Keeping you great

HEADLINES:

Jennifer Deal of the Centre for Creative Leadership, an executive-training outfit, and Alec Levenson of the University of Southern California studied 25,000 people in 22 countries and concluded that most generalisations about millennials as employees are "inconsistent at best and destructive at worst." Consider the idea that they do not want to be told what to do. In a poll of 5,000 workers Ms Deal and Mr Levenson found that 41% of millennials agreed that "employees should do what their manager tells them, even when they can't see the reason for it," compared with 30% of baby-boomers and 30% of members of generation X (born between the mid-1960s and 1980). Or the idea that firms should communicate with digital natives through digital media. More than 90% of millennials said they wanted to receive their performance evaluations and to discuss their career plans face-to-face.

EDUCATION:

Did you miss previous insights? - read here

The process takes about 12 to 15 hours for entry-level employees, while team leaders and middle managers are interviewed for 22 hours. Senior executives can expect to spend about 150 hours being vetted.

Farquhar recently spoke with a former human resources manager at Google who said that over 15 years the top three things that staff valued were firstly challenging work, secondly quality of colleagues and thirdly work environment. "I'd say that's exactly the same at Atlassian," Farquhar says.

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  Greeting: Students and teachers greet and welcome each other.
  
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  Sharing: Students share something about themselves or their lives, and the rest of their peers listen, then ask follow-up questions or offer comments.
  
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  Activity: The group completes an activity that encourages teamwork while re-emphasizing social or academic skills.
  
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  Morning message: Students read a short message from their teacher, usually describing what is to come in the day ahead.
  

It's an amazing twist on the morning huddle. What I really liked is the intension to make it a safe place for learning, that it enhances social skills and creates a predictable start to every day. All things we have in our huddles but perhaps we forget these benefits."

Did you miss previous insights? - read here

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  Business Focus: You make decisions based on observed or anticipated effect on profit.
  
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  Confidence: You accurately know yourself and understand others.
  
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  Creative Thinker: You exhibit creativity in taking an existing idea or product and turning it into something better.
  
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  Delegator: You recognize that you cannot do everything and are willing to contemplate a shift in style and control.
  
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  Determination: You persevere through difficult, even seemingly insurmountable, obstacles.
  
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  Independent: You are prepared to do whatever needs to be done to build a successful venture.
  
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  Knowledge-Seeker: You constantly search for information that is relevant to growing your business.
  
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  Promoter: You are the best spokesperson for the business.
  
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  Relationship-Builder: You have high social awareness and an ability to build relationships that are beneficial for the firm's survival and growth.
  
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  Risk-Taker: You instinctively know how to manage high-risk situations.
  

1. 
   Mary Barra, number two last year, led General Motors through its recall crisis.
    
   
2. 
   Indra Nooyi, number three last year, heads Pepsi and was ahead of the pack in recognizing shifting views about healthy food.
    
   
3. 
   Ginni Rometty, who led the list last year, is in the midst of a bold restructuring of IBM, but its steady slide in sales has taken a toll on her ranking."
   

This kind of gap between the wealthiest and the poorest will get closed. History shows it usually ends in one of three ways--either higher taxes, revolution, or war. None of those are on my bucket list.