BNET1

• The Find: If Malcolm Gladwell is right and cockiness caused the financial crisis, than Business Insider thinks the bailout only made Wall Street’s problems worse.
• The Source: John Carney writing on Business Insider.

The Takeaway: Easy reading author and popular idea man Malcolm Gladwell’s latest piece for the New Yorker is bound to stir up debate in the business blogosphere with its conclusion that the real cause of the currently unfolding financial crisis was overconfidence on Wall Street. On Business Insider today Malcolm mania is already having its effect and Carney weighs in, suggesting that if Gladwell is right (and Carney thinks he is), than the bailout only made matters worse.  (more…)

• The Find: Of all the times it’s a good idea to be likable, interviews probably top the list, so here are ten ways you can spoil your first impression.
• The Source: A guest post by Jonathan Littman and Marc Hershon, authors of I Hate People!, on blog Punk Rock HR.

The Takeaway: Littman and Hershon have received a lot of great buzz for their new book (including here on BNET1), which outlines how to deal with problem people at work without sapping your own energy. Now they’re applying their knowledge of annoying office workers to aid job hunters by outlining ten simple ways to make sure an interviewer hates you – avoid. (more…)

Older managers in their 40s and 50s may be hardest hit by the recession, but that doesn’t mean they’re simply caving in to the pressure of one of the toughest job markets in years. In fact, if the flood of comments that came in from last week’s post on older managers and the slump is to be believed, they’re coming up with innovative solutions and supporting each other all the way. (more…)

• The Find: In business, as in life, we all make mistakes, but you shouldn’t mess up your apology as well.
• The Source: An interview with John Kador, communications expert and author of Effective Apology: Mending Fences, Building Bridges, and Restoring Trust on the website of Tom Peters.

The Takeaway: Humans are imperfect creatures and mistakes are inevitable, but in business how should you handle them? Your mother would probably find that an obvious question: if you messed up, than you should apologize. But Kador has another reason managers should own up to their missteps: “individuals who report that they tend to apologize make more money, and individuals who report that they are reluctant to apologize make less money.” Now that you’re convinced, how do you apologize the right way? (more…)

• The Find: Each economic crisis is different and experts argue that the current slump may be particularly brutal on managers in their 40s and 50s.
• The Source: An in-depth article from Knowledge@Wharton.

The Takeaway: As Tolstoy famously observed, “happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” and perhaps the same can be said of happy and less than happy economic times. Each recession is unique and has distinct causes and victims. For the latest downturn Knowledge@Wharton has identified one particularly hard-hit group: managers in their 40s and 50s. (more…)

• The Find: You don’t have to be “a jump-on-the-desk-and-shout-at-the-troops type of person” to be an excellent leader, argues one long-time manager.
• The Source: John Hollon writing on The Business of Management blog.
  

The Takeaway: When Wendy Kopp, the founder and CEO of Teach for America, recently told the New York Times that when she goes out to find new teachers, what she’s looking for is “not necessarily charisma,” the comment caught Hollon’s eye. Why? (more…)

• The Find: Employees love flexible working, but managers are duty bound to ensure accountability: here are three ways to make sure your team stays productive wherever and whenever they work.
• The Search: Ashley Acker writing on the blog Cube Rules.

The Takeaway: Your employees may be clamoring for a results-only work environment and the right to wear Bermuda shorts in the office or come in when they please, and hey, just because you’re a manager, doesn’t mean you’re not a nice guy. You want happy employees, but you also want accountable, productive employees. So how can you keep track of your team even if you give them free rein to work when and how they please? Acker has three suggestions. (more…)

• The Find: One veteran energy observer insists we’re going to have to break our addiction to oil sooner rather than later and suggests seven real world ways we can move away from fossil fuels.
• The Source: Energy analyst Chris Nelder writing on Business Insider’s Green Sheet.

The Takeaway: One year ago oil was $145 a barrel and as the New York Times notes today, prices may be down but worryingly for business volatility sure isn’t, and if Nelder is to be believed, that’s likely to continue to be the case going forward. Why? Nelder doesn’t pull any punches to avoid alarming readers, saying (more…)

• The Find: It’s summer and companies everywhere are awash in interns, but one blog warns against reflexively giving these eager, young workers the keys to your company’s social media presence.
• The Source: Church of the Customer Blog.

The Takeaway: When my colleague Stefan Deeran recently suggested putting your summer interns to work on social media projects, many of you gave his advice a hearty thumbs up. The idea makes sense as many Gen Yers are already social media veterans and may be far more tech-savvy than more experienced co-workers, but Church of the Customer reminds us that just because your interns may be confident with Twitter and Facebook that doesn’t mean you should hand over the reins to your youngest team members. (more…)

• The Find: Chris Anderson’s new book Free is raising a firestorm of commentary from the likes of Malcolm Gladwell and Seth Godin, and today Mark Cuban weighs in, arguing that accepting free content is different from accepting freely distributed content.
• The Source: Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban’s response to the furor surrounding Anderson’s Free on Blog Maverick.

The Takeaway: Malcolm Gladwell put the smack down on Chris Anderson, the prophet of Free, in the New Yorker this week, kicking up a frenzy of defense and rebuttal online, including a piece from Seth Godin entitled “Malcolm is wrong.” Gladwell pokes holes in Anderson’s contention that “information wants to be free,” pointing out that while the cost of content itself may now be close to zero, when the distribution is considered as well as the huge volume of ideas we consume, the costs amount to many hundreds of millions a dollars a year (”YouTube’s bandwidth costs in 2009 will be three hundred and sixty million dollars.”) He also points out that YouTube, that paragon of the free future, lost so much money last year that, if it were a bank, it would be eligible for TARP funds. (more…)