

http://blogs.hbr.org/johnson/2010/10/how-to-identify-your-disruptiv.html

Five Ways to Sharpen Your Communication Skills; Harvard Business Review, 4/30/09

John Baldoni, Harvard Business Review; Five Ways to Sharpen Your Communication Skills:

""Communication and interpersonal skills remain at the top of the list of what matters most to recruiters." That's according to the most recent Harris Interactive/Wall Street Journal business school survey published in September 2007.

So why do we ignore the relevance of communication until it becomes an issue? One reason may be because we don't take the time to quantify what we mean by it."

http://blogs.hbr.org/baldoni/2009/04/five_things_leaders_can_do_to.html

Effective Communication Begins with a First Impression; Harvard Business Review, 8/17/10

JD Schramm, Harvard Business Review; Effective Communication Begins with a First Impression:

"In this era of double-digit unemployment, many of us are either job-hunting or helping friends and colleagues who are searching for employment. After crafting a cover letter, set it aside, do something else as a distraction, and then return to it with fresh eyes. Imagine you are the hiring manager and this has landed on your desk or in your in-box. Does the letter capture your attention from the very first moment?...

While we may only see scores of business letters in a year, we see thousands of emails. There, the first impression is obvious: the subject line...

The key to writing a powerful subject line is to do it last, right before you hit send, not before you've written the email."

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/08/effective_communciation_begins.html

New BP CEO's Tough Communication Tasks Ahead; Harvard Business Review, 9/30/10

Stefan Stern, Harvard Business Review; New BP CEO's Tough Communication Tasks Ahead:

"Nearly six months on from the explosion which led to disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, what can we say for certain about Tony Hayward's (and BP's) mistakes?

One over-used word sums up their problems: communication."

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/09/new_bp_ceos_tough_communicatio.html

How to Overcome Communication Fears; Harvard Business Review, 9/30/10

JD Schramm, Harvard Business Review; How to Overcome Communication Fears:

"Fear can be a good thing, if it doesn't paralyze us completely from taking action. Fear reminds us of our humanity, keeps us from stepping in front of moving cars, and can activate "fight or flight" reactions so we are not trapped in threatening situations. As communicators, however, we have to become aware of fears that may prevent us from even trying to connect with others in speech or writing."

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/09/how_to_overcome_communication.html

Corner Office, Interview with Paul Maritz, president and C.E.O. of the software firm VMware; New York Times, 10/3/10

Adam Bryant, Corner Office, New York Times; Interview with Paul Maritz, president and C.E.O. of the software firm VMware: Does Your Team Have the Four Essential Types?:

"Q. What are some other leadership lessons?

A. One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that there is no such thing as a perfect leader. If you look at successful groups, inevitably there’s an amalgam of personalities that really enable the group to function at a high level.

Q. And what are they?

A. At the risk of oversimplifying, I think that in any great leadership team, you find at least four personalities, and you never find all four of those personalities in a single person.

You need to have somebody who is a strategist or visionary, who sets the goals for where the organization needs to go.

You need to have somebody who is the classic manager — somebody who takes care of the organization, in terms of making sure that everybody knows what they need to do and making sure that tasks are broken up into manageable actions and how they’re going to be measured.

You need a champion for the customer, because you are trying to translate your product into something that customers are going to pay for. So it’s important to have somebody who empathizes and understands how customers will see it. I’ve seen many endeavors fail because people weren’t able to connect the strategy to the way the customers would see the issue.

Then, lastly, you need the enforcer. You need somebody who says: “We’ve stared at this issue long enough. We’re not going to stare at it anymore. We’re going to do something about it. We’re going to make a decision. We’re going to deal with whatever conflict we have.”

You very rarely find more than two of those personalities in one person. I’ve never seen it. And really great teams are where you have a group of people who provide those functions and who respect each other and, equally importantly, both know who they are and who they are not. Often, I’ve seen people get into trouble when they think they’re the strategist and they’re not, or they think they’re the decision maker and they’re not."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/business/03corner.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=corner%20office&st=cse

Corner Office, Interview with Abbe Raven, president and C.E.O. of A&E Television Networks; New York Times, 9/26/10

Adam Bryant, Corner Office, New York Times; Interview with Abbe Raven, president and C.E.O. of A&E Television Networks: Want to Lead? Steer Clear of Rarefied Air:

"Q. Let’s talk about hiring. How do you do it?

A. No. 1, for me, is instinct, and I have a pretty good track record. And it’s a gut reaction when I first meet somebody, and I very often go with my instinct. To me, it’s all about who they are as a person, their chemistry, their charisma and their gravitas. Usually, they have the experience or, at least on paper, look like they do, but it’s really about who they are. Are they right for the chemistry of our team? Do they have qualities that someone else doesn’t have? Are they going to mesh well in our corporate culture?

I ask traditional questions, but also a lot about how they were brought up, their family life, where they went to high school. I try to understand their family, try to understand what they’re passionate about. Very often, it’s not necessarily about work. It’s about something else that gives me enormous insight into who they are and whether they are going to be successful here.

I insist on breaking bread with anyone I’m going to hire who’s going to work with me. I really feel that by having a couple of meals with someone, you get a sense of who they are. How do they walk into a restaurant, how do they deal with a waitress, how respectful are they to people around them?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/business/26corner.html?_r=1

Know Your Enemy: The People Who Block Buy-In; Harvard Business Review, 9/28/10

John Kotter, Harvard Business Review; Know Your Enemy: The People Who Block Buy-In:

"In our story, "you" receive some helpful advice in preparation for the meeting, identifying the different kinds of potential attacks and specific responses to each. With the support of others on your team, you're able to deflect the rocks and achieve a successful outcome. After the story, we discuss each of the attacks, what the underlying intent may be (for example, to kill your idea through endless delays, or with unfounded fear that it's too risky), and how best to deflect that particular kind of attack."

http://blogs.hbr.org/kotter/2010/09/know-your-enemy-the-people-who.html

Practical Diversity; Chronicle of Higher Education, 9/24/10

David Evans, Chronicle of Higher Education; Practical Diversity:

"In the past two years, we have asked them to help us define, for our particular circumstances and context, what skills and competencies our students most need to enhance their professional and personal prospects. In both of these sessions, the advisory council's clearest consensus developed around students' need to develop skills in working with people of differing backgrounds and cultures. What is often called intercultural competence, in other words, is for the members of the advisory council on a par with communication skills, critical thinking, work ethic, and integrity as a desired goal for prospective employees."

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Practical-Diversity/27178/

Anger as a Private Company Takes Over Libraries; New York Times, 9/27/10

David Streitfeld, New York Times; Anger as a Private Company Takes Over Libraries:

"Can a municipal service like a library hold so central a place that it should be entrusted to a profit-driven contractor only as a last resort — and maybe not even then?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/business/27libraries.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=anger%20libraries&st=cse

A Practical Plan for When You Feel Overwhelmed; Harvard Business Review, 9/23/10

Peter Bregman, Harvard Business Review; A Practical Plan for When You Feel Overwhelmed:

"The more numerous our options, the more difficult it becomes to choose a single one, and so we end up choosing none at all. That's what happens when we have too many things to do. We become overwhelmed and don't do any of them.

Over the past few days, I've tried a lot of different things to escape this conundrum, and here's what worked for me..."

http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2010/09/a-practical-plan-for-when-you-1.html

Be a Better Manager: Live Abroad; Harvard Business Review, September 2010

William W. Maddux, Adam D. Galinsky, and Carmit T. Tadmor, Harvard Business Review; Be a Better Manager: Live Abroad:

"Travel and living abroad have long been seen as good for the soul. What’s perhaps less well-known is that they’re also good for the company. People who have international experience or identify with more than one nationality are better problem solvers and display more creativity, our research suggests. What’s more, we found that people with this international experience are more likely to create new businesses and products and to be promoted."

http://hbr.org/2010/09/be-a-better-manager-live-abroad/ar/1

Interview with Richard R. Buery Jr., president and chief executive of the Children’s Aid Society; New York Times, 9/12/10

Adam Bryant, Corner Office, New York Times; Interview with Richard R. Buery Jr., president and chief executive of the Children’s Aid Society: Before Making a Big Splash, Learn to Swim:

"Q. What’s your strategy for finding mentors?

A. I’ve gone to people for various reasons — because they had an interesting job or because I admired their work or I heard them speak — and said: “You don’t know me, but this is who I am. This is what I’m doing. I’d love it if every few months I could come and have lunch with you, ask you some questions, and give me your feedback until you get bored or until I stop calling.”
And what’s been amazing to me is that no one’s ever said no to that. I don’t think anyone’s ever said no. It’s made an incredible difference in my career.

Q. What lessons have you picked up from your mentors?

A. Some are just around the importance of how you communicate messages. At Children’s Aid, one of the new challenges for me is that it’s much larger than other things I’ve done, both in terms of the number of people, but also our geographic reach. I’m used to roles where if I wanted to talk to everybody, I could actually talk to everybody, and that’s no longer possible. So just the importance of being clear and concise in your communication — not 10 messages, but two or three messages repeated over and over and over again in every way you can and every opportunity you have."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/business/12corner.html?_r=1

What Breed Is Your CEO? Randy Komisar on Leadership and Management; FastCompany.com, 7/27/10

Kermit Pattison, FastCompany.com; What Breed Is Your CEO? Randy Komisar on Leadership and Management:

"Kermit Pattison: What are the classic pitfalls you see entrepreneurs making over and over again?

Randy Komisar: Mistaking the difference between leadership and management. A lot of people believe the two are the same and believe that, because they have been effective or excellent managers, that they're capable of leading. While the two ideally come together, the qualities and attributes of a leader and a manager are not exactly the same.

In your mind, what's the difference between management and leadership?

Management is more operationally focused. It's more of a supervisory role of setting priorities, allocating resources, and directing the execution. Leadership is more forward thinking, more about enabling the organization, empowering individuals, developing the right people, thinking strategically about opportunities, and driving alignment. Mind you, the line is not black and white. But it's a classic mistake that because someone is a good manager that they'll necessarily be a good leader.

In early stage projects, the CEO oftentimes is effectively a project manager. I've seen some of those people over-think leadership--literally start to compound the challenges by thinking too big and not immediate enough...

So what does get you greatness?

When I am most successful, it's because the people around me have made me successful. It comes down to the fact that success is created by a group of people and not by any single individual. How do you get people to come together around a goal and objective and be great? It's establishing a sense of common purpose. Greatness doesn't come from a tactical sense of execution. Greatness comes having a vision that goes beyond yourself and even beyond the organization. "

http://www.fastcompany.com/1674779/randy-komisar-kleiner-perkins-caufield-byer-leadership-management-entrepreneurship

True Leaders Are Also Managers; Harvard Business Review, 8/11/10

Robert I. Sutton, Harvard Business Review; True Leaders Are Also Managers:

"I am not rejecting the distinction between leadership and management, but I am saying that the best leaders do something that might properly be called a mix of leadership and management. At a minimum, they lead in a way that constantly takes into account the importance of management. Meanwhile, the worst senior executives use the distinction between leadership and management as an excuse to avoid the details they really have to master to see the big picture and select the right strategies.

Therefore, harking back to the Bennis theorem I quoted above, let me propose a corollary: To do the right thing, a leader needs to understand what it takes to do things right, and to make sure they actually get done."

When we glorify leadership too much, and management too little, there is great risk of failing to act on this obvious but powerful message."

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/08/true_leaders_are_also_managers.html

Managing your library; Emerald

Emerald; Managing your library:

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/librarians/management/index.htm

The Accidental Library Manager: Contents and Links

The Accidental Library Manager: Contents and Links:

http://www.lisjobs.com/talm/toc.htm

The New York Times Is Dead Wrong; Harvard Business Review, 9/2/10

Bill Taylor, Harvard Business Review; The New York Times Is Dead Wrong:

"Consider this amazing statistic, brought to you by a Web site called The NYTpicker, which pokes, prods, and otherwise critiques the world's greatest newspaper. For the month of August, the New York Times ran 78 obituaries, but only six were of women. For 2010 as a whole, the Times has published 698 obituaries — and only 92 were of women.

What's going on here?"

http://blogs.hbr.org/taylor/2010/09/new_york_times_dead_wrong.html

The Dirty Truth About Digital Fasts; Harvard Business Review, 9/2/10

Alexandra Samuel, Harvard Business Review; The Dirty Truth About Digital Fasts:

"Last year it was the staycation. This year it's the digital fast. "How I unplugged" — from Twitter, from a Blackberry, from the Internet, or at the behest of the New York Times — is the new "what I did on my summer vacation."

As people trade stories about how they survived, or even thrived, offline, I'm troubled by the underlying narrative, that our ability to unplug is necessary to prove that we're not Internet addicts. We're supposed to demonstrate our grasp of human relationships by our ability to relate face-to-face, as well as online. We're supposed to show that we can be present by being absent from the web."

http://blogs.hbr.org/samuel/2010/09/the-dirty-truth-about-digital.html

Corner Office, Interview with Anne Berkowitch, co-founder and chief executive of SelectMinds, a social networking company; New York Times, 9/5/10

Corner Office, Adam Bryant, New York Times; Interview with Anne Berkowitch, co-founder and chief executive of SelectMinds, a social networking company: Learn to Lead From the Back of the Boat:

"Q. What do you think are the keys to effective leadership?

A. It’s really being able to listen to people. So much of leadership, I’ve come to learn, is about getting a team to work together. It’s not about being smart. It helps, but it’s not about that. It’s really about being able to bring together a group of people, get the best out of them and get them wanting to work as a unit toward some goal post. I think the building blocks that go into that are listening to people, really understanding what motivates them and getting them to push themselves beyond their comfort zones.

And all of that is really having a basic psychological understanding and genuine interest in the people you’re trying to build a team with. I think if you come at leadership with an attitude of, “I’m going to do this, and these people are going to follow me and be my support team,” you’ll lose.

Q. How has your leadership style evolved?

A. If you think about how you steer a boat, it’s always from the back, and I’ve moved toward the back of the boat. Initially, my sense of leadership was to be the military general out in front of the troops and the first one rushing into battle. You have to be a leader. You have to be visible. People have to know that you’re in charge and that you’re leading the charge, but I think it’s got to be almost more of a support role.

Q. How did you learn that lesson?

A. Before founding SelectMinds, I worked in management consulting for 10 years. And that culture is very much about being smart and being visible and making sure everybody knows how smart you are. So I was molded in that environment, and then, when I became C.E.O. of SelectMinds, I really didn’t have much leadership experience. I led the way I had managed consulting teams. It just took a lot of false starts to learn that being smart isn’t the same thing as being a leader. We were going down the runway but the plane wasn’t taking off...

Q. What other things have you come to understand about leadership?

A. Ask a lot more questions and make a lot fewer statements. Leadership is really about asking questions and letting people answer them. I think it’s the only way you get your team to think. If you’re constantly talking at them, they don’t have to think. So, it’s the way to put them on the front line. My job is to get the questions out and have people answer the questions."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/business/05corner.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

[Podcast] The Biggest Mistake a Leader Can Make; Harvard Business Review, 8/31/10

[Podcast] Harvard Business Review; The Biggest Mistake a Leader Can Make:

"Through Imagining the Future of Leadership, a symposium at the Harvard Business School and accompanying blog series, expert thinkers gathered to investigate what is necessary today to develop the leaders we need for tomorrow."

http://blogs.hbr.org/video/2010/08/the-biggest-mistake-a-leader-c.html

Library Leadership & Management Association Magazine

Library Leadership & Management Association Magazine:

"Library Leadership & Management (LL&M) is the journal of the Library Leadership and Management Association. The electronic version, LL&M Online, is available to all LLAMA members as a benefit of membership by clicking here.

LL&M Online focuses on assisting library administrators and managers at all levels as they deal with day-to-day challenges. In-depth articles address a wide variety of management issues and highlight examples of successful management methods used in libraries. Features include interviews with prominent practitioners in libraries and related fields, and columns with practical advice on managing libraries."

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/llama/publications/llandm/libraryleadership.cfm

Managing Older Managers: A Guide for Younger Bosses; Harvard Business Review, 8/25/10

Michael Fertik, Harvard Business Review; Managing Older Managers: A Guide for Younger Bosses:

"You already know that winning depends in no small part on hiring people better than yourself. If you are a youngish entrepreneur or boss, that will entail hiring older and more experienced people, especially in top roles for your organization. Managing a colleague with ten or fifteen more years of experience than you can present unusual challenges of motivation, boundary-setting, and leadership. Here are some ways to get the most out of your hires and your collaboration with them."

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/08/managing_older_managers_a_guid.html

Corner Office, Interview with Lisa Price, founder and president of Carol’s Daughter, a beauty products company; New York Times, 8/22/10

Adam Bryant, Corner Office, New York Times; Interview with Lisa Price, founder and president of Carol’s Daughter, a beauty products company: Memo to Self: Don’t Take It Personally:

"Q. What’s your philosophy of leadership?

A. I want people to feel passionate, the way that I do, and feel like they are coming to a family and coming to a place that builds them up, and not a place that tears them down. So that’s my leadership style — keeping people passionate, keeping them inspired. I love to give people feedback. I’ve learned to give negative feedback. I didn’t always like it. But I’ve learned that when you give it, instead of avoiding it, it can help the person.

Q. How do you hire?

A. I do listen for what they say about the brand. I want to know that they’re comfortable voicing their opinion, because it’s a very entrepreneurial setting, and you cannot be a corporate person who likes all the layers. You have to be able to assert yourself and make your voice heard and lead and push something. I want to know that people are comfortable multitasking.

Our head of H.R. cleans out the copy room and takes the coffee filters out of the coffee and makes sure that there’s toilet paper in the bathroom. That’s just how the company is, and those are the things that she needs to do. So you have to be confident in order to do that. That’s just the entrepreneurial environment.

Q. But how do you figure out if the person is like that from an interview?

A. When you talk to them about things that they’ve done, you drill down on what their responsibilities were. When they describe it to you, they really break it down — what they had to do, how they had to push it through. You can tell that kind of person just doesn’t go, “I can’t figure it out.”

Q. How else has your leadership style evolved?

A. I have learned to be distant without really being distant. I’m very friendly with everybody, but I would get so invested before, and if there was a transition for whatever reason, it would hurt for me to lose that person. And that discomfort is very hard to deal with, and it doesn’t really have a place in business.

So I’ve found this interesting space within myself, where I can have these really great relationships and work closely with people, but still have that distance. I feel like I’m in a place now where I can be close to you and collaborative with you, but I don’t get as emotionally attached.

Q. You’ve touched on this theme a couple of times, that you take things less personally.

A. It comes from taking things super-personally and being upset, and then getting over it and realizing that I did it to myself. People have asked me, if I’m speaking somewhere: “What’s the biggest obstacle you’ve ever overcome? And how did you do it?” My biggest obstacle is myself — being afraid, being nervous. So it’s hard sometimes to get past yourself, to just get over yourself.

And what I’ve learned, as the company has changed and different management people come and go, is that the thing that’s constant is me. I can’t control how many people come and go, necessarily. I can’t control the economy. I can’t control what beauty buyers are going to want tomorrow versus what they want today. But what I can control is me, and how I react to it and how I respond to it.

So I try not to get so caught up in what people think of me, or what someone is going to say. It still rears its ugly head every now and then. But I am my biggest obstacle, and I’m learning to get around myself and over myself and through myself. And it’s a great learning process.

One of the things that this business has taught me is that it’s made me a person I never thought I’d be. I was very much a perfectionist. And I did not like the idea of being a jack of all trades. I had to be a master of one. And I’ve learned how to do a lot of things and be O.K. with not doing all of them very well. Some things I do very well, and some things I’m not so good at. And I’ve learned that from being an entrepreneur, because I was not like that before, at all.

Q. What’s your best career advice?

A. Be open. Your way is not necessarily the only way or the right way. But while you’re open, be assertive. Because I feel like I wasn’t as assertive as I could have been in my earlier years, and I did what other people told me to do. It’s only now that I’m learning to be more assertive. So I think it’s important to find that balance between being open and listening, but also not letting someone bulldoze you into doing what they want to do.

It’s an interesting line that you have to follow. It takes a certain amount of assertiveness, but it also takes a willingness to see how the process works, and not assert your opinion into it, in order to observe and become a part of what’s going on. So it’s just finding that balance. I think you can learn a lot more that way."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/business/22corner.html

Is Your Culture Too Nice?; Harvard Business Review, 8/24/10

Ron Ashkenas, Harvard Business Review; Is Your Culture Too Nice?:

"There is no easy formula for learning how to engage more effectively in constructive conflict. But here are three suggestions that may help you move in that direction..."

http://blogs.hbr.org/ashkenas/2010/08/is-your-culture-too-nice.html

Steve Jobs's Disastrous iPhone 4 Press Conference; Harvard Business Review, 7/19/10

Nick Morgan, Harvard Business Review; Steve Jobs's Disastrous iPhone 4 Press Conference:

"I watched with growing dismay and disbelief as Steve Jobs struggled through his press conference last week about the iPhone 4 dropped calls. Jobs has a rightly earned reputation as a remarkable communicator; indeed there has been at least one book written about his presentation style as something worthy of emulation. But his usual elegant combination of enthusiasm and sang-froid deserted him at Friday's press conference. Jobs was defensive, angry, and ultimately ineffective. It's a classic example of how not to conduct public relations.

Jobs usually comes out beaming and full of enthusiasm for a new product or update. His body language reflects that enthusiasm; he's open, gestures comfortably with his hands, and makes a good connection with his audience.

Today, he was deep in his own personal maelstrom of defensiveness and hostility. His head was frequently down; in fact his whole posture betrayed his unhappiness. He frequently hid his hands behind his back — a classic defensive posture — when he wasn't clasping them in front of his stomach (another defensive posture).

He began by showing a long demo whose sole purpose seemed to be to demonstrate that other smart phones drop calls too. This is akin to defending yourself by saying, "Yeah, well, Jimmy stole cookies from the cookie jar, too!" In other words, it's no defense at all, and it looks nasty, dragging everyone else into the mire with you.

Saying, "We're not perfect; smart phones aren't perfect," repeatedly, Jobs added a kind of surly repetitiveness to his defensiveness.

Then he got into the data, which in fact shows that not many people are complaining about the iPhone 4, and it's not dropping many more calls than the 3GS. But his tone was angry and defensive, so his argument sounded petulant rather than contrite.

When a company wants to put out a PR fire, the only way to do it is to humbly acknowledge whatever mistakes happened and offer to do something concrete about it to see that it stops or it won't happen again. Jobs' attitude throughout was, as he said about 10 minutes in, that the whole thing was "blown out of proportion." That won't win back the customers whose calls were dropped, and it won't satisfy the press.

Transparency is the key for all PR blunders, but transparency without attitude. Unfortunately, Jobs had attitude oozing from every pore. So much so that when he said, "We care about every user," he sounded like he didn't mean it. Putting his hands behind his back at that precise moment didn't help either.

So pervasive was his anger that it colored the best moment in the news conference, when he announced that every iPhone 4 user was going to get a free case to solve the antenna-dropped calls problem. That should have initiated the beginning of the end of the PR fiasco, because it was the right thing to do: take action to repair the damage in a way that brings some benefit to the customer. But the way Jobs handled it sounded grudging. He said that Consumer Reports suggested Apple should "just give everyone a free case - so we are." His tone was close to a snarl.

Jobs ended on stronger ground, talking about his — and Apple's — passion for delighting their customers. Here he was on a happier plane, and he managed to sound more convincing, if still a little grumpy.

Jobs is Apple's spokesperson, and he usually does a terrific job. But in this case, his anger and his defensiveness got the better of him. Apple is now a dominant player in the consumer technology market and it can't afford this kind of ham-fisted performance. Jobs should remove himself from the lineup and let someone else take over. Or he should get over himself and cheer up. But Friday's press conference was not good corporate PR.

Nick Morgan is President of Public Words Inc, a communications consulting firm, and author of Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma."

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/07/steve_jobss_disastrous_iphone.html

Corner Office, Interview with Aaron Levie, co-founder and C.E.O. of Box.net, an online file storage company; New York Times, 7/25/10

Adam Bryant, Corner Office, New York Times; Interview with Aaron Levie, co-founder and C.E.O. of Box.net, an online file storage company: Always Keep a Few Tricks Up Your Sleeve:

"Q. Talk about the culture of your company.

A. Everyone has a start-up mentality still, and we’re small enough where you get the right kind of energy and dedication, so everyone feels really a part of what we’re doing. People are able to question each other about strategies, whether they’re in marketing, engineering or product.

We try to keep it fairly low on hierarchy. Everyone is encouraged to be entrepreneurial and people tend to be extremely passionate, but it’s not about taking credit or being arrogant about what we’re doing.

We’ve been able to do away with just a lot of the corporate kind of things that I think slow down organizations and don’t result in productive behavior, and instead we’ve been able to get a lot of people focused on really having a good time, which helps us stay fast and innovative. And I think that ultimately is the only reason that people even want to go to work or want to stay in business — to have a good time while collaborating to accomplish a big vision.

Q. So what are some specifics?

A. We had our first ever “hackathon” at Box a few months ago. The engineering team pulled an all-nighter, from 8 p.m. until noon the next day, on projects outside their daily job description.

We then had a judging panel at lunch, and the entire company got to watch the engineers present some amazing new features. It was fun and people goofed off but it was also really inspiring, and I think it brought the whole group together.

Q. What were some important leadership lessons for you?

A. In middle school, I did magic shows. It actually applies to what I’m doing now because it’s all about getting in front of people and telling a story, something that people buy into that is hopefully entertaining. It’s all about capturing people’s imaginations and getting them excited about what’s possible.

Q. What about as a C.E.O.?

A. I think a big jump was to managing or helping the managers of the people doing most of the hands-on work on projects — being one degree away from the action and figuring out and understanding what that means in terms of leadership.

Q. And what does that mean?

A. As much as I would love to be involved in every single decision that gets made in the organization, not only is that not scalable, it’s also not leveraging or capitalizing on the amazing experience of the people that we have on the team. It’s really hard to let the details go. Every sort of decision is really interesting. So you come up with a big goal, and hopefully everyone comes together to figure out how to accomplish it.

Q. Talk more about that process.

A. I’ve made some mistakes in terms of getting involved at the wrong level of the problem or the wrong time. I’ll think I’m speeding things up by saying, “Oh, let’s just solve it that way,” but then it turns out I’m slowing things down because I’m breaking a healthy system that’s emerging.

Q. Let’s talk about hiring.

A. One thing that’s really important is understanding what they’ve done in their career. Just walk me through how you got to where you are today. What are the factors that led to specific decisions — that can give you a level of insight into behavior and how they make decisions. One thing that I’m asking now is to talk about a project or job — “What could you have done differently to do that bigger or get more revenue or execute better?” You see if they can look back on their decisions and find out where they could have improved.

Energy and persistence are the two most important factors, in addition to just having a clean résumé where there’s nothing crazy going on. In a business like ours, we have to be super, super competitive, and we have to be able to get people who are going to be persistent and relentless and have a level of energy that gets them through challenging things.

Curiosity is another big thing and a way to identify who’s going to be energetic and have the right attitude. Sometimes the best people are the ones who are very curious about our business model, how we’re going to grow. They actually care a lot about us as a company; that’s actually been a pretty good way to find people who are going to be really dedicated to the business.

And ultimately, we’re looking to hire people who can adapt to what a role might become, not just what it is today. When you’re at a start-up, things move and scale very quickly, and you want to hire people who can grow with the company and into roles that expand beyond the job description they were hired for.

Q. If you could ask a job candidate just a few questions, what would they be?

A. “What questions do you have for me?” That will help you see how they’re thinking about the challenges. A lot of times I’ll say, “When you’re thinking about Box as an opportunity, how do you compare it to other organizations? What do we have that you want to be a part of?” Getting them to articulate the values back to you about what kind of organization they want to be a part of can actually be very useful.

Q. What advice would you give to somebody who’s about to become a C.E.O.?

A. I think people are always able to achieve more than they think they can. While that’s cliché, I don’t know if managers think about that enough. You have to set your sights extremely high.
We often go through a process of thinking about the best way to execute on something, whether it’s a product launch or a sales strategy, then come back again after a day or two and figure out how can we do this even bigger or better. It often leads to better decisions and ideas.

It’s also important to know where your gaps are and what resources you need. So, one thing that I often do with my co-founder is to look at the organization and figure out what we’re missing, where our gaps are, where our weaknesses are, and then how do we solve for those things. We know our strengths, and sometimes it’s important to look at your strengths. That way, you sort of continue to push on those and invest in those areas. But it’s really important that you constantly know why you wouldn’t succeed, and what you need to do to change that.

Feedback is really critical, too. The day you notice there are challenges or issues, you get involved — don’t let things boil up.

I think bad politics are incredibly dangerous, so it’s important to make sure that people are communicating well. Culture and morale are super important. It’s best to not force it, but let it happen organically and genuinely. It certainly helps if you know a couple magic tricks, but if you don’t, then there are other things you can do.

Q. Given your experience with magic, I take it you’re comfortable in front of a crowd. What was the biggest crowd you played to?

A. Probably about 400 people. It was a corporate event. I did corporate parties and stuff when I was 11 or 12 years old.

Q. How much did you charge?

A. About $300. We’re making more money now, so I’m very happy about that."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/business/25corner.html?pagewanted=2

12 Things Good Bosses Believe; Harvard Business Review, 5/28/10

Robert Sutton, Harvard Business Review; 12 Things Good Bosses Believe:

"What makes a boss great? It's a question I've been researching for a while now. In June 2009, I offered some analysis in HBR on the subject, and more recently I've been hard at work on a book called Good Boss, Bad Boss (forthcoming in September from Business Plus).

In both cases, my approach has been to be as evidence-based as possible. That is, I avoid giving any advice that isn't rooted in real proof of efficacy; I want to pass along the techniques and behaviors that are grounded in sound research. It seems to me that, by adopting the habits of good bosses and shunning the sins of bad bosses, anyone can do a better job overseeing the work of others.

At the same time, I've come to conclude that all the technique and behavior coaching in the world won't make a boss great if that boss doesn't also have a certain mindset. My readings of peer-reviewed studies, plus my more idiosyncratic experience studying and consulting to managers in many settings, have led me identify some key beliefs that are held by the best bosses — and rejected, or more often simply never even thought about, by the worst bosses. Here they are, presented as a neat dozen:

1. I have a flawed and incomplete understanding of what it feels like to work for me.

2. My success — and that of my people — depends largely on being the master of obvious and mundane things, not on magical, obscure, or breakthrough ideas or methods.

3. Having ambitious and well-defined goals is important, but it is useless to think about them much. My job is to focus on the small wins that enable my people to make a little progress every day.

4. One of the most important, and most difficult, parts of my job is to strike the delicate balance between being too assertive and not assertive enough.

5. My job is to serve as a human shield, to protect my people from external intrusions, distractions, and idiocy of every stripe — and to avoid imposing my own idiocy on them as well.

6. I strive to be confident enough to convince people that I am in charge, but humble enough to realize that I am often going to be wrong.

7. I aim to fight as if I am right, and listen as if I am wrong — and to teach my people to do the same thing.

8. One of the best tests of my leadership — and my organization — is "what happens after people make a mistake?"

9. Innovation is crucial to every team and organization. So my job is to encourage my people to generate and test all kinds of new ideas. But it is also my job to help them kill off all the bad ideas we generate, and most of the good ideas, too.

10. Bad is stronger than good. It is more important to eliminate the negative than to accentuate the positive.

11. How I do things is as important as what I do.

12. Because I wield power over others, I am at great risk of acting like an insensitive jerk — and not realizing it.

What do you say: does that about cover it? If not, tell me what I missed. Or if you're not quite sure what I mean in these brief statements, stay tuned. Over the coming weeks, I'll be digging into each one of them in more depth, touching on the research evidence and illustrating with examples.

If you're like most people I meet, you've had your share of bad bosses — and probably at least one good one. What were the attitudes the good one held? And what great, workplace-transforming beliefs could your worst boss never quite embrace?"

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/05/12_things_that_good_bosses_bel.html

How to Prevent Hiring Disasters; Harvard Business Review, 5/27/10

Amy Gallo, Harvard Business Review; How to Prevent Hiring Disasters:

"Hiring someone can be a time-consuming and nerve-wracking task. In an ideal situation, you find the perfect person for the position — someone who hits the ground running, increases your unit's performance, and eases your workload. In the worst-case scenario, your seemingly perfect hire turns out to be far from it and you spend months dealing with the aftermath, including finding a replacement. Either way, it can feel like a referendum on your judgment. So how can you be sure your experience is more like the former than the latter? If you outline and adhere to a disciplined process, you can greatly improve your chances.

What the Experts Say
Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, a senior adviser at Egon Zehnder International and the author of Great People Decisions and "The Definitive Guide to Recruiting in Good Times and Bad," argues that hiring decisions are pressure-filled for a reason. "It is crucial to get hiring right not only for the hiring entity, but also, and very importantly, for the person being hired," he says. A new hire isn't to blame for a bad hiring decision, but will shoulder much of the burden when a role doesn't fit.

A carefully crafted hiring process can help avoid most mishaps. Adele Lynn, founder and owner of The Adele Lynn Leadership Group and author of The EQ Interview, urges that companies regard hiring as more of a science than an art, or worse a leap of faith.

Prevention is the best medicine
You can greatly reduce your chances of getting hiring decisions wrong by following a clear and consistent approach that includes knowing the traits valued across the organization (such as humility or an entrepreneurial spirit); conducting fair, structured interviews that include multiple people from the organization; and agreeing on a standard ranking system to evaluate candidates.

Getting the right person for the job requires time and discipline. Be careful of the time trap, warns Lynn. "Often, companies are desperate to fill a position, so the interview process includes some generic questions and some information about the position," she says. Needing to fill the role yesterday is not an excuse for shortchanging the process.

Know the specific competencies you're looking for
Fernández-Aráoz says we are hardwired to hire people who are like us or make us comfortable — but that does not always yield the best candidate. In fact, you need to be aware of what he calls the "typical unconscious psychological traps" that lead one to make inferior people decisions (e.g. overrating capability or making snap judgments). Outline the specific competencies — above and beyond the traits you look for in all new hires — that the ideal candidate needs. What skills are required? How much does experience matter? What behaviors does he need to exhibit in the role? For example, this is a role requiring 7 years of computer programming experience but also an ability to work collaboratively with team members on high-pressure projects.

Screening for the right soft skills is critical. Seasoned hiring managers will tell you that it's much harder to coach behavioral issues than it is to teach someone the technical aspects of the job.

"And people who fail in a new job mostly do so because of their inability to develop proper relationships not only with their boss but also with their peers and subordinates," says Fernández-Aráoz. To assess relational skills and emotional intelligence, "the interview should include behavior-based questions and motive and reflection questions," says Lynn. For example, "Tell me about a time you had a conflict with a co-worker and explain how you resolved it." The aim is to uncover the candidate's true colors. Does he blame others for his mistakes? Does he rationalize his behavior? Or does he accept responsibility? "You get a much more thorough understanding of how a person will behave in the future," says Lynn.

On-board with care
When a new hire seems to be struggling, on-boarding can also be to blame. "Most companies let their new hires sink or swim, and as a result many sink. Some form of integration support reduces the chances of failure, accelerates learning, and increases the contribution of any new hire," says Fernández-Aráoz. The right onboarding approach can help you get immediate value from your new hire and position her for success. But perhaps the most important element is expectation-setting. "Especially with knowledge workers and younger workers, there is a strong need to communicate both expectations of performance and behavior," explains Lynn.

When it happens anyway...
Sometimes even when you follow all the rules, you may still end up with the wrong person in the job. When you suspect a poor fit, proceed carefully. Start by asking others to corroborate your opinion. Don't start a witch hunt, but discreetly ask if they see the situation in the same way. Then, once you've identified where the mismatch is, ask yourself if the problem is coachable "People are ineffective for many reasons and some of those reasons are definitely correctable," says Lynn.

"Unless it's an egregious breach of values, generally coaching and reiterating behaviors and performance expectations should be the first step." Provide feedback to the new hire early on and lay out a plan for getting her up to speed in the problem areas. If the issues persist, consider finding a more appropriate role for her in your organization.

In the worst cases, termination may be your only option, particularly if you find that the problem is not coachable, if you are unwilling to further invest in coaching, or if the error or behavior is intolerable. It should be your last resort, however. "Most likely as the hiring manager you have a large share of responsibility for the mistake, and thus should never fire a person without thoughtful consideration," says Fernández-Aráoz. If you have to let someone go, take a hard look at the hiring process you used and figure out how to change it next time around.

Principles to Remember

Do:

Identify the competencies an ideal candidate needs

Ask interview questions that uncover the drivers behind the candidate's past and future behavior

Give the new hire early feedback about her performance

Don't:

Prioritize technical skills over relational ones

Assume you've made a bad hire without checking your perception with others

Immediately move to termination, without first considering coaching or transferring"

http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2010/05/how-to-prevent-hiring-disaster.html

Steinbrenner: The Boss Unbound; New York Times, 7/18/10

Benedict Carey, New York Times; Steinbrenner: The Boss Unbound:

"Even the most devotional hymns to George Steinbrenner, the Yankee’s principal owner, who died last week at age 80, aired the man’s sturm and his drang, his outbursts of pettiness and tyranny. That was George: hated to lose; loved to compete; needed to be on top of the mountain.
And yet it was such a sizable mountain — enough cash to ransack the free-agent market year in and out, enough to carry fantastically overpaid underperformers (Carl Pavano, Kevin Brown) — that the baby-Zeus routine seemed unnecessary. Mr. Steinbrenner’s idol, Patton, was a man of the battlefield, after all, not the baseball field or the owner’s box.

Couldn’t a driven, but lower-key owner have done just as much in the same position? For that matter, couldn’t someone (his son Hank, perhaps?) have parked the Boss in management training for a week or two? No one wants a wimp, but old-fashioned bluster seems nothing if not old fashioned: there must be a better way.

Yet recent research on status and power suggests that brashness, entitlement and ego are essential components for any competent leader, the precursor to ascent and its spoils; they are the traits that provide the seedbed for risk-taking and a soft place to land when some of those risks go wrong. Yes, there are reasons to be an impatient, over-the-top boss — to a point.

For all their professed suspicion of authority, people crave hierarchy and tend to cede authority precisely to those individuals who want to take the reins. In studies of group behavior, it is usually the overconfident, outspoken individuals who take on leadership roles.

And sure enough, the experience of attaining it amplifies the very traits that started people climbing in the first place. People given authority, even in artificial role-playing experiments, become less compassionate by some measures, and even less able to read emotions in the faces of other people. Just the perception of having power raises people’s confidence, and heightens sense of control over events beyond their influence — like the roll of dice, for instance, in one study.

“When you’re in power, and want to stay there, you are not free to be yourself; you are expected to live up to your role as a dominant decisive, absolute authority — and to internalize it, to drink your own Kool-Aid,” said Jennifer Overbeck, a psychologist at the University of Southern California. “It’s very hard to have to act out that role and keep some part of yourself separate.”

Mr. Steinbrenner appeared dumbfounded at times, for instance, when the Yankees could not sign the free-agent players he wanted.

“The illusion of control comes in part from this finding that when they’re in a position of power, people are much more influenced by ideas in their own head,” and less likely to consider counsel from others, said Deborah Gruenfeld, a psychologist at Stanford.

One reason for this bias — and perhaps the most striking recent finding from the study of power — is that leaders who make tough calls from their gut come across not only as more decisive than those who deliberate, but more morally assured. In a series of ongoing studies, presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology meeting earlier this year, Dr. Overbeck found that participants choosing a leader gravitated toward those who made quick decisions in moral dilemmas.

“We don’t know whether this is because people believe that these preferred leaders really do have a superior set of moral rules, or that there’s something else going on,” Dr. Overbeck said.
Either way, this sort of dynamic does not elicit humility. As a rule, people tend to rate themselves as more virtuous than the next guy, a finding psychologists call the holier-than-thou effect. When approving employees or underlings agree, there’s a risk of creating a holiest-of-thou monster.

That’s why, in the end, the most effective leaders find a way to mix some patience with their Patton, to persuade rather than intimidate, to convince people that their goals are the same as the boss’s. Such “soft” skills don’t necessarily come naturally to a people who have spent most of their life in an escalating fever of self-approval and moral superiority.

But come they sometimes do. Last week, old hands in the Yankee organization, including the former manager Gene Michael, remarked that the Boss of the 1990s was a different man than he was in the 1980s, when he was continually firing managers, insulting players and digging up dirt on Dave Winfield — a stunt that got him temporarily banned from baseball.

The man who returned had more patience and, over time, less need for public displays of anger. And in 1996, after an 18-year drought, his teams started winning championships again.

“He still gave off that passion in later years, still had that confidence, that ability to motivate and inspire people,” said Adam Galinsky, a psychologist at Northwestern University and a longtime Yankee fan. “But he allowed his baseball people more leeway, and only then did the team succeed. When he was at his most intimidating — that long period with no success, all those years with Don Mattingly — that’s exactly when the team suffered most.”"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/weekinreview/18carey.html?scp=4&sq=steinbrenner&st=cse

Corner Office, Interview with Dawn Lepore, chairwoman and chief executive of Drugstore.com; New York Times, 7/18/10

Adam Bryant, Corner Office, New York Times; Interview with Dawn Lepore, chairwoman and chief executive of Drugstore.com: Never Duck the Tough Questions:

"Q. Do you remember the first time you were somebody’s boss?

A. I was hired at Schwab in 1983 to be the manager of the information center. The person who wanted the job was way more technical than me, and that was the reason he didn’t get the job. He was in love with the technology — I wasn’t. He was not happy about having me come in over him. And he said, O.K., you’re so smart — let’s see you do it.

Those were the days when the computers were shipped in, and they were not all put together. So you’d get these little chips, and you have to put them in the motherboard. And so he said, “Well, there’s a shipment here for you.”

So I go to the dock and there are all these boxes with computers in them. I put together 30 computers. After the guy saw me do that, at least I had a little bit of his respect, and we went on to have an O.K. relationship.

Q. What was the lesson for you?

A. Every time you take on a new role, building credibility is incredibly important. I don’t think you do it by being smarter than everybody else or knowing more necessarily than everybody else. I think you do it by rolling up your sleeves, by showing commitment, by proving that you’re willing to learn, by asking for help.

All those things earn you credibility, especially if the people who work for you feel like you’re not going to sit back and take credit for what they do, and if they get a sense that you’re going to support them, help them grow.

Q. Other key moments like that?

A. My biggest promotion was moving into the head technology role at Schwab. It’s an important job at Schwab; it reports to the C.E.O. I was 39, and it was very unusual to be a woman running technology. I remember the person who promoted me said that he had several board members call him and say: “Why did you do that? That was a really dumb decision, putting a woman in charge of technology.”

Q. Just because you were a woman?

A. There were no women C.I.O.’s back then. And I don’t have an M.B.A.; I didn’t have a computer science degree. I have a music major. It’s a very unusual profile to be in that position. The reason I got the job was that I took on really tough assignments, things nobody wanted, things that people thought were kind of impossible or thankless tasks. So I proved that I could take on things I didn’t know, and learn. I was willing to take risks, and I’ve always been a good synthesizer. And I was good at building relationships across the company.

Q. So how did the transition go?

A. The first year or 18 months were rough. I found out later that people were calling me the Ice Queen. And I was devastated. But it’s because I felt like I had to be perfect — I couldn’t show any vulnerability.

I had a boss at the time who called me and said: “You know, I really believe in you. I gave you this job, I want you in this job, I really believe in you. You have to get better, though. You have to hire a coach, you have to improve, here are the things you have to do.”

But just having him tell me, I really believe in you, I want you in this job, it made me relax. It was like, O.K., I’m not going to get fired. He’s going to give me a chance to learn on the job and so now I’m going to be a little bit more open and be willing to ask for help.

Q. What other feedback did you get?

A. So, I’m incredibly intuitive. As the technology was evolving and the business was evolving, it was very intuitive to me what we needed to do. But I was not very good about putting that into words. And so people wanted to know, where are we going? And I was absolutely convinced that it was going to be fine and we were going to figure it out.

I’m very comfortable with ambiguity. But when you’re leading a large organization, people are not as comfortable with ambiguity and they want you to be clearer about what’s happening, where you’re taking them. So I had to get better at communicating what I was thinking.

We went through a big organizational change, too. We had to lay some people off, we changed the skills, we did a whole skills review because this was moving from old technology to new technology. And so the morale got pretty low. And I would have employee meetings, and they could give me questions anonymously, and I promised them I would read them and answer any question. And there were some pretty ugly questions, like, “Who do you think you are to lead?”

I read every one, and I answered every one, and I stood up in front of the whole group and I did it. So I think over time, they saw I wasn’t going away, I was going to stick, and then we started to get big wins. Getting some wins always helps you as a leader.

Q. That was a risky step to answer those anonymous questions.

A. I’ve always felt that you have to be transparent as a leader and that you have to be willing to take criticism openly. The worst thing you can do is have people with stuff on their minds that they won’t tell you. I think that’s the kiss of death as a leader. And if you’re leading an organization, you want people’s energy going into the competition, solving big problems; you don’t want it going to what’s bothering them inside.

And people make assumptions — they see little pieces of data and they put something together and they come up with one and one equals six. They don’t have the context. And nine times out of 10, if somebody asks you the question and you give them the context they say, “Oh, now I understand why you did what you did.”

Q. What were the most important leadership lessons for you?

A. My strong beliefs are about commitment, loyalty and taking on hard things. And I’m not quite sure where that came from. When I majored in music in college, I still remember people telling me I wasn’t really talented enough to major in music. But there was a piece of me that just felt like, if you tell me I can’t do something, that’s what I want to go do. And I had to work three times as hard as anybody else, and practice three times as long, just to be able to give the same recital that somebody else was able to give. It’s really important to me to take on things that I thought I couldn’t do and prove to myself and to others that I could do them.

Q. Any bosses you had who were big influences?

A. I had a very bad boss early in my career. She was older than I was. She’d started in the financial services industry and she’d had a very hard time, so I think that probably shaped her as a leader. She was very smart but had terrible communication skills. She did not make people feel valued or comfortable or like they were supported at all. And I remember what that felt like. And I thought, I’m never going to do that to people.

Q. How long did you work for her?

A. Many years. I almost left twice.

Q. What’s your advice to people stuck working for a bad boss?

A. Life is about trade-offs. And you have to be conscious of the trade-off you’re making. I felt there were enough other positives in the environment and enough opportunity that I stuck it out. But, you know, I was unhappy. I had to kind of just take a deep breath and say, O.K., I know this is going to end and I’m willing to put up with this.

But you can’t be a victim. If you let yourself become a victim, that’s the kiss of death. So you’ve got to feel, O.K., I am choosing to do this, and when I decide I can no longer do it, then I will take action. So I will not let myself be so belittled that I think I can’t do anything. If it starts undermining your confidence, then you have to leave, because then that seeps into everything you do.

Q. Who else influenced your leadership style?

A. When I became the C.I.O. at Schwab, I had the benefit of being able to interact with a lot of technology C.E.O.’s, because they would come to sell to me. So I got to meet with Scott McNealy, Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, John Chambers and others. And I would always say to them, let’s talk about your product, but I’d really love to hear more about your company, your culture, your leadership. So I really picked their brains.

I learned something from every single one of them. And I’ve served on a bunch of different boards, and I’ve had an opportunity to just learn from the C.E.O. of the company as well as all the other board members.

Q. Let’s talk about hiring.

A. I’m a very intuitive interviewer, so I want to get to know people. I always ask them to tell me their background. I can read it on the résumé, but I always want them to describe their background to me, because it’s interesting to see what people choose to tell you about themselves, how they describe the moves they’ve made, the changes they’ve made.

I’m looking for intellect, I’m looking for experience level, I’m looking for cultural fit, which is hard to describe. It’s more of a soft thing. And then I am looking for this whole commitment thing. Are they willing to stick it out during hard things? How have they handled setbacks? How have they handled tough times? If you ask them about things they’re most proud of, are they things they’ve done themselves or are they things where they’ve helped a team do more than they ever thought they could?

Q. Anything unusual about the way you run meetings?

A. We have a little joke where I’ll tell people, a light bulb or a gun. A light bulb means this is just an idea I had, so think about it, see if you think it’s a good one. Either follow up or don’t, but it’s just an idea. A gun is, I want you to do this. People don’t always know if you mean something as just as an idea, or you want them to go do it."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/business/18corner.html?pagewanted=2&ref=business

Corner Office, Interview with Dan Rosensweig, president and chief executive of Chegg; New York Times, 7/11/10

Adam Bryant, Corner Office, New York Times; Interview with Dan Rosensweig, president and chief executive of Chegg: [Chegg rents textbooks online and by mail.]: Remember to Thank Your Star Players:

"Q. Let’s talk about hiring. What do you look for? What questions do you ask?

A. By the time they get to me, they’ve been vetted in enough ways that I know functionally they should be able to do the job. So I spend a lot of my time doing two things. I ask them very few questions, mostly around, how do they approach a situation? How do they personally define success for themselves? What do they want for this company? What attracts them here? What do they need to be successful? How do they want to be managed? And then a lot of the conversation stems from there.

And then I really turn it over to them and say: What questions do you have? What do you think you need to know to decide whether this is the right environment for you? Whether we can utilize the talents you bring to bear? Whether we are the right place at this moment in your career? And that dialogue generally leads to a really great outcome.

Q. What are the most important qualities you’re looking for?

A. One is attitude. Some people spend a lot of time focusing on how difficult things are. You don’t get jobs like these unless the situations are difficult. So I like to hear people talk about how they love to approach a challenge, and that’s the thing that gets them excited.

I’m also looking for people who appreciate the fact that the definition of success is the company and not an individual. I’m looking for people who can communicate. I mean, quite frankly, most of the things that break down when you are running a business are transparency and communication. If you have people who are reluctant to share information with their peers, particularly in a very small company, it’s not a healthy dynamic.

And I look for people who generally, as I said earlier, think big, want to achieve big, aren’t afraid. They have that level of humility to know it’s entirely possible we may not succeed, but, man, it’s worth trying.

Q. And if you could ask somebody only one or two questions in a job interview, what would you ask?

A. What matters to you in your professional career in the next five years? And the second would be, what do you think you need to be successful in that goal?

Q. What about feedback? What’s your approach to difficult conversations?

A. I have found in my career that once you know that someone isn’t doing the things that they need to do or they are not going to be successful, then every day you wait it’s really your fault rather than theirs. And the first thing I ask is, did I ask somebody to do something that they weren’t capable of doing?

There’s nothing worse than somebody you like and respect doing something you know they can’t be successful in and knowing that you were the one that did that to them. I try very hard to understand, before I approach the person, why they may not be successful in that particular role. Because, normally, the people I work with have been extremely successful in their careers, so the expectation is that they are going to be successful.

But the longer you wait, the worse it gets. Very few problems correct themselves. And the philosophy of sticking your head in the sand and hoping it goes away has never been that effective for me. So you sit down and have an honest conversation. I think people respect honesty without attitude.

Q. And what about getting feedback?

A. I ask employees, “If you had my job, other than giving yourself more vacation and a raise, what’s the first thing that you would do that you don’t think we’re doing yet?” I try to make it comfortable when you do the review process by asking people: What do you need more of from me? What do you need less of from me? What is it that I’m doing that you would like me to stop doing completely? And what is it that I’m not doing enough of that you’d like some more of? From there, it becomes a much more comfortable conversation."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/business/11corner.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

Podcast, Annual Job Review Is 'Total Baloney,' Expert Says"; NPR, 7/8/10

Podcast [4 min. 2 sec.], NPR; "Annual Job Review Is 'Total Baloney,' Expert Says":

"Employee performance reviews should be eliminated, according to UCLA business professor Samuel Culbert. "First, they're dishonest and fraudulent. And second, they're just plain bad management," he says.

The problem with the practice, Culbert tells NPR's Renee Montagne, is that periodic reviews create circumstances that help neither the employee nor the company to improve. As Culbert and his co-author, Larry Rout, write in their book, Get Rid of the Performance Review! annual reviews do not promote candid discussions about problems in the workplace — and their potential solutions.

Instead, Culbert says, when workers undergo a review, "They're going to talk about all their successes — it becomes total baloney."

And management participates in the charade, as well, he says: "The boss already has heard [from] his boss what they want to pay the guy, or the woman. So they come up with a review that's all backwards."

The process can frustrate employees, who may have a lot at stake — from a raise or promotion to the general arc of their career. And at the least, they want their contributions and talents to be recognized. Rather than using performance reviews, Culbert suggests that management "just tell the employee what he or she needs to do to become more effective."

Culbert's book sprang from an article he wrote for The Wall Street Journal in 2008, which sparked a large response from readers.

Asked if performance reviews might be tweaked instead of eliminated outright — for instance, a manager might use statistics to measure an employee's effectiveness — Culbert says that one-dimensional measurements can bring a new set of problems.

"Once you set up the metrics, that's the only focus for the employee," Culbert says. "The problem with performance reviews is that the metric that counts most for the employee is the boss's opinion. So the employee starts doing what he or she thinks is going to score in the boss's mind, and not even talk about what he or she believes is necessary for the company to get the results that really matter."

For anyone who would like to gauge where they stand on the annual review issue, Culbert and Rout have posted a test on their site, with the slightly biased title of How Much Do You Hate Performance Reviews?"

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128362511&ps=cprs

Podcast: "Coach: Good Managers Appreciate Others' Genius"; NPR, 7/9/10

Podcast [3 min. 22 sec.], NPR; "Coach: Good Managers Appreciate Others' Genius":

http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=128401148&m=128401114