Do Men Earn More Because They Are More Productive?

A study of court reporters finds that men court reporters completed 29% more work than the women in the same time period. Another, of ob-gyns, found that the men ob-gyns put more hours into direct patient care and did more deliveries, but they also worked four more hours per week – so they produced more in a week, but not necessarily per hour worked.

Here’s the productivity-pay dilemma: if a man assigned to carry a stretcher needs only one additional man, but a woman needs three additional people, should the man receive extra productivity pay if he partners with a man to carry the stretcher, freeing two other military people for other functions?

If a man is less likely to drop out of the armed services, more willing to be deployed, and more willing to do what it takes even at a much greater risk of being killed, is that productivity in military terms? And if so, should the men be awarded extra pay?

In conclusion, defining productivity is different for business, the government, and the individual. For business, it’s profit. For the government, it may be protecting the country as efficient as possible. Or it may be trying social solutions that may not benefit monetarily but could benefit socially – in this case, troubleshooting the problems created by the integration of women into the manual labor part of the workforce.

Divided responsibilities are the wave of the future – not just for women, but for many men, too. Not for all workers, but for some. Why? Technology. Cellular phones allow a mom to pick up an important call from a home-office-on-the-soccer-field while watching her daughter kick a goal past the Running Devils.

Laptop computers allow Dad to retrieve a file while his son is retrieving a fly. Instead of “home, home, on the range,” it’s office, office, in the home… where our sons and daughters roam.” Ironically, the same technologies that facilitated independence and the option of divorce and therefore the destruction of families is now also creating opportunities to reunite families.

A projection is that by 2020, approximately 70% of dads will have responsibilities that are significantly divided between work and home. Making use of the gift of working women, then, involves treating women as pioneers in helping companies adapt to the divided responsibilities that will be a twenty-first century reality. It also involves helping employees understand why someone with divided responsibilities cannot be paid as much as someone whose responsibilities are more fully focused on work. 
 


If you would like to see the book summary of "Why Men Earn More," please visit BusinessSummaries.com.

Branding Unbound

If you’re in marketing, advertising, or branding, consider this: While it used to take three television spots for a product to register with its intended audience, it can now take as many as seventy. Are people simply tuning out marketing messages?

No. They’re simply choosing which messages to tune in. Thanks to wireless technology, customers now have the luxury of responding (or not responding) to advertising when, where, and however they like.

Leading companies such as Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Kellogg’s, MTV, Procter & Gamble, and others are already reaching millions of customers, one at a time, wirelessly. The technology gives these companies an unprecedented view of buying patterns, and the ability to identify and market specifically to the most likely customers.

In the wireless marketing era, your brand can enjoy whole new levels of differentiation and customer recognition, while consumers benefit from on-the-spot convenience and a message individually tailored to their needs. Branding Unbound shows just how to harness the virtually limitless power of this amazing convergence of advanced technology and progressive business strategy to create the truly remarkable experience that will keep customers’ attention and win their loyalty.

This book reveals how your business can emulate some of the most powerful and successful branding strategies in the world.

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Who is Anywhere Today?

To help clarify each of these distinct consumer segments, we’ve named the five groups to create intuitive impressions of each segment and how to reach it.

1. Analogs

In this revolution, the best way to describe them is to say that they are uninterested in digital technology. Analogs cannot even be called slow followers of our Anywhere trend, since they make the choice to avoid advanced technology altogether. Much of their reluctance may be the result of age; the Analogs are, in terms of average age, the oldest segment.

2. Technophytes

This is a group of consumers who aspire to be considered cutting edge when it comes to technology. In reality, though, they are late followers of digital media and connected devices. Why? Because while they are interested in these technologies, they don’t have the disposable income available to buy them until there are mature and more affordable. Technophytes want their Anywhere connections; they just can’t afford them until they are mainstream.

3. Digital Shut-ins

This is the group of consumers who have a great interest in digital media in their own homes, but less so when they are away from home. While these consumers enthusiastically embrace digital media, they aren’t as aggressive in adopting connected devices. Educating this segment remains important because Shut-ins often fail to equip their devices, such as HDTV, with all the services they support, like HD channel programming from their providers.

4. Outlet Jockeys

Along with consumers in our final segment, Outlet Jockeys own the latest and greatest portable devices and thirst for more of them. These mobile consumers enjoy cutting-edge portable applications as well as using their hand sets to e-mail, instant message, and engage in social networking.

5. Actualized Anywheres

Actualized Anywheres may be the smallest segment, comprising only 5 percent of the population in North America and Western Europe, but they are the most important. They enthusiastically buy Anywhere products and services for their mobile lifestyles, and, unlike Outlet Jockeys, they apply those devices and services at home. Actualized Anywheres bring the concept of a ubiquitously connected consumer to life.

Curious on knowing more about the "anywhere" concept and what it means to your business? Grab the summary on BusinessSummaries.com.

Tools to Keep Tabs on Competitors

On the flip side, it is easier than ever to track how your competition is doing on the Web if you know what you are doing. Here are seven different ways you can track yourself relative to your competitors:

1. Website Grade – Go to WebsiteGrader.com and run your website alongside your competitors’ web sites to see how well you do. Pay special attention to upstart competitors who might be more focused on leveraging the Web than some of the more traditional players.

2. Delicious – Delicious.com is an online version of someone’s browser bookmarks, so if many people have your site bookmarked, it means you have remarkable content. If your competitors’ bookmarks grow rapidly, it means the marketplace is starting to respond to something they are saying or doing.

3. Inbound Links – An increase in the number of links to a site can indicate that a competitor is getting more traction with its products.

4. TwitterGrade – Go to Twitter.Grader.com and run your company’s Twitter profile through and compare it to each competitor. You should track this metric over time.

5. Facebook Fans – Go to Facebook.com and see the number of fans your company’s web site has relative to your competitor’s web site. You will have to search around to find the company page in facebook. This number is worth tracking over time – if your competitor starts to gain a lot of fans, then it means their customer loyalty is increasing.

6. Compete – Go to Compete.com and compare their estimate of the traffic your site is getting versus your competitors.

7. Buzz – Go to Google and do a search on “your brand” and look at the number of results in the upper right hand corner. Do the same for each of your competitors. The number of results shows the number of pages on the Web where the brand is mentioned. This metric is worth tracking over time as it will let you know how your “buzz” is relative to your competitors’. You can do the same thing in blogsearch.google to see how your buzz is going relative to your competitors in the blogosphere.

For more updated insights on business marketing, please visit BusinessSummaries.com.

So You Have Talent. Now What?

New York Times best-selling author Dr. John C. Maxwell has a message for you, and for today’s corporate culture fixated on talent above all else: TALENT IS NEVER ENOUGH.

People everywhere are proving him right. Read the headlines, watch the highlights, or just step out your front door.

Some talented people reach their full potential, while others self-destruct or remain trapped in mediocrity. What makes the difference?

Maxwell, the go-to guru for business professionals across the globe, insists that the choices people make – not merely the skills they inherit – propel them to greatness. Among other truths, successful people know that:

• Belief lifts your talent.
• Initiative activates your talent.
• Focus directs your talent.
• Preparation positions your talent.
• Practice sharpens your talent.
• Perseverance sustains your talent.
• Character protects your talent… and more!

It’s what you add to your talent that makes the greatest difference. With authentic examples and time-tested wisdom, Maxwell shares attributes you need to maximize your potential and live the life of your dreams.

You can have talent alone and fall short of your potential. Or you can have talent plus, and really stand out.

Executive Warfare

Executive Warfare
Winning Your War for Success
by David F. D’Alessandro with Michele Owens

It's not enough anymore to be smart, hard-working, and able to show results – because nowadays everybody is smart, hard-working, and able to show results.

What really sets you apart are the relationships you build with people of influence. These people can include your peers, your employees, your organization's directors, reporters, vendors, and regulators – as well as the people directly above you in the organizational hierarchy.

In senior management, you no longer answer to just one boss. “Executive Warfare” offers concrete advice for handling all of them, including:

THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS: They won't judge you fairly if all they see of you are your PowerPoint presentations.

YOUR DIRECT REPORTS: These people are your vital organs, so treat them accordingly.

YOUR RIVALS: It's not always wise to shoot at them, but if you do, do not shoot to wound.


Why You Need This Book
In his bestsellers “Brand Warfare” and “Career Warfare”, author David D'Alessandro offered sharp advice for building a brand and building a career. Now “Executive Warfare” is the advanced class for the truly ambitious.


Attitude, Risk, and Luck: They Are the Most Influential Bosses

ATTITUDE: The Boss Within
It’s incredibly important to get your own head in the game if you intend to rise. If you are bossed around by your own greed, arrogance, or childish lack of discipline, you will give people reason to doubt you, and you will undermine yourself.

RISK: Slice It, Dice It, and If It Looks Good, Eat It for Breakfast
Higher management is all about handling risks intelligently and in a calculated fashion.

LUCK: Smarter Than Reaching for the Brass Ring Is Letting It Slap You in the Nose
Nobody gets to the top without being lucky. Luck happens to the most deserving of people and some of the most undeserving.


Bosses: You Need a License to Cut Hair, but Not to Manage and Control Thousands of People
The first rule of your relationship with your boss is to understand that it’s a business transaction. If you are willing to give the boss the truth, you’re probably going to engage in some spirited debate with your boss as part of the decision-making process. No matter how incompetent or unpleasant he may be, never tell stories about your boss. Never make the boss feel betrayed – unless, of course, you are ready to grab the boss’ job.


Peers: Understand That They Are Your Most Valuable Allies… or Your Most Dangerous Enemies
You can identify the consiglieri by their unfettered access to the boss. These are the people able to walk into the office of the executive director or president or CEO on a moment’s notice and just glide past the assistant, with or without an appointment.

Cultivating the consiglieri is not just a smart defensive move. The key thing to understand is that such a relationship only works if you are willing to be generous with the credit for your great idea.


CAREFULLY REMOVE ALL TATTOOS
Be smart. Place some of your trust in people who will tell you when your face is dirty, as well as when it’s clean.

Be discreet.

Anticipate cross-cut attacks that will make you seem sanctimonious or false.

If the rumor is a lie, calmly make the facts known. If there is a crumb of truth in it, though, be humble enough to admit it and see if you can’t improve yourself.


Rivals: Defeat Them with a Siege, Not a Coup
ALLOW YOUR RIVALS TO BE SHORT-SIGHTED. A lot of short-term rivals wind up being short-term by doing dumb things. So time is on your side. Relax and behave like a leader.

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE POINTED QUESTION. You are subtly demonstrating how terrific you would be as their boss – and hopefully, planting this idea in the minds of the decision makers.

IF YOU CAN’T RESIST A SHOW OF AGGRESSION, MAKE SURE IT’S LETHAL. If you must shoot, do not shoot to wound. Finish the person off as a rival.

IF YOU ARE THE SNAKE IN THE NEST, STRIKE QUICKLY. Act quickly, before your boss’s paranoia has a chance to flower, because dawdling is dangerous. Your boss has more access than you do to the CEO and the board.

IF YOU LOSE TO YOUR RIVAL, EITHER LEARN TO LIKE EATING CROW, OR GO. If you do stay on as a loser, you generally either have to find another place to go within the organization that offers you another chance to rise, or wait out your rival’s tenure – five years, seven years, ten years – for a second shot at the job you wanted.

WITH FORMER RIVALS, IT’S KISS OR KILL. If you win the race, you either embrace your rivals or kill them. There’s nothing in between, because nothing is more dangerous than allowing the defeated to remain rivals.


The Team You Assemble: You Risk Your Reputation with Every Hire and Fire
The truth is that when you are the boss, it’s really hard to hire people unlike yourself, either in personality or in expertise. Why? Do it anyway if you think they are right for the job. Hire for candor. Look instead for seasoned, confident people, courageous people who will take the personal hit of telling you the truth rather than feeding you pleasant lies.

Develop a reputation as somebody who not only can build a strong team but also can bring in people who can build strong teams.


The People You Have to Motivate: You Are a Fool if You Think They Love You
You can get people to work very, very hard because they are proud of your organization or because they want your organization’s prestigious name on their resume. Sometimes what people need most is respect for the fact that they have personal lives. They are far more effective if they feel respected that way. You are winning people’s loyalty in action. Treat the people who work for you with respect and start building that loyalty today.


Outsiders with Influence: Be Wary, Be Right, and Be Prepared to Prove It
Make sure your people understand that if there is any hint of a problem, you’re to know about it. And if there is a serious problem, be prepared to get on a plane in order to soothe the savage beast.

If the client really counts, make sure that she has your home phone number, not just your cell phone. Say to that client, “If there’s a problem, call me any time.”

Help them solve problems, not just in their businesses and careers, but also in their lives. Treat them as human beings, and use your influence to help them.

Never lie to them. If your company has screwed something up, tell them you screwed it up.

Everywhere you go, there is a chance that you will run into somebody who has some influence with the powers that be in your organization. Random strangers to you are not always strangers to the people who hold your career in their hands. So it is smart to conduct yourself, in public at least, as if there is always somebody in the audience who matters.

Put yourself into position. Make it known that you want a revenue-gathering job. Don’t just raise your hand when a job comes up, when people are already thinking of other candidates. Raise your hand in advance.

Then dive right in. if it turns out that you have no appetite for the hunt, you can always come back to the staff job later.

Work out a plan in case you lose your job.


Culture: Before You Sign on, Make Sure it’s a Culture, Not a Cult
You must know the unwritten rules of your organization’s culture so that you don’t break them unwittingly.

Be sure also that the culture of your organization allows for forward motion – that it will give you the opportunities you deserve. If not, make a deft exit as soon as you can.


The New Bosses: It’s Not the Same Old Twentieth-Century Game
If you want to rise, you have to demonstrate leadership to many different audiences. These include the people above and below you in the organizational hierarchy, the people who are competing with you for the next job and those resentful because they cannot compete for it, the outsiders and insiders and shareholders and donors and disinterested observers only looking for a juicy story to alleviate the tedium.

In today’s world, you have to be alert to win.


BusinessSummaries.com is a business book summaries service. Every week, it sends out to subscribers a 9- to 12-page summary of a best-selling business book chosen from among the hundreds of books printed out in the United States. For more information, please go to http://www.bizsum.com

Lessons from the book "When Fish Fly"

These are notes based on the book:

When Fish Fly: Lessons for Creating a Vital and Energized Workplace from the World Famous Pike Place Fish Market by John Yokoyama and Joseph Michelli, Ph.D.

The Big Idea
People come from far and wide to the World Famous Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle, not only to witness the hilarious spectacle of fishmongers throwing slippery salmon to one another, but also to share in the joyous atmosphere generated by the company’s uniquely vital culture.

Pike Place Fish was not always World Famous, however. In this remarkable business-advice book, owner John Yokoyama tells the story of how he transformed a small company on the verge of bankruptcy into an extraordinary model of success. It all began with a vision: By declaring themselves “World Famous” (before it became a reality), Yokoyama and his employees made a conscious decision not just to seek fame but to make a positive difference every day in the lives of each of their customers, suppliers, and colleagues.


Why You Need This Book
This book offers stakeholders – owners, managers, and front-line workers alike – strategies for achieving world-famous results in any kind of business by developing a culture that leads to excellent customer service, legendary employee morale, and a fun and energized work environment.

After all, if Pike Place Fish can make a world famous difference from a small storefront, with zero advertising, in a smelly, physically challenging profession, then the same is possible for any company.


Creating a Vision of Power and Possibility
With the declaration of “World Famous Pike Place Fish”, the company evolved from one that existed totally to sell fish to one that was interested in extraordinary service to its customers and its world. Merely selling fish was no longer the main reason it was open for business.

It generates a more meaningful reality for all of the employees, who are not simply fish salespeople; they are agents of change. Anyone can sell fish – few can make a world-famous difference while doing it.

A purposeful vision has power like nothing else – breakthroughs happen as a result. Looking past the everyday demands of the bottom line, every employee continually seeks to love the company’s vision, World Famous Pike Place Fish. For them, the vision is the bottom line. If World Famous Pike Place Fish is present through them, all else falls into place.


THREE PLEDGES OF AN OWNER
It is very clear to John Yokoyama what World Famous Pike Place Fish means. From his perspective as the company’s owner, he aims to:

Make a world famous difference in the lives of everyone who comes into his business;

Empower the creative people he works with so that they can make a world famous difference for each other, the customers, the community, and beyond; and

Demonstrate what is possible when one empowers one’s employees. (Originally, John’s desire was to demonstrate this only to small-business owners. These days, he also finds himself sharing these possibilities with executives in large corporations, as well as with organizations and community leaders.)


Achieving Individual Commitment and Team Alignment
At Pike Place Fish, people are viewed in a very different way. People are not objects to be motivated or persuaded into action. Fundamentally, people are creative beings and they should be treated as such.

Once the powerful creativity of employees is accepted, you simply need to present the opportunity for them to grow. In a general sense, this is the new reality John offers at Pike Place Fish.

You can come to work and affect the world for the better. You can matter in the lives of others. You can share a powerful vision with our team and create breakthrough success, and yes, you can do all that while throwing and selling fish.

I also affirm that I am devoted to having my business and the people in it make a profound difference.

We are committed to this, and everybody who works here has personally taken responsibility for participation and for being on this boat.

Committing to working here means you are not just accepting a job. If you take a stand to be on this team, you are declaring that you will make a difference for every customer and have a positive, world famous impact on the world at large.

If you say “yes” to working here, you become an owner and creator of this vision. What that means personally for you is that you are World Famous Pike Place Fish.


Focusing on the Process for Achieving Success
Through management’s intention to use World Famous Pike Place Fish as a way to serve other people, and the subsequent process that that declaration called forth, the company’s crew has made a difference in people’s lives and in the success of the market. Being is strategy in action. We create intentions and commit to them. Change really happens naturally, just out of who you’re being. You will create your own way, and you’ll create doing what you do. Our secret to success lies in our commitment to being who we say we are.


Choosing Powerful Conversations
When you shift conversations and explore the greatness of your team members, you’re likely to be a person who creates opportunities for their strengths to show up on the job.

What conversations are automatic for you? How do you and those with whom you work yield to power-limiting conversations? By stopping automatic, passive, and power-reducing conversations, dynamic and generative forces are unleashed, and these forces drive their success and fuel their ability to make a difference.

Creating deep and powerful conversations works at Pike Place Fish, and powerful conversations have positively transformed the lives of the employees’ families as well.


Making a Difference by Listening Intently
When staff members feel that their manager listens to them, they are more likely to listen to their co-workers as well. Listening gives people access to their creativity and assists them in relating to one another.

When you live your life with a genuine interest and concern for others, it’s clear to you when members of your team aren’t listening to make a difference. It’s easy to coach them and receive coaching from them to make sure that they are listening to one another and to those who come into contact with your business.

If you are going to listen powerfully to your customers, you can’t do it in order to make more money. If you do listen for that reason, it is just a form of manipulation. When you truly listen to someone, you hold that person in high regard. Has someone has truly listened to you lately? Do you typically listen to make a difference, or do you usually listen to defend yourself?


Coaching for Greatness
Let’s look at some conversations that interfere with coaching:

“Why should I coach them? “I don’t want to change. “I don’t like the way you are coaching me, so I am not listening.”

When it comes to coaching, Pike Place Fish is a strange place. Defensiveness and resistance to change have melted away, and people see coaching as an opportunity for growth.

As a result, things get done better than ever before, and the Pike Place people are at their creative best. The success of the company’s coaching starts with the staff’s intention to make a world-famous difference and their commitment to care enough to consistently share supportive, compassionate comments and ideas with one another.

While unusual, their culture is available to any workplace. It’s just a conversation away.

While it is difficult to separate out the key components behind any company’s success, the following elements are behind Pike Place Fish’s success:

Creating a vision of power and possibility as a team

Enrolling and formalizing individual commitment and team alignment to the vision

Helping team members distinguish between the state of being and the state of doing

Having the leadership redefine themselves as effective agents of change

Assisting team members in letting go of internal and external conversations that rob them of their personal power

Guiding team members to listen to make a difference instead of listening to defend or blame

Helping the crew live their commitment to one another through effective coaching

Assisting crew members as they turn snags into breakthroughs

How empowered, energized, and alive can you make your workplace? If Pike Place Fish can make a world famous difference from a small storefront with zero advertising in a smelly, physically challenging profession, then what’s possible for you, your business, your family, and your community?

BusinessSummaries.com is a business book summaries service. Every week, it sends out to subscribers a 9- to 12-page summary of a best-selling business book chosen from among the hundreds of books printed out in the United States. For more information, please go to http://www.bizsum.com

5 Steps to Successful Business Leadership

VIRTUALLY ALL PEOPLE HAVE THE SKILL.

WHAT AFFECTS PERFORMANCE MOST IS THEIR ATTITUDE.

Having the will to succeed is as important as having the skill, for with will, skill is often acquired. But even then, circumstances can conspire against one’s best efforts. External circumstances can and do impact on business results. So, despite the focus in the last section on managing our minds and lifting our own game, circumstances can and do make things tough from time to time.

When judging others who are expected to achieve a result and do not, the reaction is to look to them and their performance. When judging ourselves, the tendency is to look for the reasons that stopped us, and it is the exception to examine first our own attitude. But it is common for the attitude to be a major cause of results that do not come up to what is expected. If the targets are ridiculously high, then shortfall could be expected. But most businesses today understand the process of involvement and ownership to ensure that the targets are achievable – but at a stretch. It is the last bit that can and does cause the problem.

What attitude is a problem? Any that undermines our giving of our best. A perennial problem encountered is in commission sales teams and with some mature people. Assume someone is 45 years old – male or female, it makes little difference. They are very skilled and capable. They own their home, their partner works, a modest income is all they need, so £40,000 is easily achievable for them, when with some stretch, they could make £100,000. But they do not do it. The management of the company can become frustrated, tensions set in and it falls apart. The person is on commission and sees him or herself as self-employed. Who is right? There is no simple answer. Both sides need to make concessions to the needs and pressures of the other. Perhaps a target income figure of £60,000 could be set, and the problem then put from people’s minds.

It should be your consistent experience that you know in your heart when your attitude lacks the vigor it otherwise could have. Where we choose to cease striving just before you are really sure that the result is impossible. It is at those moments that only a thorough-going intellectual honesty, a brutal honesty with yourself can save your efforts.

Management leadership is not conceptually difficult to understand. What must happen is that the concepts should be kept simple and focus on the truly difficult aspect, which is living out the concepts. If there is ever any conflict between the complexity of the concept and ease of living out the concept, then the concept will be simplified to encourage and support action.

Set yourself sensible goals, plan how you will remind yourself of the goals and the actions to achieve the, review progress regularly, reward yourself for gains, forgive yourself for slipping back into old ways (just start again), be persistent and be patient with yourself, very patient. Also, be sure to apply your learning to the people in your team as they also strive to change.

Would you like to see the full summary of the book written by Graham Little? Please visit http://www.bizsum.com.