HP is about to lay off a massive number of workers, sources tell us, with one business unit, HP Services, to be particularly hard hit.   CEO Meg Whitman and crew have laid the blame on employee costs such as their salaries. Employees say the problem is one management blunder after another.

“Around March 13, HP had an all-hands employee global webcast where Meg Whitman made a few statements that revealed a complete lack of strategy, and total focus on Band Aid fixes to staunch investor concerns and HP’s reputation,” one source told us. “The one statement that caught my attention was ‘When you have a 10% increase in costs and zero revenue growth, that is no way to stay in business. Services are HP’s biggest problem and we must immediately address it.’” Employees say that the reason HP ES has had no growth is because it’s had no leadership.

HP Services is not growing because there continues to be no investment in: a) talent ; b) new offerings; and c) HP Services is in a constant state of restructuring,” a source told us.

Then there is J.C. Penney which announced abysmal results for the first three months of this year, with sales plummeting 18.9 percent at stores open at least a year. Net losses for the period were $55 million. Executives blamed the results on the departure of deal-hunting shoppers after the company changed its pricing strategy in early February to abandon coupons.

“We did not realize how deep some of the customers were into this,” noted COO Michael Kramer about couponing. “We’ve got to wean them off this and educate our consumers.”   Did not realize how deep consumers are into couponing ?

Amber Bustanoby, a self-described “frugal mom” who writes another Coupon Connections blog, says people like her will never abandon coupons because the slips help them make ends meet. “I don’t think it’s a drug,” she said. “For me as a mom, I want to do the best I can with the resources I’m given. We live on one income in a two income world.” Bustanoby, whose family makes about $50,000 a year, says J.C. Penney’s prices didn’t drop enough to get her back into its stores. Bustanoby, like Kirlew, has appeared on TLC’s reality show “Extreme Couponing.”

History lies on the side of coupons. Macy’s once tried and failed to reduce coupons after it acquired May Department Stores in 2005, leading to consumer backlash, weak sales and a declining stock price. In 2007, CEO Terry Lundgren reinstated coupons. At an investors’ conference in April, Karen Hoguet, Macy’s chief financial officer, reminded attendees of the lesson. “People love these coupons. They love thinking they got us,” she said. “From the customer perspective, it’s been very important.”

The lingering effects of a recession, meanwhile, have made coupons even more appealing to consumers. A 2011 survey from market researcher Nielsen highlighted the resurgence of coupons, which have come “back in vogue” with a tepid economy, it said. Sixty-six percent of the Americans questioned use coupons, according to the survey of Internet users. New sites like Groupon are also making it easier for companies to deliver deals.

So how could the executives at JC Penny not understand and know their customers ?  Well first let’s remember that the CEO, who ran Apple’s stores, was successful not because of the strategy of Apple stores but because everyone wants Apple products.   Can you think of a good reason to shop JC Penny or any products that they sell that you either can’t purchase online or at another retailer.  I mean who gives someone a gift in a JC Penny box?

HP has been in a downspin because they have no long term business and brand strategy and have been ambushed by companies like Apple and Vizio.   JC Penny is not doing well because at their core they still have not given people a reason to come to their stores and shop while retailers like Target continue to attract a lot of business.

Yes mismanagement is alive an well in corporate America and what is so sad about this is that even when these executives fail they are still going to get enough money to ensure they never have to work again while someone who holds a pink slip asks “what did I do wrong?”

Meetings are a way to diffuse and evade responsibility for decisions but then there are also the people at meetings who will tell you why your idea won’t or can’t work or they will hijack your meeting with their self importance causing others in the room to remain quiet less they offend the power seeker.

Then there are those who hide in ambush.  These usually are people who tell you, before your meeting, that your idea is pretty good but when you actually present they attack you or side with someone who is attacking you and bend with the prevailing wind.   There are ways to avoid these types of people and meetings:

(1) Don’t schedule a meeting unless it is absolutely necessary.  The more people you get into a meeting the more chances people will have to sabotage you just to make you look bad for their own personal gain.

(2) If you are meeting about a new idea or process meet with the biggest influencers before hand to gain their buy and overcome their objections but be aware that may not be enough to overcome their fear that you are smarter than they are,

(3) One on one meetings are always better to gain a commitment from coworkers. Make sure, however, that you follow up the meeting with an email reinforcing key points.

(4) If people are checking eMail or drifting during meetings than call them out on it and ask them to please not multitask while you are discussing this important subject.

(5) If you provide lunch you are going to have more people at the meeting than really need to be there.  Everyone loves a free lunch.

(6) Always follow up every meeting with a meeting summary of key points.

(7) If someone is trying to power steal your meeting call them on it.  I worked with a Director who always made the meeting about her even when it rarely touched on an area within her responsibility.

(8) Cover your ass all the time.  Be aware that no matter how good  your idea to the company, customers and shareholders there is always going to be someone working behind the scenes to sabotage you.

Related articles

• Is creativity good for your career ? (richsmanagementblog.com)

The working dead are people who don’t have careers, they have jobs.  They are not using what they learned in college which is ironic because most of them still are paying off their college loans.  They come into companies with big ideas wanting to make a difference but somehow they are  absorbed into the company culture that slowly drains their drive and enthusiasm with endless meetings and reasons why “we can’t do something”.  They are there because they were offered a good salary and they stay because of fear and because they are addicted to the automatic deposits in their bank accounts even though their benefits are being stripped away slowly.

How much did they pay you to give up on your dream ?

There are a handful of companies that I would love to and be proud to work for.  One is Google which realizes that the better they treat their employees the better these employees treat them.   I believe that today you have to treat your employees better than your customers because it pays a very high ROI.  However a lot of companies don’t believe that at all.   They burden employees with really bad benefits and raises that are offset by the cost of living.  They then act like they did you a favor by giving you a 3% raise while senior executives get huge salaries and bonuses.  This is not the future of the corporation; it is the destructive force within the corporation.

I know that the job market kind of sucks right now and that a lot of companies are looking simply to put people in positons to check off boxes but that is no excuse to give up on your dream.   Map out what makes you happy and where you want to be and what you want to do.  Title doesn’t matter and yes compensation does matter but more important and perhaps the most important is that the company you work for shows you in its actions that values you and wants you to stay with them.

Never let  your dream become just a fantasy..the choice is yours.

Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts.

Related articles

• What causes people to really love their work ?(richsmanagementblog.com)

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• Employees will eventually have more to say about where & how they work(richsmanagementblog.com)

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• Why Taking on Your Employees’ Goals Pays Off(openforum.com)

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As a marketing person I find that I am learning new things everyday about how consumers interact with brands.  As a manager and consultant I feel it’s my job to keep my colleagues abreast of some of the changes but more importantly what they mean to them and their businesses.  You could spend 8 hours a day on the Internet and still not have the time to read everything you need to read and today if you don’t stay up to date you’re at a competitive disadvantage.

How can you, as a manager or business person, stay abreast of industry and market news ?

1. Use a browser with an RSS reader attached to it.   I use Rockmelt which has the RSS feeds on a sidebar.  They help me to stay on top of industry news the minute it breaks whether on Twitter or Mashable.

2. Bookmark the sites that provide you with the best information and go to them regularly through the day.  RSS feeds are great bus some sites have a lot going on and you always want to stay on top of the news.

3. Be wary of subscribing to eMail feeds unless you have the bandwidth to go through everything in your inbox on a Monday morning.

4. Absorb every bit of information you can and save the important information to websites like Instapaper.  Instapaper allows you to save webpages by simply clicking on bookmark in your menu bar for reading later of reference.

5. Don’t take time off.  I know work-life balance but the truth is that we live in a very competitive world today and if you want to stay on top of your game you need to spend time on weekends catching up on the news that could effect you and your business.

6. Get on Twitter.  You mean you’re not on Twitter and don’t monitor Tweets of industry thought leaders ?  Shame !!   Don’t feel that you need to follow everyone who follows you, just follow the people that post information that you find relevant or links to breaking stories.

7. PDF articles from the Web and eMail them out to colleagues but also include a summary and recommendations.   A lot of browsers allow you to take webpages and turn them into PDF’s.  I have found this very useful.

8. Enroll in a business book summary program.  Who the hell has time to read all these books ?   Book summaries are a great way to get to the point in 4-6 pages.

9. Be wary of trade shows.  The trade show industry is an industry in itself.  Before you spend $2,000 to attend a trade show ensure that you are going to learn something there not be presented with a hidden sales pitch for a new vendor or service.

10. Embrace new employees and learn from them before they become absorbed by your companies culture.

Remember it’s up to you to stay on top of your business trends.  It’s one of the ways your personal brand can cut through the clutter.

The worst kind of manager is someone who knows that there are problems, either with people or processes, and refuses to take action because he/she doesn’t want to make waves.  This person of inaction can petrify an organization and cause a lot of problems.  Here is a great example; you talk to a Director about a person working for you only to find that others have also complained about this person yet nothing has changed and more importantly nothing has been documented.  This means that a new manager is going to have to deal with someone who is known for causing problems while the Director keeps his/her hands clean of the whole situation because he/she just wants to ensure that deliverables keep on date. What would you do in this situation ?

The other worst kind of manager is someone who plays good cop/bad cop.  They tell you what you want to hear but then they also tell others what they want to hear so problems don’t get addressed.  I have seen this more than once as office politics trumps personal job satisfaction and even what is best for the company.

Of course there are micro-managing managers, managers who change projects and priorities on a dime and managers who act like they are your best friend but come review time they pounce on you leaving you to ask “what in the hell just happened?”

Here are some ways that you can deal with the worst kind of managers:

(1) Document everything: including emails and always send an email summary of private conversations you had with your manager.  Keep a personal file and never let it out of  your site.

(2) Keep pressing forward.” Don’t let the past keep you from achieving the job of your dreams.  Learn to manage up and make your job YOURS.

(3) Be positive toward yourself.” Choose to be happy if you know that what you are doing is the right thing.  Don’t let a bad manager bring you down to her level because you’ll regret it later in life.

(4) Be careful about complaining to others who “pretend” to be confidants.   Like in the movie Goodfella’s “those people who are going to whack you come to you with a hand and pretend to be your best friends”.   There are a lot of people who are business colleagues but very few who are friends.

(5) Always tell the truth: Never be afraid to say you screwed up and never ever cover for a bad manager because in the end they will be found out and it will cost you in reputation.

(6) Change jobs:  Don’t give me the BS about how jobs are hard to find they are out there if you’re willing to take the time and effort to look.  Forget about the job title and to a certain extent the money.  Ask yourself “which job is going to let me live the life I want to live and allow me to really contribute to my companies success?”

(7) Learn how to manage up: Understand what communication is best to send to your manager and which communication is only going to cause more problems for  you.

Life is too short to work for really bad managers and directors.  You have a choice to improve your situation or continue to take the torture of working for someone who just doesn’t understand that people like to be treated like people not just employees.

Related articles

• An Honest Note to All the Sucky Managers (empwaynek.wordpress.com)
• Employee conflicts: do’s and dont’s (richsmanagementblog.com)
• Let the managers go (thingamy.com)
• Management success would be great (foodstaycation.com)
• Micromanaged ? You’re not alone (richsmanagementblog.com)
• Here Are 2 Situations When You Should Go Over Your Bosses Head (businessinsider.com)

(2) Your boss rides you like plastic horse on a merry-go-round.

(3) Your email inbox is full of FYI and CC eMails on Monday and very little of them have anything to do with you or your job.

(4) Your Outlook calendar is so full of meetings you don’t even have time to eat lunch.

(5) You’re the smartest one in your group and every time you try and teach others you get rebuffed because of they want to hold onto their territory rather than learning something new.

(6) Your raise was eaten up by the increase in your health insurance benefits.

(7) Your company feels that people working at home is an excuse to take a paid day off.

(8) Your VP of Marketing is never in the office or always traveling.

(9) People keep scheduling meetings at 4PM on Fridays.

(10) You feel like a COG in a machine and don’t feel any sense of accomplishment.

(11) Your workstation does not allow ANY privacy at all.

(12) Your company expects you to answer emails on weekends and late at night.

(13) You make a decision and your boss hangs you out to dry.

(14) Even minor decisions require weeks of meetings and lots of Power Points.

(15) Your career has become just a job.  You’re not learning and growing and your paycheck is just a way to pay the rent and bills.

You have the power to change your life and work for a company that really wants people like you and values employees.  Sure it’s hard to find a great job today but they are out there if you’re willing to work to uncover them.

(1) You’re on eMail on weekends and at night, not because you have to but because you love the challenges of your position.

(2) Your manager really values your input and asks for your opinion before implementing projects.

(3) You screwed up but your manager still had your back and is a mentor so you learn from the experience.

(4) You have FLEX hours so you can go for a bike ride in the morning and you are measured on the value you bring to the company not on being in at a certain time and you have a great balance of work and life.

(5) In meeting people ask for and listen to what you have to say.

(6) You have a great workstation.   You have nested in your workstation and it’s a great place to be productive.

(7) You get to wear really casual clothes everyday.   Who said that people who wear jeans and tee shirts can’t be productive ?

(8) You get more than 2 weeks of vacation a year.  Sorry but today because we are so wired into our workplaces we need more than 2 weeks vacation.

(9) You organization encourages you to work from home more often.

(10) The people you work with are really nice people who you would consider friends.  Some people find out the hard way that people who they thought were friends abandon  them when they leave the company thus they were never really great people to work with.   Great people to work with are the ones you want to share a beer with and talk about life, work and fun things.

Some jobs are easy to come by but..great jobs are really hard to find.  If you have read my list and more than 2-4 pertain to you than you really need to think about staying where you are.  Sure we all want more money but money can’t buy happiness in the workplace.

We all struggle with work-life balance. We talk about it, worry about it, but achieving it, that’s another matter. These days, we’re all under pressure to be on 24-7. We’re constantly being asked to do more with less, deliver results with fewer resources. The truth is that it’s never been more challenging to keep work from becoming our life.

But for top executives and business leaders, the problem is actually far worse. There are two reasons for that.

For all their power, perks, and pay packages, leaders carry a heavy burden of responsibility. Their stress level is higher. They often put way too much pressure on themselves, to the point where failure becomes something to avoid at all cost. For some, failure becomes something they just can’t live with.

It’s all too easy to get drawn in by the attention, the admiration, the ego boost. At work, they’re kings and queens. At home, they’re just another spouse, parent, or friend. Many of them actually feel more competent, more comfortable, even more safe, at work than at home. That’s the attraction of the dark side.

So we call ourselves workaholics, say our work is our lives. We think of ourselves as winners, special, above the masses of ordinary people. It sounds so grandiose, and that’s exactly what it is, a grandiose self-image that can never be fulfilled. A trap.

As for the effect all that has on our ability to perform effectively as leaders, it has a discrete, negative impact on a number of key leadership attributes:

Empathy and humility. Lack of empathy for your own mistakes and failures tends to transfer to others. If you can’t feel empathy for yourself, you can’t feel empathy for those you lead. And knowing that you’re human, just like everyone else, is what humility is all about. Empathy and humility are key leadership traits.

Perspective and objectivity. We live in highly complex and competitive times. When tough issues arise, as they inevitably do, leaders need to be able to disengage, to retreat to a place where they feel safe from all that, a place where they can achieve some level of perspective and objectivity.

Judgment. The biggest problem with grandiose ego is that it fools you into thinking you have to have all the answers. And while you’d never consciously admit to thinking you’re always right, deep inside, you have a need to be just that. That impairs your judgment. I’ve seen it time and again; it’s sad to watch once successful entrepreneurs and executives make bad calls because they stop asking questions and listening to others. Worst case, they can self-destruct and take the whole company down with them.

Confidence. An oversized ego turns confidence into arrogance. Sure, people like Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs managed to get away with being arrogant, but I would argue that Gates and Jobs eventually grew up. Ellison, I’m not so sure. But for the rest of us, it’s irritating, annoying, and hinders our ability to work effectively with and yes, lead others.

Longevity. To be a great leader, you’ve got to be able to hang in there, to be around long enough to see the fruits of your labor. You’ve got to have stick-with-it-ness, the ability to survive the inevitable hurdles and challenges of a highly competitive business world. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and you’ve got to pace yourself to last.

Bottom line. A healthy ego is a good thing. Self-confidence is a good thing. Passion and dedication are good things. But when you stop thinking of yourself as an ordinary person, when you no longer believe that there are more important things in life than succeeding at work, that will catch up with you, sooner or later. Guaranteed.

The Corner Office-Steve Tobak

What would you do if someone who was a good employee and making a difference by delivering decided to leave your organization ?  Would you say “sorry” or would you do your best to talk to them over a cup of coffee and ask “what can I do to get  you stay with us?”  Too many people are saying “here’s your coat and what’s your hurry” and letting people go and by doing say they are cutting off their own hands.

I have received emails from a lot of people who read this BLOG with horror stories about their work environments and I have to say that I’m not shocked at all.  From endless back to back meetings, to raises of 2-3% for top performers that are offset by higher health insurance premiums to incompetent managers that treat employees like cattle the workplace has not improved that much for a lot of people.

Some may say “I can’t do anything about it” but that is a chickenshit thing to say.  Changes can be made by people who are willing to stand up and say “I’m not going to take this anymore and I have had enough of this”.   No paycheck is worth additional stress and anger of working for a company that doesn’t appreciate you as an employee.

I have learned to give 110% at every job I have.  If I see things that are wrong I speak up but I also know that for every person who speaks up there are 9 more who can’t because they live in fear of loosing their jobs at a time when the economy is so fragile.

So should you just become a task master and do what is necessary to get that paycheck every week ?  Only you can answer that but when we stop trying that we can change things we loose some of ourselves in the process.   I would rather look back and the changes I was able to implement rather than leave a workplace that is a trap waiting for the next victim.

Related articles

• Workplace Distractions (themarlincompany.com)
• Have You Ever… Had a Workplace Conflict?! (cockyandrude.com)
• Why You Should Hire Keith Richards (themarlincompany.com)
• The new rules of creativity: nine mind hacks to boost your brain (skillsservices.wordpress.com)

We all love to be creative at work.  It could mean finding a creative out of the box way to address a problem or it could be as simple as developing a presentation that tells a story.  The worst thing that can happen to anyone is to have their creativity crushed with illogical reasoning from someone who just doesn’t get it.

Here is a great example: I recently suggested that a CPG brand hire outside credentialed people to write content for their website as there was a real problem with internal people having the time to write relevant content.  While my boss felt it was great “out of the box thinking” the person in charge of the brand said “we are not content providers and I don’t want to use anyone outside of the company”.  Ha ?  This meant stale irrelevant content that was not being used by our audience but it also showed a misunderstanding of the concept that brands are media today and a great way to keep people engaged is to help them sort out too much information with great content.

There are other ways to stifle creativity as well.  A marketer might have a great idea for a POP display but when your organization tells  you of why you can’t do it instead of making it happen than you know you’re in quicksand.

The bottom line is that we all want to use the creative part of our brains at work but with so many meetings and having to generate so much buy-in it’s hard to take something from a creative concept to actually implementing it.  There are few Steve Jobs who can push things through without being questioned.

Here are some things you can do to innovate and be more creative:

1ne: If you’re attending a lot of meetings where you are just there for an FYI than politely decline them.  Time is money and going from one meeting to another means you don’t have time to be creative.

2wo: Take some time to be creative and set up your creativity.  Understand the barriers to a creative solution and address time to outline the barriers and possible solutions.

3hree: Never go into a meeting you set up without sending a pre-read to members.  You need to get key influencer buy-in and understand the possible objections so you can better be prepared.

4our: Get your deliverables out of the way so you can have more time to be creative.  A lot of deliverables are nothing more than a series of tasks so get them done even though you hate to do them.

5ive: Have fun and look at problems from your audiences POV.  Stop wearing blinders.

Finally..if you find that you are becoming a task master and that everyday you are doing the same thing over and over again maybe it’s time to change jobs.  Creativity is like a muscle.  If you don’t use it, it becomes dormant and turns to flab.  You don’t want that to happen ever because we spend too much time at work.

Related articles

• Adobe study reveals massive creativity gaps, but not in gender or age (venturebeat.com)
• Why You Should Hire Keith Richards (themarlincompany.com)
• ‘Insanely Simple’ Reveals Steve Jobs’ Anecdote & The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success (hitechanalogy.com)
• Failure in the Workplace – Why It’s Good for Innovation (themarlincompany.com)