Wear Clean Underwear

Look for employees who are not like you, says Rhonda Abrams in Wear Clean Underwear Business Wisdom from Mom (Villard): "We naturally choose to be around people with whom we are comfortable, and that usually translates into people just like us. Boy, is that a trap. We can easily miss opportunities and deny opportunities to people who don't fit our expectations."
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The Success Effect

Former IBM Chairman Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. talks in The Success Effect (S&R) by John Eckberg about the potential of global commerce: "In all my 40 years, I’ve never seen a more positive opportunity for business. I think we have one of the most extraordinary periods of economic growth that we’ll ever see: China, India, Russia, Central Europe, the sub-continent beyond India."
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Commuting

Commuting is an incredible time-waster, says Lewis Richmond in Work as a Spiritual Practice (Broadway Books): "If you are the average American, your commute is 40 minutes each way. Nearly an hour and a half of your life, five days a week, 49 weeks a year. Add up all that time in the course of 45-year work life it comes to 16,538 hours. That's nearly two full years of our life, to and from work."
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The Success Effect

From The Success Effect: Uncommon Conversations with America's Business Trailblazers (Sterling & Ross): "A strong value proposition at a low price will bring customers back to your door – again and again and again. Leaders always cast a leadership shadow and in that shadow will be committed followers. Get and give feedback each and every day."
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Staying Afloat

Avoid perfectionism, says David B. Posen in Staying Afloat When the Water Gets Rough (Key Porter Books) "Common sense tells us that nothing is perfect, but our less logical selves keep striving for this unattainable standard. If you're someone who has extremely high expectations, here's a quick tip: Give it up. It's a huge waste of time and energy -- and most things don't have to be done to such a high standard anyway."
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Caliper

Caliper, a Princeton, N.J.-based management-consulting company with a worldwide roster of corporate clients interviewed 60 women leaders from some of the top companies in the United Kingdom and the United States and compared the results with findings about men. Caliper determined women are more likely to be assertive.
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The Overspent American

Efforts to become upscale can slam family finances, according to The Overspent American by Julliet B. Schor (Harper Perennial) "Through the 1990s, households have been taking debt at record levels. Debt service as a percentage of disposable income now stands at 18 percent. Work time has risen about 10 percent in the last 25 years. It is not surprising that personal bankruptcies are at historic levels."
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Executive departures

A Catalyst survey of 800 executives found that most who left a previous job - 51 percent - cited lack of flexibility for their departure. Others - 29 percent - resented the "glass ceiling" nature of their company's corporate culture. About 1 in 4 were just unhappy with the work environment and believed they were not being challenged.
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The Art of Building Relationships Through Golf

Nothing is free and that includes golf. At a minimum, expect accountability. From Business Golf: The Art of Building Relationships Through Golf by Pat Summerall with Will D. Rhame and James A. McNulty (Birch Lane Press):"Golf costs need to be justified, especially if the company is picking up the tab. Companies that use golf as a relationship tool and who are willing to pay the price should expect accountability.”

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White-knuckle decade of competition

Former IBM Chairman Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. talks about the future in The Success Effect (S&R) by John Eckberg: "The next decade will be the most difficult competitively of any we have ever seen - a white-knuckle decade of competition, and we will see a huge fall-out of winners and losers. Even the smallest company can exploit new technologies and seek global markets. We are going to see a real premium on leadership."
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Building a Business the Buddhist Way

Know your competition says Geri Larkin in Building a Business the Buddhist Way (Celestial Arts) "Ask your existing or potential customers who your competitors are and what they like and don't like about them. If your competitors are other companies, go to trade shows to scope them out. Get industry newsletters. Order something from them."
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Pot of Gold Daily Quote

There is no worth in that which is not a difficult achievement.
Ovid

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Bullyproof Yourself at Work

Bullying has significant downside for companies, according to Bullyproof Yourself at Work by Gary Namie and Ruth Namie (DoubleDoc): "The American Psychiatric Association recognizes a condition called acute stress disorder with symptoms that include disorientation, confusion, intense agitation and dazed detachment, sometimes followed by amnesia . . . this is what bullying does."

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Performance reviews

A recent survey of 1,190 workers by global human resources company Watson Wyatt supports skeptics' perspective on performance reviews. Only three in 10 workers think annual reviews improve their performance and bring enhanced value to companies. Twice as many people see the reviews as a disingenuous ploy to rein in the payroll.
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The Experience Economy

Economies change, say B. Joseph Pine II and James Gilmore in The Experience Economy (HBS Books): "Imagine the reaction if decades ago, when the American economy was booming flush with returning GIs buying houses in the suburbs, you had told people the typical family would pay someone else to change the oil in their car, make birthday cakes, clean shirts, mow lawns."
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The Manager’s Pocket Guide to Generation X

When members of Generation X see leaders undervalue individuals and treat young workers like exchangeable cogs, they look for the door, says Bruce Tulgan in The Manager’s Pocket Guide to Generation X (W.W. Norton & Co.). “They reject the company and management by compartmentalizing the job and diminishing its overall significance in their lives: sinking morale, lower productivity and higher turnover.”
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Homer Simpson

No, no, no, Lisa. If adults don't like their jobs, they don't go on strike. They just go in every day and do it really half-assed. That's the American Way.
Homer Simpson
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Catalyst

Catalyst surveyed executives at 800 companies (200 were headed by men) and found that 4 of 10 women and 3 of 10 men started their own business because they had a "winning idea." Two out of 10 women said they wanted to be their own boss and set their own hours.
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101 Powerful Action Steps for Personal Achievement

Who knows who is watching? Nobody knows, says Barry J. Farber in Dive Right In 101 Powerful Action Steps for Personal Achievement (Berkley Motivation) "Don't say, No one will notice; this doesn't have to be so great. First of all, you never know who just might notice. Wouldn't you rather someone noticed the excellent job you did, instead of commenting on your sloppiness?”
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Pot of Gold Daily Quote

A prince should be slow to punish, and quick to reward.
Ovid
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Wake Me When It's Time to Work

From Wake Me When It's Time to Work Surviving Meetings, Office Games, and the People Who Love Them by T.R. Edel (Cashman Dudley; $16.95) "Periodically, employees must endure evaluations by their managers, even though some managers haven't the faintest idea. How can a manager inject some relevance into his review of an employee? Ask others what they think.”
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Executive’s Guide to Personal Security

With more and more over-seas assignments, companies should stress personal safety, says David S. Katz and Ilan Casp in Executive’s Guide to Personal Security (Wiley): “Respect the little warning bell you have in your head. You are most vulnerable when you become comfortable and lulled by the false security of familiar surroundings. Look up and down the street every morning before you leave the house.”
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The Best Guide to Success

Be careful with praise and doubly careful with criticism. From The Best Guide to Success (Renaissance Books; $16.95) by Barbara Somervill: "Become a cheerleader. Offer public (group) praise for a task well done, regardless of who did it. Offer criticism or negative comments behind closed doors. It's been said before, but this is a must! Never berate members of the group in front of each other."
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Pot of Gold Daily Quote

Chicago Samuel Zell talks in The Success Effect (S&R) by John Eckberg about attracting achievers: "We have always been focused on a meritocracy. People who join our organization are measured by what they contribute, not necessarily how old they are or where they are in the pecking order."
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Pot of Gold Daily Quote

Change can help executives manage challenges. From Quotable Business by Louis E. Boone (Random House; $17.95) "The ability to adapt and adjust tactics while sticking to principles is extremely important. One of the biggest problems with CEOs is that they are flexible on principle and inflexible on plans." -- Eugene E. Jennings, American educator and business writer.
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Quality costs less

Quality costs less – Entrepreneur Jack Maas, founder of the JTM Food Group - $120 million in annual revenues. Square hamburgers have been good to JTM Food Group.
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The Success Effect

In The Success Effect (S&R) by John Eckberg, Nucor Steel CEO Daniel R. DiMicco talks about job loss: "We’ve seen what happens when thousands of manufacturing jobs are lost: the increase in crime, the empty homes, the pain. What we really need is to hold onto jobs that are disappearing because of unfair and illegal trading practices. To say re-training is the solution? It makes me sick to my stomach.
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The Brand You 50

Don’t forget about your leisure needs, says The Brand You 50 by Tom Peters (Knopf; $15.95): "Staying professionally fresh demands a refreshment-investment plan as much as financial security demands a formal investment plan."
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America's Appetite Matures

By 2010, the proportion of working women - women are primary food preparers - will rise to 61 percent, far more than the 52 percent in the early 1980s, according to Foodservice 2010: America's Appetite Matures by McKinsey & Co., New York: “Because working women are pressed for time, they tend to rely on food prepared away from home.''
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Business Dad

From Business Dad: How Good Businessmen Can Make Great Fathers (and Vice Versa) by Tom Hirschfeld (Little, Brown; $23) "All across the country, business dads are shouldering more and more of the household burdens. In 1998, the Families and Work Institute released a survey of 2,877 workers showing that fathers in 1997 were spending half an hour more each weekday, and a full hour more each day off, with their children than in 1977."
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