Once you land full-time employment, your employer may offer the option to contribute to a company-sponsored retirement plan. You might reason you can’t afford to contribute, but you’re wrong. You can’t afford not to contribute to your retirement fund. If your company offers a matching contribution, that’s even more incentive to contribute as soon as possible. This is your chance to get free money—take it.

Visit http://www.blackenterprise.com/money/investing/investing-tips-for-young-professionals/ to view the full article online.

 

Are you working endlessly but not accomplishing all you want? Mystified that continuous attention to work is not resulting in satisfactory progress toward your goals? So focused on work that you’re not thinking about or doing much else? If so, you may not be giving your brain the benefit of adequate downtime. A recent article in Scientific American, Why Your Brain Needs More Downtime, summarizes the evidence that "mental breaks increase productivity, replenish attention, solidify memories, and encourage creativity."

Visit http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/03/the-heretics-guide-to-getting-more-done/ to view the full article online.

 

In 1980, almost 60% of large, public companies in America were headed up by a male military veteran. By 2006, a mere 6.2% of these businesses had a CEO with military experience. These numbers, from a January National Bureau of Economic Research working paper by Efraim Benmelech and Carola Frydman, aren’t necessarily surprising.

Visit http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/03/what-military-service-could-teach-mbas/ to view the full article online.

 

Why do so many people—particularly women—seem to have so much on their plates? Perhaps the most poignant detail from Anne-Marie Slaughter's Atlantic cover story, "Why Women Still Can't Have It All," was also one of the smallest: an overworked mother of three who "organized her time so ruthlessly that she always keyed in 1:11 or 2:22 or 3:33 on the microwave rather than 1:00, 2:00, or 3:00, because hitting the same number three times took less time."

Visit http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/03/americas-workers-stressed-out-overwhelmed-totally-exhausted/284615/ to view the full article online.

 

Girish is a client of mine who runs a 500-million-dollar business. He gets stellar reviews and is seen as a high potential successor to the CEO.
But he has a friend problem.
Several of his direct reports are close friends and he doesn’t hold them accountable in the same way he does his other direct reports. Often, they don’t do what he asks. And they aren’t delivering the results he expects. It’s hurting his business and his reputation.

Visit http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/03/how-to-have-friends-at-work-when-youre-the-boss-2/ to view the full article online.

 

Searching for jobs is an arduous task that can take a lot of time, however there are ways of shortening that effort. The majority of job hunters underestimate how useful their network of contacts can be and how they can use this network to extend their search to increase the chances of finding a job. With the development of online social networks, your personal collection of contacts is considerably larger than those of job hunters 10 years ago and should be fully utilized in your search for work.

Visit http://www.diversityinc.com/career-advice/the-underestimated-importance-of-personal-networking/ to view the full article online.

 

ASKING for a raise is the type of conversation that can make even the most confident among us uncomfortable. Women, however, may have good reason to feel that way. Discrimination persists in the workplace and it isn’t necessarily intentional or overt, experts on gender and negotiation say.

Visit http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/25/your-money/moving-past-gender-barriers-to-negotiate-a-raise.html?ref=business&_r=0 to view the full article online.

 

A fall in petrol prices pushed the UK inflation rate to a new four-year low of 1.7% last month, figures show. It is the second consecutive month that the Consumer Prices Index rate has been below the Bank of England's 2% target, having stood at 1.9% in January.

Visit http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26730533 to view the full article online.

 

Is Russia ready to cut up its plastic? After Visa and MasterCard stopped processing some Russian transactions in response to U.S. sanctions, Moscow says it could launch a homegrown payment system that could be ready in as little as six months, according to German Gref, chief of the country’s largest bank, Sberbank (SBER:RM).

Visit http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-24/russia-gets-ready-for-life-without-visa-and-mastercard#r=hpt-ls to view the full article online.

 

A new CareerBuilder survey found that a college degree is more valuable than ever — both for job applicants and the employers who hire them. According to the research, three in 10 American companies say they’re hiring college-educated workers for jobs that used to be held by high school grads, a trend that cuts across industries. Companies are also more interested in hiring people with advanced degrees.

Visit http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/03/college-grads-take-high-school-grads-jobs-deliver-better-results/ to view the full article online.

 

Everyone knows that the United States has long suffered from widespread shortages in its science and engineering workforce, and that if continued these shortages will cause it to fall behind its major economic competitors. Everyone knows that these workforce shortages are due mainly to the myriad weaknesses of American K-12 education in science and mathematics, which international comparisons of student performance rank as average at best.

Visit http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/03/the-myth-of-the-science-and-engineering-shortage/284359/ to view the full article online.

 

Register for the the first of NBMBAA's 2014 Regional Symposiums: April 10 in Memphis
Every so often we find ourselves in all sorts of quandaries. It’s simply a part of life’s course. Join NBMBAA as we provide practical steps to reset, refocus and recalibrate your reality and navigate the everyday compromises, sacrifices and adjustments across the eco-system of life.
Space is Limited. Register Now.

 

Federal agents notified more than 3,000 U.S. companies last year that their computer systems had been hacked, White House officials have told industry executives, marking the first time the government has revealed how often it tipped off the private sector to cyberintrusions.

Visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-notified-3000-companies-in-2013-about-cyberattacks/2014/03/24/74aff686-aed9-11e3-96dc-d6ea14c099f9_story.html to view the full article online.

 

Conventional wisdom holds that new technology requires highly educated workers. There is little doubt that new technologies have taken a heavy toll on less educated workers not only in manufacturing industries, but also in routine white-collar jobs. In many cases, these workers had accumulated valuable experience that has now become obsolete.

Visit http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/03/how-technology-creates-jobs-for-less-educated-workers/ to view the full article online.

 

Wellness entrepreneur, Latham Thomas defines the title of her book Mama Glow as a "certain radiance that overcomes a woman who is happy, healthy, and feeling fulfilled in her life." Well that certainly would describe the wellness entrepreneur herself, who is crafting an empire around her Mama Glow brand. A self-described maternity lifestyle maven, Thomas not only advises her celebrity clients during all of their pregnancy stages, she hosts a web series "Om on the Go" and travels across the country for speaking engagements.

Visit http://www.blackenterprise.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/mama-glow-author-latham-thomas-interview/ to view the full article online.

 

According to the American Express OPEN 2013 State of Women-Owned Business Report, female entrepreneurs started businesses at a rate 150% higher than the national average, adding 175,000 jobs to the U.S. economy. Some 74% of these female business owners who went into entrepreneurship started their ventures from scratch. However, many face the challenges of developing strategies to grow and scale up their businesses.

Visit http://www.blackenterprise.com/small-business/business-boot-camp-women-amex-open-entrepreneurs/ to view the full article online.

 

Nothing ventured, nothing gained is often the philosophy of very successful entrepreneurs. Calculated risk takes courage and intelligence, but it also requires an ability to welcome the uncertainty that comes along with it.

Visit http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/232452 to view the full article online.

 

We all know how lousy a recession feels. And we know how much long-term damage a recession can cause.
But there's still a lot we don't know about recessions — like, if you're in a recession, what's the best way to get out?
Today, we tackle the question of how to escape a recession, by going small. Economist Tim Harford walks us through two tiny self-contained economies, a babysitting co-op and a prisoner of war camp, facing what he calls "toy recessions."

Visit http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/03/19/291485828/episode-525-trouble-inside-a-babysitting-economy to view the full article online.

 

U.S. stocks rose, after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell for two days, as investors awaited data on consumer confidence and new-home sales for clues on the strength of the world’s largest economy. The S&P 500 added 0.5 percent to 1,866.89 at 9:31 a.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 107.73 points, or 0.7 percent, to 16,384.42.

Visit http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-25/u-s-index-futures-little-changed-before-confidence-data.html to view the full article online.

 

The area of the sea within an invisible border 200 miles out from every U.S. shore isn't called the "exclusive economic zone" for nothing: Countries have property rights at sea just as they do on land. The fact that every nation with a coast also has an EEZ—which extends far beyond a country's "territorial" waters—reflects the importance of the ocean as a source of wealth. But when it comes to analyzing our economy, we hardly ever single out the activity in the EEZ as a special slice of national employment or productivity.

Visit http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/03/americas-ocean-powered-economy/284516/ to view the full article online.

 

Have you been terrible with handling money? If you’re recovering from a financial setback, here are five ways to get on the right foot.

Visit http://www.blackenterprise.com/money/finances-back-on-track-tips-ideas/ to view the full article online.

 

Feeble returns on the safest investments such as bank deposits and fixed-income securities represent a "financial repression" transferring money from savers to borrowers, says Bill Gross, manager of the world’s biggest bond fund. Workers 65 and older, struggling with years of depressed yields, are the only group of Americans who are increasingly employed or looking for jobs, according to Labor Department participation-rate data.

Visit http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-25/can-americans-retire-in-a-decade-of-financial-repression-.html to view the full article online.

 

What executive skills are most prized by companies today? How has that array of skills changed in the last decade, and how is it likely to change in the next ten years? To find out, I surveyed senior consultants in 2010 at a top-five global executive-search firm. Experienced search consultants typically interview hundreds (in many cases thousands) of senior executives; they assess those executives’ skills, track them over time, and in some cases place the same executive in a series of jobs. They also observe how executives negotiate, what matters most to them in their contracts, and how they decide whether to change companies.

Visit http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/03/the-seven-skills-you-need-to-thrive-in-the-c-suite/ to view the full article online.

 

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer may have put the kibosh on working from home last year and received attention for a performance review system that ranked employees on a curve -- just as Microsoft was dumping that much-hated approach. But that hasn't stopped her from getting a 79 percent approval rating from Yahoo employees, making her one of two female chief executives to place among the 50 most popular CEOs of large U.S. companies, according to Glassdoor.

Visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2014/03/21/these-are-americas-best-rated-ceos-according-to-their-employees/ to view the full article online.

 

Instead of promising to keep interest rates low in order to encourage more borrowing, the Federal Reserve should say the exact opposite. Let’s face it: The Fed, like most of us, wants consumers and business to spend more. This way, the economy will grow faster, thus creating more jobs, which will lead to more spending, and so on.

Visit http://www.marketwatch.com/story/borrow-now-before-rates-go-up-2014-03-25 to view the full article online.

 

Company leaders always want to motivate, inspire, and support their people to the absolute fullest. But most go to bed at night suspecting that they're coming up a little short. Maybe more than a little. Take heart: You can become a truly great leader.

Visit http://www.inc.com/peter-economy/leadership-how-to-get-from-good-to-great.html to view the full article online.

 

You may recognize Dr. Ian Smith as the straightforward, yet affable doctor on VH1′s fitness show Celebrity Fit Club and the Emmy-award winning talk show The Doctors. His latest venture is his NY Times best selling book, Supershred, which lays out a program to lose 20 lbs in 4 weeks. Ambitious as that sounds, it’s an example of his passion and confidence in helping make the American population more healthy and fit.

Visit http://www.blackenterprise.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/dr_ian_smith_interview/ to view the full article online.