Image Source: abovethelaw.com

Chatty women are getting snubbed in the workplace.

Men who dominate office conversations are more likely to get ahead, but women who do the same tend to be seen as less capable, new research suggests.

In a recent study by a Yale University business professor, 156 participants were asked to read an article about a fictitious chief executive—described as a talkative man, talkative woman, quiet man or quiet woman—and rate their competency on a seven-point scale. CEOs were conveyed as talkative or quiet based on how often they expressed their opinions in relation to other executives. A rating of seven was considered the highest score for competency.

Participants rated the competency of talkative male CEOs a 5.64, on average, compared with 5.11 for quiet males. Talkative female CEOs, on the other hand, were seen as less suited for their jobs, receiving just a 4.83 rating and far underperforming quiet female CEOs, who received 5.62.

“When women have power, they just don’t have the same license as men to talk as much,” says Victoria Brescoll, the study’s author. Both male and female participants were guilty of discriminating against talkative women, she notes.

—Leslie Kwoh

I’m a BIG diet DP fan – and a guy – so I thought I’d try Dr. Pepper TEN. But what’s up with that label?! Ten BOLD Tasting calories (per 8 FL OZ) but 20 calories per bottle (serving size: 1 bottle)?! Why not say 5 calories per 4 FL OZ serving, or 2 1/2 per 2  FL OZ serving, or something similarly absurd?!

Also of the 20 FL OZ per bottle, you’re saying that ONLY 10 are actually BOLD tasting?! What are the OTHER 10, TIMID tasting?! COWARDLY tasting?!

Makes me wonder: 10 BOLD tasting calories + 10 MEEK tasting calories blend into what, 20 NONDESCRIPT tasting calories?! Is that really the best you could do?!

Shessh!

Since high school (which was quite a while ago) the Dr.P brand has been sacrosanct for me. “Dr. Pepper: It’s like drinking nectar,” I’ve been known to say. Your labeling strategy for DP TEN, though, is unabashedly duplicitous.

Mostly, though, it’s just heart-breaking. ☹

So shame on you and your two-faced, two-timing, two-calorie (per 1.6 FL OZ serving) marketing brass for letting these labels go to market like this. Shame on you.

Disappointingly yours,

Barry Zweibel
Previously-ARDENT Dr. Pepper Fan

Perhaps you’ve seen this video of Arcade Fire performing Neon Bible … live … in an elevator. Good stuff. Did you notice the percussionist, though? Since an elevator is obviously too small a place for a full drum set (along with 7 people and all their assorted instruments) he’s there banging on the elevator ceiling and ripping pages out of a magazine … to the beat!

Magnificent!

It all got me thinking about how being a leader today requires a creative flair not unlike that of the guy ripping pages to the beat in that crowded elevator. To wit:

• Limitations in Resources – What boss isn’t being asked to do more and more with less and less?!
• Consistently Unchartered Territories – What boss is still able to rely on yesterday’s solutions’ to today’s (and tomorrow’s) problems?!
• Increasingly Complexities – What boss only gets routine/familiar assignments to grapple with anymore?!
• Self-Management Challenges – What boss doesn’t have to effectively manage tempo, tone, and timbre regardless of whatever is or is not happening?!
•  Conflicting Priorities – What boss doesn’t have to simultaneously manage multiple challenges and generate meaningful business-impacting results for each?
• Self/Other Dynamics – What boss doesn’t need to stand out in the crowd without undermining teamwork, collaboration, or one’s reputation?!

Today’s leaders need an agility and readiness to deal with … whatever … whenever. Sometimes that may mean ‘banging on the ceiling’; sometimes that may mean tearing things up and starting anew. Regardless, it’s a boss’s job to insure that all parties – including themselves – ‘keep the beat’ and all ‘play nicely’ together.

Now go ride that elevator to the very top floor!

Image Source: spreadshirt.com

A large part of optimism is believing that “goodness” pervades reality. Makes sense, then,   that optimists are typically of good mood. But what if you don’t consider yourself an optimist or just aren’t in a ‘good mood’ kind of place right now? What then? Or more to the point, HOW then? How can you reset, relaunch, and/or rejigger your mood?

How can you “optimize your optimism,” if you will, quickly and efficiently – in an ”Occam’s Razor” kind of way?

Attributed to the 14th-century English logician and theologian William of Occam, Occam’s Razor, refers to the law of parsimony, economy or succinctness, as in the best (and fastest) way to truly understand something is by, first, eliminating as many assumptions as you can about it – like me assuming I hadn’t already written something about this somewhere in my GottaGettaBLOG! archives because, indeed, I did.

Titled, “Separating Yourself from Your Problems,” the following was first published in February 2006 and STILL seems like a good way to approach things:

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Separating Yourself from Your Problems

How good are you at separating yourself from your problems? Martin Seligman, author of Learned Optimism, suggests that this is yet another thing that optimists can do better than pessimists. Here are some of the distinctions that Dr. Seligman makes between the two groups:

Yes, Pessimists (and Optimists who’ve stopped feeling particularly optimistic) tend to see their problems as Permanent, Personal, and Pervasive, while Optimists (and Pessimists doing their best to empower their optimistic tendencies) tend to see their problems as Temporary, External, and Specific.

Note that sometimes pessimism is the more prudent perspective to hold, such as when the cost of potential failure is extremely high. But being pessimistic out of habit isn’t always in your best interest.

So, if you’re bothered by incessant a pessimistic attitude and negative self-talk, try this:

• Try looking at your situation as temporary and not permanent. “This, too, shall pass” is a good thing to keep in mind.
• Try recognizing that while the problem you’re facing may be negatively affecting you, it’s not about you – even if it’s still yours to remedy.
• Try defining the problem as specifically as possible, so that you can recognize parts of the situation that are not the problem. Challenge the assumption that the problem is yet another example of a more pervasive set of problems. (It may well be, but don’t just assume that it is – make Occam proud!)

Don’t worry if the shift doesn’t come easy at first. Like anything else of import, sometimes it takes practice. So practice. Practice being optimistic. And if positive thinking seems too big of a leap for you, start by practicing non-negative thinking.

Help the problems you face feel more manageable, more doable, and less burdensome by separating yourself from your problems and you’ll have far more energy to deal with whatever problems do come your way.

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Simpler still, I’m just going to go take a brisk walk around the block and shake it all off!

Image Source: freepik.com

“How many times do you find your mind wandering when someone is talking to you? No, you’re not abnormal. And you don’t have attention deficit disorder. Most people speak at an average rate of about 120 words a minute. But most people can listen about four times faster. So you mind fills in the gaps by thinking of other things. Be aware of this and slow down your listening. Force yourself to stay focused, so that you can really comprehend everything the speaker is saying.”

Article Source: A sample issue of Communication Solutions newsletter (www.manageBetter.biz; 800.878.5331)

Image Source: www.pbase.com

It’s hard to learn things in group settings: Some group members are quicker studies than others; some are more willing to ask questions than others; some are more interested. And all too often what may be relevant to one person is wildly irrelevant to others (read: you).

Many teachers (and mentors, coaches, facilitators, trainers, speakers, bosses, and such) take  a “Goldilocks” approach to their tutelage – eschewing “too fast” and “too slow” for teaching “just right.” But in doing so, they bore half of their group or class or audience or team by going “too slow,” and overwhelm the other half by going “too fast”. Not good.

Another popular (read: bad) approach they use might be called the “Golden Rule” approach to tutelage – “Here’s how I learn best,” they say, “so that’s how YOU’LL learn best.” Wrong. Again.

It’s undeniable that many teachers (and mentors, coaches, facilitators, trainers, bosses, and such) have found the balance. They’ve figured out how to be relevant and resonant to their audience, no matter how diverse. And to that I say, “BRAVO!”

But what if they’re not? What can we do, as meeting attendees and participants to help ourselves learn notwithstanding? How can we take greater responsibility TO learn, TO share, TO grow and TO make the most out of less-than ideal circumstances?

Here’s how to L.E.A.R.N., anyway:

• L – Look for opportunities to ask clarifying questions … and ask them and the follow-up questions that the answers engender.
• E – Encourage others to engage more deeply … and learn from their learning, sharing, and growth.
• A – Accept that learning is not linear … and recognize that frustration and unknowing are often precursors to wonderfully vibrant ‘developmental leaps’ if you just stay with it a little longer.
• R – Regularly share your salient realizations with others … and thereby help solidify whatever you ARE learning and quite possibly add to it.
• N – Never  underestimate the power in your continued growth and development.

As John F. Kennedy said, “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” So if you want to be a better leader, go learn, share, and grow – no matter how difficult a task it may seem.

There’s a great leadership lesson in Opening Day: That being FULLY PRESENT really matters. Last year’s successes are, by and large, irrelevant. (The business version of this is  ”What Have You Done For Me, Lately?”) Similarly, last year’s failures are, by and large, irrelevant, too.

All that really matters today is how each player plays … TODAY. That’s how me and my Tweeps will tweet about them, I suspect. (Along with some other fun stuff, too, I suspect!)

So what if each day was YOUR Opening Day? How might you prepare differently? How might you show up differently? How might you play differently?

Tell me about it – but not this afternoon. Unless you want to leave me a message at the tone!

What if we had no reputation, though? What if every day started with a blank slate? What if all memories of our work were erased at the stroke of midnight, a la some Cinderella-like master reset button? How might that change what our TODAY would look like?

• What if no one could remember the great work we did yesterday? (What if no one could remember our screw-ups from yesterday, for that matter?!) How would we assert credibility in such a world?
• What if no remembered who we were? How would we approach relationship-building in such a world?
• What if no one remembered our particular areas of expertise? How would we align expectations in such a world?

It strikes me that many of us rely on – nay, NEED – others to remember an awful lot about us for us to be at our best. Contrast that to someone who’s just starting a new job at a new company in a new city where they know no one. Everyone’s impression of them would be solely based on what they did TODAY – what they did RIGHT HERE AND NOW. No coattails to ride on; No bad recollections to be undermined by.

What would that be like for YOU? Would it be wonderfully refreshing to be able to start each day anew like that? Or scarier than hell to know you’d have to prove yourself all over again each and every day? Or would it feel just like how your days typically are already?

Regardless, understanding your impact – and taking full responsibility for it – is a fundamental aspect of what Justin Menkes calls Executive Intelligence. Learn more at: http://leadershiptraction.com/executive-intelligence/.

Image Source: mlive.com

Football has it. Basketball has it. Baseball has it. Even hockey has it. Yes, Instant Replay is a way to make sure the umpires and referees ‘get it right.’

So I’m wondering, what might Instant Replay look like if we had it during an average workday at the office?

• With the chronically tardy employee:
  • You’re late, again.
  • No I’m not; Steve cornered me in the hallway to talk about his issue.”
  • Again?
  • Yes, again.
  • Well let’s look at the replay and get it right.
• With the scope-changing boss:
  • Here’s the information you asked for, Boss.
  • That’s not what I wanted.
  • Yes, it’s precisely what you asked for.
  • You must not have been paying attention.
  • Well let’s look at the replay and get it right.
• With that passive-aggressive co-worker:
  • Why’d you leave me hanging like that in yesterday’s meeting?
  • I never said I agreed to support your plan, I just said I’m glad you pre-briefed me on it last week.
  • Actually, your words were “I’m GOOD with what you’re proposing.”
  • ACTUALLY, I said, “It’s good to know what you’re proposing.”
  • Well let’s look at the replay and get it right.

Sure, Instant Replay brings some Big Brother concerns to the forefront, but let’s put them aside for a moment to consider what this type of ‘verifiable transparency’ could do for things like employee engagement, camaraderie, respect and regard. Consider how it’d improve organizational teamwork, communications, productivity and goal-attainment.

Indeed, eliminating, or even just significantly reducing, the ambiguity in our interactions with others – and their interactions with us – would make it so much easier to do increasingly better work.

So, the next time you’re faced with a potential misunderstanding or obfuscation – intended or otherwise – stop for a moment and discuss what the interaction would look like if it were reviewed via Instant Replay. Work to ‘get it right’ IN the moment so they’ll be no disagreement afterwards.

So, “if you are a change practitioner, or executive responsible for change and direction setting” – and want to save $500 off the registration fee – this conference is for you!

Disciplined, Analytical and Practical Approaches to Managing High Stakes Change

Gain practical advice,  innovative strategies, and expand your network with others who likely share some of the very same change management challenges that you do, such as:

• Designing innovative change approaches that deliver business impact
• Translating change management practices into business recommendations that resonate
• Building organizational competence to effectively manage large scale change
• Shifting from task to people centric approaches to change

Benefits of Attending

• Learn how to develop a true “change mindset” in your organization
• Learn how leaders and teams can better initiate conversations that invite candid, honest input and align talent to business needs
• Learn how to help associates more readily embrace change
• Zero in on the change challenges that matter most to you and your company

The Agenda

• http://goo.gl/K4PWj (pdf file)

The Deal

•  Register at http://goo.gl/B1JWs and use code “BZ1” and get $500 off the registration fee.

The 2012 Change Management Conference: Disciplined, Analytical and Practical Approaches to Managing High Stakes Change

• InterContinental New York Barclay
• Conference (993012-2)
• June 21–22, 2012
• For more information contact TheConferenceBoard Customer Service:
• Phone: 212-339-0345
• E-mail: customer.service@conference-board.org
• Conference Website: http://goo.gl/rxGKc

If this conference is anything like the other ConferenceBoard events I’ve attended and blogged/tweeted at, it’s gonna be great! Hope to see you there, yes?!