get the facts about bullying

The sleeping dragon is waking up! Although bullying at work has always existed, community awareness, media interest, inept management practices and victim injuries are encouraging this dragon to roar. The results are reflected in huge payouts, media outings and the high costs of poor productivity and employee disengagement within organisations.

Two of the key harmful factors are lack of awareness for targets and lack of validation by managers. They are sustained by the myths that create and sustain workplace bullying. Here are some samples....

1. Bullies are bad

Gen Y and Customer Service:

Gen Y, the Millennials, Young Un's whatever you want to call them are your youngest employees. The oldest ones turned 30 in 2010 (I wish I turned 30 in 2010!). And some of them just might need a little help in the people skills department. Now, let's not stereotype an entire generation, but let's not ignore what obsessive use of technology can do. If you grow up communicating primarily via text and e-mail, how can you master crazy skills like making eye contact? After all, you haven't looked anybody in the eye since that mean man at the hospital spanked you into existence. It doesn't even occur to you that texting at work is inappropriate you've been doing it at the dinner table for years.

Most of the workforce consists of Baby Boomers and Gen Xers, and depending on what business you're in, probably most of your customers as well. These people expect their co-workers and the people who serve them to have some people skills. If you are a manager, it is up to you to make sure your youngest employees have these skills.

top 10 learning tools

t’s time to update my top 10 learning tools and techniques list. This time I’ll try to focus more on tools and services. You can view my previous lists of Aug 08 and Jan 08.

Top 10 learning tools 

10 Things the HR Department Won't Tell You

Discover shocking reasons why you might not get a callback—or a promotion

By Kimberly Fusaro 

Photo: © Thinkstock

If everything’s going smoothly, you probably won’t interact with the folks in human resources much between the day you’re hired and your last day with the company. But every day in between, it’s their responsibility to make sure you’re doing your job well. Which means they know a lot more than you might think. We checked in with human resources experts to see what your current employer is keeping tabs on—and how your next employer could be judging you based on a whole lot more than the résumé you submitted.

1. Background checks have gone beyond Google.
Before calling in applicants for a job interview, HR will snoop around online to make sure there are no virtual red flags. “Social media ‘stalking’ has become the norm—especially at larger companies,” says Mary Hladio, who worked in human resources for more than 15 years and is currently CEO of leadership group Ember Carriers. “Beyond typing names into asearch engine, companies will also employ sophisticated online monitoring platforms that dig even deeper. If there’s something on the Internet you wouldn’t want your boss to see, it’s probably in your best interest to take it down.”

10 Ways to get ahead in your job

By Tori Rodriguez

Even if you love your job, you’ll likely find yourself stuck in a rut at some point in your career. You may have gotten so good at what you do that it has become automatic (and perhaps a bit boring), or maybe you’d like to ask for a raise but don’t know how to broach the subject. Whatever your goal, we spoke to career experts to learn what techniques will help you gain momentum at work.

1. Take on diverse assignments.

8 Ways to Get Ahead at Work

If it seems like the only thing that ever changes about your job is the day of the week, it’s time to ask your boss for “stretch assignments” to enhance your growth, says Jodi Glickman, president of a communication training firm and author of Great on the Job. Offer to help with new projects, even ones that fall outside your department. Or, if you have a particular skill that isn’t part of your job description, be on the lookout for opportunities to indulge your other areas of expertise. For instance, say you’re a teacher who also has a flair for writing. “If your team is redesigning the curriculum or applying for a grant, offer to help write, edit or review the proposal,” suggests Glickman. “By showcasing your natural talents, you’ll give people a chance to see another side of you, and you may open doors to new opportunities you never even considered,” she explains. If there are no projects on the horizon, let it be known that you're available when one does come along. “People will appreciate your initiative and will often find a way to make new assignments come your way over the long term,” Glickman adds.

Top CEO Blogs

1. Bill Marriott, Chairman & CEO of Marriott International – well written and connects with customers and employees. I quite like this one.
2. Tom Glocer, CEO of Thomson Reuters – As per Tom, in his blog he is going to “write about what interests me, which is often my work at Thomson Reuters, as well as wider issues like technology and media - two areas that I am fascinated by.” Seems like a genuine attempt to connect with employees and make the leader in Tom more human.
3. Scott Ragsdale, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, naseba – Very un-CEO type blog, written from the heart, couldn’t care less about what people might think. As per Scott, “the main purpose of this blog is to communicate with my 300+ employees, my future employees and leaders of naseba, my clients, future clients, and investors – at the same time helping me stay focused on my climb — to build naseba into a multi-hundred million euro company.”
4. Jonathan Schwartz, CEO Sun Microsystems Inc. – writes mostly with customers as intended audience. Seems more like the Sun website and less like a blog.
5. Kevin Lynch, Chief Technology Officer, Adobe – software development is Kevin’s passion that has led to great products from him and his team.
6. John Dragoon, Chief Marketing Office for Novell – a nice mix of company specific and generic content. Has good content for marketing folks.
7. Sanjeev Bikhchandani, CEO, Naukri.com – a personal blog, unfortunately not updated frequently
8. David Neeleman, Founder and Chairman of JetBlue Airways – “Each week I fly on JetBlue flights and talk to customers so I can find out how we can improve our airline. This is my flight log”, one post a month, however unfortunately last updated in Oct 2007.

Changing Education Paradigms

This animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA's Benjamin Franklin award.

For more information on Sir Ken's work visit: http://www.sirkenrobinson.com

Will’s Learning Landscape Model

Posted on January 3rd, 2011 by Harold Jarche

Will Thalheimer has developed the Learning Landscape Model and created this 13 minute video to explain it.

Overall I find the model useful, though I would replace “Learning” (at 2:15) with “Instruction”, because that’s really what training departments provide in order to promote on-job-performance.

It is also good to see on-job-learning as part of the model. The various measurement points, beyond Kirkpatrick’s four levels of evaluation, (at 9:50) are really worth noting. There are over a dozen measurements noted that are often ignored in organizations.

The Best 25 Management & Leadership Blogs 0f 2011

The modern leadership movement is based upon the principle that leaders aren’t born, they’re made. The arts of leadership and management, like all arts and skills, are learned and honed by practice over time. And one only learns how to practice from others who are farther along than oneself. That’s where blogs can be helpful. Hundreds of experienced leadership coaches and management experts publish their thoughts online. While not everyone can afford to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for a management seminar, anyone with a computer and an internet connection can access high quality leadership advice for free. To help you get started we’ve compiled a list of what we think are the 25 best blogs on leadership and management of 2011.

Because The Best Colleges is a website that focuses on learning, our list of the 25 best leadership and management blogs puts special emphasis on education: blogs that genuinely help the reader understand leadership concepts and how to be a better manager. Only blogs active in 2011 were considered for our list, which is presented in alphabetical order.

Consider: Harnessing the Power of Reflective Thinking in Your Organisation

Peter Senge, founder of the Society of Organizational Learning and senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, once observed, “Most managers do not reflect carefully on their actions.” Most managers are too busy “running” to reflect.
While reflection seems to have no place in a competitive business environment, it is where meaning is created, behaviors are regulated, values are refined, assumptions are challenged, intuition is accessed, and where we learn about who we are.

What Does “CEO Commitment” to Leadership Development Really Mean?

Another Post From Dan McCarthy

To: All CEOs and senior executives

From: Great Leadership

Subject: CEO commitment to leadership development.

You've recently learned that the biggest differentiator of companies that excel in succession planning and senior leadership development ("talent management" is the latest buzzword) is the commitment and ownership of the CEO or top executive.

I heard you candidly say recently: "OK, I'm committed all right, I'm just not sure what to do".

The good news, there IS something you can do. Lot's of things. The bad news is you could waste a lot time and money on low impact things. As you know, activity does not always produce results.

Top 12 Development Goals for Leaders

Another post by Dan McCarthy

I help a lot of leaders create individual development plans using some variation of this process. This time of year (January) is always especially busy.

Although every leader I work with is unique, it seems like the development goals end up being somewhat common from year to year.

To help you get a head start on your 2010 leadership development plan, here’s a list of development goals that may apply to you too. I’d recommend picking no more than one and really working at it for at least 6 months. Do not attempt to work on all 12, just because there are 12 months in a year. (-:

 I’d like to improve my: