Private Directors Association - Harassment in the Workplace: Challenges Board Members & C-Suite Executives Face – excellent program with Lee Eisenstaedt, Co-Founder, Leading with Courage Academy, moderating a panel of experts - Jon Vegosen, Founding Member, Funkhouser Vegosen Liebman & Dunn Ltd, Terra Winston, Founder, inTerract, Gail Golden, Ph.D., Gail Golden Consulting, LLC and Aaron Turner, Senior Advisor, Risk Strategies Company. It was a great discussion talking about all sides of the issue - legal, risk management, coaching and consulting Boards and senior management. Picture - Susan Rosenstein with Lee Eisenstaedt

Wall Street Journal Saturday/Sunday January 13-14, 2018 Review section The Key to Success? Doing Less by Morten T. Hansen, professor of management at the University of California, Berkeley Adapted from his book, “Great at Work: How Top Performers Do Less, Work Better, and Achieve More” The title of the essay in the WSJ caught my eye immediately. How does one succeed by doing less? Very intriguing. Morten Hansen’s story sounds like that of many MBA’s who take positions in top consulting firms, start-ups, etc. and spend years working 60. 70, 80 plus hours a week to excel in their career. His Ah-Ha moment came while he was working on an intense project and saw some slides done by a teammate and thought how much better her analysis was than his with better insights and ideas. When he went to look for her and couldn’t find her, he asked a co-worker where she might be and lo and behold she had left for the day. In fact, she typically worked 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. That’s when Morten decided to leave consulting to study workplace performance as an academic. The bottom line is that his research indicated that “the best performers work hard (about 50 hours a week), but they don’t outperform because they work longer hours. They outperform their peers because they have the ability and courage to cut back, simplify when others pile on, to say “no” when others say “yes”, to pursue value when others just meet internal goals and to change how they do their jobs when others stick to the status quo.” They were selective in which priorities to focus on and then excelled at them. It is a fascinating essay that makes one want to read more in his book.

Lee Eisenstaedt is a bestselling author, speaker, and co-founder of the Leading With Courage® Academy (http://www.lwcacademy.com). His passion is helping new and emerging leaders make a bigger impact, sooner by being more self-aware of their leadership strengths and blind spots. This is the result of his first-hand, career-changing experience of how the earlier we’re aware of them, the greater the impact. He’s just become an Everything DiSC, Certified Trainer, which is a great complement to his corporate leadership experience, the insights from the research he did for his book and the Academy’s workshops, assessments and team of executive coaches. Companies in need of some assistance developing emerging, new or struggling leaders should consider contacting Lee.

Sandra Wilson, a CEO, President, Board Member, Consultant, Industrial & Manufacturing B2B Services executive has written some very interesting posts on leadership, corporate culture, and client relationships. Her most recent post on “Change” talks about when the best time is for a leader to make changes and why---very insightful. Check out all of her posts on her LinkedIn profile – Articles and Activity, https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandralongwilson/

As a Board member of the Indiana University Alumni Advisory Board – Chicago, I was so pleased to host a Coffee with Cream & Crimson held on October 12, 2017 at the IU Chicago Advancement Office. The theme was "Making the Right Career Moves". I gave the group my thoughts on a range of considerations to keep in mind before making a job move and to make sure they are not just “running away from a situation” but rather “going to a new opportunity”. We had a lively discussion with lots of questions and personal situations. Great program. Looking forward to doing another one. Photo (right-left) me, Karen Matts, Alicia Webb

Wall Street Journal, Business News, 09/06/2017 The Big Shift at Work Everyone has felt the shift in retirement and health benefits received from employers, which has been dramatic in recent years. While today more people are able to have flexible work schedules and work remotely from home, a favorite coffee/tea house or on the beach, many fringe benefits of full-time, permanent jobs have gone by the wayside. The biggest concern we hear from candidates is covering health benefits. The days of companies self-insuring or giving employees coverage at no cost are long gone but companies offering the best healthcare options rate higher up in evaluating which company to join. Looking at the WSJ chart, it is clear to see the vast changes. HEALTH INSURANCE Share of workers at large companies with employer-sponsored health insurance - 97%(1980) vs 61%(2016);With single coverage paying no premium -72%(1980) vs 5%(2016); With family coverage paying no premium - 51%(1980) vs 1%(2016) RETIREMENT Percentage of private-sector workers with pension plans 38%(1979) vs 13% (2014);With a 401(k) plan 17%(1979) vs 45%(2014) Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (health insurance, work-life balance); Kaiser Family Foundation (health insurance); Employee Benefits Research Institute retirement)

Hiring without resumes - Could this be a new trend?

WSJ Business & Finance Tuesday, June 27, 2017 Radical Hiring Experiment: Resumes Are Out - No resume? No campus recruiting. No human touch until the end of the process. Now that’s a new concept. No more agonizing over every word, accomplishment, spell check, whether to have an Overview or not, what to include, tailoring it to the specific job, how to format it, how to be creative. Well, a radical concept is being tested by Unilever PLC. While no resume is required, Unilever PLC is testing an exhaustive, in-depth new screening process for hiring entry level jobs and internships where software and algorithms do the bulk of the work to narrow the candidate pool for the final interview. A human writes the job description and a targeted ad is placed on Facebook and career-advice sites (like WayUp and the Muse) Interested candidates are directed to a career site to apply. Then the fun begins. The candidate goes through a series of online games and if they pass that hurdle, they go on to the next step – submitting a video answering pre-selected questions. The software uses a variety of data points including how fast the person responds to the question, body language and vocabulary to weed people out. For the candidate, it has to be strange because there isn’t the human feedback or body language of an interviewer to see if something needs clarification. The candidate pool becomes narrowed down to those who actually finally meet face to face with managers and human resources. Since the fall of 2016, Unilever has hired over 450 people globally. It will be interesting to follow how the process works over time vs the conventional method. Will it produce employees who are more successful and a better fit with the company? And, will it be extended to higher level positions? Stay tuned.