For a long time in America, earnings and productivity went hand and hand: The more productive workers got, the more they made, on average. That relationship appeared to break down starting in the early 1970s, as productivity increased but wages flat-lined, and economists have spent several decades debating why. (The Washington Post)
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You're in a slump, huh? Join the crowd. Time to crank up that stereo, shut down your Facebook window, and then catch some Zs, to get back on track. (Fast Company)
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Maybe, depending on what you want and where you are in your life, you'd actually be better off leaning out, directing your best efforts into fulfilling career and personal priorities that you, not your employer, have set. Says John Morris, co-founder of Crestwood Advisors in Boston: "Many people just want to get off the treadmill and have a more satisfying life." (Money Magazine)
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Getting what you want in your career and in life isn't as difficult as it may seem. I mean it. I've been very fortunate, both professionally and personally, and along the way learned seven key ways to help make it happen. In essence, I work to put others first, and to be more likeable, to end up with what I want in everything I do. I'll be writing about this in far more detail in my third book next year. In the meantime, here's a sneak peak at how you can be successful in everything you do, too. (Inc.)
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Imagine crafting a sustainable career for yourself. Year after year, you perform work that makes full use of your skills and challenges you to develop new ones. Your work not only interests you, it gives you a sense of meaning. You enjoy opportunities for learning and development. You work with people who energize you. You are confident that your skills and competencies make you valuable and marketable and that you can access opportunities through your network. You are able to fit your work together with the other things in your life that are important to you, like family, friends, and leisure. (Harvard Business Review)
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You had coffee with someone from a company you'd love to work for. So how do you snag the gig? Using the practice of unstoppability: By showing what you're capable of and why the organization needs it in their life, you reduce the cognitive load of whether-or-nots for the hiring manager. (Fast Company)
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For older workers, this economic downturn has been harder than most. According to the AARP, the median length of unemployment for workers 55 and over as of May 2013 is 54.2 weeks. That’s more than five times as much as the 10-week median before 2008's market meltdown. It’s also significantly higher than the 35.9-week unemployment duration of workers under the age of 55. (Bloomberg)
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For many, a corporate directorship is a career capstone. But attaining one is far from easy. No one can say for sure how to get on a corporate board, but many people point to two routes: the first is to break into the "right" network and the second is to seek a progression of board seats that begins with, for example, a seat on a not-for-profit or community board and eventually results in appointment to a corporate board. (Harvard Business Review)
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Women stop gunning for a promotion earlier than men. But by our mid 30s, most men don't care about getting more responsibilities at work, either. (The Atlantic)
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Martha Chumo, a 19-year-old self-taught programmer, was supposed to be in New York right now, honing her coding skills and mastering cutting-edge technologies in the company of fellow software enthusiasts. Instead, she's thousands of miles away, in her hometown of Nairobi, Kenya.
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Many of the fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa. The continent's future appears to be bright, but do growth figures reflect an improving quality of life? It is a story that is being told with increasing frequency. (BBC News)
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When the letters of recommendation for Christopher arrived in the admissions office of a top-ranked business school, they were just about perfect. The recommenders raved about the candidate's leadership abilities and team skills. They praised his initiative, curiosity and motivation. And they did so in unusually detailed anecdotes that allowed the applicant to come alive. Problem was, his recommenders had never written those favorable words. Instead, the letters were drafted by the applicant himself. (Fortune)
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A renewed appreciation for corporate risk in the wake of the global financial meltdown has ushered in a growing interest in risk management programs at business schools. "People are recognizing that we are living in a new era of catastrophe," says Howard Kunreuther, professor and director of the Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
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The National Black MBA Association’s Houston chapter will hold its 2013 Leaders of Tomorrow Scholarship Brunch on Wednesday, August 14th at the Grand Foyer of the Wortham Theater Center located at 500 Texas Avenue. The brunch will recognize the 2013 Leaders of Tomorrow, the Houston Case Competition winners, 2012 Scholarship recipients and the NBMBAA national fall conference. (Rolling Out)
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United Airlines is pleased to offer a discount of 2%-13% off of your airfare when booking travel for the NBMBAA’s 35th Annual Conference & Career Expo.

To view flight schedules, air fares and obtain the discount click HERE.
You may also contact United Meetings reservations at 1-800-426-1122

You must provide the following Z Code ZQ2C and Agreement Code 506107 at the time of the booking to receive the discount.
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Let’s be clear. Your personal information online is not always yours to control. Thieves could grab a Social Security number stored unencrypted in a doctor’s computer; the National Security Agency could order an e-mail provider to unlock correspondence; even the phone company could supply the police with a map of your whereabouts for the last several months. (The New York Times)
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I am a ridiculously neat and organized person, and smugness suits me just fine, so the idea that my in-box could be as tidy as my closet has great appeal. But I’ve tried all the big services, and I’m here to preach a new gospel: the Gospel of Not Caring. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
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AT&T and T-Mobile just announced wireless plans that allow customers to upgrade their phones after just one year, instead of the traditional two-year stint. While these new plans may appeal to those who simply must get their hands on the newest gadgets as soon as they can, such bragging rights will come at a steep price. (MarketWatch)
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What happens when your file-storage company becomes a full-on platform? A whole lot of change, for starters. How you manage the change determines if the sudden growth will last – or not. (Fast Company)
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A few years back, BLACK ENTERPRISE profiled serial entrepreneur Robert L. Johnson, stating that he entered his second act with a string of acquisitions and the creation of a new business empire tied to banking, film production, and major league sports. If you thought he was winding down, you’d have been dead wrong. In fact, the founder and chairman of RLJ Cos., the Bethesda, Maryland-based holding company, continues to seek new territories to conquer as he redesigns his business empire. (Black Enterprise)
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During the recession, the economy shed millions of middle-income jobs in fields like construction and manufacturing. During the recovery, they've mostly been replaced with low-wage service work, exacerbating a trend that dates back to the turn of the century. As shown on the graph below, the the food services industry now accounts for 7.6 percent of all jobs, up from about 7 percent pre-recession, and about 6.2 percent around 2000. (The Atlantic)
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People in the U.S. and China view each other with increasing suspicion, and many others around the world see the U.S. losing its place to China as the leading economic and political power, a new public opinion poll shows. (The Wall Street Journal)
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Sometimes we’re so busy living life, grinding and chasing our dreams that we don’t recognize that we need to periodically stop, reassess and pull ourselves together. As a result, we get caught slipping. There’s nothing like stopping in front of a mirror and really seeing yourself, only to find that you need a makeover, because you are a hot mess! (Black Enterprise)
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Nearly half of middle-aged adults gave financial support to a grown child last year, according to the Pew Research Center. Whether you're providing room and board, covering insurance costs, or writing regular checks, you may be doing your child – not to mention yourself – a disservice. (Money Magazine)
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GE's "insourcing" of appliance manufacturing to the U.S. has been trumpeted as a major reversal of the trend of sending jobs abroad to lower cost locations, and has been characterized in the press as a kind of "onshoring" story. I see it differently: as a "NUMMI deja vu" story. You may recall that NUMMI was a joint venture of Toyota and GM, where Toyota took over one of GM's worst plants and turned it around with a new management system – using many of the same people and the same unions. GE's insourcing is actually quite similar. So, how did GE do it? (Harvard Business Review)
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America’s biggest companies expect a third-straight year of modest increases in cash gifts to charities in 2013, according to a Chronicle survey. Donations grew by 2.7 percent in 2012, to $5.3-billion, for 106 companies that provided two years’ worth of data. (The Chronicle of Philanthropy)
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Nearly all stories about the health-care overhaul and insurance premiums tend to be about the cost of health insurance rising. That’s what makes this front page story in the New York Times all the more unexpected: "Health Plan Cost For New Yorkers Set to Fall 50 Percent." (The Washington Post)
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The mayor of New York pays homage to business in almost everything he does. His office is modelled on the "bullpen" of a trading floor. His administration uses business methods to improve everything from city services (for example, providing 24-hour public helplines) to long-term planning. He sees New York as a corporation, city workers as talent, and the public as customers – and by and large New Yorkers love him for it. (The Economist)
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Remember the scene in the first Austin Powers film where Powers, attempting to escape in a steamroller, warns one of Dr. Evil's henchmen to move out of its path? Despite its comically slow speed — and a huge distance between them, the guard stays rooted to the spot, yelling Stop! ... until it's too late On the industrial stage, something like that scene plays out all too often. A company finds itself in the path of an unstoppable industry disruption, can hardly fail to see it, yet simply fails to act. Only, it's not at all funny. (Harvard Business Review)
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One of the most challenging aspects of leadership is communicating with important people in a wide variety of roles. Every day, you have to motivate your employees, capture the attention of potential customers, and inspire confidence of your investors. The question is, are you using language appropriate for a leader? (Inc.)
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The difference between winners and losers is how they handle losing. That's a key finding from my ongoing research on great companies and effective leaders: no one can completely avoid troubles and potential pitfalls are everywhere, so the real skill is the resilience to climb out of the hole and bounce back. (Harvard Business Review)
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