With questions about the future of middle management, many believe that corporations will soon beef up their core leadership teams, allowing them to keep foundational business knowledge close to the top while delegating the increasingly complex attributes of the modern organization to in-house, executive-level experts. (Fast Company)

In May, Michael Armstrong of Southern Co. called two students he’d recruited from a Southeastern public college to wish them a happy graduation and fix their start dates in the fall. The calls went to voice mail. Then the emails came in. Each student thanked him for the opportunity, but declined the jobs they accepted months before. Other, better jobs had simply come along, they wrote, leaving Mr. Armstrong, campus recruiting lead for the Atlanta utility, with spots to fill. One of the strongest graduate hiring seasons in recent memory has had an unpleasant byproduct for campus recruiters, who say their college hires are jilting them at the last minute. (The Wall Street Journal)

A third of Americans expect to work at least until age 65. Another 10 percent don’t plan to retire at all. Many don’t think they’ve saved enough money. And baby boomers are redefining retirement and must keep busy to stay happy – especially if many expect to live into their 80s and 90s. But they are in for a shock. A 2015 Employee Benefit Research Institute survey found that 50 percent of retirees left their jobs sooner than planned. Why? (The Washington Post)

Just five minutes and a genius business idea can help you to win big. Gone are the days of conventional business plan competitions. For this activity, three NBMBAA members will have five minutes each to sell their business idea to a mixed panel of venture capitalists, academic instructors and successful entrepreneurs – using only a digital board and pen. The winner will receive $10,000. The time is now to bring your best business idea to the table. Just submit your a 60-second pitch video to register. Visit our Innovation Whiteboard Challenge® page to see samples and get all the details. Deadline is July 21, so don't miss your chance to participate!

Who hasn’t thought about quitting their full-time job and going out on their own? Being your own boss is certainly tempting. But is giving up your status as a regular employee the right choice for you? What the Experts Say: "There are many reasons why people choose to go freelance," says Steve King, partner at Emergent Research. (Harvard Business Review)

When you’re describing your experience and applying for a job do you let potential employers know that you’re motivated? Nice word – but everyone else uses it, too. "Motivated," in fact, is the most overused buzzword on LinkedIn profiles, followed up by "passionate" and "creative." Why are so many of us motivated, passionate and creative? These words are easy, says Catherine Fisher, senior director of corporate communications for LinkedIn. "People are looking to describe who they are, and they probably understand that hiring managers would want to look for a motivated, creative and passionate individual," she says. (Fast Company)

Ever feel like you’re working harder for less money? It’s probably not all in your head. Although it’s well-known by now that wage growth hasn’t kept up with productivity gains in recent years, the trend in base pay is even worse than most people realize. In the second quarter of 2015, unlike the one before it, average inflation-adjusted wages in the U.S. actually fell 0.5%. The average 12-month increase was only a barely perceptible 0.3%. (Fortune)

Our brains are designed to focus on one thing at a time, and bombarding our brain with information only slows it down. MIT neuroscientist Earl Miller notes that our brains are "not wired to multitask well....when people think they're multitasking, they're actually just switching from one task to another very rapidly. And every time they do, there's a cognitive cost in doing so." (Inc.)

It reads like a dry, 1,184-word memorandum about fiscal projections. But the International Monetary Fund’s memo on Greek debt sustainability, explaining why the I.M.F. cannot participate in a new bailout program unless other European countries agree to huge debt relief for Greece, has provided the "Emperor Has No Clothes" moment of the Greek crisis, one that may finally force eurozone members to either move closer to fiscal union or break up. (The New York Times)

The Greek parliament passed sweeping austerity measures demanded by lenders to open talks on a new multibillion-euro bailout package to keep Greece in the euro, but dozens of hardliners in the ruling Syriza party deserted Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. The package was approved with 229 votes in the 300-seat chamber. There were 64 votes against it and six abstentions. But Tsipras required the support of pro-European opposition parties to push the measure through, leaving a question over the future of his government. (Fortune)

You thought getting into business school was hard? Just wait until you step onto campus. Used to working 70 hour weeks? Start preparing for 90-100 hours. Graduate near the top of your class? So did most of the members of your cohort. In fact, you’ll probably be muttering, "So much, so fast" after your first week. The pace doesn’t relent, not certainly in the first grueling year. You simply adapt. (Poets & Quants)

A start-up launched by IE Business School MBAs is addressing the family business segment that the founders say has been neglected by top management consultancy firms. Pushing the sharing economy, and utilizing digital technology, bhive is an online marketplace that connects family-owned firms in developing markets with MBAs, who carry out freelance consulting work for a fee, often working remotely. Bhive takes a 15% cut on fees paid to the consultant, which can be as much as $200 an hour. (BusinessBecause)

Education, Networking and Career Opportunities You Can't Miss: Register Now for The National Black MBA Association® 37th Annual Conference and Exposition 

Celebrating 45 years of Black professional development and executive leadership, The National Black MBA Association® (NBMBAA®), the nation's premier organization for Black business professionals, today announced early bird registration is open for  the upcoming NBMBAA® 37th Annual Conference and Exposition at the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, FL where more than 9,000 attendees are anticipated to convene for networking, leadership development, and career opportunities.

Registration rates increase August 17, so register today!

Visit Conference Website
Register Now!

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I’ll be honest – I’ve had mixed feelings about Gmail. Sometimes it’s fantastic, like when my best friend and I send each other cool links all morning while simultaneously talking on Gchat. But other times, as I’m watching my inbox fill up at the speed of light, it can just be overwhelming. Gmail and I have finally come to a mutually respectful relationship (think Kanye’s post-VMA apology to T-Swift), but it’s been a long road. These four hacks have paved the way, and once you’ve got them down, I promise Gmail will feel like a whole new ball game. (Fast Company)

Mozilla is blocking the Adobe Flash Player from automatically running in its Firefox Web browser until an update is released to address concerns about its security. Flash is a common software used to view videos, GIFs, and animations in web browsers. It is supported by most Web browsers including FireFox, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Chrome. The Mozilla Foundation, which makes a number of free-to-use email, Web-browsing, and mobile services, announced it would start blocking the use of Flash Player by default on Firefox in a threat advisory. (Slate)

An organization’s need to generate and sustain unrivaled innovation is the driving force behind why management structure is the hottest business topic right now. And for a good reason. When companies get it "right," they win big, explains MIT senior lecturer Steve Spear, referencing Toyota's innovative management style as the reason the company is ahead of its competitors, like GM and Ford. "It’s a very competitive industry," he continues. "Everyone has access to the same talent pool, the same science and technology, the same marketplace with the same product offerings." (Fast Company)

Want to be seen as a leading thinker? Want to be the Seth Godin of your industry or the Malcolm Gladwell of your field? Want to revolutionize entire industries – and business paradigms – like Steve Jobs? It’s not easy. It takes a lot more than sitting at a computer while the children are nestled all snug in their beds and visions of thought leadership dance in your head. Some of my clients are visionaries and leaders in their fields. I know what they've done to set themselves apart. I've seen firsthand their approach, energy, and most importantly, persistence. (Inc.)

The rent has been "too damn high" in New York for so long that today's young professionals might assume it was always that way. Yet it wasn't until the second quarter of 2004 that the median rent exceeded 30 percent of the median household income for young workers, the threshold at which housing experts say rent is no longer affordable, according to an analysis conducted by Zillow. (Bloomberg)

Millions of America’s young people are really struggling financially. Around 30 percent are living with their parents, and many others are coping with stagnant wages, underemployment, and sky-high rent. And then there are those who are doing just great – owning a house, buying a car, and consistently putting money away for retirement. These, however, are not your run-of-the-mill Millennials. Nope. These Millennials have something very special: rich parents. (The Atlantic)

Can a machine dispense good investment advice? Plenty of people seem to think so. As the number of online investment advisers has swelled in recent years, so has the pot of money they manage. Financial-services giants Charles Schwab and Vanguard Group recently joined such upstart sites as Betterment, SigFig and Wealthfront in dispensing customized, computer-generated financial advice. Vanguard’s offering officially launched in May, but from the time testing began in early 2013 through early June, it had already pulled in $7 billion. Schwab’s online advisory business, which opened in March, attracted more than $2.6 billion in assets in just over three months. "It just goes to show there was this massive unmet need," says Naureen Hassan, head of Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, the firm’s online advisory business. (Kiplinger's)

In a perfect world, parents and educators (not to mention society) work hard to make sure that children are financially literate and consider money skills just as important as reading, writing and arithmetic. Our world sure doesn’t work like that, and you need to help your young kids learn basic financial skills the old-fashioned way: Teach by doing. Here are four of the most basic practical money skills for your children. (Money Magazine)

Maximize Your Conference Week: Members Can Take Advantage of Discounts on the 3-Day CertifiNOW PMP®/CAPM® Prep Course

If you are aiming to pass the PMP® or CAPM® exam and you want to get the best project management learning experience in just 3 days, then CertifiNOW® is the right choice for you.

A recent study indicated that certified employees tend to earn 10-25% more in annual salary than their non-certified peers... and 1.2 million new project management jobs will be created, on a yearly basis, for the next 10 years. This project management learning program provides an unsurpassed learning experience for the PMP® (Project Management Professional) or CAPM® (Certified Associate in Project Management) certification exams in a condensed amount of time.

At the same time, CertifiNOW® satisfies most, if not all, of your professional certification, education, and training needs. In the last year, 90% of CertifiNOW® students passed their certification exam on the 1st attempt. For senior executives contemplating organizational transformation, but not seeking certification, this course is beneficial because it provides a solid theoretical framework and the proper paradigm for thinking about projectized organizational structures and the project management profession.

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After years of neglect, it turns out the iPod isn’t dead after all. Early Wednesday morning the Apple Store was taken offline for maintenance. Often such measures usually indicate a new product is on the horizon. After a few hours of anticipation, the store came back to life, featuring a new version of the iPod Touch. The new product is the first substantial change to the iPod line in three years. (Fortune)

Unlimited vacation policies aren't just for start-ups. One of America's largest corporations is also taking a more liberal stance on employee time off. General Electric (GE) this year started to offer what it calls a "permissive approach" to paid time off. Under the company's new policy, there no longer will be any limit set on the number of vacation, sick and personal days that executives and those in the so-called senior professional band may take. (CNN/Money)

How one of the first black suburbs in the country fell so far from its halcyon early days exemplifies how systemic racism hampered the goals of those who were trying to build a community there. The people of Lincoln Heights might have had their own suburb, but the world made sure they had little else. From the beginning, historians say, the town was doomed to fail. "The notion of suburbanization, of neighborhood opportunities, all of that is embedded in that fantasy that black people can move to freedom, and we can’t," said Henry Louis Taylor, a professor of urban and regional planning at the University at Buffalo, who wrote his dissertation on Lincoln Heights. (The Atlantic)

The Labor Department waded into a heated workplace dispute with fresh guidance suggesting more businesses should be designating workers as employees instead of independent contractors. So-called employee misclassification has become a hot topic recently as the economy has changed and hundreds of growing businesses such as Uber Technologies Inc. turn away from traditional hiring practices and rely increasingly on contract workers. (The Wall Street Journal)

We don’t lead alone. We lead with others. The days of the ‘Great Man’ theory of Leadership – where one sole leader rules over the masses from their ivory tower, are long gone. Some of us quite literally lead with another person – we co-lead a project, a team, or an organization with a peer. A study by Pearce and Sims (2002), published in Group Dynamics, found that shared leadership is a useful predictor of team effectiveness. (Harvard Business Review)

When you ask people to name the qualities of great leaders, intelligence is the only attribute that is seen as a must-have. But if you think every great CEO is a genius, think again. A meta-analysis led by Timothy Judge, Ph.D., a professor at the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame, found that there's a pretty weak link between intelligence and leadership. (Business Insider)

Summer is here and, for many of us, it makes us nostalgic for our childhood vacations: long, carefree days spent by the beach, in the woods, or with friends and family. However, as adults, those memories can seem all too far away. If you’re American, you probably take drastically less vacation that workers elsewhere. First, most U.S. employers only offer 10 paid vacation days, versus the 28 in the UK and 30 in France. The US is the only advanced economy that does not guarantee vacation to its employees, and according to a report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, 1 in 4 Americans receives no paid vacation at all. (Harvard Business Review)

Takeo Spikes, a 242-pound former linebacker for the National Football League’s San Diego Chargers, is delivering a speech on organ trafficking that sounds like a dramatic monologue. "When finances are tight, people sell their bodies, literally. People sell their hair, blood, eggs, in addition to their organs," he booms, reading from a sheet of paper. Until now, the presentations given by others in the lecture hall have been pretty casual. Now the room is silent with all eyes fixed on Spikes. (Bloomberg)