Rely on Others to Improve your Judgment

From Management TIPS - BHR

Reversing a decision that isn't working out can be a painful experience. Perhaps the product you launched isn't selling, or an ad campaign that you were behind is falling flat. Whatever the issue, accepting failure and changing direction can feel like a comment on your judgment. In these situations, call on others to help you evaluate and redirect. Ask people with a variety of perspectives — peers, direct reports, customers, family — to give you input on what went wrong and what to do now. The collective wisdom of this crowd can turn a bad situation into a winning one. Reversing a decision shouldn't be a reason for shame, but a badge of honor in that you lived and learned.

How (and When) to Motivate Yourself

by Peter Bregman

I woke up this morning to pouring rain and temperatures in the low 40s. I had planned on going for an early bike ride in Central Park but now I wasn't so sure. I like to get some exercise every day and given my commitments for the rest of the day, this was my only opportunity. But did I really want to get so wet and cold?

I decided to go for it, though I continued to question myself as I put on my biking clothes and got my bike out of the basement. I paused under the awning of our apartment building, as rain streamed down on either side of me.

A friend of mine, Chris, happened to be dashing home to avoid the rain and stopped under the awning for a second.

"Great day for a bike ride," he said, before running on.

He's right, I thought, this is dumb. I stayed under the awning for a few more minutes as I considered retreating into the warmth of my apartment.

Finally, knowing that I'd feel great after a good, hard ride, I got on my bike and took off, pedaling hard. The initial sting of the cold rain had me questioning myself again but I kept going.

Then, after less than five minutes, the rain stopped bothering me. And after a few more minutes, it felt kind of good. Invigorating. It turned out to be a great ride.

When I got back to the apartment building — drenched, a little muddy, and with a big smile on my face — one of my neighbors commented on how motivated and disciplined I was to be out on a day like that.

But he was wrong. My ride in the rain taught me a good lesson about motivation and discipline: we need it less than we think.

"I didn't need to be motivated for long," I laughed. "Just long enough to get outside."

Because once I was already in the rain, it took no discipline to keep riding. Getting started was the hard part. Like getting into a cold pool. Once you're in, it's fine. It's getting in that takes motivation.

In fact, when you think about it, we only need to be motivated for a few short moments. Between those moments, momentum or habit or unconscious focus takes over.

I write at least one post a week. Does that take discipline? Sure. But when I break it down, the hardest part — the part for which I need the discipline — is sitting down to write. I'll find all sorts of things to distract me from starting. But if I can get myself to start a post, I don't need much discipline to finish it.

Need willpower to work on something difficult? Ask yourself when you need that willpower the most. Received feedback that you should talk less in meetings? Figure out when are you most susceptible to blabbing on. Trying to maintain a commitment to yourself or someone else? Identify the times when you are most at risk of violating that commitment.

Then, whatever you do, don't give up in the moments when you're most vulnerable. Don't give up the bike ride while standing under the awning watching it rain. Even when your friend tells you you're crazy to go out.

In other words, never quit a diet while reading the dessert menu. It's too tempting. That's not the right time to second-guess your commitment. It's precisely the time to use your willpower and discipline.

We waste a lot of time, energy, and focus second-guessing ourselves. Am I doing the right work? Is this project worthwhile? Is this employee going to work out? That moment-by-moment deliberation is a distraction at best and sabotage at worst. If you keep asking yourself whether a project is worth working on, you'll reduce your effort on that project — who wants to spend time on something that might fail? — and doom its success.

On the other hand, it's impossible to ignore those feelings of uncertainty. The solution? Schedule them. Create an established time to second-guess yourself, a time when you know your commitment won't be weakened by the temptations of the moment. If you're going to break the diet, do it when your need for willpower is at its lowest. Decide to decide the next day, maybe after a healthy breakfast or a little exercise, when you know your inclination to stick to your goals will be naturally high.

Then, if you decide to stay on the diet, commit fully and powerfully until the next scheduled time to deliberate. Knowing you have a planned pause allows you to focus and concentrate without hesitation until the established time to second guess yourself.

And if you do eventually decide to change your commitment, you'll know it's not from momentary weakness. It'll be a strategic, rational, intentional decision.

What's important is that your moment of choice is when you are in the right state of mind — when you need the least willpower — to make the best decision.

Which is why, sitting here at my computer, dry, comfortable, and having had a great ride today, I've decided to go out again tomorrow.

Stop Making Decisions That Waste Time and Money

From Mangement Tios - HBR

Many managers rely on gut instinct to make important decisions, which often leads to poor results. On the contrary, when managers insist on incorporating logic and evidence, they make better choices and their companies benefit. Here are three ways to introduce evidence-based management at your company:

•Demand evidence. Whenever anyone makes a compelling claim, ask for supporting data. Don't take someone's word for it.

•Examine logic. Look closely at the evidence and be sure the logic holds up. Be on the lookout for faulty cause-and-effect reasoning.

•Encourage experimentation. If you don't have evidence, create some. Invite managers to conduct small experiments to test the viability of proposed strategies and use the resulting data to guide decisions.

Two Lists You Should Look at Every Morning

by Peter Bregman

I was late for my meeting with the CEO of a technology company and I was emailing him from my iPhone as I walked onto the elevator in his company's office building. I stayed focused on the screen as I rode to the sixth floor. I was still typing with my thumbs when the elevator doors opened and I walked out without looking up. Then I heard a voice behind me, "Wrong floor." I looked back at the man who was holding the door open for me to get back in; it was the CEO, a big smile on his face. He had been in the elevator with me the whole time. "Busted," he said.

The world is moving fast and it's only getting faster. So much technology. So much information. So much to understand, to think about, to react to. A friend of mine recently took a new job as the head of learning and development at a mid-sized investment bank. When she came to work her first day on the job she turned on her computer, logged in with the password they had given her, and found 385 messages already waiting for her.

So we try to speed up to match the pace of the action around us. We stay up until 3 am trying to answer all our emails. We twitter, we facebook, and we link-in. We scan news websites wanting to make sure we stay up to date on the latest updates. And we salivate each time we hear the beep or vibration of a new text message.

But that's a mistake. The speed with which information hurtles towards us is unavoidable (and it's getting worse). But trying to catch it all is counterproductive. The faster the waves come, the more deliberately we need to navigate. Otherwise we'll get tossed around like so many particles of sand, scattered to oblivion. Never before has it been so important to be grounded and intentional and to know what's important.

Never before has it been so important to say "No." No, I'm not going to read that article. No, I'm not going to read that email. No, I'm not going to take that phone call. No, I'm not going to sit through that meeting.

It's hard to do because maybe, just maybe, that next piece of information will be the key to our success. But our success actually hinges on the opposite: on our willingness to risk missing some information. Because trying to focus on it all is a risk in itself. We'll exhaust ourselves. We'll get confused, nervous, and irritable. And we'll miss the CEO standing next to us in the elevator.

A study of car accidents by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute put cameras in cars to see what happens right before an accident. They found that in 80% of crashes the driver was distracted during the three seconds preceding the incident. In other words, they lost focus — dialed their cell phones, changed the station on the radio, took a bite of a sandwich, maybe checked a text — and didn't notice that something changed in the world around them. Then they crashed.

The world is changing fast and if we don't stay focused on the road ahead, resisting the distractions that, while tempting, are, well, distracting, then we increase the chances of a crash.

Now is a good time to pause, prioritize, and focus. Make two lists:

List 1: Your Focus List (the road ahead)

What are you trying to achieve? What makes you happy? What's important to you? Design your time around those things. Because time is your one limited resource and no matter how hard you try you can't work 25/8.

List 2: Your Ignore List (the distractions)

To succeed in using your time wisely, you have to ask the equally important but often avoided complementary questions: what are you willing not to achieve? What doesn't make you happy? What's not important to you? What gets in the way?

Some people already have the first list. Very few have the second. But given how easily we get distracted and how many distractions we have these days, the second is more important than ever. The leaders who will continue to thrive in the future know the answers to these questions and each time there's a demand on their attention they ask whether it will further their focus or dilute it.

Which means you shouldn't create these lists once and then put them in a drawer. These two lists are your map for each day. Review them each morning, along with your calendar, and ask: what's the plan for today? Where will I spend my time? How will it further my focus? How might I get distracted? Then find the courage to follow through, make choices, and maybe disappoint a few people.

After the CEO busted me in the elevator, he told me about the meeting he had just come from. It was a gathering of all the finalists, of which he was one, for the title of Entrepreneur of the Year. This was an important meeting for him — as it was for everyone who aspired to the title (the judges were all in attendance) — and before he entered he had made two explicit decisions: 1. To focus on the meeting itself and 2. Not to check his BlackBerry.

What amazed him was that he was the only one not glued to a mobile device. Were all the other CEOs not interested in the title? Were their businesses so dependent on them that they couldn't be away for one hour? Is either of those a smart thing to communicate to the judges?

There was only one thing that was most important in that hour and there was only one CEO whose behavior reflected that importance, who knew where to focus and what to ignore. Whether or not he eventually wins the title, he's already winning the game.

The Productivity Paradox: How Sony Pictures Gets More Out of People by Demanding Less

by Tony Schwartz

Human beings don’t work like computers; they can’t operate at high speeds continuously, running multiple programs at once.

People perform at their peak when they alternate between periods of intense focus and intermittent renewal.

Employees can increase their effectiveness by practicing simple rituals that refuel their energy, such as taking a daily walk to get an emotional breather or turning off e-mail at prescribed times so they can concentrate.

If companies allow and encourage employees to create and stick to such rituals, they will be rewarded with a more engaged, productive, and focused workforce.

The way most of us work isn’t working. Study after study has shown that companies are experiencing a crisis in employee engagement. A 2007 Towers Perrin survey of nearly 90,000 employees worldwide, for instance, found that only 21% felt fully engaged at work and nearly 40% were disenchanted or disengaged. That negativity has a direct impact on the bottom line. Towers Perrin found that companies with low levels of employee engagement had a 33% annual decline in operating income and an 11% annual decline in earnings growth. Those with high engagement, on the other hand, reported a 19% increase in operating income and 28% growth in earnings per share.

Nearly a decade ago, the Energy Project, the company I head, began to address work performance and the problem of employee disengagement. We believed that burnout was one of its leading causes, and we focused almost exclusively on helping individuals avoid it by managing their energy, as opposed to their time. (See “Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time,” HBR October 2007.) Time, after all, is finite. By contrast, you can expand your personal energy and also regularly renew it.

Once people understand how their supply of available energy is influenced by the choices they make, they can learn new strategies that increase the fuel in their tanks and boost their productivity. If people define precise times at which to do highly specific activities, these new behaviors eventually become automatic and no longer require conscious will and discipline. We refer to them as rituals. They’re simple but powerful. They include practices such as shutting down your e-mail for a couple of hours during the day, so you can tackle important or complex tasks without distracting interruptions, or taking a daily 3 PM walk to get an emotional and mental breather.

What we failed to fully appreciate in our early work was that once we finished our sessions with employees and sent them back into the workplace, they often ran into powerful organizational resistance to the very principles and practices we’d taught them. We still believe that enduring organizational change is possible only if individuals alter their attitudes and behaviors first. But we’ve come to understand that it’s not possible to generate lasting cultural change without deeply involving an organization’s senior leadership.

In this article, we’ll describe the transformation we helped initiate at Sony Pictures Entertainment, a company that has embraced energy-building and -renewing rituals at all levels. Based in Culver City, California, Sony Pictures produces, markets, and distributes movies and TV shows. So far, more than 3,000 of the company’s 6,300 employees worldwide have gone through our energy-management program. This summer we’ll reach another 1,700 in Europe, Singapore, and Latin America.

To date, the reaction to the program has been overwhelmingly positive. Eighty-eight percent of participants say it has made them more focused and productive. More than 90% say it has helped them bring more energy to work every day. Eighty-four percent say they feel better able to manage their jobs’ demands and are more engaged at work. Sony’s leaders believe that these changes have helped boost the company’s performance. Despite the recession, Sony Pictures had its most profitable year ever in 2008 and one of its highest revenue years in 2009 (though an industrywide collapse in DVD sales forced the company to do a round of layoffs early in 2010).

The Energy Project

Leaders can easily underestimate how their attitudes and behaviors affect the energy levels of their teams. Because energy is contagious, both the quality and quantity of a leader’s energy can drain or galvanize a team. In addition, the leader sets the tone for the organization. If people see their company president making it a practice to take a walk every afternoon, they feel safer taking time out for their own efforts. To measure your own energy management effectiveness as a leader and get more tips on how to increase it, go to theenergyproject.com/hbr.

As we have done at many other organizations, we encouraged Sony to make two fundamental shifts in the way it manages employees. The first was to stop expecting people to operate like computers—at high speeds, continuously, running multiple programs at the same time—and to recognize that human beings perform best and are most productive when they alternate between periods of intense focus and intermittent renewal. The second was to move from trying to get more out of employees and instead to invest in systematically meeting their four core needs, so they’re fueled and inspired to bring more of themselves to work every day. These four core needs are physical health (achieved through nutrition, sleep, daytime renewal, and exercise), emotional well-being (which grows out of feeling appreciated and valued), mental clarity (the ability to focus intensely, prioritize, and think creatively), and spiritual significance (which comes from the feeling of serving a mission beyond generating a profit).

Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything

by Tony Schwartz

I've been playing tennis for nearly five decades. I love the game and I hit the ball well, but I'm far from the player I wish I were.

I've been thinking about this a lot the past couple of weeks, because I've taken the opportunity, for the first time in many years, to play tennis nearly every day. My game has gotten progressively stronger. I've had a number of rapturous moments during which I've played like the player I long to be.

And almost certainly could be, even though I'm 58 years old. Until recently, I never believed that was possible. For most of my adult life, I've accepted the incredibly durable myth that some people are born with special talents and gifts, and that the potential to truly excel in any given pursuit is largely determined by our genetic inheritance.

During the past year, I've read no fewer than five books — and a raft of scientific research — which powerfully challenge that assumption (see below for a list). I've also written one, The Way We're Working Isn't Working, which lays out a guide, grounded in the science of high performance, to systematically building your capacity physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

We've found, in our work with executives at dozens of organizations, that it's possible to build any given skill or capacity in the same systematic way we do a muscle: push past your comfort zone, and then rest. Aristotle Will Durant*, commenting on Aristotle, pointed out that the philosopher had it exactly right 2000 years ago: "We are what we repeatedly do." By relying on highly specific practices, we've seen our clients dramatically improve skills ranging from empathy, to focus, to creativity, to summoning positive emotions, to deeply relaxing.

Like everyone who studies performance, I'm indebted to the extraordinary Anders Ericsson, arguably the world's leading researcher into high performance. For more than two decades, Ericsson has been making the case that it's not inherited talent which determines how good we become at something, but rather how hard we're willing to work — something he calls "deliberate practice." Numerous researchers now agree that 10,000 hours of such practice is the minimum necessary to achieve expertise in any complex domain.

That notion is wonderfully empowering. It suggests we have remarkable capacity to influence our own outcomes. But that's also daunting. One of Ericsson's central findings is that practice is not only the most important ingredient in achieving excellence, but also the most difficult and the least intrinsically enjoyable.

If you want to be really good at something, it's going to involve relentlessly pushing past your comfort zone, as well as frustration, struggle, setbacks and failures. That's true as long as you want to continue to improve, or even maintain a high level of excellence. The reward is that being really good at something you've earned through your own hard work can be immensely satisfying.

Here, then, are the six keys to achieving excellence we've found are most effective for our clients:

1.Pursue what you love. Passion is an incredible motivator. It fuels focus, resilience, and perseverance.

2.Do the hardest work first. We all move instinctively toward pleasure and away from pain. Most great performers, Ericsson and others have found, delay gratification and take on the difficult work of practice in the mornings, before they do anything else. That's when most of us have the most energy and the fewest distractions.

3.Practice intensely, without interruption for short periods of no longer than 90 minutes and then take a break. Ninety minutes appears to be the maximum amount of time that we can bring the highest level of focus to any given activity. The evidence is equally strong that great performers practice no more than 4 ½ hours a day.

4.Seek expert feedback, in intermittent doses. The simpler and more precise the feedback, the more equipped you are to make adjustments. Too much feedback, too continuously can create cognitive overload, increase anxiety, and interfere with learning.

5.Take regular renewal breaks. Relaxing after intense effort not only provides an opportunity to rejuvenate, but also to metabolize and embed learning. It's also during rest that the right hemisphere becomes more dominant, which can lead to creative breakthroughs.

6.Ritualize practice. Will and discipline are wildly overrated. As the researcher Roy Baumeister has found, none of us have very much of it. The best way to insure you'll take on difficult tasks is to build rituals — specific, inviolable times at which you do them, so that over time you do them without having to squander energy thinking about them.

I have practiced tennis deliberately over the years, but never for the several hours a day required to achieve a truly high level of excellence. What's changed is that I don't berate myself any longer for falling short. I know exactly what it would take to get to that level.

I've got too many other higher priorities to give tennis that attention right now. But I find it incredibly exciting to know that I'm still capable of getting far better at tennis — or at anything else — and so are you.

The Concierge Approach to Content Marketing

http://www.hotelmarketingstrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Content-Marketing.pdf

TINO Y TIEMPO

Horacio Marchand


Una regla de etiqueta entre los asistentes a un partido de tenis entre, digamos, Nadal y Djokovic, es que los errores en el tenis no se aplauden. Sólo cuando uno de los participantes gana un punto por habilidad o estrategia amerita un aplauso; pero en los negocios hasta se celebra con champagne.

Es un hecho que a veces el éxito se debe a la torpeza de tus enemigos y también a que tu enemigo simplemente sea superior en la ejecución y/o haya visto algún ángulo en el mercado ignorado por ti.
El éxito no es sólo un tema de atinarle al mercado; tu contrincante tiene un rol clave en definirte e impacta en tu reputación y valor. Si la meta es el cliente, la velocidad y forma en la que te desplazas en relación con tu competencia es la carrera.
Microsoft, por ejemplo, convierte a Bill Gates en el hombre más rico del mundo, hasta el día que decide donar parte de su dinero a fundaciones. Este gran imperio desluce si se le compara con Apple y hasta el "nuevo imperio" Google; se sesga cuando se referencia con el impulso de la compañía de la manzana mordida.
El precio de la acción de Microsoft prácticamente no ha crecido desde el 2001, mientras que la de Apple ha crecido cerca de 11 veces.
Otro ejemplo es el caso de Kmart, donde los analistas y académicos coinciden en que ha sido aplastada como centro de sandwich: Walmart, enfocado a precio y valor, y Target, enfocado al estilo y diseño.
Hace más de 100 años, Kmart contaba con 85 tiendas. Walmart abre su primera tienda en 1962, y para el año 2011 agrupa cerca de 10 mil tiendas (contra sólo mil 382 tiendas Kmart.
Kmart tuvo sus años de desenfoque y optó por la diversificación "porque ya no había mucho a donde crecer", al tiempo que Walmart y Target afilaban el enfoque y seguían creciendo.
Forzado, Kmart echa reversa a su estrategia de diversificación y en el periodo del 1994-2002 mejora notablemente sus operaciones. La rotación del inventario, métrica clave y en particular en menudeo mejora en términos absolutos. Su rotación aumenta de 3.45 en 1994 a 4.56 en 2002, lo que representa un 32 por ciento.
Sin embargo, la rotación de Walmart crece un 57 por ciento pero de una base más alta: aumenta de 5.14 en 1994 a 8.08 en 2002. La rotación de Walmart en 1994 era de por sí mayor a la que alcanzó Kmart en el 2002 (5.14 contra 4.56).
El éxito de Walmart no sólo se deriva de la logística sino de un enfoque coherente, diferenciado y bien posicionado en el mercado: siempre precios bajos.
Target, por su lado, hace hincapié en las tendencias de diseño y moda en prendas de vestir y decoración.
En la mezcla de productos y servicios, Target es similar a Walmart de muchas maneras, pero satisface las necesidades de clientes jóvenes, conscientes de la imagen por el manejo de marcas de diseñadores exclusivos.
Kmart sigue luchando por definir su forma de jugar, se describe a sí misma como una "compañía de las masas, que ofrece a los clientes productos de calidad a través de una cartera de marcas exclusivas y etiquetas". Sin embargo, esa definición podría describir casi a cualquier tienda; demasiado poco, demasiado tarde.
Como cliente de Walmart, sabes que vas a ahorrar dinero, y sientes "que te atiendes sólo". En Target, sabes que vas a obtener productos de moda a precios razonables. ¿Y el nicho de Kmart?

Antonio Salieri fue un compositor italiano de música sacra, clásica y de ópera, además de un apasionado director de orquesta. Músico de gran valía, dotado de gran talento y autor de música que persiste hasta nuestra era. Sin duda, su mayor falla fue haber sido contemporáneo de Mozart.

Service recovery: Four Steps to Increasing Customer Loyalty21

By John Tschohl

Over the years, I have addressed service recovery in thousands of speeches throughout the world. It is, I believe, one of the most important elements of customer service, and it can make the difference between success and failure for any organization.

I am amazed, however, at how many people—from frontline employees to senior executives—do not understand service recovery. If you don’t understand it, you can’t provide it.

Let me give you a real-life example of wonderful service recovery. At his wife’s request, Bob stopped at the Olive Garden Italian Restaurant in Bloomington, Minnesota, to pick up a salad to have with dinner that night. When he returned home and his wife opened the container, she discovered it did not include the dressing for which the Olive Garden is famous.

When Bob returned to the restaurant, the manager already had been made aware of the mistake and was waiting. He apologized profusely and gave Bob two bottles of dressing, a large dessert, and a $10 gift card. What was the result? Bob and his wife happily enjoyed their salad and dessert and are looking forward to using their gift certificate.

They also told many of their friends about the incident—not focusing on the mistake the Olive Garden had made as much as what the manager had done to make up for it. The actual cost of what the manager gave to Bob and his wife was negligible; the word-of-mouth advertising the Olive Garden received for it was priceless.

This is what service recovery is all about. It is turning a negative situation into a positive one and sending the customer home thinking he has just done business with the greatest company in the world.

Word-of-mouth advertising is the most powerful advertising you can get—and it costs you nothing. It’s common knowledge that most of us, before making a purchasing decision, ask friends and coworkers for referrals. What they say is very influential, because they are people we know and whose opinions we trust. So, when someone asks Bob to suggest a restaurant for lunch or dinner, you can bet he will recommend the Olive Garden.

On the flip side, people who have problems with a company and do not have those problems solved to their satisfaction tell anyone who will listen about their negative experience. And they often do so via social network. Before an unsatisfied customer even walks out of your business, she can be sharing her dissatisfaction via her smart phone to hundreds of friends on Facebook, for example.

Every company, no matter how good its products and employees are, occasionally makes a mistake. It’s how you handle that mistake that makes the difference between earning a customer’s loyalty and driving that customer away. When a customer comes to you with a complaint, take these four steps to ensure that you provide the type of customer service that will keep him coming back to you:

1. Act quickly. Do whatever you can to solve the customer’s problem on the spot. When you send that problem to someone else—your supervisor or manager—the customer becomes frustrated. That frustration escalates with every delay in reaching a solution. If you can’t solve the problem within a matter of minutes, you’re in trouble.
2. Take responsibility. Don’t get defensive and take the complaint personally. And don’t challenge the customer. Instead, be empathetic. Offer a sincere apology. You might say, for example, “I am so sorry. I understand why you are upset. Let me see what I can do for you.”
3. Make an empowered decision. Know the boundaries of your authority so you can solve customer problems and complaints. Make it clear to the customer that solving her problem is your priority.
4. Compensate the customer. When you offer the customer something in the form of compensation, it does several things. It makes her feel valued. It makes her think he just did business with the greatest company in the world. It increases his loyalty to you and your organization. And it creates positive word-of-mouth advertising.
In the case of Bob and his experience with the Olive Garden, he and his wife told all of their friends about their experience. And they are looking forward to using that $10 gift card. That is what service recovery is about: satisfying your customers and making sure they return to you.

What Is The Difference Between Hospitality Excellence and Mediocrity?

By Doug Kennedy January 3, 2012
Like most trainers, I frequently engage participants in interactive activities that hopefully shift their paradigms. With one such activity, I give participants a list of like-hotels in a location they’ve never been to, and then have them each place a group sales or reservations inquiry call. Afterwards, each participant reports back to the overall group on their experiences and observations. Recently, while training the reservations team of a four-star hotel, the results were especially interesting when two participants in particular described their call experiences. The first participant had a glowing report for the agent she’d spoken with, and raved about how he was so enthusiastic and hospitable that the participant actually felt bad about not booking with him! Interestingly, the second participant reported the polar opposite experience in calling another four-star hotel in the same area, as her agent did little more than check dates, quote rates and described rooms as being “your basic hotel room with one or two beds.” It is interesting to see how two different hotels within the same location, serving the same hotel market segment, recruiting from the same labor pool, and probably paying about the same base wages can have such extraordinarily different levels of hospitality and guest service. How was it that these two employees of similar hotels performed so differently that day? Was it luck? Did we just happen to catch their best employee at their best time of day? Or was it a factor of the choices the employees made that day? Two alarm clocks went off at approximately the same time of morning. Two employees woke up and readied themselves for their workday. Both traveled about the same distance, to work about the same shift, for about the same pay. Yet one employee made the choice of delivering hospitality excellence to the best of their ability in every guest interaction that day. The other made the choice to do their job exactly as it is outlined in their job description; doing nothing more and nothing less. So why is it that associates at some properties make the choice of hospitality excellence while employees elsewhere choose to be average, or to put it another way at the risk of being blunt - mediocre? Is it that one hotel has a better luck of the draw when hiring new staff? Do they have a better applicant screening process complete with pre-employment testing and peer interviewing? Or is it more a factor of the overall culture that starts with ownership and executive level management and is reinforced daily at the supervisory level? Based on my observations as a hospitality industry trainer, it is more than a mere coincidence that some hotels can succeed in even the toughest labor markets, while others squander in mediocrity even where the unemployment languishes in double digits. Instead, hotel guest service teams that make “extraordinary” guest services experiences an “ordinary” and daily event tend to have: Owners who are willing to invest in the physical product and the technology systems necessary to facilitate service efficiency. It is hard to deliver hospitality knowing you are about to sell a guest a sub-standard accommodation, and just about impossible to satisfy guest needs without the proper systems support. Engaged, involved leaders who lead by example under the tightest of scrutiny. Real-world operational standards don’t exist in training manuals; they are set by managers who can be observed in action themselves creating hospitality excellence daily! Interestingly, these same managers treat both employees as well as their guests with authentic warmth and generosity, the hallmarks of hospitality. They know that hospitality starts in the heart of the house when they greet their first staffer in the back hallway upon entering the building. Managers and supervisors who coach versus command. Great hotels have supervisors that closely observe each employee transaction, and who know the job well enough to help each staff member tweak, revise, and maximize their performance. Even the greatest so-called “superstars” all need continuous coaching to maintain hospitality excellence. Visionary leaders who see the actual level of hospitality and guest service as it really is being delivered daily in the lobby. They don’t relay on the opinions of one quarterly mystery shopper inspection report, nor post-departure guest surveys, nor TripAdvisor reviews alone, nor any one metric to tell them where service is at. They observe firsthand how guests are treated and how efficiently things are working (or not). Managers and supervisors who pitch-in during inevitable bottle-necks. The best managers always seem to appear at just the right moment when the staff is nearly overwhelmed; they not only provide that extra set of hands to get you caught up but help you gain confidence that things will work out. I can still recall how over two decades ago as a bellman of a golf resort I greeted the PGA Senior’s Tour Bus only to watch all the famous golfers parade off the bus and directly into their rooms, leaving the absolute biggest pile of luggage and golf bags imaginable for our team of just two bellmen. Minutes later there was our Resident Manager taking off his suit jacket and humbly asking our bell captain “How can I help you guys get through this?” Leaders who honor and understand the frontline perspective. You can always distinguish visionary leaders in the field of hospitality by the way they talk about their frontline employees. Those who appreciate them the most speak with respect, admiration, and appreciation. Those who don’t just complain about how hard it is to find good people these days, and that “Millennials just aren’t motivated.” Indeed, it is a thin line – a razor thin line - between hospitality excellence and mediocrity that employees in our industry traverse every day. In the end the same number of hours are worked, the same number of calories are burned, and the same wages are received. Yet those who choose to walk the path of hospitality excellence are rewarded daily as well. While their counterparts elsewhere go home each night complaining about how many rude and nasty guests there are out there these days, those who make the choice of hospitality excellence enjoy their work everyday, and mostly go home raving about how many nice, interesting, and appreciative guests they met that very same day in the very same area as the competitor down the road.

Top Ten Lessons Steve Jobs Taught Us

View more presentations from Abhishek Shah

Las huellas del CALLAR

Raixa Rivero

Si deseamos examinar la comunicación dentro de una Organización no es suficiente con prestar atención a lo que las personas dicen, ni incluso a la manera como se escuchan mutuamente; es indispensable e importante dirigir la mirada a lo que callan.

El fenómeno del callar, consiste básicamente en no expresar verbalmente lo que estamos pensando, o dicho de otro modo, el callar implica reconocer que algo que está presente en nuestras conversaciones privadas no se expresa en nuestras conversaciones públicas.

Las razones más frecuentes que llevan al ser humano a callar son emocionales, pudiendo distinguir 4 emociones:

• El temor a las represalias: callo porque estimo que al decir lo que pienso me traerá consecuencias peligrosas, es decir, al hablar me expongo a riesgos que prefiero evitar, ya que podría resultar perjudicado.
• El Pudor: esta emoción busca proteger al otro más que protegerme a mí mismo; al callar no se pone en evidencia las incompetencias o los motivos estrechos del otro. Muchas veces en las Organizaciones surge una red de complicidad entre sus miembros a partir de la cual se cuidan mutuamente ante las brechas de desempeño en los procesos de trabajo y/o de negocio.
• La Resignación: a partir de la cual juzgo que no generará ninguna diferencia el compartir lo que pienso: ¿Para qué lo voy a decir?
• El Resentimiento: a raíz de eventos ocurridos en el pasado que la persona juzga injustos, inmerecidos y además le causaron daño.

Chris Argyris sostiene que el callar es un fenómeno habitual en las organizaciones y representa un gap entre lo que la gente piensa y lo que dice. Esta brecha impacta profunda y negativamente no sólo en la comunicación, sino también en la capacidad de acción efectiva de la Organización como un todo y en el desempeño sus miembros. El callar tiene un efecto demoledor, ya que afecta tanto la efectividad como el nivel de bienestar de los involucrados: quien calla se frustra en su intento de expresar lo que piensa y siente, mientras que quien no recibe el mensaje pierde una oportunidad de aprender, corregir, coordinar, explicar y replantear.

Al callar, las interacciones entre los miembros de la Organización se caracterizan por relacionar apariencias, sombras distorsionadas de quienes efectivamente son. Lo que piensan y lo que no revelan las personas es lo que guía su actuar, lo cual dificulta el poder comprender muchas de sus acciones cuyo sentido está marcado por una cierta ambigüedad y, en las explicaciones que darán las personas acerca de lo que hacen, ocultarán el carácter de su comportamiento.

Los seres humanos comúnmente tenemos dificultades para manejarnos en la ambigüedad, la incertidumbre y la aparente incongruencia. Al enfrentarnos a este tipo de situaciones tendemos normalmente a suplir lo que no entendemos con nuestras propias explicaciones, llenando con ellas el vacío de lo que no comprendemos.

En estas circunstancias normalmente, no podemos colocarnos en el lugar del otro y optamos por juzgarlo de acuerdo a nuestras inquietudes, estándares y temores, le adscribimos intenciones estrechas en las que solemos proyectarnos nosotros mismos más que acceder a las motivaciones efectivas del otro. Al suplir con nuestras explicaciones lo que el otro no nos dice, acrecentamos la distorsión en nuestras relaciones y en la forma como coordinamos acciones.

“En el contenido de nuestras conversaciones públicas pareciera no haber rastros de las agitadas corrientes que se han apoderado de nuestras conversaciones privadas. Y cuando estas últimas emergen en algunas conversaciones públicas, lo hacen por la vía del chisme, de la creación camarillas que se oponen mutuamente. Las conversaciones se compartimentalizan y se crean barreras en la comunicación. Surge la desconfianza, la resignación frente a lo que podemos hacer juntos, el resentimiento mutuo, el conflicto, la tensión y el estrés. El aire que se respira se hace pesado. El horizonte de posibilidades de la Organización se hace más estrecho. Se contamina el clima de la Organización”. (El fenómeno del Callar y las Rutinas Defensivas en las Organizaciones, Rafael Echeverría p. 9)

El Gerente Líder debe prestar especial atención al fenómeno del callar en su equipo, ya que la distorsión de las relaciones podrá generar importantes bloqueos en la coordinación de los procesos de trabajo a lo interno del propio equipo o con otras unidades organizacionales, obstaculizando los resultados globales del negocio.

El Gerente Líder debe desarrollar competencias que le permitan descubrir qué limita a los colaboradores a revelar aspectos importantes de lo que piensan, optando por callar y afectando negativamente tanto las relaciones, como los resultados a lo interno de la Organización.

Desde esta perspectiva el gran desafío del Gerente Líder es identificar, disolver y evitar que surjan de nuevo los inconversables en su Equipo.

Innovation Myth Busters

Why Fair Bosses Fall Behind

by Batia M. Wiesenfeld, Naomi B. Rothman, Sara L. Wheeler-Smith, and Adam D. Galinsky

In management, fairness is a virtue. Numerous academic studies have shown that the most effective leaders are generally those who give employees a voice, treat them with dignity and consistency, and base decisions on accurate and complete information.

But there’s a hidden cost to this behavior. We’ve found that although fair managers earn respect, they’re seen as less powerful than other managers—less in control of resources, less able to reward and punish—and that may hurt their odds of attaining certain key, contentious leadership roles

Managers whose style is based on fairness can still gain power under the following circumstances:

• When they cultivate a reputation for ethics and morality

• When the organizational culture is highly cooperative

• When they are going for positions that are relatively uncontentious and that draw on their mentoring and collaborative skills

Our research, which included lab studies and responses from hundreds of corporate decision makers and employees, began with the age-old question “Should leaders be loved or feared?” We went a step further, asking, “Can you have respect andpower?” We found that it’s hard to gain both.

Consider Hank McKinnell and Karen Katen, two rising stars at Pfizer during the 1990s. McKinnell, who’d served as CFO and run the company’s overseas businesses, was known for his assertive negotiating style and no-nonsense, occasionally abrasive manner. Katen’s performance had also won her numerous promotions, and she headed Pfizer’s primary operating unit. She treated subordinates and colleagues with respect and was respected in turn.

In 2001, when it came time for a new CEO, the two were among the top candidates. McKinnell was chosen. One analyst told Bloomberg, “[Hank] is the right guy for the job...he’s got a toughness about him.”

We heard this attitude expressed in a range of industries. Decisions about high-level promotions most often center on perceptions of power, not of fairness.

The same bias was exhibited by students in a laboratory setting. Each witnessed a “manager” telling an employee about a compensation decision. Manager A communicated the decision rudely, Manager B with respect. The students were then assigned to work in a group led by the manager they’d observed; afterward they rated their leader’s power. Rude Manager A consistently scored higher than respectful Manager B—even though there was no difference in how they’d treated the participants themselves. Simply having witnessed the rude and respectful behavior was enough to create the bias.

We’ve long wondered why managers don’t always behave fairly, because doing so would clearly benefit their organizations: Studies show that the success of change initiatives depends largely on fair implementation. Our research suggests an answer. Managers see respect and power as two mutually exclusive avenues to influence, and many choose the latter.

Although this appears to be the more rational choice, it’s not always the correct one—and it poses big risks for organizations. At Pfizer, a cohort of promising executives associated with Katen resigned after McKinnell took over. He himself was pushed into retirement by the board in 2006 because of the company’s disappointing performance. Shareholder outrage over his rich retirement package followed.

Companies can benefit from placing more value on fairness when assessing managerial performance. Our early follow-up research suggests that managers whose style is based on respect can gain power. Their path upward may be difficult, but it’s one worth taking, for their company’s sake as well as their own.

Difficult Conversations: Nine Common Mistakes by Sarah Green

Difficult Conversations: Nine Common Mistakes

Mistake #1: We fall into a combat mentality. When difficult conversations turn toxic, it's often because we've made a key mistake: we've fallen into a combat mentality. This allows the conversation to become a zero-sum game, with a winner and a loser. But the reality is, when we let conversations take on this tenor – especially at the office – everyone looks bad, and everyone loses. The real enemy is not your conversational counterpart, but the combat mentality itself. And you can defeat it, with strategy and skill

Difficult Conversations: Nine Common Mistakes

Mistake #2: We try to oversimplify the problem. If the subject of your argument were straightforward, chances are you wouldn't be arguing about it. Because it's daunting to try and tackle several issues at once, we may try to roll these problems up into a less-complex Über-Problem. But the existence of such a beast is often an illusion. To avoid oversimplifying, remind yourself that if the issue weren't complicated, it probably wouldn't be so hard to talk about.

Difficult Conversations: Nine Common Mistakes

Mistake #3: We don't bring enough respect to the conversation. The key to avoiding oversimplification is respecting the problem you're trying to resolve. To avoid the combat mentality, you need to go further – you need to respect the person you're talking to, and you need to respect yourself. Making sure that you respond in a way you can later be proud of will prevent you from being thrown off course if your counterpart is being openly hostile.

Difficult Conversations: Nine Common Mistakes

Mistake #4: We lash out – or shut down. Fear, anger, embarrassment, defensiveness – any number of unpleasant feelings can course through us during a conversation we'd rather not have. Some of us react by confronting our counterpart more aggressively; others, by rushing to smooth things over. We might even see-saw between both counterproductive poles. Instead, move to the middle: state what you really want. The tough emotions won't evaporate. but with practice, you will learn to focus on the outcome you want in spite of them.

Difficult Conversations: Nine Common Mistakes

Mistake #5: We react to thwarting ploys. Lying, threatening, stonewalling, crying, sarcasm, shouting, silence, accusing, taking offense: tough talks can present an arsenal of thwarting ploys. (Just because you're trying to move beyond the combat mentality doesn't mean your counterpart is.) But you also have an array of potential responses, ranging from passive to aggressive. Again, the most effective is to move to the middle: disarm the ploy by addressing it. For instance, if your counterpart has stopped responding to you, you can simply say, "I don't know how to interpret your silence."

Difficult Conversations: Nine Common Mistakes

Mistake #6: We get "hooked." Everyone has a weak spot. And when someone finds ours – whether inadvertently, with a stray arrow, or because he is hoping to hurt us – it becomes even harder to stay out of the combat mentality. Maybe yours is tied to your job – you feel like your department doesn't get the respect it deserves. Or maybe it's more personal. But whatever it is, take the time to learn what hooks you. Just knowing where you're vulnerable will help you stay in control when someone pokes you there.

Difficult Conversations: Nine Common Mistakes

Mistake #7: We rehearse. If we're sure a conversation is going to be tough, it's instinctive to rehearse what we'll say. But a difficult conversation is not a performance, with an actor and an audience. Once you've started the discussion, your counterpart could react in any number of ways – and having a "script" in mind will hamper your ability to listen effectively and react accordingly. Instead, prepare by asking yourself: 1. What is the problem? 2. What would my counterpart say the problem is? 3. What's my preferred outcome? 4. What's my preferred working relationship with my counterpart? You can also ask the other person to do the same in advance of your meeting

Difficult Conversations: Nine Common Mistakes

Mistake #8: We make assumptions about our counterpart's intentions. Optimists tend to assume that every disagreement is just a misunderstanding between two well-intentioned people; pessimists may feel that differences of opinion are actually ill-intentioned attacks. In the fog of a hard talk, we tend to forget that we don't have access to anyone's intentions but our own. Remember that you and your counterpart are both dealing with this ambiguity. If you get stuck, a handy phrase to remember is, "I'm realizing as we talk that I don't fully understand how you see this problem." Admitting what you don't know can be a powerful way to get a conversation back on track

Difficult Conversations: Nine Common Mistakes

Mistake #9: We lose sight of the goal. The key in any tough talk is to always keep sight of the goal. Help prevent this by going into conversations with a clear, realistic preferred outcome; the knowledge of how you want your working relationship with your counterpart to be; and having done some careful thinking about any obstacles that could interfere with either. (Remember, "winning" is not a realistic outcome, since your counterpart is unlikely to accept an outcome of "losing.") If you've done the exercise described in Slide 7, this should be easier. And you'll be less likely to get thrown off course by either thwarting ploys or your own emotions

Difficult Conversations: Nine Common Mistakes

When we're caught off-guard, we're more likely to fall back into old, ineffective habits like the combat mentality. If you're not the one initiating the tough conversation, or if a problem erupts out of nowhere, stick to these basics: keep your content clear, keep your tone neutral, and keep your phrasing temperate. When disagreements flare, you'll be more likely to navigate to a productive outcome – and emerge with your reputation intact.

Zooming: How Effective Leaders Adjust Their Focus - Video - Harvard Business Review

Zooming: How Effective Leaders Adjust Their Focus - Video - Harvard Business Review

The Unwritten Rules of Business

By Jeff Hadden
Business has unwritten rules, too — and violators often are often punished just as swiftly. Here are eight:

1. Never dress above your position. I know — dressing for success is important, acting like you’re already in the job is the best way to get the job, etc. It’s also the surest way to draw the not-so-friendly fire of colleagues or subordinates. Dress slightly “better” if you want — but just slightly. Otherwise you’ll be perceived as a shameless climber. The only time this doesn’t apply is if you run your own business, but even then you should dress in a way that enhances your image while ensuring customers feel comfortable.
2. Never show up a peer in a meeting. A colleague proposes an idea. It stinks. Not your job to say so, though. If you’re a supervisor and another supervisor makes a terrible suggestion that doesn’t affect your area or your employees, sit tight. Let someone else, preferably someone above you, shoot it down. Then jump in if you can to modify the idea so it is more workable, giving credit to the other supervisor for raising an important issue, of course. Bad ideas come and go, but professional relationships should be forever.
3. Never sit by the CEO when he comes to visit. You walk into a conference room. The CEO, fresh off the plane, is there. Say hi, introduce yourself, and then sit at least two seats away. There are better ways to get face time. Plopping yourself down by the big guy (or gal) will do nothing for your career and everything to draw sideways glances and post-meeting sniping.
4. Never use your position as an enabler. Here’s a classic example. In many companies, how late you arrive for a meeting depends on where you stand on the food chain — the higher you are the later you arrive and the less likely others are to complain, at least openly. Never use your position to enable discourteous, rude, or insensitive behavior. Everyone notices — and everyone resents it.
5. Never fail to two-way mentor. You have a mentor. Great! Mentors can provide motivation, be a source of ideas, provide counsel and guidance. So pass it on. Mentor someone below you. Otherwise everyone knows you take like a bandit but give like a miser. Think of it this way: You may aspire to someone’s position, but at the same time someone aspires to yours. A sub-set of this rule: If you want a great mentor, first be a great mentor.
6. Never “borrow” someone’s idea. Business owner, CEO, supervisor, entry-level employee… doesn’t matter. Always give credit where credit is due. Steal an idea and the victim neverforgets. And don’t fall back on the old, “Well, they work for me, and we’re a team… so I was just raising the idea on behalf of the team.” No one goes for that excuse but you.
7. Never leave out the negatives. We all like sharing good news. Good news is interesting; bad news is critical. I like to know a shipment went out on time, but I need to know a shipment will be late so I can contact the customer and put other plans in place. (And speaking of customers, always share potential negatives as soon as possible — the fewer surprises the better.) Positives are easy to deal with; negatives can make or break a business if the right people are not aware.
8. Never talk when you don’t have something to say. We’ve all known the guy who must speak in every meeting, even if he has nothing to add. (Okay, we’ve all known a lot of those guys.) You may think you need to contribute just to show you’re involved; the rest of us know you’re just talking to show you’re important. And we think a lot less of you as a result. Think of words as something scarce; use them sparingly and only when they will make the most impact.