Pfeffer says a crucial step in attaining power in a corporation is choosing the right department. As an example he suggests that corporate power in the US currently tends to lie with finance, whereas in Germany it is R&D. 

Once the right department has been chosen, Pfeffer says there are 3 areas to master in order to maximise your ride to the top:

1. The ability to manage upwards. Basically, this refers to flattering the boss. If that makes you a little queasy, you should be aware of the research conducted by Jennifer Chatman of the UC Berkeley. Chatman looked into when flattery becomes ineffective. She found that it never does. I repeat. Research shows that flattery is always effective! (My advice is to keep compliments sincere – it stops that queasy feeling!)
2. Networking. This makes sense. My experience tells me that, for example, the lawyers that survive downturns are the ones that are best networked internally. (If there’s no work in your department, it pays to be able to pick up work from another department, and that requires networking and influencing skills.)
3. Loyalty. Fair enough!

Pfeffer comes to the conclusion that competence is not the only key to getting to the top. Appearing to be driven and self confident probably matters more, in his opinion.

The moral of the story? If you want more power in your career, be loyal, network internally and be nice to your boss! And don’t forget to project self confidence and ambition. (Hint. Training helps!)

Kieran Bird

The article is about a study undertaken by Stanford University to work out if it is possible to tell when company bosses are lying on conference calls. It found that when lying, bosses tend to:

-          make more general rather than specific references

-          use more extreme language (‘fantastic’, rather than ‘good’)

-          talk in the third person rather than say ‘I’

-          swear more

-          verbally hesitate less (i.e. less ‘ums’ when speaking)

The first three points are fairly self-explanatory. Swearing more is not. But what really interests me is the lack of ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’. Logic suggests more ‘ums’ might be likely when lying. The article offers a reasonable explanation why this is not the case – the deceptive bosses may have been coached in how to lie persuasively!

When we train clients in presentations skills, we do aim for a deception of sorts. We try to cover-up any nerves the presenter is feeling. If we look nervous when we speak in public we dent our credibility, and so we aim to appear confident. We also try to reduce the number of ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’, simply to help the presenter appear more polished. 

The article suggests in the future PR firms will coach lying bosses to swear less, hesitate more and use less enthusiastic language.

Of course, just telling the truth is a lot easier, and requires less training. And perhaps lying bosses should be aware it’s good for peace-of-mind too!

Kieran Bird

Lubin goes on to point out that non-profits tend to be good marketers, and focus on building long-term relationships with donors though keeping in touch regularly. Another thing for-profit companies can do a little better!

Other things the non-profits do well? Flat management structures. Fun atmosphere. Fancy titles. OK, the private sector is pretty good these days at giving out important-sounding job titles, but what about the other areas?

What does your company do to keep staff motivated and feeling involved with the company’s mission, without breaking the bank?

Kieran Bird

We both looked at some work on motivation done by Karl Duncker and Sam Glucksberg, recently reexamined by Daniel Pink. But according to the Economist article Pink’s argument that “There’s a mismatch between what science knows and what business does” “depends on a highly selective reading of the academic literature”. The Economist article goes on to mention four studies and discusses two in particular. It states that a study of an American glass installation company found that shifting from salaries to incentives increased productivity by 44%. It also states that research on workers at a Chinese electronics factory confirms that performance-related pay is an excellent motivator. But the article misses the point. What the experiments show is, with a simple set of rules, a single, clear solution, and a narrow focus – extrinsic motivators do work. And when only mechanical skills are needed, incentives work. But when cognitive skills are required, a larger reward equals poorer performance. And similarly, when real thinking needs to be done, higher standards equal poorer performance. A glass installation company and workers at an electronics factory. Surely this is mechanical work? As I say, the Economist article appears to miss the point. When setting incentives for work that requires cognitive skills, be wary. Bankers please take note.

 Kieran Bird

This really sad and bitter lady who claims to have carried out scientific research on the subject does a great disservice to scientific research which is used as bedrock for credibility.

Ms Ehrenreich claims that positive thinking is a tyranny, it is a quack theory, it creates a cult like culture and positive thinking has made the world miserable. The book goes even further to denigrate motivation.

Positive thinking and positive communication needs defending. I don’t know of any successful individual in sport – in business – in parenting – in relationships – in human conflict or in any field of human endeavour who would not attribute positive thought to be a major contributor towards their achievements or happiness.

Being positive is a state of mind and a healthy one at that. Just a visit to the Selly Oak Hospital to the ward where our seriously wounded soldiers are being treated will demonstrate the power of positive thinking.

The medical world has for years never understood but willingly embraces the psychosomatic power of healing.

Hear me loud and clear, the most evil, disastrous and catastrophic attitudinal behaviour is negative thinking and negative communication. This is ten times more powerful than positive thought or communication. No claims here based on scientific research but just a wealth of experience in life’s laboratory.

If you think you can you are more likely to, but if you think you can’t, you won’t – cliché! Yes but so what.

Here lies the balance – REALISM. Positive thinking does not move mountains but does move people.

Richard Denny
Author of Succeed for Yourself and Motivate to Win

Let’s take a step back from the emotion of political rhetoric for a minute and look at this rationally. Strikes hurt customers. By hurting customers, they hurt the company, which loses market share. The hurt company then has no choice but to lay off workers.

So strikes hurt customers, companies and workers.

Is there a better way? Perhaps you have heard of cases of unions in (mostly Asian) countries around the world asking their workers to “strike” by going to work wearing black armbands. They made their point. The armbands were a direct insult to the management for not having solved the workers issues. The managers “lost face”. But, the unions did not hurt the customers, nor the company. And so no-one lost their job.

OK, you might say. But what if the current management at the Royal Mail don’t care what the workers think? What if they couldn’t care less about workers wearing black armbands?

Well, that’s a different story. It is the responsibility of leaders to care. Notice I said “leaders” and not “management”? So what’s the difference?

Management is making people do what the managers want them to do. Leadership is making people WANT TO DO IT.

Let’s go back in history and pick out two really great leaders, Sir John Harvey Jones of ICI and Sir Ernest Shackleton the great explorer, both would be highly visible 18 – 20 hours a day talking, mixing and working with their people, certainly not hiding away from the action.

If the staff trust and believe in their bosses and the bosses in turn earn the workers’ loyalty every issue can be resolved. Without strikes.

P.S. Note to Royal Mail management. We teach leadership skills. Our phone number is 01608 653 868. Please call. I’d give you our mailing address, but the mail might be late!

The feel good factor for the majority of people got up and went walkabout some 15 months ago and in the intervening months some business have disappeared, some people in work have been on reduced salaries or working part time, and some have even been made redundant, (not good for staff motivation). Values and expectations have changed but here lies a really big opportunity and challenge. Our staff and our people must also change, the skills of winning business (selling) must be improved. If companies are actually going to reap the rewards, management and leadership styles must also be improved and then there is the really biggest opportunity of all – customer care and services.

So come on business leaders if you really now want to make some money and take market share your people will do it for you, up-skill them with the latest communication skills. Invest a little in some really good, and I mean really good training. They will repay this investment 10-50 times over. New usable skills and knowledge are very inspiring so leaders, managers, bosses are you the inhibitor to your company’s growth?

The NHS is possibly the largest employer in the UK but sadly it has the largest number of untrained managers and supervisors, way out of proportion to the rest of commerce. Here lies the biggest problem that could so easily be solved.

Very few NHS employees, and this includes staff nurses, sisters, doctors and all the numerous department heads, have had any good training in management and leadership skills.

They are expected by some God given right, because they may have an academic qualification or have the job title, or have been promoted, that they should automatically know how to lead, manage, and inspire people in their care. This would cost so little but the financial rewards would be mind blowing and the horror stories would be dramatically reduced. All the horror stories that we hear and read about can be fundamentally traced to weak and poor management. It’s not their fault, the fault lies right at the top.

Simple solution – kinder – obvious really; it only needs a decision but unfortunately that will require focus groups, committees, endless meetings, union agreements, and of course government funding – oh dear!!!!

We have all heard the two clichés which are, “Our staff are our most valuable asset” – yet they are the first to go in a recession (why not the director’s cars?) and the second just as galling, “We value our customers”.

I have been amazed how few businesses have demonstrated customer care over the past few months. They have been and are missing an amazing opportunity to earn and deserve customer loyalty and customer spend. Via Denny Training I have had the experience of some progressive businesses investing just a small amount of money in skilling their people in customer care and developing an excellent service culture, the result of which is phenomenal increased profitability.

The current trading environment is intensely competitive and will remain so. I have been preaching for some time now, “You don’t have to have the best products and even the best prices, but if you provide an outstanding service you will WIN, WIN, WIN”. Tom Peters is quoted as saying “It is the greatest kept secret in the global economy today that if you provide an outstanding service you will need new suitcases to carry all the money home”.

It is not too late, your peoples attitude and skills in customer care will put you ahead of the competition. Invest a small amount now and in a few weeks see how you will have increased your market share and excitingly your profits.

If not how about joining THE FAILING CLUB who blame the government, the banks, the recession, the economy and of course the weather?

1. Expect the best: build your success attitude with a positive attitude. Expect each day to be wonderful. It’s amazing how the interruptions to your enjoyment become fewer and fewer.

2. Make it a habit to be positive: some habits take a while to cultivate and transform into subconscious automatic behaviour. Make it a habit to be positive every day. Avoid negative thoughts – they damage your self image.

3. Use repetition: athletes build muscle by continual repetition. In a similar way, we need to continually send the right messages to the brain. Ten repetitions of a thought will create the foundation on which the skyscraper of positivity will stand.

4. Smile: you will find it so much harder to have negative thoughts when you are smiling.

5. Try not to burden others: despite enormous pain and discomfort or other difficulty, some people remain positive and avoid burdening others with their problems. They demonstrate a success attitude and are a joy to spend time with or chat to on the phone.

6. Plan doing something positive each day: positive actions equal positive results. By planning and doing something constructive each day, you will progress towards your goal. Seeing ourselves progressing motivates us.

7. Be honest: by being honest with other people and with your self, you will become more self assured and more confident. Honesty with yourself allows you to know where you are and what you believe. Honesty with others enables them to know where you and they stand.

8. Discard negative thoughts: when you’ve taken photographs, you discard those that are out of focus or where badly lit and keep the quality images. Your mind works in the same way – cast out the negative images and replace them with positive ones.

9. Think of problems as challenges: use the word “challenge” rather than “problem.” Your mind positively embraces a challenge whereas a problem is a de-motivator. In Chinese, the world “wei –chi” literally translated means “crisis” and “danger.” The same characters together also mean opportunity.

10. Managing change: during your lifetime and mine, change will be with us. You can view it an s threat or an opportunity but you cannot stop it. Embrace change positive, enthusiastically see what might be and not what was.