Right Attitudes

Virus on iPods: Apple blames Microsoft Windows

October 20, 2006 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

On Wednesday, Apple’s iPod support website acknowledged that a small number of video iPods were infected with a Windows virus. In addition to describing the scale of infection and providing instructions to remove the virus, the website blamed Microsoft Windows for the glitch.

“As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it.”

Apple’s “114,000 viruses? Not on a Mac” advertisements have lately targeted Windows users to ‘Get a Mac’. Presumably, someone at Apple [AAPL] believed that blaming Microsoft Windows for viruses on the iPod could extend its ‘Get a Mac’ campaign. The outcome is a cheap shot at the competition.

The iPods were apparently infected with the virus at one of Apple’s contract manufacturers. There is no reason for Apple to be “upset” at Microsoft for not being more hardy against such viruses.” Microsoft [MSFT] has invested significant resources (money and talent) fighting hackers and improving its software development process. As Jonathan Poon of the Microsoft virus-scanning group pointed out on his blog, Apple should blame its own manufacturing system.

“It’s not a matter of which platform that the virus originated. The fact that it’s found on the portable player means that there’s an issue with how the quality checks, specifically the content check was done.”

Apple should also blame hackers, who were creative enough to get malicious code embedded on an Apple product while it was connected to a Windows machine on Apple’s manufacturing line.

The take-away lessons: (1) possess a healthy respect for the competition, and, (2) blaming the competition without cause constitutes poor taste.

Overcoming the Temptation to Please

October 18, 2006 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

You can close more business in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you.
– Dale Carnegie

We desire that people around us like us; we yearn for their respect and affection. We depend on the choices these people make: be it in a job interview with a corporate recruiter, a performance review with a boss or a project delegation meeting with a team member. Clearly, the more likeable we are, the more people are ‘on our side,’ and therefore, the more likely they will make decisions in our favor.

Doing what others want to gain their approval regardless of the merit of their wants is, therefore, a temptation. Companies are tempted to pursue short-term profit-enhancing strategies to satisfy stock market expectations. Politicians are tempted to devise welfare schemes to help garner votes in an upcoming election. A professional is tempted to please the boss by agreeing to everything the boss asks.

We need to be tough-minded—we need to base our decisions and actions on facts, not personal inclinations. It takes courage and discipline to resist the lure of pleasing others. Making an objective decision that is unfavorable for a requester may disappoint him/her; however, a candid explanation of the rationale behind the choice often appeases the requestor. Being tough-minded does not mean being inflexible or insensitive. Being tough-minded involves doing what is just and right after careful consideration of procedures and people.

I encourage you to reflect on your actions and decisions by asking yourselves if you make these choices to please other people or if you make these choices based on the virtue of facts. Improving your likability should be a wish and not a goal.

Inspirational Quotations #138

October 15, 2006 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

In doing your work in the great world, it is a safe plan to follow a rule I once heard on the football field: Don’t flinch, don’t fall; hit the line hard”.”
—Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)

Where you end up isn’t the most important thing. It’s the road you take to get there. The road you take is what you’ll look back on and call your life.
—Tim Wiley

When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.
—John M. Richardson, Jr.

A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him.
—Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

Luck is a loser’s excuse for a winner’s success.
—Unknown

If you listen, you will hear. If you look, you will see. If you touch, you will feel. If you try, you will be.
—Becky Stanford

Luck is a loser’s excuse for a winner’s effort and commitment. Failure doesn’t happen unless you allow it.
—Anonymous

Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.
—Robert Frost (American Poet)

My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was less competition there.
—Indira Gandhi (Indian Head of State)

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.
—Soren Kierkegaard (Danish Philosopher, Theologian)

Inspirational Quotations #137

October 8, 2006 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader)

Get a good idea and stay with it. Dog it, and work at it until it’s done right.
—Walt Disney (American Entrepreneur)

Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.
—Kurt Vonnegut (American Novelist)

People love others not for who they are, but for how they make them feel.
—Irwin Federman

The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.
—Elie Wiesel (Romanian-born American Writer)

^Challenge^ The challenge is not to win, but to conquer the fear. It is not the other people you have to beat, it is your self.
—Herman Melville (American Novelist)

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.
—Mark Twain (American Humorist)

There are times when a man should be content with what he has, but never with what he is.
—William George Jordan (American Essayist)

Respect for Employees: Cases from RadioShack and Northwest Airlines

October 6, 2006 By Nagesh Belludi

Lisa Haneberg wrote about RadioShack [RSE] laying off 400 workers and informing them of the decision via email. Lisa’s Management Craft blog article records her thoughts on this choice.

Human resources… People are not just resources like computer systems and Post It notes. Our employees, all of them, even the underperforming ones who ought to be let go, are our partners. They are our business family. Even when it is the right thing to do to let someone go, we need to remember that they are important partners. How we leave a relationship is just as important as how we enter into it.

‘101 Ways to Save Money’

Northwest Airlines terminal at Detroit Metropolitan Airport This reminds me of another instance of careless mistakes at Northwest Airlines. The company, currently operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, is considering additional layoffs and pay cuts for employees.

A few weeks ago, a booklet distributed to likely-to-be-laid-off ground workers is reported to have advised them on saving money: “don’t be shy about pulling something you like out of the trash” and “take a date for a walk along the beach or in the woods” along with more sensible tips like “brown bag your lunch” and “refinance your mortgage.” See the full list of ‘101 Ways to Save Money’ here.

Irrespective of the organizational and financial state of the company, including tips such as the above in employee communication is careless, insensitive and insulting to the dignity of the workers, especially when they are candidates for potential layoffs. An appropriate supervisory review of this publication prior to release could have easily avoided the bad publicity and ill will that this incident generated.

As alluded to every year in Fortune magazine’s ranking of the ‘best companies to work for’ in America, employees’ attitudes towards their organizations have a profound effect on the performance of companies. Further, better performance leads to higher morale among the employees; this results in a virtuous cycle of company performance and employee morale. The primary means of achieving high employee morale is by co-creating a corporate culture that instills a sense of ownership through empowerment, trust and fair treatment, by instilling pride for personal and organizational achievements and by providing adequate opportunities for personal and career growth.

Interviewing Candidates: Stale Questions Get Stale Answers

October 4, 2006 By Nagesh Belludi 1 Comment

One of my former lab mates, who has been interviewing for a job, recently remarked that her interviews are typically boring because interviewers tend to ask identical questions.

The main objective of an interview is to discover more about a candidate’s credentials and objectives to see whether the candidate is a good fit for an available position. An interviewer who asks cliché questions or uses tired language typically leads a dull question-and-answer session. He/she loses the attention of the candidate and fails to acquire comprehensive information about the candidate.

Avoid cliché questions

Job seekers have access to a number of books and websites that describe canned ‘best’ responses to the most popular interview questions. One response to the oft-asked “What are your weaknesses?” question is the predictable “I work too hard and ignore my social life.” Avoid old standby questions and ask incisive questions that make the candidate think.

Instead of “Do you like your boss?”, ask “What do you think your boss’s weaknesses are? How do you complement her weaknesses and support her responsibilities?”
Instead of “Tell me about yourself?”, ask “What aspects of your upbringing have contributed to your success at your current position as the leader of the risk management group?”
Instead of “Why does a career in sales interest you?”, ask “Can you name a few salesmen you admire? Over the years, what aspects of their talents have you incorporated in your sales approach?”

Personalize the questions

To whatever extent possible, review a candidate’s résumé ahead of the interview and customize the discussion. Frame your questions to relate to the candidate’s experiences: “In you résumé, you mention that you led a team of technicians that worked during the weekends to meet an important deadline. Why do you think they cooperated with you and agreed to work during the weekends?”

Relate to the responses

Relate to one or two of the candidate’s responses by mentioning your own experiences: “I once had a customer who …”. Resist the temptation to start a conversation, empathize or add value to the candidate’s response. Be brief. Avoid talking too much about yourself.

Use a fresh tone of voice

On occasion, you may be required to interview several candidates in succession, e.g. while filling multiple positions or in a college recruiting session. After talking to a few candidates, your chosen set of questions may start to sound jaded due to repetition. Watch your tone of voice when asking questions; convey enthusiasm for the candidate’s details and engage in a lively conversation.

Maintain good rapport

Interviewers often over-indulge in note-taking by recording minor details of a candidate’s responses and interpretation of these responses. Although the candidate welcomes the occasional respite from visual attention, too much note-taking can have a distancing effect. Record just an outline or use a graphical note-taking technique, e.g. mind mapping. Review this outline immediately after the interview and add details you want to capture for later review or a consensus meeting.

Pair up with a colleague

Conduct a tandem interview if possible; alternate asking questions and taking notes with the colleague. While one person takes notes, the other person can ask follow-up questions and maintain a rapport with the candidate.

Conclusion

The primary challenge for an interviewer is to see beyond the veneer of the candidate’s carefully-crafted résumé, on-the-surface details of past responsibilities and often well-rehearsed responses to interview questions. A lively conversation is essential to elicit thoughtful, candid responses and enable the interviewer to make an educated decision on the candidate.

Inspirational Quotations #136

October 2, 2006 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.
—Henry David Thoreau (American Philosopher)

Good, Better, Best.
Never rest till good be better.
And better be best!
—Harvey Mackay

You should be ambitious and achieve them. You should never start with a small aim. Your aim determines the nature of your accomplishments. If you are not ambitious enough, you shall not get enough to eat.
—Subhashita Manjari

When we are conscious of our personal uniqueness and our universal nature we express ourselves creatively. In this way we fulfill our dreams and our life purpose.
—Andrew Schneider

Admit your errors before someone else exaggerates them.
—Andrew V. Mason

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.
—Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.
—Andrew Grove (Hungarian-born American Businessperson)

If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader.
—Dolly Parton

Each of us is meant to have a character of our own, to be what no other can exactly be, and do what no other can exactly do.
—William Ellery Channing

Performance Management: What is Forced Ranking?

September 27, 2006 By Nagesh Belludi 4 Comments

Reader Sriram from Chennai (India) asks,

A multinational recently acquired our 35-employee software testing company. Our personnel department sent an email on how this purchase affects us. The email mentioned a new forced ranking system for performance evaluation. Can you describe this system?

Every organization needs a formal approach to track individual contributions and performance against organizational goals and to identify individual strengths and opportunities for improvement. Typically, this system involves placing employees along a performance curve or classifying employees into categories of percentiles for performance.

Bell curve for forced ranking / performance management

Jack Welch, General Electric’s former CEO, is often associated with a 20-70-10 distribution: the top 20 percent is rewarded for best performance, the middle 70 percent is rated ‘average’ and the bottom 10 percent is coached for improvement. The ‘rank-and-yank’ system, also associated with Jack Welch, automatically terminates employees in the bottom category, allowing organizations to purge the worst performers.

Although an individual’s supervisor conducts the formal performance review discussion, management higher-ups assign the individual’s ranking following debates on performances of comparable individuals from across the organization. Often, these higher-ups are not knowledgeable enough of an individual’s performance. An individual’s ranking then depends on the supervisor’s willingness to fight on behalf of the individual. The ranking is ‘forced’ because an individual may be ranked in a lower category regardless of whether the direct supervisor (and hence the most knowledgeable reviewer) would have rated the individual that way on his/her own.

In intent, the forced ranking system is an excellent method for rewarding top performers and setting specific deadlines for improvement for poor performers. Despite its appeal, the system has several drawbacks. For instance, the system promotes individual performance over teamwork and often leads to dissatisfaction among ‘average’ and poor performers. In my opinion, most of this dissatisfaction stems from poor administration of the system at the ground level. I will cover this in another blog article.

Inspirational Quotations #135

September 24, 2006 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Real solutions are discovered only where they actually exist within the individual’s own essence.
—Vernon Howard

Fear not for the future, weep not for the past.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (English Poet)

The achievement of your goal is assured the moment you commit yourself to it.
—Mack R. Douglas

You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.
—Beverly Sills (American Singer)

To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
—Bessie Anderson Stanley (American Poet)

The principle is competing against yourself. It’s about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before.
—Steve Young

Public sentiment will come to be, that the man who dies rich dies disgraced.
—Andrew Carnegie (Scottish-American Industrialist, Philanthropist)

Inspirational Quotations #134

September 18, 2006 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
—Langston Hughes (American Novelist)

Two things fill the mind with ever increasing wonder and awe. The more often and the more intensely the mind of thought is drawn to them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me. Morality is not properly the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.
—Immanuel Kant (Prussian German Philosopher)

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.
—Maya Angelou (American Poet)

If you know something, it is in your head. When you believe something, it is in your heart.
—Unknown

Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: “What are you doing for others?”
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Count no day lost in which you waited your turn, took only your share and sought advantage over no one.
—Robert Brault

Enjoyment is not a goal; it is a feeling that accompanies important ongoing activity.
—Paul Goodman

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
—Unknown

I am never a failure until I begin blaming others.
—Anonymous

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‘101 Ways to Save Money’

Avoid cliché questions

Personalize the questions

Relate to the responses

Use a fresh tone of voice

Maintain good rapport

Pair up with a colleague

Conclusion

Wondering what to read next?

Wondering what to read next?