Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom

How to Renew Contact After a Time Lapse

I was so glad when my friend Jodi Glickman wrote about the issue of getting back in touch with a networking contact after a time lapse because I’ve been getting asked about it a lot lately.  It seems that people do a great job making initial overtures with networking contacts, but when it comes to long-term follow up, they fall down.

Jodi says that it’s common to feel guilty about popping back into a person’s life who you haven’t seen or spoken to in ages because you suddenly need them personally or professionally.  But the passage of time is not a good enough reason to let a great connection go to waste.  According to Jodi, if you have someone you’ve been meaning to reach out to or someone you’re dying to reconnect with, here are some easy steps to make a potentially awkward exchange much less painful and potentially even fruitful:

Acknowledge the Lapse in Time

Don’t pretend you are best buds and that no time has passed – this is disingenuous and annoying.  Instead of ignoring the elephant in the room, acknowledge the lapse of time upfront and give that time period some rationale or context.  Have you been working or traveling abroad?  Did you have a child, get married or change careers?  Or, have you just been completely busy and self-absorbed?  For example:

“Patricia, how are you? I’m sure you’re surprised to hear from me.  The last time we spoke I was headed off to graduate school. I wound up moving to Washington D.C. shortly thereafter, where I’ve been for the last five years.”

Explain the “Why Now?”

It’s important to think about why you’re reaching out now, after all this time, and be transparent about your motive.  The “why now” should include both the transition or event that prompted you to get in touch and your agenda, if you have one. For example:

“After leaving the firm following the birth of my daughter, I recently came back online and I’m thrilled to be working with the consumer retail sector again. I was hoping you’d have time to sit down for coffee and catch up, I’d love to hear your perspective on how the industry has changed.”

As with any networking interaction, you should always be looking for something to do for your contact in return.  If you clearly communicate how the other person will benefit from getting back in touch, they will be more likely to accept your overtures.

This post was originally published on Intuit's Quickbase blog.

 

Toe the Assertiveness Line

I’ve always struggled with the assertiveness line – how do you demonstrate enough assertiveness, and how do you avoid over-doing it?  Bob Sutton, an organizational psychologist at Stanford, answers this question with the following tips from his new book, Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best and Learn from the Worst.

Talk more than others – but not the whole time

At least in Western countries, people who talk first and most are usually seen as the most influential.  But don’t talk the whole time, as people will see you as a bully, boring, or both.

Interrupt people occasionally – and don’t let them interrupt you too much

People gain power by winning what Bob calls “interruption wars,” or interjecting and battling back when others try to interrupt.

Cross your arms when you talk

When people cross their arms, they persist longer and generate more solutions when working on difficult tasks.  Crossing your arms also sends yourself a message to crank up the grit and confidence, but beware that doing it too much and too intensely can make you look uptight.

If you are not sure whether to sit down or stand up, stand up

This is especially crucial if you are a new leader.  Standing up signals that you are in charge and encourages others to accept your authority. Also, whether you sit or stand, position yourself at the head of the table.

Try a flash of anger now and then

If used in small doses and with proper precaution, the occasional outburst or dirty look can help you seize control.  Though of course it should go without saying that spewing constant venom undermines your authority and will earn you a bad reputation.

Give away some power or status, but make sure everyone knows it was your choice

For example, due to a space crunch you might volunteer to surrender your cushy meeting space to a needier team.

How do you balance over-assertive leadership behavior with under-assertive leadership behavior?

This post was originally published on Intuit's Quickbase blog.

Studying the Post-Recession Careers of Millennials

Earlier this year, I joined the Career Advisory Board, a panel of academic, corporate, and career experts sponsored by DeVry University.  Our goal as a group is to provide insight, advice and counsel on trends, economic forces and cultural shifts that impact career opportunities.  

In my role as a founding member, I helped to devise a research study, The Future of Millennial Careers, which took current thinking about the careers of Millennials (or current twenty-somethings, born 1980-95) a step further.  We wanted to assess how Millennials and their managers felt about the younger set’s future career potential given the recent economic downturn, and some of our findings were surprising.

For example, the research demonstrated that young professionals have a new definition of success, but that hiring managers don’t see a substantial change.  For a successful career, doing work that is personally meaningful and achieving a sense of accomplishment are just as important to Millennials as earning a high salary, but Millennial managers still perceive compensation as being the primary motivator for their younger employees.  And perhaps due to the recent recession, young professionals are being far more cautious about career moves than traditionally believed by managers who labeled them “job jumpers.”

Fortunately, Millennials and their managers did agree on the opportunity areas for Millennials to develop their workplace skills.  For instance:  Fifty-one percent of managers believe Millennials exhibit an inability to accept criticism from their managers; 54 percent of Millennials are in agreement. Fifty-five percent of managers believe Millennials lack patience with established processes; 47 percent of Millennials agree.  And thirty-eight percent of Millennials believe their generation cannot communicate effectively; 35 percent of managers agree.

The research results are detailed in a white paper that also offers actionable advice for working Millennials and their managers.  We suggest, for example, that managers help Millennial master transferable skills like such project management, marketing and finance that will allow the younger set to succeed in their future careers.  We also recommend formal and informal mentoring programs so that the generations may learn from one another, and in-house generational dynamics training so that managers and Millennials can address and remedy some of their communication challenges.

How to Orient A New Team Member

When I remember new hire orientations of jobs past, I think of watching cheesy, outdated videos, completing a marathon of poorly photocopied forms, and being escorted to an empty cubicle three hours before the end of the business day, left to wonder how I should pass the time until my new boss got back from an offsite meeting.  I think about how homesick I was for the job I just left, how I’d had this sick feeling in my stomach, how I’d feared I’d made a terrible mistake.

My experiences are not unique.  Despite notable innovations in other areas of leadership, the new hire orientation continues to be an overlooked area.  And if you think about all of the time and effort you just spent to bring the new hire on board in the first place, this doesn’t make sense.  If your orientation makes an off-putting impression, it may take months to overcome the bad taste the new employee now has in her mouth.

Poor orientations also slow time to productivity, increase error rates, and adversely impact recruitment efforts, and incredibly, improving orientation can increase retention rates by as much as 25 percent. Read on to learn more about the goals of well-designed programs and how you can implement one without relying exclusively on the HR department.

Goals of Orientation Programs

The first step in turning around your new hire orientation is to realize that it’s not just a formality, or something you do as a goodwill gesture.  Good orientation programs accomplish the following objectives:

Reduce Startup Costs: Proper orientation can help the employee get up to speed much more quickly, thereby reducing the costs associated with learning the job.

Reduce Anxiety: Any employee, when put into a new, strange situation, will experience anxiety that can impede his or her ability to learn to do the job. Proper orientation helps to reduce anxiety that results from entering into an unknown situation.

Reduce Employee Turnover: Employee turnover increases as employees feel they are not valued, or are put in positions where they can’t possibly do their jobs. Orientation shows that the organization values the employee, and helps provide the tools necessary for succeeding in the job.

Save Time for the Manager: The better the initial orientation, the less likely supervisors and co-workers will have to spend time teaching the employee.

Develop Realistic Job Expectations: It is important that employees learn as soon as possible what is expected of them, and what to expect from others, in addition to learning about the values and attitudes of the organization.

Well thought-out orientations celebrate the arrival of the new hire, integrate her into the team, and provide a comfortable forum for answering questions that extends beyond the first day.

Orientation Best Practices

Like the hiring process, the orientation process is one that should begin well before the new hire arrives for his first day. Here are several issues to keep in mind as you prepare to officially welcome your new employee.

Own the Process: Typically, new hire orientations are managed by junior level human resources staff, but these are not the people who should be responsible for assimilating a new employee. Orientations should be designed and run by the new hire’s manager, because who better understands exactly what needs to be done to get this person up to speed?  HR can have a standard one or two hour session to sign paperwork and go over corporate policies and benefits, but beyond that, your department should be running the show.

Involve High-Level Execs: Encourage the CEO or general manager to stop by your new employee’s office, send a personal e-mail, or make a phone call welcoming the employee to the organization.

Plan a Special Outing: Take the team out to lunch on the new hire’s first day, organize a dinner with other new employees and their spouses, or engage in a team building activity with current employees.

Make an Announcement:  Place a welcome note and picture on the company Intranet, and if anyone reads the local paper or company e-newsletter, put a notice in to let everyone know about your new team member.

Get Creative with Their Office Space: Have your administrative assistant create a banner signed by the team, or hang a team picture on the wall.

Gift Them Little Extras: Send the new hire’s spouse and kids first day welcome gifts, corporate products or cards to make them feel they are part of the team and to build support for the new company.

Set Up a Series of Peer-to-Peer Training Sessions: In addition to any official job training your new hire may need to complete, organize a series of meetings with team members who excel in particular areas.  Encourage your new hire to seek out these team members to answer questions about their job duties.

Put a Standing Check-in On the Calendar:  Ensuring that you meet with your new report at least once a week during the duration of her first three months of employment will positively direct her activities and catch potential issues early.

Personal touches and consistent follow up should motivate new employees as you engage in the process of showing them how things are done in your organization and providing them with the tools to do their jobs effectively.

A final critical point is that orientations need not be limited to one day.  Ideally, activities should be planned over the course of a few weeks so that you don’t overwhelm the new hire or neglect important things she needs to know.

This post was originally published on Intuit's Quickbase blog.

Getting Over a Grudge

A reader writes:  Dear Alexandra, ten years ago in my first job out of school, a colleague I thought was my friend stole my new product idea and took all the credit.  Well, it’s a small industry and now I find myself forced to work closely with this person.  I swore I’d never talk to him again.  What should I do?

I’m very sorry this happened to you.  Sometimes people do things we feel we cannot forgive.  But I’m going to encourage you to try.  My first reason is that perhaps this was more of a misunderstanding than a betrayal.  Even though I don’t know the specifics, I can say with certainty that there are very few truly evil people in the world.  Maybe he thought he arrived at the idea himself, or maybe was so insecure about making a contribution that he was grasping at straws.

My second reason is that harboring anger and resentment against this person will only serve to negatively impact you emotionally and professionally.  Even if his behavior was indisputably callous, it was ten years ago and he has hopefully matured since then, so look at it as water under the bridge and aim to make a fresh start with him.

Remember that you can forgive, but you don’t have to forget.  There is no reason to blindly trust this person again until he has earned it.  I’m just saying to get over the grudge and move on so that you can be as effective as possible.

How to Organize a Panel Discussion

There is a point in every event planning process when someone says:  “Let’s just do a panel discussion.  That will be so much simpler!”

It’s true that panel discussions can be fun, engaging, and high on information value, and yes, they are often easier to develop content for as well.  But great panel discussions don’t just come together – they are strategically planned.  Let’s look at a few ways to ensure that your panel discussion is a satisfying experience for participants and attendees alike:

Choose a moderator who has done this before

Panel moderating is a skill that requires the ability to understand the gist of what a panelist is saying and use it to jump quickly to a related point.  A good moderator actively directs the discussion and doesn’t just sit back and let panelists drone on about whatever they want for as long as they want.  It takes practice, so you want to have someone who has a few events under her belt.

Select your panelists carefully

Event planners often fall into the trap of filling a panel based on who is willing to show up that day.  But a strong panel will encompass individuals with a wide variety of life experiences, who also differ with respect to age, gender, ethnicity, and personality/tone.  Each individual will have a unique perspective on the topic at hand.

Stick to a theme and plan questions in advance

Poll your audience in advance to determine what topics are of greatest interest to them at this time, and the questions they’d like to have answered.  Use this information to put together a strategy document for the panel, which includes the purpose, areas of focus, and suggested questions for each panelist.  Run your questions by the panelists in advance and encourage them to add their own.  Note that a total of 8 questions is fairly standard for a 1-1.5 hour panel, and you should have 1-2 panelists prepared to address each question.

Allow your panelists to pre-mingle, but don’t overdo it

It’s a good idea to have a pre-event call with the moderator and all of the panelists so that everyone can feel comfortable with the event’s flow and the players involved.  There is no need to have more than one of these calls, however, and do not ruin the spontaneity of your event by having panelists rehearse their answers.

Keep introductions short

Background information shared about the moderator and your panelists should take up no longer than 3 minutes of your panel.  And please do not allow panelists to introduce themselves.  Well meaning as they may be, the next thing you know, you will have spent half your panel hearing about their life stories before you get to the first question.

Give the audience a chance to participate

Instruct your moderator that when you have 10-15 minutes left in the event, even if you have several planned questions left, move to the audience.  Many times, this will be the most vibrant and informative part of the discussion, and attendees will leave feeling like their expectations of the event were met.

Consider a one-sheeter of key takeaways

It’s your moderator’s job to make sure that your panelists are imparting practical information that can be leveraged by attendees right away, but if you sense that your panel is going to be anecdote-heavy or are concerned you won’t have time to get to all of your critical points, have your panelists contribute their best actionable advice to a handout you can provide after the event.

This post was originally published on Intuit’s Quickbase blog.

Bells and Whistles in the Workplace?

A reporter recently asked me about creative solutions for beating the mid-winter corporate blahs, such as changes to workplace set-ups like free-range work spaces without offices and cubicles, nap rooms, and X-box lounges.

Extreme amenities like video game lounges are still fairly rare, and this is not necessarily a bad thing.  Unless you work in a design firm (for example) where a foosball machine is an expected accessory of the culture, these types of offerings are really more of a distraction.

It's important to provide a pleasant environment, but let's not forget that there's a reason this place you go every day is called “work” and not “fun.”  It’s not smart to go so far that you undermine the jobs that people are there to do.

There’s also a danger inherent to jumping on board with any new fad.  Free-range office space was all the rage a few years ago, and a lot of companies spent a ton of cash remodeling only to realize that most employees don’t actually like this set-up.  Everyone from entry-level staffers to senior executives prefers some modicum of privacy.

I think it’s better for organizations to try to beat the blahs by planning communal activities like happy hours or after-work socializing, motivating employees through rewards and recognition for a job well done and continuous exposure to new responsibilities and challenges.

 

Does Gender Determine Workplace Strengths?

I recently enjoyed reading Marcus Buckingham’s book, Find Your Strongest Life.  The book explores some of the innate differences men and women experience working in the business world.

According to the book, when it comes to careers overall, women look for careers that resonate emotionally with them,  whereas men are more extrinsic and consider first how much money they’ll be making and how they’ll be perceived.

Women are apparently more self-sacrificing – they think about what’s best for the family, and men are often more self-absorbed – they’re concerned with getting to the next level.  It’s ‘how will this make me and loved ones feel?’ versus ‘what can this do for me?’”

Whether these general distinctions apply to you or not, you’ll benefit from inventorying your strengths regularly.  Buckingham defines a strength as an activity that makes you feel strong and that you look forward to doing.

The book advises that even if you’re good at something, it may drain you and therefore turns into a weakness.  Rather than looking externally for information about your strengths, taking quiet time for yourself to think about them might be more beneficial.  One tactic is to consider the last time the day flew by and think about what you were doing, because you were probably engaging one of your strengths.

For assistance, women can check out the free Strong Life Test associated with Buckingham’s book, which presents you with various scenarios and challenges you to make decisions.  Members of both sexes may also find the free strengths tests at renowned psychologist Martin Seligman’s website useful.

I’ve taken both and was pretty surprised about what I learned about myself in some areas – for example, just because I have the ability to deliver keynotes speeches on a different stage in a different city each day doesn’t mean this is a career I’m comfortable with.  My own strength lies in having a balance between public appearances and other types of work.

This post was originally published on Intuit’s Quickbase blog.

Position Yourself as a Thought-Leader at Work

Regardless of your role in your organization, establishing a solid expert platform achieves two purposes.  It promotes your visibility in the new field, and it also forces you to become more knowledgeable about current trends and more skilled in relevant areas.  Most people who seek to become experts do so out of a genuine desire to help others and foster new business relationships, and once others begin to trust and rely upon their advice, demand for your expertise increases.

Expert platforms grow organically because once your name is out there a few times, you are called on to consult and provide feedback until you are eventually known as the go-to person in a specific area.

So what’s the best way to get started?  The first stage is to learn as much as you can about your field – above and beyond what is expected of the average employee.  Read everything you can get your hands on and meet with individuals inside and outside your organization who are more seasoned than you.

Communicating your ideas in writing – via an internal or external blog or other publication – is a terrific way to organize your own thoughts and share your expertise with your target audience. General and industry-specific social networks, too, are important vehicles for conversing about your topics of interest and building your following.

While it’s helpful to have your own website, you can also take advantage of platform-enhancing communities like LinkedIn and Squidoo, a site that allows you to create a topic-specific page.

Also, take an active role in the industry conferences and association meetings happening in your field.  Speaking at these events will expose groups of potential followers to your messages and may lead to paid opportunities for your organization.  Shoot video of your sessions and host it on your website and/or social networks so that prospective audiences can see what you’re like in action.

Finally, show that you’re media savvy by meeting with your PR department about what you can offer to the press and/or signing up for journalist source repositories like Help a Reporter Out and responding to queries related to your expertise.  When you’re quoted in a piece or featured in a television, web, or radio interview, send the clips around your company and showcase them online!

This post was originally published on Intuit’s Quickbase blog.