Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom

Should We Ban Handshakes?

The first piece of business advice I was given that stuck was to greet a new person with a firm, enthusiastic handshake. Since that day 16 years ago when my boss said my shake had to be “more confident,” I've been telling countless college graduates to think about their handshaking approach as a critical part of making a solid first impression. After all, you don’t want to be a dead fish (too limp) or a bulldozer (too aggressive). And it takes practice to get it right.

Now, though, there’s a worldwide movement to banish the handshake from our business culture. Citing concerns aboutpublic health based on Enterovirus D68, Ebola and other highly contagious diseases, several institutions are now on the anti-handshaking bandwagon. Earlier this year, the Journal of the American Medicine Association instructed hospital staff to avoid them, then Aberystwyth University, a U.K.-based university, published a study illustrating that handshakes spread too many germs.

Limited Alternatives

Numerous articles from sources as varied as TechCrunch andThe Washington Post to the Los Angeles Times and Vox have extolled the virtues of eliminating the handshake and replacing it with the "Hey bro" fist bump pioneered by President Obama during his first campaign. There's even a website that promotes the fist bump or, as the site calls it, the bumpshake.

The fist bump has caught on a bit, I admit, but it does not and should not replace the handshake. For one thing, many people think it’s silly, and you don’t want a new business associate’s first impression of you to be that you’re a buffoon. For another, using a fist bump risks offending a contact who expects a handshake.

Even if the person you’re meeting doesn’t care if you twirl in a circle as an introduction, there's nothing more awkward than a non-reciprocated fist bump left hanging in the air. It took thousands of years for the handshake to root itself firmly in our culture. Until the fist bump approaches the same tenure, you’re safer using the handshake—it's the gesture of the masses.

What if you’re in a new work situation and you’re worried that the handshake is out of vogue? In that case, carefully observe the greeting behavior of others around you. Your goal is to assimilate. If no one else is shaking hands, then you shouldn't be the only one to do so. I suspect, though, that in the Western world, these situations are few and far between.

For more of my take, head over to the full post at the AMEX Open Forum.

"Project Manager" Means Different Things to Different People

I came across a post in my LinkedIn feed from a PM from Bahrain, Eman Deabil, who sparked a healthy debate about whether “Project Manager” is a real title and “Project Management” is a real profession.

The crux of Eman’s argument is that project management is actually a set of interrelated skills that need to be developed by the person who is in charge of managing a project. These skills differ depending on the project, and especially depending on the industry in which the project will take place. For example, managing a project in IT requires a separate set of competencies than a project in the eLearning space.

No PM is One Size Fits All

Eman cites her concerns with the current PMP certification process, which she feels assumes that people who obtain this credential can go on to successfully coordinate a project in any industry. She simply doesn’t think this is the case. A Project Manager must not only have project management skills, but also the appropriate academic credentials and experience in the industry at hand.

Project Manager, she says, isn’t even a genuine title. Rather, titles related to project management should be much more descriptive – for instance adding details on the person’s line of business or type of project (e.g. Project Manager in Supply Chain). Instead of being asked to choose whether they are principally involved in project management or learning and development, for instance, professionals being considered for new positions should say they are “Project Managers in Learning and Development.”

I see Eman’s point, although I do think that transferable skills – or those that are appropriate across a wide range of industries and roles – are especially useful when it comes to project management. No matter what industry or business line you manage projects in, you’d better know how to lead disparate teams, coordinate multi-functional activities, manage timelines and budgets, monitor and report on progress, and analyze results.

For the rest of the argument, have a look at the full post on Intuit's Fast Track blog.

Peer Effects: Use Them for Good or Evil

Those who have reading my posts for a while know that I have a special interest in the intersection of economics and business, as well as the intersection of neuroscience and business. Recently, I corresponded with Eyal Winter, a professor of economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalam. In his excellent book, Feeling Smart: Why Emotions Are More Rational than We Think, Eyal asks this question:

“If our emotions are so destructive and unreliable, why has evolution left us with them? The answer is that, even though they may not behave in a purely logical manner, our emotions frequently lead us to better, safer, more optimal outcomes. There is emotion logic in emotion, and emotion in logic.”

A part of this phenomenon that’s relevant to managers is what Eyal calls “peer effects.” Apparently, employees will avoid putting much effort into their work if they know or believe that their co-workers are shirking their responsibilities or otherwise not living up to their full potential. On the flip side, when employees witness co-workers putting in extra effort, they will be motivated to do the same. So the answer to the central question in this post is yes, one lazy employee can and will destroy your team’s productivity, and that’s why you must engage in strategic teambuilding. Here are two examples from the economic literature to prove Eyal’s case.

Work Ethic is Contagious in Italy

Italy, more than any other European Union country, is characterized by extreme cultural gaps between different geographical areas, especially the north of the country versus the south.

Two Italian researchers, Ichino and Maggi, studied a database containing information on the behaviors of thousands of employees at one of Italy’s largest banks. The collected data on each employee included detailed information on the number of times the employee came to work late or failed to show up entirely, promotions to higher ranks in the bank hierarchy, and transfers from one branch to another. Using this information it was possible to identify bank employees who had moved from bank branches in the north to branches in the south and vice versa.

Ichino and Maggi discovered that bank employees who moved, for example, from Milan in the north to Naples in the south, exhibited extreme changes in their work behavior. Once in Naples, they were frequently late to the office and missed a lot more days of work. Since only sick days are considered acceptable reasons for missing days of work at the bank, one might surmise that the move from one city to another led to deteriorations in the health of transferred employees, but the researchers found that employees transferred from Naples to Milan also exhibited different patterns of behavior, which in this case was expressed in lower rates of tardiness at work and fewer missed work days.

Further analysis of the database proved that the only reasonable explanation for these changes in behavior patterns was the phenomenon of peer effects. Employees transferred from Milan to Naples quickly learned that their colleagues in Naples had a weaker work ethic than the one they had been used to in Milan. This reduced their internal incentives to maintain high standards of work ethic.

In contrast, employees transferred from Naples to Milan learned (although apparently not as quickly as those moving in the opposite direction) that their new environment was one in which colleagues invested more time and energy at their jobs. This, of course, was an uncomfortable position for them, but it still created an incentive for them to adopt the work ethic of those around them.

For the second example, take a look at the full post on Intuit's Fast Track blog.

Evolving in 2015: Workplace Communication and Collaboration

In 2013, entrepreneur Toni Lopresti and a few IT expert friends founded Intellinote, an enterprise software company based in Reston, VA. Tony and I recently got together to talk workplace productivity and team collaboration. In our interview, he discusses the evolving role of email, communication, and what companies can do to boost overall productivity in the workplace.

Tony, where do you see workplace collaboration heading in 2015 and beyond?

The modern workforce is embracing lightweight, easy-to-use software tools that can be used anywhere, anytime. I fully expect workspace collaboration tools to support this paradigm too. Complex and unwieldy solutions will continue to fall out of favor with businesses going forward.

How do you think our methods of business communication are changing?

Unified communications will continue to gain significant traction in 2015 and beyond. Business users are unhappy with the fragmented nature of communications – spread across email, messaging applications, video conferencing solutions, etc. They will look to unify and bring business communications together. This approach will make meetings, discussions and conversation, which often result in valuable insights and to-dos, more actionable. Fewer things will slip through the cracks.

What should companies do to improve employee collaboration?

Collaboration has both a physical aspect and a virtual aspect. On the physical front, companies need to keep an eye on the evolving science of open offices and floor plans to determine what’s best for their teams. On the virtual front, where software has a major role to play, companies owe it to themselves and their employees to foster collaboration. A sensible approach is to use tools that capture and organize business content that’s created by employees on a daily basis, that turn static content into actionable content with a click, and that consolidate their typical 6+ specialized collaboration tools into a single platform.

For more from Tony, head over to the full post on Intuit's Fast Track blog.

Why I'm Finally Quitting Spreadsheets

I’ll admit it. I’m not exactly an early adopter of new technology. I may like thinking about future devices, but when it comes to learning how to use them and incorporating them into my daily routine, I’m a technical slacker.

And yes, I’m a person who has resisted moving on from Microsoft Excel. I’ve used spreadsheets for the last 20 years and for the most part, they’ve met my needs. However, as I work more and more in the cloud, I realize that spreadsheets are so 2005 – and they are costing us in terms of productivity and accuracy. Here are some of the problems.

Spreadsheets are Single-Occupancy Only

When you use a spreadsheet for team projects, you either have to email copies of the file to team members, or post the file on a shared drive. Only one person can access the file at a time and you risk overwriting the original file if you don’t back it up properly.

Spreadsheets Require Lots of Busywork

After all of your team members have had input, you’ll need to consolidate that new information into the master. Not only is this process very time-consuming, but it is also prone to error. As a project manager, your focus should be on deliverables and results, not on a simple, administrative process. Managing the spreadsheet shouldn’t be anyone’s full time job.

Spreadsheets Interrupt Workflow

Projects are becoming more complex, but spreadsheet technology hasn’t kept up. At a time when tasks are being automated and team members need to be alerted in real-time when it’s time to engage, you can’t afford to be held up by your spreadsheet. And because spreadsheets aren’t equipped with activity-based triggers or alarms, the onus is on the project manager to make sure it is updated and that tasks are moving along.

For more on why I'm finally quitting spreadsheets, have a look at the full post on Intuit's Fast Track blog.

IoT Technology Revolutionizes the Office Grind

I recently attended a closing for our house just outside of Chicago. The event took place in a residential realty office and the amount of paperwork for our closing alone was staggering. The major thing I noticed, however, was the amount of time it took to complete each document. Papers were changing hands constantly as they required notarization, copying, scanning, and signing. There were endless steps and people involved to get each closing document to its final resting place, and when particular individuals were working remotely, the process took even longer.

Broken Links and the Unifying Potential of Mobile

The proliferation of mobile devices (both company-sponsored and BYOD) in medium-sized operations like this realty firm present both a problem and an opportunity. The challenge is that many firms don’t have the IT resources to centrally control these devices, and important, work-related information is not stored or shared securely. On the other hand, ever-evolving mobile device software has the potential to exponentially boost productivity.

Document management is an area hurting for greater efficiency. Employees do so much on their smartphones, yet mobile devices still lack the infrastructure to properly manage valuable documents housed in disparate locations. Workflow is often stalled: you put a customer on hold while you wait for your printer to free up, your colleague can’t access a report because it’s on the wrong server, or your boss can’t move a project forward because she doesn’t have a wet signature.

Faster Communication, Workflow in the Cloud

By now, you’ve probably heard of the Internet of Things (IoT), or the environment resulting when a device with an off/on switch connects and “talks” to the Internet or another device. Technology analyst firm Gartner predicted that in the near future, there will be 30 billion connected devices able to communicate their activities to other devices and to the people who manage those devices.

Connecticut-based global business services, technology and document management company (and new WCW partner) Xerox is leveraging the IoT to develop mobile applications that interface with office printers, allowing users to scan, email, fax, and print documents directly from a smartphone or tablet. Documents can also be signed electronically, saved, and uploaded to cloud storage (Dropbox, Box, Office365, OneDrive for Business etc.). The Xerox Mobile Link App has a high degree of customization, creating icons on the home screen so that users can repeat desired workflows with one touch.

I like the Xerox technology because employees don’t have to wait for an owner, office manager, or IT person to roll it out.  All you have to do is connect your iOS iPhone/iPad device to the same network as your Xerox printer and download the free apps yourself. I plan to use it to share documents with consulting clients that have granted me access to their internal networks, and will eventually implement the apps in my home office (in the fall, the apps will be available for individual desktop machines and Androids).

What IoT technologies are making your day-to-day work life easier?

Hiring: Are You Being Too Picky?

The 2014 Job Preparedness Indicator study conducted by the Career Advisory Board confirmed previous reports that a skills gap exists at all levels of U.S. employment. Only 7 percent of hiring managers said that “nearly all” or “most” job seekers have the right combination of skills and traits that their companies need to fill open positions. This belief causes them to spend months interviewing candidates, often walking away without having hired anyone at all.

What’s interesting, though, is that the hiring managers in the study also said that they commonly see essential, individual skills – such as accountability, problem-solving, and time management – among candidates.

What does this mean? I’d speculate that although hiring managers recognize stellar traits when they see them, they won’t settle for anyone who isn’t the perfect package.

I think that sometimes, hiring managers forget that they are dealing with human beings. And human beings simply aren’t equipped to be all things to all people all the time. For example, you could bring in a candidate who has the exact experience you’re looking for and appears to have a strong work ethic, but her verbal communication isn’t top-notch because she’s not a native English speaker. Or maybe you get that native English-speaker who uses correct grammar in everyday conversation and has the best employment track record you’ve ever seen, but her experience isn’t in your industry.

I’d argue that given the skills gap, you ought to seriously consider both of these individuals. And yet more often than not, hiring managers don’t. They remove them from consideration because in an endless series of qualification boxes, one isn’t checked. They don’t hire anyone because candidates for which every single box is checked don’t exist. The expectation that they do is unreasonable.

For advice on how to appropriately manage expectations, check out my advice on Intuit's Fast Track blog.

Just Like in PR, It's All in the Spin

In my seminars, I am fond of discussing the importance of perception. You could be the smartest, most talented individual your organization has ever hired, but if people don’t like you or value what you have to offer, you’re dead in the water.

Fortunately, it is relatively easy to project a positive image. When you meet people in person, make sure you have the basics down: nice appearance, eye contact, smile, good handshake, and reasonably articulate verbal communication. Online, establish a consistent personal brand across all your platforms that portrays you as a can-do, dynamic, and successful individual.

If You Don’t Tell Them, No One Else Will

Trumpeting your accomplishments so that everyone knows the results of which you are capable is also essential to an ongoing, strong persona. But equally important is your ability to take a small achievement and make it seem bigger. Here are two examples from my own career.

My first book, They Don’t Teach Corporate in College, has sold more than 50,000 English-language copies (it is also published in other languages). This means that the book has sold more than 99 percent of nonfiction titles published. In other words, it’s a bestseller. However, They Don’t Teach Corporate in College is not a New York Times bestseller because it didn’t sell a ton of copies in its first week. When I talk about my accomplishments, I don’t get to say I have a New York Times bestselling book, but I DO get to say I have a bestselling book. And not many people understand the distinction. Most clients see the word “bestseller” and stop there. They are impressed, which is what I want and need.

More recently, the American Management Association kindly named me as one of their Top 50 Leaders for 2015. The AMA went on to institute a contest in which they would select the Top 30 through reader votes. As soon as I saw the Top 50 mention, I didn’t care about being voted into the Top 30. After all, what’s the difference between Top 30 and Top 50? I can still say that a prestigious organization like the AMA listed me as a Top Leader.

Be Creative About What You Have to Offer

My point is that to be an effective self-promoter, you have to grab hold of the tidbits of your career that sound remarkable, even if just on the surface. Let’s say that when you were in your teens, you accompanied your mother on business trips all over the world, occasionally tagging along to her conferences and meetings. From this experience, you can easily claim to have global competence, or an understanding of how business is done in different cultures.

Global competence is a rare skill for American professionals, and it’s even rarer if you are young. Reading about your journeys attending business meetings across the globe, many might believe that your own jobs (rather than mom’s) took you there. You haven’t lied – you’ve simply phrased your experience in a way that makes people stand up and take notice.

For more where this came from, have a look at Intuit's Fast Track blog.