Flickr photo credit to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbdbrobot/140068142/

This week is about the effects written communications have on people’s perceptions of both companies and individuals. Today we are looking at company communications, Thursday we’ll look at the effects of communications on a more personal level and Friday discuss what can be done to improve both.

Websites are critical means of communications. Experts say that you have about two-four seconds to capture a visitor’s attention or they will leave the site.

That being the case, why in the world do companies use prose so opaque that the message is incomprehensible?

Here’s a great example from the landing page of nsoro. (I have no connection with the company and just happened to run across the site.)

nsoro is a worldwide service and solutions provider. We take great pride in supplying, designing, and supporting technology solutions to the commercial and government verticals. nsoro remains aggressive in pursuing ways to develop our expertise and improve performance. read more

Do you have any idea what they do?

The graphic indicates it is some kind of communications company.

You would expect that by clicking the “read more” link you would find out; instead, the link takes you to the “About” page that restates the above paragraph along with the following links,

A Message from Our CEO

Executive Team

Core Values

MBE Certifications

Do you know any more about what they do?

How much time/effort do you spend when you are greeted with something similar? Please take a moment to share your answer in comments.

Flickr photo credit to: Svadilfari on flickr

Dan McCarthy at Great Leadership is this months host; he says that the Carnival reminds him of an ice cream shop with 42 flavors. Right on Dan and best of all they’re good for you!

So dig in folks, this is one time you can really stuff yourself.

Chris Young, the host of next month’s Carnival presents Team 360 Performance Feedback posted at Maximize Possibility Blog.

Mary Jo Asmus presents Stuck? Admit It and Ask For Help posted at Mary Jo Asmus.

Nick McCormick presents Thriving in the Midst of Accelerated Change posted at Joe and Wanda – on Management, saying, “In this 10 minute podcast David Utts, CEO of Executive Skillworks, talks about how managers need to get on the developmental journey of leadership in order to thrive in these times of accelerated change.”

Bret L. Simmons presents C.K. Prahalad: The Responsible Manager posted at Bret L. Simmons.

Alice Snell presents Performance and Fair Pay posted at Taleo Blog – Talent Management Solutions.

Becky Robinson presents Early Lessons About Teamwork posted at Mountain State University LeaderTalk.

Miki Saxon presesnts Ducks in a Row: How to Reduce Office Politics posted at Mapping Company Success, saying “Office politics is debilitating; it damages organizations and individuals and can sink the best laid plans. Here is what you can do to reduce and eventually eliminate politics in your organization, whether the whole company or a small team.”

Nagesh Belludi presents Learn from the Top Performers in Every Field [Skills for Success] posted at Right Attitudes » Ideas for Impact, saying, “The best way to educate yourself is by observing the top performers in every field and by identifying and applying their effectiveness techniques to your circumstances.”

Michael D. Haberman, SPHR presents Performance Evaluations: “The GREAT EVIL”? posted at HR Observations.

Rob Tucker presents Getting your team to take Ownership posted at Reading About Leading, saying, “Explores the real substance behind rapid leadership development.”

Janna Rust presents Time Management 101: Start with Reality posted at Purposeful Leadership.

Kathy C presents How Can Leadership Help with Work Life Balance? posted at The Thriving Small Business, saying, “For those of us who are in this for the long haul, understanding our role in setting the example for work life balance is an important aspect of leadership.”

Elyse Nielsen presents Designing The Will and the Skill to Change posted at Anticlue, saying, “As we look to adopt a new way of working we have to get people to commit on an emotional level and on an intellectual level.”

Laura Schroeder presents I’m a Hi-Po, He’s a Hi-Po, She’s a Hi-Po… posted at Compensation Cafe.

Jennifer Miller presents 4ways to Gain Team Input posted at The People Equation, saying ” Don’t let the “crickets” take over at your next team meeting. 4 ways to gain input during team meetings.”

David Burkus presents The Maxwell Fallacy posted at LeaderLab.

Utpal Vaishnav presents A Path-Goal Based Approach That May Take Your Project Leadership Repertoire To The Next Level posted at Utpal Vaishnav.

Anne Perschel presents Harvard Asked Why So Few Women CEOs? – Then published my answer posted at Germane Insights, saying, “Harvard Business published a list of best CEOs. As they wonder why there is only one woman who qualifies perhaps they should examine their criteria.”

Mike Henry Sr. presents Instigating a Leadership Revolution posted at Lead Change Group Blog, saying, “Members of the Lead Change Group published an ebook about the unique value of the group and their first un-conference, LeaderPalooza”

LisaRosendahl presents One Smart Cookie posted at Lisa Rosendahl.

Tanmay Vora presents Nine I’s and Great Leadership posted at QAspire – Quality, Management, Leadership & Life!, saying, “In a discussion with a budding manager, we touched upon some of the most important traits of a leader and amazingly all started with an “I”. This post touches upon nine things leaders do to deliver exceptional business results.”

William Matthies presents Progress: Getting To There posted at Business Wisdom: Words to Manage By, saying, “Leading includes establishing how much risk is expected/will be tolerated by the organization.”

Sharlyn Lauby presents Trust Is Not Blind Faith posted at hr bartender, saying, “Trust is an essential component of working relationships.”

Scott Eblin has been talking with high potential leaders who have spent a day shadowing senior executives. In this post, he recaps what the hi-po’s say are the five traits of their most admired leaders. Scott Eblin presents Five Traits of the Most Admired Leaders posted at Next Level Blog.

Eric Pennington presents Processed Leadership vs. Organic Leadership posted at Epic Living – Leadership Development Career Management Training Executive Life Coaching Author, saying, “The examination of two styles of leadership and how they impact leaders, and their organizations.”

Kevin Eikenberry presents Are Failure and Mistakes the Same Thing? posted at Leadership and Learning with Kevin Eikenberry.

Wally Bock presents The Myth of Perfect Productivity posted at Three Star Leadership Blog, saying, “For more than forty years I’ve read “research” about how much time people waste at work. Surely the researchers would be more productive studying something else.”

Jane Perdue presents Connecting and Caring posted at Life, Love & Leadership.

Art Petty presents Leadership Caffeine: For a Change, Look At What’s Working posted at Management Excellence.

Tom Glover presents Are You Deeply Read or Widely Read? posted at Reflection Leadership.

Meg Bear presents Are you using your org goals to channel innovation? posted at TalentedApps, saying, “Make sure you are providing useful organizational goals to help guide where innovation could be most useful.”

Tom Magness presents A Salute to a Striver posted at Leader Business, saying, “Just when we start feeling sorry for ourselves, when we think the deck is stacked against us, along comes someone like Tyki Nelworth, who inspires us to keep striving for excellence.”

Joshua Noerr presents Management Should Always Play Favorites posted at JoshuaNoerr.com – Blog, saying, “Why everything you have ever been taught about treating people fairly is wrong.”

Jason Reid presents How to manage people when you are sick posted at Sick With Success .com.

Stephen Warrilow presents How To Manage Change – Putting It All Together posted at Change Management – Practical Strategies For Success.

Aaron Dinsdale presents Steps On How To Welcome Your New Employees posted at Small Business Advice | Small Business Tips and Articles | Small Business Success Stories.

Thomas Lopez presents 50 Best Blogs for HR Wisdom posted at Career Overview.

Working girl presents Managers I Have Known – Part I posted at Working Girl.

David Zinger presents 14 Employee Engagement Lessons From 2 Boys and a Sewer posted at Employee Engagement Zingers, saying, “Lessons can be learned anywhere and at any age for management, leadership, and employee engagement.”

Nissim Ziv presents How to Retain Employees – Ways for Retaining Good Employees posted at Job Interview Guide, saying, “It has become important for companies to think about how to retain employees. Retention of employees is quite important today, because good employees are getting poached almost every day today.”

Jason Seiden presents Compete vs. Support posted at Next Generation Talent Development, saying, “Not all team members are the same. Treat them as if they are and you’re all but guaranteed to mess at least one of them up.”

Erik Samdahl presents The Most Critical Succession Planning Practices posted at Productivity Blog.

Flickr photo credit to: Great Leadership

See all mY generation posts here.

I used to say that the only thing worse than my memory was my hearing or vice versa—depending.

Today it is my memory. Last week, after two weeks of ‘Questions’, I said we would revisit wisdom, since questions are often the start of wisdom, forgetting that I just did two on wisdom in October. But that’s OK; you can’t have too much wisdom.

There is an old saying, “knowledge is wisdom;” the updated version is, “Data is not information. Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not understanding. Understanding is not wisdom.”

T.S. Eliot understood this when he said, “Where is wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson understood the difference when he said, “Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.”

The ways to wisdom are varied and it is Confucius who best describes them, “By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the most bitter.”

Nietzsche tells us, “Wisdom sets bounds even to knowledge,” while Anthony Shaftesbury reminds us, “Giving advice is sometimes only showing our wisdom at the expense of others;” not a very nice use of wisdom.

But the final word goes to Charles H. Spurgeon who sums it up nicely, “Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.”

Flickr photo credit to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/541576567/

Our first view of culture looks at Lehman Brothers, whose corporate death touched off the financial meltdown in September 2008. In case you didn’t see a news article there is a 30 million dollar 2200 page report on what went wrong, but if you don’t feel like tackling that here is a readable review and analysis you’ll find useful.

While Lehman’s huge indebtedness and other mistakes have been well documented, the $30 million study by Anton Valukas, assigned by the bankruptcy court, contains a number of surprises and new insights, several Wharton faculty members say.

Another symbol of the mortgage mess is Freddie Mac, which Charles Haldeman is turning around using the same template he has used in the past.

Haldeman applies the same management principles to any company he joins. “The first day you come in,” he said, “you literally don’t know one person. You’ve got to have a template … some philosophy to bring” that can be applied to an organization and the culture that already exists. Haldeman said his ideal management model has eight necessary ingredients:

• Make integrity and high ethics prerequisites.
• Create a workplace that’s open, direct, candid and honest.
• Make sure employees understand the company mission.
• Develop a business plan that all employees can understand and repeat.
• Communicate the mission and plan constantly.
• Give other people autonomy.
• Enforce teamwork.
• Senior managers must spend time walking around.

Our third view explains why the right culture needs to be in place before collaborative-enabling technology can work—no matter what the under 30 crowd believes.

The tools alone have failed to make the company collaborative. … Are the tools the problem? More likely, the problem is the organization. When tools fail to create value, it’s usually because decision-makers adopt tools before the company’s culture and processes are collaboration-ready.

Finally, a more personal look at culture, because finding your way around a new culture is critical to your long-term success at that company.

Adjusting to an employer’s corporate culture may be the hardest part of starting a new job. In a recent survey by OfficeTeam, nearly one-third (32%) of workers interviewed said acclimating to a new corporate culture poses the greatest challenge when re-entering the workforce after an extended absence.

And it applies whether you have been out of work for awhile, recruited from your current position or joining your first company after school.

Flickr photo credit to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedroelcarvalho/2812091311/