Whoa: Microsoft Word is illegal

RealNetworks wasn't the only company that got slapped with bad news from the courts yesterday. Microsoft was also the suddenly-announced loser in ajavascript:void(0) long-running case that could potentially have far more serious consequences for the average reader of this blog.

Specifically: Microsoft was issued a permanent injunction against selling Microsoft Word products due to a patent infringement dispute with a Canadian company called i4i. That means that, according to the ruling, Microsoft is required to stop selling Word within 60 days -- plus pay $290 million in damages to i4i for copies it has already sold.

The spat involves Microsoft's use of XML, which became a default file system beginning with Word 2007 and the new ".docx" format that it uses. i4i has a patent over the use of XML as it relates to Microsoft Word -- granted way back in 1998 -- and naturally it sued Microsoft in 2007 after the company began offering a similar feature out of the box. ANd sure enough, the court said that Microsoft's implementation of XML violated i4i's patent.

And that's that. Microsoft says it's disappointed, that it will appeal, and that i4i's patent is invalid. i4i is probably giddy with the possibility of getting a fat check from the company.

Realistically, though, Microsoft will undoubtedly do everything in its power to avoid paying the judgment as issued. Instead it will of course resort to endless legal tactics to stay the ruling against it while it most likely negotiates with i4i to work out some sort of licensing arrangement. The legal verdict against the company doesn't help Microsoft's position, but it's been in far worse straits before: Remember, this is a company that was once ordered to split into two separate pieces, and we all know how that turned out.

Will Microsoft Word really vanish from the market any time in the near future? Seriously: If it does, I'll eat this blog post.

cyberspace buzz

for the past 2 months the cyberspace have been buzzing with activities which include launches and announcements that are "to change the way we work on internet or use computers or compute"!!

first was the announcement of wolfram which was touted as the google killer
but after it came out is now as a different and structured way of searching

then was google's answer to wolfram - google squared

soon was the launch of bing, microsoft relaunch of ms windows live search which came from msn search

and yesterday it was officially reported that google is working on a operating system called chrome which may have a different approach towards operating systems.

Schools Cancel GMAT Scores

Top U.S. business schools canceled the admissions-test scores of 84 applicants and students -- including two enrolled at the University of Chicago and one who has graduated from Stanford University -- who allegedly supplied or accessed live exam questions posted on a Web site.

In June, the Graduate Management Admission Council, which represents the business schools and oversees the GMAT admissions test, obtained a federal court order that shut down the Web site Scoretop.com and won a $2.3 million judgment against its operator. The site had been selling questions from recent exams to subscribers who paid a $30-a-month subscription. The operator of the Web site, believed to be in China, didn't defend itself in court, and it wasn't known where any representatives could be reached.

The latest episode has rattled the schools, and it comes as they have been trying to increase security.

The business-school council recently announced that it would require those taking the GMAT to undergo a "palm vein" scan, which takes an infrared picture of the blood coursing through their hands. Officials said it was designed to wipe out "proxy" test taking, in which applicants hire high-scoring imposters to take the exam for them. Previously, the administrator had used digital fingerprinting. Five years ago, federal authorities broke up a ring of six fraudsters who took more than 590 exams, including GMATs, for customers who paid at least $3,000.

Donald L. McCabe, a Rutgers University professor of management, has surveyed 200,000 students over 19 years and concluded that those in business school cheat more than those in other disciplines.

Prof. McCabe said schools will have to evaluate the evidence against each student they had admitted with canceled test scores. But he said business schools have "got to do something" to protect their programs' integrity, though he suspects "some may tend to whitewash it and do something mild.'

Judy Phair, a spokeswoman for the admissions council, said a computer hard drive seized through court proceedings found 5,000 to 6,000 subscribers to the Scoretop Web site. But the group decided to cancel scores only of those "against whom we felt we have airtight cases," Ms. Phair said. In many cases, she said, it wasn't clear the students had used the service or knew that they were improperly gaining access to current questions.

Ms. Phair said her group had evidence that 12 students whose scores were canceled actually posted questions themselves. In those cases, which she said the organization considered a theft of intellectual property, the students won't be eligible to retake the test for at least three years, effectively keeping them out of business school for that period.

The other 72 students wrote a message on Scoretop confirming that they had seen items on their GMAT exams. Those students will be allowed to take the exam again. The admissions council also recently notified schools about their determination that these students had prepared improperly for the exam.

The business-school group didn't identify the students or the schools where they applied or enrolled. Representatives at several business schools said their administrators would consider penalties, including expulsion, in such cases.

Two of the students who acknowledged viewing live questions -- but not the more serious category of posting the questions themselves -- are currently enrolled at the University of Chicago's business school, said Rosemaria Martinelli, the school's associate dean for student recruitment and admissions. Ms. Martinelli said Chicago is considering action against the students, but "we haven't decided anything."

Stanford's business school said scores of 11 applicants had been canceled. Ten of them were denied admission, and one had already graduated. The school said it will meet with the student "to discuss this situation," Derrick Bolton, Stanford's MBA admissions director, said in a statement. If any applicant reapplies, he or she, "at minimum," will have to supply an explanation. He urged that those whose scores were canceled "might learn from the experience by reflecting on their actions and taking ownership for their errors, then sharing those explanations and insights with us."

Representatives at the business schools of Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale said they had no students enroll with the tainted test scores. In an email, Peter Winicov, a spokesman for the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, said officials were still "analyzing the situation are not yet prepared to discuss next steps."

Showing how much the scandal has shaken some in business school, Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business plans to hold an "ethics fireside chat" this month on campus to discuss the Scoretop cheating scandal, including officials from the business-school council.

About 4,000 business programs at 1,800 universities, including most top-ranked institutions, require the GMAT for admission. The business school council gives 230,000 tests annually and charges $250 for each exam.

John Hechinger
Wall Street Journal

Executive Job Market Still Healthy

Despite frequent reports of layoffs in recent months, there's good news for most senior-level job hunters.

Demand at the top of the corporate ladder is strong throughout the U.S., with the exception of some areas within financial services, said Gary Burnison, chief executive officer of Los Angeles-based Korn/Ferry International, in a recent visit to the Wall Street Journal in New York.
The recruiting and talent-management company has seen a steady flow of search assignments for management and executive positions so far this year, he said.

Hiring at the senior level is strong even though the overall economy is sour because employers have a continuous need for highly educated, skilled workers, said Mr. Burnison. "For those individuals that attended college or have advanced degrees, their earning power is two to three times those that drop out of high school," he said. "The unemployment rate is equally higher for those who did not get advanced degrees."
According to Mr. Burnison, industries with the greatest need for experienced talent are life sciences, health care and industrial manufacturing. Most executive openings are for marketing and sales, supply-chain, sustainability positions, he said. In terms of geography, demand is strong across the board other than in New York where many financial-services firms have had to significantly trim their work forces due to mortgage-related losses, he said.

For job hunters looking to get on recruiters' radars, Mr. Burnison pointed to networking as the most effective strategy. "Work that network of friends and colleagues," he advised. "Remember that jobs go to people and people don't go to jobs."

SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN

wsj.com

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005 at Stanford Univ.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Watch the video here

SHRM India Hyderabad Chapter

SHRM India is forming a Hyderabad chapter.
And a SHRM India Hyderabad Chapter group is now active on Linkedin.

You could join the group by clicking the below URL.
SHRM India Hyderabad Chapter on Linkedin

Creating a Positive Professional Image

Q&A with:	Laura Morgan Roberts
Published:	in the Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
Author:	Mallory Stark

Executive Summary:

In today’s diverse workplace, your actions and motives are constantly under scrutiny. Time to manage your own professional image before others do it for you. An interview with professor Laura Morgan Roberts.

<p>In today’s diverse workplace, your actions and motives are constantly under scrutiny. Time to manage your own professional image before others do it for you. An interview with professor <b>Laura Morgan Roberts</b>.</p>

Laura Morgan Roberts is an assistant professor in the Organizational Behavior unit at Harvard Business School.

As HBS professor Laura Morgan Roberts sees it, if you aren't managing your own professional image, others are.

"People are constantly observing your behavior and forming theories about your competence, character, and commitment, which are rapidly disseminated throughout your workplace," she says. "It is only wise to add your voice in framing others' theories about who you are and what you can accomplish."

There are plenty of books telling you how to "dress for success" and control your body language. But keeping on top of your personal traits is only part of the story of managing your professional image, says Roberts. You also belong to a social identity group—African American male, working mother—that brings its own stereotyping from the people you work with, especially in today's diverse workplaces. You can put on a suit and cut your hair to improve your appearance, but how do you manage something like skin color?

Roberts will present her research, called "Changing Faces: Professional Image Construction in Diverse Organizational Settings," in the October issue of the Academy of Management Review.

She discusses her research in this interview.

Mallory Stark: What is a professional image?

Laura Morgan Roberts: Your professional image is the set of qualities and characteristics that represent perceptions of your competence and character as judged by your key constituents (i.e., clients, superiors, subordinates, colleagues).

Q: What is the difference between "desired professional image" and "perceived professional image?"

A: It is important to distinguish between the image you want others to have of you and the image that you think people currently have of you.

Most people want to be described as technically competent, socially skilled, of strong character and integrity, and committed to your work, your team, and your company. Research shows that the most favorably regarded traits are trustworthiness, caring, humility, and capability.

Ask yourself the question: What do I want my key constituents to say about me when I'm not in the room? This description is your desired professional image. Likewise, you might ask yourself the question: What am I concerned that my key constituents might say about me when I'm not in the room? The answer to this question represents your undesired professional image.

You can never know exactly what all of your key constituents think about you, or how they would describe you when you aren't in the room. You can, however, draw inferences about your current professional image based on your interactions with key constituents. People often give you direct feedback about your persona that tells you what they think about your level of competence, character, and commitment. Other times, you may receive indirect signals about your image, through job assignments or referrals and recommendations. Taken together, these direct and indirect signals shape your perceived professional image, your best guess of how you think your key constituents perceive you.

Q: How do stereotypes affect perceived professional image?

A: In the increasingly diverse, twenty-first century workplace, people face a number of complex challenges to creating a positive professional image. They often experience a significant incongruence between their desired professional image and their perceived professional image. In short, they are not perceived in the manner they desire; instead, their undesired professional image may be more closely aligned with how their key constituents actually perceive them.

What lies at the source of this incongruence? Three types of identity threats—predicaments, devaluation, and illegitimacy—compromise key constituents' perceptions of technical competence, social competence, character, and commitment. All professionals will experience a "predicament" or event that reflects poorly on their competence, character, or commitment at some point in time, due to mistakes they have made in the past that have become public knowledge, or competency gaps (e.g., shortcomings or limitations in skill set or style).

Members of negatively stereotyped identity groups may experience an additional form of identity threat known as "devaluation." Identity devaluation occurs when negative attributions about your social identity group(s) undermine key constituents' perceptions of your competence, character, or commitment. For example, African American men are stereotyped as being less intelligent and more likely to engage in criminal behavior than Caucasian men. Asian Americans are stereotyped as technically competent, but lacking in the social skills required to lead effectively. Working mothers are stereotyped as being less committed to their profession and less loyal to their employing organizations. All of these stereotypes pose obstacles for creating a positive professional image.

Members of negatively stereotyped identity groups may experience an additional form of identity threat known as "devaluation."

Even positive stereotypes can pose a challenge for creating a positive professional image if someone is perceived as being unable to live up to favorable expectations of their social identity group(s). For example, clients may question the qualifications of a freshly minted MBA who is representing a prominent strategic consulting firm. Similarly, female medical students and residents are often mistaken for nurses or orderlies and challenged by patients who do not believe they are legitimate physicians.

Q: What is impression management and what are its potential benefits?

A: Despite the added complexity of managing stereotypes while also demonstrating competence, character, and commitment, there is promising news for creating your professional image! Impression management strategies enable you to explain predicaments, counter devaluation, and demonstrate legitimacy. People manage impressions through their non-verbal behavior (appearance, demeanor), verbal cues (vocal pitch, tone, and rate of speech, grammar and diction, disclosures), and demonstrative acts (citizenship, job performance).

My research suggests that, in addition to using these traditional impression management strategies, people also use social identity-based impression management (SIM) to create a positive professional image. SIM refers to the process of strategically presenting yourself in a manner that communicates the meaning and significance you associate with your social identities. There are two overarching SIM strategies: positive distinctiveness and social recategorization.

Positive distinctiveness means using verbal and non-verbal cues to claim aspects of your identity that are personally and/or socially valued, in an attempt to create a new, more positive meaning for that identity. Positive distinctiveness usually involves attempts to educate others about the positive qualities of your identity group, advocate on behalf of members of your identity group, and incorporate your background and identity-related experiences into your workplace interactions and innovation.

Social recategorization means using verbal and non-verbal cues to suppress other aspects of your identity that are personally and/or socially devalued, in an attempt to distance yourself from negative stereotypes associated with that group. Social recategorization involves minimization and avoidance strategies, such as physically and mentally conforming to the dominant workplace culture while being careful not to draw attention to identity group differences and one's unique cultural background.

Rather than adopting one strategy wholesale, most people use a variety of strategies for managing impressions of their social identities. In some situations, they choose to draw attention to a social identity, if they think it will benefit them personally or professionally. Even members of devalued social identity groups, such as African American professionals, will draw attention to their race if it creates mutual understanding with colleagues, generates high-quality connections with clients, or enhances their experience of authenticity and fulfillment in their work. In other situations, these same individuals may choose to minimize their race in order to draw attention to an alternate identity, such as gender, profession, or religion, if they feel their race inhibits their ability to connect with colleagues or clients.

Successful impression management can generate a number of important personal and organizational benefits, including career advancement, client satisfaction, better work relationships (trust, intimacy, avoiding offense), group cohesiveness, a more pleasant organizational climate, and a more fulfilling work experience. However, when unsuccessfully employed, impression management attempts can lead to feelings of deception, delusion, preoccupation, distraction, futility, and manipulation.

Q: How do authenticity and credibility influence the positive outcomes of impression management attempts?

A: In order to create a positive professional image, impression management must effectively accomplish two tasks: build credibility and maintain authenticity. When you present yourself in a manner that is both true to self and valued and believed by others, impression management can yield a host of favorable outcomes for you, your team, and your organization. On the other hand, when you present yourself in an inauthentic and non-credible manner, you are likely to undermine your health, relationships, and performance.

Most people use a variety of strategies for managing impressions of their social identities.

Most often, people attempt to build credibility and maintain authenticity simultaneously, but they must negotiate the tension that can arise between the two. Your "true self," or authentic self-portrayal, will not always be consistent with your key constituents' expectations for professional competence and character. Building credibility can involve being who others want you to be, gaining social approval and professional benefits, and leveraging your strengths. If you suppress or contradict your personal values or identity characteristics for the sake of meeting societal expectations for professionalism, you might receive certain professional benefits, but you might compromise other psychological, relational, and organizational outcomes.

Q: What are the steps individuals should take to manage their professional image?

A: First, you must realize that if you aren't managing your own professional image, someone else is. People are constantly observing your behavior and forming theories about your competence, character, and commitment, which are rapidly disseminated throughout your workplace. It is only wise to add your voice in framing others' theories about who you are and what you can accomplish.

Be the author of your own identity. Take a strategic, proactive approach to managing your image:

Identify your ideal state.

• What are the core competencies and character traits you want people to associate with you?
• Which of your social identities do you want to emphasize and incorporate into your workplace interactions, and which would you rather minimize?

Assess your current image, culture, and audience.

• What are the expectations for professionalism?
• How do others currently perceive you?

Conduct a cost-benefit analysis for image change.

• Do you care about others' perceptions of you?
• Are you capable of changing your image?
• Are the benefits worth the costs? (Cognitive, psychological, emotional, physical effort)

Use strategic self-presentation to manage impressions and change your image.

• Employ appropriate traditional and social identity-based impression management strategies.
• Pay attention to the balancing act—build credibility while maintaining authenticity.

Manage the effort you invest in the process.

• Monitoring others' perceptions of you
• Monitoring your own behavior
• Strategic self-disclosure
• Preoccupation with proving worth and legitimacy

Keeping your job

How to avoid getting the boot when layoffs loom.

The fretting began in September, as soon as Barclays said it would buy Lehman Brothers' North American banking business for $1.75 billion. Who will be laid off? We'll soon find out.
Over the next few months, Barclays will lay off at least 3,000 employees to eliminate job duplications between the two banks. The process will likely involve so-called "stack ranking"; managers will evaluate employees on various criteria, then assign each person a score. Everyone above a certain score stays; those below go. That scenario, or variations of it, will be repeated in the coming months as more troubled companies get gobbled up by bigger ones. But it's not a foregone conclusion you'll be let go. That's where you come in.

You have to have the right attitude. As a former Lehman Brothers employee, now a Barclays staffer, says, "It's become a very creative time here." If you want to keep your job, convince the higher-ups you're indispensable.
"If it's a job you really want, it's worth the fight." says Michelle Winkley, director of human resources for an Internet-based company and previous HR manager at Pricewaterhouse Coopers and The first to go: Staffers who resist change. Those are the people who complain about the new parent company and refuse to get on board--not a good idea.

Think of this as a new job. Set up meetings with your counterparts in your new parent company, particularly the managers and decision makers. Demonstrate that you're curious about how they do business and ask how you can help. If committees being formed to make the transition smoother, volunteer for them.
Don't beg to keep your job. Instead, explain to your bosses that you understand some people will be laid off. Ask how you can help them make the best decision even if you're not chosen to stay. "Ultimately, it pays you back," says career coach Linda Dominguez. "You learn, but it's also networking. In many cases, the boss's job is a duplication too, and that person will go somewhere else. Maybe he'll bring you along."
If you work in a department that doesn't generate profit, like human resources, do more with less. If you work in a profit center, ramp up your sales.
But none of that will matter if you're difficult to work with. Sure, technical proficiency in your job is important, but even more important is your ability to get along with others, communicate and motivate colleagues.
"Many times, when I have been a part of the discussions, the tie-breaker is behavioral and not technical skills," says Ron Wince, chief executive of consulting firm Guidon. "Do you come to work on time? What is the quality of your work over the long term? Are you always ready to jump in with both feet, or do you have to be sought out?"
One way to show the bosses your enthusiasm is by staying current. Take classes to sharpen your skills and learn new ones. Attend conferences. Don't be shy about letting the higher-ups know you're doing this.
Says Wince, "Sometimes it does come down to skills, and you want to be at the top of your game."

And be nice--it goes a long way.

http://www.forbes.com/leadership/2008/10/22/barclays-layoffs-lehman-lead-careers-cx_tw_1022bizbasics.html?boxes=custom

new sources of candidates for recruitment

Twitter, Friendfeed, Socialthing, Jaiku, Pownce, Tumblr, Jabber. What do they have in common? They're all powerful new sources of candidates for recruitment, according to Geoff Peterson, editor of Staffbytes and a recruitment pro.

Recruitment Videos On The Rise

CareerTV, with US’s largest collection of recruitment videos online, continues to attract job seekers and employers. January was the best month for traffic yet with over 300,000 unique visitors! Over the last two months, the website has undergone a major re-design and the addition of new features, functionality and career videos. A wide range of user optimization tools have been added and as a result traffic has soared.
The market has embraced the use of recruitment videos and this has created a buzz in the industry”, says Jim Buttimer, CEO of CareerTV.


CareerTV addresses job seekers’ demand for career information through video, as well as the employers’ demand for a professional platform to communicate their brands. The company signed a number of successful partnerships last year with other leading sites targeting young professionals, including; Yahoo!HotJobs, CollegeRecruiter, AfterCollege, CareerBuilder, WetFeet, and InternshipPrograms. “There is a tremendous opportunity out there. With the overall number of online video views steadily on the rise, video is still growing very rapidly as a recruiting tool”, concludes Buttimer.

Starting in March, CareerTV will also begin producing a monthly 30-minute show highlighting different topics and industries - revealing the top-ranked employer. “This is a way to solidify our position as the #1 site for recruitment videos. The monthly show will air online and through other media distribution channels reaching a potential audience of 6 million viewers”, explains Sean O’Grady, Executive Producer for CareerTV.

Video Resumes: Lights, Camera, You're Hired

Although thousands of video resumes appear on YouTube and elsewhere on the Web, corporations in general are not embracing the trend. For one, companies fear that discrimination suits may surface. Also, dealing with the different data formats for video resumes can be a headache for human resources personnel.

Tens of thousands of fledgling job seekers have spent a great deal of time, effort and money devising video resumes, a variation on the decades-old task of letting a potential employer know a little something about you. However, while the new approach has garnered some sizzle, it lacks substance.

"Video resumes are dead because they just do not help companies in the job selection process," Tom Schmidt, president of Resumefit, told the E-Commerce Times.

The recent phenomenon stemmed from improvements in computer and networking horsepower. The fad got a boost from movies, such as "Legally Blonde," in which the lead character, Elle Woods, uses a video resume to differentiate herself from other candidates.

Many other job seekers followed suit. There are now more than 25,000 video resumes on YouTube Latest News about YouTube, and job search sites, such as CareerBuilder, host thousands more. Some video resumes look quite professional while others seem like they were slapped together in a few minutes. The candidates use a variety of techniques -- from eye-catching images to humor -- to differentiate themselves from the rest of the job pack.
A Superficial Look?

However, the differentiation may not be helpful in certain cases. In some situations, a candidate may send the wrong message. Rather than being seen as clever, managers may view the videos as too egotistical. Also, a generic video resume typically will not highlight the skills needed for a certain position.

These resumes can also create problems for the employer by skewing the hiring process, as managers may fear that hiring decisions will be based on appearance and theatrics rather than on qualifications.

Potential legal problems present another significant bugaboo. Along with the possibility that a company may judge a candidate on looks, video resumes make information like age, race and gender apparent, so discrimination rather than a lack of qualifications may be viewed as the reason why a candidate is rejected. Plus, a creative lawyer can quickly make a case for discrimination if it is known a video resume was viewed before an individual was rejected. Because of that, some job sites forbid the use of them.
They're Inefficient

The biggest problem with video resumes is their tendency to slow down rather than speed up the search process. While a recruiter can scan a paper resume in less than a minute, watching a video resume takes a couple -- sometimes several -- minutes. If a person needs to sift through 50 or more resumes, the time difference quickly adds up.

"One major issue is there are no standard formats for producing video resumes," noted Jim Buttimer, CEO of CareerTV. The resumes come in many iterations -- different software programs and length, and they support different data formats. The chances of a human resources professional being able to view each video resume with one program are slim. Compounding the problem, no group -- at least at the moment -- is trying to develop a set of standards to make the process of watching video resumes simpler.

Another limitation with video resumes is that companies cannot quickly search past submissions. It is quite common for a company to store candidate information in a database and then go back and try to match applicants with requirements. There is no way to characterize and then search such information in video resumes.

Because of these problems, many companies, such as CareerTV, have abandoned video resumes. The company, a television programmer and interactive Web site designed to help college students and young professionals begin their careers, dumped its video resume service in November. "Companies are interested in using video to interview candidates but not in place of traditional resumes," CareerTV's Buttimer told the E-Commerce Times.
Not Dead Yet

However, while many recruiters are down on video resumes, some companies are not quite ready to bury the technology. "Video offers individuals much more power in how they present themselves than paper," Allison Nawoj, a career counselor at CareerBuilder, told the E-Commerce Times. The company has a video resume service on its site.

Theoretically, the shortcoming with video resumes can be addressed, and the technology can become more popular moving forward. However, at the moment, there is a significant disconnect between candidates who view video resumes them as a way to differentiate themselves and companies who view them as a hiring drain.

Taleo’s Acquisition of Vurv Completed

Taleo, a provider of on-demand talent management solutions, has announced the completion of its acquisition of Vurv Technology, a Jacksonville-based company also specializing in talent management software.

“The addition of Vurv’s employees, products and domain expertise will enable us to enhance our solutions for customers, increase efficiencies and significantly expand our opportunities for growth,” said Michael Gregoire, Chairman and CEO of Taleo. “This acquisition reinforces our leadership position and commitment to delivering continued innovation to our growing customer base. The combined power of Taleo and Vurv will allow customers to better leverage the benefits of a unified talent management platform, providing a cohesive view of recruiting, performance, succession, and compensation to drive improved business results.

Taleo first announced it was acquiring Vurv on May 6. The completion of the acquisition comes after Vurv laid off 79 employees mid-June.

http://www.recruitingfly.com/

The combined companies serve over 3,400 customers around the world, including 48 of the Fortune 100, and more than 2,800 small and medium-sized businesses.

Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.

~Henry Ford, 1863-1947, American Industrialist and Founder of Ford Motor Company

Recruitment outsourcing catching up corporates' fancy in India

Aping the success of business process outsourcing industry, companies are keen on transferring all or part of their recruitment activities to external service providers, cutting down their human resource expenses significantly, say experts.
"Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) analyses client and candidates in the best possible way. Besides, it saves time and cost for corporates as well," global recruitment firm Manpower's official spokesperson told the media. Corporates today are faced with rising attrition and are thus turning towards recruitment process outsourcing.
RPOs are designed to meet the need of speed and cost optimisation of companies, experts said. There exists a strong need for HR processes in the developing countries, especially India, that are witnessing growth in all domains -- top-level middle level or freshers -- at a never before rate, HR services provider PeopleStrong said.
"As an RPO, we see a great opportunity arising for our services in the next 4-5 years in the country's HR space. Going forward, we see the HR departments of corporates becoming leaner as outsourcing will prove to be more helpful for them," PeopleStrong CEO Pankaj Bansal said.

The human resource domain comprises of a group of activities, including payroll management, training, staffing, benefits administration, travel and expenses management, and retirement and benefits planning.

Kelly services to enter RPO space in India

Kelly Services India, a staffing company and HR solutions provider, is planning to launch its recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) service in India as part of its outsourcing and consulting group. Says Dhirendra Shantilal, senior vice-president (Asia-Pacific), Kelly Services, "We already offer RPO services in other countries like Singapore and will introduce this in India by the second half of this year."
While RPO is new to India, it is already a big industry globally and some estimates suggest it is worth $30 billion. In high-growth industries, companies need to maintain a steady focus on the core, and it perhaps makes good sense to leave out the non-core business for experts to manage. Says Shantilal, "We are good at recruiting, training and putting people on the job. This way, the human resources function in a company can be freed up from the task of recruiting and training."

"Earlier HR would keep track of these things. But now the HR can handle more important tasks like employee development," he added. The advantage in having an RPO is that it significantly cuts down the time taken to recruit a fresh employee. And this goes beyond pure recruiting.

Says Shantilal, "An RPO typically shortlists potential employees, recruits them, and then handles the induction and training and does some handholding as well."

IT’s official.Tech sector pay hikes to be muted

IT’s official.Tech sector pay hikes to be muted
Salary Rise At Oracle India Down To 8%, IBM Cuts Middle Management Fringe Benefits

The woes of the IT sector are far from over. Faced with a challenging business environment in the wake of the US sub-prime crisis, software major Oracle has pared annual salary hikes, while IBM is cutting down employee perks. The average pay hike at Oracle India, as well as Oracle subsidiary i-flex solutions, is down to about 7-8%, dipping to 5% in some cases. On the other hand, IBM India is attacking fringe benefits offered to its middle management — it has withdrawn the free-housing (on lease) facility recently.

The average salary hike at Oracle India last year was 12-14%. Company sources told ET that employees expressing their dissatisfaction with the hike were asked to put in their papers. When contacted, the Oracle India spokesperson declined to comment. An e-mail sent to IBM went unanswered.

Oracle India employees say that the lower wage hikes are primarily on account of lower work orders from the US, which is in the midst of a slowdown. “Many orders given by banks xand other financial institutions to IT companies in India have seen a dip due to the ongoing crisis in the financial services market,” said an official, on conditions of anonymity.

Employees in the IT industry have already faced some brunt of the US sub-prime crisis. TCS, India’s largest software services firm, earlier effected a small cut in variable pay of its employees, which had an average impact on salaries of 1.5%. And there is more to come. TCS has said its wage increases this fiscal (2008-09) will be in the range of 8-10%, against 13-15% last year. Wipro, too, is likely to go for an 8-10% hike this year, against 12-13% in FY08. Infosys’ offshore employees will get an 11-13% wage hike, compared to 12-15% last year.

“The average salary hike this year is going to be in upper single digits. Salary hikes only reflect the company’s growth. In case of a muted growth, salary hikes have to be subdued. This is also reflected in the slightly moderated hiring plans of companies like Infosys,” said offshoring advisory firm Tholons president Avinash Vashistha.

niranjan.bharati@timesgroup.com

What to Do When a New Hire Earns More Than You Do

Q: A new person has been hired for the same job as mine but is making substantially more than me. What can I do about this?

A: It can be demoralizing when an employer offers a bigger salary to someone who will have the same role as you, but it's not unusual. For some jobs, the external market value increases faster than company salary levels, so employers must offer more to recruit such candidates, says Barbara Vietor, a compensation consultant in San Francisco.
"If you have been there a couple of years, your pay can fall behind the external market," Ms. Vietor says. "You could earn $80,000 but the company needs to offer $90,000 to get a new person."
Sometimes, applicants can demand more because they have skills current employees lack, says Fred J. Eck, director of human resources at CDO Technologies Inc., a consulting firm in Dayton, Ohio. This is common in technical or engineering fields, says Mr. Eck. Younger hires might earn more than older, more experienced employees since they have more up-to-date knowledge and skills, he says.
Skill shortages also cause external pay to rise. This is currently true for financial professionals and nurses, who are being paid more than existing staffers to join organizations, says Ms. Vietor.
Typically, what staffers make isn't as secret as managers might think it is and that means paying new hires more than current staffers can create "some employee relations issues," says Mr. Eck. He advises meeting with your supervisor to ask why the new recruit earns more. Your boss may say the increase was justified to attract someone with skills the company needs.
Before the meeting, review the company's compensation philosophy, which often is stated on its Web site or employee handbooks, says Ms. Vietor. This can tell you whether the company's intent is to reward performance and whether it matches or pays more or less than market to attract new people.
Ask what you need to do to increase your pay commensurately. You may need to learn a new skill, participate in more difficult projects or get involved in other activities. It's crucial to always speak in terms of your value and not about fairness. Try to make an agreement with your boss on goals and outcomes, such as a performance review in three or six months to assess your progress. It's possible that your performance hasn't met expectations and that you need to work on it.
"If you get the added knowledge and improve your performance, hopefully it will be recognized in your next review or salary adjustment," says Mr. Eck.
Some companies want to improve pay for current employees after bringing in higher paid candidates but their hands are tied because they lack funds to award increases or because company policies allow them to only do so at certain intervals. In these cases, employees need to be patient. "Companies often don't have the cash to fix it right away," says Ms. Vietor. "It may take time."

Write to Perri Capell at careersqa@wsj.com

10 Great Tips for Using LinkedIn o Find the Best Passive Candidates on the Planet

10 Great Tips for Using LinkedIn to Find the Best Passive Candidates on the Planet

LinkedIn is a great tool for finding passive candidates who want to be found. This is its little-discussed power. No one would publish their profiles otherwise. While some recruiters are still reluctant to jump on board, others have been making placements since day one. Here are some ideas on how to get started right away to take full advantage of this remarkable networking tool:

1. Direct Recruiting. Using the advanced search tools, you can find people in your extended network who are potential candidates for your search, or who know someone who is. Since you can see the names and bios of people in your extended network, you can very easily call them up and just recruit them. An extended network consists of three levels of contacts. For example, I have 1,200 people in my direct network. (You can link to me on LinkedIn using this email: lou@adlerconcepts.com.) On average each of these people has 200 people in their own network. This allows me access to over 240,000 people by one degree of separation! I can also see their contacts as well, which gives me visibility to approximately 5 million people.
2. Get Warm Leads from Your Direct Contact's Network. Here's my big rule for successful passive candidate recruiting: only call warm leads who have been pre-qualified. As far as I'm concerned it's a waste of time making a cold call to someone you don't know. First, the person is less likely to call you back. Furthermore, the person might not be qualified, and in this case the person won't give you any good leads. The direct network of all of your first-level LinkedIn contacts can quickly become warm leads. Since you can see the names of the people directly connected to them, just call and ask them who are the most qualified. Then call and recruit them. Since they're all warm leads they'll call you back. During the call make sure you connect directly with them on LinkedIn. This way you'll be able to see their contacts. Call back the next day if they're not a direct fit with one of your current openings and ask them who are the most qualified in their network. This is an awesome way to only work with high-quality warm leads.
3. Leverage Your Employee Referrals. First, get everyone you've placed and currently work with to build a LinkedIn network of associates. Then when you need some referrals, find them on LinkedIn and ask your employees to vouch for them. Make sure the referring employee gets the bonus for any placements. This will go a long way in having your contacts proactively and dramatically increase their network. When you call the referrals tell them who referred you to ensure a return call. This seems quicker to me than using the LinkedIn email system. Additionally, look up some of the employees of your company you don't personally know but who might know people for some of your open searches. Then connect with them and get more referrals. They'll probably call you back and connect with you since you're employees of the same company.
4. Use Google to Search the LinkedIn Public Network. [Note: This tip is from Glenn Gutmacher (glenn.gutmacher@microsoft.com), internet sourcer extraordinaire.] Many people have made their LinkedIn profile public. You can find them using Google with this search string:
   

   site:www.linkedin.com -intitle:directory -intitle:answers -intitle:directory plus your specific keywords, e.g., sales "Los Angeles area" "consumer electronics."

5. Network through Endorsements and Recommendations. LinkedIn provides a means to endorse others. These endorsements, which show up as recommendations on the endorsed person's profile, provide another series of connections. Not only do these dramatically increase your opportunity to find great candidates, make sure you mention the name of one of these connections when you call to increase your callback rat.
   
6. Build a Network of Top Candidates and Prospects. Whenever you talk with a good candidate, make sure you connect with them on LinkedIn immediately. Not only is this a great way to keep track of your candidate network, but you'll also be able to see the names and titles of everyone in their networks. Then whenever you need to contact one of these people, all you need to do is ask your initial candidate to pre-qualify the person before calling. Within a few months you'll have a huge network of people for all of your open assignments. To make this manageable, only network with strong people since they tend to network with other strong people.
7. Build a Private Tip-toe Network. When good people get the itch to check out the job market they always connect with their primary network first to see if anything's available. Make sure you tell everyone in your network you want to talk with these people who are tip-toeing into the job market. This is a great way to get first dibs on the best people in your field.
8. Email Your Network. LinkedIn allows you to export your contacts to an Excel file. From this you can then create a mass personalized email. (Word has a wizard for doing this.) This is a great way to keep your network apprised of new and upcoming opportunities.
9. Get Warm Targeted Referrals from Your Network's Network. Remember that you can see the names and bios of everyone in your network within three degrees of connectivity. The first degree are those in your personal network. The second degree is every one connected to them and the third degree is everyone connected to them. So before you call a second degree contact, review those connected to them to see if there are any prospects for your search. Then if the person you call is not interested or not qualified, immediately ask about specific people in their network. Mentioning specific names will generate more referrals than asking, "Do you know anyone?"
10. Be Found! LinkedIn has a number of tools for job hunters. You should check these out. In addition, make sure your profile is public and that someone using LinkedIn to find a job in your area of specialty can find you. To ensure this is happening go to the advanced search page and put in the terms someone looking for a job would likely use to find a hiring manager or recruiter. Then make any modifications necessary to make sure your profile comes up.

By Lou Adler

Ways 'Authentic' Leaders Acquire Management Skills

Bill George spends a lot of time thinking about leadership. He led medical-device maker Medtronic Inc. for a decade before stepping down as CEO in 2001. Today, he's a director at Exxon Mobil Corp., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Novartis AG. He also teaches management at Harvard Business School.

In a new book, "True North," published by Jossey-Bass, an imprint of John Wiley & Sons Inc., Mr. George discusses developing what he calls an "authentic" approach to leadership. Mr. George and assistants interviewed 125 leaders from businesses and nonprofits, aged 23 to 93, about their development as leaders. Mr. George recently discussed his findings with The Wall Street Journal. Excerpts follow:

WSJ: What defines an authentic leader, and how do you become one?

Mr. George: They lead with their whole selves -- their hearts as well as their heads. They don't get pulled off course by seductions and pressures. Every leader who has failed, that I've seen, has not failed to lead other people, they've failed to lead themselves.

What we learned [from our interviews] was that leadership is not about traits and characteristics. What really stood out was their life stories. That's where they found their passion to lead -- their experiences. That's what gave them the authenticity of leadership. A lot of the inauthentic leaders got pulled off by trying to be something different than they were.

WSJ: Who are authentic business leaders?

Mr. George: One example is Howard Schultz, at Starbucks. Howard still remembers growing up in Bay View [Brooklyn, N.Y.] housing projects. He was very impacted by his father losing his health care when Howard was just 7. He lost his health care, lost his job, just because he slipped on the ice [and was injured]. Howard is still primarily concerned with trying to create a company his father would be proud to work at.

Andrea Jung, the CEO of Avon Products, was a star and on her way to the top of Neiman Marcus. At age 35 she walked out. I remember she came to my class and I said, "Andrea, why did you quit? Looks to me like you're going towards becoming CEO." And she said, "That was the problem. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life making luxury goods for upper-class women." So she walked out without another job and wound up at Avon Products. There she found her passion -- to try to help women achieve self-sufficiency.

WSJ: How should leaders balance the desire to empower and develop subordinates with more immediate demands for strong business results?

Mr. George: We've got to get back to giving people opportunities at very young ages to step up and lead without risking the firm. I was a general manager at age 27 of a $10 million business [at a unit of Litton Industries in the 1970s] that we built to $200 million. People have to learn early. Then when you get to higher-level positions you don't repeat those kinds of mistakes. Good learning organizations allow people to do that -- they give them those opportunities, they watch them closely, and then they give them feedback.

[General Electric Co. CEO] Jeff Immelt had a lot of problems in one of his assignments, in the plastics business. Inflation turned against him. He was under enormous pressure to get the results turned around. But he wouldn't deviate from his values. He could have -- by breaking contracts -- but he stayed true to the contracts and found a way through this high-inflation environment.

He said something very significant. He said, "Leadership is a long journey into your own soul." In other words, there's a time to get all the feedback, and then you've got to pull back and say, "What am I made of?" If [leaders] start to think it's all about their fame and power and glory, in the end they're going to do the wrong thing, and they're going to lose it along the way.

* * *

WSJ: How has the model of a CEO changed over the years?

Mr. George: We're going through a big change in leadership from the imperial CEO to the more empowering leaders. The reason we have to do that is that people in organizations have changed. I can give you three or four ways why that imperial 20th century style will not work in this century.

Today, you have knowledge workers who know more than their bosses. If you try to dichotomize workers and managers, you're going to get people totally de-motivated. The second thing is people don't just join your company and stay there for their career. They have options, so you better provide them with opportunities to step up and lead. The third is that the world is so complex these days that leaders have to prepare themselves for a world where they don't even know what they're getting into. The fourth thing is that people in organizations are looking for meaning and significance, not just money.

A leader who understands those four things is going to get a lot better results from people. I think of the 21st century leaders as people who can align people around a mission and values, empower them to step up and lead, and third understand their role is to serve their customers, and that's what turns their employees on, and then the shareholders will be served.

WSJ: What approach to leadership may eventually succeed the team-oriented style?

Mr. George: Every organization today that I know of is global, and in a global world we're recognizing our limitations. No business organization, even Exxon where I'm on the board, no government, even the United States government, or no non-profit organization, is powerful enough to solve really tough and complex problems like energy and the environment, health care, global poverty, global peace, education. These all require a collaborative approach. I think what we're going to see is leaders who are comfortable dealing in all of those sectors, and know how to bring people together being the most successful in solving tough problems. I think we'll see this globally integrated leader emerging.

WSJ: In some ways that's the most team-oriented you can possibly be.

Mr. George: You may be my competitor one day and the next day you may be my collaborator. Let's take the FDA. I used to have lot of battles with the FDA because I wanted them to do their jobs well in approving new products. But I didn't want no FDA. If the FDA is not regulating medical products you're going to have products out there from all over the globe that are going to be harming people.

I would argue that business leaders understand that. Maybe they've worked in government as I did [at the Defense Department from 1966 to 1969]. Maybe they've worked in non-profits. They know how to bring those forces together and get them to play together. That's quite a skill -- to bring together people from all sectors.

WSJ: Stan O'Neal at Merrill Lynch and Chuck Prince at Citigroup fell from power after revealing big losses related to the subprime mess. Why did they fail?

Mr. George: If we take them individually, Chuck Prince had a very tough hand he was handed by [former CEO] Sandy Weill. He had to clean up a lot of problems. But he may not have been the best team-builder to bring all the people together in Citigroup and really build the business. I think Stan O'Neal got caught way out on the risk curve of trying to be too aggressive in building some businesses they didn't know about, and too aggressive at getting rid of people. Both those cultures have a tendency where everyone's shooting at everyone else, so you build, over time, not very healthy cultures. That's a very serious problem.

I'd also in those cases fault the board of directors. How can you have an organization, in the case of Citigroup, of 371,000 people and not have any successors internally? Myself, I think it's a disaster. And the same at Merrill.

John Thain [the new Merrill CEO] is an excellent choice, a very authentic person. When he replaced Dick Grasso [at the New York Stock Exchange] people said, "Oh, no one can replace Grasso, he has all this charisma." But in fact Thain stepped in there and did a far better job. He's very down to earth, a straightforward guy, not a lot of charisma, but he gets the job done. He's going to do exactly the same thing at Merrill Lynch, I predict.

WSJ: What if you're a lower-level leader, and you're being ethical and true to yourself, but you're still not getting ahead?

Mr. George: There can be lots of reasons. That's where you need to have straight-up discussions with the people you work with. Are you getting these kinds of opportunities? Why not? And is there something holding you back? That sort of feedback can be extremely helpful.

Try to find a role that plays both to your motivations and to your strengths -- what we call the sweet spot. [Someone] could be a trader on Wall Street and be really good at it, but not be passionate about it, and they probably won't get ahead or be successful. Conversely, they could be highly motivated at something and just not be all that good at it.

People need to find that sweet spot that brings together their greatest capabilities with their motivations. That's where they're going to be most effective. Many people find themselves sidetracked in their careers and it's actually a good thing to pull back and have some consultation. We really need mentors to help us through those difficult times. My wife has been the best counselor I've had.

From The Wall Street Journal Online

How Can I Defuse Tensions With a Difficult Manager?

Question: My boss is an authoritative manager who seems disturbed by any differing opinion and has been defensive several times with me. It's a small workplace and we need to work closely on projects. How can I break down the walls so I can feel safe to say what I mean without worsening things? I am 42 and six months into this job.

Answer: Confident executives don't take criticism badly. Since you have been there just six months, it's possible your boss believes you're still learning and isn't ready to hear your opinions.

But it's more likely that he's a tyrant and you would ultimately be better off working elsewhere, says Steven Berglas, a Los Angeles-based clinical psychologist who coaches senior executives and helps companies with executive selection.

"Your boss is probably stuck and isn't open to any threat to his authority," says Dr. Berglas. "It's a no-win situation, and it's time to get out of Dodge."

Career success comes from understanding what your boss wants and meeting his needs quickly so you can accomplish other goals, such as finding a new job. Stop questioning him, since it makes things worse for you, and focus on your next step, which should be to enlist his aid in helping you find work elsewhere, says Dr. Berglas, author of "Reclaiming the Fire: How Successful People Can Avoid Burnout." (Random House, 2001).

One way is to use "strategic" self-deprecation, or the "Wayne's World I Am Not Worthy" of working here approach, says Dr. Berglas. "Ingratiate him into becoming an ally and helping you get out of there by singing your praises," he says.

If the organization is large enough, lobby to move to a new department. If it's a small company and you aren't financially able to change jobs yet, it's worth trying to improve the situation, says Barry Zweibel, an executive coach in Northbrook, Ill.

When your manager is in a receptive mood, ask if he will meet with you. Some managers are most relaxed on Friday afternoons, while others are more open to requests after finishing a project. "Don't ask when he's preparing for a big meeting or has a major crisis going on," says Mr. Zweibel.

When asking for the get-together, use communication channels the boss prefers, and explain why you want to talk, such as, "I want us to discuss how I can work more effectively with you and tell you where I'm coming from as well." "Cranky bosses don't like surprises, so be clear about what you want," Mr. Zweibel says.

Try to keep the conversation on the issue, which is how the two of you interrelate. Explain that you want to exceed your boss's expectations and provide what he needs in a timely manner. Don't try to justify your point of view or back your boss into a corner about his management style because he may come out swinging.

Ask him if you're doing something unintentionally that interferes with your relationship. Try not to get defensive or withdraw emotionally if your boss says something insensitive. Also, be flexible about the outcome of the meeting since it may not turn out the way differ from what you expect.

At the end of the session, thank your manager for the opportunity regardless of how things went so that the lines of communication remain open between you. "Some conversations naturally have semi-colons in them," says Mr. Zweibel. "They are suited to be ongoing over a period of time."

If you have had issues with bosses in the past, the meeting may shed light on what you've been doing wrong. Perhaps you play devil's advocate when it isn't welcome, such as during brainstorming sessions or in deadline situations. If your relationship doesn't improve, accelerate your plans to find a new position elsewhere. Suffering under a tyrannical manager in exchange for a paycheck will erode your self-esteem and emotional well-being and may lead you to doing something you regret to get fired, says Dr. Berglas. "It's like staying in a bad marriage," he says. "Why risk burning out when you can exit gracefully?"

Strategies for Answering Weird Interview Questions

Career experts advise job applicants to rehearse answers to common questions ahead of the interview. But what's a job seeker to do when asked an oddball query like: "What is your perception of the painting in the lobby?"

That question -- along with "Can you tell a joke?" and "What would you do with a million dollars?" -- were among some of the most bizarre questions posed by interviewers in the past year, according to a survey of 3,725 job hunters by Development Dimensions International (DDI) Inc. and Monster Worldwide Inc.

Marcus Gamo of San Francisco recalls being asked by a hiring manager: "If your alma mater was a cereal, what would it be?" Then a recent graduate of the University of Georgia, he says he paused for a moment and offered, "Fruit Loops," because it's "a little crazy, diverse and delicious."

Mr. Gamo didn't get the job. Today he's a director at a communications firm and says he makes a point of asking only conventional questions when interviewing candidates. "I don't want to put them in the same uncomfortable situation that I was in," he says.

Cathy Goodwin, a career consultant in Seattle, says some interviewers ask strange questions because it's company policy. "They don't know how to interpret them any more than you do," she says. The purpose is often to see how well job seekers think on their feet, so when posed an off-kilter question, it's best to not get rattled, she adds.

No matter how bizarre the question, offer a response, says Tom Gimbel, chief executive officer of The LaSalle Network, a recruiting firm based in Chicago. "Not answering doesn't accomplish anything," he says.

Find ways to address the job's requirements in your answers, advises Ms. Goodwin. In Mr. Gamo's case, she says a better response might have been Alpha Bits, the cereal shaped in letters. This way he could've reasoned that his school prepared him to be a great writer -- a skill required of most public-relations positions.

Beyond the goofy questions are the inappropriate ones. The DDI/Monster survey indicates that hiring managers also pose queries about personal matters. Some of the most offensive ones cited by respondents include: "Are you single?" "Is your hair color natural?" "Do you go to church?"

During an interview for a human-resources job two years ago, a recruiter pointed to Carrie McLemore's engagement ring and asked what her fiancé did for a living. After explaining he was an electrical engineer, she says the recruiter responded, "Well, why are you even interviewing? Aren't you just going to have a picket fence, kids and then quit work?" As a result, Ms. McLemore says she withdrew her candidacy for the position. "He wouldn't have been my boss, but if that's the kind of person they send out, it gives a bad vibe for the whole company," says the now 25-year-old in Memphis.

In fact, two-thirds of survey respondents reported that they have walked away from job opportunities after being turned off by an interviewer's questions. But, no matter how miffed you may feel, keep your cool, advises Mr. Gimbel. "Having an emotional reaction never is successful," he says. "You're creating more conflict."

You may be able to avoid giving a direct answer to an intrusive question by guessing the interviewer's motivation, says Scott Erker, a senior vice president at DDI, an executive-search consulting firm in Pittsburgh, Pa. For example, if an interviewer asks how many children you have, assume he or she wants to know if you'll be able to balance work and family, he explains. Answer by describing your ability to get the job done, says Mr. Erker.

Some job seekers consider it inappropriate for recruiters to ask how old they are in interviews. While it's unlawful for employers to discriminate against a candidate because of his or her age, it's not illegal for companies to request this information, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

To be sure, hiring managers aren't the only interview offenders. Mr. Gimbel says candidates have asked him questions such as: "Can I see the break room?" "How many sick days do I get?" "Do you have a bereavement policy?" "Do you track Internet traffic?" "How big is my expense account?" "Do you have free bagels on Fridays?"

While off-putting questions aren't necessarily candidacy killers, they can be damaging if a recruiter is on the fence about you.

Talking Too Much in a Job Interview May Kill Your Chance

You can blow a promising opportunity by talking too much during a job interview.

That's how one facilities administrator ruined her employment chances at Clark Nuber, a small accounting firm in Bellevue, Wash. Asked to describe her strengths, the applicant delivered a long-winded reply focused on her cleaning of every cabinet in her home. "She probably went on for three to four minutes," recalls Tracy White, the firm's human-resources director. "I doubted she could get the job done in an eight-hour day."

Many nervous job seekers blabber endlessly about irrelevant information. They create a poor impression and cut short the hiring manager's time for further questions. "That official won't pay any attention to you unless you prove you're sharp during the first five minutes," cautions Robin Ryan, a career counselor, author and speaker in Newcastle, Wash.

"Oversharing in an interview is the most dangerous thing you can do," concurs Annie Stevens, a managing partner at ClearRock, a Boston executive-coaching and outplacement concern.

Don't despair. Here are four ways to steer clear of verbosity during a job hunt:

• Prepare short statements on how your background matches the job. Rehearse.

When a hiring manager says, "Tell me about yourself," you can offer a few war stories that recount a work problem, your corrective action and the measurable result. "The stories have to be powerful as well as engaging," lasting no longer than two minutes apiece, says Rich Gee, an executive coach in Stamford, Conn.

He helped Ward Smith, a talkative golf pro and instructor, to win a marketing spot with Black & Decker. During practice sessions with the coach, Mr. Smith supplied elaborate detail about the golf irons that he recommended to students. A hiring manager "doesn't need to know this," Mr. Gee interjected.

Mr. Smith soon realized he should translate "what I was doing into what Black & Decker was looking for," and keep it succinct. During his job interview, he used marketing lingo to describe briefly his teaching methods, explaining how he identified students' objectives, forged a rapport and enabled them to reach solutions. He now is an Atlanta field-marketing coordinator for a Black & Decker unit.

Embracing a similar approach, a jobless organizational-development consultant recently landed follow-up interviews with three possible employers. Callbacks rarely occurred when I "was running off at the mouth," he remembers. Defining yourself concisely also "builds an enormous amount of confidence for the next interview," he notes.

• Make sure you understand a question. Stop every couple of sentences to check.

If the interviewer requests your career history, you might inquire, "Do you want me to start with my present situation or at the beginning?" This type of response demonstrates a candidate "is preparing mentally for what's he's going to give me," says Peter D. Crist, head of recruiters Crist Associates in Hinsdale, Ill.

Pausing after you speak lets you collect your thoughts -- and seek permission to continue. Before you resume, Ms. White suggests asking, "Did I answer your question enough? Do you want more examples?"

• Watch the interviewer's body language for hints that your answers are getting boring.

He may stop taking notes, check his watch or glance at his computer. A loquacious middle manager ignored such warning signals after spending 15 minutes telling a West Coast recruiter about several extraneous issues, including her husband's problems with his boss.

"I was rolling my eyes and tapping my pen on her resume to indicate we should get back to work here,'' the exasperated recruiter says. He finally cut her off because he had many more questions to pose.

• Solicit feedback following an interview.

The West Coast recruiter decided against referring the middle manager to a client. "You had a number of stories to tell but they weren't relevant," he told her. "Use each minute to its best advantage to sell your background."

With practice, you'll be able to polish your pitch, adjusting the length of your responses until someone says, "You're hired!"

From The Wall Street Journal Online

Performance Reviews Need Some Work, Don't Meet Potential

From The Wall Street Journal Online

Let's put it diplomatically and take the emotion out of it: The whole performance-review process, now in season, doesn't exactly exceed expectations.

Whether these annual events are meant to weed out laggards, reward achievers, assist development or act simply as a liability shield against discrimination lawsuits is anybody's guess. Whatever their purpose, they attempt to give employees an individualized and intimate portrayal of their performance, but can end up saying more about the company than the individual. "But enough about you ..."

If you hate performance reviews, that may be because you have spent more time than you can afford trying to understand whether the fact you "met expectations" is good or bad.

Worse, you may have to write the reviews, and suffer from the awkwardness of telling someone he's more or less living a lie. After all, saying negative things about someone can lead managers to self-incrimination, providing proof that they failed to manage someone as effectively as their managerial peers, who, in turn, inflated the grades of all their staffers.

"One reason they don't want to tell the truth is it creates responsibility," says Aneil Mishra, associate professor of management at the Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University. Managers think: "If you're not doing your job, I have to figure out a way to make it better. And if you are doing a good job, I have to figure out a way to reward you."

Not surprising, performance reviews are lampooned online: "This employee should go far, and the sooner he starts, the better. ... He doesn't have ulcers, but he's a carrier. ... If you give him a penny for his thoughts, you'd get change."

Books, such as "Perfect Phrases for Performance Reviews," provide plug-and-play comments. Those employees who need improvement in the "grooming and appearance" category, for example, might be told, "Some have reported unpleasant body odor." Note the "some have reported" construction intended to sound like fact instead of disputable opinion.

"I'm disappointed that there is such a demand for these books," concedes Robert Bacal, one of the book's co-authors and a consultant. "Managers aren't intentionally deceiving employees, they're deceiving themselves into thinking that what they're doing is an objective process."

Nowhere is that more evident than in the "forced ranking" systems where managers rate employees against their peers and fire the bottom percentage -- better known as "rank and yank." It's easy to get the impression that an unqualified judge is thumbing the scales.

Wayne Ryback, a former aerospace engineer and manager, once received a call on a Saturday morning from a group vice president telling him to downgrade one of his employees to "very good" from "excellent."

"The group vice president didn't have any clue as to what this person was like," says Mr. Ryback, who also believed the rankings were used to protect against lawsuits.

"If management were really interested in making a performance review helpful to the employee, they wouldn't do it [only] once a year," he says. It didn't matter "whether or not we communicated anything intelligible to the employee."

That's one of Bill Savage's beefs. The enterprise risk-management executive says reviews tend to raise more questions than answers. Once he was told by a former manager that he was below the proverbial "bar," which his manager conceded moved a great deal.

His other least favorite criticism: "nonteam player," which seems reserved to beat down overachievers who deserved promotions they didn't get.

"The big problem is not so much the words," says Mr. Savage, "but the inability of management to provide context on why they're using those terms."

Another method of review, the 360-degree feedback, aims to give a fuller picture of someone by corralling anonymous input from peers, subordinates and supervisors. At the manufacturing company that business-segment manager Ed Smiley works for, the 360-degree process has been suspended due to mutual back-scratching. "What you don't get is true feedback," says Mr. Smiley.

Mike Bach, a chief operating officer, once received 360-degree feedback that only confused him and his manager. Three anonymous peers reviewed him positively for decision making; three others, not so much. No one provided specifics. His boss shrugged and said, "I guess you only won over 50% of the people."

Brian Borkholder has no such shortcomings. For three years, the department leader has scored 29 out of 30 points total on various "metrics," such as job knowledge, interpersonal skills and adaptability.

"I'm great!" he says, "At least that's what my personnel file says about me."

How does he do it year after year? Simple: Mr. Borkholder writes his own reviews. "The last three years, I've turned in the exact same one," he says. "I've just changed the date."

In the employee comment box, Mr. Borkholder responds, "I agree."

Effective Interviewing Key To Making A Good Hire

The ability to conduct an effective interview is a critical skill for all hiring managers. Knowing how to screen for the right candidate will save you the headache of a bad hire and help you assemble an all-star team, says career coach Cynthia Shapiro, author of the book "Corporate Confidential."

The goal of every hiring process is to select a candidate who not only has the appropriate skills but also meshes seamlessly with the company culture. But any manager can tell you: that's not as easy as it sounds.

Job applicants have become increasingly adept at dodging difficult questions and playing to their strengths. Given the fact that most executives aren't trained to interview, it should come as no surprise that few know how to look beyond the surface and spot red flags, Shapiro says.

Shapiro offers five tips for ferreting out bad apples and finding the right person for the job:

1. First, look within. Don't just settle for a candidate who looks good on paper. Find someone whose attitude and skills complement your own working style. Chances are you work well with people who possess particular talents and characteristics. If you're unclear on what those are, take some time to pinpoint the people on your team who you work well with. Are they energetic or patient? Independent or collaborative? You also want to look for employees whose strengths compensate for your weaknesses. Are you a big picture person with little interest in details? You'll want to populate your team with detail-oriented people who can pick up the slack. Once you've determined the character traits and skills you're after, carefully screen for them during the interview process.



2. Remember: it is not a popularity contest. "A lot of interviewers get just as nervous as the interviewees," says Shapiro. Why? Human beings are naturally empathetic and it's difficult to watch a candidate squirm without being affected. But it's not your job to put the people you're interviewing at ease. Nor is it your job to win them over. Your job is to uncover as much as you can about strengths and weaknesses and this isn't always a comfortable process. Heavily screening each applicant is the only way to protect the company from bad apples, so don't be afraid to ask the hard questions.



3. Be on the lookout for behavioral issues. People generally have their game faces on during an interview, which means it can be difficult to get an accurate read on them. To ensure that you don't get duped into hiring someone with authority issues or other behavioral problems, Shapiro recommends asking questions designed to get people to reveal themselves. Her favorite is: What's the most difficult situation you've ever encountered at work and how did you deal with it? You want an answer that demonstrates the person's ability to deal with conflict diplomatically. Be especially wary of candidates who appear negative, Shapiro warns. Those who can't maintain composure in an interview setting are unlikely to be a good addition to your team.



4. Do your due diligence. Checking employee references is no one's idea of a good time, says Shapiro, but it is absolutely essential. Why? Because references can give you real insight into a person's character if you ask the right questions. Shapiro recommends asking each reference to score the applicant's attitude, people skills and competence on a scale of 1-10. If the score is lower than a five in any area, this should be a red flag. It's also important to verify all the facts on resumes to ensure there is no misrepresentation.



5. If you feel uneasy for any reason, keep looking. Regardless of how qualified candidates appear do not proceed if you have any misgivings after interviewing and consulting references. In today's litigious society, it's become harder than ever to let people go when they turn out to be a bad fit, warns Shapiro.

http://www.careerjournal.com

10 career-killers to avoid

Like other types of workers, IT professionals can be vulnerable to committing career sabotage -- sometimes without even recognizing it.

To help IT professionals become more aware of potential career blunders, Computerworld yesterday spoke with John M. McKee, president of BusinessSuccessCoach.net, a Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based career coaching and consulting firm. McKee is the author of author of Career Wisdom: 101 Proven Strategies to Ensure Workplace Success. Here are 10 career-killers, with McKee's advice about how to recognize and avoid them.

1. Failing to have a life plan.

"This is the No. 1 biggest mistake that I run into with my clients. I work with a number of clients in IT, many of whom are in C-level roles. A life plan is a business plan, in the same way that a company leader creates an annual business plan for what the future is going to bring from a corporate perspective. Three life aspects to focus on include one's career, personal and family, and financial goals. If someone has a good title and a satisfactory personal and family life but they're struggling to make monthly payments, then they're not going to be satisfied. They should look at those aspects for themselves. They should look at the competitive environment, the job marketplace and whether their skill set is current. If someone can replace them because they're cheaper, faster or better, it's no different than looking at your IT requirements. Most importantly, this plan should be written down. Only 14% of people do that. 86% are putting their futures in the hands of others. It's not a good place to be in."

2. Not keeping your skills current.
"The business landscape is ever-changing and there is more demand for jobs than supply. Not staying on par with colleagues and those vying for your job will be a death knell. With individuals able to do the same work that someone is doing anywhere in the world today and the prospect that organizations will chase skill sets around the world, if you're not up to date with your skill sets in IT, you're significantly at risk of being replaced. This includes the need to stay up to date in technical skills, business skills and soft skills."

3. Failing to deliver results.
"Winners in business know that it's all about accountability. Those who harbor a sense of entitlement for simply having put forth effort, irrespective of the results of those efforts, are guaranteed to fall by the wayside. It's very easy in a corporation to believe that becoming more efficient will translate into becoming more effective. So becoming preoccupied with creating greater efficiency may be a short-term solution to helping the bottom line, but it doesn't help the organization to grow. I rarely see people get the big bonuses in the organization simply because they understand the policies and procedures of the company. It has to do with delivering the goods. You have to know your customers, know what your marketplace wants. Great leadership is all about asking questions."

4. Confusing efficiency with effectiveness.
"Those who think that communicating via e-mail replaces the need to actually talk with people around them fail to recognize the importance of personally connecting with others in today's highly automated and technological environment. Communicating in person whenever possible is imperative for success-seekers."

5. Believing that you are irreplaceable.
"There is no room for divas in the workplace. As soon as you convince yourself that you and only you can do the job 'right,' your star will surely start to fall. In any organization, any person can have a good couple of ideas, a good couple of years and a few successes under their belts and they start to think that the company can't do without them. They start to sit on their laurels and find themselves in greater jeopardy of losing their jobs. Comparing notes with others in the organization helps keep people grounded. It helps anyone in the organization to have different trusted advisers' perspective on what's going on and how their performance is being viewed."

6. Knowing all the answers.
"This old adage remains true: Knowledge is power. Professing to know it all can readily stagnate a career. Winners remain unceasingly interested in learning new ideas and approaches. Asking a lot of questions is a hallmark of great leaders and great managers. When one stops asking questions and starts believing they've seen it all, they are devaluing the amount of change going on in the world today."

7. Surrounding yourself with "brown-nosers."
"Losers like having people tell them how smart they are, whether or not it's true, while successful managers and other professionals accept and encourage intelligence and creativity in others. If you're constantly being told by your peers that everything you're doing is wonderful, you need a better group of advisers. If your supervisor believes that you're doing a great job, that's terrific -- it's probably reflecting well on him or her."

8. Forgetting to give credit to others.
"Losers inappropriately take full credit for positive events despite the help or input received by others, while winners give credit where credit is due. Losers inevitably reap what they sow. If your boss is a real pumpkinhead, you can probably get away with this a few times. But if you keep doing this, chances are your boss is going to catch on that you're a glory hog."

9. Failing to self-promote.
"Bragging is one thing, but letting colleagues throughout your industry know of your success through case studies, promotion bulletins, or other such tools is quite another. Losers often fail to recognize the importance of letting others know about their successes, or go about it in entirely the wrong way. In today's disconnected business world, where many people work at a distance from their supervisors, it's important to let your boss and leadership know your contributions and that you are a valuable asset. This could be as simple as providing your supervisor with an e-mail once a week to inform him about what you're working on and your progress. By doing that, when decisions are made for promotions or job transfers, you're more likely to get what's due to you."

10. Losing perspective.
"Intuitive businesspeople recognize that, despite their best attempts to do everything right, sometimes they approach roadblocks and seek the advice and perspective of a respected friend, colleague or even a business coach. Those who fail to recognize their shortcomings are destined for the unemployment line. It has everything to do with forgetting the reasons why their business exists, why they're in this business, and what it is they intended to accomplish when they entered this industry. You need to be excited about what it is you're doing, and you need to put more enthusiasm into what it is you're doing. If you're not looking forward to getting out of bed in the morning, you're working on a downward trend -- you just don't know it yet."

www.computerworld.com