BNET1

• 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…)

• The Find: 99 percent of the time at work as elsewhere the best policy is honesty, but one author explains there are a few select scenarios where a white lie is appropriate.
• The Source: Nicole Williams author of Girl on Top (yes, this is a business book) writing on the Huffington Post.

The Takeaway: When it comes to explaining yourself and your goals at work your knee jerk reaction should certainly be well-polished honesty (though not, of course, over-sharing). But Williams, author of several books aimed at young, ambitious career women, asserts that not every occasion calls for the truth and lays out five scenarios in which she gives you permission to tell a productive fib. (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: 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: In an empathetic post one blogger offers employees looking to get through the crisis four ways to focus on helping their stressed out managers rather than obsessing about their own worries.
• The Source: Anita Bruzzese writing on Cube Rules.

The Takeaway: Actors suffering from self-consciousness are sometimes told to focus on their co-stars to take their attention off their nerves and boost their performance. This week author Bruzzese offers some similar advice for workers who are stressing about getting out of this recession with their jobs: it’s not all about you. (more…)

• The Find: Building relationships is a key business skill, but if you’re a leader who failed to learn the basics of creating lasting and trusting friendships in elementary school, one book aims to offer a refresher course.
• The Source: Keith Ferrazzi, CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight and best-selling author discusses his latest book Who’s Got Your Back: The Breakthrough Program to Build Deep, Trusting Relationships That Create Success—and Won’t Let You Fail with blogger and venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki on the American Express Open Forum blog.

The Takeaway: Business may be all about relationships, but when some of us think about these connections, our minds go more towards the realm of networking, where getting to know someone often ends up being more about identifying what you can do for them and what they can do for you. That sort of connection may sometimes be useful, but it’s not the essential one for success, argues Ferrazzi. Instead, he recommends a back to basics approach, advocating actual relationships with three or more true friends who will tell you the truth and loyally have your back. (more…)

• The Find: Being out of work doesn’t have to mean a yawning gap in your resume; one blog is offering ten ways to demonstrate your worth and keep your skills sharp while you’re out of work.
• The Source: A recent post on blog Business Pundit.

The Takeaway: Gaps on a resume can be off putting to hiring managers, with recent research revealing that in as little as six months, unemployment starts to carry a serious stigma with prospective employers. But if you’ve been out of work for four or five months and are rapidly approaching the point where the unaccounted for time starts to hurt your chances of getting hired, you shouldn’t panic. As Business Pundit points out there are things you can do to keep your skills sharp and your resume current. Here are ten: (more…)

• The Find: When a new member brings a different perspective to an existing group, perceived productivity may go down, but actual productivity goes up, research concludes.
• The Source: A round-up on research on groups and diversity in the June 2009 Stanford Knowledgebase.

The Takeaway: If you’re a manager with a team that gets on well together, humming along finishing their work without a lot of fuss, you should keep quiet, not interfere and be thankful, right? Not if what you’re aiming for is creativity suggests recent research co-authored by Stanford’s Margaret Neale. Her work suggests that instead, managers looking for innovative thinking from their teams should stir the pot by adding new members.  (more…)

• The Find: Your performance is probably better than you’re getting credit for due to these five commonly made mistakes that may make you seem less productive than you really are.
• The Source: The blog Cube Rules.

The Find: When that time of year rolls around again and you sit down with your supervisor to go over your accomplishments, it may seem like an exercise in under appreciation. You know how much you’ve done and you thought you made your successes clear to upper management, but your boss seems to think your performance lacked punch. What went wrong and, more importantly, how can you fix it before next year’s performance review? (more…)

• The Find: Two heads are not always better than one says an INSEAD professor who has studied collaboration and productivity for 15 years.
• The Source: Research from INSEAD professor Morten Hansen explained in INSEAD Knowledge.

The Takeaway: Most managers encourage collaboration, and why not? Two (or more) brains puzzling out a problem and bringing their separate expertise to bear on an issue has to be better than one person alone in an office, right? Wrong – at least sometimes – says Hansen. As an example of collaboration gone wrong he cites Sony’s efforts to come up with a music player that could compete with the iPod: (more…)