Category Archives: Management Resource Lists

Lists of management resources culled from the world wide web.

Top Ten Resume Tips for Managers

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The Top 10 Resume Tips for Out-of-Work Leaders

One of our loyal readers sent us an email this week that included their resume. As has likely happened to someone you know, this manager got caught up in the current economic turmoil and their position was eliminated. No notice. No severance. No clear prospects.

Since it’s too late to council our reader to adopt the absolutely necessary survival trait known as networking, we thought we’d dissect his resume (confidentially) and deliver him (and you) our Top 10 Resume Tips:

  1. Filename – Quick, take a look at the resume on your computer. Is it called “myresume.doc,” “SalesManagerResume.doc,” or simply “resume.doc?” Do you have any sense of your audience? I can guarantee that the hiring manager doesn’t want to download 50 resumes all titled “myresume.doc.” Believe it or not, it becomes hard to find the one you’re looking for when all the files are called the same thing. Additionally, when you name your resume file based on job title (like SalesManagerResume.doc), the hiring manager knows you’re probably fibbing a little because you likely have other versions that you send to other job openings (like OpsManagerResume.doc). There’s only one recommended filename structure for all resumes and here it is: Lastname.Firstname.Resume.doc. Your resume file will stand out because of its clarity to, and consideration for, the hiring manager.
  2. Software – Two words: Microsoft Word. Okay folks? While using some cheap Word knockoff is probably fine for an entry-level salesperson resume, your manager resume will look absolutely bush league if it arrives via any format other than Word. If you simply cannot afford the $80 to buy Microsoft Word, then create your resume in Word Perfect or Open Office or whatever other word processing software you can get your hands on, and “print” the document as a PDF. There are literally thousands of free PDF creators available. Start by looking here.


  3. Borrow Liberally – Why reinvent the wheel? Smart leaders are efficient and they don’t waste precious hours recreating what has already been invented elsewhere. Go online, search for resume samples, then start reading and lifting those phrases and sentences that best describe you and your abilities. Don’t lie – integrity matters – but certainly be smart enough to let someone else articulate what you really want to say about your experiences. Better yet, use your last $12 and buy a book with sample resumes and better resume tips than you’ll ever get from some crummy management blog. We highly recommend Jay Block’s 101 Best Resumes.
  4. Cover Letter – Yes, you include one. Again, if you’re applying for an entry-level gig, this is less important. The higher up you go, however, the more critical it is to have a great cover letter. Use the same tips we delivered here for your resume that you use for your cover letter. And just like that great resume, we recommend if you want a great cover letter you should invest a few bucks in a good book. Not surprisingly, we recommend Block’s 101 Best Cover Letters. If your cover letter is included in the body of an email, please remember to avoid our common email typos detailed here.
  5. Watch Your Formatting, and Check Spelling and Grammar – Yikes, we’re embarrassed to even have to write that, but we counted no less than four glaring typos and half a dozen grammatical errors in this manager’s resume. Ouch. Hard to hire someone to lead others when they appear to be unable to manage themselves. When we speak about formatting, we’re referring to how your resume lays out on a page. If you find yourself using tabs and spaces to format your paragraphs then STOP. While your resume might look great on your screen, it will likely open up as a jumbled mess on the other end. The reason this occurs is because you cannot guarantee that the hiring manager is using the same version of Word that you are using. Additionally, if you use an odd font because it looks cool, that font could be very well rendered as Courier on the other end, screwing up your beautiful formatting. The bottom line: format properly and use a standard font. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, hire a professional resume service. It might be the best $200 you ever invested.
  6. Aim High – While it’s often true that companies who are hiring leaders want to get more than they pay for, it’s especially true in a down economy. If your resume aims too low, that’s where you’ll surely end up. If you aim high, both with your resume objectives (yes, you include these) and with your description of past duties, you stand a much better chance of landing high. Be sure to make yourself and your ambitions sound as important as possible – keeping everything accurate, of course.
  7. Titles Matter More than Responsibilities – It’s sad, but true. If you were a VP at your last job, chances are you’ll be a VP on your next job. If your title was manager, you’ll likely be a manager when you land your next gig. We’re giving you this little piece of advice not to have you lie on your resume, but rather to make sure you clearly express your title in words that relay the importance of the position. Quick tip: Adding words like “division” can make a title seem more important, while allowing you to keep your integrity. For example, if you were a manager in the widgets group at ABC Company, you could list your title one of two ways: Manager, ABC Company or Widgets Division Manager, ABC Company. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather hire the latter than the former.
  8. Quantify Your Accomplishments – You didn’t “grow sales” at your last job, you “improved operating revenue by 33%.” You didn’t “cut costs,” you “discovered and enacted operational efficiencies that led to a 17% decrease in year-over-year operating expenses.” Numbers are easy to understand and will help your accomplishments stand out.
  9. Use Commanding Language – As you can read in Tip #8, there are both weak and strong ways to say anything. Use a thesaurus (quick tip: In Microsoft Word you can right-click on any word and see synonyms) to ensure you use the most powerful terms you can to describe your accomplishments. (We’re not going to bore you with a list of weak and strong words – you are a leader, after all.)
  10. References Available Upon Request – Never, ever include references on your resume if you are vying for a leadership position. Lists of references unnecessarily lengthen your resume. Additionally, you stand the chance of alienating your audience if one of your references is disliked by the hiring manager. In case you do happen to know Jack Welch – and he wants to vouch for you – ask him to write a brief letter (or, better yet, you write a letter on his behalf and ask him to sign it). You can always include these letters with your cover letter and resume.

While there are thousands of other great resume tips we could share, too many of them are too granular for a site like AskTheManager. If you can get these Top 10 Resume Tips down, you’ll be well on your way toward finding a great new career.

While we don’t often ask for advice from our readers, we’d love for you to share your resume tips with others by posting a comment below.

NY Times Hardcover Business Best Sellers – February 2009

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New York Times – Hardcover Business Best Sellers – February 2009

Unlike January’s NY Times list, the February 2009 New York Times Hardcover Business Best Sellers list begins to reveal America’s concern over the economy. While the February list is still void of credible financial survival guides, there are two “the end is near” tomes using the “D” word to (we assume) shock us into purchasing a copy.

 

Paul Krugman’s The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008 cracks the Top 5, with The Great Depression Ahead, by Harry Dent coming in at Number 6. These gloom and doom reads come to us from a Nobel Winner (Krugman) and a man whose last book (The Next Great Bubble Boom: How to Profit from the Greatest Boom in History: 2006-2010) predicted the Dow would hit 40,000 in this year. Our conclusion: while we will read neither book, if you plan to read one, we recommend Krugman’s. (Random thought, but if my name was Harry Dent, I’d probably change it.)

 

Number 1 on the Times’ list for the third consecutive month, Outliers could be one of the best books released last year. In this great read, author Malcolm Gladwell poses the question: why do some people succeed, while those with more talent, brains and/or brawn never reach their full potential? For those of us who still think we can grow up to be anything we want, Gladwell’s challenge of our belief in the self-made man is as uncomfortable as it is depressing. Like we do with the rest of Gladwell’s work, the editors of AskTheManager highly recommend this book.

 

After Outliers, the next best read on this month’s list is Number 14’s Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity, by Michael Lewis. In this book, Lewis, author of the must-read Liar’s Poker, provides great insight into many of the economic speed bumps from the last twenty-plus years, from the ‘87 stock market crash and the bursting of the Internet stock bubble, to the recent implosion of the financial markets. This book is highly recommended for any Lewis fan and for those looking for an insider’s unedited perspective into market forces.




 

The Top Five – NY Times Business Hardcover Best Sellers February 2009 (to view the entire list, follow this link):

 

This
Month

 

Last
Month

1

OUTLIERS, by Malcolm Gladwell. (Little, Brown, $27.99.) Why some people succeed — it has to do with luck and opportunities as well as talent — from the author of “Blink” and “The Tipping Point.”

1

2

HOT, FLAT, AND CROWDED, by Thomas L. Friedman. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.95.) How a green revolution can renew America, by the New York Times columnist.

3

3

THE TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER, by Dave Ramsey (Thomas Nelson, $24.99.) Debt reduction and fiscal fitness for families, by the radio talk-show host.

8

4

THE ASCENT OF MONEY, by Niall Ferguson. (Penguin Press, $29.95.) A financial history of the world, stressing the link between politics and economics.

4

5

THE RETURN OF DEPRESSION ECONOMICS AND THE CRISIS OF 2008, by Paul Krugman. (Norton, $24.95.) The recipient of the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics revises his earlier work from 1999 to reflect current economic crisis.

6

 

NY Times Hardcover Business Best Sellers – January 2009

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New York Times – Hardcover Business Best Sellers – January 2009

 

A quick review of the January 2009 New York Times Hardcover Business Best Sellers list and you wouldn’t know we were in a recession. Where are all the financial survival guides? Where are all the “end is near” and Nostradamus tomes?

 

Instead of the expected flight to junk journalism full of the “how to” books that actually apply to no one, this month’s list is surprisingly loaded with many decent biographies, smart historical perspectives and controversial statistical analyses that require a deeper level of thought than we need for, say, Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover (Number 8 this month).

 

Of the quality highlights on January’s list, Outliers at Number 1 could be one of the best books released in 2008. In this great read author Malcolm Gladwell poses the question: why do some people succeed, while those with more talent/brains/brawn never reach their potential? For those of us who still think we can grow up to be anything we want, Gladwell’s challenge of our belief in the self-made man is as uncomfortable as it is depressing. Like we do with the rest of Gladwell’s work, the editors of AskTheManager highly recommend this book.

 

Another January highlight can be found in a great Warren Buffet biography by Alice Schroeder at Number 2. In fact, The Snowball is not only in the Top 5 on the NY Times list, it was also named to our list of the Ten Best Warren Buffet Books of All Time. Why would we release a list of the Top 10 Buffet Books? At last count, there were forty-seven Warren Buffet biographies currently in print, so we felt you needed a guide to decide which ones are worthy of your time. (To see our list of the 10 Best Warren Buffet Biographies, follow this link.)


 

The overall best read on this month’s list (showing its staying power more than three years after its release) is Number 11’s Freakonomics. As loyal readers of this blog know, Freakonomics is expected be released as a feature-length documentary later this year. (To read our recent interview with Freakonomics producer Chad Troutwine, follow this link.)

 

The Top Five – NY Times Business Hardcover Best Sellers January 2009 (to view the entire list, follow this link):

 

This
Month

 

Last
Month

1

OUTLIERS, by Malcolm Gladwell. (Little, Brown, $27.99.) Why some people succeed — it has to do with luck and opportunities as well as talent — from the author of “Blink” and “The Tipping Point.”

1

2

THE SNOWBALL, by Alice Schroeder. (Bantam, $35.) The life of Warren Buffett.

2

3

HOT, FLAT, AND CROWDED, by Thomas L. Friedman. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.95.) How a green revolution can renew America, by the New York Times columnist.

3

4

THE ASCENT OF MONEY, by Niall Ferguson. (Penguin Press, $29.95.) A financial history of the world, stressing the link between politics and economics.

5

5

CALL ME TED, by Ted Turner with Bill Burke. (Grand Central, $30.) The entrepreneur’s personal story.

4

 

Catch Your Limit: Management Consultancy, Leadership Blog and Fish Cleaning Service

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Great Leadership Blog Worthy of Special Mention – CatchYourLimit.com

As our regular readers know, we produce four semi-regular Blogwatch series covering Time Management, Sales Management, Management Training and Leadership Development. In these series we attempt to help you cut through the clutter and discover great writing and great advice.

While we think we do a pretty good job of culling the crud, we sometimes overlook great blogs. When we do, we’re excited when readers bring these wonderful sites to our attention.

One of our readers turned us on to a great Leadership Development website that had not been a part of our Blogwatch series, called CatchYourLimit.com. This site and its accompanying blog are the brainchild of an innovative leadership consulting company known as Catch Your Limit.

What makes Catch Your Limit so innovative is their approach to management and leadership consulting that moves away from the starched shirts and toward what really matters: coaching; accountability; consistency and cleaning fish. (Long story, you have to read their About Us page to understand.)




Based on what we learned about this innovative consultancy and their great blog, we hereby amend yesterday’s Leadership Development Blogwatch and add the following post:

Transparency is to Employee Engagement as Failure is to Innovation

Leaders will never gain the trust of their employees, especially in uncertain times without a significant level of transparency. As innovation needs experimentation and failure, employees need transparency from leadership for engagement to take place.

One of the difficulties many organizations are facing is transitioning from a “corporate memo” top down communication culture to having honest and candid conversations with their employees. The former creates an environment of rumors, gossip and anxiety while the latter allows employees to feel a certain level of security remaining engaged and productive.

Like improving the economy it’s easier said than done. It isn’t easy to tell people they may lose their job. It isn’t easy to discuss a negative financial outlook…

(To read the rest of this article and other great posts on CatchYourLimit.com, please follow this link.)

 

Coming Soon to a Theater Near You: Freakonomics, The Movie

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Freakonomics: The Movie

During my extended time off between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I sat down with accomplished entrepreneur and filmmaker Chad Troutwine to discuss the most ambitious documentary ever to pique the interest of the editors of AskTheManager.com.

For those of you unfamiliar with Chad’s work, he is a founder (along with Markus Moberg) of Veritas Prep, one the finest and most prestigious GMAT preparation and graduate school admissions consulting companies in the world. In addition to his business interests, Chad has served as a producer or executive producer for many wonderful films.

His latest project involves taking one of the most interesting and controversial business books ever written and turning it into a feature length documentary. Freakonomics, for the few of you who’ve not yet read it, is likely one of the five best business books ever written. Although not a leadership development or management training book, Freakonomics is both a fun read and an eye-opener into real world economics. More social commentary than Economics 101, Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, is one of those rare books that provides something for everyone, especially for those outside the field of economics.

While the editors are not seeking to turn AskTheManager.com into a blog about Freakonomics – the book’s authors Levitt and Dubner already maintain a terrific one at NYTimes.com that (like the book) is both an economics lesson and a quirky look at humanity – we are very interested in the upcoming documentary and we do highly recommend the book.


To satisfy some of my own curiosity around the Freakonomics documentary, I cornered producer Chad Troutwine – keeping him from his Holiday shopping – and peppered him with ten tough questions:

TheManager (TM): What made you think that Freakonomics would make a good film?

Chad Troutwine (CT): The real answer is that I thought it deserved to be a film, more than I was convinced it would be a good one. I’m pretty evangelical when it comes to this subject. I want as many people as possible to learn about Freakonomics. Film is a remarkable medium to reach a mass audience. It gives people who don’t really read much the chance to enjoy the material, but it also offers the three million readers a way to enjoy Freakonomics in a brand new way. Besides, I really wanted to meet some of the amazing characters that Levitt and Dubner found for the book.

TM: Have there been any other projects that made you feel this way?

CT: Yes, but none as strongly as Freakonomics. I’d still like to adapt Liar’s Poker, the brilliant Michael Lewis autobiography about 1980s Wall Street excess. It seems particularly timely today. Brush With the Law would make a spectacular film. It’s the joint memoir of a Harvard Law School student who became addicted to gambling and a Stanford Law School student who occasionally smoked crack during his third year. It’s Fight Club and Trainspotting meet The Paper Chase, but it’s a true story. 

TM: Freakonomics is such a great read with many desirable topics, how did you select the main topics for the film?

CT: I let the prospective directors pitch me. First, I had to get them to agree to join the project. I described my cinematic vision with as much clarity as possible, and shared my passion for the material with them. I suggested several possible topics – including ideas that emerged after the book was published. Morgan Spurlock was great. He said something like, “As long as it doesn’t have anything to do with food or terrorism, I’m in, man.” Because Morgan was willing to commit to the project so early, it gave me instant credibility when I approached Academy Award winner Alex Gibney and the other accomplished filmmakers.   

TM: What influence, if any, did the directors play in selecting the topics?

CT: The directors chose their own topics, but I retained a veto position. I required each director to submit a treatment. If I approved, that was the topic. I rejected a couple of ideas, actually.

TM: What influence, if any, did the authors play in selecting the topics?

CT: That’s a good question. Co-authors Dubner and Levitt have shown interest throughout, particularly Dubner. They trusted me to oversee that part of the process, so our contract gives me sole responsibility. One director team pitched a story idea that required a lot of participation from Levitt. He graciously agreed, and I think it will turn out to be one of the most engaging segments.

TM: Was there a topic covered in the book that you felt was too taboo for film or too hard to deliver to a traditional audience?

CT: No. Abortion, racism, cheating, classicism, crime, terrorism, and myths about child safety were all fair game. The main premise was enough of a hindrance: taking economic analysis and making it entertaining. Fortunately, Levitt and Dubner already conquered that challenge in grand style. We’re simply emulating the model that they created. One subject was off-limits. Because Sudhir Venkatesh was writing his own book, “Gang Leader for a Day,” we were contractually obligated to avoid using material in the chapter “Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live with Their Moms?”

TM: What is the most important thing you hope audiences take away from this film?

CT: Running regression analyses and mining rich data sets are extraordinarily valuable endeavors for brilliant people like Professor Levitt because the results offer so much utility for everyday life. He can interpret the data and impart findings – often directly contradicting widely held beliefs – that can help us all be wiser parents, more informed voters, savvier business people, and better decision-makers. If we succeed, our film will inspire audiences to see the merit in challenging conventional wisdom. I’m not sure I can turn economists and sociologists into rock stars, but I hope that “thinking freakonomically” becomes synonymous with sound judgment and high intelligence. That’s pretty sexy to me.

TM: What has been the most rewarding thing for you (personally) about working on this project?

CT: We’re not done yet, but I feel a real sense of satisfaction that I was able to orchestrate what is already being hailed as the greatest collection of documentary filmmakers ever assembled. Moreover, this is, ostensibly, my first film as a lead producer. If Freakonomics can permeate the popular culture and inspire people to think more like Levitt and Dubner, and then act accordingly, that would be the ultimate.   

TM: If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?

CT: I would be a deciduous tree in autumn. Is there any other answer?

TM: No, not really… As a producer, where do you get both your motivation and your inspiration?

CT: I’ve never fully understood where I get my motivation or my inspiration.  Maybe that question is best left to others to interpret based on what I create and how much I accomplish.

…

Troutwine is eyeing a late summer 2009 final cut for the film, with a theatrical release possibly later in the year. For those of you (like us) who cannot wait, here is a list of the named directors, the working titles of each segment and current status for their respective segment:

  • Morgan Spurlock: “Would a Roshanda by Any Other Name Smell as Sweet?” (post-production)
  • Rachel Grady & Heidi Ewing: “Applying Freakonomics to the Young and Nimble Mind” (filming)
  • Alex Gibney: “Who Cheats and How Do We Catch Them?” (pre-production, filming begins January 2009)
  • Eugene Jarecki: “Abortion and Crime” (pre-production, filming begins in January 2009)
  • Fifth Segment: TBD  

We think we know who the will direct the fifth segment (and we’re thrilled if it turns out to be correct), but we were sworn to secrecy and despite our overall lack of journalistic integrity; we do plan to keep this secret. Sorry…

…

Between now and the film’s release, may we recommend you enjoy the books Chad Troutwine mentioned in his interview. We’ve read all three and highly recommend them:

·         Freakonomics

·         Liar’s Poker

·         Brush With the Law

Additionally, if you’re looking to get a daily fix of Freakonomics, we recommend you drop in on Dubner’s and Levitt’s blog.

Time Management – The Fruitless Effort of Trying to Manage Something that is Unmanageable

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Time Management – The Fruitless Effort of Trying to Manage Something that is Unmanageable

The Time Management Blogosphere has not taken a break in advance of the holiday season; and they continue to deliver much of the same drivel that is common with Internet postings on managing time.

As any marginal leader knows, you cannot manage time, you can only hope to manage yourself – to make significant improvements in your own effectiveness to eliminate “time” as an obstacle. The Time Management bloggers have either forgotten this fact or they choose to ignore.

For better or for worse, here are the few gems we discovered from the last couple of weeks of entries on the Time Management blogs:




How To Spot Time Killers: Top Time Management Guidance
We all know time is precious but, let’s look at the somewhat strange idea of ‘Time Killers’. There are numerous time killers in this world and what you have to do is identify these time killers, look out for them and stay wary of them. …

The Best Five Time Management Tips & Ideas
There are indeed only 24 hours in a day…and unless you are a lawyer (sorry to all the lawyers out there, not), you can’t create more time than there is hours in your workday. So, we need to work smarter, not longer if you want to …

The Importance of Teaching Your Children About Time Management
Since you have the responsibly of working, getting your children clothed for the day, and sending them off to school or daycare, there is a good chance that you know the importance of time management alto well. …

Delegate responsibilities
Delegation is a very powerful way to get more things done in the same time. There is a misconception that only managers have the power to delegate. It does not matter if you are in a project, doing simple desk work or are part of a …

ADHD Time Management Strategies
It’s no secret that “time management” is a major issue for many of us today. This is particularly true for anyone whose life is affected by attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Whether you are living with ADD / ADHD, …

Take control of your day with these 10 time management skills
For instance, all time management advice includes some form of writing down what you want to accomplish. For many people, this is easy and natural. Other people have difficulty creating lists and following through on them. …

Effective Time Management and Goal Setting For the Overwhelmed …
In essence, time management for entrepreneurs is all about focusing on developing effective goal setting skills in order to make the most of the time that is available to us (just 24 hours)! To become more effective at time management …

Adventures in Time Management and Other Horror Stories – Part I
When I first started blogging, I’d write each post the night before it was due to publish. Although someone mentioned scheduling posts, yours truly had no clue how to accomplish this task. Net result: stress-out time. …

Allow chaos corners in your home
Even the most organized person sometimes just throws away things in a corner. Don’t feel guilty but accept that a certain amount of chaos is normal. One of the best ways to keep keep chaos under control is to allow certain chaos corner …

 

Bad Holiday Gifts – The Worst Gifts We Ever Received From Vendors

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Vendors Give The Darnedest Things…

 

Loyal reader Tye Mills sent us a question in response to our Leader’s Gift-Giving Guide article.

 

What are the top 10 wacky gifts you have received from vendors? – Tye Mills

 

Great question, Tye…

 

Hmm, let’s see, the unfortunate result of most truly wacky or bad gifts from vendors is that they are somewhat forgetful. A poll of the AskTheManager editors at first drew blank stares – no one could recall a wacky gift. When we expanded the request to overall bad gifts (no just wacky ones) from vendors, they still seemed a bit perplexed.


 

We all remember the great, thoughtful gifts. The wine we love, the golf balls or putter we cherished, or the thoughtful basket of our favorites. And while we really couldn’t think of ten wacky vendor gifts, we did come up with a list of ten bad ones we received over the years… in no particular order:

 

  • Mouse Pad & Pens – 8-10 years ago it seemed every vendor sent you a mouse pad emblazoned with their logo, but I actually received one as a Holiday gift (with three cheap pens) just two years ago. Two problems with this gift: First, doesn’t everyone who needs one already have a mouse pad? Second, I have exclusively used a laptop (sans mouse) for the past five years – I have no use for a mouse pad (and neither does Goodwill).
  • Bottle of Liquor – He can’t remember the brand, but one of our editors once received a very nice bottle of expensive liquor from a vendor. The problem with this gift? This editor was once a raging alcoholic. The worst thing about this was that it was well-known in the industry that he was now a recovering alcoholic and always seemed ready to fall off the wagon. Not very thoughtful.
  • iPod Shuffle – I know this will sound jaded, but last year a vendor sent me an iPod Shuffle as a holiday gift and now it ends up on this list. My problem with this particular gift was that I already carried a Video iPod, as did everyone in my immediate family, and that the vendor didn’t include a note of any kind – just the iPod. I would have been happier receiving a nice handwritten note wishing me holiday cheer and a $50 donation in my company’s name to a charity. I ended giving the iPod Shuffle to my administrative assistant in one of the most shameless acts of re-gifting known to man… She was thrilled.
  • Tie Clasp – About three years ago a vendor who had been trying to do business with my company for some time sent me a logoed tie clasp as a holiday gift. No big deal… if I was 70 years old and actually wore a tie clasp! Not to mention I had no intention of doing business with them, and didn’t need to see their logo every time I looked down at my tie.
  • Paper Weights – Over the years we’ve received dozens of these and only one – a golf-ball-snow-globe-game with a tee in the middle – ever saw the top of my desk.
  • Other Desktop Do-Dads – Not sure what to call this category, but some vendors who over-think the whole holiday gift-giving thing will send those crappy executive desktop gifts you can buy in the men’s department of most large stores. A few years ago I received a miniature dartboard that provided advice based on where the dart landed. “Go Home,” “Go Fishing,” “Play Hooky,” and “Sleep Under Your Desk” were just a few of the inspirations provided – not a good thing to have on your desk if you want to convince your boss that you’re dedicated to your job.
  • Successories – While these gifts are, on the surface, very thoughtful, one of our editors once received an unframed Successories wall poster entitled “Change.” The issue was that he was with a very successful company who had gone through a painful, major change in the past few years, and who had a very, very bright future ahead. He really didn’t want to display a “Change” message in his office at this time, and he certainly didn’t want to pay to have it framed. (Besides, who is this vendor to say he needed to change?)
  • Mixed Nuts – When I was on the vendor side, one of my salesmen once sent a client, who happen to have a severe peanut allergy, a tin of mixed nuts. From what we hear, the ride to the emergency room was not pretty. He survived, though we never got another dollar of his business.
  • Live Plants – One of the editors once received an expensive fern for her office from a vendor who felt this particular leader needed to “green up” her surroundings. The fern lived for five weeks, laid dead in her office another ten and was unceremoniously dumped before Memorial Day. There was a reason she didn’t have any live plants in her office.
  • Chia Pet – Ch, Ch, Cha Chia… The undisputed king of wacky, bad gifts; the dreaded Chia Pet has appeared as a vendor gift for one of our editors in back-to-back holiday seasons. The first year, the sender sincerely believed that he would enjoy such an exotic and fun gift. The next year, a vendor who was also a close friend, sent him the same Tasmanian Devil model Chia Pet he had received a year earlier – this time as a well-received joke.

 

It was a great exercise for the editors to try and remember the worst of the worst. As leaders, more often than not, we find we can learn great things from bad examples. If we learned nothing else from these ten bad/wacky gifts, let’s all at least agree that you should know your customer before sending anything.

 

Of course, this doesn’t just apply during the Holidays.  

CriminalSearches.com – Great Free Site Offering Instant Criminal Background Checks and Much, Much More

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Great Recruiting and Hiring Tool – and it’s Free!

It’s not often we are swayed by someone’s idea of the latest, coolest website on the Internet, but we discovered a website recently that absolutely could cut time and dollars off the way managers and companies recruit and hire new employees today.

Typically, companies must spend between $25 and $500 to have third parties run criminal background checks on their potential new hires. The process is time consuming and doesn’t always fit with many managers’ go-go-go style of hiring. Because of the cost and the delay, most small companies forgo this important step.

A website still in beta, CriminalSearches.com, solves this issue and many, many more. Best of all, the site is free (at least for now). On CriminalSearches.com you can enter anyone’s name (even just a last name) and retrieve their criminal records – including arrests and (in some states) traffic violations. The results appear in milliseconds, and can save you and your staff hours of work and hundreds or even thousands of dollars annually in third party fees.

Besides being a great tool for hiring managers and the HR types, the site is actually a lot fun. We spent the afternoon entering the names of our high school and college classmates only to discover four felons, ten DUIs and one indecent exposure of a demure cheerleader (I guess you never really know about people).

To visit the CriminalSearches.com homepage and make a quick search, follow this link.

Beware of Geeks Baring Gifts?




While goofing around with this great website, I couldn’t help but hear my father’s words “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

“Dad,” I thought, “in this case, you’re wrong.” Don’t be afraid of using CriminalSearches.com just because it’s free; there really are no strings attached (yet), and it is a truly useful tool for managers and businesses of all sizes in the US.

From a personal perspective, the site is not only fun when you grab your yearbook and seek out the criminals from your graduating class, it’s also helpful for identifying criminals who might reside in your neighborhood.

Using the site’s “Neighborhood Watch” section you will quickly discover all of your neighbors’ level of past criminal activity. Unlike many government sites that merely list sex offenders in your area, this site will show, by address, who has been accused of what crime down to some very petty offenses.

Especially important, we thought, for parents who don’t like their kids playing at homes where the father has four drug convictions (not really the role model we’re looking for, if you know what we mean).