It is Not the Market, it is Your Competitors

With demand for staffing, executive search and services/solutions in decline, growth cannot be achieved by growing "on pace with the market." To retain market share and grow, even in a difficult economy, taking business from competitors is essential. To sell effectively against competitors, you may find the following article interesting and helpful.

Profiling Your Competitors
by BNET Editorial

To pull ahead of your business competitors, you need to build a detailed profile of their strengths, weaknesses, and relationships with customers. With that information, you can compare the performance of your business with that of your main competitors, measuring factors that are important to quality of service, and use the comparison as the basis for performance improvement.

Competitor information can be obtained from many different sources, starting with what your competitors say on their own Web sites and in their brochures and annual reports about their capabilities, resources, and plans. You can find information about competitors in the press, trade publications, industry surveys, and on the Internet.

What You Need to Know
Who are my competitors?
Depending on the size of your company and the products or services you offer, you probably already know your competition—from advertising, trade shows, or even your customers. Never assume, however, that you know everything you should know about the competition. Who else is offering what you offer? Many products and services could be classed as non-essential and so customers may be choosing to spend their discretionary budget between two very different market sectors. Are you losing business that way? Is a larger company hurting your business by giving away a competing service as a promotion device? Always be alert to the different ways that others could be taking business away.

Why is competitor intelligence so important?
You need to understand what competitors are offering so you can offer at least as much to customers. Your marketing campaigns or product launches can be affected by what your competitors may be doing at the same time, so learning what you can about their plans is important. You also need to be aware if a competitor is threatening to take away your important accounts. Unless you monitor competitor activity and take appropriate action, your business faces an unknown risk.

Should we use an independent research company, or conduct the research internally?
You can conduct the research internally, provided you or your staff has the time. Much of the source material is in the public domain, so you should be able to obtain it yourself. Don’t overlook the wealth of information you already have in your company or can gain through your own contacts. If you wish to research customer attitudes toward your company versus your competition, you may need to use an independent research organization. Customers may not be completely honest with your own representatives.

How reliable is published competitor information?
Use your critical thinking skills to assess the accuracy and quality of any published information that is used for research. Make sure the information you find is current and that it comes from reliable sources.

What to Do
Identify Your Competitors
Competitor information helps you to identify how you can gain a larger share of the business from your competitors and how to protect the business you have.

Ask yourself:

How many competitors do you have?

Do they compete directly or indirectly?

Who are your major competitors—those that threaten to take away your most important customers?

How much of your business do these competitors threaten?

Quantifying the threat helps you to prioritize your own activities.

Where are your main competitors located?

How do they compare in size (to your company and to one another)?

Are they growing?

How do your products compare with your competitors’ offerings? Think about price, methods and quality of distribution, brand image and reputation, service quality etc.

What are customers’ attitudes toward your competitors and toward your own company?

Can you (or your customers) identify any weaknesses in your competitors?

Who are your competitors’ main customers?

Which of your customers might switch to your competitors, and why?

Which of your competitors’ customers do you want to win?

How strong are your competitors’ relationships with key customers or key decision makers?

How long have they been dealing with them?

Have your competitors invested in links with customers that would make it difficult for other suppliers to make inroads?

Does your company have the skills and resources to overcome the competitive threat?

Compare Your Key Competitive Factors
Listed below are a number of factors that are important to meeting customer needs. On a scale of 1 to 10 (where 10 is the best in the market), how does your company rate? Consider each factor carefully, then use your results as the basis for a program of performance improvement. Emphasize the things that matter to your customers rather than to your own opinions:

Evidence of an excellent service culture, for example, problems quickly resolved by frontline staff rather than referring customers to higher-level managers

High levels of after-sales service and support offered

Product adapted readily to meet customer specifications

Evidence of commitment to quality measurements, for example, measurements from your industry

Commitments made to customers—for example, offering money-back guarantees or precise delivery schedules

Evidence of feedback encouraged—for example, comment forms or toll-free telephone number made widely available

Flexible approach to pricing, such as the use of price incentives or financing plans to appeal to different types of customers

Willingness to negotiate prices for important customers

Staff knowledgeable about the product and willing to use knowledge to help customers

Good reputation with agents, distributors, and other intermediaries

Overall good reputation with employees as well as customers

Make Use of Your Sales Force
By talking to customers, your company’s sales representatives can find out about competitors’ direct sales calls, marketing campaigns, special offers, and new developments. They can obtain similar information from retailers or distributors. Crucially, they can get a feel for the customers’ awareness and attitude toward your competitors.

Monitor a Variety of Public Sources
You can learn a great deal about your competitors from their own public information: corporate brochures, annual reports, and exhibitions. Check your competitors’ Web sites frequently for updates on their products, plans, and capabilities as well as any customer case studies or news releases that may be posted on the site.

Monitor trade publications (many are available on the Internet) and the general press for useful information about your competitors. You may have the staff resources to maintain a file of press clippings on your competition, or you may wish to hire a clipping service to gather material for you.

Look for published results of industry surveys, which can provide useful insights into your entire market as well as your competitors.

Analyze Competitors’ Promotional Activities
By monitoring your competitors’ advertising, promotions, exhibition presence, press activities, and Internet information, you can assess their strategies. These are some of the possible scenarios:

Heavy advertising expenditure could indicate a competitor trying to win greater share or attempting to remedy losses in that market

Price promotions may indicate that your competitors want to be perceived as value-for-money suppliers, or they may be an emergency response to declining sales

Press announcements about new production facilities could indicate that your competitors are trying to increase their business significantly

They may become more cost-effective and able to offer lower prices, or may be taking on additional overhead that they must finance

Announcements about new branch or dealership openings could mean that competitors are expanding into new territories

Recruitment drives may signal a change in direction, a growth strategy, or a sudden loss of staff

To gain a better idea of your competitors’ financial health, you may be able to obtain information from credit reference agencies

Hire a Research Company
If you do not have the internal resources to monitor competitive activity, you can hire an independent research company to perform all the tasks outlined above. You can also ask the company to survey customers to reveal their attitudes toward your company versus your competitors. Customers may be more willing to discuss their attitudes with an independent researcher than they are with someone from your company.

Consider Benchmarking
Once you have assembled detailed information about your competitors, you can benchmark your performance against theirs. Competently done, benchmarking will give you a baseline assessment of your company’s effectiveness in the marketplace and some insight into where competitors may be gaining the advantage over you.

What to Avoid
You Overlook the Obvious Sources
Some competitor intelligence is freely available from the Internet, the press, and other public sources and—most important—from your staff, your customers, and your competitors themselves. Information from these sources can provide a valuable starting point for developing detailed competitor profiles.

You Fail to Make Use of Competitor Information
Competitor information is valuable only if you use it to refine your own strategies or take defensive action to protect your business. Simply gathering information without analysis or action is wasteful.

You Act on Incomplete or Out-of-date Information
Be cautious about acting on competitor intelligence until you have as much complete, accurate, up-to-date information as possible. Published sources can provide only a partial picture, and more strategic information is likely to be confidential. This means that you may make incorrect assumptions in planning your response to competitor action.

Starting a New Job

So you finally made it to your new workplace. Now take a deep breath and walk in with a smile on your face. Keep your head up and remember to make eye contact. Be polite and friendly to everyone you encounter, whether it's the receptionist or the mailroom clerk, your colleagues or your new boss. Introduce yourself to those you meet and remember that it's okay to ask questions. People generally like to help others and it usually makes them feel good about themselves.

While it's okay to hold onto some of things you learned in your previous jobs and use that knowledge in your new job, remember that every workplace has it's own way of doing things. Your first few weeks or even months on a job is not the time to change the way things get done. Do not utter these words: "That's not how we did it at my old company." Your colleagues will just be thinking this: "Well, you're not at your old company and if you liked it so much why didn't you stay there."

Here are a few more tips to consider when starting a new job:

Tone down the star quality

It's natural to want to impress your co-workers by sharing all of your terrific ideas right away. Resist that impulse.

Most colleagues will be threatened by your new ideas and will reflexively shoot them down.
Why? Because a) they're new ideas, and b) they're yours.

Remember, your co-workers thought they were doing pretty well before you showed up.

Instead, win over your new officemates by simply doing the job you've been assigned to do as well as you can. Then pick out some easy wins, small accomplishments that won't ruffle anyone's feathers but will further demonstrate your competence.

Maybe there's a nagging problem that everyone means to fix, but no one ever gets around to doing it.

There's your first job. Get a couple of minor accomplishments under your belt, and you'll earn your office's trust. After that, your ideas will be judged on their merits, not on who's proposing them.

Don't be Mr./Ms. Personality

Start slow when you're developing relationships. At the outset, respect is more important than friendship.

Be pleasant, be polite - but check your ebullience at the door. You don't get to make jokes for a while or spout off at meetings - gregariousness in a newcomer can be off-putting. It smacks of trying too hard.

Let your work speak for you. After a few weeks, you'll have built up enough good will to let your true self shine through. Get the inside scoop

Here's the challenge: You want to learn the culture of your new workplace - how things are supposed to work and how they really work because of the idiosyncrasies of co-workers - as quickly as possible, but you don't want to come across as prying.

Start by figuring out which people seem to be plugged in. Then approach them with simple questions about process ("How does Ms. Jones like to be kept informed about Project XYZ?"), steering clear of questions about personalities ("What's Ms. Jones really like?").

Chances are good that knowledgeable co-workers will pepper their responses with both types of info ("Send updates by e-mail, and keep them short - Jones is a real cut-to-the-chase type").

This way you get the information you need without looking like you were angling for it.

Know your boundaries at work

The border separating professional and personal relationships isn't easy to patrol, especially at smaller, informal offices. But conversational boundaries help to determine the reputation of an employee and staff. Simply put, boundaries preserve integrity.

Whether you're a principal, manager or rank-and-file employee, taking the following advice will help to ensure that conversations with co-workers never distract from a productive, positive workplace.

Beware of feeling informal. There's generally no clear rule about where to draw the line, so a good rule of thumb is to avoid issues that might make someone uncomfortable. Such topics of conversation may include romance, physical appearance, health, race, religion and personal finance.

Refrain from gossip. Remember: Those who talk to you about others will also talk about you to others.

Most gossip and other inappropriate conversations occur in places that feel informal, such as elevators, hallways and bathrooms or off-site like parking lots, restaurants. But co-workers should never get the false sense of security that they're off duty in these locations.

It's better to pretend your personal microphone is always on. Don't say something if you don't want it heard or repeated.

Forge office friendships with care. When you're at the office for around 2,000 hours a year, you're bound to develop friendships with co-workers. Some may become confidants with whom you share personal details.

Make sure you know and completely trust this kind of co-worker friend. It's a risk any time someone has knowledge about details you don't want to make public, particularly if co-worker friendships fizzle.

Expect boundary differences. The workplace not only combines people of different backgrounds, ages, talents and skills but also folks of different boundary types.

People with "overdeveloped" boundaries often are brash and don't notice they're sharing too much information, while people with "underdeveloped" boundaries often believe it's not OK to protest such communication.

Getting along at work is often a matter of being flexible and willing to compromise. It's also important to be tolerant of individual differences."

Employ tact. If you have a problem with a co-worker, address what you can do to solve it. Talk to the offending person directly and privately. If a co-worker says something that offends or upsets you, try to respond instead of react.

Talking behind someone's back makes the situation worse. Choose a neutral place away from your work area, such as over lunch or in a quiet area during a break.

Give 'em something to talk about

You don't have to be on your own for long. Determine who the influential people are (they are usually the ones whose opinions other people quote), and find a reason to work with them.

Get on their good side (by being competent, pleasant and professional), and you may find that a whole lot more people have started to warm to your presence.

Think of it as the workplace equivalent of a force multiplier. Get other people to toot your horn. Buzz created by others is far more valuable than buzz you drum up yourself. Ask for help, then take charge

Ask questions when you need information to complete an assignment. It's much preferred that employees admit not knowing something and show initiative in learning it rather than costing time and money by struggling with it on their own.

But asking repeatedly gets annoying. Most managers say they valued someone who can take orders and execute them well without having to be told repeatedly what to do.

What is welcome, however, is the employee who is proactive about figuring out what needs to be done and then doing it. One of the biggest mistakes new recruits can make is to assume that when they have nothing to do that there is nothing to do.

Know the boss

Whether you love or hate your managers matters less than whether you know what they value and what you can do to make them successful.

You need to take initiative to find out what's important to your boss and organization. Your value as an employee is measured by your showing results valued by your organization.

Few bosses are consistent about giving helpful feedback. And often they won't express their displeasure with your performance until it's too late. So, said Hollander, it's okay to say to your boss early on, "it would really help me if you could tell me when you're happy or unhappy with my work."

Cultivate good relationships

Good performance is just one part of your success at work. How you get along with managers, colleagues and subordinates is another.

Perception of performance is often colored by the quality of your relationships. Act like you're running for office. You'll need a vote from everyone. (But please ... don't act too much like you're running for office. There's nothing worse than glad-handing politicians with visions of poll numbers dancing in their heads.)

Humor is a big plus, but only if you have a good sense of when to use it and when not to.

Showing respect helps, too. A boss who acts friendly and casual does not mean to imply that “anything goes” and that you don't need to treat him or her with the proper respect.

And, don't skip the deodorant. Be well groomed, even if casual.

Don't watch the clock

This is not the time to work 9 to 5. Try 8 to 6. There's plenty of time to slack off later in life and the boss will take note.

If you have to stay a little late to meet a deadline or pull some hours on a weekend without being asked, it shows your commitment. It shouldn't be routine without compensation, but here or there it can get noticed.

It goes without saying, do not arrive late, be absent or ask for time off in the first 100-days of employment.

Listen…are you ringing the cash register?

It is easy to get distracted by a “to do” list filled with B, C and D priority items to “clear the way” to concentrating on the A priorities, like driving revenue. The fact is, all lesser pressing items somehow take care of themselves when revenues are rapidly increasing.

Even if pending A priorities seem insurmountable, tackle each top priority items during prime time work hours and chip away, move the ball downfield and press through every day. Save email, administrative and "catch-up" work for after hours.

Instead, reach for the sales opportunity first and make growing, contributing and developing promising new avenues to drive your new organization’s top-line, PRIORITY ONE.

5 Tips to Jump Start Your Career this Year

In our search for top talent, LinkedIn is a resource to Direct Search Alliance, as it is for recruiters nationwide. More importantly, is it a career tool for candidates representing their skills and talents to the online community. As a reader of the LinkedIn Blog, I wanted to share this posting with prospective candidates -- simple but powerful advice.

by Kay Luo - LinkedIn Blog
Here are five resolutions that professionals can make and keep this year, to jump start their career.

1. Build your online brand
Your online image can affect the way other professionals see you, just as much as your offline image. Create your own online professional brand by developing a LinkedIn profile. Make sure to keep information on your professional experience and other relevant information up-to-date. You may be surprised to learn how many recruiting executives use online networks to locate potential candidates. Also, if you're keen on building an impressive professional brand, make sure personal information intended for close friends stays private on the web. You don't want coworkers and potential employers looking at personal photos of your vacations and party shots. If you're curious about who is checking out your online brand, you can use LinkedIn's "Who's Viewed My Profile" feature to find out.

2. Be at the forefront of people's minds
In order to get leads and recommendations through your network, it's important to keep in touch with former colleagues as well as your present circle. LinkedIn allows professionals to remain at the forefront of people's minds by easily and efficiently keeping in touch. Using LinkedIn, it's easy to see who's been promoted, switched jobs, moved, won an award, and more. LinkedIn's InMail messaging system is a perfect way to reach out and keep your connections fresh, without cutting into your personal time.

3. Make smarter decisions
Being a great leader is not always about becoming an expert at everything -- it's really about knowing where to find knowledge and expertise when you need it. The LinkedIn Answers feature allows professionals to quickly and easily solicit input and gain perspective from their own connections or from the broader LinkedIn community. Learn how others approach new markets, revamp processes, and resolve problems. Draw on the collective knowledge of your trusted connections -- and their connections -- and benefit from the experience of others.

4. Prioritize how you spend your time
Everyone understands the importance of time management in today's accelerated workplace environment. Successful people are often sought after with requests from unknown people for meetings, events, speaking engagements, and more. The LinkedIn network can be used to quickly and efficiently check out these contacts and requests before committing. A quick search reveals anyone you might know in common, gives you a capsule impression, and helps you allocate your valuable time wisely. And if you need to prepare for a meeting, the Advanced Search feature can also save time by allowing you to find specialists on almost every topic, industry, or company you want to research.

5. Stay on top of what's going on in your world
If you want to be truly great at what you do, it's essential to stay on top of industry news at all times. LinkedIn News makes it easy for every professional to read the articles they need to read, by leveraging the power of their business connections. It starts by delivering news about key daily topics: a user's company, industry, and competitors, drawn from more than 10,000 publishers and blogs. Then, LinkedIn News uses the wisdom of each user's "crowd" of colleagues to determine the handful of articles that are the most important to their business -- the articles they need to read that day.

"What Can I Do to Help You Now"?

The Annual Economic Analysis released by the American Staffing Association June 2008 shows that, if indeed the U.S. economy is in a recession, the staffing industry is not experiencing the severe contraction characteristic of previous recessions. Despite the fact that demand is slowing, it is important to take into account that total staffing industry sales are $90 billion dollars. Staffing industry employment hit a new annual record high in 2007, and temporary and contract staffing daily employment also set new record highs in the second and third quarters of last year. Presently, the market is 10% ahead of 2000 – a banner year for Staffing – and nearly $30 billion ahead of the historic low of 2002.

There is market share for this period of “flatness," economic “correction” or “downturn,” but not for the cowardly. Those who take on the market’s sluggishness with energy and good judgment, leading actively and by example will prosper even in trying times.

Building a strong growth-sustaining team calls for the time and attention of the business unit manager to maintain a sense of urgency and establish solid work plans that will leverage each team member’s strength. Guidance, support and direction is essential to maximizing team members’ contributions and lift up the capacity of the team. A high level of engagement in training and development, as well as in guiding territory management and lead development is essential to bringing about results.

Business unit managers with the most success in developing strong teams and arranging talents of team members to the discipline in which they belong, direct and support the work flow collectively and individually, as well as contribute personally.

What then are the core best practices of a successful business unit manager?

1. Manage with twice daily meetings to communicate, set responsibilities and priorities. It is wrong to think that stopping “work” to meet as a team is a waste of time. A team with clear priorities and shared information is much more effective than a team “figuring it out on their own.” These are 30-minute meetings – everyone in attendance – with the following agenda items:

Recognition

Candidates for marketing to hiring mangers—who is highly placeable?

Call plans, target lists of hiring authorities—who are you going to call?

Candidate inventory and interview objectives.

Open job orders, next steps and who is responsible for it.

Specific objectives for the day (morning); assessment of outcomes (evening).

Upcoming ends—what business do we need to replace?

Specific, “stretch” objectives for the number of starts to happen within the week—what can we fill?, with whom?, who can we market who to?

Progress to objectives and refocusing all team members based upon current needs (e.g., do we need candidates, job orders, new leads?)

General communication…who may call, what is pending, hot candidates, prospective business—make sure the team knows what is happening.

Role play or planned lesson to foster skills development.

2. Manage the market, inventory and match. The leader must act as the first source of what is “hot” for follow-up to pick up the pace of all team members. The relationship and interplay between oversight of sales and service is leveraged when you can “see” a branch candidate and “match” the candidate to companies the sales team are engaging.

Weekly, review Business Journal, job boards, candidate applications, and expand knowledge of the marketplace with networking, marketing directories and other business resources to garner new leads for the sales team—who is hiring now?

Daily, review every interviewed candidate’s resume/file, meet as many candidates as possible personally—"Is so-and-so a fit for ABC Company”?

3. Manage business development purposefully. Who else but the manager should know the marketplace? Work with self and sales staff at the beginning and the end of the week to review target lists/lead lists/task lists for content, activity and next activity to do. Other sales driving best practices include:

Work together to make up an organizational chart for a minimum of three companies a week to expand the list of Company contacts, set out objectives to uncover missing information.

Ensure that each sales-responsible person has multiple search engines on multiple job boards to receive daily postings for each position the branch is prepared to fill—this will feed lead-following for immediate direct hire job orders. Ad book binders are fine for organizing ads for follow-up calls, but inputting leads to your front office system is better to build future calls plans—monitor use of front office systems so leads are not lost in a paper shuffle.

Set specific “blocked time” to make ad calls, skill marketing calls and qualifying calls to focus sales activity—sell during prime time, research and qualify during specific days/times set aside to develop future targets. Separating the two makes it easier to manage the effectiveness of sales efforts.

Set objectives for the appropriate number of sales calls/visits to support business and take the time to debrief together post-call/visit and plan next steps.

Make a work plan to set time aside for reference check calls—this supports the service team and offers better access to the Company contact who can be qualified as a temporary staffing or direct hire prospect.

Rotate assignment of making up and distributing a “Hot Candidates” communique—monitor and manage quality and growth of email lists.

4. Manage the business of the business. It is up to the leader to plan for maximizing the recruiting team at the beginning of the week to:

Set objectives for individuals’ focus…recruiting, skill marketing, order management—be specific regarding the objectives for the number of fee-eligible candidate and temp interviews in what positions.

Review T-H orders against temporary staffing opportunities to keep from over investing in job orders that, unlike temp, have less of an immediate chance to actually start—maintain a strict 50% of total orders, and…redirect team to actively skill marketing/selling for opportunities.

By the first of the month, ensure that each Recruiter has a minimum of five “viable” direct hire orders in the right skill set—mobilize sales and recruiting teams to generate marketing calls to address any gaps in the number of job orders.

Weekly, have a specific direct hire job order review and discuss what is pending and the next steps to close—communicate with neighboring offices to increase participation.

Step in to talk with candidates and/or Company contacts to assist in closing.

Set specific blocked times to make direct recruiting calls generated from applications/interviews/referrals—ensure a pipeline of leads from recruiting to sales—set up a method to communicate leads in a structured way.

Set objectives for net starts weekly, markup, and “level” of candidates to increase GM$ per hour. To achieve the net starts objective, a 30-day forecast of upcoming ends needs to be visible to the team to set the actual number of starts per week to stay ahead of the progression, including contingencies for unplanned ends. Make up for shortfalls by focusing on placing higher-level, higher-GM$ candidates.

5. Great managers look inward. They look inside the company, into each individual, into the differences in style, goals, needs and motivation of each person. These differences are small, subtle, but great managers need to pay attention to them. These subtle differences guide them toward the right way to release each person's unique talents into performance. Recruit for talent, manage to strengths, hire expeditiously. Manage learning and development at least weekly, if not daily.

Set aside a minimum of 1-hour per week with each employee and talk about: what is expected, what you can do to set him/her up for success, what he/she does best, recognize performance—be specific, genuine and interested; uncover how to make the work meaningful, gain feedback and talk about progress, learning opportunities and how each individual’s contribution fits in the overall company and his/her career progression.

Assign Company training resources to employees and organize opportunities for employees to share learning with the team

Prepare role plays to overcome common objectives—have all team members involved. Listen, and role play with individuals to improve recruiting, negotiation, customer service and closing skills.

Share financial reports to engage the team in the outcomes—demonstrate how increasing markups, direct hire placements/fees and marketing higher-level candidates improves results and personal financial rewards.

Get out of your office and sit side by side with the team and demonstrate best practices…show, not tell.

6. Do not delegate tasks that are not revenue-generating. Support the team with meaningful contributions so they can do their jobs more effectively—individual activity to generate personal production for the good of the branch is useful, but equally important is preparing and focusing each team member by taking responsibility for administrative and operational support to enable the team to expand the business. This is not “lending a hand,” this is “doing” a task completely so the collective bandwidth of the branch team is actively engaged in work that generates gross margin dollars.

Use administrative support to assist you as needed, but do the heavy lifting yourself administratively to ensure that each employee is focused on developing the business. Release the team to “ring the cash register” collectively by doing weekly tasks like payroll and compliance, invoicing and aging, updating and managing all job postings, job board searches—review, print and distribute resumes for blocked recruiting call times.

Drive sales by sourcing new leads that any branch team member can “run with.” Get the details so the next step is to “pick up the phone.” Get names of multiple Company contacts for each lead identified, get contact information (telephone, email address), input new leads to front office system and set them up on team members’ calendar or task list. Generate urgency to follow-up on specific contacts by personally contributing to the database in a meaningful way. Dedicate time to adding Companies/Company contacts in numbers and update Company records that are out of date. If you pass on a lead with good contact information and business intelligence, it is more likely to be followed and create outcomes.

Take up operational tasks (application process items, reference checking, etc.).

Revise/retype resumes for presenting candidates.

Make up handwritten notes to every candidate who comes in the office; prepare marketing mailings.

Run reports to assess business activity and inventory.

Roll out corporate initiatives and respond to corporate response/reporting requirements.

Ask, “What can I do to help you now”?

It’s About People

Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that, if a person is one step away from each person he or she knows and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people he or she knows, then everyone is an average of six "steps" away from each person on Earth. The modern world is shrinking due to this ever-increasing connectedness of human beings. In a “small world,” our actions resonate in wide social and professional circles, broadcasting our persona for all to see.

Mindful of this phenomena, consider the advice of Lillian Eichler Watson “Don't reserve your best behavior for special occasions. You can't have two sets of manners, two social codes - one for those you admire and want to impress, another for those whom you consider unimportant. You must be the same to all people.”

Good business etiquette is about being on your best behavior and treating people as you appreciate being treated.

Stay employed and protect your professional reputation with these best practices:

• Be courteous and thoughtful to the people around you, in all professional environments—within your own organization, out in the marketplace, and even when encountering competitors
• Consider other people’s feelings, stick to your convictions as diplomatically as possible
• Talk and visit with people, regardless of their position or standing—remember what you can about people and to be thoughtful
• If you show respect and courtesy to everyone, you avoid discomfort or damaging your chances in any unexpected turn of events like a merger, acquisition or consolidation that brings together people in unforeseen ways
• Speak well of superiors within and outside the company, and give your leaders the benefit of the doubt—never surprise your boss or take her or her off guard
• In foreign or unfamiliar surroundings, be considerate and express an interest in learning—if in doubt, err on the conservative, formal side
• Don’t interrupt meetings or work sessions with telephone calls, use of electronic devices or ducking out—thank meeting attendants, and when attending meetings offer thanks to the organizer
• Always return calls; with email, remember that you’re communicating with a person, not a computer
• Look after new people and visiting workers—be sure that person has the resources and information that he or she needs to do the job
• Pass along credit and compliments—speak well of your coworkers and always point out their accomplishments
• Arrive on time and don’t overstay your welcome
• Because people make so many assumptions about you based on your image, it's important to think about whom you want them to think you are and dress accordingly
• Lying to and gossiping with people is never acceptable—inflammatory or disrespectful electronic communication can resurface and is best never written
• Poor etiquette loses the sale—speak only kindly to, and with respect to, prospects and clients—comments spoken behind the backs of clientele have a way of coming back around

Work, Success and Charity

Many successful working professionals in better-than-average circumstances believe in shared social responsibility to try to help people in need directly. Some have genuine passion to help because of a personal connection to a cause. Most, at the very least, feel good about helping others. My own social convictions correspond with these sentiments. Regrettably, time to be had to do so often stands in the way of getting personally involved.

The American Time Use Study released June 2007 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics measures the entire population to report the overall distribution of time allocation for society as a whole.

Americans reported that they spend, on average, .13 hours per day dedicated to volunteering (organizational and civic activities). Some of the many reasons for that small measure of time are as follows:

Employed persons worked 7.6 hours on average on the days that they worked—multiple jobholders were about twice as likely to work on an average weekend day as were single jobholders

On an average day, 84 percent of women and 64 percent of men spent 2.2 hours doing household activities, such as housework, cooking, lawn care, or financial and other household management

Adults living in households with children spent 0.8 – 2.0 hours providing primary childcare

People spent, on average, 9.21 hours with personal care activities including sleeping, bathing, dressing, health-related self-care, and personal or private activities

On an average day, nearly everyone age engaged in 5.5 hours of leisure activity, such as watching TV, socializing, or exercising

For those engaged in the labors of work to sustain and better personal and family circumstances, time is indeed precious. To alleviate a guilty conscience respecting community involvement, many elect to give money as an alternative to dedicating “free” time. As reported by the U.S. Census 2000, contributing households donated 2% of personal income to qualified organizations or for out of pocket expenses serving as a volunteer—far less than the 10% ideal standard set by tithing doctrines. Determining the right amount to give is an individual decision as charity by definition is a “gift.” Opinions differ as to how much to give, and whether it is better to give money or volunteer time.

If, however, you are an employees, employer or entrepreneur—take comfort, as it may be argued that work, in and of itself, reconciles disparity with respect to volunteering and contributing. Economic growth caused by capitalism has done considerably more to alleviate poverty and advance standards of living than all government, philanthropy and aid programs combined. It is likely markets will continue to do this for a long time. Increase in the production of goods and services over time is often used as a measure of increased material well-being of the citizenry generated through economic activity.

The beauty of capitalism is that it accomplishes aggregate good through what can be thought of as selfish motives. But it does not put an end to the debate as to the duty for those of us in better circumstances to try to help people and the community directly. Because capitalism and policies that promote them will not take care of everything, charity is neither a waste of time nor money.

Managing Middlescence

Key ideas from the Harvard Business Review article by Robert Morison, Tamara Erickson, Ken Dychtwald

Burned out. Bottlenecked. Bored. That’s the current lot of many midcareer employees—those 35 to 54 years of age. Thirty percent of these middlescents work 50+ hours per week, while only 33% feel energized by their jobs. And many lament that their workplace offers few opportunities to try new things.

If your company’s like most, midcareer managers and employees make up half your workforce. Neglect their discontent, and you risk losing valued performers who seek exciting work elsewhere. This is a dangerous development—considering the brain drain that’ll soon hit when the vanguard of baby boomers retires. Disaffected middlescents who stay because they need the money take an even worse toll: Their lack of energy, innovation, and focus erodes your firm’s productivity.

How to avoid these losses? Tap into your middlescents’ hunger for renewal by helping them launch into new, more productive, more meaningful roles and careers. Fresh assignments enable middlescents to acquire new skills. Job changes help them develop new specialties. And training expands their business knowledge and stokes their desire to learn more.

You’re probably already using such simple and inexpensive career revitalization techniques on your stars. Extend them to all your midcareer employees: They’ll reward you with renewed commitment and productivity, as well as reduced replacement costs—immediately.

The Idea in Practice
Use these strategies to revitalize middlescents’ careers:

Fresh Assignments
Offer new assignments in different locations or parts of your organization to leverage middlescents’ existing skills and contacts while helping them acquire new ones. General Electric taps experienced managers to integrate new acquisitions—giving them a change of scene and bringing to bear their extensive organizational know-how.

Career Changes
Provide attractive internal career changes to help middlescents develop new specialties. Early in his 30+ years with Pitney Bowes, Dave Nassef served as a factory personnel manager and then marketer. When the company centralized HR, he was one of the few HR managers with manufacturing and marketing experience. At 40, he took on HR responsibility for half the company. Nassef’s additional careers within Pitney Bowes include corporate ombudsman and company representative in Washington.

Mentoring
Encourage middlescents to mentor less-seasoned employees. Your midcareer managers will relish giving back to their organization and making new social connections in the workplace. At Intel, a companywide employee database tracks skills attained and needed and matches employees with mentors—even if they’re in a different country. Both mentors and protégés take classes to learn ways to maximize the mutual benefit of their relationship.

Fresh Training
Don’t assume your middlescents don’t need training. Provide brief introductions to new business areas to expand their perspectives and trigger their interest in learning more. Use refresher courses and in-depth education to help them strengthen or develop their skills. The U.K.’s National Health Service is responding to a chronic nursing shortage by training seasoned aides to become nurses.

Sabbaticals
Provide paid sabbaticals: They cost less than replacing disaffected middlescents, and most people return from sabbaticals more committed than ever. At Wells Fargo, employees with five or more years of service and qualifying performance ratings can work in community service settings of their choosing for up to four months while receiving full pay and benefits. One employee traveled to Armenia to help women establish businesses. The company reaped good publicity, and the employee returned to work highly energized and recommitted.

Leadership Development
Just because midcareer workers are older doesn’t mean they don’t aspire to higher roles. Give them access to leadership development programs to rejuvenate them and stock your leadership pipeline. Health insurer Independence Blue Cross has put one-third of its top 600 people—most of them middlescents—through a leadership program. It includes a weeklong session at the Wharton School, individual coaching and career planning, and work on important business projects.

Copyright 2006 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.