In the debate over why the U.S. has been so slow to emerge from the Great Recession, many have laid the blame on what’s become known as the skills gap: Despite an abundance of workers, too many simply aren’t qualified to fill the jobs available. Even now that hiring is running at its fastest clip since the late 1990s, business and industry groups such as the Chamber of Commerce continue to emphasize the damage the skills gap is doing to the economy. So do a lot of consulting firms. (Businessweek)
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A coaching client of mine is managing partner at a very large law firm, and one of the issues we’ve been working on is how to cope more effectively with the intense demands on his time – clients who expect him to be available, firm partners and other employees who want him to address their concerns and resolve disputes, an inbox overflowing with messages from these same (and still other!) people, and an endless to-do list. Compounding this challenge, of course, is the importance of making time for loved ones and friends, exercise, and other personal needs. (Harvard Business Review)
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For a certain class of workers, late evening isn't time off work. It's time on email, time to show your addressees the true meaning of workaholic, and time to return to a job from which you can never truly sign out. (The Atlantic)
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The workplace today is much different from the workplace of 30, 20, and even 10 years ago. Open office designs, in-house baristas, and for many organizations bosses managing from across the country are now the norm. Between video conferencing, email, and instant messaging, physical proximity to the office is no longer a requirement. Companies are hiring based on talent and fit, not if someone can be in their chair 24/7. This change has led to entire teams being spread across time zones, states, and even countries. While it can be tricky to report to a remote manager, I’m here to tell you it’s possible. (Fast Company)
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A number of red flags should cause you to reconsider your position at your current company, including: Being compensated unfairly. Being mistreated, undervalued, or disrespected. Disagreeing with the fundamental strategy or practices of the company and not being in a position to change them. (Fortune)
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Sometimes you get stuck in a rut with someone at work – a boss, a coworker, a direct report. Perhaps there’s bad blood between you or you simply haven’t been getting along. What can you do to turn the relationship around? Is it possible to start anew? (Harvard Business Review)
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America’s racial divide is older than the republic itself, a central fault line that has shaped the nation’s history. This month it has manifested itself in sometimes violent protests in Ferguson, Mo., after a police killing of an unarmed young black man. The resonance of that event is related to deeper racial fissures between blacks and whites; that divide is the reason that the events in Ferguson amount to something bigger than a local crime story. (The New York Times)
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Sandi Sesay was promised three months’ pay by his boss to stop coming to work. In fact, most of Sesay’s colleagues at the Marampa iron-ore mine in Sierra Leone were offered much the same deal. The reason: to prevent the spread of Ebola. Two weeks later, Sesay, 29, a driver, says he has yet to see any of the money from his employer, Dawnus Construction, a contractor at the mine. (Businessweek)
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By the time the parents of Serena Violano were in their early 30s, they had solid jobs, their own home and two small daughters. Today, Serena, a 31-year-old law graduate, is still sharing her teenage bedroom with her older sister in their family home in the small town of Mercogliano, near Naples. Ms. Violano spends her days studying for the exam to qualify as a notary in the hopes of scoring a stable job. (The Wall Street Journal)
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Summer internships offer an incredibly important opportunity to build relationships, skills, and experience en route to a rewarding full-time position. Before your internship ends, consider seizing these three opportunities to get the most leverage from your experience. (Poets & Quants)
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It used to be that online courses were considered second rate; perhaps because the top ranking institutions stayed aloof from the market for so long. But that’s all changed: with some of the world’s best business schools now offering online MBA programs (among others) the stigma is gone and, in terms of student experience, online technology’s fast pace of development means student experience has improved enormously. (UK Telegraph)
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Like many students who are starting school, MBAs will see their leisure time shrink in the next few weeks. New students will be immersed in orientation, and returning second-years may have just a few days to transition from being summer interns to being students.​ But it's not just what's happening on campus that occupies​ student​s'​ time. Many are preparing to travel around the U.S. for MBA conferences and career expos that are coming up soon. U.S. News and World Report)
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How did you pay for your coffee this morning? If you're in San Francisco, perhaps you waved your smartphone over a payment terminal; if in London, maybe you momentarily tapped your funky-looking wristband on it; if in Nairobi, you probably just sent a text message. And if you're in Lund in Sweden, maybe you simply swiped your palm. (CNN)
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What it takes to get hired at these top tech companies: A mixture of hard problem-solving skills and the right rapport with company culture. (Fast Company)
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Don’t fool yourself: There is no such thing as privacy on the Internet. That’s the first thing digital journalism professor Robert Hernandez tells me during a discussion of online privacy. "How you carry yourself in real life is how you carry yourself on the Internet," adds Hernandez, of USC’S Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. "For better or worse, that’s the best ground rule to start with." (Kiplinger)
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Women account for less than 8% of chief executives at venture-backed firms, occupy just 17% of board seats at Fortune 500 companies and own a mere 30% of all companies. But early data suggest that they are outperforming men in another arena: raising money online via crowdfunding. (The Wall Street Journal)
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In today’s ever-dynamic business landscape, the most successful individuals within a given industry are often the most innovative. But despite this growing trend, many entrepreneurs continue to fall victim to common innovation misconceptions, which, over time, have become accepted as truth. (Fast Company)
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The push for the new cards is taking on greater urgency following a number of high-profile data breaches in recent months that have exposed millions of consumers to potential fraud. Just last week, grocery chain Supervalu Inc. disclosed that it was investigating a breach that could affect shoppers at roughly 1,000 supermarkets. (The Wall Street Journal)
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Standard big box shopping centers are in decline. But other types of malls have sprung up in their place. Some are based on making shopping more convenient. Others focus on the consumer experience. (NPR)
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A change in how the most widely used credit score in the U.S. is tallied will likely make it easier for tens of millions of Americans to get loans. Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO) said Thursday that it will stop including in its FICO credit-score calculations any record of a consumer failing to pay a bill if the bill has been paid or settled with a collection agency. (The Wall Street Journal)
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Back-to-school shopping season is in full swing with big box retailers offering door buster discounts that rival even Black Friday deals. While cheap notebooks and markers aren't nearly as thrilling as bargain flat screens and tablets, the throngs of parents and students crowding the stores suggest otherwise, as do the numbers. According to data from the National Retail Federation, the average family with children in kindergarten through high school will spend $669.28 on back-to-school shopping this year, up roughly 5 percent from last year. (Daily Finance)
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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... If you need to pass the PMP® (Project Management Professional) or CAPM®(Certified Associate in Project Management) certification exam and you want to get the best project management learning experience in just 3 days, then CertifiNOW™ is the right choice for you. This project management learning program provides the best learning experience in a condensed amount of time, while also satisfying most, if not all, of your professional certification, education, and training needs. The CertifiNOW certification course reduces exam preparation time from an average of nine to twelve months, down to 3 days of classroom instruction.

CertifiNOW is being offered September 14-16 on-site at the NBMBAA 36th Annual Conference and Expo. NBMBAA members receive even deeper discounts on this amazing course, so register today!
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What did the chief executive do during summer vacation? Worked, most likely. Many top bosses say they can't afford to unplug even for a little while. Some are too invested in the job to let lieutenants run the business while they are gone, leadership consultants say. (The Wall Street Journal)
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If you’re reading this while on a conference call – perhaps even in the loo – you’re not alone. It turns out many U.S. employees would rather do just about anything rather than listen intently to their coworkers from a remote location. (Harvard Business Review)
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A new generation of Wall Street bankers is about to get a raise, as firms open wallets to head off defections to investment funds and Silicon Valley. Bank of America Corp. plans to boost salaries by at least 20 percent next year for junior staff in trading and investment banking globally, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increases salaries for junior U.S. workers by about that much. (Bloomberg)
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Texas ranks 49th out of 50 states in how much funding it commits to mental health. But San Antonio has become a model for other mental health systems. It has saved $50 million over the past 5 years. (NPR)
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Early this year, before the summer weather in Ferguson, Mo., turned to a fog of tear gas and a hail of rubber bullets, before the downscale suburb began to share national airtime with Sierra Leone and Iraq, a legal aid firm called ArchCity Defenders prepared a white paper that accused several municipalities in St. Louis County of stopping black drivers disproportionately for traffic violations, fining them in court sessions that were closed to the public, and jailing them when they were unable to pay. (Businessweek)
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There's more to delegating effectively than just asking someone to do something. If you want to delegate effectively, you've got to include mutual consultation and agreement between yourself and the members of your team. Solicit team members' reactions and ideas, thereby bringing trust, support, and open communication to the process. (Inc.)
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Some people just have better judgment than others. And, when it comes to leadership, judgment is key not only for advancing people’s career to the top, but also for ensuring the welfare of teams. Indeed, if we think of leadership as the capacity to inspire unselfish group behavior in the quest of a collective goal, then a leader’s judgment is the critical force driving the decisions, behaviors, and performance of a team. (Fast Company)
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The year marks one revolution of the Earth around the sun. Months, supposedly, mark the time between full moons. The seven-day week, however, is completely man-made. If it’s man-made, can’t man unmake it? For all the talk of how freeing it’d be to shave a day or two off the five-day workweek, little attention has been paid to where the weekly calendar came from. Understanding the sometimes arbitrary origins of the modern workweek might inform the movement to shorten it. (The Atlantic)
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