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What Mad Men Can Teach Us About the Importance of Diversity

AMC’s popular series Mad Men started its final season this past weekend and although fictional, depicts some of the realities around a lack of diversification in the workplace during the 1960s. The agency is led and largely staffed by Caucasian men; the few women (also Caucasian) in the office are generally part of the typing pool or some other lower-level (read: nonparticipatory) position. Although fictional, the agency portrayed is actually pretty spot-on when it comes to how business was run half a century ago. And while we might be able to say that in the intervening 50+ years we’ve vastly progressed as a country in terms of diversifying the workplace, we still have some work to do, particularly when it comes to company leadership—according to a report done by McKinsey & Company, companies with greater diversity in their leadership rankings were more likely to be in the top quartile in terms of financial performance.

Tips for a Smooth Transition into a Leadership Role

You got that promotion you’ve been gunning for—which means that someone was impressed by how you performed in your previous role. But it doesn’t mean that you get to just sit back on your laurels and enjoy the fatter paycheck. Instead, it means you now are beginning the work of transitioning from one role you did well to a new role that most likely requires new skills. And it probably means that now you’re supervising the people who were recently your peers. Here are some tips to help make your transition as smooth as possible.

Are you being a Lumbergh? Yeah, if you could stop, that would be great.

If you’ve seen Office Space, then you’re familiar with Bill Lumbergh, the smarmy, overbearing manager and his passive-aggressive approach to assigning tasks (“Yeeeeaaaaahhhh…I’m going to need you to go ahead and come in tomorrow.”). His managerial tactics are nauseating at best, and destructive at worst. Aside from getting us to laugh, this character serves as an excellent cautionary tale for leaders. However, the moral of that tale is not what you might think.

Sure, Lumbergh was the ultimate example of the self-serving micro-manager and we’re all well advised to avoid those traits; but who hasn’t already heard that advice? Simply saying, don’t be a micro-manager is about as helpful as the motivational poster hanging above my desk, (and equally stale.)

Book Review: Essentialism by Greg McKeown

At social occasions I hear a similar complaint repeated over and over: “I’m too busy. I’ve got to find some way to cut down on some of my activities.” I recommend the new book Essentialism, by Greg McKeown, as a way to decide which activities to cut and which to keep.

According to McKeown, Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done. It doesn’t mean just doing less. It’s about doing only what is essential so you can operate at your highest point of contribution.

TBC releases the next evolution in its Survey Hosting Platform TruScore®

The Booth Company (TBC), a global assessment company with over 4 decades of experience, specializing in 360 degree feedback and survey customization, has launched its much anticipated TruScore 3.0, the next evolution in cloud-based survey solutions.

This completely redesigned version of TruScore® is a survey hosting platform developed to make the process of setting up and executing an assessment project quick and easy; from initial project creation and automated invitations/reminders to progress tracking and report delivery. The newly developed enhancements include flexible automated features to fit all administrator needs regardless of experience. The updates to TruScore® are based on our client’s recommendations and were designed to provide significant administrative time savings from start to finish.

A Few Characteristics of Good Sales Leaders

At the top level, sales-based companies are necessarily metrics-focused, driven by tangible results. With numbers as the ultimate deliverables, that thinking can pervade the approach some sales leaders use in managing their teams. However, if that’s all they focus on as leaders, it can be a sure way to stunt rather than encourage growth. The managers who help their teams see greater success share some additional approaches and traits.

Good leaders—in any organization, sales or otherwise—are often characterized by the talent they hire. Identifying and drawing good candidates sets the foundation for good teams, and the best leaders surround themselves with the best. Even more, they are able to engage and retain those employees, creating a more solid, substantial team.

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