Executives Prefer In-Person Meetings to Virtual

Despite the rise in virtual meetings, business executives prefer face-to-face meetings, according to the results of a Forbes Insights study released Thursday.

The study, “Business Meetings: The Case for Face-to-Face,” was based on June survey of 760 business executives. It found that 84% prefer in-person contact to virtual because face-to-face meetings enable them to build stronger relationships (85%) and provide greater opportunity to “read” another person (77%).

Nonetheless, teleconferences, videoconferences and Web conferences have grown as 58% of respondents said they were traveling less for business now than in January 2008.

Those that preferred virtual meetings cited the time savings (92%) and the financial savings (88%).

What Made Jack Welch Extraordinary

Stephen Baum's book "What Made Jack Welch, How Ordinary People Become Extraordinary Leaders" truly articulated what all the gurus in leadership, Harvard, and Michigan have been trying to say for years. But he breaks it down into simple language and how to apply the skills in ordinary business roles. According to Baum, there are core leadership traits and, said Baum, "the possessors of these traits are generally the most effective and the most successful people in any organization". My question to each HR professional today is DO YOU HAVE THESE QUALITIES and DO YOU EXERT THEM IN YOUR ROLE IN BUSINESS TODAY? So, here are the five (5) traits:

1. do you have the appetite to take charge?
2. do you have character? - meaning doing the right thing when no one is there to see as well as when your actions are visible or will be revealed to the world at large
3. do you have the confidence to see challenges and embrace risk?
4. do you have the capacity to act? - key to this is do you possess the ability to act despite risks and have the emotional readiness to act despite any risks involved but also exhibit critical thinking to act wisely
5. do you have the ability to engage and inspire?

He goes on to say that there are shaping experiences you will incur along your HR journey up the ladder and by the way if you are there today staying there.

If you have these you have the ability to become a Jack Welch in your industry at the HR level or greater. What are your thoughts on Baum's assessment of leadership traits, let me know.

Loyalty As A Lifestyle

Loyalty is a word based on such definitions as unswerving in allegiance: as (a) faithful in allegiance to one's lawful sovereign or government (b) faithful to a private person to whom fidelity is due (c) faithful to a cause, ideal, custom, institution, or product.

Employee retention is a key factor in any organization's success. Is there a difference between longevity and loyalty? As a business leader your goal should be to have a workforce that is both longstanding and loyal. Usually longevity goes hand in hand with loyalty. Most loyal employees and customers have no real reason to sever the relationship.

It is difficult to know who is sincerely loyal to you in business and life and who is not, without simply watching their actions and behaviors. That is not too profound, but some people are paranoid about team loyalty but can’t really produce any reasons they feel this way. You can always manage behaviors but it is hard to manage those more intangible things.

As “soft skills” oriented as it may sound, leaders should include loyalty as a part of the job description. Talking about loyalty in the hiring process is imperative and describing what loyalty looks like in the organizational culture is important. This may sound less than profound, as well, but I am finding that many hiring interviewers do not discuss loyalty as an essential to excellent behavior.

excerpts from Rick Forbus, Phd.

Developing Leaders From Within

The IBM Global Human Capital Study 2008 suggests that company leaders emphasize on building leaders from within the company. The survey reflects that it is the leading challenge faced by the organization.

So what are they doing to assess and develop leaders from within the organization? The top executives reported using of initiatives such as Action Learning; Mentoring; and Job Rotation.

Action Learning and Job Rotation are methods where the future leaders gain hands on experience in different projects. Whereas mentoring is one of the most widely used training method to develop future leaders by providing guidance and feedback on one's performance through a one-to one mentor-mentee relationship.

Having worked for IBM for two summers and a parent that spent 43 years with the company I can attest that they have one of the best programs in business today, THINK. Do you agree?

Online Ad Spending Worldwide Contracted 5% In Second Quarter

Framingham, Mass.—Worldwide spending on Internet advertising contracted in the second quarter, declining 5% to $13.9 billion, from the $14.7 billion spent in the same quarter last year, according to market analyst company IDC.

IDC's “Worldwide and U.S. Internet Ad Spend Report 2Q09” found that all global regions posted declines except the Asia/Pacific region and Japan, which saw slight gains in the second quarter.

U.S. spending declined for the second quarter in a row; spending fell 6% to $6.2 billion, from $6.6 billion in 2008's second quarter. Broken down by channel and format, spending on display ads in the U.S. fell 12%, while spending on classifieds plunged 17%.

Christopher Hosford
Story posted: August 10, 2009 - 12:33 pm EDT

Where Are You in the M and A Discussion?

There has been a lot of talk lately that HR is always in on the final stage of acquisitions. Why is that? If you are plugged into the CEO & the M&A team you should been at the lead end rather than the tail end of such activities. So why is that?

Well, for one thing and mainly primary is that HR can read the culture of an organization better than financial types and for that matter senior level managers. Remember, HR is our business. One of the main reasons why things don't go well after an acquisition is that the cultures do not fit and never will creating disparate and unconnected strategy issues. In addition, financial types do not always know the buzz words for hidden costs in the balance sheet or the intricate payer issues for medical plans.

So my issue is make sure your HR lead is in the lead end of acquisition and not the tail or you will be holding the tail in the long run.

To read more on mergers and acquisitions you should read my prior posts in 2008 on this very important subject.

Define Yourself With Merit

By Jen Carpenter – MeritBuilder, a personal branding platform, allows users to collect the “thank you’s” they receive and display them for everyone to see. The site enables workers to build a portable brand and employers to improve the way they thank and value their employees.

The site allows you to share merits through RSS feeds, blogs or social networking sites. You can even e-mail merits to people. The company hopes the ease and inclusiveness of the site will put it on track to one day join, or potentially replace, the resume as the document of choice for job seekers.

Unleveling the Playing Field

I read a great feature article in Fortune magazine this month about Marc Andreesen, the co-founder of Netscape and the social network Ning. I have to say it was inspirational in three(3) ways:

1. it motivated me to dig deeper into the innovation idea bank and move forward with the latest technology to use it as a starting point for the next generation;
2. that creative thinking is the lifeblood of business and entrepreneurship;
3. there are people like him that motivate people like me.

So with that in mind as a mid-level HR executive, a senior level executive or someone just starting out you need to unlevel the playing field so YOU stand out as a leader and innovative/creative thinker to solve business problems. Certainly as HR continue to be represented at the table and those that are just getting invited you need to really stand out and inspire and move those around you. How do you do that you say for those not yet there or in a company that views HR as an administrative function here are some important ways:

• you need negotiation and influencing skills that are strategy based;
• you need to take the lead on innovation and develop practices that drive growth - KNOW THE BUSINESS INSIDE AND OUT;
• have strong business acumen and a keen eye for identifying high-potential leaders before someone tells you;
• deliver value daily to your internal and external constituencies as well as building extraordinary personal leadership qualities that resonate throughout the life cycle of your business;
• develop frameworks for global exportation and strategies from a product and supply chain prospective;
• get involved with your investor relations program - evaluating it with a ad-hoc team;
• and finally, conventional is passe so exploit technology and social networking to manage talent, HR, and the business with intricate involvement with your CEO.

I hope that you will look at these thoughts and grow from them. If you agree, drop me an email, text, Twitter, or Linkedin message . Oh, BTW my former CEO & Executive HR were just like Marc. Thanks Greg, Iain, and Mike.