HBR’s Most-Read Research Articles of 2021

Summary.   

What will it take to make work better? Over the past year, HBR has published a wide array of research-backed articles that explore topics ranging from retaining employees to overcoming meeting overload to fostering gender equity in the workplace. In this end-of-year roundup, we share key insights and trends from our most-read research articles of 2021.

As the workplace rapidly transforms in the wake of the pandemic, social movements, and more, a fundamental question remains: How can we ensure we’re making work better — for employees, organizations, and society at large?

Over the past year, HBR has published a wide array of research-backed articles exploring that question, looking at everything from retaining employees to overcoming meeting overload to fostering gender equity in the workplace. With the year coming to an end, we decided to take a look at what resonated most with our readers in 2021. Our most visited articles include a broad range of ideas, but several distinct trends emerged:

Managing Through the Great Resignation

Our two most-read research articles from the past year both focus on one of the biggest issues on all our minds: the Great Resignation. In Who Is Driving the Great Resignation?, data from nine million employees at 4,000 companies around the world sheds light on which segments of the global economy have experienced the most resignations. It turns out that rates have been highest among mid-career employees, and among those in the health care and tech sectors. The article recommends that firms take a data-driven approach to boosting retention by quantifying the problem, identifying the root causes that are driving employees to leave, and developing tailored retention programs.

A related piece, Research: Why Rejected Internal Candidates End Up Quitting, explores a common driver of resignations: If an internal candidate is passed up for a new opportunity, research shows that they are more than twice as likely to quit shortly thereafter. Of course, not every internal candidate is the right fit for the job, so what can organizations do to encourage internal applicants while still making the necessary hiring decisions? The authors found that rejected internal candidates were half as likely to quit if they interviewed with a hiring manager, or if they were passed over for another internal candidate, since these signals suggested that even though they didn’t get the promotion this time, their candidacy was taken seriously. In other words, even if an employee is rejected today, they are more likely to stick around if they feel they have a good chance of advancing tomorrow.

What Employees Want (and Need) to Thrive

Of course, convincing people not to quit is really just the bare minimum.

Complete at HBR

 

A New Approach to Rebalancing the U.S-China Trade Deficit

Tariffs have not succeeded in reducing the U.S. trade deficit with China. A much better way for the U.S. to tackle this problem and rebuild domestic production is a cap-and-trade system similar to the one for greenhouse gas emissions. The beauty of such a system is its insulation from political favoritism and bureaucracy: Market forces would determine who buys licenses and what gets imported. The cap’s level can be managed relative to a target such as GDP or the size of the trade deficit.

Three years of trade war and supply disruption from the pandemic have the United States looking to reverse decades of migration of American production lines to China and the resulting loss of industrial capability and manufacturing jobs.

The U.S. government wants to rebuild domestic production, especially of critical items, and reduce dependence on an increasingly hostile strategic rival, and U.S. corporations are rethinking their sourcing risks given that China President Xi Jinping could shut down shipments to the United States at any time.

The one policy tool that would do both is a cap-and-trade system that would entail the U.S. government issuing rights to import certain dollar amounts of Chinese goods and then allowing those rights to be traded.

The Need for a New Approach

Other tools have failed: U.S. imports from China continue to rise and in 2021 will likely exceed the pre-trade war 2018 peak of $539 billion. If the United States were to raise existing tariffs on Chinese goods or impose new ones, China could easily follow suit as it has in the past; tariffs also create uncertainty for buyers in terms of their duration and the likely tit-for-tat responses they provoke. The United States has won the lion’s share of the complaints it has filed with the World Trade Organization against China for issues involving individual products, but by the time the WTO has completed the long adjudication process and levied a penalty tariff, the damage has been done.

Complete Article at HBR

 

Difficult questions to answer in a job interview

If you are about to show up for a job interview, you should be prepared to answer those questions that will stagger you. Here are some recommendations.

According to a small business report, 50 percent of companies in 2016 say the hiring stage is the toughest challenge they face. 50 percent of companies keep the hiring area active, this means that your ideal job is waiting for you.

Now, it's time to prepare for interview questions that would make even the most skilled of interviewees nervous.

Despite all the preparations, a job interview is a nerve-racking experience. To make matters worse, interviewers have numerous questions that can easily get in the way of the interviewee.

These questions are not malicious. They try to get a clear picture of the candidate to make sure they are qualified for the job and that they can be a good fit for the company.

Over the years I have hired hundreds of people and interviewed thousands of candidates. As a recruiter, taking candidates out of their control state allows me to see how they can thrive under pressure in the workplace.

No matter how experienced or prepared you are, sometimes these questions are designed to trip anyone up. If you want to avoid it, you should prepare some answers for difficult questions like the following 11 examples.

1. "Can you tell me about yourself?"

This may sound like an innocent and straightforward question, however, it can mislead you to the point of delving too deeply into your personal life. The great interviewers through conversation determine aspects such as culture; You should focus it on your academic training, your professional career and recent work experiences.

How to respond: don't talk about your family or your hobbies. Stay focused on sharing information about how you can be a good fit for the organization.

2. "Are you the type of person who checks your email on vacation?"

On the one hand, you want to convey the dedication and passion you have about your job, you want to assure the interviewer that you are available and that you are trustworthy; Similarly, you must imply that you know the value and importance of work-life balance away from it.

Complete Article at Entrepreneur India

 

Job Interview Preparation Checklist: Don't panic! Be prepared by following these 10 steps.

So you applied for a job online, and just got a call from the recruiter asking if you can interview with the hiring manager. You are super excited until you hear that the interview is happening in 48 hours. Two days. OMG!

Don’t panic; just prepare! Glassdoor has got you covered. Complete with timing and strategy, we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of essential ways to gear up for your interview and knock it out of the park. Ready, set, prep!

As soon as you hang up with the recruiter:

1. Study for your interview like it’s a final exam.

Find as much information as you can on the company or organization, and commit as much of it to memory as possible.

If the job you’re interviewing for requires knowledge in a certain field, do all of the learning and brushing up you can on information that will be relevant to your interview.

2. Generate a list of potential interview questions (and their answers!) beforehand.

Base your list of questions on both what you expect them to ask and the real life experience of others

Reach out to people who worked in similar companies and positions as you are interviewing for and ask them about their interview experience

Use tools like Glassdoor’s interview question database to look up real interview questions and their answers.

36 hours before the interview:

3. Write out answers to every question you anticipate, and practice delivering them out loud.

Even if you don’t remember your responses word for word, you can fall back on certain key points and phrases.

Write your own list of questions for the interviewer, and be prepared to ask them when the time arises.

Make sure your questions are nuanced and well-researched. Never ask for any information that can be simply found online.

Complete Article at Entrepreneur India

 

So You Botched a Job Interview. What’s Next?

Summary.   

There’s nothing worse than preparing for an interview and blowing it. How can you move forward after flubbing a question — or an entire interview? The author offers five ways to turn a bad interview into success. First, take time to debrief yourself after the interview. Second, use a thank-you note as an opportunity to clarify any questions you might not have answered as well as you would’ve liked. Third, try to keep from ruminating. Fourth, keep your job search moving. Finally, prepare for your next interview — either at the same company or a different one.

You’ve prepared. You’re ready. You either go to an office or hop on a video interview. And then, disaster. Or at least you think disaster.

There’s nothing worse than preparing for an interview and then blowing it. I’ll never forget the time I was meeting with three people, each with a role open. It was going perfectly until one of them asked, “How do you use your role to drive business?” At the time, I was transitioning careers from lawyer to HR business partner, and my job was to mitigate risk. I had never even thought about how my role was used to “drive business.” Worse, I had no idea what that even meant. I tried to tell a good story but could see by the interviewers’ body language (and the fact that one of them asked the question again after I answered) that my answer wasn’t resonating. I knew in that moment that I blew it.

Complete Article at HBR

Stop Working So Hard. Differentiate Yourself Instead.

Know your value and optimize every action you take towards showcasing that value.

ou’ve probably heard the phrase “work smart not hard” so many times that seeing it written down almost sends you off into a slumber. Yet working hard may not get you noticed the way differentiating yourself does. When it comes to business leadership, some people believe that it all comes down to productivity and efficiency. And while these things certainly play a role, there’s also something to be said for the power of knowing your value and optimizing every action you take towards showcasing that value.

So, how can you differentiate yourself from everyone else?

It’s okay if you can’t answer that question right now. Here are a few ways to identify your “selling points” and leverage them effectively.

Find your selling point

Some people don’t like it when workers are treated as commodities by companies, but in this case, it makes for a great metaphor. When a startup founder launches their business, one of their key considerations is the unique selling point of their product or service — the thing that makes it different from the competition.

Likewise, if you want to differentiate yourself and tap into your true worth, you need to know your “selling point.” 

What can you do better than everyone else at your workplace, or even among your friends and family? Examples include:

• People skills
• Knowledge of software
• Logic
• Experience working for respected companies

Your selling point doesn’t necessarily have to be something that’s directly related to your work. Being funny might not make you a better leader, but it could certainly make it easier for you to network. Being a math whizz doesn’t have an obvious link to a job as a human resources director, but maybe it could help you add a component of data analysis to what you do.

You can get creative, but just make sure that your selling point isn’t that you’re cheaper than everyone else.

Complete Article at Entrepreneur India

How Midsize Firms Can Attract — and Retain — Talent Right Now

Summary.   

Midsize companies have weaknesses when it comes to addressing the talent issues they face — but they also have critical strengths. The authors present three steps leaders can take to leverage those strengths and prevail in the toughest talent market in memory. First, they should identify and prioritize exactly which talent they’re lacking — the solution for a shortage of managers is different than one for a shortage of developers. Second, they should revamp the recruiting and onboarding process. Finally, they should craft a retention strategy. By combining the advantages they have over large companies with focused initiatives, middle-market companies can get through the current crisis and find themselves with stronger long-term talent capabilities as well

While companies of all sizes are struggling to keep and find people during the Great Resignation, it’s hitting the middle market especially hard — and middle-market companies often find themselves with an inadequate toolkit to address the problem. The same old approaches aren’t working in the crisis and will not build the capabilities companies will need in the long run.

And crisis isn’t too strong a word. In surveys conducted by AchieveNEXT in August and again in September, middle-market CFOs and CHROs said that attracting and retaining talent is their number-one challenge — cited as such three times more often than supply-chain disruptions and nearly four times more often than costs. Worse, nearly half (47%) told us that their enterprise lacks the tools to address their talent-retention problems.

Complete Article at HBR

How to Convince Yourself to Do Hard Things

Summary.   

When we’re tired or stressed, our brains want to save mental energy and help us make decisions quickly. We’re wired to move toward things that make us feel good and away from things that make us feel uncomfortable. Our brains tag effort as bad, because it’s hard work, and we’re more likely to “go with our gut” instead of carefully considering all the available information. So how do we do hard things when our brains are constantly telling us to avoid effort? The author offers three tips.

Ask anyone how they’re feeling these days and chances are they’ll reply with some version of “exhausted.” We’re tired of operating amid uncertainty. We’re tired of balancing childcare with work. We’re tired of staffing shortages and supply chain problems.

When we feel like this, our brains want to save mental energy by directing our focus to the most readily available, recallable information to help us make decisions quickly. We often do this by going with our gut and making our best guess.

Complete Article at HBR

Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein Applied the Concept of 'No Time' to Boost Their Creativity. What Does It Entail?

According to neuroscience, taking a break from our busy schedules and devoting some time to doing absolutely nothing is key to fostering creativity.

An essential element to achieving success is implementing a proper routine on a daily basis, as science and history point out.

The magazine also points out that many successful people have dedicated a large part of their lives to "no time." 

Steven Kotler, author of the book "The Art of the Impossible" and a TED speaker, pointed out that "no time" has to do with a quiet moment in which a person can isolate himself, herself or themselves from the noise and demands of the world.

It's no wonder that the internet is full of articles related to the morning routines of important and famous figures, giving suggestions on how to add positive activities to your day-to-day life.

In order to have a beneficial and satisfying life, it is advisable to take into account  gratitude practices, nature walks and connection with oneself, since they are backed by research that confirms that all these activities are good for people. Likewise, science indicates that "no time" is much needed in such a routine, because if you spend most of your day with all of these existing habits, it is unlikely you will have time for yourself.

Complete Article at Entrepreneur India

5 Skills Public Health Officials Need to Combat the Next Pandemic

Summary.   

The pandemic has highlighted the huge challenges that public health agencies face in combating such major, fast-moving threats. In this article, the people who led New York City’s response to the pandemic, highlight five leadership skills that public health managers require and recommend training programs to ensure that they have them.

In the United States, federal and state initiatives to revitalize public health agencies have focused primarily on hiring and training frontline personnel, such as community health workers, epidemiologists, and microbiologists. The Covid-19 pandemic also exposed a need to improve leadership skills of executives of public health agencies.

During the pandemic, there was a massive turnover of public health agency leadership, with many state and local public health officials being fired or resigning due to public abuse, disputes with elected officials, exhaustion, or public controversies. A New York Times investigation published in mid-October found that “more than 500 top health officials …left their jobs” during the pandemic in what has been called “the largest exodus of public health leaders in American history.”

While many people have the technical qualifications to fill these newly vacant positions, they also require key leadership skills. Many programs provide leadership training and coaching for business and government, but few address the unique cognitive and management skills that are needed to lead public health agencies, particularly during infectious disease epidemics. Based on our experience leading the Covid-19 response in New York City, we believe that public health leaders require five essential skills to effectively manage the next pandemic.

Skill #1: Translate Science

Public health leaders are expected to not just be managers and spokespersons for their organizations but also subject matter experts for complex issues that cross multiple disciplines, including epidemiology, microbiology, and medicine. They must be able to rapidly assess new scientific information and synthesize the key points for different audiences, including policymakers, health care professionals, and the public.

Complete Article at HBR

Microsoft India to hire from local talent pool for new India Development Center

 

Microsoft is going to increase its footprint across India, through the launch of its India Development Center (IDC) in Delhi NCR. For the IDC, the company aims to hire talent from the local pool from engineering and management institutions.

Though the company has an IDC at the NCR but citing the prospect of the market at NCR, Microsoft is further expanding its facility in the region by opening one more site at Noida to better meet the needs of the customers and create a direct and indirect economic impact in the region.

The development centre expands over an area of  150,000 square feet and is built to drive digital innovation through expanded teams in Cloud & AI, Experiences and Devices Group, Microsoft Digital Teams, and the new Gaming division have a growing presence in India.

Complete Article at People matters

MedCord's Aayu App to hire 10,000 people pan India

MedCord, a healthcare platform has recently launched the ‘Aayu Ambassador Program’ to generate employment for about 10,000 people pan India and 2,000 people in Rajasthan. The aim of this program is to spread awareness about healthcare in every nook and corner of India. 

Aayu app is planning to hire people in its core team for the roles like Director Marketing, Lead UX, Lead Content, Director Partnerships, Brand Manager, Business Analyst, Product Analyst, Copywriter, Senior Backend Developer, Jr. Backend Developer, Jr. Kotlin Developer-4 (fresher). 

Commenting about the program, Shreyans Mehta, the Co-Founder at MedCords, stated that the services of the Aayu App are now being used in cities, villages, and even hamlets in large numbers. The objective of the Aayu App is to provide efficient, accessible, and affordable health care services to every Indian.

Mehta added that in this age of technology, platforms like Facebook and Whatsapp are being used widely and efficiently. This is the right time to deploy technology and use it for the right purposes, which is to take health care services to the doorsteps so that people can avail these facilities from the comfort of their home, he said. This will reduce the overcrowding at the hospitals for health care services, and strengthen the technical healthcare infrastructure simultaneously.

Complete Article at People matters

How Higher Ed Can Prepare Students for Today’s Digital Jobs

Summary.   

While colleges have continued to do a reasonably good job of preparing students with the cognitive skills they need to become successful professionals, employers have changed. Systems and processes that were once physical or manual are now digital and automated, and governed by sophisticated new business software or SaaS platforms that require dozens — if not hundreds — of hours of training in order to navigate them competently. To prepare students for a post-Covid future, colleges and universities need to double down on preparing them for digital jobs. But even teaching platform skills aren’t enough. Few employers are interested in hiring candidates who’ve just completed a training program, they’re looking for relevant work experience. The good news is that there are two promising models for colleges to go beyond the traditional career services function to provide students with relevant digital training and work experience.

When the world paused for Covid, there was a real sense of stasis or loss in higher education, as the remote experience failed utterly to replicate or replace the immersive on-campus experience. But while higher education paused, the rest of the world didn’t stop. In fact, digital transformation of the economy accelerated. Back in May of 2020, MIT’s David Autor referred to the pandemic as an “automation-forcing event,” an idea that’s proved prescient as companies double down on digital transformation in order to engage with all stakeholders — customers, suppliers, shareholders, lenders, and especially employees — remotely.

So as students returned to campus this fall and campus leaders tout a return to some kind of (masked) normalcy, it’s natural to want to throw frisbees around the quad and put all the digital, remote stuff behind us. Headlines about the hot labor market for college grads make it even more tempting. Unfortunately, given the digital transformation we’ve seen, this is the calm on campus before the storm. Colleges and universities must urgently figure out how to provide students with digital platform skills and get them essential relevant work experience. Institutions that do so will position themselves at the forefront of higher education in the post-pandemic era.

Complete Article at HBR

How to Set Boundaries with a Chatty Colleague

Summary.   

You might think you’re being generous or patient by listening to a chatty coworker talk endlessly, but you’re simply letting resentment fester that’s toxic to your emotional well-being and productivity. The author offers advice for setting boundaries with a talkative colleague in a compassionate, diplomatic way that still allows you to get your work done: 1) Preempt their request, 2) drive towards a close, 3) perfect the art of interruption, 4) come from your perspective, 5) direct dialogue to a certain time, and 6) have a big picture conversation.

Charlotte arrived at our coaching session frazzled and distraught. “I can’t stand it anymore,” she huffed, throwing her hands up. Charlotte explained that she had had another meeting with her chatty counterpart on the data science team. While she generally enjoyed working with this colleague, Charlotte felt frustrated that their planning sessions regularly ran 20 to 30 minutes over the scheduled time, causing her to be late for her other appointments. Charlotte’s colleague tended to ramble and blather on and on, talking in circles about their analytics, not allowing anyone else to get a word in edgewise.

You may relate to Charlotte’s situation — at some point in our careers, we’ve all encountered a talkative colleague. They may be the person who constantly pings you on work messenger throughout the day, who drops by your desk unannounced to monologue about their weekend, or they’re the one who calls you up saying they need to chat for 10 minutes (which turns into an hour).

Complete Article at HBR

 

Leaders who incorporate ‘resilience’ as a design element will experience greater success: President & CHRO - Wipro

Organisations that focus on employee well-being and push the meter on employee experience will be the successful ones, says Saurabh Govil, President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Wipro.

The pandemic has wiped out many long-held beliefs of employers and altered employee preferences for good. The pandemic has impacted employer-employee relationships differently across different industries globally. Employee attitudes towards work and employment have changed significantly during the pandemic. The hybrid mode of work, which most employers have embraced, is not just about providing flexibility but also a strong signal about inclusivity, promoting equity and embracing diversity. Companies that espouse and practice an inclusive and diverse culture are likely to be more successful than others, says Saurabh. President & Chief Human Resources Officer at Wipro, Saurabh is also a member of the Management Team. In this role, he leads all Human Resources functions for Wipro. Despite having over three decades of experience Saurabh still considers himself as a newbie who constantly maintains a child-like curiosity to learn new things. Before joining Wipro, he worked in organisations such as ITC and GE.

Here are the excerpts of the interview.

How do you see the current IT industry landscape and what are some of the significant trends that are transforming the tech industry?

Restrictions during the pandemic accelerated technology adoption by consumers. People are now more comfortable interacting with the world on digital platforms. Similarly, the pandemic exposed vulnerabilities in our supply chains and organisations will be moving to build robust arrangements for the future. Organisations have re-imagined physical workspaces, re-evaluated real estate costs as well as personnel policies. 

Complete Article at People matters

Education financing platform Propelld to hire over 120 staff in 2022

 

The company is hiring for several departments like Tech, Operations, Collections, Business Development/Sales, Relationship Management, Finance, Credit, and Legal.

Education financing platform Propelld has announced its planning to recruit over 120 employees across the verticals by the end of FY 2022. The announcement comes after 63 recruits had already joined the company, with the company aiming to fill its project and alliance management positions.

Currently, the organization has 119 employees and is looking to add to its tech and operations teams primarily. They kick-started the year by hiring seven for the hiring team and will add twenty more to the roster as the company builds up to reach the global market. The company is hiring for several departments like Tech, Operations, Collections, Business Development/Sales, Relationship Management, Finance, Credit, and Legal.

Job seekers around the country will welcome Propelld’s move through channels like, Naukri.com, LinkedIn, Career page, alumni network, employee referrals, and hiring agencies. Virtual hiring has been the modus operandi for the education financing platform. 

Complete Article at People matters

Tesla launches universal home charger for electric vehicles of any brand

Elon Musk's company Tesla launched a universal charger to recharge the battery of any brand of electric cars at home.

The Tesla company, owned by billionaire Elon Musk , has launched a new universal home charger for electric vehicles . The brand new J1772 Gen 2 plug is compatible with any brand of electric cars in the US market.

First, it emerged that Elon Musk 's flagship company planned to open up its network of Tesla superchargers so that any electric vehicle, regardless of brand, can use them to recharge. The project materialized this week, with the opening of the first universal supercharger stations in the Netherlands.

Now, Tesla introduced this new wall socket to recharge electric cars at home .

"Charge your EV at home with the J1772 Gen 2 Wall Connector, a convenient home charging solution for EV owners. Just plug it in at night and charge while you sleep. With an output power of up to 9.6 kW (40 amps) for a single vehicle, the J1772 Gen 2 wall jack includes a 7.3 meter cable length, multiple power settings and a versatile design for indoors and outdoors ” , reads the description of the new product from Tesla.

Complete Article at Entrepreneur India

 

"Your most important assets aren’t your clients; its your loyal employees. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your clients."​

"I quit!"
I had been promoted to my first management job for my performance as an individual contributor.
Within 6 months one of my best developers came to me with a resignation letter. We always had a great working relationship with her when I was a developer myself.
I was shocked.
I asked her - why ?
She said she feels unappreciated, not valued, not seeing the big picture and no prospects for career growth.
They had not sent me to management classes, but this was the best management lesson I ever received.
Prior to this resignation, my focus was on projects and problems, and helping those who needed help.
She never needed any help, and her projects were as on time as a Swiss watch.
In her case, I missed several boxes from the diagram above: involved, mentored, appreciated, valued, on a mission. For sure I valued and appreciated her, but I never took the time to show it.
After a long conversation, I convinced her that I am learning to be a leader, and that she just gave me a great lesson, and then I asked her to give me another chance. I was humble and appreciative.
She gave me another chance, and stayed on. We worked together for many more years.
In addition to the points to the diagram above I would add that employees stay when

1) we create opportunities for them, and give them opportunities to grow

2) take risks for them

3) treat their problems as our own

4) stand up for them

5) treat them fairly

6) stay honest with them

Source: LinkedIn

5 Tips for Challenging Yourself to Perform Outside of Your Comfort Zone

Here's how you can be the best leader you can be, even in the most uncomfortable conditions.

When you first started your career or entrepreneurship journey, you probably had the importance of developing a growth mindset and getting out of your comfort zone drilled into you. Well, these ideas don’t just apply to the process of getting your career or business off the ground, but also to your ongoing leadership journey.

Here are five tips to help you to be the best leader you can be — even in the most uncomfortable, challenging conditions.

1. Seek discomfort

A comfort zone is the state of mind in which we don’t face any risks or fear because we don’t need to solve any new problems. Humans have evolved to enjoy comfort to help keep us alive — if we’re constantly venturing into the unknown, there’s more chance of us facing life-threatening dangers.

But we don't live in the Stone Age anymore. Public humiliation and difficult board meetings might be unpleasant, but they won’t kill you.

Learning to seek discomfort is the obvious solution, but how exactly can we do it? Here are a few ideas:

Alter your daily routine in subtle ways. For instance, you can change the way you travel to work or the food you eat for lunch.

Complete Article at Entrepreneur India

7 body language clues to watch out for

Your gestures and postures say more about you than words. To be successful in business, you must know how to make an excellent impression.

Body language and non-verbal communication can have a major impact on your professional life, as well as creating or breaking a deal, a business relationship, and even your financial success. "In business, one of the most important things is the impression you make on people," says Eliot Hoppe, author and body language expert.

Body language includes body movements, facial expressions and gestures, as well as tone of voice. Take note of Hoppe's tips to optimize your probability of success:

1) Posture: People make assumptions about others in the first four seconds, says Hoppe. "In business you have to remember that when you walk into a room, people have already made a decision about you before you sit down."

To ensure that you go to a business meeting with equals, you must have good posture. "Stand up straight and have a brisk walk, as you want to show your desire to be there and your confidence in yourself," says Hoppe.

2) Handshake: Physical contact is an essential part of body language, so doing it wrong could lead to rejection, while doing it right can be the first step to a successful business transaction.

"In most parts of the world, a business handshake is the norm and from there you can get an idea of whether the person is dominant and aggressive or passive," says Hoppe.

Complete Article at Entrepreneur India

Why Prioritizing Growth Will Kill Your Chances of Success

It's a common mistake to conflate growth with longevity.

When you’re considering new business ideas, building a digital platform sounds exciting and appealing. There are fewer overhead costs and virtually no limits on growth and expansion. Theoretically, your business can experience fast and consistent growth as long as you keep pushing sales and attracting customers. 

In these instances, it can be easy to focus on growth and assume that a sustainable business model will simply come together as you go. The truth is that this mindset will lead you down the path of failure, and your brand likely won’t make it past its first year. 

Did you know that 90% of startups fail because of self-destruction? Not competition. Not a lack of interest. Not even funding issues. They fail because they don't start with the correct end goal: sustainability. 

(To be clear, sustainability in this context refers to the longevity of your brand, not your eco-friendliness or environmental impact.)

Complete Article at Entrepreneur India

Amazon will hire 150,000 temporary workers and pay them up to $ 3,000 just for signing

Amazon is competing with Walmart and other retailers for temporary workers amid a staff shortage in the US, offering a hefty hiring bonus and above-average salaries.

This Monday, Amazon announced that it will hire 150 thousand temporary workers in the United States to cover the increase in demand they expect for year-end purchases. One of his strategies to attract staff is to offer bonuses of up to $ 3,000 just for signing with Jeff Bezos' company.

The ecommerce giant is getting ready for the Christmas season , amid a great crisis of labor shortages in the country. Therefore, it is tempting candidates with a hefty bonus of up to $ 3,000 , depending on the city where the workers are based.

This hiring bonus is independent of the salary they will receive: 18 dollars per hour (about 360 Mexican pesos), which can increase to 21 dollars (about 420 MXN) for those who cover night shifts and / or work on weekends.

The new employees will fill vacancies in the merchandise packaging areas , one of the busiest in the last months of the year. These are in addition to those announced by Amazon in September: It will hire 40,000 new corporate and technology employees, as well as 125,000 full and part-time employees for fulfillment and transportation jobs.

Complete Article at Entrepreneur India

The Facebook Trap

Summary.   

Facebook has a clear mission: Connect everyone in the world. Clarity is good, but in Facebook’s case, it has also put the company in a bind because the mission — and the company’s vision for creating value through network effects — has also become the source of its biggest problems. As the company moved from connecting existing friends online to making new global connections (both examples of direct network effects) and now to connecting users to professional creators (indirect network effects), it has come under fire for everything from violating individual privacy to bullying small companies as a monopoly to radicalizing its users. Now, it is struggling to find solutions that don’t undercut its mission. The author calls this “the Facebook Trap.” To address the problems created by the platform — and by other social networks, too — it helps to clearly establish where the company should be held accountable. While it’s reasonable to push for changes in how Facebook’s recommendations work, it’s harder to decide how the platform should deal with organic connections, which would likely entail censoring users and blocking them from making connections that they want to make. Facebook isn’t the only company facing the conundrum of needing to undermine its own mission to minimize harm, and companies and governments will need to develop strategies for how to deal with this issue.

Founded in 2004, Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.

 ― Facebook Mission Statement

Our mission is to connect every person in the world.

― Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and Co-Founder of Facebook

Depending on who you ask, Facebook’s biggest problem might be almost anything. Critics have argued that it’s violating individual privacy or bullying small companies as a monopoly, damaging teens’ mental health or inciting violent insurrections — the list of possibilities goes on (and on). But varied as these troubles may seem, they are actually all facets of one big, fundamental problem that is staring all of us — policymakers, general public, and Facebook’s own employees — right in the face.

Complete Article at HBR

Leadership Qualities: Good Leaders Know You Can’t Fight Reality

Summary.   

Acceptance is often misunderstood as approval or being against change, but it is neither. Acceptance is about acknowledging the facts and letting go of the time, effort, and energy wasted in the fight against reality. Your reality may be that you are falling behind on revenue, a competitor has outflanked you with a new product, or that the effects of the pandemic are still hurting your business. Whatever it is you’re facing, you can’t employ your best skills to deal with it until you stop the wrangle against reality and accept what you’ve been handed, ready to change things for the better. The author offers three kinds of acceptance that leaders should focus on: 1) Accepting results 2) Accepting circumstances 3) Accepting their failings and those of others.

The ability to accept reality is one of the most useful, and most misunderstood, skills for a leader. It’s a concept that has been around for centuries in philosophy and more recently in psychology, and properly applied can help drive change. As Carl Jung wrote, “We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.” But I don’t see acceptance applied enough by leaders today as a valuable tool for achieving better results.

Complete Article at HBR

 

Job Search: How to Job Hunt (When You’re Already Exhausted)

Summary.   

When you’re already worn out from working full time, caring for family, and managing this new way of “Covid being,” it’s hard to muster up the energy to jump into a job hunt or consider changing careers. Incorporating these five coaching and change management principles into your job search will help you stay motivated throughout what can feel like a grueling process even at the best of times. First, give some thought to why you actually want a new job, and why you want it now. Next, use visualization techniques when exhaustion or false narratives take over. Then, create a plan and follow it methodically. Next, let go of the things you can’t control. Finally, prepare for the inevitable emotional ups and downs.

When Fred, a client of mine, realized he wasn’t feeling fulfilled in his job, he wanted to find something more meaningful. So he started a job search. Within days, he was interviewing multiple times a week for multiple companies, and each interview required hours of preparation while he was also spearheading major projects at his full-time job. As his workload became more frenetic, he said many times, “This is exhausting,” and at times thought he would give up for a while if the roles he was interviewing for didn’t come through.

Complete Article at HBR

Job Interviews: 8 Tips for Conducting an Excellent Remote Interview

 Summary.   

Remote interviewing is here to stay, as the pandemic and its evolving offshoot, the Great Resignation, continue to reshape the modern workplace. Today’s job hunters aren’t just looking to boost their salaries. They’re also seeking flexibility, well-being, and a workplace culture that aligns with their own values and sensibilities. Interviews that delve into these topics can give both parties valuable information about whether a prospective employee is likely to feel fulfilled and engaged at a particular organization. We can absolutely have these conversations “face to face,” even when we’re not in the same physical room. The author presents eight tips for employers seeking to master the medium in order to identify top talent from a distance.

As companies scramble to fill a record number of job openings remotely, the internet is awash in tips for candidates seeking to stand out from the crowd while confined to a Zoom box.

But what about the employers on the other end of the connection? For them, “cracking the code” on remote interviewing is just as critical. Bad hiring decisions cost money and drain morale. Without the multitude of data points available only in person — the feel of a handshake, the way the energy in a room changes when a candidate walks in — employers need to develop new strategies for gauging whether someone is a good fit.

Complete Article at HBR

Proof That Positive Work Cultures Are More Productive

 

Too many companies bet on having a cut-throat, high-pressure, take-no-prisoners culture to drive their financial success.

But a large and growing body of research on positive organizational psychology demonstrates that not only is a cut-throat environment harmful to productivity over time, but that a positive environment will lead to dramatic benefits for employers, employees, and the bottom line.

Although there’s an assumption that stress and pressure push employees to perform more, better, and faster, what cutthroat organizations fail to recognize is the hidden costs incurred.

First, health care expenditures at high-pressure companies are nearly 50% greater than at other organizations. The American Psychological Association estimates that more than $500 billion is siphoned off from the U.S. economy because of workplace stress, and 550 million workdays are lost each year due to stress on the job. Sixty percent to 80% of workplace accidents are attributed to stress, and it’s estimated that more than 80% of doctor visits are due to stress. Workplace stress has been linked to health problems ranging from metabolic syndrome to cardiovascular disease and mortality.

The stress of belonging to hierarchies itself is linked to disease and death. One study showed that, the lower someone’s rank in a hierarchy, the higher their chances of cardiovascular disease and death from heart attacks. In a large-scale study of over 3,000 employees conducted by Anna Nyberg at the Karolinska Institute, results showed a strong link between leadership behavior and heart disease in employees. Stress-producing bosses are literally bad for the heart.

Complete Article at HBR

Low-Code and No-Code Design Is the Future of Website Building

Low-code and no-code platforms are building sites that are just as impressive as ones built by skilled developers, and do it in less than half the time of their counterparts.

The low-code and no-code web design movements are going through a renaissance. Every day, low-code and no-code website building platforms are releasing new features, innovations and solutions to continuously bridge the gap between what someone with nearly zero coding skills can accomplish and a full-fledged developer.

After all, why would any web professional waste time and resources on new code when a low-code or no-code platform can do the same thing in half the time? Web professionals and agencies everywhere are starting to reap the benefits granted by using these website-building platforms, which range from faster scaling to automated structuring for high-ranking SEO.

It’s important to identify the key factors behind the upward trend of low-code and no-code and fully grasp the benefits it passes on to businesses.

What exactly is low code and no code?

Low code and no code are widely defined as visual approaches to web development. With low code and no code, website building platforms can automate nearly every step of the development process and streamline builds, drastically increasing development speed for web professionals.

There are two main areas of low-code and no-code development. One type is design-first platforms, which allow web professionals to build visually engaging web applications. These usually have a strong focus on the design of a website, automating scaling and positioning to look flawless across all devices. These platforms are great when developers want to quickly produce external-facing web applications for their customers. These design-first platforms, such as Webflow, Duda and Bubble, are seeing the largest growth in popularity, due to their visual aspects and their wide range of clientele. The gap between what professional developers and people without any coding experience can do is becoming narrower with the rise of innovations in low-code website building platforms. 

The other type is functionality-first platforms. These were built around providing functionality and are best used as internal tools to automate IT processes swiftly. Examples of these platforms include Airtable, Google App Maker and Creatio. Large-scale organizations make heavy use of functionality-first platforms because they have a strong need for internal systems that help align data, processes and teams. This enables these businesses to better connect with digital native customers and rapidly adapt when new tools are integrated into their data systems.

Complete article at Entrepreneur India

Research: Informal Leadership Comes at a Cost

Summary.   

Encouraging up-and-coming talent to take on informal leadership of a team or project is a great way to support both employees and their entire teams, but new research suggests that these duties can also take a toll on informal leaders’ job satisfaction and energy levels. The authors conducted a series of studies with students and professionals in the U.S. and Taiwan, and identified a significant inverse correlation between informal leadership and both energy levels and satisfaction rates. They also found that support from formal leaders can mitigate these effects: When people’s formal leaders were unsupportive, informal leaders reported energy levels 20% lower than non-leaders, but with enough support, the difference actually completely disappeared. Based on these findings, the authors offer strategies to help both formal managers and informal leaders reap the benefits of informal leadership while minimizing its negative side effects.

As an informal leader on my team, I’m often responsible not just for meeting my own goals, but also for managing and making decisions on team tasks. Even though these tasks are not mine to complete, I have to put in extra work to help my peers deal with them — and that can be really exhausting.

One of the best ways managers can both support employees’ professional development and improve their entire team’s performance is by encouraging promising talent to take on informal leadership responsibilities. Stepping in and leading a team or project can give up-and-coming leaders valuable experience and prepare them for formal supervisory or management roles in the future, while also adding value to the entire organization.

Complete Article at HBR

Why A Growth Mindset Is Essential For Career Success

Mindset is everything. Whether you’re talking about career success, starting your own business, getting through a tough workout or being a parent, having the right mindset can make the difference between success and failure. The concept of mindset can’t be discussed without mentioning Carol Dweck and her insightful book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck discovered the power of mindset. In her book, she outlines the differences between a fixed and growth mindset—showing how success in almost every area of life can be influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities. Once we harness the power of a growth mentality, studies show that it can be essential for career success.

Fixed vs. growth mindset

A fixed mindset assumes that our intelligence, character and creative ability are static. Basically, you are dealt a hand in life and are required to accept it. Believing that your qualities are set in stone creates a desire to prove yourself over and over again. A fixed mindset can result in career stagnation.

On the other hand, a growth mindset is based on the idea that your essential qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. It assumes that everyone can change and grow through experience and practice. A growth mentality sees failure not as a detriment, but as a springboard to success. Failing is actually a form of learning. In one study conducted by Dweck with children, she offered four-year-olds a choice. They could either redo an easy jigsaw puzzle or try a harder one. Those with a fixed mindset chose the easier puzzles that would affirm their existing ability. They wanted to make sure they succeeded to seem smart. The children with a growth mindset tried to stretch themselves because their definition of success was about becoming smarter. In her book, Dweck writes, “After thirty years, my research has shown that the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life. It can determine whether you become the person you want to be and whether you accomplish the things you value.”

1. Embrace failure

Fostering a growth mentality involves viewing failure as a positive rather than a negative. Everyone has setbacks. The key is to learn from each one and improve your decision making. Wildly successful people typically fail their way to success. Steven Spielberg was rejected from film school three times before getting his big break. Even Oprah Winfrey was fired from her news coanchor position at a Baltimore TV station before going on to build a successful daytime talk show. A producer reportedly told her that she was “unfit for television news.” Oprah later said, "I had no idea what I was in for or that this was going to be the greatest growing period of my adult life.”

Complete Article at Forbes

 

A culture of learning: How to build it and why it's so important now – Perspectives 2021

As companies return to the office, it is important for businesses to make the most of the opportunity. They need to break away from the past and transform their workplace learning culture.

Over the last 18 months, most businesses had the opportunity to optimize their business operations. Throughout this time, companies have optimized their talent strategies, reassessed their digital strategy, products, and services, scaled up operations, and identified new market opportunities. At the heart of these shifts is a workplace culture that supports continuous learning that is agile, adaptive, and resilient.

At the opening keynote of the India edition of Skillsoft’s Perspectives Conference 2021, Ester Martinez, CEO and Editor-in-Chief, People Matters spoke about “Why its important to build a culture of learning, and how to build it.” Here are some key takeaways from her session:

Work, skills, and the workplace

As businesses resume ‘back to office’ operations, it’s not going to be business as usual in a pre-pandemic sense.  “Work is going to be about what I do, not a place I go to,” Ester noted. The real opportunity for businesses to consider is to rethink the workplace – as a place to foster team engagement, co-create strategy and to collaborate on innovation.

The critical questions that HR leaders need to think about is:

How to architect work?

What are the skills that employees need to navigate work? 

How do you enable employees to organize their work, and personal life? 

The pandemic has helped companies learn a lot about work-life. There’s a need to reflect on how much work can be done synchronously and asynchronously? And what are the capabilities and skills that are needed to help people work in both dimensions? Finding the right blend of synchronous, and asynchronous dimensions in work and learning will be necessary in the new work context.

Complete Article at People matter

Why Mandates Make Us Feel Threatened

Summary.   

As companies figure out how to implement vaccination mandates, brain science can help leaders develop strategies for managing employee reactions. Mandates feel like a violation of autonomy, which is one of the five most important intrinsic drivers of threat and reward in the brain. To help people feel less threatened, managers can try to offer another form of autonomy — for example, with the vaccine, this may mean allowing employees to choose when, where, or how they receive the shot. Another way to address the threat is to try to trigger one of the brain’s reward drivers. For example, the jarring nature of reduced autonomy (“Why am I mandated to do something?”) can be partially offset by increasing feelings of relatedness between employees (“I haven’t felt this close to my team in a while.”) Managers can also take steps to make employees feel greater levels of certainty, another of the brain’s reward drivers. While it’s difficult to provide absolute certainty when dealing with a mutating virus, transparency and communication can help provide clarity.

After President Biden announced a federal mandate requiring companies with more than 100 workers to have their employees vaccinated or tested weekly, leaders found themselves scrambling to understand the effects on their organizations. Questions surrounding privacy, individual rights, and collective responsibility surfaced, not to mention the possibility of imminent legal challenges.

Complete Article at HBR

ICICI Home Finance Company aims to hire 600 employees by December 2021

ICICI Home Finance Company (ICICI HFC) has unveiled its plans to recruit over 600 employees by December 2021, a move made to cater to the increased demand for home loans in the affordable housing segment. The recruitment drive is planned to be executed across its pan-India branch network in sales and credit, as per the company’s statement. 

Commenting on the company’s recruitment plans, Mr. Anirudh Kamani, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Home Finance, said, “We see growth opportunity in affordable housing segment across 530 plus locations we are present in. Our pan-India recruitment drive will aid our growth plans as we focus on hiring local talent for our branches.”

Complete Article at People matter

 

Power And Influence: How to Intervene When a Manager Is Gaslighting Their Employees

Summary.   

Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse where an individual tries to gain power and control over you by instilling self-doubt. Allowing managers who continue to gaslight to thrive in your company will only drive good employees away. Leadership training is only part of the solution — leaders must act and hold the managers who report to them accountable when they see gaslighting in action. The author presents five things leaders can do when they suspect their managers are gaslighting employees.

“We missed you at the leadership team meeting,” our executive vice president messaged me. “Your manager shared an excellent proposal. He said you weren’t available to present. Look forward to connecting soon.”

In our last one-on-one meeting, my manager had enthusiastically said that I, of course, should present the proposal I had labored over for weeks. I double-checked my inbox and texts for my requests to have that meeting invite sent to me. He had never responded. He went on to present the proposal without me.

Excluding me from meetings, keeping me off the list for company leadership programs, and telling me I was on track for a promotion — all while speaking negatively about my performance to his peers and senior leadership — were all red flags in my relationship with this manager. The gaslighting continued and intensified until the day I finally resigned.

Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse where an individual tries to gain power and control over you. They will lie to you and intentionally set you up to fail. They will say and do things and later deny they ever happened. They will undermine you, manipulate you, and convince you that you are the problem. As in my case, at work, the “they” is often a manager who will abuse their position of power to gaslight their employees.

Complete Article at HBR

 

How to overcome exhaustion by practicing the 7 types of rest to balance your energy

 

I tell you a secret: sleeping, taking breaks and resting are not the same. It is scientifically proven that you can close your eyes and stay in bed for many hours, and also wake up physically and mentally exhausted. It is that the accelerated and vertiginous pace of today's world sometimes leads to extreme demands in order to perform and obtain results; and that tension does not allow you to recover.

I am convinced that the most important thing a person can do for their health is to take time and have a quality rest. Yet many struggle to do so, be it out of guilt, insecurity, fear of the unknown, or for any other reason, and so people postpone the rest they need.

The 7 types of rest

I have found that it is not always easy to know what is the best type of rest for the body, mind and spirit. To know it, it is necessary to recognize the difference between the seven types of rest, and that each serves a different purpose.

We have always been told that you have to sleep at least between 7 and 8 hours a day to replenish energy; However, this is not the only way to rest, because, as you will see, we can do it with our eyes open.

Based on the research of Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith presented in her Ted talks and on CNN , let's review the 7 types of rest so that, combining them, you get the maximum energy benefit in your favor:

First type: physical rest

Within this category we find two forms: passive or active.

Passive physical rest consists of sleeping and napping. The active one, doing activities such as yoga, mindfulness, stretching, meditation, reiki, massages, among other disciplines.

Second type: mental rest

Mental rest is taking moments to unplug the mind as much as possible. You will achieve this by changing your focus, abandoning tasks, worries and problems momentarily.

For example, the stresses of the workday creep like a heavy backpack in and out of the workday; And that is why, despite sleeping or taking breaks at home, you still feel tired and do not fully recover.

Complete Article at Entrepreneur India

When Everyone’s Quitting … Except You

 

Summary.   

A historic wave of job turnover has companies working hard to recruit and onboard new employees. But what about those who aren’t job surfing? Many employees are looking around and seeing many new faces on their teams. They may suddenly find that they are the senior member on a team of new recruits. If you’re in the position of suddenly being the senior member on a team of new recruits, there are four ways you need to manage yourself and your team. First, give yourself space to process the changes around you, then focus on developing your on re-onboarding plan. Recognize that you will need to mentor new colleagues, but that you should not forget to learn from them at the same time. Finally, consider whether you can grow at your current company, but don’t write off the option of leaving if the right opportunity arises. To ensure you have as many options as possible, avoid burning any bridges with your former associates.

One of my clients is an executive who has been with her company for more than 20 years. Over the past several months many of her peers have moved on from the company, part of 2021’s turnover tsunami. She’s now surrounded by new hires and she worries that she is being associated with the “way things used to be” and unfairly seen as someone who isn’t innovative, strategic or willing to take risks by virtue of being a “long-timer” at the company.

Complete article at HBR

The Digital Economy Runs on Open Source. Here’s How to Protect It. by Hila Lifshitz-Assaf and Frank Nagle

Summary.   

Free and open source software (FOSS) is essential to much of the tech we use every day — from cars to phones to planes to the cloud. While traditionally, it was developed by an army of volunteer developers and given away for free, companies are increasingly taking a more active role in its development. But as companies buy up open source companies, bring development in house, and spin off their own for-profit versions of FOSS products, they could be endangering the future of this essential software. To maintain the viability and security of FOSS, companies should: 1) have a clear policy towards open source — preferably one that encourages employees to contribute to FOSS if feasible, 2) raise their level of awareness about the FOSS that they use and stay apprised of its vulnerabilities, and 3) keep the stability of the software they use in mind, and incentivize their employee contributions to focus on both features useful to the company as well as general security and maintenance.

Though most people don’t realize it, much of the technology we rely on every day runs on free and open source software (FOSS). Phones, cars, planes, and even many cutting-edge artificial intelligence programs use open-source software such as the Linux kernel operating system, the Apache and Nginx web servers, which run over 60% of the world’s websites, and Kubernetes, which powers cloud computing. The sustainability, stability, and security of these software packages is a major concern to every company that uses them (which is essentially every company). But unlike traditional closed-source software, which companies build internally and sell, FOSS is developed by an unsung army of typically unpaid developers, and is typically given away for free.

Complete Article at HBR