Pay day

Nothing builds teen self-esteem like a pay day, says Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Barbara Schneider in Becoming Adult (Perseus Books). “Work is the most positive of activities in terms of self-esteem. Concentration is high in paid work, as it is in school work, both of which have significantly higher concentration levels than watching TV or socializing.” A caveat: work brings “low levels of enjoyment.”
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The Success Effect

Patrick Lencioni, president of the Table Group, a management consulting firm, talks in The Success Effect (S&R) by John Eckberg about the value of debate at work: "One of the greatest competitive advantages you can have is to have people who can quickly, nakedly cycle through issues and arrive at decisions because they don't hold anything back. And, as rare as it is, the companies that are best at it usually win."

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The Third Wave

Companies should take a lesson from the broader society when seeking to renew vigor. Alvin Toffler, author of The Third Wave (Random House) says individuals have three basic requirements -community, structure and meaning: “Innovative companies might build morale and belonging by asking groups to organize into mini-companies or cooperatives and contracting directly with these groups to get specific jobs done.”
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Numbers don't lie

"Numbers don't lie; people do."
Ron DeLyons, investment banker, from The Success Effect (Sterling and Ross) by John Eckberg
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Castles in the air

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
Henry David Thoreau

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Jump Start Your Marketing Brain

In the first few years of your start-up company, focus on niche markets, says idea guru Doug Hall and Jeffrey Stamp, Ph.D., in Jump Start Your Marketing Brain: Scientific Ideas and Advice that Will Immediately Double Your Marketing Success Rate (Clerisy): “These markets will be less price sensitive to your initial high cost.”
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The Success Effect

Consultant and author Neil Rackham revamps sales divisions and in The Success Effect (S&R) by John Eckberg, he talks about his approach: "There's 18 million sales jobs in the United States and about 10 million of them are going away. The ones that are going away are the ones that you might call the Talking Brochures. Anyone selling by talking about products is outdated. You can't afford to have salespeople who just do that."
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101 Great Answers

When asked during a job interview about the last book you read, according to 101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions (Thomson Delmar), fight the tendency to name the latest thriller. Instead, offer up what the interviewer really wants to hear: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, for instance. “It will demonstrate that you’re really trying to improve yourself,” says author Ron Fry.
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Pot of Gold Daily Quote

In Winning Without Losing Your Way (RSBarnett), author Rebecca Barnett points out that most employees are fanatic about the integrity of their company: “The Ethics Resource Center found that four in five people say their organization’s integrity was an important consideration. Seventy-nine percent said their organization’s concern for ethics and doing the right thing is an important reason why they work there.”
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The Best Jobs for the 21st Century

While IT dominates the list of top jobs, according to The Best Jobs for the 21st Century (JIST Publishing) by Michael Farr, what's telling is at the end of this 500-job roster. Worse jobs on the "best list?" Manicurist, pedicurist, mechanical engineering technicians, cook, gaming supervisor, stonemason, historian, concierge, dietetic tech, ambulance driver, pipe-layer helper and manager for farm workers.

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Rocky

The only thing I want to do is to go the distance, that's all. Because if that bell rings and I'm still standing, then I'm gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I wasn't just another bum from the neighborhood.

Sylvester Stallone in Rocky

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Dive Right In

Barry J. Farber, author of Dive Right In (Berkley Publishing), says in his book, which offers 101 steps for personal achievement, that work is a lot like shoveling. You can dig a hole or create a mountain, he says. “Realize that you're shoveling either way. No one breezes through life. Everyone does their share of shoveling. What you end up with depends upon you.”
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Work Like Your Dog

Is 'could be better' always the foe of 'good enough?' Yes, suggests Matt Weinstein and Luke Barber in Work Like Your Dog (Villard/Random House). “If we could remember several times a day – whatever we are doing – to take a deep breath and repeat: This moment is good enough. Perhaps we could cure some of the chronic dissatisfaction that so often haunts us...be here now.”
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Letting Go

Buddhists have a joke: Don’t just do something, sit there, says Lama Surya Das, author of Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be (Broadway Books). Embrace mindfulness of every day activity. Pay attention to each footfall - reaching for a door, picking up a pen, touching the phone: “Through incandescent, focused awareness we can become more wakeful and enlightened.”
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The Answer to How is Yes

Author Peter Block poses a simple question for bosses and employees alike: What do we want to create together? In The Answer to How is Yes (Berrett-Koehler), Block suggests all companies have the resulting conversation: “It stops the discussion of what they want from us and how we are going to respond, and starts the purpose-filled discussion of what we will initiate. This dialogue alone levels the playing field.”
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Keep employees happy

Advertising swami Sergio Zyman, author of The End of Advertising As We Know It (Wiley) suggests that the best way to keep employees happy is the most direct: “Give employees recognition, appreciation, opportunities for growth and development. Giving employees some control over their environment and the authority to make decisions goes a long way.”
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Brainstorm

When looking for a creative hook for a new ad effort — or even a flyer, for that matter — practice what big agencies embrace: brainstorm, write down every idea, and tape all to a wall. Ask four questions, suggests Gary R. Dahl in Advertising for Dummies: “What are you selling? What makes it unique? To whom do you want to sell it? Why should people buy? A good creative idea takes on a life of its own.
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Mastering the Rockefeller Habits

Spurn one-on-one meetings for group sessions, suggests Verne Harnish, one of the Top 10 Minds in Business by Fortune Small Business Magazine and author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits (Select Books): "In one-on-ones there's no Greek chorus singing out when the untruths begin to fly. When goals are at stake and accountability is an issue, the peer pressure of daily and weekly meetings keeps things moving."
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Two minds about power

If America’s most powerful women are of at least two minds about power – reluctant to admit they have it, much less that they like it – if nice guys finish last, should it shock us when nice girls don’t even get in the game?
Susan Estrich, lawyer, political activist, Ms. Magazine December 2000

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Connect the Dots

Cincinnati Bengals Coach Marvin Lewis has a quiet determination to create a winner, says Dick Lynch in his book Connect the Dots: To Become an Impact Player (iUniverse). What’s more, Coach Lewis has a favorite saying that ought to be etched on wall plates in offices everywhere: “All of us are smarter than any one of us.”
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The Success Effect

In The Success Effect (S&R) by John Eckberg, Capt. D. Michael Abrashoff, former commander of the U.S.S. Benfold talks about management by “wandering-about.” People think e-mail is communicating. Instead Abrashoff heard about extra efforts of staff, then sought them out for praise. "Within a day I was looking them in the eye and saying, I appreciate the extra effort. Compare that to getting an e-mail. No comparison."

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The New Art of the Leader

Want to build esprit de corps? Then model a World War I battalion, suggests William A. Cohen, author of The New Art of the Leader (Prentice/Penguin Group) and a retired Air Ford major general: “There is a group spirit that you must reach in order to motivate. For my money, esprit de corps is built on three things: your personal integrity, mutual confidence and a focus on contribution rather than personal gain.”
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Reasons most often cited

The National Foundation for Women Business Owners and Catalyst surveyed 800 business owners (25 percent were men) and found: Not having work appreciated and not being "taken seriously" were reasons most often cited among women who left the corporate world to set out on their own path.
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The Portable Mentor

In The Portable Mentor: Your Anywhere, Anytime Career Coach and Problem Solver (AMACOM), author Cy Charney suggests that the best executives are those who hire good people and then delegate. What duties to delegate? “Document your activities for a week. Divide tasks into two categories – those that you can do - those that can be delegated.” Delegated duties should include routine meetings and collecting data.
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Homer Simpson

If something is too hard to do, then it's not worth doing. Homer Simpson
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Women leaders

Women leaders have an edge over male leaders, according to Caliper, a Princeton, N.J. consulting firm. Though women score lower on ego than men, they are more assertive and more persuasive, said Herb Greenberg, president and CEO: "When somebody tells a woman that she may not have what it takes to succeed, a woman will try harder, maybe to prove that person wrong."

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The Answer to How is Yes

Think you need a boss to develop? You don't, insists Peter Block in The Answer to How is Yes (Berrett-Koehler): “Our development is in our hands. Women are constantly being told they are either too aggressive or too emotional. Men are told they should get better at relationships. Neither assessment is likely to be true. More likely both are projections of the boss.”
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Crossing the Unknown Sea

In Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity (Berkley/Penguin), author David Whyte suggests that anybody who has the time and initiative to even think of or consider the meaning of his work is a privileged person indeed. “Our great hope in wrestling with the unknown we must learn to call our life and our work, is to find a way to call on our courage for all the unknowns yet to come,” he says.
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