HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: Time Management

Competency: self-development

Who benefits: individuals, coaches, organizational consultants

Consultant Usage: coaching, training, consulting for organizational effectiveness

What’s it about? I had the pleasure recently of coaching a young woman who has exceptional technical skills along with an extraordinary set of skills we attribute to high emotional intelligence.  Her bosses, direct reports and peers sing her praises.  So what is the issue here?  She struggles to find time to do everything on her plate. 

With a little probing I discovered she didn’t even know where the plate was.  She was receiving lots of professional development opportunities, but nowhere in the mix was the obvious: If you are going to give someone lots to do, give them some time management skills to be more effective doing their increased workload.

So today’s posting is dedicated to all of you out there who are feeling time challenged and want some insight.

Surprisingly, Harvard is the place to start.  With all the “high level stuff” coming out of Harvard Business School and its publishing arm, they produce some good rubber-meets-the-road publications for managing time.

Harvard Business Essentials: Time Management (2005) focuses on personal productivity such as goal setting, prioritizing, and delegating.

If you are a leader at any level and haven’t done so, you must read William Oncken’s HBR Classic, Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey.  I read this article early in my career and it is still one of the best articles I have ever read.  The newer reprints have additional information.

McGraw-Hill Publishing has a book and booklet worth a look.  The more comprehensive of the two and the one I prefer is Getting Organized at Work: 24 Lessons for Setting Goals, Establishing Priorities, and Managing Your Time (2008).   It covers all the basics in the way I would want them covered.  If you don’t have time for the book, there is a booklet Time Management 24 Techniques to Make Each Minute Count at Work (2007) that may be worthy of a look.

If you are more in the mood for a training class or two, a two-day introductory course is offered all the time and almost everywhere (which tells me a lot of people are looking for time management skills) by the American Management Association.  The course is simply titled Time Management and it is described as getting more of the right things done.

“Is your work managing you or are you managing your work?”  That is the introduction to a more sophisticated program that focuses a lot on how to get energized and focus your energy on what is really important.  Getting Things Done: A Path to Personal Productivity is developed from a book of the same name.  David Allen is the author and the instructor.

Finally, a course highly recommended to me by a trusted colleague: What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, again a course developed from a book.  The author and presenter is Marshall Goldsmith.  His credentials are long and impressive.  His book is has been a best seller.  This course is designed for people who see themselves getting promoted.  The focus is on developing successful work habits.

So there are but a few of your many options.  Remember, “I don’t have enough time” is an excuse.  We all have the same amount time.  We each have all there is.  It is about how well we use it.  So what is the best use of your time right now?

(Note to my new friend: Stop reading this posting and get back to working on your “A’s”!  )

Catch you later.

Technorati Tags: managing time, managing energy, time management, monkey management, goal setting, prioritizing, delegating, delegation, bill bradley, william bradley,   bradley

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

Albert Einstein

It’s no secret that leaders have inflated views of their skills and competence–we’ve known this for a long time as it’s a consistent finding in all 360-degree feedback research¹.  What is simply amazing is the gap between self-perception and reality.

The prevalence of self-enhancement is not hotly debated but there is controversy on whether it is adaptive or maladaptive which has implications for understanding and interpreting multi-rater feedback.  If self-enhancement means seeing one’s self more positively than others, then the outcomes (performance, health, career and life success) are frequently more favorable but if it is defined as having higher self-ratings than others who provide feedback, then the outcomes are frequently less than favorable.

In general, leaders seem to perceive that they basically “walk on water” while others who have a pretty fair grasp of what leaders really do experience them more as “passing water.”  At least that’s what some recent surveys tend to suggest.

It has been estimated that 65%-75% of the employees in any given organization report that the worst aspect of their job is their immediate boss. In fact, estimates of the base rate for managerial incompetence in corporate life range from 30% to 75% with the average level of poor leadership hovering at about 50%².

A recent 2007 global survey (Executive Quiz March 2007) of executives and leaders by Korn/Ferry involving respondents from over 70 countries revealed that only 27% thought their boss was peforming the job better than they could! In this survey, 11% rated the performance of their current boss as “poor”, 14% rated it as “below average” and 23% rated it as “average” (42% did perceive their manager as either performing “above average” or “excellent”).

In another recent 2006 national survey of of 1,854 U.S. by Rasmussen reports, 92% of leaders surveyed rated themselves to be “excellent” or “good” as a manager.  Self confidence is fine you say but only 67% of direct reports agreed and at least 10% rated their bosses as actually performing poorly. 

In practice mental health professionals tend to diagnose thoughts and beliefs as “delusional” when they appear unusual, create strong psychological distress, or become an obsession–even when there is compelling evidence to the contrary. This “no clue” gene can be found in both male and female leaders but does seem to be more pronounced as leaders move up the corporate hierachy. One way of defining an aspect of “emotional intelligence” is the accurate awareness and insight of one’s own skills, strengths and impact on others.

Over the years of giving 360-feedback reports to executives, I can’t tell you how many “over-estimators” (those who self-ratings were significantly elevated relative to others) tend to shoot the messenger, critque the assessment itself or explain away the more critical results by suggesting that the raters are the problem!  Indeed, even at my best as an executive coach I have always seen my role as being a very “imperfect mirror” for the leader to increase their self-awareness.  In general, these “over-estimators” seem to be the highest risk for some derailment at some time during their leadership careers.

I bet you didn’t know that in another recent poll that 80% of all drivers in the United States rate their driving skills as above average?  So, please let me know when you are out on the road will you?…..Be well….

Technorati Tags: self-ratings, distortion, self-awareness, multi-rater feedback, 360 feedback, self-insight, emotional intelligence,   kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack, Self-enhancement, Envisia Learning. leadership development, multi-rater feedback, self-ratings, emotional intelligence

1. Nowack, K. (1992). Self-assessment and rater-assessment as a dimension of management development. Human Resources Development Quarterly, 3, 141-155 [↩]
2. Hogan, R. & Kaiser, R. (2005).  What we know about leadership. Review of General Psychology. 9 (2), 169-180 [↩]

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: Your Next Job

Competency: self-development

Who benefits: individuals searching for new job opportunities, coaches

Consultant Usage: coaches, internal outplacement consultants

What’s it about? “May you live in interesting times.”  This ancient proverb is meant as a curse.  We may now be living in interesting times.  Just read the business pages…or most days the front page…of your newspaper or Blog equivalent. 

Some of you readers are going to be job seekers in the near future.  Maybe changing jobs wasn’t in your plans, but the economy suggests a large shake out.  Today’s posting is Job Search 101 for the inexperienced job seeker.  If you are already well acquainted with the topic, skip the rest of this posting and come back next week.  

If you are just starting to think about a job change, time to also think about a career change.  The standard in field is What Color Is Your Parachute? 2009: A Practical Manual for Job-hunters and Career-Changers (2008).  The book has been around as long as I have been doing work related to job seeking and career changes.  It is updated each year.  Many career development professionals refer to it as the bible of career development.  Can’t go wrong starting with this book.

Another popular best-seller in this genre is Knock ‘em Dead, 2008: The Ultimate Job Search Guide (2007).  The author has been around 20 years offering career advice to help you along.

The author and founder of Monster.com offers up Monster Careers: How to Land the Job of Your Life (2004) . He is particularly resourceful in offering up what he calls the “new basics of the job search”.  He also suggests a model for the serious job searcher that he calls the F.A.M.E. attitude.  I liked the model; but if you want to know what it stands for, you have to look it up!

Speaking of the Internet, while I want to go on record as saying it is easy to get seduced by thinking that the Internet can be your one-stop shopping center, there are certainly opportunities aplenty.  So if the Internet is your thing, keep my caveat in mind, but take a look at Guide to Internet Job Searching 2008-2009  (2008).

I am going to close with three books I know little about, but they win big time points for great titles.  The first of three comes with great reviews by users and professionals and is filled with personal stories, which appeals to me: Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters: 400 Unconventional Tips, Tricks, and Tactics for Landing Your Dream Job (2005).

Then there are my real title winners: Life’s a Bitch and Then You Change Careers: 9 Steps to Get Out of Your Funk and On to Your Future (2006) and Career Coward’s Guide to Changing Careers: Sensible Strategies for Overcoming Job Search Fears (2007).

Well, if you are in need, this should get you started.  I wish you success.

Catch you next week. 

Technorati Tags: job search, career, career development, resumes, job interviews, bill bradley, william bradley,   bradley

“I can believe anything provided it is incredible.”

Oscar Wilde

In a new study, 61.3% of the public and 20.2% of professionals believe that a miracle can a save person in a persistent vegetative state and 57.4% of the public said divine intervention can save a person when doctors think treatment just isn’t going to work, compared with just 19.5% of trauma professionalst according to Lenworth Jacobs, M.D., of Hartford Hospital and colleagues.¹.

For the study, Jacobs and his colleagues conducted a random-digit-dialing telephone survey of 1,006 Americans over the age of 18 (margin of error was plus or minus 3.2 percentage points). They also surveyed a convenience sample of medical personnel involved in trauma care, including medical directors of trauma units, trauma nurses, and emergency services personnel.

Well, the power of belief is truly amazing: 

In a study of 256 patients with chronic arm pain (rating of at least 3 on a 10-point pain scale), 133 were treated with sugar pills (one a day for 8 weeks) and the other with fake acupuncture (twice a week for 6 weeks).

In the study, 25% of the acupuncture group experienced side effects including 19 who felt pain; 31% of the pill group experienced dizziness, restlessness, nausea, dry mouth and fatigue.  After 10 weeks, the pill group reported significant decreases in pain (average 1.50 points) and after 8 weeks those receiving fake acupuncture reported a drop of 2.64 points.

The fake acupuncture had greater effects than the placebo pill on self-reported pain².

I’ve become a bit more interested in the association between spirituality and religiosity with health³. I’ve wondered about the relationship between being prayed for and recovery from illness.

Last year, a study including 1,802 patients in six hospitals by Benson and his colleagues⁴ failed to show any impact of remote prayer although there has been some criticism of the study design (e.g., 45% of those invited to participate elected not to be part of the study, intercessors were not allowed to pray their own prayers and it was impossible to limit prayers for those in the “control” group.  One interesting finding was that those who knew they were being prayed for) did worse than the other two groups. 

Finally, at a very recent press conference, a pair of Bigfoot hunters reported they had found the creature’s body in a wooded area of Georgia (it’s apparently big and they have physical evidence). 

No word on what trauma professionals would say about this…..Be well….

Technorati Tags: envisa learning, placebo, bigfoot, divine intervention, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack

1. Jacobs LM et al. “Trauma Death: Views of the Public and Trauma Professionals on Death and Dying From Injuries.” Arch Surg. 2008; 143(8): 730-735 [↩]
2. Kaptchuk, et al., 2006.  Sham device v inter pill: Randomised controlled trial of two placebo treatments. British Medical Journal [↩]
3. Giesser, B., Coleman, L., Fisher, S., Guttry, M., Herlihy, E., Nonoguch, S., Nowack, D., Roberts, C. & Nowack, K. (2005). Living Well: An integrative approach to wellness with multiple sclerosis. Paper presented at Annual Conference of The American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM) Board/American Society of Neurorehabilitation (ASNR), Chicago, Illinois. UCLA Department of Neurology and National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Southern California Chapter [↩]
4. Benson H, Dusek JA, Sherwood JB, Lam P, Bethea CF, Carpenter W, Levitsky S, Hill PC, Clem DW Jr, Jain MK, Drumel D, Kopecky SL, Mueller PS, Marek D, Rollins S, Hibberd PL. (2006). Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients: a multicenter randomized trial of uncertainty and certainty of receiving intercessory prayer. 151(4):934-42 [↩]

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: Positive Leadership

Competencies: leadership, self-development

Who benefits: project leads, team leaders, supervisors, managers, executives

Consultant Usage: general education, coaching education, referrals, training materials

What’s it about? I have been coming across the term “positive leadership” in my never ending search for material for my postings.  I decided to delve a bit deeper.

My ramblings seemed to pick up a trail blazed a few weeks ago by my colleague Ken Nowack in his posting of “Where is the Happiest Place on Earth (Hint: It Isn’t Disneyland)?”.  Happier work places tend to be healthier and more productive work places. 

There already exist a branch of psychology call positive psychology.  I realize that this not new to some of you dear readers; but it is new to me and it is kind of fun to report on my research journey.  I found the Journal of Positive Psychology.  That lead to an interesting looking book The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want (2008) by Sonja Lyubomirsky and her equally interesting website (although, in fairness and hopefully this doesn’t make anyone unhappy, the website could use some serious editing). 

That led to an Amazon Best Seller, Stumbling on Happiness (2007 paperback edition), by Harvard Professor of Psychology Daniel Gilbert.  Wow!  All this stuff is starting to make me feel good all over!!

Jumping forward a bit, this led to new stuff on organizational happiness and the title of this week’s posting.  There is Positive Leadership: Strategies for Extraordinary Performance by Kim Cameron (2007).  The book claims “a new leadership field of the same name, Positive Leadership presents a concise, accessible and practical guide to strategies that can help leaders reach beyond ordinary success to achieve extraordinary effectiveness, spectacular results, and positively deviant performance.”  Positive deviant behavior!  You gotta love that!

Her leadership book is based upon Positive Organizational Scholarship: Foundations of a New Discipline (2003), which she coauthored.  The book description says POS establishes a new field of study in the organizational sciences and which examines a variety of positive dynamics in businesses and organizations that give rise to extraordinary outcomes.

From this beginning come new courses, such as Positive Leadership: Creating Spectacular Organizational Success and Positive Leadership: Building Extraordinary Personal Leadership Capabilities  from the University of Michigan and Positive Leadership: Leveraging Strengths to Optimize Performance from the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)

Or if one course isn’t enough, you can go positively giddy and and pursue a Master of Science in Positive Organizational Development from Case Western Reserve University.

So if you are in the pursuit of happiness, click on some of the above links and see where they take you.  I did and loved the journey. 

Hope it makes you happy!  Catch you later.

Technorati Tags: positive psychology, positive leadership, Journal of Positive Psychology, happiness, creating success, leveraging strengths, positive organizational development, positive organizational scholarship, bill bradley, william bradley,   bradley

“Honesty may be the best policy, but it’s important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second best policy.”                    

George Carlin

A recent 2008 survey from Blessing White (The State of Employee Engagement) asked 7,500 employees on four continents about how much they trust their managers and senior managers.  The results suggested that 47% strongly disagreed, disagreed or had no opinion about their trust in senior leaders in their organization but only 15% reported the same level of indifference or mistrust with their manager.

I think we can all agree that we’d like leaders (and all talent) to possess a high degree of trustworthiness, honesty and integrity.  If only we could figure out the best way to measure and predict these traits in leaders!

A sizeable body of research has accumulated on honesty/integrity assessments and a fairly recent issue of Personnel Psychology contains the fifth in a series of comprehensive reviews on the “state of the art” of testing in this area¹.

In general, integrity and honesty tests can be “overt” (e.g., theft attitudes and admissions of wrongdoing) or “covert” (typically personality based assessments attempting to get at underlying traits and qualities that might predict dishonesty, counterproductive work behavior, etc.).

Four highlights of this wonderful update are worth noting:

1. Honesty/Integrity Assessments Do Predict Counterproductive Behavior: More research suggests that these tests do a pretty good job of predicting fraud, theft, stealing, absenteeism and even academic cheating.

2. Peers May Be Valuable at Predicting Integrity: Some recent research has found that peer reported integrity correlate with interview ratings of integrity (r = .28).

3. It’s Not too Difficult to Fake Honesty Tests but Not Much Evidence Exists that Candidates Actually Do: One interesting finding in this review is that items rated as more private and invasive are less fakable.

4. Integrity Assessments Tend to Engender More Negative Reactions Than Other Types (e.g., personality, interviews): In previous research, even graphology (handwriting analysis) had a better image but as the authors point out this often cited study might be hard to generalize since it was based on “perceptions” of which selection approach was most favorable.

Implications for Leadership and Talent Management Selection:

1. Maybe more talent management/succession ratings should consider including peer ratings specific to “integrity” of future leaders.

2. Most interview processes don’t add much to predicting future leadership success–they have poor “incremental validity” beyond personality and intelligence (OK, I know everyone uses them anyway) so maybe more time should be spend trying to measure key relationship intelligence and collaboration factors that are negatively associated with counterproductive work behaviors.

3. Double check references and focus on peer ratings for supplementing data you have on “handicapping” leadership success and future performance.

4. Most of the current generation “five factor” personality inventories don’t typically explain much variance in predicting honesty so it’s best to use both an overt personality measure (e.g., “Big 5” assessment) and covert honesty test to do a better job of predicting dishonesty and counterproductive behavior in applicants at all levels. 

5. Newer generation personality inventories can be useful to evaluate other traits and qualities useful to predict performance, retention and postive citizenship behavior².

6. Get to know candidates outside the formal application process and work setting.  The game of “mutual seduction” is pretty compelling and with the current leadership pipeline shortage everyone tells each other what they want to hear.  You learn alot about a person outside the formal selection interviews so take a walk and head to lunch to learn more about their experiences, passions and signature strengths.

If you haven’t heard, a recent study study for the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University found 56 percent of MBA students acknowledged cheating, compared with 54 percent in engineering, 48 percent in education and 45 percent in law school.

Maybe we need to start earlier in the honesty/integrity assessment process…..Be well….

Technorati Tags: interviews, integrity, honesty, counterproductive work behaviors, dishonesty, theft, cheating, absenteeism, performance, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack, Envisia Learning, Envisia, trust, trustworthiness

1. Berry, C., Sackett, P. & Wieman, S. (2007).  A review of recent developments in integrity test research.  Personnel Psychology, 60, 271-301 [↩]
2. Nowack, K. (1997). Personality Inventories: The Next Generation. Performance in Practice, American Society of Training and Development, Winter 1996/97 [↩]

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: Human Sigma: Managing the Employee-Customer Encounter (2007)

Competencies: customer service, leadership, communication skills, empowering others, driving change, strategic planning

Who benefits: employees, customers, organizations’ bottom-line

Consultant Usage: multiple uses in training and consulting, executive coaching

What’s it about? Any professional book with a quote from an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie and references to The Terminator School of Management on the first page gets my attention.  The authors raise the question themselves on what is the connection to a book on management.  To tell the truth, I never did get the connection.  But the introduction was still most interesting, so I read on.

I am glad I did. 

And I can give this book my highest recommendation if you are in the customer service business.

I can also give one of my shortest ever reviews: Human Sigma does for customer service quality what Six Sigma did and does for manufacturing quality.

Not that I am quite ready to stop.  Here are some areas of interest covered in the book: (1) Understanding the nature of talent; (2) How employee and customer engagement interact; (3) The five new rules for management; (4) Customer satisfaction – a flawed measurement; and (5) Where employee engagement happens (hence the title to this posting – and it is not a Harlequin moment).  

For a summary or to whet your appetite, you can view a five-minute video clip on YouTube featuring one of the authors and a dead raccoon.  Yes, a raccoon.  And the raccoon story is either terribly funny or terribly sad.  But at least watch the video to that point! 

Did I mention that Human Sigma has a major impact on the company’s bottom line?

Catch you next week.

Technorati Tags: customer service, six sigma, human sigma, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, rules for management, bottom line, bill bradley, william bradley,   bradley

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

Albert Einstein

It’s no secret that leaders have inflated views of their skills and competence–we’ve known this for a long time as it’s a consistent finding in all 360-degree feedback research¹.  What is simply amazing is the gap between self-perception and reality.

In general, leaders seem to perceive that they basically “walk on water” while others who have a pretty fair grasp of what leaders really do experience them more as “passing water.”  At least that’s what some recent surveys tend to suggest.

It has been estimated that 65%-75% of the employees in any given organization report that the worst aspect of their job is their immediate boss. In fact, estimates of the base rate for managerial incompetence in corporate life range from 30% to 75% with the average level of poor leadership hovering at about 50%².

A recent 2007 global survey (Executive Quiz March 2007) of executives and leaders by Korn/Ferry involving respondents from over 70 countries revealed that only 27% thought their boss was peforming the job better than they could! In this survey, 11% rated the performance of their current boss as “poor”, 14% rated it as “below average” and 23% rated it as “average” (42% did perceive their manager as either performing “above average” or “excellent”).

In another recent 2006 national survey of of 1,854 U.S. by Rasmussen reports, 92% of leaders surveyed rated themselves to be “excellent” or “good” as a manager.  Self confidence is fine you say but only 67% of direct reports agreed and at least 10% rated their bosses as actually performing poorly. 

In practice mental health professionals tend to diagnose thoughts and beliefs as “delusional” when they appear unusual, create strong psychological distress, or become an obsession–even when there is compelling evidence to the contrary. This “no clue” gene can be found in both male and female leaders but does seem to be more pronounced as leaders move up the corporate hierachy. One way of defining an aspect of “emotional intelligence” is the accurate awareness and insight of one’s own skills, strengths and impact on others (we actually have an index of this in our 360 feedback reports)

Over the years of giving 360-feedback reports to executives, I can’t tell you how many “over-estimators” tend to shoot the messenger, critque the assessment itself or explain away the more critical results by suggesting that the raters are the problem!  Indeed, even at my best as an executive coach I have always seen my role as being a very “imperfect mirror” for the leader to increase their self-awareness. 

In light of the delusions of leaders, perhaps I shouldn’t be so outspoken about executive coaches being paid for the process, rather than, the outcome of the intervention. 

I bet you didn’t know that in another recent poll that 80% of all drivers in the United States rate their driving skills as above average?  So, please let me know when you are out on the road will you?…..Be well….

Technorati Tags: self-ratings, distortion, self-awareness, multi-rater feedback, 360 feedback, self-insight, emotional intelligence,   kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack, Envisa Learning, Envisia, self-enhancement, Johari Window, blind spots, derailment

1. Nowack, K. (1992). Self-assessment and rater-assessment as a dimension of management development. Human Resources Development Quarterly, 3, 141-155 [↩]
2. Hogan, R. & Kaiser, R. (2005).  What we know about leadership. Review of General Psychology. 9 (2), 169-180 [↩]

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: Finance and Accounting for the non-Financial Manager

Competencies: financial management, self-development

Who benefits: upwardly mobile non-financial employees, consultants to executives and managers

Consultant Usage: coaching referrals, consultant self-development

What’s it about?  Last week I discussed using this site for review of literature and other sources related to competencies.  In summary, some competencies every reader needs; others are specific, narrow and only needed by a few.  Today I am taking a middle road.  I want to offer a few thoughts about financial competencies for those of us who are fiscally challenged. 

If I were offered the opportunity to go back in time and start my career all over, one change I would make for sure is to acquire some financial insight to add to my consultant’s tool bag.  I can’t tell you how many times I had to “fake it” or plead ignorance when involved in the business end of business.  I didn’t realize until late in the game how much more effective I would have/could have been if I had been financially savvy.

The best course would, of course, been a course.  For those of you who would like to profit (“profit” – get it?) from my mistakes and consider yourself upwardly mobile, here are four of the best-known seminars on finance for the novice. 

If you are in the East, probably the most respected (and definitely one of the most expensive) is the 5-day program at Wharton and the University of Pennsylvania.  Finance and Accounting for the Non-Financial Manager teaches how financial data is generated and reported, as well as how it is used for decision making, analysis, and valuation

If you are in the Mid-West, the University of Michigan, Ross School of Management offers a 5-day program Finance for the Nonfinancial Manager: The basics of finance and accounting.  The course description says in part that this “program develops your financial analysis capabilities to improve communication with people in financial areas, contribute to financial decisions, and better understand financial statements and the impact of strategic decisions on shareholder value.”

On the West Coast, Stanford University offers one of the best 5-day programs, Finance and Accounting for the Nonfinancial Executive, and it certainly has one of the best descriptions complete with incentives: “Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow, ratio, variable, EVA, LIFO, FIFO — for many executives, the terms of accounting and finance seem like a foreign language. What do these terms mean and how do they relate to your role in your organization? How do your decisions affect your organization’s profitability? Most important, how can you utilize these concepts to become a greater asset to your company.”

If you are in Southern California and want a little shorter version, try USC’s 3-day Understanding Finance and Accounting.

One final thought.  These are some of the few courses you can ask your boss to go to and impress the boss.  What (excellent) boss doesn’t want her/his employees to understand the business end of business better?

If you are not in the mood for a seminar or workshop, you can always read up on the subject.  I suggest you take a look at one of these two books: Finance And Accounting For Nonfinancial Managers: All The Basics You Need to Know (2003) or The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course In Finance for Non-Financial Managers (2004).  The first is an easier read; the second is more text book. 

And if you do read one of these books, make sure you casually mention to the boss that you did read said book and are a whole lot more money smart as a result.  Let no hard work go unnoticed!

Catch you next week.

Technorati Tags: financial programs, finance and accounting for the non-financial managers, financial books, income statements, balance sheets, cash flow, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley