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#Leadership : Top CHROs Discuss Culture In A Digital World…It’s Important to Begin Planning Today for the Use of Cognitive Computing in Enhancing Workforce Productivity, Reducing Business Risk & Increasing Competitive Advantage.

March 21, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Steve Jobs once said, “Simple is harder than complex.” Human resources embodies that mantra where the complexities of behind the curtain data and analytics can yield the simplistic beauty of a great culture.

To explore how top companies build winning cultures in a fast-changing digital world, on February 23, 2016 I spoke with these CHROs of industry leaders:

Victoria Berger-Gross, CHRO, Tiffany & Co.
Matthew Owenby, CHRO, Aflac
Larry Pernosky, CHRO, Amedisys

What is the one data point you look to first?

Larry Pernosky, Amedisys: “Engagement because as our engagement barometer moves up or down, so will the culture and attrition.”

Victoria Berger-Gross, Tiffany & Co: “Employee turnover — because even though it’s a lagging not leading indicator, it’s an objective sign of what’s going on in satisfaction, engagement, and the strength of your employee value proposition against the external marketplace.”

Matthew Owenby, Aflac: “We focus on engagement as a leading indicator of many potential issues, from which we gauge the level of trust employees have in leadership which is the foundation for creating the best employment experience possible.”

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What’s the relationship between data and culture?

Victoria Berger-Gross, Tiffany & Co.: “Over time you develop culture with qualitative hand-selection of people, close relationships, and understanding what values you can and can’t adapt in people once they’re hired. We use employee survey measurement, qualitative focus groups, and other data gathering to recognize our constraints and drive new offerings to encourage people to engage and grow with Tiffany.”

Matthew Owenby, Aflac: “Data is particularly important from a hiring standpoint. We are careful to hire people who embody our strong, individualized culture. It’s not enough to have a technical competency, you’ve got to be a person that’s going to connect well with our culture. Data and analytics don’t build your culture– the culture is built on values. That’s what’s worked for us for over 60 years. From a value perspective, communication is key–regularly, immediately, and with transparency. Access to LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter makes it easier to gauge what types of communicators you may hiring”.

Larry Pernosky, Amedisys: “We sit on a plethora of data. In redefining our culture, we needed to redefine how we use our human capital data overlaying with business outcomes. You then view your business outcome differently, incorporating engagement data to form a strategy that truly motivates and inspires employees to grow personally and professionally. That ties back to the success of the company.”

How will mobile technologies and the Internet of Things affect the future of HR?

Matthew Owenby, Aflac: “A practical view of mobile technologies and the future of HR is that more Millennials represent today’s workforce and shape the expectation around, ‘I want the ability to sign up for healthcare via my Smartphone.’ And more senior leaders increasingly want to access information real time. We’re using more of a push rather than pull strategy, meaning we are deliberately pushing content, doing more things mobile, from an access to information perspective. Even our internal app which says, here’s what you need to be talking to your people about today and here’s how to incorporate diversity and inclusion in regular touch bases with your teammates”.

Victoria Berger-Gross, Tiffany & Co: “We are continuing to add more mobile technologies in retail, distribution and manufacturing (we are unusually vertically integrated). This connectivity supports absolute alignment between these groups. At retail, repeat and long-term customer relationships are key to our mindset of customer service. Our retail staff are consummate and credentialed professionals – many are gemologists – and we use technology for on-going training. We also use broad consumer analytics to understand the behavioral shopping preferences of different consumer groups, which affects how we select and train sales staff.”

Larry Pernosky, Amedisys: “Tele-medicine, tele-monitoring are becoming increasingly important to acute or even critical acute care. Partnerships across technology streams help us procure the best technology possible. A number one priority is work/life balance, and more often for Millennials. Incorporating fitness, health and well-being strategies, such as personalized data feeds from a Fitbit, builds a caring culture where employees say, “I’ve got an organization who cares, and even provides technology to help me manage my life.”

How do you see the role of HR changing five years from now?

Victoria Berger-Gross, Tiffany & Co.: “For the most part, whatever the size, companies are led by the same number of 10 to 15 people at the top. Data allows us to further scale and be more data driven, especially in the groups with high staff numbers, about scheduling and employee decisions in general. Utilizing people in different locations, not necessarily tied to particular customers in a particular location. Updated, faster customer databases– while balancing essential privacy issue.”

Matthew Owenby, Aflac: “Accessing information in more real-time, user-friendly methods and doing basic and even complex HR transactions via your mobile device, from any location. Increased productivity and efficiency, whereby you no longer require someone to be in an office to perform a transaction.”

Larry Pernosky, Amedisys: “We will have dynamic workforce planning and forecasting capabilities. Companies will make predictive forecasting and analytic decisions versus today’s practice whereby somebody leaves and you replace them. That will change the game, business outcomes, and even capital analytics.

The future of human resources was summed up by Susan Steele, Executive Partner, Talent and Engagement at IBM. “It’s clear that the HR function, along with the entire enterprise, is increasingly becoming more digitally-oriented, data driven and cognitively-enabled. While this trend creates opportunity for tech-savvy HR leaders it can lead to new risks and challenges for those HR executives who are unprepared. I would therefore encourage all Chief HR Officers to begin planning today for the use of cognitive computing in enhancing workforce productivity, reducing business risk and increasing competitive advantage.”

Forbes.com | March 21, 2016 | Robert Reiss

#Leadership : In Business, Risk Never Goes Away, It Simply Evolves…The Period of Existential #Risk is Where Most Businesses Fail. It takes a Lot of Hard Work, Perseverance, & Luck to Survive.

March 20, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

One thing I’ve learned along my manager/ entrepreneurial journey is that business is evolutionary. Risk in particular, never really goes away. In just evolves and takes new and different forms. To understand the evolutionary nature of risk is to understand the lifecycle of your business. Good leaders understand the how risk changes and can focus their skills and efforts accordingly.

Like most things in life, business risk is both nuanced and evolutionary. Entrepreneurs and business leaders need to recognize this fact and understand what phase they find themselves in. The best leaders are the ones who can successfully evolve alongside their company and guide it to success.

While there are an infinite number of different risk phases that business will go through over the course of its life, I think that there are three main “epochs” to which every business owner can relate. Each has its set of challenges and opportunities, and it’s incredibly important for entrepreneurs to recognize where they stand about them.

Existential Risk

The first risk epoch is existential in nature. This occurs during the early stages of business when managers/entrepreneurs have to prove out the viability of their product or service. During this period, the primary focus of the business is the determination of whether or not your product is desired, valued, and functional.

The period of existential risk is where most businesses fail. It takes a lot of hard work, perseverance, and luck to survive. Businesses at this stage are pre-revenue and incur a lot of startup costs. Investors who choose to participate at this stage shoulder a good deal of risk, and as a result generally take a much larger portion of the equity. Managers/Entrepreneurs in this phase of the business have to remain mindful of the unproven nature of their creation and act with the appropriate level of humility and caution.

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Execution Risk

If there is one mistake that I’ve seen many managers/entrepreneurs make time and time again, it’s harboring the false assumption that existential risk is the only risk that matters. While the need to prove out a concept’s viability is obvious, it is by no means the end-all-be-all.

The second epoch is characterized by execution risk, in which businesses work to scale the what they’ve created. This is where the entrepreneurs are separated from the operators. Some people revel in creating something from nothing and have less interest in actually running a business. Those types of entrepreneurs tend to struggle during the execution phase of the business.

Sustainability Risk

The third, and arguably most difficult “risk epoch” is all about maintaining the viability of the business you’ve created. This is the point where the sins of the past come to the surface, and seemingly solid companies can collapse with little warning.

Before founding BodeTree, I worked at the Apollo Education Group. Apollo owns and operates institutions in the for-profit education space, and recently experienced a fairly dramatic collapse. After years of hyper-growth, fantastic margins, and industry-defining advances, the University of Phoenix (Apollo’s flagship institution) is being sold to a group of investors for a mere $1.1 billion dollars. The reasons for Apollo’s fall is all too common: hubris and greed.

In attempt to keep growth rolling at the pace investors had become accustomed to, the organization pursued strategies and avenues that were ill-advised at best and unethical at worst. In short, they failed to ensure that the business had a stable and sustainable future, leading to the organization’s eventual collapse.

Like most things in life, business risk is both nuanced and evolutionary. Entrepreneurs and business leaders need to recognize this fact and understand what phase they find themselves in. The best leaders are the ones who can successfully evolve alongside their company and guide it to success.

Chris Myers is the Cofounder and CEO of BodeTree, a web application designed to help small businesses manage their finances.

Forbes.com | March 19, 2016 | Chris Myers

Your #Career : 5 Things I Wish I Knew About My Career When I Was 25…. 5 Things I Wish Someone Would have Told me About my #Career When I was 25.

March 19, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Ten years ago I was 25 and just finishing graduate school. At the time I was working in mid-management for a state government agency. But, like many young professionals today, I was unhappy. I had what I considered a relatively substantial student loan (which is dwarfed by the average student debt young professionals currently face), and a job I didn’t exactly love.

Looking back I can see how fortunate I was to have things so many people lack.

However, at the time I wanted to do big things and start changing the world, and that wasn’t happening the way I hoped it would.

Ten years later, if I could go back this is what I would tell myself:

1. This too shall pass.

Bad times come and bad times go. Good times come and good times go. It’s common knowledge not to let the bad times drag you too far down, but it’s important to not let the good times pull you too far up, either.

Learn to value the people and relationships that consistently bring you contentment, rather than having your perception dictated by the fleeting victories and losses we all experience.

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2. Play the long game.

If you’re in your mid-twenties you still have at least four decades left in your career. If, like me, you are in your mid-thirties you still have at least three decades left in your career. Make sure you are playing the long game.

Envision where you want to be at the end of your career and make a (flexible) plan working backward from that end goal.

3. Don’t wait for your company to invest in you. Invest in yourself.

One of the biggest mistakes I see people of all ages make is believing that professional development and training is solely the responsibility of your employer. You need to invest in your own development. Knowledge is portable, belongs to you, and will move with you throughout the many job and career changes you are likely to have.

Use resources like Coursera and EdX to get better, smarter, and faster – for free.

Whatever you do, don’t wait for someone else to invest you.

4. Your network matters.

The people you know will open doors for you that your resume – no matter how glowing – will never be able to open. Building that type of network requires investing in the success of others before they ever invest in you. Successful networking is notcollecting business cards or LinkedIn connections in order to build an email list.

Successful networking is sitting down and getting to know other people with the purpose of building a real, mutually beneficial relationship.

5. You are owed nothing.

When I was 25 and finished grad school I thought I would finally get the career opportunity that I was looking for. I would finally do something that excited me.

Three years later, after many, many failed job interviews I got that opportunity.

A year ago, after building a large following on LinkedIn and starting my business, I thought clients would come rushing in the door, and getting clients would be easy.

Getting clients is never easy – but that’s okay.

Nothing is ever easy, and you have to work for it every day. That was true for me at 25, 35, and I assume it will be true at 55.

It will be true for you, too.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

PUBLISHED ON: MAR 18, 2016

BY DUSTIN MCKISSEN

Founder and CEO, McKissen + Company@DMcKissen

Your #Career : How to Find a Job Abroad…Finding a #JobAbroad Can be Difficult. However, If you are Experiencing a Time in your life When you can Easily (or even with some effort) get Up & Move to Another Country, Applying for a Job Abroad Might be a Fun Change for You.

March 17, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Perhaps you have been pondering a career or job change: Maybe you’re bored, maybe your job isn’t good for your health, or possibly you just want to try something new. While it can be difficult to find a job in America, finding a job in a different country can be difficult in other ways. You have to compete with people who already live in your desired area, and often, there are different job requirements or application directions.

Simply finding a job abroad can be difficult. However, if you are experiencing a time in your life when you can easily (or even with some effort) get up and move to another country, applying for a job abroad might be a fun change for you. You won’t always be able to take a job in a different country, and you might find that doing so helps boost your career. Here are some ways to find a job overseas.

1. Do an initial search

Completing an initial search can help you determine what jobs are available, and where the jobs are.OverseasJobs.com or Idealist are great sites to use to start your job search, if you have a specific country in mind. You can also search by your profession. Consider that in order to work in some countries, you may need to know the language (which could narrow your search). Also, although the idea of working in a different country is exciting, you will want to consider all the variables such as cost of living, proximity to stores, availability of the comforts you are used to, cost to travel, and so on. Don’t get caught romanticizing a particular country that won’t meet your needs.

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2. Check with your company

Many companies have international offices, so your company might have opportunities available in different countries. Although a job abroad is desirable to many, it isn’t doable for everyone. If your family is willing to move, or you live by yourself, you may have an advantage over other simarly qualified individuals who can’t pack up and move right now. Because you already work for your specific company, it also might be easier for you to get a job abroad without changing employers. The advantages of working abroad include building your skills, learning to work with people from different cultural backgrounds, and getting to experience a new culture.

3. Get the word out

If your company doesn’t have any international offices, or there are currently no openings, then you might need some extra help. Although there are jobs available in other countries, you may have a difficult time competing with locals unless you have a very desirable skill set or training. In order to help you in your search, start telling people that you want to work abroad. Post on social media, share with friends and contacts, and let other people help you in your search. You never know when you might connect with a friend of a friend who can help you find the right job for you in a different country.

Social media can be very useful, but to make your specific network the most effective, be sure to contact people individually instead of en masse, be clear about what you are looking for, and send your resume to the people you think might be able to help.

4. Gain the skills you need

If you have been searching and applying for jobs and you are not having any luck, you may need to beef up your resume. You can start taking language classes if you want to work in a specific country where speaking the language might help you. You also can look at specific jobs that you might want, and take classes or get certifications that will help make your resume more appealing to the people reviewing your resume.

If you studied abroad in college, you may be able to use that experience to your advantage as well; this is especially true if you are applying to a job in the general geographical area that you studied in. Make sure you include information about your study abroad experience on your resume and in your cover letter. If you didn’t study abroad, and you can afford the time away from work (and the trip itself) you also might want to visit your ideal location for your future job abroad. Then you can include the fact that you will be visiting soon in your cover letter. Doing so may make hiring managers more comfortable since they can meet with you in person.

5. Consider the details

Be sure to consider the different tax rules, the necessity of a work visa, and other important logistics as you attempt to find a job abroad. It’s important that you individualize your resume and cover letter for the specific job you are applying for, as well as the country the job is in; doing so will make you appear more genuine, and will show that you actually looked into the country and the position.

If you make it past the initial cut and you get a phone interview, be sure to do your research and be prepared; also be energetic, be confident, and be sure to give yourself time to think of a good answer. If you have a Skype or video interview, be sure to dress the part.

CheatSheet.com | March 14, 2016 | Sienna Beard

#Leadership : 4 Warning Signs You Have A Toxic Company Culture…Make a Point of Practicing Early Detection, Because If you Protect your Culture, you’ll Protect your Future.

March 16, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

When I took my first job leading a large team, I was sure I knew how to spot a toxic culture. And I was sure that I didn’t have it in my team. I was wrong.

We had issues (many of them were my fault). It wasn’t long until I was a young leader with a toxic staff situation. If you’ve found yourself in that situation, know that you’re not alone.

Just like our bodies, most teams don’t stay healthy without a disciplined effort. I have come to believe that teams will drift toward some level of unhealth unless their leaders are watching vigilantly for the warning signs.

Now that I’ve helped several hundred clients build their teams, I’ve come to recognize there are several early warning signs to toxicity. And just like our physical health, early detection can be the difference maker between staying healthy and becoming terminal.

Here are four early warning signs to look for, and what you can do to fix them.

Sign #1: Rapid Growth Is Killing Your Culture

Believe it or not growth can be the root of toxicity. Growth is great. It’s fun. It’s the goal of all entrepreneurs. But when growth hits breakneck speed, culture is almost always at risk.

Just ask the folks at Zenefits, the three year old Silicon Valley startup that had a $4.5 billion valuation last year. A recent Forbes article outlined the CEO’s troubles that led to his resignation, and a Vanity Fair article outlined some of the cultural mishaps that have made a bad problem even worse.

David Sacks, the company’s new C.E.O. said, “It is no secret that Zenefits grew too fast, stretching both our culture and our controls.” A memo that was sent to the Zenefits staff banning use of the stairwells for smoking, drinking, eating, or inappropriate physical interactions in the stairwell were just a few of the major red flags that their culture was toxic. Many are speculating that the loss of their culture may end up being the death knell of a company with a great idea.

Are you in growth mode?

Take an inventory and make sure your culture can keep pace with your rate of growth. Double down your efforts to guard culture, even if it means slowing down a bit. Assign someone on staff the job of auditing how well your cultural values are being lived out. Growth is an addictive drug. But just as good culture is a Petri dish for growth, rapid growth can be the casket for culture.

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Sign #2: Nobody Talks About Problems

If nobody on your team is vocalizing the issues they see, or suggesting ways of improvement, one of two things is probably happening.

Either you’ve created the most successful company in the history of business and you know everything, or people don’t feel valued enough to think their opinions matter.

Transparency and the ability to raise issues is a hallmark of good culture and a smart team.

At Google GOOGL +0.06%, transparency is a cornerstone of the culture. As Lazlo Bock, head of People at Google, said in a recent interview, “The benefit of [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][transparency] is not just that people feel trusted…The other benefit is they’ll know what’s going on. They’ll make better decisions and they’ll create better products.”

When people feel that they can speak up appropriately without a fear of retribution, they feel valued. The culture goes from a toxic one to an innovative and energetic one. Giving your staff a platform to voice their thoughts lets them know that their ideas matter, which in turn leads to them innovating and creating better ways of doing things.

What vehicles are in place in your company that allow team members to bring up concerns and be transparent? How could you improve awareness of those vehicles to the whole team?

Sign #3: Everybody Talks About Problems

While you want to give people a place to feel heard and valued, the number one toxin I see kill culture is gossip. A workplace full of complaining, negativity, and back talk is a workplace that will have high turnover and low productivity.

The solution?

Declare war on gossip.

My friend and client Dave Ramsey has a “zero tolerance” policy at his office about gossip. They simply do not tolerate it. Does this mean that nobody can bring up concerns? Not at all. He and his team have a motto: “Negatives go up; positives come down.” That means when there are problems, people are encouraged to take that problem “up” to their superiors instead of gossiping with colleagues.

When there is positive feedback, team members are strongly encouraged to send those “down” to team member under them on the org chart. It makes the staff feel valued, keeps the leadership informed of potential issues, and creates a sense of unity for the team. Most of all, it provides solutions to problems. Sideways complaining and blame shifting not only spreads ill will, it leaves problems festering with no real solution.

Do you have a clear policy on how complaints and concerns should be handled? How can you reiterate that among your team?

Sign #4: The System Becomes More Important Than the Mission

Many well meaning leaders hire, fire, strategize, and conduct business in a way that puts old systems ahead of their mission.

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard something along the lines of “that’s the way it’s always been done,” as a reason for leaders making the decisions they do.

There’s certainly a place for sticking to the things that have been successful in the past, but doing things out of habit instead of mission will suck the life from your team and create a toxic culture.

People are rallied to vision and work hard for a mission they believe in. They want to be part of a company that stands by values, but isn’t a slave to systems that block achieving goals. The key to striking that balance is having a litmus test that can be used to decide whether to follow the system or not.

Ed Young is a pastor and friend who has a great test. He says, “Every church is a non-profit, but it has a profit. And that profit is life change.”

If a decision that will affect great life change means circumventing a system, they go for it. But if there isn’t enough potential life change to warrant breaking the system, they go forward with their proven processes.

What litmus test could you implement to tell people when to follow a system and when to ignore it?

I’ve seen these warning signs take root in really great teams over the years. The teams that address them early are able to make change and charge ahead. Those who don’t, suffer the consequences.

Make a point of practicing early detection, because if you protect your culture, you’ll protect your future.

Forbes.com | March 16, 2016 | William Vanderbloemen

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#Leadership : 6 Easy Tricks That Will Make You Way More Productive…“Time is What we Want Most, but What we Use Worst.” –William Penn

March 15, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

When it comes to productivity, we all face the same challenge—there are only 24 hours in a day. Since even the best ideas are worthless until they’re executed, how efficiently you use your time is as important as anything else in business.

I’ve become fascinated by productivity secrets because some people seem to have twice the time, and there’s no better way to reach your goals than by finding ways to do more with the precious time you’ve been given.

It feels incredible when you leave the office after an ultra-productive day. It’s a workplace high that’s hard to beat. In my experience you don’t need to work longer or push yourself harder—you just need to work smarter.

“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” –William Penn

I’ve learned to rely on productivity hacks that make me far more efficient. I try to squeeze every drop out of every hour without expending any extra effort.

And my favorite hack also happens to be the easiest one to implement. It’s so easy and useful you can begin using it now.

1. Never Touch Things Twice

That’s it. Never put anything in a holding pattern, because touching things twice is a huge time-waster. Don’t save an email or a phone call to deal with later. As soon as something gets your attention you should act on it, delegate it, or delete it.

2. Eat Frogs

To pull this off you’re going to have to eat some frogs. “Eating a frog” is doing the least appetizing, most dreaded item on your to-do list. If you let your frogs sit, you waste your day dreading them. If you eat them right away, then you’re freed up to tackle the stuff that excites and inspires you.

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3. Fight the Tyranny of the Urgent

You’ll also need to master the tyranny of the urgent. The tyranny of the urgent refers to the tendency of little things that have to be done right now to get in the way of what really matters. This creates a huge problem as urgent actions often have little impact. The key here is to delete or delegate. Otherwise, you can find yourself going days, or even weeks, without touching the important stuff. You’ll need to get good at spotting when putting out fires is getting in the way of your performance, and you’ll need to delete or delegate the things that hinder real forward momentum.

4. Say No

No is a powerful word that you’re going to have to wield. When it’s time to say no, avoid phrases such as I don’t think I can or I’m not certain. Saying no to a new commitment honors your existing commitments and gives you the opportunity to successfully and efficiently fulfill them. Research conducted at the University of California in San Francisco shows that the more difficulty that you have saying no, the more likely you are to experience stress, burnout, and even depression. Learn to use no, and it will lift your mood, as well as your productivity.

5. Check E-mail On A Schedule

If you aren’t going to touch things twice, you can’t allow e-mail to be a constant interruption. You should check e-mail on a schedule, taking advantage of features that prioritize messages by sender. Set alerts for your most important vendors and best customers, and save the rest until the scheduled time. You could even set up an autoresponder that lets senders know when you’ll be checking your e-mail again.

6. Avoid Multitasking

To make my system work, you’re also going to have to avoid multitasking. It’s a real productivity killer. Research conducted at Stanford University confirms that multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a time. The researchers found that people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information or switch from one job to another as well as those who complete one task at a time.

Multitasking reduces your efficiency and performance because your brain can only focus on one thing at a time. When you try to do two things at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform both tasks successfully. Never touching things twice means only touching one thing at a time.

Bringing It All Together

We’re all searching for ways to be more efficient and productive. I hope my productivity hack helps you to find that extra edge.

What productivity hacks do you rely on? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

Forbes.com | March 15, 2016 | Travis Bradberry

Your #Career : 19 Signs your Company Doesn’t Care about You…One of the Biggest Reasons People Leave their Jobs is Because they Feel UnAppreciated.

March 14, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

“People come to work for more than a paycheck,” says Lynn Taylor, a national workplace expert, leadership coach, and author of “Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant: How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job.” “They want to feel that their contributions are making a difference. If an employer cares about your long-term growth and happiness, you’ll feel a much greater sense of purpose, and reward.”

Michael Kerr, an international business speaker and author of “The Humor Advantage,” points out that Google’s internal research into what makes a great leader at the company found that one of the key ingredients for was “expressing an interest in employees’ well being.” He says Facebook also conducted a company-wide study to seek out the key qualities that made their managers so great, and again, one of the top factors was “caring for their team members.”

“It can seem paradoxical when a company invests so much time in hiring and training an employee, only to eventually squander that asset,” Taylor says. “It’s important to be sure your employer cares about your success and job satisfaction, because without that genuine support, it’s hard to stay motivated, feel that you are part a larger team, and produce your best work. It’s a downward spiral. You could stagnate in your career — unless you notice the signs and take decisive action.”

Here are 19 signs your employer doesn’t care about you:

Your boss doesn’t offer any support, guidance, or feedback.

If your boss doesn’t take the time to offer any feedback, guidance, or support you as you work toward achieving your goals, it can be seriously detrimental to your career, says Kerr.

Taylor says if your boss seems primarily concerned with the tactical aspects of your job and project completion — and less so with whether you’re advancing your skills or being challenged by your work — they probably don’t care about your success.

Yes, he or she may just be a bad boss, but if you see they do positive things with your coworkers, but not you, it’s a bad sign.

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You’re not compensated fairly.

This is one of the most tangible signs, says Taylor.

“An employer that’s not concerned about what you can offer won’t compensate you properly or fairly. Even if you request a performance evaluation, you may be told it’s not necessary, or just ask any questions you may have. The suggestion may even arise that you take a pay cut.”

Monetary signs like this can be blatant red flags that you should start job searching, or you can hurt your long-term career advancement, not to mention experience much distress, she explains.

You’re passed over for a promotion you deserve.

This is another blatant sign. You’re doing excellent work — work that is superior to your colleagues’ — and yet someone less deserving gets a promotion you were in line for.

They never ask you for input or ideas.

If your boss or employer doesn’t care about your ideas or opinions, they probably don’t care much about you, says Kerr.

Your calls for help or resources are ignored.

A company that doesn’t care about your well-being will largely ignore your requests for assistance or tools you need to deliver the best results, Taylor says. “Or they may just make it difficult by making false promises, or dragging out the process to truly address your needs.”

There’s a lack of inherent trust.

“For example, if your boss is more concerned about getting a doctor’s note to justify your absence from work rather than asking about your health and what they can do for you, this obviously reveals concern for you only as a commodity,” Kerr explains.

Plum projects no longer come your way.

You may suddenly lose a project you were handling, or you may no longer get those that relate directly to your expertise, says Taylor. These are never good signs.

Your boss bullies you.

“When they use bullying tactics or give you ultimatums, you may have a problem on your hands,” says Kerr. “Any threatening or intimidation style of behavior that is dismissive of your emotions and reactions means they really don’t care about you as a human being.”

You rarely find out about project outcomes.

“One red flag is that you will contribute to a project, but after it’s completed, you don’t know what the results were,” Taylor says. “You may be fortunate enough to hear it through the grapevine, but you feel as if you are not part of a larger picture.”

They don’t include you in any decisions.

It’s an especially bad sign when your boss is making decisions regarding your career or workload without first consulting you, Kerr says.

You get important company news after everyone else.

If you feel you’re the last person to hear about major company developments, you can easily feel that you don’t count. “You may hear things secondhand or by happenstance,” says Taylor. “It can kill your morale when the event directly applies to your projects.”

Your boss isn’t interested in your personal life … at all.

Some managers try to keep work relationships very professional and avoid talking or asking about your personal life — but if you notice your boss asks your colleagues about their weekends, or their kids, or their new puppies, but not yours, this is a bad sign, says Kerr.

You only hear from your boss when you screw up.

Here’s a big sign: You never hear praise from your boss when you do things well – which is 99% of the time. But if you make just the smallest error, you get an email or invited into their office.

“This is a key sign that they may be taking you for granted and only concerned about your work production,” Kerr says.

Nobody wants to accept your help.

“When you first sense these signs, your immediate reaction may be to contribute more and perform better — but even that may be met with resistance,” says Taylor. “Your boss seems to be circumventing you with no apparent cause. Unfortunately, when there is no explanation, the cause can be due to posturing or a land grab by managers who are rising stars, who want to see their own team members advance. Without the support of your manager, it’s hard to swim upstream.”

It’s best to take action through direct communication, while you seek greener pastures, she advises.

Your boss turns down your requests for a more flexible schedule or better work-life balance.

“If they consistently demonstrate a lack of concern over how working overtime might be affecting your family life, or immediately dismiss requests to switch schedules in order to attend an important family function, this can be a huge sign that they really don’t care about your personal well-being,” Kerr warns.

It’s hard to know where you stand.

“At companies that are political or more concerned with the bottom line, you will languish in a state of the unknown,” warns Taylor. “You can’t get prompt answers. Employers may either be complacent, expecting your long-term loyalty, or they may be on the fence as to whether to keep you on the team. The circumstances may be related to cost savings, politics, market trends, or other factors.”

Still, she says, the result can be maddening. “Studies continue to show employees would rather know they’re under-performing than remain in the dark.”

They make demands of you during holidays or your time off.

Does your boss not respect your weekends, vacations, or holidays? Requesting that you stay in constant touch or finish a project without any concern for how it might impact your time off is a bad sign they don’t care about you, says Kerr.

They blatantly tell you they don’t care about you.

“There are still old school managers out there who will constantly remind their employees outright that they can be easily replaced or that other people would kill to have their job,” Kerr says. “Any comments such as these that treat you only as a commodity reflect a lack of genuine interest in your personal well-being.”

They don’t fight to keep you.

The final sign is this: When you tell your boss you’ve been offered a job elsewhere, or that you’re exploring other opportunities, they don’t fight to keep you.

Businessinsider.com | March 14, 2016 | Jacquelyn Smith

#Leadership : #ProductivePeople -5 Ways #SuccessfulPeople Tackle Monday Morning…Great REad!

March 13, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

One of the most popular posts I’ve written on this blog is How Successful People Start Their Day. It seems like every Manager/Entrepreneur is interested in learning how to get ahead early. But starting every day isn’t the same as starting a Monday. Mondays are proven to be harder to face.

Many studies have shown that on Sunday afternoons, most people start to feel depressed. Maybe you’ve felt it. Work is coming. The weekend is over and it wasn’t all you imagined it would be. The pressure of another week of performance begins to hit early. There are hundreds of reasons why, but Sunday afternoon and evening is generally a downer.

No wonder Monday seems to be so, well… Monday.

Over the years, I’ve studied how people can ramp up for the work week. I’ve come to believe that there are not naturally “Monday” people, but that there are disciplines people follow that help them beat the Sunday blues and ramp up for the work week ahead.

Sleep, but don’t snooze.

Managers/Entrepreneurs are notorious for burning the candle at both ends, but the National Sleep Foundation says that you cannot catch up on lost sleep. There may be no more important night to get rest than Sunday night, and no better remedy for Sunday blues than a solid night’s sleep. The Dalai Lama is quoted as saying, “Sleep is the best form of meditation.”

On the flip side, do NOT hit the snooze button. Dr. Rafael Pelayo of the Stanford Sleep Center says that by hitting the snooze button, you are telling your body “false alarm!” That results in a more groggy and slow wake up than if you just went ahead and got up when the alarm goes off. Monday is enough of a drag on its own. Hitting snooze only digs a deeper hole for you to climb out of.

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Get Physical.

Getting the body in its proper state often precedes the mind and emotions coming its way. If there’s any day this is most true, it is Monday.

An article by Ron Friedman of Harvard Business Review sites countless studies that show exercise not only motivates and improves work performance, but also pulls us out of a slump. One study found that when a group of people suffering from mild to moderate depression exercised (i.e. strength training, running or walking) for at least 20 to 60 minutes 3 times a week, they were significantly less depressed 5 weeks later. The benefits were immediate and were maintained for these participants as long as they consistently exercised.

I’ve taken this message to heart and have made it a practice to never take both Sunday and Monday off from working out. If I do skip Sunday, Monday morning workouts are a must.

Want to beat the Sunday blues? This Monday, get out the door and walk or run.

It doesn’t have to be a P90X workout. Cosmopolitan Editor-In-Chief Joanna Coles makes a Monday walk with her dog a must and says it helps her start her week. Many of my best ideas have come on Monday morning walks with Moses, Vanderbloemen Search Group’s Chief Canine Officer.

Mondays can leave you low on energy and more unwilling to workout than normal. Here’s an old trick I’ve used on myself for years:

I lie to myself.

I’ll head out the door saying “I’m only running 10 minutes, then I’m quitting.” Turns out, I have never wanted to quit once I was out the door and moving for 10 minutes. And I almost always felt better afterward. By releasing some stress, and some endorphins, you will likely kick your body out of the funk Monday can bring.

Keep email in check until you get to the office.

Dave Karp, CEO and Founder of Tumblr, says that he will not respond to email until he gets to the office. I’ve found this to be especially effective for Mondays. The beginning of the week is the time when you set your mental state for the week. Stay focused on the big projects ahead and devote brain power there. The distractive power of email can take your brain away from big planning and into minutia that can wait. Honestly, when is the last time you had a Monday email that had to be dealt with right away?

Never quit (or make big decisions) on a Monday.

There’s an old saying, “Don’t make permanent decisions based on temporary emotions.” That couldn’t be more true than on Mondays.

In our work helping churches find their key staff, Monday is the number one day for resumes to come to us unsolicited. People get bummed out on Sunday afternoon or evening, come into work Monday, and decide that they have had enough. After working with tens of thousands of candidates, we have come to believe that Monday is the number one day people quit their job.

But quitting on a day you’re down is a really bad idea. In fact, making any major decisions when depressed is almost always counterproductive and later regretted .

Making major decisions on the day when you’re down can have serious consequences. Most big decisions can wait until Tuesday, particularly if you start to shape your schedule around the idea.

When I was younger (read, when I knew everything) and leading churches, I thought it was a great idea to start Monday with marathon meetings filled with big agendas and decisions. I even scheduled our board and committee meetings for Monday nights. I was dead wrong. Turns out, not every day was designed for intense decisions.

Schedule work that has tangible results on Mondays.

Just like working out will help you out of the low points, so will working on projects where you can see immediate results.

Behavioral Psychologist Kelly Lambert has done a lot of research that shows handiwork can pull us out of depressed moments. When we knit a scarf, for instance, Lambert says, the brain’s executive-thinking centers get busy planning.

Spend your Mondays with a punch list of attainable goals.

Do tasks and projects that can be completed and have a box to check. Maybe it’s organizing your desk, planning a month of your calendar, writing notes of encouragement to staff, or knocking out some of those menial tasks you never seem to “have time for.” I have learned to keep a running “Monday punchlist” throughout the week so that I have some projects ready to go before I ever get to the office. If you’re anything like me, you will find that finishing a to-do list will do wonders for your soul.

I’m sure there are other tips out there for getting out of a low spot, and maybe some of you don’t suffer from post-Sunday Blues. But if you do, know that you’re not alone, and that they will pass.

I know when I was preaching, as much as I loved it, I often thought, “Sunday seems to come around every seven days!”

The good news is, Tuesday does, too.

Forbes.com | March 13, 2016 | William Vanderbloemen

#Leadership : 4 Keys to a Killer Interview Process…One truth I’ve learned in that experience is: The Most Expensive Hire you Will ever Make is Hiring the Wrong Person.

March 9, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Throughout my career, I’ve made both good hires and bad hires, and I have helped hundreds of clients find their key staff.

One truth I’ve learned in that experience is:

The most expensive hire you will ever make is hiring the wrong person.

Culture, momentum, growth, and morale are just a few of the casualties that come in the wake of a bad hire. In the vast majority of bad hires I’ve seen, there’s one common denominator: a rushed or short circuited interview process.

The old adage is truer to me now than ever: Hire slowly, and fire quickly.

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As I continue to learn how to hire thoroughly, I’ve run across four key components of a thorough and effective interview process.

Use Video Questionnaires as Part of the Process

Simply reading typed out answers just doesn’t cut it anymore. For whatever reason, it’s easier to get a read on people when you’re hearing them talk and watching their body language. There’s no replacement for face to face interaction (see below), but a great way to filter who you should sit down with in person is by having candidates submit video questionnaires specific to the job you are filling. It might sound like a bad version of “The Bachelor,” but what you will learn in a five minute on-camera interaction will help you narrow your candidate pool in the initial stages of your search.

Do yourself, your clients, and your staff a favor, and make sure you invest in an intentional hiring process. It may take more time, money, and energy than you’d like, but it’s a decision that’s too important for cutting corners.

Meet People In Person

Video questionnaires have become a big part of our search process, but I am not a fan of virtual interviews. Why? Not because I am old school or slow to adapt. It is because over 55% of our communication is nonverbal, as Albert Mehrabian, a pioneer in body language research, discovered.

In my work with churches, I tried building a more affordable search solution by cutting out face to face interviews. It sounded like a great idea, but turned out to be a miserable failure. Even though we used the same team, the same process, and had the same database, client satisfaction cratered from nearly 99% (with face to face interviews) to 65% (with virtual interviews).

Even though you can see facial expressions over video, you cannot perceive the 55% of nonverbal communication over video. There are certain qualities, skills, and weaknesses that can only be discovered when people interact face to face.

I’ve come to realize that unless the person will be doing their job virtually, you cannot do their interview virtually.

Yes, flights are expensive and time is precious. But the most expensive hire you’ll ever make is hiring the wrong person. Do yourself a favor and take the time to do in-person interviews.

Peter Drucker is credited as saying, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” I believe this now more than ever.

Include Your Team

Earlier in my career, I thought that doing 360 degree interviewing was an abdication of leadership and a sign of indecisiveness. I was so wrong.

Nowadays, my team has incredible weight and influence on the people we hire on. There are a couple reasons for that.

First, every department lead I have knows the needs of their team better than I do. We’re all on the same page in vision, mission, and values, and they’ll know who will make things run better and fill in the gaps we have as a company.

Secondly, they may be able to pick up on some good or bad traits a candidate has that I might miss.

Finally, including your team in the interview process will protect your culture better than anything else. Nobody will produce better hires for your company than the best hires you have made. Don’t overlook including your key team members in the hiring equation.

Culture Over Competency

My friend Cliff Oxford wrote a great column some years back titled, What Do You Do With The Brilliant Jerk? I hired way too many of those over the years. I saw a rock star and hired them irrespective of whether or not they would fit our team. I’ve vowed not to make that mistake again. It’s never worth it.

Peter Drucker is credited as saying, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” I believe this now more than ever. If you ask our team what our five year plan is, they would look at you like you were speaking a foreign language. But ask them what our culture is like, and they will rattle off our nine values and how they see them lived out at work. Culture is at the core of who we are, and that’s a huge reason for the success we’ve had.

When I hire new people, my first thought is “Do they fit our culture?” When I include others in the hiring process, it’s to protect culture. If they do, then I’ll take a look at things like skills and competency. If they don’t, it’s not even worth a look. The team is more effective when everyone is on the same culture page; and when the whole team works more effectively, the business thrives. Hire strategically. Hire competent workers. But in my experience, if the culture piece isn’t there, the rest is all for nothing.

You can teach skill, but you cannot teach cultural fit.

Do yourself, your clients, and your staff a favor, and make sure you invest in an intentional hiring process. It may take more time, money, and energy than you’d like, but it’s a decision that’s too important for cutting corners.

Forbes.com | March 9, 2016 | William Vanderbloemen

#Leadership : Why We Seem To Be Talking More And Working Less — The Nature Of Work Has Changed….The Real Reason That we Communicate More is Because, Today, we Need to Collaborate More to Be Effective.

March 7, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Are communication technologies like Slack, Yammer and Skype actually helping us, or just getting in the way? Certainly, they have made it easier to communicate, share information and collaborate with colleagues, but what if all that extra communication is actually preventing us from getting important work done?

In a recent article in Harvard Business Review, Bain & Co. partner Michael Mankins estimates that while a typical executive in the 1970’s might have received 1,000 messages a year, that number has skyrocketed to more than 30,000 today and argues that we may “have reached the point of diminishing returns.”

I think just about everyone can see his point. Today, the amount of meetings, emails and IM’s we receive can seem overwhelming and it’s increasingly hard to find uninterrupted quiet time to focus and concentrate. However, the nature of work has changed. The real reason that we communicate more is because, today, we need to collaborate more to be effective.

Today, Machines Do A Lot Of The Work For Us

First, consider how different work was 20 years ago, when Microsoft had just released Windows 95 and few executives regularly used programs like Word, Excel and PowerPoint. We largely communicated by phone and memos typed up by secretaries. Data analysis was something you did with a pencil, paper and a desk calculator.

Now consider how Mankins performed the study he described in the article. He writes, “My colleagues at Bain and I have studied these effects using people analytics and data mining tools.” It’s safe to assume that all that data was collected and analyzed electronically and shared instantly with the press of a button.

It’s also safe to assume that he and his colleagues spent quite a bit of time discussing what the results of all that analysis meant. 20 years ago, they would have had to set up a meeting or a phone call when they were all free, but today, they can toss around ideas between meetings, in airport lounges or even while waiting for an elevator.

As Mankins himself wrote in an earlier article, “Today, an algorithm can assemble many more facts about the accounts than any human being could easily process.” The truth is that we’re increasingly collaborating with machines to get cognitive work done and so it shouldn’t be surprising that we’re taking more time to discuss that work with each other.

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Problems Are Becoming Much More Complex

Another thing to take into account is that the work we do today is far more complex. Would Mankins have even undertaken his study without the “people analytics and data mining tools” made available to him today? Possibly, but it would have been significantly more onerous.

It’s also important to note that the trend toward greater communication is not just visible in industry, but in academia as well, where we can assume that researchers have more options to work quietly and without interruption. Yet they are increasingly choosing to work in teams and those teams outperform solo performers.

The journal Nature recently noted that the average scientific paper today has four times as many authors as one did in 1950 and the work they are doing is far more interdisciplinary and done at greater distances than in the past. It’s hard to see how any of that could happen without the improved communication technologies we enjoy today.

Clearly, technology is enabling us to tackle problems we wouldn’t have dreamed of addressing a generation ago. To work on these challenges, we are increasingly collaborating in teams and our work has become more social and less cognitive.

The Value Of Sharing Information

In the past, communication was often just chit chat. Valuable information was locked away in file cabinets and, if we could find it, we would have to make a hard copy in order to share it with anyone else. Yet today, even teenager with a smartphone has more access to information than a highly trained specialist a generation ago.

For a typical executive, the effect has been even greater. The new technologies that make up the Internet of Things collect information automatically from a vast array of sensors embedded in just about anything you can think of. This data, in turn, is analyzed through the use of other technologies, like Hadoop and Spark, to help us make sense of it.

So it shouldn’t be surprising that we’re discussing all of the information we now have access to. We can glean new insights, share them with others and they can reply with insights of their own. The result of this collaboration is often even more collaboration, as we pull people in with a greater diversity of experience and expertise to get their take.

That doesn’t seem like wasted time to me. The truth is that nature of work is changing. The office is no longer a place where we access information—today, we can do that anytime, anyplace—but rather a place where we access people. It’s where we can meet face to face, communicate non-verbally as well as verbally, build stronger working relationships and collaborate more effectively.

Collaboration Is The New Competitive Advantage

To be fair to Mr. Mankins, his greater point—and the subject of much of his other writing—is that we should put more thought into how we adopt and use our newfound communication assets. Surely, we all spend time attending meetings, getting pulled into conference calls, reading and responding to messages that could be used more productively. And that’s frustrating.

However—and this is a crucial point—we don’t know those interactions will be fruitless until we actually have them. Further, while it’s easy to remember the frustration of having our time wasted, it is not much harder to recall times when we have come across a random thread of information that we were able to capitalize on by sharing with colleagues.

It is also those chance encounters that often lead to bigger things, precisely because we are able to share them, get diverse viewpoints and mobilize the efforts of others. Increasingly, we live in a social economy with collaboration at its center. It is no longer just efficiency, but agility and interoperability that makes firms successful.

So, while I take Mankins’ point about the potential for new communication technologies to unproductively monopolize our time, we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Yes, the cacophony of the constant barrage of communication can seem distracting at times, but it can also open up new worlds of opportunity. That is, if we are paying attention.

Greg Satell is a US based business consultant and popular speaker. You can find his blog at Digital Tonto and follow him on twitter @DigitalTonto.

Forbes.com | March 6, 2016 | Greg Satell