work politics

It’s All in Your Head: Overcoming the Stress & Anxiety of Negative Thinking

Todd Cherches on April 3, 2013

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” — Shakespeare’s Hamlet

We can’t always control what happens to us, but we do have the power to control how we think, interpret, and respond. Irrational thought patterns and overly hasty emotional reactions are among the leading causes of stress and anxiety.

By making ourselves consciously aware of, identifying, and then correcting distorted and/or anxiety-inducing beliefs, we can think and act more calmly and rationally, and ultimately make ourselves less stressed, more satisfied, and happier as a result.

Though there is some overlap among them, there are five types of negative thinking we are all guilty of at one time or another. Read More →

There’s Still Time! Tell Us Which GoT Character You Are and Win Swag

The Hired Guns on March 28, 2013

image via TV Guide

Last week, we announced a Game of Thrones contest. The premise is simple: tell us which Game of Thrones character you are at work and why. The winner gets epic swag from HBO’s Game of Thrones store, just in time for the season premier on Sunday, March 31. The game is still afoot — you’ve got until tomorrow afternoon (March 29) to get your submission in. In the meantime, here are a few of our favorite submissions so far:

@featpete: I’m the office Varys. I don’t say too much but I “overhear” all of the gossip that goes around. People also probably think I’m a eunuch. Read More →

We’re Having a Game of Thrones Contest! (Yes, Swag is Involved)

The Hired Guns on March 21, 2013

HBO’s Game of Thrones has been a constant source of conversation at The Hired Guns office over the last couple of years. Sunday, March 31st, marks the start of the highly anticipated third season, and we couldn’t be more excited. If you haven’t tuned in yet, you should. Pretty much everything you need to know to survive in the modern work world plays out in this medieval fantasy epic, pitting seven kingdoms against each other, all in the name of trying to regain a single throne.

If you’re navigating a complicated work environment filled with back-stabbing, envy, and mistrust, there is no better way to learn (or just be reminded) of the rules of engagement for getting ahead in a cut-throat workplace. But it’s not all about warfare. Game of Thrones also offers plenty of moral guidance for leaders who want to do right by their people. There are plenty of lessons about beating the pants off your competition, mastering the laws of shifting alliances, and the art of holding your trump card until the right moment. The story lines and the characters are rich, layered, and complex — just like work. It’s the perfect Sunday night ritual for getting your Monday game face on. Read More →

How to Avoid Completely Humiliating Yourself at the Company Holiday Party

Judy McGuire on December 14, 2012

Is there any other time of year that’s more festive and fun than the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Years? The twinkling lights, the aroma of evergreen in the air, the promise of prezzies under the tree, and if you’re lucky, plenty of parties.

The youngsters reading this probably don’t remember, but back in the old days, companies used to splurge on holiday parties. They’d rent out entire clubs or restaurants, hire a caterer, give you a bonus, the whole nine. These days, most have cut back a little (or a lot). Many won’t let you bring a partner, and some even feature that most heinous innovation, the cash bar. Regardless of whether your company’s going all out or just throwing a potluck at the boss’s house, here are a few rules to ensure you’ll still have your job come Monday morning. Read More →

Extreme Truth, and Why You Can’t Escape It

Bruce Kasanoff on September 4, 2012

If you’ve been following the fall of Jonah Lehrer, the bestselling author and New Yorker writer and serial fabulist who got caught making up Bob Dylan quotes, you might think his tale has properly sensitized you to the perils of stretching the truth.

Not even close. Read More →

Rules Are Rules. Or Are They?

Todd Cherches on August 23, 2012

When it comes to “rules,” which of the following statements do you most agree with?

(a)   Rules are rules…period.
(b)   Rules are meant to be broken.
(c)   It depends.
(d)   All of the above.
(e)   None of the above.

While there is no one “right” answer to the above question, the way you respond says a lot about you. The way you think and feel about rules in general will influence the decisions you make and the actions you take in different situations.

Let me tell you about two controversial, thought-provoking, and emotional incidents that occurred in the past week – both of which involved “following the rules” – and see what you think: Read More →

Just Back from Maternity Leave? Get a Mentor Mom!

Jan Brown on June 4, 2012

As you may have heard, the Big 4 accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has a program that matches experienced working moms with moms-to-be about to go out on maternity leave.

What an excellent program! It gives new moms an experienced “mentor mom” to talk to about all of the issues they are concerned about while on maternity leave and in those first few super-hard months back on the job. Issues like how to function on very little sleep, how to handle the separation from your little one, and the practicalities of pumping on the job. Love it! Read More →

The Salary Tutor Answers Your Questions

Jim Hopkinson on April 5, 2012

Last month, Jim Hopkinson taught a Hired Guns Academy class about negotiating your salary effectively. He’ll be teaching for us again, but until then, you can still learn from his ample experience. Below, he answers questions from the Hired Community about dealing with counteroffers and other potential salary complications.

I have an exciting new job offer and am in a bit of a quandary. I want the new job very badly but wish that the base were a little higher. Even though I desperately want out of my current company, I was thinking about going back and asking for a counteroffer so that I can get a bump from my new company. Good idea? Read More →

Salary Questions?

The Hired Guns on March 16, 2012

Quick reminder: Jim Hopkinson’s Hired Guns Academy class on becoming a salary negotiation rockstar is next Wednesday, March 21 — and he’s taking your salary questions via email in the meantime.

Here’s a sample of Jim’s often counterintuitive advice on getting the salary you want and deserve:

Why Your Employees Want Partnership, Not Ownership

Allison Hemming on March 15, 2012

The interwebs lit up yesterday when the now-famous Greg Smith blasted his soon-to-be-former employer, Goldman Sachs, for losing its culture and turning into something “toxic and destructive.”

Most of the chatter has been about the negative state of the financial securities industry and whether or not the guy will ever work in this town again. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan, felt so bad for Goldman that he issued a memo telling his bankers not to attack Goldman while it was taking it on the chin.

But under this news lies a bigger story. And it may not be one that many calcified American companies are ready for…your employees have a voice. And if provoked, they will use it. Read More →

When Is It OK to Talk Down Your Former Employer in Public?

The Hired Guns on March 14, 2012

As you’ve probably read, Greg Smith, an executive director at Goldman Sachs, brought a lightning bolt of bad publicity down on his employer this morning via a high-minded letter in the New York Times. Here’s a sample: “It might sound surprising to a skeptical public, but culture was always a vital part of Goldman Sachs’s success…. I am sad to say that I look around today and see virtually no trace of the culture that made me love working for this firm for many years.” As quitting methods go, it may not have been as splashy as bringing in your own brass band, but it definitely had an enormous impact. And everyone loved it, or at least loved talking about it. Read More →

Why Tech Won’t Talk—and How You Can Get Them to Open Up

Lisa Schneider on March 13, 2012

In my last post, I listed nine questions to ask the digital team to help you understand what they do, and why and how they do it. And the first question we got back was, “What if the techs aren’t talking?” Well, hmmm, I thought. I guess that does happen — and I rashly promised a follow-up post, completely breaking my rule about not making a promise for delivery before fully clarifying the specs, by the way.

A couple weeks ago I had the privilege of attending a Hired Guns event to preview and critique various Guns’ SXSW presentations. I was overwhelmed by the positive energy in the room and the level of truly supportive and constructive criticism. These Guns were flat-out awesome stars in the digital field, and there was tons of feedback. I thought, “Wait a second — we techies share plenty!” So what gives? Why were these folks sharing so freely, while there’s still lots of non-digital people out there complaining that their digital teams don’t do the same? Read More →

Managing: How to Get Back on Track After a Team Member’s Mistake

Danny Flamberg on March 6, 2012

The digital strategist Danny Flamberg writes about marketing, advertising, and culture on his blog, Manhattan Marketing Maven. His series for The Hired Guns is about managing effectively, so that you get the best work possible from yourself as well as your staff.

The toughest thing for a manager to do is to criticize or correct a team member. It’s a charged task, and while it’s necessary, it also pushes all a manager’s buttons. The key to successfully handling this meeting and getting a decent outcome is to leave your baggage and your ego at the door. Read More →

THG @SXSW: Stand Out (in a Good Way!) in the Workplace

Meryl Weinsaft Cooper on March 5, 2012

In the days leading up to SXSW Interactive, we’ve been looking at the Hired Guns and Hired Guns pals who will be there. Up today: co-author of Be Your Own Best Publicist, Meryl Cooper:

Mentor Session
Saturday, March 10, 11:00

Book Signing
Sunday, March 11, 2:30

Your Twesume
(your resume in 140 characters or less):
Author/BeYourOwn @BestPublicist & PRGal w/12+yrs of exp promoting ppl/places/prods. Spare time=producing films & eating/drinking around NYC

Why did you want to speak at SXSW?
I’ve always enjoyed attending SXSW — and now I’m excited to share the tenets of “Be Your Own Best Publicist” as part of its new mentor programming. Read More →

THG @SXSW: Using an “Army of Interns” to Kick Your Business into High Gear

Larry Smith on February 13, 2012

We have a bumper crop of Hired Guns presenting their ideas at next month’s SXSW Interactive. Over the next few weeks we’ll be profiling them, so that you can get a taste of their ideas — whether or not you’ll be making it to Austin yourself.

Marshalling Your Army of Interns
Tuesday, March 13, 3:30
Presenter: Larry Smith

Your Twesume
(your resume in 140 characters or less):
Mine is just six words: “Tell your story, that’s my story.”

Why did you want to speak at SXSW?
I’ve learned so much in the years I’ve gone to SXSW, and I’m thrilled to offer any knowledge I can back. This year I’m leading a “Core Conversation.” It will be a nice change of pace: rather than doing a panel or fancy presentation where I’m the “expert,” I’ll be leading a discussion in a room of very smart people sharing tips and experiences together. Read More →

Asking “Can’t We Just … ?” Won’t Get You What You Need from the Digital Team

Lisa Schneider on February 1, 2012

I hear the phrase “Can’t we just . . . ” around the office a lot. Actually, I should correct that. I used to hear that phrase a lot.

Now I have a Post-it on my computer with those words in a circle with a line through it, and I’ve pointed to it enough times that I hear it less often.

Here’s what used to happen when people said that: I’d take a deep breath. Downward glance to compose myself. Pause-filling smile. Another pause filler, maybe sip my tea, or save my doc, or anything to buy a few more seconds to still my beating heart. Read More →

There’s Still Time to Get that Raise for Next Year — If You Hurry

Jim Hopkinson on November 29, 2011

You’ve finally finished off the last of the leftovers from Thanksgiving, and now December is staring you in the face, another year gone by. Your wallet is also feeling the effects of those “doorbuster” specials from Black Friday. With the rest of the holiday activities looming, it sure would be nice to have some extra cash.

However, many people are nervous about approaching their boss to talk about their performance. They have questions. Is now a good time to ask? How should I approach the topic? Will I seem greedy? To make things easier, it helps to have a plan. Let’s call it

The Past, Present, and Future Plan

Cut Through the Dithering and Pick Up That Phone!

The Hired Guns on November 7, 2011

These days, it’s much more normal to start a “conversation” with colleagues and clients or to bring up an issue with them through an email rather than a phone call. Emails are great for creating a paper trail, and their convenience is hard to beat, but their drawbacks are often overlooked. And good old phone calls have a lot going for them.

Writing for the Harvard Business Review, the venture capitalist Anthony Tjan makes a good case for using the phone and face-to-face meetings much more frequently, especially “when people are trying to resolve a conflict or communicate an important business decision.” Read More →

Are Performance Reviews Worth It?

The Hired Guns on October 28, 2011

Chances are that performance reviews aren’t anyone’s favorite aspect of the modern workplace, but that doesn’t mean they’re useless paperwork. In the Globe and Mail, Marjo Johne makes the case for them, quoting a partner in an accounting firm who says that a review “removes a lot of uncertainty amongst employees about how they are performing at work.” Johne also gets some advice on how smaller companies can do reviews effectively. She also notes that in smaller companies, it’s extra-important to make sure that reviews are constructive, with an emphasis on improvement rather than fault-finding.

Related: Evil HR Lady on why formal performance reviews may not always be essential: “start asking for regular feedback” instead.

Bullet Points: Low Morale Costs a Lot; Say Hello to Weekly Performance Reviews

The Hired Guns on September 8, 2011

What’s the point of Yahoo these days? Hardly anyone knows. [NPR]
For software developers, the jobs are pouring in, recession or no, and the salaries are keeping pace, too. [NPR]
Some companies are dropping year-end performance reviews and moving to weekly ones instead, the Wall Street Journal reports. It’s providing that instant feedback that the Twitter-addled kids need and love! Evil HR Lady: “Back in prehistoric times people used to call this conversation.“
Studies have shown that low job satisfaction may cost companies as much as “$300 billion in lost productivity annually,” write the researchers Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer in the New York Times. “Promoting workers’ well-being isn’t just ethical; it makes economic sense,” they argue.
“Copyright troll” Righthaven has been lying low for the past couple months, presumably because judge after judge has ruled against them (and, implicitly, its business model). [Wired]

Bullet Points: Suboptimal Bosses and Clients; Making Time for Vacation

The Hired Guns on August 4, 2011

Are you a freelancer? Mashable talks about how to deal with bad clients. On staff? The Vault has some tips on bad bosses.
Core 77 taps $7 tool for carrying heavy loads as the year’s best product design. [FastCo Design]
“Hooray! I’ve been exposed to this message enough to move from awareness to consideration” and other Things Real People Don’t Say About Advertising.
Have you gone on vacation this summer or are you about to? Our pals at The Energy Project are running a campaign to encourage folks to use all their vacation days. By merely committing to take time off, you can win a coaching session with TEP’s founder, Tony Schwartz. Head to the The Energy Project’s Facebook page to enter.
Utilizing the power of recycling in web design. [Smashing Mag.]
“Can freelancers be friends?” “No. Warriors don’t befriend enemies on the battlefield, do they?” says Susannah Breslin.
A headline we didn’t think we’d read today (or any day): “Stoned wallabies blamed for crop circles. More at the BBC. [Alltop]

Bullet Points: How to Sink That IT Job Interview; Google Worker #59; Should Women Bother with Tech Conferences?

The Hired Guns on July 29, 2011

Susannah Breslin’s experiences at TechWeek made her wonder if women should even make the effort to go to tech conferences at all: bottom line, “it makes them depressed.” As you’d except, lots of discussion about this….
Mashable celebrates its six-year anniversary with an infographic of the developments in tech during that time.
Lying and being unprepared—they’re but a few of the ways you can 86 yourself from the IT job you’re after. [InfoWorld]
“… college graduates who enter the labor force during a recession make significantly less money—in their first year and over the course of their careers—than grads who walk into an economic boom.” [NationalJournal]
Douglas Edwards’s book about being Google brand manager—the 59th employee to be hired—is shaping up to be one of the major tech reads of the summer. The WSJ recently ran an excerpt from “I’m Feeling Lucky.”

Hiring: Dealing with the Double-edged Sword of Specialization

Jeff Gothelf on June 27, 2011

If you’re a startup with limited funds, then you have no choice but to hire generalists. Employees who wear many hats can produce a minimally viable product faster and more cheaply. And a smaller team means a nimbler team, which takes less time to make decisions.

The downside, of course, is that rarely will someone be an excellent engineer, product person and CEO all rolled in one. Rarely is someone a great saleswoman, marketer, and financial analyst. And even more rarely is someone a great UX designer, writer, visual designer, and researcher. Everyone has a finite number of strengths, and that means that your startup will suffer from a lack of talent in the areas in which your team is weak.

Fast-forward a bit, to when your company has grown to the point at which you can start hiring for specialized positions. You can bring in the top players in all the essential disciplines and start filling out the areas in which you’ve been weak. From a hiring perspective, things get a bit easier: you know exactly what you need. However, the startup world still tends to attract players who can play multiple positions. It rarely attracts star single-position players. You may still find yourself interviewing generalists—some of whom are very talented—but the organization you’ve now created mostly needs specialists. If you hire a generalist for a specialist position, he or she is likely to feel underutilized and start branching out of the space you’ve carved out for them. Read More →

Career Lessons My Father Never Set Out to Teach

Fran Slusarz on June 16, 2011

Frances Codd Slusarz is an attorney based in Stamford, Connecticut. In this guest post for Father’s Day, she writes about some of the best advice her dad gave her, whether he knew he was giving it or not.

So you graduated from college and actually have a job. Or you landed an internship that will help you land a full-time gig later. You’ve got your clothes picked out, you’ve mapped out your commute, and you set your alarm clock extra early so you will not be late. Now, what do you do? With Father’s Day around the corner, I am going to share the wisdom of my paterfamilias.

My father was of a different time—the days when you were practically guaranteed lifelong employment as long as you kept head down and your nose clean. And you collected a guaranteed benefit pension when you retired.
My dad hated his job. He spent at least seven hours a day, five days a week, for twenty years, doing pencil-pushing, deadly boring work, to support the family he loved. But this post isn’t about redemption through suffering. My dad’s best lessons come from his life outside work.

1. Do What is Right for Your Client. My father served as a field medic for the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He was awarded the Silver Star—one night, the enemy overran his field hospital. Everyone who could evacuate did. But some of my father’s patients were too sick to be moved. My father volunteered to stay behind to care for them, risking his life. It was what his patients needed.

Who is your “client,” you ask? Whoever gets your work when you say you are done. Never forget: You are creating a product for your client. If you want to succeed, make your product something your client wants. No one is asking you to risk your life. Just make sure that you choose wisely when you have a choice between what is easiest for you and creating the best product for your client. It might mean missing a happy hour or three, but trust me on this one. It’s worth it. Read More →

How Not to Succeed in Business: Show Your Boss That You’re Smarter Than Him

Todd Tarpley on June 14, 2011

Most bosses suffer from the delusion that they are smart. Perhaps they feel that their years of industry experience and managing people somehow give them special “knowledge” that others don’t possess. As the hot new manager with the MBA, it’s your job to set him straight.
Here are five tips for doing it right:

1. Exude confidence. State your opinion firmly. If that doesn’t work, continue to repeat your point, but louder. Some management gurus claim that a more productive way to persuade someone is to provide compelling data to back up your opinion. But that requires effort, and research shows that 90% of the time, appearing to be right is more important than actually being right. (The other 10% of the time you will cause your 150-year-old company to implode. But that’s only 10% of the time.) Read More →

Bullet Points: Intern Cupcakes; Job Interviews on Skype; Groupon Magic

The Hired Guns on June 3, 2011

“Choose a topic you’ll never get tired of” and other advice from bloggers who have turned their passions into going concerns. [NYT]
A reporter at a major daily newspaper is looking for companies that use video interviewing to assess job candidates, as well as candidates who have been interviewed this way. If you’ve used Skype or HireVue or similar services to get a job or to fill a job, email us. The reporter is interested in finding out why companies opt for this method of interviewing and any anecdotes about how these interviews tend to go. And for job candidates, how was it for you?
In case you missed it last weekend: the Times goes really deep on Groupon’s methods, something Hired Guns blogger Daryl Lang also examined recently.
Do you have what it takes to build that website on your own? Going by Vitamin Talent’s intricate flowchart, you may need a much, much bigger monitor before you can decide.
Never accept a counteroffer. [Ere.net]
At Slate, there’s no longer any money set aside for taking the interns out for drinks or lunch once in a while. Instead, it’s the interns doling out favors like cupcakes and other small gifts, and the site also takes “advantage of their access to expensive journals through their college library credentials.” Related: the new book Intern Nation.
Email maintenance is a subject close to our hearts. Here’s a suggestion on how to use the BCC for good, not evil. The time you save may be your own.

5 Ways to Make Work the #1 Thing in Your Life—and Everyone Else’s

Todd Tarpley on June 1, 2011

Whoever coined the phrase “work/life balance” probably understood that the key to long-term productivity is a positive work environment, a range of outside interests, and job satisfaction. You don’t want people like that working for you.

Instead, here are five ways to keep your workers focused on work 24/7:

1. Don’t have a spouse or family, and forbid your employees from having them. Families have a tendency to be involved in school pageants and athletic events, they don’t like to move or change schools, and they suck out a lot of energy that could be better spent on Six Sigma productivity training. If members of your team have preexisting families, encourage them to jettison them immediately. At minimum, require them to replace their personal photos with framed motivational posters. Explain to them that “this is your family now.” Read More →

When Sending an Email Is a Terrible Idea

Daryl Lang on May 31, 2011

Email is probably responsible for saving more time in the office than any other recent technology. Tasks that used to require letters and phone calls–which often went unanswered, and had to be followed by a series of messages left and ignored–can now be handled with a few taps on a keyboard.

But email can also waste hours and hours. Think about how many times you’ve been inundated with a dozen messages in a row from people hitting the Reply All to weigh in on some point of trivia that could have been solved with one conversation. What used to be a dialogue between two people becomes a conversation among four, five, or fifteen. It’s like part of our brain is always in a meeting.

I once worked in an office where Reply All was responsible for so much lost efficiency that managers actually announced a plan to disable the Reply All button on all our computers. The plan was abandoned when they discovered this was impossible—but you could understand where they were coming from. Email also strips vocal tone and body language away from our words. Without that nonverbal information, criticisms sting harder, requests seem abrupt, and genuine praise can fall flat.

After all this time, why are we still struggling with email? I think it’s because different jobs carry different expectations, and norms vary drastically from office to office. And the plain truth is, email is writing, and some people are better writers than others.

Even if you aren’t a champion writer, you can still keep from flailing when you use email. Here are ten guidelines that can help your emails turn out better—or help you know when not to send an email at all. Your approach may vary, but I’ve found that these work for me.

1. Only send an email if it’s faster than a phone call or a person-to-person conversation. Read More →

Bullet Points: To Err is Human; Planning for Job Loss; Couch-potato Multitasking

The Hired Guns on May 23, 2011

Are young, female employees a risky investment for financial companies, because they tend to leave? The Vault steps into a bit of a minefield….
Think you might lose your job? Lifehacker has come advice on battening down the hatches so that you’ll be in best possible position if it does happen.
“Millions of people are watching their favorite shows while babbling about them on Facebook.” Joel Falconer of The Next Web finds all this leisure-time multitasking more than a little pathetic.
Why is it so annoying to be wrong? The journalist Kathryn Schulz has some answers–and also looks into the upside of erring. [CNN]
Speaking of erring: Milton Glaser, Wally Olins, and three other “design demigods” were interviewed by Swedish students about what they learned from failing. Inspirational. [CoDesign]

No Respect at Work? You Might Have a Deal Breaker on Your Hands…

Miss Education on May 19, 2011

“Miss Education” is a public-school teacher in the New York area. Until she finds herself a shiny new career and can leave the blackboard jungle behind, she’ll be posting anonymously.

The New York Times recently published a great op-ed by Dave Eggers and Nínive Clements Calegari on “The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries.” They argued that teachers need to be paid higher salaries to make a decent living, and that the government should consider paying for their training. They cited a McKinsey study showing that 68% of 900 top American college students would consider teaching if salaries began at $65,000 a year.

I read this article with mixed emotions. On one hand, teachers are receiving a heck of a beating in the media every time I open a newspaper or turn on a television, and whenever I see a prominent face clamor for higher teacher salaries (as opposed to cutting our benefits), it makes me want to go back to college, get an accounting degree, and do that person’s taxes for free for the rest of his or her life. (If only I weren’t allergic to math.) Read More →

How to Fail Upwards: 5 Secrets CEOs Don’t Want You to Know

Todd Tarpley on May 3, 2011

You could spend years trying to fail upwards, only to find that all the good promotions have already been claimed by more successful incompetent people. Here’s how to shave a few years off your timeline:

Communicate only with superiors. As long as your boss thinks you’re doing a good job, you are. Contrary to popular opinion, you should pay absolutely no attention to colleagues or subordinates. Their opinions don’t matter, which is why they don’t have “VP” next to their names. As long as your boss keeps failing upward, you’re golden. But you’re probably wondering what happens when your boss gets fired, laid off, or retires. Well, unless you can somehow quickly learn to manage a team and collaborate with others, you’re kinda screwed. But cross that bridge when you come to it. Read More →

Stand Up for Yourself: Succeeding as a Design “Team of One”

Jeff Gothelf on May 2, 2011

Jeff Gothelf, a user experience designer working for TheLadders.com, blogs for us about project management and UX careers and trends.

Several folks have written recently about how to operate a design team of one. Those posts, like this one by Leah Buley, discuss the tools, methodologies and tips/tricks for successfully pulling off a UX practice with only one practitioner. But once you’ve got the tools in place, you need to make sure your “team of one” also succeeds politically. First, you’ll need to convince the organization to fund your work and provide you with the bare essentials you need to function. Once those are in place, the onus is on you to prove that those funds were well spent. The following tactics will help keep your team funded, appreciated, and (with luck) expanding beyond its single member in the future.

Metrics: your new best friend
The beauty of online work is that it’s measurable. If it’s measurable, it’s controllable. And if it’s controllable, then you are its master. The first thing you should do is set benchmarks. Use the company’s reporting tools or free options like Google Analytics to gain a sense of where things stand now. As you begin to operate, report to the rest of the organization how the metrics are changing based on the work you’re doing. Make sure that as key performance indicators (KPIs) trend up and to the right, the UX work you’re doing gets the proper credit. Read More →

Bullet Points: Ace That Interview

The Hired Guns on April 21, 2011

Interviews with more than 70 leaders for the NYT’s Corner Office columns have shown some traits that successful executives share–they’re the same traits the execs look for when their companies are hiring. [excerpt from The Corner Office]
Saying that you were “”the only employee who did things right” at your last job is no way to land a new one. [FINS]
It’s from November, but these interview myths from “Ask Annie” remain just as useful a read. Thinking that interviewers will always be prepared and know all about you is a belief worth getting over as soon as possible.
We’ve all heard them, and now The Oatmeal’s drawn them: the 6 crappiest interview questions.

How Not to Succeed in Business: 5 Tips for Hiring a Crappy Team

Todd Tarpley on April 5, 2011

The digital media strategist Todd Tarpley has launched businesses for A&E, Bravo, and Nielsen. Because there are already hundreds of blogs and books telling managers how to succeed, his “How Not to Succeed” series uses his expertise to help managers learn how to fail instead.

You’ve just been given oversight of a new product launch. Your first task is to hire a team. Here’s how to screw it up:

1. Hire as if it’s a mature business. That means hiring people who have been successfully doing one thing, one way, for a long time. After all, you’re trying to bring some stability to the organization. Why put a premium on versatility and general intelligence? Whatever business plan you have laid out will surely be exactly the same a year from now–no unforeseen changes, no evolution, no growth. People who have worked at the same job and company for ten years or more will fit right into a startup environment–and when things change, they’re prepared to roll with the punches. What could possibly go wrong?

2. If there’s an existing team, don’t make any adjustments or changes. Don’t even bother to interview the members of the current team to get their insights on how things might function more efficiently, or how they would do things differently if they were in charge. They’re NOT in charge, so don’t let them think they are. And whatever they do, I’m sure they do a good job or they wouldn’t be here. Right? Read More →

Last of the Heroes

Jeff Gothelf on April 4, 2011

Jeff Gothelf, a user experience designer working for TheLadders.com, blogs for us about project management and UX careers and trends.

Designers want to be heroes.

Let that soak in for a second. It’s true. Design is a hero-based practice.

To be known as the designer who conceived the iPod or the genius behind the game-changing interaction design of Mint.com is an accolade many seek. Those are product designs, but this mentality is even more prevalent inside interactive agencies. Agencies want to win awards because awards attract new business.

Hero-focused design is promoted even further because of the transient nature of employment at an interactive agency. The more successful you are as an individual designer at an agency, the easier it is for you to get that next gig or step up the design ladder.

The problem is heroes work alone. They don’t collaborate or open their work for review. They reveal work only when they feel it’s “ready,” and they typically seek to control the direction of the project very heavily. The stronger a designer’s hand in the project, the theory goes, the more he or she can lay claim to that project’s success. Read More →

Bullet Points: Cutting Down on the Noise and Human Resource Secrets

The Hired Guns on March 16, 2011

Tony Schwartz, Hired Gun pal and the author of Be Excellent at Everything, writes about what the addicted-to-texting-and-tweeting crowds at SXSW would need to “seize back control of their lives.” Hint: it doesn’t involve more Internet.

You likely already have too much to do, too much information to absorb, and too many choices to make. If so, your challenge is learning to say no far more often — “no” to more projects, more meetings, more emails, more tweets, more Facebook updates, more purchases, more friends, more “likes”, and more fans and followers. . . Prioritization isn’t just what you want to do, it’s increasingly what you ought not to do.

These dirty little secrets of HR make for sobering reading. The bottom line is that they are people too–and some of them are full of foibles. So be prepared by knowing what they might be thinking. [TechRepublic]

Round Peg In A Cube Farm: Will Your Next Company Be As Innovative As You?

Jeff Gothelf on March 4, 2011

Jeff Gothelf, a user experience designer working for TheLadders.com, blogs for us about project management and UX careers and trends.

Recently I wrote an article for Smashing Magazine about how to manage a personal brand within a corporate environment. At the end of that article I mentioned that if personal brand building is one of your goals and your employer doesn’t support it, you should consider another employer–or even consider going out on your own. Read More →

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