Author: knjohn

3 Smart Ways to Root Out Your Leadership Weaknesses | Page 19

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downloadA great leader is always improving and learning. Here’s some top leadership advice for discovering blindspots in your abilities and transforming them into advantages.

It’s hard to address one’s own flaws, but as any great leader knows it’s a necessary step toward improvement. Why? Because most people have developed fixed ways of thinking over the course of their lives. These repeated, flawed patterns drive them into mental ruts and stagnate their progress.

Of course, that probably sounds like the last thing you’d want as a leader. It’s important to identify the blindspots in your conscious way of life that might be holding you back, and use them to unearth deeper opportunities for growth. Here are 3 ideas from Robert Bruce Shaw’s Leadership Blindspots for how to reach your blindspots, discover your weaknesses, and turn them into triumphs.

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Tony Hsieh self-management memo to Zappos employees | Business Insider

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The online shoe-seller Zappos has been experimenting with a self-management organizational structure known as Holacracy for nearly two years.

But on April 30 the company plans to be fully manager-free, according to a company-wide memo CEO Tony Hsieh emailed late last month.

“Having one foot in one world while having the other foot in the other world has slowed down our transformation towards self-management and self-organization,” he wrote.

Employees who don’t like the new structure will be offered severance packages if they resign by April 30. To get their severance, however, they must either read the management book “Reinventing Organizations” or just email a statement that they are not reading it.

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The Incentives That Really Motivate Your Employees | Inc.com

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benefits-cake_31443“You never say thank you,” young advertising copywriter Peggy Olson complains to her boss, Don Draper.

“That’s what the money is for!” he retorts.

This exchange from TV’s Mad Men perfectly captures one of the enduring challenges of the workplace: sometimes managers and employees have vastly different notions of which incentives really matter.

I would argue that-including in the case of Peggy and Don-there is a generational component to such differences. Don, a child of the Great Depression and a Korean War veteran, is a classic Traditionalist (the generation born in the 1920s and 1930s) for whom work is a transaction. As he says earlier in this exchange, “I give you money, you give me ideas.”

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EU accuses Google Shopping of search ‘abuse’ – BBC News

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The European Union has filed a complaint against Google over its alleged anti-competitive behaviour.

The competition commissioner said she had issued a “statement of objections”, stating that the firm’s promotion of its own shopping links amounted to an abuse of its dominance in search.

Margrethe Vestager said Google now had 10 weeks to respond.

The firm said it “strongly disagreed” with the allegations and looked forward to making its case.

Ms Vestager also revealed that she had launched an investigation into whether the way Google bundled apps and services for its Android operating system was unfair.

And the commissioner said the EU would continue to monitor other activities by Google that its rivals had complained about.

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A Business Owner’s Act of Kindness Inspires the Internet, Sparks Larger Campaign | Entrepreneur

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In Oklahoma City, a sandwich shop called P.B. Jams is serving up some kindness — and it’s being noticed in a big way.

Last week, owner Ashley Jiron saw signs that someone had been going through the dumpster for a meal — closed bags had holes ripped in them and food looked like it had been removed. Rather than put out mousetraps or call the authorities, she posted a sign on the door reminding whoever was doing this that they are a human being that is worthy of eating food that wasn’t tossed in the garbage. She offered them a free peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a side of veggies and a glass of water for free, no questions asked.

A snap of the message quickly went viral.

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Infographic: Millennial, Gen X and Baby Boomer Device Preferences | Adweek

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Each generation uses digital differently to consume content and shop for products and services, and marketers need to understand these differences to target their desired audiences on the devices they are most likely to be using.

Millward Brown Digital surveyed more than 1,000 consumers in three generations (millennials, born after 1980; Generation X, born 1965-1980; and boomers, born from 1946-1964) to see how different age groups favored different screens for various activities.

“What the data demonstrates is that even with our advanced knowledge of digital today, advertisers and marketers can’t make assumptions about how various demographics and targets are using digital devices and mobile to access content,” said Joline McGoldrick, research director at Millward Brown Digital. “It is easy to stereotype and say the best way to reach millennials is on mobile, but that is not always true. As the analysis shows, device usage varies from generation to generation based upon what the activity is. There needs to be a more granular understanding of how activity and type of content dictates preferences for screen usage in order to make a truly effective and efficient marketing strategy.”

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15 Companies That Paid Zero Income Tax Last Year (Despite $23 Billion In Profits) | Co.Exist

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downloadOnly small businesses pay taxes. Big companies often pay nothing at all.

Think that’s an exaggeration? Look at a new report from Citizens for Tax Justice, a Washington, D.C. group. It finds that some of nation’s most famous brands have paid remarkably little to the government over the last five years. In fact, many actually enjoyed a negative tax rate: They received a nice rebate check from the U.S. Treasury.

The 15 giants highlighted by CTJ were chosen to represent a wide range of industries among Fortune 500 companies. They include CBS, Mattel, Prudential, and the California utility PG&E. Together, they paid no federal income tax in 2014, despite profits totaling $23 billion. CTJ’s point is that these companies are not anomalies, they are examples.

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The Cost of Feeling Secure and Feeling Stressed | The Simple Dollar

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downloadSarah and I have a large emergency fund by almost any standards. If everything collapsed, we could live for more than a year simply on our cash reserves without touching any of our other investments. That’s a huge emergency fund.

So, why do we have such a big fund? Why not invest some of that money and have a smaller cash reserve?

The simple reason is that it leaves us feeling more secure. Knowing that if everything fell apart we have enough cash on hand to survive for more than a year makes us feel very little stress regarding our finances and our day to day life. If the stock market takes a dive or if something else like that happens, we’re still good to go.

This sounds appealing, of course, but it has a real cost.

As I’ve noted before, the average American family budgets for about $50,000 per year. We actually budget for quite a bit less than that, even with three children. For ease of calculation’s sake, let’s say our annual budget is $30,000 (it’s a nice, even number that’s pretty close to our actual number, which is an odd figure).

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