Can anger help your business? Grrrrr......

In all areas of modern life, anger gets a bad rap....and with good reason. Generally speaking, nothing good happens when people get angry, and when they get reallyangry, bad things often happen. But as the link below suggests, there may be a productive role for anger in certain business situations. In other words, anger might be bad, but maybe it's not all bad. 

if we try to look at anger from a positive perspective,  we can make some interesting discoveries. Anger with another person, for example, is actually based on hope. By getting angry, you hope (and perhaps believe) that you can bring about positive change.

Even if you're a real hothead, you're unlikely to get angry with someone who's five feet tall for not playing in the National Basketball Association. But you might get angry at that person for deleting some important emails -- and underlying your anger is the hope that you can prevent the same mistake from happening again. 

As the link shows, anger may well have benefits in certain well-defined  business communications. There may even be times when getting angry can make the difference between success and failure. But you've got to know when and where to use it. In that sense, anger is just like many other things in life. You don't start your car by letting the air out of the tires, and you don't blow your top at every little thing (unless you're Oscar the Grouch.)

Here's the link to the New York Times article on "The Rationality of Rage" --
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/opinion/sunday/the-rationality-of-rage.html?_r=0

BULLS**T: What it is and how to fight it

If you're like most people, you encounter plenty of bulls**t every day. You may put a bit of bulls**t out there yourself, perhaps without even knowing it. The trouble is, bulls**t can waste a lot of time and as we all know, time is money. So what is to be done?

In 2005, a tiny book by a Princeton University philosophy professor became an unlikely bestseller. The professor's name was Harry Franklin and the book was called "On Bulls**t," except without the asterisks. "On Bulls**t," was a true mini-book, less than 70 pages and about four by six inches in size.

The book was a point-of-purchase item, placed in the checkout lines of Barnes&Noble and other bookstores -- and the public ate it up, so to speak. "On Bulls**t" was on the New York Times bestseller list for more than six months.

Toward the start of the book, Franklin makes a basic distinction between old fashioned lying and modern day bulls**t. The difference is this: in a traditional "lying conversation" between two people, the liar knows he is not telling the truth and the other person doesn't  know it. But in a bulls**t conversation both people know it's bulls**t but this is not acknowledged by with either of them. They just go right on ahead, collaborating in their bulls**t.

As the book points out, this kind of interaction takes place all the time in the contemporary world. In fact, it might now be the most widespread form of communication, especially since the internet has emerged as a hugely powerful means for spreading bulls**t around. So an effective defense against bulls**t begins with awareness. If you smell something, say something. 

Most dangerous of all, bulls**t can become so pervasive that it becomes our natural habitat. We're not even really aware of it anymore, just as fish aren't aware that they're swimming in water.

And why is that so dangerous? Well, there are always a few people -- maybe one or two, or a couple of hundred, or a few thousand -- who remain outside all the bulls**t and see what's really going on. Who are those people? Unfortunately, the book doesn't say. And Professor Franklin's next book, entitled "On Truth," was nowhere near as big a success. 

You can read a pdf of "On Bulls**t: online. Here's the link:
http://www.csudh.edu/ccauthen/576f12/frankfurt__harry_-_on_bullshit.pdf

The book, though short, is not light reading, so here's the wikipedia summary:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Bullshit

Can your time be wasted? That depends...

Creative people are notorious time wasters. Often that's the cause of domestic disagreement. Picasso's wife had to coax him out of bed every morning. Mario Puzo wrote "The Godfather," one of the most important books in American literature (my opinion) but he'd spend hours lying on his back staring at the ceiling. When his wife suggested he get busy -- they were broke at the time --he declared, "I'm working!"

But the corporate world is less flexible for dreamers, and less forgiving. Geniuses may need to waste a certain amount of time, or seem to, but an executive has to be accountable in a different way. In fact, I've always felt that time management is one of the most underrated elements of business success. 

Along those lines, the late NFL football coach George Allen once performed an interesting experiment. He telephoned the offices of every team in the league at exactly one minute after nine in the morning. Without exception, the teams with winning records picked up while the others must have had something else to do. Or maybe they were just wasting time. 

Here's a useful article on how to identify and deal with time wasting distractions in the workplace. It will only take about five minutes to read. Go for it!

http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucekasanoff/2014/03/20/three-powerful-ways-to-stop-wasting-time/

Smile! Research shows it makes you look smarter

The link below uses an analysis of TED talks -- we've all seen a few of those, right? -- to show why some speakers make a good impression and others don't. 

Of course, this information can be applied to any public contact interaction. Some of the ideas are probably familiar to you already: you have only a  few seconds to make a  good first impression, for example. But the idea that cheerfulness equates with intelligence is something I haven't seen documented before. 

Based on convincing  research, these are the five components of a well-received TED presentation:

-- It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it
-- The more hand gestures, the more successful the talk
-- Scripts kill charisma
-- Make a grand entrance
-- Smiling makes you look smarter

Keep these in mind whenever you need to make a really positive impression in a business setting. And in particular, get over the idea that wisdom brings unhappiness, or that unhappiness shows wisdom. 

Emily Dickinson wrote, "I like a look of agony, because I know it's true." She was a great poet, but she didn;t need to make any money!

Here's the link:
http://www.scienceofpeople.com/ted/

"Finite and Infinite Games" -- A book to rock your world

If there is such a thing as a "cult book" in today's Googled-out world, this brief but powerful volume has got to be it. Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse, a professor emeritus of philosophy and religion at New York University, audaciously defines all human experience as two  different kinds of games:

                    -- Finite games are played with the goal of winning
                    -- Infinite games are played with the goal of continuing the game

Beyond this brief summary, there really is no way to further abbreviate the contents of this remarkable book. It transcends categories, and so does the author. Though Carse has had a career as a professor of religion, he does not believe in God. But he is "endlessly fascinated with the unknowability of what it means to be human, to exist at all." 

Here's a link to the Amazon page where you can order Finite and Infinite Games in hard copy or electronic edition. You can also see readers' reviews. One reviewer says, "Read this book, be captivated by it, but don't expect any final answers." Of course, once you grasp the concept of an infinite game -- whether it's in business, philosophy, romance, or life itself -- you definitely won't expect any final answers. You won't want them either. 

http://www.amazon.com/Finite-Infinite-Games-James-Carse-ebook/dp/B004W3FM4A/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442429741&sr=1-1&keywords=Finite+and+Infinite+Games

Would You Want To Work For You? "Be The Change You Want To See."

I'm approached every day by client companies desperate to find and retain top talent. Almost always, the company is eloquent about what kind of person they're looking for. Some want only Ivy League graduates, others want people with "real world" experience -- but they have a clear picture of who they want and why. 

That's great. It's a good start. The next step for my client is to look through the other end of that magic telescope and see what candidates want in them. What are the questions really great candidates are going to ask? What are the irresistibly enticing answers a client needs to have available?

Mahatma Gandhi was not really a businessman, but his most famous statement has profound applications in corporate life: "Be the change you want to see." Of course you want to hire the best, and the surest way to accomplish that is by being the best yourself.

And there's more to that than just offering a rich compensation package. Here's a very practical article on the questions you need to ask yourself in order to give candidates the answers they need to hear: 

http://www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/5-simple-questions-that-will-lure-top-talent-in-your-door.html

Choosing Images for Social Media: One size doesn't fit all

Marshall McLuhan, a brilliant English professor turned social scientist, famously declared that "the medium is the message." In other words, the means by which you communicate an idea will have greater impact than the idea itself.

But what kind of medium is the internet? What does it do well, and what does it do poorly? Most importantly, how can you use the Internet's strengths and avoid its weaknesses in order to optimize your business. 

It's difficult to generalize about something as vast and shapeless as the Internet, but I believe one basic fact should guide everything you do online. You must always be aware of the startling quickness and ease with which a viewer can break the connection with your content. Click! -- and they're gone. 

Consequently, everything you do on a blog or website should draw the visitor forward -- because if they're not drawn in, they're instantly going to be out. 

The first all-important element in this process is your selection of an image to capture a user's attention and motivate a "click-through." This is where McLuhan's insight can come in handy, because different areas of the Internet universe can be seen as fundamentally different mediums. Even within the sub-category of social media, the requirements of Twitter, for example, will be very different from those of LinkedIn or Instagram. 

Here's a good article about selecting images for social media. Since the picture is the first thing users will see from you, it's critical for the picture to motivate the next click. But even without a picture, I hope I've motivated you to click on the link below: 

http://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-choose-social-media-images/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=owned_social&utm_campaign=social_h

Workers' Paradise! The three "must haves" for employee satisfaction

What does it really take to recruit and retain top-flight business talent? And what does that talent need to see in order to sign on?

The difference between success and failure -- for a company or a career -- can depend how you answer those questions. Fortunately, the correct answers are very simple, Unfortunately, that simplicity is often unrecognized or ignored, leads to enormous wastes of time, money, and emotion. 

In my opinion, the definitive study of employee satisfaction is a book entitled The Enthusiastic Employee, by David Sirota, PhD. After a truly vast amount of research, Sirota identified three workplace attributes that companies must provide for employees -- and that employees must see in order to sign on with a company. 

What are these elements? Sirota says nothing about a basketball court on the corporate "campus" or gourmet food in the cafeteria. Instead, here are the factors he cites: 

                    -- Fairness: People need to know that they're working
                        on a level playing field. Favoritism, nepotism, sexism,
                        ageism, and a dozen other "isms" have got to be taken 
                        out of the equation. 

                     -- Meaning: No one wants to feel that their work has no substantial 
                         purpose or effect. There has to be a sense that something                 
                        significant is at stake in the work, and that a real benefit will be
                        achieved through work  done well. 

                     -- Community: Building "team spirit" may sound corny, but                                          employees want and need to feel good about their colleagues,
                         subordinates, and supervisors. This may not mean buddy-buddy
                         friendship, but it definitely means shared trust and respect. 

So there you have it! Just three elements. Simple to declare, but not always simple to create -- and often not easy to find. But these are the "must haves" for bringing talent into a corporate team, and for keeping that team together. 

Here are some links for further information on Dr. David Sirota's The Enthusiastic Employee:  

https://peoplecyclotron.wordpress.com/articles/sirotas-three-factor-theory/

http://www.amazon.com/Enthusiastic-Employee-Companies-Profit-Workers-ebook/dp/B000P28VQI/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1441727977&sr=1-10&keywords=sirota

Some Outstanding Information on the Recruiting Experience

This article is an unusually detailed overview of the recruiting process, from the perspective of the candidate as well as the hiring entity -->>

http://blog.hootsuite.com/rethinking-candidate-experience-with-hoothros/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=owned_social&utm_campaign=social_hoot