What's The Difference Between A Psychologist And A Psychiatrist?

Question: What's the Difference Between a Psychologist and a Psychiatrist?

 

Answer:

The question sounds like the setup for a joke, but it's an important difference to understand, whether you are a student of psychology or a consumer searching for a mental health provider. The terms "psychologist" and "psychiatrist" are often used interchangeably to describe anyone who provides therapy services. While psychologists and psychiatrists both conduct psychotherapy and research, there are significant differences between the two professions.

Education, Training, and Credentials

The simplest answer lies in the educational background required for each profession. A psychiatrist has a degree in medicine and a psychologist has a doctoral-level degree in psychology. However, there are a number of other distinctions that make each profession quite unique.

Psychologists receive graduate training in psychology and pursue either a Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) or Psy.D. (Doctor of Psychology) in clinical or counseling psychology. Doctorate programs typically take five to seven years to complete and most states require an additional one or two year long internship in order to gain licensure. Other states require an additional year or two of supervised practice before granting full licensure.

The title of "psychologist" can only be used by an individual who has completed the above education, training, and state licensure. Informal titles such as "counselor" or "therapist" are often used as well, but other mental health care professionals such as licensed social workers can also claim these titles.

Psychiatrists are physicians that have specific training in the assessment, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mental illnesses. Psychiatrists attend medical school and receive an M.D. After finishing their medical training, they also complete an additional four years of residency training in mental health. In addition to this, some receive additional training in a specific area of interest such as geriatric psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, addictions and other areas.

Prescribing Medications

A second important distinction between the two careers is that psychiatrists can prescribe medications, while in most states psychologists cannot. However, there has been a recent push to grant prescribing powers to psychologists. Some states such as New Mexico and Louisiana now grant prescribing privileges to medical psychologists holding a post-doctoral masters degree or equivalent in clinical psychopharmacology.

Kevin McGuinness, chairman of the Commissioned Corps Mental Health Functional Advisory Group, writes, "For those interested in a career in psychology as a prescriber, it is important to know that certain federal employees and uniformed commissioned officers (Army, Air Force, Public Health Service, Navy, etc.) that are licensed in one state as a medical psychologist may prescribe an any other state to which they are assigned by the federal government."

Which is Better?

If you are considering a career as a therapist, you will need to determine which career path is best for you. Are you interested in conducting psychotherapy, administering psychological tests and conducting research? If so, a career as a psychologist may be the best choice for you.

On the other hand, if you have an interest in medicine and want to be able to prescribe medications to your patients, a career in psychiatry might be your ideal choice.

If you do not want to invest five to eight years in graduate training, consider pursuing a career as a licensed social worker or counselor. These professionals are also qualified to provide mental health services depending up training and experience. Both social work and counseling typically require two or three years of graduate study.

Psychiatric nursing is another great career option for students interested in medicine. Advanced Psychiatric Nurses hold a master's degree or higher in psychiatric-mental health nursing and are able to assess patients, diagnose disorders, provide psychotherapy and prescribe medications.

^References

^{K.M. McGuinness, personal communication, May 19, 2011.)}

^{Cloud, J. (2010). Psychology vs. Psychiatry: What's the Difference, and Which Is Better? Time. http://healthland.time.com/2010/10/01/psychology-vs-psychiatry-whats-the-difference-and-which-is-better/}

^{Richmond, R. L. (n.d.) Psychology and Psychiatry. A Guide to Psychology and Its Practice. http://www.guidetopsychology.com/psypsy.htm}

Thanks to Kendra Cherry - About Guide / Psychology About / The New York Times Company
http://psychology.about.com/od/psychotherapy/f/psychvspsych.htm?nl=1

 

4 Simple Ways to Boost Your Holiday Sales

U.S. consumers are expected to spend 2.8 percent more on holiday gifts this year than they did in 2010, according to the National Retail Federation. But with much of that money destined for big-box stores that offer deep discounts on merchandise, how can your small, independent business make a dent in the market?

Here are four simple ways to boost your holiday sales.

1. Create custom gift lists. Start your holiday marketing by sending out targeted gift recommendations according to relationships (Mom, Dad, sister, etc.) to your email newsletter subscribers, and posting your suggestions on your website. Carefully curate your recommendations based on the gifts' intended recipients: If you own a jewelry store, might a customer want to buy a pearl necklace for his mother, or a new watch for his brother? Check out Amazon's Gift Central for inspiration. You can also allow web users to create their own wish lists, which they can email to friends and relatives.
2. Offer free gift-wrap services. Many customers give preference to stores that prioritize customer service. Offering free gift-wrap services adds convenience at a minimal cost to you. Some shopping blogs, such as the OC Register's OC Deals, make lists of stores that offer free gift-wrapping in their area, which can help you draw in additional new customers.
3. Sell gift cards. If you're not already offering gift cards, now's the time to start. Many holiday shoppers would rather be safe than original — and they opt for gift cards instead of presents. According to the National Retail Federation, 77 percent of shoppers bought at least one gift card last holiday season. Gift cards can be good for retailers' bottom line, too: A 2008 Consumer Reports survey found that approximately $8 billion worth of gift cards purchased during the prior year were never redeemed.
4. Guarantee on-time delivery. If you run an e-commerce site, it's essential to guarantee that all gift orders arrive at their destinations before Christmas. Now's the time to make sure everything's in stock and to add a holiday shipping timetable to your website that clearly states the purchase deadline in order for gifts to arrive by Dec. 25. Prepare to offer a refund on shipping charges — as well as a store credit, as Best Buy does — on any product that doesn't arrive on time. Or, if the customer prefers, provide a full refund.

Thanks to Kathryn Hawkins / Blog Intuit / Intuit, Inc.
http://blog.intuit.com/marketing/4-simple-ways-to-boost-your-holiday-sales/

 

 

5 Tips For Cleaning Up Your Writing Right Now

Here are five quantitative quick tips about improving your writing functionally, before you even get into improving the quality of your prose:

1. Always Use Serial Commas

The policy of preceding every item in a list but the last one with a comma is commonsensical (read a previous article about the serial comma). Confusion is possible when you don't and highly unlikely when you do. What if, using a non-serial-comma style, you write about more than two things when one of the things consists of more than one part or ingredient? ("The choices are roast beef, turkey, and ham and cheese.") Do you insert a serial comma for clarity (and introduce an inconsistency) or leave the sentence as is for readers to stumble on? Adherence to serial-comma style eliminates the dilemma.

2. Minimize Capitalization

Job titles are capitalized only before names. Names of academic majors aren't capitalized unless they are already proper nouns, like names of languages ("English") or references to regions ("Asian studies"). Generic names of entities ("the hospital," "the organization," and so on) are lowercased. Yes, capitalization is a minefield; when in doubt, look it up, and search on this site for "capitalization" for many articles on the topic (including this one).

3. Repair Comma Splices

A comma alone cannot separate two independent clauses in a sentence. Break the clauses into distinct sentences, or separate them with a semicolon or an em dash — or a comma and a conjunction (and, or, and so on) — but not with a comma alone. For more information on this topic read 5 Ways to Fix the Comma Splice.

4. Omit Extraneous Hyphens, and Insert Necessary Ones

"Decision making," "problem solving," and similar compound nouns require no hyphen, unless they precede a noun as a compound modifier ("decision-making procedure," "problem-solving aptitude"). "Near collision" and other similar constructions don't, either, with the same exception ("near-collision statistics"). Established compound modifiers usually don't require a hyphen even before a noun ("high school student"). Confused? Here's a simple rule: Look it up. (And check out this DailyWritingTips article and find others on the topic by searching on the site for "hyphens.")

5. Limit Displays of Emphasis

Words can be italicized to indicate that they are being used to refer to themselves, not the things they stand for ("Note the word emphasis"), or to signal a foreign term ("Wunderbar" means "wonderful"), or to make sure the reader understands that something is really important. Words can be initial-capped to indicate irony or other humorous intent. ("The rent-a-cop exuded the air of an Authority Figure.") Boldface is appropriate for introducing new vocabulary or otherwise calling attention to an unfamiliar term but is best limited to textbooks and guidebooks. But all-caps are invariably excessive, "scare quotes" are seldom necessary, and be judicious about otherwise calling attention to words and phrases. You can read a previous article on this post titled How to Add Emphasis to Your Writing.

Thanks to Mark Nichol / Daily Writing Tips
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/5-tips-for-cleaning-up-your-writing-right-now/

 

Heart Failure Treated 'In The Brain'

ScienceDaily (Mar. 25, 2008) — Beta-blockers heal the heart via the brain when administered during heart failure, according to a new study by UCL (University College London). Up to now, it was thought that beta-blockers work directly on the heart, but the new study shows that the drugs may also act via the brain, suggesting that future therapies to treat cardiovascular disease could be targeting the central nervous system.

Heart failure patients are routinely given beta-blockers, although doctors do not know exactly how these drugs boost cardiac performance and reduce the risk of death. The UCL study, based on the rat model of postmyocardial infarction-induced heart failure and published in the journal Circulation Research, has discovered that the beta-adrenoceptor blocker metoprolol acts directly in the brain to slow the progression of heart failure. The action seems to be localised to a group of brain cells that UCL researchers have identified previously as being crucial in the control of blood pressure and heart rate.

Professor Mike Spyer, UCL Vice-Provost and co-author of the study, says: "Our study shows the importance of the brain in regulating the cardiovascular system. This is often ignored by cardiologists who concentrate on the dynamics of cardiac contraction and the receptors on the heart that influence this, rather than how the nervous innervation of the heart is regulated."

Millions of heart failure patients worldwide are routinely treated with beta-blockers, which were pioneered in the 1970s for the treatment of arterial hypertension and are one of the most important advances in heart failure therapy. However, it has not entirely been clear how long-term treatment with beta-blockers slows the development of heart failure, improves heart function and exercise capacity and reduces the risk of sudden cardiac death.

Dr Alexander Gourine, UCL Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, says: "Many people have assumed that beta-blockers have a direct salutary influence on the heart, but our findings challenge this view, suggesting that beta-blockers may act directly in the brain and this action could underlie their beneficial effect on the failing heart. This study suggests that novel ways might be found to treat cardiovascular disease aimed at sites within the brain."

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It's Good To Talk: Changing How Nerves Communicate In Congestive Heart Failure

ScienceDaily (Jan. 4, 2010) — A team of researchers, led by Keiichi Fukuda, at Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan, has now determined in rodents how congestive heart failure triggers substantive changes to the nerves that control heart function.

The research appears in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Heart function is controlled by both the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. In congestive heart failure, increased activation of the sympathetic nervous system causes damage to the heart muscle, a decline in heart function, and potentially lethal abnormal heartbeats.

In the study, failing rat heart muscle cells were found to secrete molecules known as gp130-signaling cytokines that caused sympathetic nerves to change the molecule that they used to communicate from norepinephrine to acetylcholine.

The clinical significance of these observations in rodents was highlighted by the fact that the sympathetic nervous system in the heart of patients with congestive heart failure showed evidence of the same switch to reliance on acetylcholine for communication.

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Key Area That Could Sever Communication Between Brain And Heart In Disease Identified

ScienceDaily (Nov. 28, 2011) — A team of neuroscientists and anaesthetists, who have been using pioneering techniques to study how the brain regulates the heart, has identified a crucial part of the nervous system whose malfunction may account for an increased risk of death from heart failure. The findings, published online (ahead of print) in the Journal of Physiology, could lead to more targeted therapies to help reduce serious illness and death in cardiovascular disease.

The research team, led by Dr Tony Pickering and Professor Julian Paton from the University of Bristol and colleague Professor Robin McAllen from the Florey Neuroscience Institute in Melbourne, developed novel methods which enabled them to explore the activity of nerve cells as they control the beating heart.

The brain controls the heart through two divisions of the nervous system; parasympathetic (vagal) and sympathetic nerves. One of these nerves, the vagus, acts to slow heart rate as part of protective cardiovascular reflexes, which are vital for cardiac health. A loss of vagal control is a major risk factor in human cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure and hypertension.

Vagal information to the heart is transmitted through a special group of nerve cells that remarkably lie on and within the beating heart muscle. Until now, these important neurons have proved especially difficult to access and record in a system with preserved natural connections. However, academics at the Bristol Heart Institute and Bristol Neuroscience have developed a novel technique that allows the neurons to be held stable while the heart is still beating and their central neural connectivity remains intact.

Using this method the researchers were able to produce high-precision recordings from the cardiac ganglion neurons on the surface of the beating heart whilst retaining their inputs from the nervous system.

The results reveal how these neurons process their inputs and demonstrate that the ganglion plays a key role in regulating the level of vagal tone reaching the heart. This identifies the cardiac ganglion as a site at which the vagal transmission may fail and therefore a potential target for interventions to restore vagal control in cardiovascular diseases.

Dr Pickering, Wellcome Senior Clinical Research Fellow, Reader in Neuroscience and Consultant in Anaesthesia in the University of Bristol's School of Physiology and Pharmacology, said: "These findings are important because they clearly show the cardiac ganglion as a key player in determining the level of vagal tone reaching the heart.

"As loss of vagal tone is found in a number of cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure, following heart attack, in high blood pressure and diabetes, and is associated with poor prognosis and an increased risk of death, our results indicate that therapies targeted at the cardiac ganglion could restore vagal tone and potentially improve outcomes."

Helene Wilson, Research Advisor at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), said: "The vagus nerves are absolutely vital for the control of the speed and regularity of our heart's beat. We don't know a great deal about how the vagus nerves exert this control, and researchers have found it very hard to study it -- partly because of the motion of the heart as it beats. These researchers have now developed a technique to study the processes in an intact vagus nerve which is still attached to heart, and have already helped us understand the process better. New insights into how the vagus nerves transmit their effects on the heart could lead to important new ways to treat patients with diseases such as heart failure, arrhythmias and hypertension."

The study is a result of an international collaboration between the University of Bristol and academics at the Florey Neuroscience Institute in Melbourne. The work is funded by the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) in Australia.

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Integrated 3-D Imaging Facilitates Human Face Transplantation

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By combining conventional medical imaging with some of the same 3-D modeling techniques used in Hollywood blockbusters, researchers are offering new hope to victims of serious facial injuries. (Credit: Image courtesy of Radiological Society of North America)

ScienceDaily (Nov. 28, 2011) — By combining conventional medical imaging with some of the same 3-D modeling techniques used in Hollywood blockbusters, researchers are offering new hope to victims of serious facial injuries.

Results of a new study on human face transplantation, led by Darren M. Smith, M.D., plastic surgery resident at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), were presented November 28 at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

Devastating injuries or defects of the face are extremely challenging, if not impossible, to satisfactorily reconstruct by traditional surgical techniques. In face transplantation, facial tissue from a donor is transferred to reconstruct the defect, restore essential life-sustaining functions -- such as breathing, chewing and speaking -- and, above all, reestablish normal human appearance.

"This surgery is for patients with devastating injuries to the face, who have lost their ability to smell, eat and engage socially and have no other conventional treatment options," said Vijay S. Gorantla, M.D., Ph.D., administrative medical director of the Reconstructive Transplantation Program at UPMC.

Clearly defining and understanding the complex tissue deficits and defects that accompany devastating facial injuries like electric burns, blast wounds and accidental trauma are critical for both technical success and objective analysis of the return of function after face transplantation.

Medical imaging plays a major role in the entire spectrum of face transplantation, ranging from patient selection, donor and recipient surgical planning, and postoperative assessment of returning motor and sensory function. Face transplantation is a lengthy, complicated procedure that involves reconstruction of multiple tissues -- such as skin, muscle, blood vessels, nerves and bone -- by a team of surgeons.

Currently, to prepare for facial transplantation, plastic or plaster models are first created based on 3-D CT or angiographic images or reconstruction. Following this, mock cadaveric dissections are performed to allow surgeons to plan for the donor and recipient surgeries. MRI and other imaging exams may also be used to provide supplemental information.

By combining information from multiple imaging exams and creating a sophisticated 3-D computer model, the researchers for this study were better able to assess the facial structure and contours, the underlying bone, muscles, nerves and vessels, as well as the extent of damage.

Using sophisticated computer modeling software, Drs. Smith and Gorantla, along with Joseph Losee, M.D., integrated information from 3-D CT, CT angiography, MRI and high-definition tractography to create a 3-D model of the patient's head and neck anatomy. The same type of modeling technology is often used in movies to animate computer-generated characters with detailed three-dimensional human features and realistic expressions.

"We have integrated data from multiple imaging sources into a single 3-D representation that allows for real-time user interaction and modification," Dr. Smith said. "In assessing eligibility for this procedure, it is critical to understand whether the patient has enough blood vessels and bone structure to support new facial tissue. This 3-D modeling helps us customize the procedure to the patient's individual anatomy so that the donor tissue will fit like a puzzle piece onto the patient's face."

Using computer modeling, the team also overlaid the patient model with a polygon mesh of a generic human face and then customized it to the recipient facial anatomy. Dr. Smith said the ability to manipulate this 3-D facial envelope over the residual face model allows the entire surgical team to participate in planning exactly where bone, blood vessel and nerves will be cut and connected, as well as to evaluate the outcomes of reconstructive transplantation, including nerve regeneration within the transplanted facial tissue.

"The goal of face transplantation is not just structural," Dr. Gorantla said. "It is about restoring function, so that patients are once again able to chew their food, smile and regain the most important aspect of a normal face -- to look human."

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40 Percent Of Youths Attempting Suicide Make First Attempt Before High School, Study Finds

ScienceDaily (Nov. 28, 2011) — Thoughts about killing oneself and engaging in suicidal behavior may begin much younger than previously thought. While about one of nine youths attempt suicide by the time they graduate from high school, new findings reveal that a significant proportion make their first suicide attempt in elementary or middle school.

In a study published in the November issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, nearly 40 percent of young adults who said they had tried suicide said that they made their first attempt before entering high school.

The researchers also found that suicide attempts during childhood and adolescence were linked to higher scores of depression at the time of the attempts, validating for the first time that young adults can reliably recall when they first attempted suicide.

"Young adults who end up having chronic mental health problems show their struggles early," said James Mazza, lead author and professor of educational psychology at the University of Washington. "This study suggests that implementation of mental health programs may need to start in elementary and middle schools, and that youth in these grades are fairly good reporters of their own mental health."

Adolescence can often be a struggle for some youth with ongoing pressures of drugs, alcohol, sexual relationships and sexual orientation. At the same time, they're becoming more autonomous.

"Adolescence is a time when kids are preparing to be more independent from their parents or guardians, but lack the experience of how to do this," said Mazza, a school psychologist. "And their support network -- their friends -- doesn't have the experience either, especially in crisis situations."

As part of an ongoing survey, Mazza and his collaborators asked 883 young adults aged 18 or 19 about their history of suicide attempts. Seventy-eight respondents, nearly 9 percent, said that they had tried suicide at some point.

Suicide attempt rates showed a sharp increase around sixth grade, about age 12, with rates peaking around eighth or ninth grade. For the 39 respondents reporting multiple suicide attempts, their first attempt was significantly earlier -- as young as 9 -- than those making a single attempt.

Mazza compared the young adults' recollection of their suicide attempts with their past depression scores, which were collected yearly as part of their participation in the Raising Healthy Children project led by Richard Catalano, professor of social work and the director of UW's Social Developmental Research Group.

Depression levels were higher at the time of the youths' reported first suicide attempts compared with their peers who had not attempted suicide. And Mazza found an increase in depression scores at the time of the attempt compared with depression scores the year before and after the attempt for the same child.

"This suggests that kids are able to tell us, by their depression scores, that things aren't going well for them," Mazza said. "We're likely not giving kids enough credence in assessing their own mental health, and this study shows that we can rely on self-report measures to help identify youth who may be at risk for current mental health concerns, including possible suicidal behavior."

The National Institute on Drug Abuse funded the study. Other co-authors are Robert Abbott, UW educational psychology professor; and Richard Catalano, director, and Kevin Haggerty, assistant director, of UW's Social Developmental Research Group.

Story Source: The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Washington. The original article was written by Molly McElroy, News and Information.

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Depression Can Lead To Heart Disease, Study Suggests

ScienceDaily (Nov. 28, 2011) — Depression may have more far-reaching consequences than previously believed. Recent data suggests that individuals who suffer from a mood disorder could be twice as likely to have a heart attack compared to individuals who are not depressed.

This process has been poorly understood -- until now. A new study led by Concordia University has found that depressed individuals have a slower recovery time after exercise compared to those who are non-depressed.

These findings suggest that a dysfunctional biological stress system is at play among depressed individuals. Published in the journal Psychophysiology, the research warns of the importance of testing for cardiovascular disease among people suffering from major depression.

"There have been two competing theories as to why depression is linked to cardiovascular disease," says first author Jennifer Gordon, who is a PhD candidate at McGill University. "Depressed people may have poorer health behaviors, which may in turn lead to heart problems. The other possibility is physiological: a problem with the stress system known as the fight or flight response. Our study was the first to examine the role of a dysfunctional fight or flight response in depression in a large population."

Heart rate recovery is a powerful diagnostic tool

A total of 886 participants, who were on average 60 years old, took part in the study conducted by Concordia in association with the Montreal Heart Institute, McGill University, the Hôpital Sacré-Coeur de Montréal, the Université du Québec à Montréal and the University of Calgary.

Approximately 5 per cent of participants were diagnosed with a major depressive disorder. All individuals were asked to undergo a stress test after which their heart rate and blood pressure were recorded. Recovery heart rates and blood pressure levels were compared between depressed and non-depressed individuals.

"We found that it took longer for the heart rate of depressed individuals to return to normal," says senior author, Simon Bacon, a professor in the Concordia University Department of Exercise Science and a researcher at the Montreal Heart Institute. "Heart rate recovery from exercise is one way to measure the fight or flight stress response. The delayed ability to establish a normal heart rate in the depressed individuals indicates a dysfunctional stress response. We believe that this dysfunction, can contribute to their increased risk for heart disease."

"The take-home message of this study is that health care professionals should not only address the mental disorder, but also the potential for heart disease in patients who are suffering from major depression," adds Bacon. "Both of these health issues should be treated to minimize risk of severe consequences."

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Study Looks At The Nature Of Change In Our Aging, Changing Brains

ScienceDaily (Nov. 28, 2011) — As we get older, our cognitive abilities change, improving when we're younger and declining as we age. Scientists posit a hierarchical structure within which these abilities are organized. There's the "lowest" level -- measured by specific tests, such as story memory or word memory; the second level, which groups various skills involved in a category of cognitive ability, such as memory, perceptual speed, or reasoning; and finally, the "general," or G, factor, a sort of statistical aggregate of all the thinking abilities.

What happens to this structure as we age? That was the question Timothy A. Salthouse, Brown-Forman professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, investigated in a new study appearing in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science. His findings advance psychologists' understanding of the complexities of the aging brain.

"There are three hypotheses about how this works," says Salthouse. "One is that abilities become more strongly integrated with one another as we age." That theory suggests the general factor influences cognitive aging the most. The second -- based on the idea that connectivity among different brain regions lessens with age -- "is almost the opposite: that the changes in cognitive abilities become more rather than less independent with age." The third was Salthouse's hypothesis: The structure remains constant throughout the aging process.

Using a sample of 1,490 healthy adults ages 18 to 89, Salthouse performed analyses of the scores on 16 tests of five cognitive abilities -- vocabulary, reasoning, spatial relations, memory, and perceptual speed. The primary analyses were on the changes in the test scores across an interval of about two and a half years.

The findings confirmed Salthouse's hunch: "The effects of aging on memory, on reasoning, on spatial relations, and so on are not necessarily constant. But the structure within which these changes are occurring does not seem to change as a function of age." In normal, healthy people, "the direction and magnitude of change may be different" when we're 18 or 88, he says. "But it appears that the qualitative nature of cognitive change remains the same throughout adulthood."

The study could inform other research investigating "what allows some people to age more gracefully than others," says Salthouse. That is, do people who stay mentally sharper maintain their ability structures better than those who become more forgetful or less agile at reasoning? And in the future, applying what we know about the structures of change could enhance "interventions that we think will improve cognitive functioning" at any age or stage of life.

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How The Brain Strings Words Into Sentences

Using magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, researchers can visualize the two main language processing regions, Broca's region (yellow) and Wernicke's region (purple). (Credit: Stephen Wilson)

ScienceDaily (Nov. 28, 2011) — Distinct neural pathways are important for different aspects of language processing, researchers have discovered, studying patients with language impairments caused by neurodegenerative diseases.

While it has long been recognized that certain areas in the brain's left hemisphere enable us to understand and produce language, scientists are still figuring out exactly how those areas divvy up the highly complex processes necessary to comprehend and produce language.

Advances in brain imaging made within the last 10 years have revealed that highly complex cognitive tasks such as language processing rely not only on particular regions of the cerebral cortex, but also on the white matter fiber pathways that connect them.

"With this new technology, scientists started to realize that in the language network, there are a lot more connecting pathways than we originally thought," said Stephen Wilson, who recently joined the University of Arizona's department of speech, language and hearing sciences as an assistant professor. "They are likely to have different functions because the brain is not just a homogeneous conglomerate of cells, but there hasn't been a lot of evidence as to what kind of information is carried on the different pathways."

Working in collaboration with his colleagues at the UA, the department of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco and the Scientific Institute and University Hospital San Raffaele in Milan, Italy, Wilson discovered that not only are the connecting pathways important for language processing, but they specialize in different tasks.

Two brain areas called Broca's region and Wernicke's region serve as the main computing hubs underlying language processing, with dense bundles of nerve fibers linking the two, much like fiber optic cables connecting computer servers. But while it was known that Broca's and Wernicke's region are connected by upper and a lower white matter pathways, most research had focused on the nerve cells clustered inside the two language-processing regions themselves.

Working with patients suffering from language impairments because of a variety of neurodegenerative diseases, Wilsons' team used brain imaging and language tests to disentangle the roles played by the two pathways. Their findings are published in a recent issue of the scientific journal Neuron.

"If you have damage to the lower pathway, you have damage to the lexicon and semantics," Wilson said. "You forget the name of things, you forget the meaning of words. But surprisingly, you're extremely good at constructing sentences."

"With damage to the upper pathway, the opposite is true; patients name things quite well, they know the words, they can understand them, they can remember them, but when it comes to figuring out the meaning of a complex sentence, they are going to fail."

The study marks the first time it has been shown that upper and lower tracts play distinct functional roles in language processing, the authors write. Only the upper pathway plays a critical role in syntactic processing.

Wilson collected the data while he was a postdoctoral fellow working with patients with neurodegenerative diseases of varying severity, recruited through the Memory and Aging Center at UCSF. The study included 15 men and 12 women around the age of 66.

Unlike many other studies investigating acquired language disorders, which are called aphasias and usually caused by damage to the brain, Wilson's team had a unique opportunity to study patients with very specific and variable degrees of brain damage.

"Most aphasias are caused by strokes, and most of the strokes that affect language regions probably would affect both pathways," Wilson said. "In contrast, the patients with progressive aphasias who we worked with had very rare and very specific neurodegenerative diseases that selectively target different brain regions, allowing us to tease apart the contributions of the two pathways."

To find out which of the two nerve fiber bundles does what in language processing, the team combined magnetic resonance brain imaging technology to visualize damaged areas and language assessment tasks testing the participants' ability to comprehend and produce sentences.

"We would give the study participants a brief scenario and ask them to complete it with what comes naturally," Wilson said. "For example, if I said to you, 'A man was walking along the railway tracks. He didn't hear the train coming. What happened to the man?' Usually, you would say, 'He was hit by the train,' or something along those lines."

"But a patient with damage to the upper pathway might say something like 'train, man, hit.' We found that the lower pathway has a completely different function, which is in the meaning of single words."

To test for comprehension of the meaning of a sentence, the researchers presented the patient with a sentence like, "The girl who is pushing the boy is green," and then ask which of the two pictures depicted that scenario accurately.

"One picture would show a green girl pushing a boy, and the other would show a girl pushing a green boy," Wilson said. "The colors will be the same, the agents will be the same, and the action is the same. The only difference is, which actor does the color apply to?"

"Those who have only lower pathway damage do really well on this, which shows that damage to that pathway doesn't interfere with your ability to use the little function words or the functional endings on words to figure out the relationships between the words in a sentence."

Wilson said that most previous studies linking neurodegeneration of specific regions with cognitive deficits have focused on damage to gray matter, rather than the white matter that connects regions to one another.

"Our study shows that the deficits in the ability to process sentences are above and beyond anything that could be explained by gray matter loss alone," Wilson added. "It is the first study to show that damage to one major pathway more than then other major pathway is associated with a specific deficit in one aspect of language."

The study was primarily funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and included the following co-authors: Sebastian Galantucci, Maria Carmela Tartaglia, Kindle Rising, Dianne Patterson (both at the UA's department of speech, language and hearing sciences), Maya Henry, Jennifer Ogar, Jessica DeLeon, Bruce Miller and Maria Luisa Gorno-Tempini.

Story Source: The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Arizona. The original article was written by Daniel Stolte, University Communications.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Thanks to Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111128171220.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29

 

'Fire The Slugs'—That's Good Turnover

"Fire the slugs," says management expert Jeff Cortes. That's good turnover and also it's good for retention—all of your other employees have been wondering when you would act.

"There's good and bad turnover," says Cortes, author of the book, No Nonsense Retention, which he characterizes as a collection of no-nonsense ways to retain your best people.

Firing a non-performer-a slug- is good turnover. But when a top performer leaves to go elsewhere and your organization is left with a huge void, that's bad turnover. It can affect the performance of the whole organization.

Turnover is very costly, Cortes adds. Depending on the study you look at, the impact of turnover ranges from three months of salary for a low level
employee, to as high as 400 percent of the annual salary of an upper-level person.

"If you are going to maximize your organization's performance you have to make a conscious, top-down management commitment to develop a no-nonsense approach to retention," Cortes says.

Here are his top must-do actions for retaining the human assets you've worked so hard to acquire:

1. Fire the Slugs
Hold your people accountable for their performance, Cortes says. If they don't solve the problem, then terminate them with respect and dignity. And here's the big bonus from firing slugs-your good performers will love you. For sure, they've been stewing about having to carry most of the slug's load.

2. Start at the Top
Assess your supervisory and management team, says Cortes. Seventy percent of employees say that the worst thing about their jobs is their boss. Find out what's wrong and fix it, Cortes urges. Identify the prima donnas and micromanaging control freaks, the whiners, complainers, and blamers. Get them basic supervisory training and improve their performance continuously.

If you are the boss, take ownership of this process, says Cortes.

3. Clean Up the House
Identify the non-performers. Identify the poor managers and supervisors. If they do not respond to training and show significant improvement, remove them from an influential role and replace them with someone that does what is truly desired and required for the role and position they are in, Cortes says.

4. Manage Visibly
Get out of the ivory tower. Begin each day by walking around. Stroll around the floor several times a day. Meet the customers, talk with employees, visit with the supervisors, greet the vendors, help the delivery trucks load and unload. Get out of your office. Let people know you are there and that you care. The point here is that you set lead by example, Cortes explains. If they like you they are less likely to leave you. Visibility drives retention.

5. Care About Your People
If you don't really care about your people, your business is doomed. Caring is the reason why people stay. Get to know your people. Learn what each person likes and enjoys. Listen to them and learn about their interests, families, and hobbies. Protect your people from harm and from others in your organization. People are loyal to those who care about them and care for them.

6. Keep Your Door Open 80% of the Time
Let your people know you are accessible to them, says Cortes, author of the book, No Nonsense Retention. Avoid telling people to make an appointment or come back later. Make sure the time you do spend with your people is quality time, he adds.

7. Actively Focus onEmployee Assistance
Sit down with the other managers in your organization and identify the problems that are faced by people in your workforce. Develop innovative ideas and deploy specific new plans to provide employees with more flexibility in their work, support for their common needs, and help for dealing with personal issues that impact their life.

8. Treat Everyone with Respect Always
Every leader and manager and supervisor must set the standard that respectful behavior and sincere open appreciation are expected with no
exceptions, Cortes says. Investigate and take immediate action of all non-respectful behavior incidents. And take an active step: Have the managers
and supervisors bring food to be shared on a regular basis. "Break bread with your people regularly instead of forcing people to eat baloney," -Cortes says.

9. Ask Your People What They Want
Also remember to ask people what they want out of their work. Identify what they want to grow, to develop greater control, autonomy, and responsibility for the work they do for you. Help them achieve these goals specifically and incrementally. "Meaningful engagement in their own future drives commitment and loyalty," Cortes says.

10. Tell Your People What You Want of Them
Be specific, clear, and make sure you explain what you expect of them. Give them the tools, support, and the time they need to get the work done. If they do not meet your expectations-assuming the expectations have been clearly communicated and they had the resources to accomplish the task-bring them in and talk with them and find out what it will take to get them on track.

Thanks to Steve Bruce / HR Daily Advisor BLR / BLR Business & Legal Reports
http://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/archive/2011/07/26/HR_Policies_Procedures_Retention_Turnover_2011.aspx?source=HAC&effort=16

 

 

10 Signs Your Interaction Style Is Messing With Your Career

There's an old saying that goes like this:

"Everyone thinks they have taste and a sense of humor."

Well, as a career coach for the last 10 years, I can tell you that phrase should be adjusted to:

"Everyone thinks they have taste, a sense of humor, and good communication skills."

I am continually amazed at the number of people that have no idea how their Interaction Style is impacting their career. (Take this FREE quiz to learn your style.)

If you've ever had an issue with a co-worker, boss, or client, then I can tell you with 100% certainty your Interaction Styles had something to do with it. More importantly, if you've ever felt out of place in a company, or as if you can't seem to get the respect you want in your career, then I guarantee your Interaction Style is guilty. Here are 10 signs your Interaction Style is messing with your career:

1. You feel like nobody is paying attention to your requests at work.
2. Colleagues have informal meetings without you and then tell you the results and how they directly impact your job.
3. Your boss dismisses EVERY idea you present to her.
4. Co-workers always agree with you when you voice your concerns, but then you hear they said something entirely different to your boss.
5. You have no close friends at the office.
6. You've been told you aren't "management material" yet.
7. People get really quiet and don't have any answers or comments when you speak.
8. You don't get selected for any team projects or special assignments.
9. People love to tease you about how "honest" and "funny" and "shameless" you are at the office.
10. You've been fired.

What can you do about it?

It's time you took a class on the basics of Interaction Styles. You need to learn:

A. The strengths and weaknesses of your style.
B. The best way to leverage your Interaction Style in your career.

Good news – the class is next Tuesday, November 29! Join me for a session that will provide deep insight into how your Interaction Style can be used more effectively. As 2012 fast approaches, are you willing to let your Interaction Style continue to hold you back from the career success you want and deserve? Give your career a gift this holiday season! Take this class and learn the secrets to really communicating like a pro.

P.S. I'm offering an AMAZING special deal if you sign-up for this webinar this week. See here.

J.T. O'Donnell is the founder of CAREEREALISM.com and CEO of CareerHMO.com, a web-based career development company.

Thanks to J.T. O'Donnell / Careerealism
http://www.careerealism.com/career-interaction-style/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+careerealism+%28CAREEREALISM%29

 

51 Tips For Sales Leaders From The Sales Consulting Industry

This post is written for sales leaders who describe themselves as students of the craft.  You do not have time to comb through hundreds of blogs, books, magazines, articles, podcasts, tweets, etc. to find that one nugget that you can use today.  Yet, you are competitive and want to know more than the next guy. Our sales consulting firm can play the role of "curator" and net it out for you.

The origin of this post was a journal containing the most commonly requested topics to be written about on our blog. As our subscriber base has increased, so too have the requests, making it difficult for our sales consulting firm to keep pace.   The most logical way to respond to each request is the Tip List.

Here it is.  Enjoy.

51 Tips for Students of the Craft from the Sales Consulting Industry

1. Make sure you have channel ready content before launching a channel enablement program.
2. Convert your Ideal Customer Profile into Buyer Personas.
3. The most effective sales process reinforcement tool is the win/loss review.
4. Prioritize recycled leads over all other leads sources.  Third time is a charm.
5. Fill lead development rep positions before filling sales rep positions.
6. When qualifying a lead, understand the difference between interest and intent.
7. Have both commissions and bonuses in your comp plan.
8. Properly weigh comp plan variables.  You are signaling to the field what is important to you.
9. Match web form submissions to 3^rd party databases to see if they are real people.
10. Keep the lead scoring algorithm SIMPLE.
11. Tie quotas to the potential of a territory.
12. Last year's revenue production is an unreliable input into this year's quota.
13. Event based sales training does not work.
14. Hiring 'A' players takes more than a 1 hour interview.
15. New hire time to productivity is most effected by territory composition.
16. Don't read any sales best practices written pre-internet. They no longer apply.
17. Stop calling inside sales inside sales.  It is demeaning and no longer accurate.
18. There are 2,000 hours of selling time per rep per year. 50 weeks x 40 hours/week.
19. Single purpose roles are outperforming multi-purpose sales roles.
20. Centralized lead gen outperforms decentralized lead gen.
21. Knowing how to do something is more important than knowing what to do.
22. ¾ of selling costs are labor costs.  Get sales force sizing correct.
23. Too many sales people will make the CFO unhappy.  Too few sales people will make the CEO unhappy.
24. Learn your customers' meeting preferences- face to face, over the phone, or web based.
25. Making decisions with your gut no longer makes sense.  There's lots of data at your fingertips.
26. Mystery shop your competitors. How do they sell?
27. Make sure your best reps are on your best accounts.
28. Don't buy software (CRM, Marketing Automation) until you have a process defined.
29. Leading indicators are better than lagging indicators. Which metrics are you looking at?
30. Garbage in, garbage out.  Don't let your reps pollute your data.
31. SFDC works for your sales team. Your sales team does not work for SFDC.
32. Forecasting without a sales process is like building a house without a blue print.
33. Only the buyer can move from one stage to the next in a sales methodology. A rep cannot.
34. Mckinsey says ¾ of Solution Selling roll outs have failed.  It no longer works.
35. Make sure your sales managers are impacting the business, not just reporting on it.
36. A sales process without job aides is like a dentist without tools to clean teeth.
37. Only a customer can determine if they are a Key Account. You cannot.
38. In strategic account programs, less is more.  If you have more than 25 accounts in the program, double check it.
39. Selling services is different than selling products.  It requires two separate sales methods.
40. By the time you get the sales appointment, the customer has done lots of research.
41. Opening a presentation with a company intro slide is like walking into a bar with your resume stuck to your forehead.
42. All of your customers are on social media.  Get out of denial.
43. Not all channel partners are created equal. Treat them differently.
44. Channel success is not signing new channel partners.
45. A channel manager role is not a "relationship manager".  Generate incremental revenue or go home.
46. Make sure every sales call has a call objective prior to beginning.  Simple but often overlooked.
47. Prospects will Google you before agreeing to do business. What will they find?
48. Buyers cannot be sold. Buyers buy.
49. Great processes executed by below average people results in failure.
50. Great people with no process support results in failure.
51. Sales excellence = great people placed in optimized performance conditions.

Thanks to Greg Alexander / Sales Benchmark Index / Sales Force Effectiveness Blog
http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com//bid/72825/51-tips-for-sales-leaders-from-the-sales-consulting-industry?source=Blog_Email_[51%20Tips%20for%20Sales%20Le]

 

 

Each Step You Take, Take Charge Of Your Career

AMA was honored to host John C. Maxwell on its website program "Edgewise." Maxwell's newest book is also considered his most important work to date. Titled The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential, it treats leadership as a verb, not a noun, reflecting the stages of growth and development as one takes on more responsibilities and gains influence as a leader.

The significance of this book becomes evident if one remembers that Maxwell, in addition to being a renowned speaker, has authored over 60 books. This book makes the reader feel more in control of his or her career and also makes the individual aware of what can be done at each stage of the individual's development.

Maxwell explained to the audience that leadership is usually regarded as a noun. "In this book," he said, "I use it as a verb to reflect not a title but rather stages of development or growth. For example, on Level 1, you might think of yourself as a leader, but I would say, 'No, you haven't become a leader. You have an opportunity to lead but the job title doesn't guarantee that you are a good leader.' If a leadership position made someone a good leader, then everybody that had a leadership position would be a good leader, yet you and I know that people who have leadership positions aren't necessarily good at leading."

The 5 Levels of Leadership stresses that influence is achieved on five distinct levels, and that whichever level you are on, you can grow to a higher level. As Maxwell explained, "You have to keep moving. You have to keep learning." He continued "I want leaders to understand where they are on the five levels of leadership and also how they can continue to develop themselves."

According to Maxwell, Level 1, the position might come with the title supervisor or even leader but it wouldn't necessarily make the holder of the title a leader. "A position doesn't make someone a leader; the leader makes the position" he noted.

Whereas the first level may come with the title, the second level comes with permission from those around you to lead them. "At this level," said Maxwell, "it's vital to have great relationships. Otherwise such permission won't be extended." On Level 2 you start to connect with people and they like you and you like them.

Moving up to Level 3, you gain credibility. "You are now casting a vision and bringing forth results. People follow you not because of what you say but because of what you do. You are in a much stronger leadership position because you have credibility with the people—you're not only asking them to produce but you're producing as well. "The third level is the production level where attention focuses on results," according to Maxwell. "That's where you begin to see results from your leadership. There is also evidence of credibility. You're not only saying things but doing them. It's where momentum kicks in."

According to Maxwell, Level 4 is the people development level. It is critical to understand that the organization's most valuable asset is people and then to develop the full worth of those people. In other words, at the fourth level, you produce results with people and through people. You begin to do the things that you could do on Level 3 by yourself but you begin to train and develop other people until they can do it themselves

The fifth level is the Pinnacle, and it's where leaders gain the respect of those with whom they work, according to Maxwell. As you move to the fifth level, you begin to compound your return. You're in the maximum position and you have done so well that you really have become bigger than life.

The book, however, goes beyond a description of the five levels. It also explains the negatives and the positives and prepares and helps holders of the various levels to prepare for the next step upward.

Each level has upsides and downsides, but Level 5 may be the most significant, Maxwell told the audience. "The upside is the respect and influence you gain. The downside is the loss of momentum that can occur. You may think you deserve to be where you are in the organization and stop actively leading, causing your leadership to decline. Leaders on the Pinnacle can have the most impact, but they can't start believing their own press."

Maxwell observed that the longer you are in a leadership position, the greater your influence extends. With each step, however, you maximize your potential.

You may wonder how long each level might take. Maxwell advises that we not concern ourselves with this issue. "It will be quicker for some than with others, just as some will get higher up than others. Just be concerned about the fact that you're going from one level to the next. So long as you're increasing your levels of influence and your effectiveness is increasing, it is just a matter of time until you get to your Level 5."

About the Author(s):- Florence M. Stone is editorial director for American Management Association.

Thanks to Florence M. Stone / AMANET / AMA—American Management Association
http://www.amanet.org/training/articles/Each-Step-You-Take-Take-Charge-of-Your-Career.aspx?pcode=XA9T&CMP=NLC-LeadersEdge&wm_tag=email&spMailingID=3767621&spUserID=NzQ3MTU2NzU2MgS2&spJobID=117059790&spReportId=MTE3MDU5NzkwS0

 

Tip Of The Day: 3 Whats For Power

Once you've made a decision use these three questions to check whether you have a clear decision that you can turn into reality.

What? ~ A clear statement of what you decided to do in two sentences or less.

So what? ~ Explain what will be different after you do it, and why that matters.

Now what? ~ Define the first visible action that will move things forward, who is responsible, and when it will be done.

Thanks to Wally Bock's Three Star Leadership Blog

http://blog.threestarleadership.com/2011/11/18/bosss-tip-of-the-day-3-whats-for-power.aspx

 

 

Managing 5 Kinds Of Hiring Managers

No matter who you're meeting with, make a good impression. But hiring managers even more so. You will potentially be partnering with these individuals during your entire stay at the company you are with, and potentially beyond.

During my first corporate recruiting position I felt that my role was as a "service provider" to my managers, so when they said jump, I did. Looking back on that now I realize how many opportunities I missed to set myself up as an expert in my profession of recruiting because I lacked the confidence to command a meeting and initiate a true partnership during the beginning of that relationship.

During my time as a recruiter I have run across several different types of managers and most can be intimidating. Below are some of the most common personality types that I've run across and ways that you can forge strong relationships with them despite some of their traits.

The "unemployment rate is so high you must have candidates banging our door down" manager: This particular breed of manager needs to be better educated on what is really out there in the market. The unemployment rate rising doesn't always result in a rise in the actual candidates who you need for a given opening. Websites like the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Wanted Analytics are great starting points to use, and they'll be able to arm you with some statistics on how many candidates for that job are actually out there. Be prepared for your first meeting with this manager by painting a realistic picture of the market from the very beginning of your search so that you set expectations correctly in the beginning.

The "I am an executive and feel I am better than you and want to hire an agency" manager: Oh my, this is my least-favorite manager, and there is always at least one in every company! Some managers no matter what your success rate is want to use an outside source just for the purpose of using an outside source. Try and compile a list of agencies that your company has worked with in the past and rate their success rate against your own, and how many hires have they made for your company vs. how many you've made. What has the success of those employees been in terms of tenure?

When I worked at Mike's Hard Lemonade, I had an executive who just so happened to be best friends with a particular agency that he gave the exclusive to on everything. I wasn't able to get him to stop using that firm on my first search, but I was able to see the candidates that agency was submitting and how easily they were finding them by pulling up the same candidates on Monster or LinkedIn. When you can illustrate that the 25-30% agency fee is only getting you a 10-minute Monster search, executives tend to listen a little more closely. With time I was able to convince that manager to allow me two weeks for a search before it went out to an agency. Over time my track record spoke for itself and I was able to gain trust and create a good partnership with this manager.

The "I don't have time for hiring" manager: About half of my managers fall into the category of not having any time for recruitment, yet hiring and staffing their team is their No. 1 priority. These managers can be difficult to get any information out of, yet they assume you're able to leave a five-minute meeting and produce a perfect candidate in a matter of days. The reality is managers need to be educated that the more information they provide to you and more information you get upfront, the less painful and slow the process of staffing for their team will be. I worked with a manager at Cobalt several years back, who was notorious for missing my meetings. So when I received a position from him I would do as much pre-work as possible, knowing from experience that I was only going to get yes and no answers from him, and that our first meeting about this position would most likely be our last.

Be prepared in that first meeting with candidate profiles. You most likely won't get more than a job description from this manager, so use that to find some profiles and review them on the spot. Even hearing a yes or no on a profile can provide you with a sense of the type of candidate that they are looking for. Come prepared to the meeting with companies in your area that are hiring similar profiles so that you can provide the manager with a list of companies to pull from instead of expecting him to have that available for you. Ask if there is a lead or manager on their team who can assist with the candidate screening in an effort to save them time.

The "in an effort to look engaged I am going to ask for status updates on everything you do" manager: Some managers just like to micromanage the process and want to know everything you're doing, including how many resumes you've seen, how many candidates you've rejected, etc. I try to be as proactive as possible with these ones and ask in the first meeting what kind of metrics they are looking for, and will create a weekly report for them. Most ATS's have reporting functionality that you can use to build out custom reports without a lot of effort needed on your end. I use Jobvite, which has a custom report functionality that works great for this, and also allows for managers to go into the system and run their own reports at any given time.

The "even though I am a VP of _____ I am also an expert in your field and will tell you how to do your job" manager: You gotta love managers who know everyone in the industry, exactly where to find people, and how you should go about starting your search. While having a manager be networked and engaged is usually a blessing, sometimes it can go to the extreme and become a curse. Managers who know everyone in the industry and therefore start rejecting candidates based on rumors, hearsay, or reputation alone will really narrow down your pipeline. Use their knowledge to your benefit. If there are associations and groups that they'd like you to network in, ask if a member of their team can assist you as well so that you'll have time to not only run your own search but also incorporate the ideas of your hiring manager without running yourself ragged.

Thanks to Cassandra Denny / ERE / ERE Media, Inc.
http://www.ere.net/2011/11/22/managing-5-kinds-of-hiring-managers/?utm_source=ERE+Media&utm_campaign=a5ef9dd233-ERE-Daily-5-Kinds-of-Managers&utm_medium=email

 

Leaders Should Be Competent – But Not Too Competent

Guest post from David C. Baker. Does a manager/leader need to be really good at what they manage? I would say for some professions, like sales, they do. What do you think?

 

After interviewing more than 10,000 employees at 600+ companies, you start noticing patterns in effective leaders. Recognizing these patterns is a crucial step for first-time (and long-time) managers, as I've written about in Managing (Right) for the First Time.

One of the more surprising patterns is the level of competence that a leader should possess. Leaders only need a basic level of competence. Just enough to understand the issues and evaluate talent.

Leaders should not be the most technically competent of the group they are leading. If they are, it may be a sign that they have hired helpers instead of experts. It could also mean that they were promoted for the wrong reasons. They might have been a very good "doer," but perhaps not the best "manager."

There is one thing leaders should be competent at: leading. That is their job. Leaders should know just enough to be dangerous about the subject they are managing. How can you know if you've crossed the boundary into over-competence? Ask yourself:

• Is there anyone you are managing that you don't trust to do something they have been hired to do? If so, why?

• When you are reviewing work, do you spend more time nitpicking or focusing on the big picture?

• When you are interviewing new talent, are you actively seeking out people that are smarter than you in a given area?

Let's face it: all over the world you can find well-run companies whose leaders are managing others who are far more competent than they are. And that isn't necessarily a bad thing. A well-run company is a well-run company.

Author Bio:- David C. Baker lived in Guatemala until he was 18 and now lives in Nashville, TN. In addition to owning a thriving management consulting practice, ReCourses, David is a frequent speaker and author. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Inc. magazine, BusinessWeek, and dozens of other national publications. He enjoys travel, racquetball, photography, and flying airplanes and helicopters.

 

Thanks to David C. Baker / Great Leadership By Dan
http://www.greatleadershipbydan.com/2011/11/leaders-should-be-competent-but-not-too.html

 

 

Outline for a Sales Training Manual

Every now and then, we get requests for an outline for a sales training manual. We usually respond in the same way:

What prompted your interest in a sales training manual?

Typically, it's because someone told someone else to come up with some sales training. If we've learned one thing after 35 years of sales training experience, it's this: There's a lot more to a successful sales training initiative than the manual.

Simply building a sales training manual -- even a really good one -- won't do any good. The secret to successful sales training is in bringing it alive. Experienced sales trainers can do that. In order to be effective, sales training needs a lot more than a manual.

We've delivered sales training to salespeople all over the world. So that means we've been involved with a lot of sales training programs.

Here's what the successful ones have going for them:

• They're proven by real-world results. Sales training that's all "theory" just doesn't cut it. Salespeople are too cynical to be fooled by sales theory. Instead, they're looking for examples of tactics and principles that have been used in their industry, by their peers successfully.
• They're backed-up by research. Naturally, "back of the envelope" sales tactics aren't going to work anymore, either. Sales leaders expect proof of the effectiveness of training initiatives. And now, more than ever, sales skills can be tested. In fact, this is a tremendous benefit of the Sales 2.0 movement.
• They're individualized. Everyone inside a sales organizations sells in different ways. No matter how much effort is put into "competency modeling" or "benchmarking," there's a certain element of art in sales. And that means training needs to reflect the artists on your team. That takes more than a one-size-fits-all process.
• They're customized to your unique environment. Your selling environment is different than your competitors'. And the sales process they follow will probably be a bit different than theirs. Sales training can't be a one-size-fits-all solution. A truly impactful engagement needs to map to your existing best practices. Not ignore them.
• They're delivered by experienced salespeople and managers. Sales trainers can't tell salespeople what to do unless they've already done it, themselves. Salespeople are quick to pick up on the "Do as I say, not as I do" mantra.
• They're reinforced beyond the training engagement. Changes in behavior do NOT come from a 2-day event. Instead, meaningful sales behavior growth and change must come from a longer-term, reinforced engagement with follow-up coaching.

So, you see, a manual, by itself, simply can't generate the effective change that a customized sales training program will.

Thanks to The Brooks Group
http://www.brooksgroup.com/blog/index.php/2011/11/21/outline-for-a-sales-training-manual/

 

Workers Are Unhappy: 3 Things A Manager Can Do

I was on a flight from Las Vegas this week when I overhead a fascinating conversation. The flight attendant was energetic and upbeat, a true ambassador for the airline. He was so atypical, in fact, that the two men seated behind me asked if they could speak to corporate and get him recognized. His good nature faded as he grumbled, "That's very nice of you, but please don't bother. We have a recognition system, but you need about three billion points before you can get anything worthwhile. I have maybe 280,000 points, which I think is like a $50 gift certificate."

Here was an amazing employee who was persevering despite the airline's poor recognition system. Did he have more to give? Probably. Was he dissatisfied, disheartened and even dismayed by the lack of acknowledgement for his great work? Without a doubt.

Employees are fed up. They admit they have more to give, but just don't feel like giving it.
As proof, consider a new study just conducted of worker satisfaction in the United States. More than half the respondents claimed they are not satisfied with the level of recognition they receive at work—up a whopping 11% from six months ago. But more to the point, 65% of people who are otherwise satisfied—those who aren't interested in finding a new job—admit they would work harder if they just received more praise for their efforts.

As a manager, ignore these findings at your peril.

The study, conducted in August by MarketTools Inc. for Globoforce, found that a lack of sincere recognition is also leading to employee turnover. Some 38% of working Americans say they are looking to leave their current companies. And the researchers found a startling correlation between the level of recognition a manager gives and the loyalty of his or her workers.

The problem is, few leadership teams are grasping the importance of this issue. As we work with executive groups, most are failing to admit the true toll on morale that this recession has wrought. Without exception, they've laid off workers and/or asked Herculean efforts from their remaining staff. And yet the level of appreciation has not increased; in fact in most cases it's decreased—after all, leaders are really, really busy.

In one of our surveys, a 10-year look at 200,000 people, we found managers who give frequent, specific, and timely recognition had not only much higher levels of employee engagement but also customer satisfaction and team profitability. These basics are things you can do right away to impact engagement:

Frequent: The Gallup Organization's research shows that for employees to feel valued and committed, they need to receive some form of praise or recognition every seven days. That doesn't mean you'll be handing out Rolex watches every week (if you do, sign me up). Instead, employees need verbal and written reinforcement of their work. Managers who earn the most trust and dedication of their people do so with many simple, yet powerful actions: writing a sincere note of thanks, highlighting a team member's performance in a staff meeting, doing their least favorite task for a day, sending an e-card of praise to an employee and copying your boss, and so on.

Specific: Non-specific praise is actually disheartening for employees, since it implies that their manager has no idea of the unique value they bring. Managers who offer this type of general praise may think they are rewarding the entire team with comments such as "Thanks, everyone, for your hard work." But such general praise has no effect. It can even have a negative impact on those in your charge. The best recognition is specific to the individual, and is always linked to a core value.

Timely: Nothing saps energy faster than doing something great and hearing no praise. To be recognized weeks or even a month later is of some reward, but realistically in 99% of cases a manager will forget if he puts it off. To reinforce the right behaviors, we must reward them right away.

In our work, we have found many great managers reaping the tangible benefits of frequent, specific, and timely recognition. These are learnable skills that can truly change your team for the better.

Adrian Gostick is the author of several New York Times bestselling business books, including The Carrot Principle and The Orange Revolution. He is the founder of The Culture Works, a global consultancy specializing in leadership and corporate culture.

Thanks to Adrian Gostick / AMANET / AMA Shift / AMA—American Management Association
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