One of our Associates, John Daly of UT-Austin, uses “amenity creep” … the continuing expansion of amenities hotels must offer guests to stay consistent with the competition … to illustrate how leaders can create unrealistic employee expectations by providing tangible ($) rather than intangible (”attaboy!”) rewards.
Today Silicon Valley Biz Ink offers an interesting reward and recognition case: The in-office DVD rental machine EarthLink is providing for employees. Trivial benefit and example of benefit creep, or as the press release says, “an excellent way to bring an element of fun to the workplace”?
Today’s Wall Street Journal “In the Lead” column, Missing From Work: The Chance to Think, Even to Dream a Little, addresses the recent explosion in corporate e-mail and the toll it has taken on electronically tethered managers:
Managers complain that the relentless flow of computer messages disrupts thought processes and kills creativity. There is no quiet time available during the workday, or even after office hours, to digest information, to ponder fresh ideas, to concentrate wholeheartedly on a difficult problem, or even to daydream. Instead, the expectation that messages from colleagues, bosses, customers and suppliers will be answered promptly requires that employees think only in short bursts, moving quickly from one topic to another.
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NASA’s AMES Research Center is exploring “subauditory speech technology”:
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration researchers have found that placing small button-sized sensors under the chin and on either side of the Adam’s Apple could gather nerve signals that can be processed by a computer and translated into words.
“What is analyzed is silent, or subauditory, speech, such as when a person silently reads or talks to himself. Biological signals arise when reading or speaking to oneself with or without actual lip or facial movement.'’
I was asked by a colleague of a client today … a Public Affairs professional who’s ramping up his level of work and counsel … what books I might suggest to someone looking to elevate their advisor game. Here’s what I rattled off, some of which we’ve posted about in the past, and some of which is new. It’s just my take, but I think each book helps an advisor to leaders better understand communication, organizational dynamics, and the profession of offering counsel. Here’s the list:
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We constantly send books to clients, and a book we’ve been giving recently is Buck Up, Suck Up, and Come Back When You Foul Up by James Carville and Paul Begala (yes, that Carville and that Begala). It’s slender, it’s paperback, it’s entertaining, and it’s a fast read (although you do have to look past some political posturing). And while it offers memorable reminders of many core communication tenets (e.g., be open with bad news, communicate in stories, etc.), more important is the book’s advice on managing political capital—a topic from which we feel leaders in general and communication professionals in particular can benefit.
A favorite communication-related passage of mine:
The people you’re trying to reach have been raised in the sound-bite culture. They’re used to professional politicians, admakers and entertainers getting to the point in a matter of seconds. You need to do the same. You can’t expect people who only listen to their president for a few seconds to listen to you for an hour and a half.
Get the book here at Amazon.
McKinsey has published their annual Global Survey of Business Executives, and you may review a summary of the results here (free registration required). The value they offer for the free registration is worth … well … next to nothing, frankly, but there’s just enough there that you should probably give it a look (if nothing else than to say “I see in the McKinsey survey that 98 percent of executives surveyed in India believe that outsourcing has a very positive or somewhat positive effect on the world economy … isn’t that a shocker” at your next business lunch.)
“Love is the Killer App.” I know … the title sounds touchy-feely. But the fact is that you’ll probably enjoy the book.
Sanders, Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo!, makes this argument: In the New Economy individuals will be rewarded primarily by the extent to which they add value to their professional counterparts, and the best way to do so is through offering intangible rather than tangible value. What counts as intangible value? Knowledge, contacts, and compassion. Sanders’ is a three-part method:
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