And here's a snippet from the excerpt:

What Is the Best Use of Your Time?

Only you can answer that question, and it will be different for everyone, and will change with circumstances. Nevertheless, there are some guidelines you can follow to help you identify those activities that should be a priority in your current role. To begin, ask yourself:

• What is my unique position on the team?
• What are the factors necessary for me to succeed in this role?
• What are the current risks and priorities of my role?

Here's a direct link to the excerpt: http://800ceoread.com/excerpts/archives/008109.html

"In What Men Don't Tell Women about Business, dynamic young CEO and consultant Christopher Flett invites you into the cigar club for a frank and revealing conversation about what it takes for a woman to reach the top in the business world. His comments may surprise, shock, even offend you--but they will also prepare you for success in an environment still dominated by men."

EIGHT STEPS TO FINDING AND CREATING THE WORK YOU LOVE
By Brian Kurth, author of Test-Drive Your Dream Job

Many of us are still trying to figure out what we want to be when we grow up. We may have good jobs and nice paychecks, but we are not really happy in our work. We daydream about the "what if's" in our life and long for the chance to discover and explore the job of our dreams. Identifying your dream job and the path that will take you there is both a challenge and an opportunity. But by following a realistic step-by-step "vocationing" process, you can pursue your interests and passions to the job of your dreams.

Define Your Dream Job(s)

What are your passions and your interests? What activities give you a sense of purpose and satisfaction? Can you envision yourself in a job that fully engages your heart and your mind? You may still be trying to figure out what you want to be when you grow up. That's okay. The "vocationing" process gives you the opportunity to explore, experiment, and discover what your dream job is and how to pursue it.

Address Your Fears

Financial instability, family disruption, giving up an identity, failing at something new. These are all fears that may stand in the way of pursuing your dream job. The biggest thing you can do to get past these fears is to meet them head-on. Bring these deepest fears to light and examine them with reason; talk about them; play each one out to its most irrational end. What is the worst thing that could happen?

Do Your Research

Internal and external research helps you discover who you are and what kind of work meshes with your deepest self. Do your homework and access resources ranging from the Internet to one-on-one contact with people on-the-job to determine if what you think is your dream job, truly is your dream job.

Find a Mentor

Inspirational, experienced, realistic, forthcoming and optimistic. A good mentor is all of these things and eager to help someone else get started. Recruiting a mentor who is a good match for you requires following a plan of action, asking the right questions, and building a relationship that is mutually satisfying. Having a mentor is the crux to the vocationing process. Whether you're 20-something, 30-something, 40-something, 50-something or even 60-something, you need a mentor!

Test Drive Your Dream Job

There's no better way to learn than by doing. Test-driving your dream job with a mentor provides a hands-on experience that has the potential to change your life. This is the opportunity to learn as much as possible about the job, how you feel about the day-to-day activities, and what it takes to succeed. Whether your mentorship proves your perceived dream job is indeed your dream job or if it is a reality check illuminating that the job is not the one of your dreams, the mentorship experience gives you the required personal and professional due diligence you need prior to making a career decision.

Create an Action Plan

Pursuing a dream job is less a leap than a series of incremental steps that move you closer to your goal. What is critical to reaching that goal is making sure the steps you follow are the right ones. An action plan is needed. If you make a list of all the things you need to learn and do in order to realize your dream job, you will have mapped out a plan for moving ahead. A knowledgeable action plan provides you with the power to forge ahead.

Establish Thresholds

The biggest reason we pursue our dream job is to increase our life satisfaction. It is important to understand how much risk, challenge, and uncertainty you can tolerate before the life satisfaction goal becomes blurred by the process. The vocationing process is as much about what you learn on the journey as the rewards when you reach your destination.

Think Big, Start Small

You don't have to quit your nine-to-five job to pursue your dream job. Obligations and concerns may take you down a less-than-direct path. It may take months, not weeks...years, not months. If you are patient and creative, you can keep your career transition moving forward. The vocationing process will get you from Point A to Point B.

Brian Kurth is the founder of VocationVacations and the author of Test-Drive Your Dream Job Kurth is a sought after expert on how to pursue and attain one's dream job. He has shared his wit and wisdom in appearances on NBC's TODAY Show, CNN, and FOX News, and has been featured in articles in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Fortune Magazine. Many more regularly turn to Brian for his comments, advice and insights. A native of Madison, Wisconsin, Kurth lives in Portland, Oregon.

For more information on VocationVacations, visit www.vocationvacations.com

Six Essentials for Networking

Networking is about creating an extended family. It's about developing connections, caring about people, increasing the size of your "tribe." Most of all, networking is not the awkward social ritual many of us think it is--networking is actually FUN!

Here are my top six networking essentials to rock your career and your life.

1. Practice "Palm Up" Networking. When you network, are you giving, or grasping? Palm up networking embodies the spirit of service, of giving and wanting nothing in return. When you network "palm down" you're grasping for personal gain. Palm up = heart-oriented interaction. Palm down = greedy grasping. Which attitude results in building relationships, providing value, and ultimately bestows benefits on both parties? You guessed it. The universe has a perfect accounting system. Give to others, it'll all come back to you in time.

2. Do Daily Appreciation. Appreciate at least one person daily. Sometimes I do this via e-mail so I can be thorough. And often, to my delight, the recipient will tell me that they are saving the message for when they need a pick-me-up. You can also express appreciation over the phone or in person. Simply tell someone how much you appreciate who they are, what they do, whatever about them moves you. They'll be flattered and you'll feel great.

3. Equalize Yourself with Others. I believe we all have one unit of worth, no more, no less. No one can add to it, no one can take it away. We're all equal. Just because someone is powerful, rich, famous doesn't mean they are better than you. Practice equalizing yourself with others--this will enable you to more comfortably interact with others, and to reach out to people of all walks of life.

4. Rolodex Dip. This is a fun practice when you want to connect with someone but aren't sure who. Flip through your contact database and pick a name. Then think of all the things you like about them. Now call them up to see how they are doing. They'll be surprised and delighted.

5. Pick a "Sensei of the Day." Each day I pick a sensei, a teacher. This is someone who has taught me a lesson or reminded me of something important in life. Your sensei can be a person, a pet, a plant, it doesn't matter. The important thing is to acknowledge that there is much to learn and you are being offered valuable lessons constantly.

6. Do the Drive-By Schmooze. Parties, conventions, groups of all sorts are great opportunities to network, but sometimes you'll be tired, not in the mood, or have too many events in one evening (like during holiday season!). This is when you'll want to use the Drive-By Schmooze. Here’s how:

a. Timebox your networking. Decide that in 30 minutes you'll do a check-in to determine if you need to stay any longer.

b. Set your goal. Determine the number of new connections you want to establish. Remember, your goal is meaningful connections, not simply contacts.

c. Let your intuition guide you. OK, this may sound flaky, but it works! Stand near the door, in a corner, out of the way. Stop your thoughts. Internally ask to be guided to the people you need to connect with. Then start walking. You'll be amazed at who you meet.

d. Connect. You'll always resonate with someone at an event. When you do, ask questions about them, such as: How did you get started in your field? What's your ideal customer? We all love to talk about ourselves, and these questions will not only help you form a connection with this person, but will also tell you how to help them.

e. Offer help and follow through. If you can provide help, jot down ideas on the back of their business card, commit to follow up, and then do it. If you've had a fruitful conversation and want to take it further, offer to meet for lunch or coffee. People say life is 90% about showing up. Nonsense! Life is 90% about following through!

For more tips and helpful info on networking, see the Cool Resources section on www.RulesForRenegades.com.

Christine is author of the book Rules for Renegades: How to Make More Money, Rock Your Career, and Revel in Your Individuality. She's CEO of Mighty Ventures (www.MightyVentures.com), an innovation accelerator which helps businesses to massively increase sales, product offerings, and company value.

(It reminds me of this essay by Anna Quindlen and this blog entry by our very own Kate.)

* * * * * * *

Retaining Youth

You’ve hired them. Now how can you keep them around?

By Cam Marston
Author of Motivating the "What's in it For Me?" Workforce

Things aren’t always what they seem. If I could give you one bit of advice on dealing with the latest generation of employees to come under your management, it would be to remember those words…things aren’t always what they seem.

If you are like most business leaders, you’ve no doubt noticed a trend in the way employees behave in recent years. Most likely you consider it a negative trend – too much entitlement, not enough loyalty, no work ethic, only interested in themselves, and on and on. But I challenge you to consider that perhaps these are not negative trends, just different ones. Things aren’t always what they seem.

To better understand who your employees are and what drives them to succeed, perhaps it’s easiest to understand who they are not. You. That’s right. They may even be your offspring but in the workplace they bear little resemblance to the "you" of yesteryear. Gen Xers (born 1965-1979) and Millenials (born after 1980) are operating in this world with a completely different perspective. Their definitions of loyalty, time and success are often quite different from yours. Rest assured they do recognize all of these concepts and value them in very important ways. The key to your organization’s future success is understanding how the Millenials view the world and using that knowledge to motivate them in a way that works. Here’s a hint: meet them where they are and they will achieve your underlying goals; try to force them to fit your definitions and they will run for the door every time.

So let’s take a look at some of the pervasive myths about our youngest generation in the workforce and discuss why these changes are happening and how you can tailor your workplace to meet the needs of you, your employees and the company.

Sometimes these "girl power" books only reinforce unhealthy attitudes among female professionals who grumble about their minority status in male-dominated fields, yet fail to take action that promotes change. Other times they offer very useful, insightful ideas that can be appreciated--and implemented--by women and men alike.

See Jane Lead: 99 Ways for Women to Take Charge at Work and in Life by Lois P. Frankel, the author of Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office, is about embracing the natural leadership skills women possess--which already match what is expected of leaders--and overcoming "self-sabotaging behaviors" that hinder their ability to move into management and leadership positions. Frankel covers a lot of territory in this book, from traditional (I might say archaic) views on women in leadership, to taking risks, to leading teams or becoming entrepreneurs, and finally bringing up the next generation of women. Here's a brief excerpt:

What Followers Really Want from Leaders
There is no shortage of books that describe the necessary qualities of successful leaders. From gurus like Warren Bennis, Peter Drucker, John Kotter, and Max De Pree, we consistently hear that successful leadership includes the ability to:

• Create a vision, align people behind it, and develop a plan for executing it.
• Communicate in a way that inspires trust and confidence.
• Motivate followers to sustain the effort required to meet organizational goals.
• Build teams that understand and value interdependence and synergy.
• Exhibit emotional intelligence.
• Take risks that will benefit the organization.
• Develop a strong network that will support goal attainment and professional success.

A close look at the list reveals that these behaviors are identical to the ones women routinely exhibit given their own socialization as nurterers, accommodators, and caretakers. It is precisely these factors that lead me to claim leadership is a woman's art.

The Publishers Weekly review had a great line about this book:

"Though much of Frankel's hard-earned wisdom could benefit the Dicks of the business world just as well as the Janes, this businessgirl-power manifesto is passionate, well-researched and authoritative."

For those who are facing gender and diversity challenges in the workplace, and even for those who are trying to mobilize their careers, this is definitely one of those books that has the potential to inspire action.

-Sally Hogshead
Radical Careering

What was Sue Shellenbarger's, the WSJ columnist, solution?

"The No. 1 remedy for burnout, and the belief that you can't take time off is a common self-delusion among burnout sufferers."

Other remedies suggested by Sue:

1. "Seek the perspective of people you love."


2. Set "aside some time each workday for quiet-time rituals such as massage or meditation."

Sue also recommended two books:

• Read Slack to better understand the necessity of having time off.


• Check out Getting Things Done to help "ease your job anxieties".

Competition Demystified by Bruce Greenwald and Judd Kahn (Aug.) - The author revisit and simplify Porter's Five Forces. I was skeptical, but they sold me in the introduction.

First in Thirst by Darren Rovell (Sept.) - This is a interesting brand biography on Gatorade. You will see this book on the BBBT at the end of September.

Bag the Elephant by Steve Kaplan (Sept.) - Bard Press puts out one book a year and each one is without fail is a great title. GUTS!, Marketing Outrageously, and Little Red Book of Selling were all from Bard Press. This year's book is about the idea of small business attracting and retaining big customers.

Radical Careering by Sally Hogshead (Sept.) - The book has great design and a powerful message. It reminds me of Fast Company in its heyday. Brand Autopsy has a nice preview.

Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard (Oct.) - The Republic of Tea and Raising The Bar showed us there was a different way to do business. Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard continues the tradition.

The Big Moo by Seth Godin and the Group 33 (Oct.) - The book is a perfect follow-up to Purple Cow.

The Number by Lee Eisenberg (Jan.) - This book takes a Gladwell-like look at retirement. The question is "What is your number?"

So, there is a little something for everyone to read this fall.

Enjoy!

The Running of the Bulls tells the inside story of this process, and the fascinating institution behind it, through the experiences of seven Wharton students from the class of 2004, including a son of a manufacturing magnate in Bombay, a cheerleader from Texas determined to be a top investment banker, and a first-generation Indian American from Seattle who begins to question whether the Wall Street world is the right place for him. Financial reporter Nicole Ridgway follows each of them through the intensity of recruiting season, when candidates schmooze with employers at lavish presentations— then get bombarded with questions at grueling day-long interviews designed to test their will as much as their intellect.

Here are some of the other titles that have looked at life in America's business schools:

• Snapshots from Hell: The Making of an MBA by Peter Robinson
• Business School Confidential: A Complete Guide to The Business School Experience: By Students, For Students by Robert Miller and Katherine Koegler
• The MBA Jungle B-School Survival Guide by Jon Housman

Paul Falcone has written a book called 2600 Phrases for Effective Performance Reviews. The first half of the book gives you suggestions for skills sets you are evaluating and the second half of the book filled with recommendations for a variety of roles and positions in a typical company.

I thought I might give Jack some suggestions for my next evaluation:

• Remains open-minded and willing to entertain others' ideas
• Works very well with clients as well as staff members
• Requires little or no direction in performing day-to-day responsibilities
• Listens actively
• Always has a smile on his face

P.S. Lisa Haneberg at Management Craft had quite the discussion last week about eliminating performance reviews all together. Here is the link to the first entry of the series.

Halley Suitt linked to a book the other day called The Two Cultures. The book is about the chasm that exists between liberal studies and the hard sciences and the social consequences of that in the world.

A little later that day, I was wandering through the HBS Working Knowledge site and found a three part series on leadership and great books [one, two, three]. The first two part are about HBS professor Joseph L. Badaracco. He teaches a leadership course to MBA students and literature is the basis for the course. Some of the books that the students read include:

• Things Falling Apart by Chinua Achebe
• A Man for All Seasons by Richard Bolt
• The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
• The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
• American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It by Richard Hofstadter

In the final installment, Working Knowledage interviewed literary critic Harold Bloom. He recommends businesspeople read Shakespeare, Emerson, and Freud. On Freud: Businesspeople should not be put off by the fact that he's considered the father of psychoanalysis—which is almost a sect within American psychiatric medicine. There is no twentieth-century writer—not even Proust or Joyce or Kafka—who rivals Freud as the central imagination of our age. Freud is a powerful rhetorician, a subtle ironist, and the most fascinating of all really polemical writers in the Western intellectual tradition. Indeed, I believe that Freud's conceptions are so magnificent that they now form the only Western mythology that contemporary intellectuals have in common. My final thought on the idea of arts and science is the idea of right brain and left brain thinking. And that would lead me to Dan Pink's new book A Whole New Mind. In the book, he argues that if your career is based on left brain thinking, you are going to be fighting some strong forces - Asia, automation, and abundance. To get a sense of what you are up against, read Dan's essay in Wired this month. Not to worry, Dan talks about concepts that he thinks are going to rise to prominence - Story, Empathy, Design, Symphony, Play and Meaning. He says the Masters in Fine Arts is the new MBA. Maybe us business types can learn some things from the arts. What do you think?]]> Careers 2005-02-04T15:46:03-06:00 http://800ceoread.com/blog/archives/005289.html There are two new titles in the "Learned Lessons from Famous People" genre of business books. The first is Lee & Grant: Profile in Leadership from the Battlefields of Virginia by Major Charles Bowery. Bowery draws heavily on the... 5289@http://800ceoread.com/blog/ There are two new titles in the "Learned Lessons from Famous People" genre of business books.

The first is Lee & Grant: Profile in Leadership from the Battlefields of Virginia by Major Charles Bowery. Bowery draws heavily on the lives of these two Civil War generals. He weaves the lessons into the narrative and ends each chapter with a set of takeaways. I enjoyed Appendix C where the author gives instructions on how to organize a "staff ride" on the Virginian battlefields and walk the same route the soliders did during the important battles.

The second title is from the hardest working man in business books - Alan Alexrod. I have talk about him before and he is very familiar with this genre. He wrote titles like Patton on Leadership and Elizabeth I, CEO. His latest is Office Superman: Make Yourself Indispensable in the Workplace. There are 21 strategies from How to Please Perry White to Kareer Kryptonite. I am a comic book fan from childhood, so I was partial to the book from the start. The research Axelrod has done is outstanding. He has mined the history of Superman and pulled out some analogies. Early in the book, he talks about the Stretch Factor:

Just as the story of the source of Superman's powers evolved over time, so did the nature of those powers. When the Man of Steel debuted in Action Comics #1 (June 1938), he couldn't fly, but could "leap 1/8th of a mile" and was capable of hurdling a "twenty story building". He was strong, but not unimaginably so, merely capable of raising "tremendous weights". Was he "faster than a speeding bullet"? No, but he was "faster than an express train". Most of us grew up thinking Superman wass invulnerable to everything except kryptonite, but in Action Comics #1 we are told that "nothing less than a bursting shell could penetrate his skin." Amazing durability, to be sure, but not invulnerable. Over the years, the creators of the Superman stories increasingly added to the super hero's powers. By the 1970's, Superman had penetrated to the core of the Sun without acquiring so much as a tan, he proved himself capable of flying thousands of times of the speed of light, and he even used his prodigious lung capacity to blow out a star as if it were a candle.

Most of us have become all too familiar with inflation, not just in the realm of economics, but in just about everything, including, especially, entertainment. Each new action-adventure flick ups the ante with bigger explosions, faster and more reckless car chases, and oceans of blood and gore where mere lakes had earlier sufficed. It is no different with the comics, but it is also true that Superman's powers grew in proportion to the challenges with which he was confronted. [p17]

Let me also say they did a great job on the book design of Office Superman. There are illustrations throughout the book. They have insets of the major characters from the Superman universe and how they have changed with the times.

If you want examples to learn from, here are two great suggestions.