Avoid creating a stagnant company culture by getting curious about your team, your customers, your role and how industry trends may require your culture to change, writes John Coleman, the author of the "HBR Guide to Crafting Your Purpose." "Great leaders learn to be thoughtfully attuned to those shifts, curious about the reason and the results of such changes, and open-minded about the need to evolve themselves or their organizations in more substantive ways," Coleman writes. Full Story: Harvard Business Review (tiered subscription model) (11/17)
Moonlighting can be a positive for employers Professional moonlighting can benefit both the employee and the employer, especially when the employee is exploring creative work such as writing, design or photography. Employers should express interest in a worker's side hustle and encourage folding those skills into day-to-day tasks. Full Story: TalentCulture (11/20)
If your performance reviews have a lot of "buts" in them, chances are good you're making some common mistakes that are keeping you from a promotion you want, writes executive presence coach Joel Garfinkle. Garfinkle explains four common problems that result in those "but" statements and how to solve them. Full Story: SmartBrief/Leadership (11/20)
Hire Smart
Are you preparing older employees for the future? Employers should focus on teaching older employees digital skills as people stay in the workforce longer for financial security while birth rates drop and life expectancy grows, workplace training leaders say. Coursera Chief Learning Officer Trena Minudri recommends companies' IT learning programs for older adults include peer-to-peer training, ongoing support and feedback and opportunities to immediately apply newly learned skills. Full Story: Society for Human Resource Management (tiered subscription model) (11/20)
The Landscape
Legislators aim to open retirement saving to young workers US Senators Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., have introduced the Helping Young Americans Save for Retirement Act, which would make it easier for employers to offer retirement benefits to workers under age 21, beginning in 2026. Currently, employers are not obliged to offer 401(k) plan benefits to this age group, and many companies and organizations do not. Full Story: BenefitsPRO (free registration) (11/17)
Your Next Challenge
Amazon offers AI classes at no cost In an effort to compete with Microsoft, Amazon is rolling out "AI Ready" -- a set of eight courses on generative AI offered at no charge. For many of those in the workforce, even working alongside AI can be daunting, but Amazon is hoping to "democratize" AI education so the knowledge isn't siloed to the specialists, according to Swami Sivasubramanian, vice president of data and AI. Full Story: The Wall Street Journal (11/19)
Temper got the best of pro golfer Joost Luiten at a tournament in Dubai over the weekend. Luiten launched his driver toward a tree after a bad tee shot, and it got stuck. He lost a second club, and third, tossing them into the branches to try to dislodge the first one, and he even tried employing a sign to knock them loose, all to no avail. A course official retrieved Luiten's wedged clubs while he finished the hole. Luiten finished near the bottom of the tournament, a result that "sums up my week nicely," he said. Full Story: Reuters (11/20)
SmartBreak: Question of the Day
Happy birthday, Bjork! Who designed the iconic swan dress she wore to the 2001 Oscars ceremony?
SmartBrief will not publish Nov. 23-24 In observance of the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, SmartBrief will not publish Thursday, Nov. 23 and Friday, Nov. 24.
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