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"Leadership is directing the behavior of others to accomplish an objective."

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Today's business world is as complex as ever. And it's always changing.

Ray Carvey, executive vice president of corporate learning at Harvard Business Publishing, a subsidiary of the Harvard Business School, says management structures today are very different than 20 years ago, namely because of the middle manager.

Carvey describes today's business world as "volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous," and says it's crucial to stay productive through this time of change.

According to Harvard Business Publishing's recent report, " Leading Now: Critical Capabilities for a Complex World," there are eight critical capabilities leaders must possess to be effective today.

1. Effective leaders manage complexity.

"Leaders who know how to manage complexity are skilled at solving problems and making decisions under fast-changing systems," the report says. Even before any definitive information is available, effective leaders must assess a situation's complexity and choose appropriate courses of action.

2. Effective leaders manage global businesses.

Carvey says that managing a global business wouldn't have made the list 10 years ago, but today, understanding global markets and knowing you're in a global market is key. Leaders must maintain a global focus on a day-to-day basis. "This includes assessing what's happening with consumers, competitors, the economy, and the politics of the markets in which their businesses operate," according to the report.

3. Effective leaders act strategically.

Just as thinking globally is a must, a forward-thinking approach is also necessary. "While older practices focused on long-term strategy development, today's world requires a more continuous process: Leaders must always be prepared to adjust their strategies to capture emerging opportunities or tackle unexpected challenges," the report says.

4. Effective leaders foster innovation.

With the ever-increasing levels of competition, "no strategy can sustain a company's competitive edge indefinitely," the report says. Regardless of how successful something may be, there can always be an emphasis on innovation. Effective leaders understand this and are focused on taking a business to the next level.

5. Effective leaders leverage networks.

Successful leaders take networking beyond advancing their own careers, the report says. Rather, they view it as a way to benefit the organization and create relationships with "customers, suppliers, strategic partners, and even competitors." No matter how it's used, though, effective leaders in this category must "demonstrate a talent for collaboration," according to the report.

6. Effective leaders inspire engagement.

It's absolutely crucial to keep employees at all levels of an organization interested and engaged in the work being done. It's all about giving them a feeling of value. Simply retaining employees isn't the goal. "People can occupy jobs for years, but they won't create value for their organizations if they're not invested in their work," the report says. It's up to the leader to ensure employees actually feel that they're making a difference.

7. Effective leaders develop personal adaptability.

Again, this is a matter of understanding the continuous change that's occurring. Something that may have worked brilliantly in the past won't necessarily work again. "Adaptable leaders steer clear of a 'that's how we've always done it' mentality," the report says. Instead, they look at new realities through fresh eyes so they can spot and seize valuable opportunities.

8. Effective leaders cultivate learning agility.

Learning agility is the trait most everyone struggles with, Carvey says. As business strategies and models evolve, the leader must, as well. Effective leaders take the initiative in finding opportunities to learn. "They continuously experiment with new approaches, using techniques such as rapid prototyping," the report says. "And they take time to reflect on their experiences so they can learn from successes and failures."

Keep in mind, however, that as the business world continues to change, the key traits necessary for leaders to be successful may also change. In a volatile environment, the ability to react to new scenarios is imperative.

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Harvard says these 8 leadership traits are critical for success

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Today's business world is as complex as ever. And it's always changing. Ray Carvey, executive vice president of corporate learning at Harvard Business Publishing, a subsidiary of the Harvard Business School, says management structures today are very different than 20 years ago, namely because of the middle manager.

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Motivating your staff will allow then to think you are on their side and that they are capable to do anything you need them to do. This is helpful ways to be a good leader and motivate your employees.

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Good HR means good employees.

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Be clear on your expectations, it will save you and your employees a lot of stress.

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Clear communication helps cut down on conflicts in the work place. It also empowers staff to do work well and how you intended.

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Many HR leaders communicate with executives about the organization's future workforce.

Digital Vision./Photodisc/Getty Images

If silo management was the preferred method for running organizations, then communication wouldn't be such a big deal. But the reality is that effective communication is key to any organization's success -- whether it's a small operation or a multinational corporation. Effective communication is a critical point for human resources leaders. They must be in sync with the organization's leadership and its workforce to support internal and external customer service, manage change within the organization and build the integrity of the HR department.

Intradepartmental HR Communication

While HR managers themselves must learn to effectively communicate with the organization's workforce, they also are obligated to strengthen the communication lines between HR leadership and HR staffers. One of the uphill battles for HR managers is improving employee perception of HR, which for the most part has been likened to reporting to the principal's office for a reprimand. Many employees don't understand the functionality of HR and, even less, the purpose that an HR department serves, except when it comes to processing payroll via direct deposit. When an HR manager communicates effectively with her staff, they represent a team with a consistent mission that can establish HR's credibility throughout the organization.

Strategic Direction

HR leaders, especially the high-level ones, regularly interact with top management. In organizations that value HR and look to HR department leadership as the guiding force in creating a productive and engaged workforce, HR managers form partnerships with top leaders to develop the company's strategic direction. They communicate the return on investment in HR activities and justify the organization's support for functions such as training and development. Absent the ability to communicate with chief executives, HR risks not becoming a member of the team responsible for defining the organization's strategic growth and functional implementation of its strategic plan.

Functional Implementation

An HR manager's expertise often is demonstrated through communicating her job knowledge, HR best practices and her professional vision for the HR department and the organization as a whole. Putting strategy into place requires functional implementation of steps, processes and procedures -- mostly communicating to the HR staff how to serve the needs of the organization's internal and external customers. Internal customers are the organization's employees and external customers are applicants, candidates, vendors and experts to whom the company might outsource HR functions. The benefit of effective communication means that the functional implementation is appropriate for the strategic direction of the company and that the HR staff clearly understands how to move forward under the direction of the HR manager.

Effective Leadership

Effective leadership benefits from effective communication on the HR manager's part in interdepartmental concerns. HR managers who are capable of empowering supervisors and managers in areas such as being first responders for employee relations matters, relieve HR staff of handling many of the routine issues that arise within departments. HR develops and delivers leadership training, too. This provides supervisors and managers with the tools to be successful, whether it's conducting annual performance appraisals, learning to coach employees for high performance or assessing the strengths of emerging leaders for the organization's succession plan.

Communication Benefits Risk Management

Organizations with disgruntled, unhappy employees subject themselves to costly workplace issues, complaints and lawsuits, but communication often resolves issues before they lead to litigation and settlements. Another benefit of effective communication through HR leadership minimizes the company's liability for unfair employment practices. Communicating the organization's policies on equal employment opportunities and substantiating employment decisions with proper documentation is one aspect of effective communication that ensures the organization is in compliance with federal, state and local labor and employment laws. Communicating these policies to both staff and leadership further ensures that the workforce understands the company's commitment to fair and equal treatment, regardless of sex, disability, race, religion and other non-job-related factors.

About the Author

Ruth Mayhew began writing in 1985. Her work appears in "The Multi-Generational Workforce in the Health Care Industry" and "Human Resources Managers Appraisal Schemes." Mayhew earned senior professional human resources certification from the Human Resources Certification Institute and holds a Master of Arts in sociology from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Photo Credits

Digital Vision./Photodisc/Getty Images

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What Are the Benefits of Effective Communication as a Human Resource Manager?

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If silo management was the preferred method for running organizations, then communication wouldn't be such a big deal. But the reality is that effective communication is key to any organization's success -- whether it's a small operation or a multinational corporation. Effective communication is a critical point for human resources leaders.

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Processes are critical for businesses to run smoothly.  Having processes in place lets your staff know what you expect and shows them how to do it.

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No, I did not watch the whole hour of this video, but the half I did watch was interesting and will help with business structure.

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The Science of Organizational Structure (Presenter: Dean Meyer)

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"Show me your organization chart, and I'll tell you who's fighting with whom, who's not making objectives, and who has ulcers!" A well-designed IT organization dramatically improves performance by empowering staff as entrepreneurs, focusing them on professional excellence, and supporting dynamic cross-boundary teamwork. Unfortunately, in many organizations, structure has evolved over the years in haphazard ways.

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From the first business plan, to a business who has been open for 10 years, you will never stop planning for the future.

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The decision you make drive the direction that your business will go.

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Taken from a live Business Blueprint event, serial entrepreneur, Creel Price discusses a key factor in an entrepreneurs success as being 'decisionship' and in this clip he explains how you can start making better business decisions. If you enjoyed this video, comment and share it with other entrepreneurs and keep in touch with us!

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Wether in you business or in your personal life planning and decision making play huge roles.

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The Frame step, planning decision making, requires that time be spent to define the purpose and scope of a decision. This involves being clear about how success is defined. If decision framing is done poorly, you could end up making the wrong decision.

Like any plan, decision framing does not ensure the outcome. However, without it, the probability of success is significantly reduced, and the likelihood increases that any learning from the decision making process will be flawed.

Decision making planning envisions the desired outcome and asks the questions needed to move toward the chosen solution. This is true for business as well as personal decisions. Similar to problem solving, certain framing questions help to clarify and further characterize the choice to be made.

Planning decision making - Frame preparation

Begin by establishing decision context with these process steps:

1. Explore the decision situation - Questions help identify the motivation, timing, people and emotions involved with the decision.

2. Determine the value of the decision - Decision value is used to estimate effort and expense that might be appropriate for choosing a solution.

3. Identify / confirm stakeholders - Identifying and involving stakeholders early increases commitment to a decision outcome.

4. Consider connected decisions and identify focusing decisions - Guiding requirements from focusing decisions will create alignment with previously made decisions.

Planning decision making - Defining success

The core of the Frame step is to define success, preferably before considering solution alternatives. Here are the steps:

1. Identify guiding requirements - Guiding requirements from related decisions help create/confirm success criteria that result from previously made decisions.

2. Consider criteria categories and choose / define success criteria - Criteria should reflect the goals, objectives and values of the decision stakeholders. By considering criteria from different categories, you are more likely to identify the diversity of success criteria that will lead to a better decision. The categories are performance, schedule, cost, compliance, compatibility (or harmony), and consistency.

3. Fine tune success criteria - Rework criteria to ensure that guiding requirements from related decisions are appropriately addressed.

4. Confirm balance - Review balance of criteria across categories to avoid cognitive biases including framing effects (e.g., framing impacts people differently because of how they perceive losses and gains).

5. Prioritize the criteria - Set the weight of each criterion desire (or want) to reflect level of importance relative to other criteria.

Planning decision making - Preparing for evaluation

Decision framing concludes with setting up and managing tasks that support completing the process. Use these steps to complete decision planning:

1. Plan data gathering - Identify how and where you will acquire/capture the information needed to evaluate each criterion.

2. Map issues or concerns to relevant decisions - Issues can be very disruptive to the decision making process. Use our decision making model to map issues to the appropriate decision element.

3. Manage framing - Capture and manage the tasks needed to finish the Frame step and prepare for the next steps in the process (Innovate, Decide, and Manage).

Benefits of good decision framing

Planning decision making may well be the most important part of the decision making process. Framing effectively will avoid many decision traps and provide the following benefits:

Establishes realistic timing for the decision effort and prevents rushing to judgment

Considers the broader set of "open" connected decisions, then prioritizes and enables working on the most important one first

Identifies and prioritizes criteria for success of decision stakeholders before considering solutions alternatives

Helps reduce or eliminate destructive biases in the decision making process

Manages emotions and counters cognitive errors to improve a decision result

Reuses knowledge from previous decisions

Return from Planning Decision Making to Decision Making Process

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Planning Decision Making - The Frame step

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The Frame step, planning decision making, requires that time be spent to define the purpose and scope of a decision. This involves being clear about how success is defined. If decision framing is done poorly, you could end up making the wrong decision. Like any plan, decision framing does not ensure the outcome.

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What will make you stand out on a global market?

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References

1. See R.E. Lewis and R.J. Heckman, "Talent Management: A Critical Review," Human Resource Management Review 16 (2006): 139-154.

2. E.G. Chambers, M. Foulon, H. Handfield-Jones, S.M. Hankin and E.G. Michaels, "The War for Talent," McKinsey Quarterly 3 (1998): 44-57.

3. E.E. Lawler III, "The Folly of Forced Ranking," Strategy & Business 28 (2002): 28-32; and J. Pfeffer and R.I. Sutton, "Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management" (Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2006).

4. Chambers, "The War for Talent."

5. M.A. Huselid, R.W. Beatty and B. Becker, "The Differentiated Workforce" (Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2009).

6. R.S. Schuler, S.E. Jackson and I. Tarique, "International HRM: A North America Perspective, a Thematic Update and Suggestions for Future Research," International Journal of Human Resource Management (May 2007): 15-43.

7. C.A. Bartlett and A.N. McLean, "GE's Talent Machine: The Making of a CEO," Harvard Business School Case no. 9-304-049 (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2006).

8. P. Wright and M. Stewart, "From Bunker to Building: Results of the 2010 Cornell/CAHRS Chief Human Resource Officer Survey," www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs.

9. J.A. Chatman and S.E. Cha, "Leading by Leveraging Culture," California Management Review 45 (2003): 20-34.

10. J. Pfeffer and J.F. Veiga, "Putting People First for Organizational Success," Academy of Management Executive 13 (1999): 37-49.

11. S. Palmisano, "Leading Change When Business Is Good," Harvard Business Review (December 2004): 60-70.

12. T.J. Erickson, "Gen Y in the Workforce," Harvard Business Review (February 2009): 43-49.

13. G.K. Stahl and I. Björkman, "Winning the War for Talent: Accenture's Great Place to Work for Women Strategy," unpublished INSEAD case study.

14. W.J. Holstein, "Best Companies for Leaders: P&G's A.G. Lafley Is No. 1 for 2005," Chief Executive (November 2005): 16-20.

15. Wright, "From Bunker to Building."

16. E. Farndale, H. Scullion and P. Sparrow, "The Role of the Corporate HR Function in Global Talent Management," Journal of World Business 45, no. 2 (2010): 161-168.

17. M. Guthridge, A.B. Komm and E. Lawson, "The People Problem in Talent Management," McKinsey Quarterly 2 (2006): 6-8.

18. P.M. Rosenzweig and N. Nohria, "Influences on Human Resource Management Practices in Multinational Corporations," Journal of International Business Studies 25 (1994): 229-251.

19. C. Bartlett and S. Ghoshal, "Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution" (London: Hutchinson Business Books, 1989).

20. P. Evans, V. Pucik and I. Björkman, "The Global Challenge: International Human Resource Management," 2nd ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011).

21. Evans,"The Global Challenge."

22. F. Brown, "Head-to-Head: Interview with Jean-Pierre Garnier," World Business (September 2006): 20-23.

23. S. Palmisano, "The Globally Integrated Enterprise," Foreign Affairs 85, no. 3 (May-June 2006): 127-136.

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Six Principles of Effective Global Talent Management

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References 1. See R.E. Lewis and R.J. Heckman, "Talent Management: A Critical Review," Human Resource Management Review 16 (2006): 139-154. 2. E.G. Chambers, M. Foulon, H. Handfield-Jones, S.M. Hankin and E.G. Michaels, "The War for Talent," McKinsey Quarterly 3 (1998): 44-57. 3. E.E.

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Culture, language, country laws, and trade agreements all play a role in global management. Having a strategy will help you over come these struggles.

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The Future of Leadership and Management in Global Business Environment

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Pre-globalisation era: scientific management theory, administrative management theory; Globalisation, The most important Abilities of Global Managers, Future of Leadership and global leaders, Main challenges for global leaders in today's global business environment. Language barrier in a workplace, communication skills, cultural diversity in business and future trends. How to become the best manager or leader?

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The corporate world is being more globalized then ever before. knowing skills to managing and dealing with companies globally helps you be a good manager.

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It's a Small (but diverse) World: Performance Management for the Global Organization

I'm not going to lie to you: rebooting your performance management to effectively drive organizational performance, develop people, and reward equitably requires a good deal of serious thought. Managing performance at a global level, however, warrants serious thought on steroids. You must have a solid understanding of the legislative and regulatory issues and demographic trends and labor laws from every jurisdiction in which you've got people. Hard enough. But the most critical global consideration for rebooting your performance management is to understand the cultural differences in your workforce.

If we were to take a peek at what organizations have historically done to recognize these differences, we'd see that the tactics range dramatically from barely a nod (bad) to localized approaches custom-designed for each unique culture (excellent). Sadly, 'barely a nod' tends to prevail. And so many global organizations continue to struggle to optimize their talent management processes in the ever-expanding global market.

What is the right approach for implementing a performance management program for a global workforce? Well, I've said it before and I'll say it again: there is no one-size-fits-all solution. But if you agree with me that culture is the most important factor, then you'll be sure to put a respectable amount of effort into understanding those cultural differences and how they will weigh into your solution design. And you'll make sure your leadership is aligned on how you plan to manage various global employee groups differently from one another.

If you want to gain an appreciation for what will and won't work here, I recommend turning to the extensive research conducted by Geert Hofsted on cultures in the workforce . In his research, Hofsted found five fundamental value dimensions that can be used to explain cultural diversity in the world. The "5 Dimensional Model" ¹ is one of the only models out there that's based on rigorous cultural research, rather than opinion (which is why I like it). The five dimensions are:

1. Power Distance (PDI): The degree to which people accept that power is distributed unevenly within a group or society.

2. Individualism (IDV): The degree to which taking responsibility for oneself is more valued than belonging to a group that will look after its people in exchange for loyalty.

3. Masculinity (MAS): The degree to which people value performance and the status that derives from it, rather than quality of life and caring for others.

4. Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI): The degree to which people develop mechanisms to avoid uncertainty.

5. Long-Term Orientation (LTO): The degree to which people value long-term goals and have a pragmatic approach, rather than being normative and short-term oriented.

What does this all mean for designing performance management systems? Well, let's take a look at the traditional review process. The annual review is a widely accepted practice in countries like the US and the UK. In the US (and other countries with similar cultures) we score low on power distance (the degree to which people accept that power is distributed unevenly within a group or society) and high in individualism (the degree to which taking responsibility for yourself is valued more highly than belonging to a group that will look after its people in exchange for loyalty). With those defining cultural factors, we find it easy to accept the idea that very direct feedback is "the right way" to improve performance. This notion falls flat in high power distance countries, such as Japan. In fact, very direct feedback in these cultures is likely to be seen as dishonorable and disrespectful. This means that we have to take a different approach that fits these cultural norms and expectations.

Another interesting dimension to consider is how your planning horizon may vary from culture to culture. When I was at Hitachi Consulting I learned to appreciate the very real impact of working within an organization heavily influenced by Japanese leadership. One of the most notable differences was the manner in which the Japanese leaders thought about the short and the long view. In the US we had a much shorter planning horizon in contrast to our Japanese peers. This difference in focus radically influenced how each group defined what 'good' looked like in both the short and long terms. At times this created conflict and stress when setting targets and measuring success.

When putting together your team to build your new global performance management solution, remember to include individuals who can help you understand cultural differences.

Rewarding equitably can be another tricky area as you navigate from culture to culture. The cash-is-king individual performance bonuses that we default to in countries like the US and UK are not a good fit in cultures that focus on greater responsibility, larger spans of control, and wider territories, as preferred rewards. Again, this showed up in my experience at Hitachi; the Japanese executives were quite surprised by our vice president's bonus model, while the US leaders were struck by their Japanese counterparts' lavish spending allowances. As they say, different strokes for different folks (or in this case, different cultures, different expectations). In some cultures cash rewards may even be perceived as petty. The headline? Tread carefully in this arena. If you're planning a bonus program, be sure to consider which cultures value and expect bonuses, how you should measure them if you use them, and whether team or individual incentives would work best.

Beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed? Let me reinforce a few ideas that may help keep you grounded. First, when putting together your team to build your new solution, remember to include individuals who can help you understand these cultural differences. They can be a voice for what will work and what is likely to fall flat. Get comfortable with allowing for differences across cultures. Your goal will be to find the best balance between meeting your desire for consistency and creating great experiences for your global team. Also, before you roll out your solution, test it in different geographies and cultures - not just the solution itself, but also the supporting content, since some degree of localization is likely to be needed on that as well.

In the end, keep humanity at the forefront of your design, and never forget that this is about your people, not the process!
These are concepts from my book, How Performance Management is Killing Performance - and What To Do About It. Check out the book (you can order it from Barnes and Noble or Amazon) for the "full meal deal" - MTC P.S. Don't miss a post - sign up here for my email list to keep up to date on PM Reboot ideas. P.P.S. Please help spread the PM Reboot revolution by sharing this post with your networks! 1 Geert Hofstede, Culture's Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations Across Nations (London, UK: Sage Publications, 2003).

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Performance Management for the Global Organization

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I'm not going to lie to you: rebooting your performance management to effectively drive organizational performance, develop people, and reward equitably requires a good deal of serious thought. Managing performance at a global level, however, warrants serious thought on steroids.

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This shows how to apply ethics across the business. Knowing the right way to apply ethics to each department will allow department success.

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Ethics applied to a business will allow the company to be successful in the long run. I want to make sure I up hold the ethics of my company.

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Creating a Good Ethical Climate Through Corporate Governance

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EthSys Insights with Marc Hodak, adjunct professor, NYU's Stern School of Business, & founding partner, Hodak Value Advisors #EthSys Insights brings you expert answers on ethical systems design for business For more information and ideas to apply in your organization please visit www.ethicalsystems.org Duration: 1 min, 37 sec Video Production by Joshua Elle

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This breaks down the definition of management and what it looks like to be a good manager.

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"Stock options are inevitably tied to the overall performance of a corporation. Logically, therefore, they should be awarded only to those managers with overall responsibility. Managers with limited areas of responsibility should have incentives that pay off in relation to results under their control. The .350 hitter expects, and also deserves, a big payoff for his performance -- even if he plays for a cellar-dwelling team. And the .150 hitter should get no reward -- even if he plays for a pennant winner. Only those with overall responsibility for the team should have their rewards tied to its results."

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"Stock options are inevitably tied to the overall performance of a corporation. Logically, therefore, they should be awarded only to those managers with overall responsibility. Managers with limited areas of responsibility should have incentives that pay off in relation to results under their control.

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Being a successful mananger has many different parts to it. Encouraging staff and empowering them, while still getting the tasks at hand done is a tricky balance.

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This video relates to the first DB we did. Although Steve was not relational he took apple to a new level and was beyond successful.

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These management functions should be applied to what ever your job is. Doing these successfully will help your business be successful.