KACHARAGADLA

There inevitably comes a time when a manager has to give negative feedback. It’s inevitable. No employee is perfect. Everyone can use a little improvement. The tricky part is providing feedback in a way that doesn’t send the employee spiraling into a pit of despair and self-loathing. That’s one way to get on the bad boss list. When it’s time for the annual review, or even a much-needed discussion with an underperforming employee, don’t hide from the impending uncomfortable situation. Negative feedback can be dished out in a way that doesn’t damage egos, or send employees packing. In fact, when given in a positive way, negative feedback can be very motivational and inspiring. An   article from   Psychology Today   explains how to give good constructive feedback using the sandwich method. Start with a compliment, gently add what needs improvement, then top it off with another compliment.While this method can be applied to giving feedback almost every time, here are some additio

How should teams of experts working on knowledge-intensive projects be structured? Should they be hierarchical? Or will flexible, self-organized groups perform better?  Teams often struggle with how to get the most value from the members’ expertise, to minimize conflict, to integrate their diverse expertise, and to leverage it during all phases of a project. The traditional approach is to put the person with the most experience and expertise in charge — for example, a head coach or a chief programmer. The assumption is that this person has the expertise to make the best decisions about how to allocate tasks and responsibilities. Teams that adopt this model feature a rigid hierarchy, whereby final decisions are centralized through this single, formally designated individual. The downside of this approach is that when projects increase in complexity and team size, the central individual can become a communication and coordination bottleneck for the team. Another approac

Bias at work can be overt and insidious. It can be shocking and enraging. But the subtle “Wait, what just happened?” moments are far more frequent. Take these examples: A client assumes you are in a subordinate role because of your age. A prospective customer only makes eye contact with your white colleague. A coworker calls you “angry” while your equally assertive male counterpart gets labeled “strong” (a far too often occurrence for women as   one of our previous studies   showed). Moments like these leave you questioning others’ intentions and your own perceptions. The inner dialogue can sound a bit like, “I’m upset. But should I be? Do I have a right to be?” At best, this shadowy bias is exhausting. At worst, it is soul destroying. Bias’s sometimes slippery nature also makes it difficult to eradicate in the workplace. Leaders implement policies that prohibit discrimination against protected classes, but rules can’t prevent unconscious, unintentional bias. How do you legis

Each morning from 8:30 to 9:05 AM at our company’s headquarters, in San Francisco, we serve free breakfast to every employee. And I’m not talking about stale muffins and dry bagels. Today I ate a sloppy joe, cheesy scrambled eggs, home fries, crispy bacon, and sausage links. Healthy, I know. Tomorrow, I’m definitely going to grab a yogurt and some fruit. And don’t forget all the vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options. After all, this is California. I know what you’re thinking. Free food is the cost of admission to the Silicon Valley tech scene. Our startup, Pivotal, calls the South of Market (SOMA) neighborhood home, alongside companies like Airbnb, Dropbox, Adobe, Slack, Salesforce, and Uber. So, of course, Pivotal serves free, catered meals. It’s just expected. While that’s true, even if no other startup around us served free, catered meals, we still would. To explain why, I first need to explain how Pivotal works. Our approach is rooted in extreme programming and  agile

In the 1800s, it was machine-powered looms that replaced human hand weavers. Today, digital technology is disrupting work for working people — blue- and white-collar alike — in every occupation. Advances in fields such as artificial intelligence and robotics are making it increasingly possible for machines to perform not only physical but also cognitive tasks, according to  a new report  on IT and the U.S. workforce, published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. But this story is probably not news to anyone anymore. Most of us are aware that as we enter this new Industrial Revolution, automation and digital devices are upending jobs, from cashiers to automotive assembly-line workers. Yet there is an upside, which we don’t hear as much about. While technology can jettison many existing jobs, it’s also constantly creating new jobs and new conveniences. Globally, career taxi drivers now compete for passengers with Lyft and Uber drivers, and new industries

Want to stay active and spare your body while at work? Here are some tips to follow to minimize the harm due to prolonged sitting. 5 Tips To Follow 1. Reduce Your Sitting Time How much do you think you sit on a given day? No, seriously: think about it. Sit at breakfast, sit in the car, sit at work, sit at the computer, sit during lunch, sit in meetings, sit in the car again, sit at dinner, sit while staring at your phone, sit in front of the tv – you got the point a while ago! You may have heard, “sitting is the new smoking.” It may sound ridiculous; however, according to the World Health Organization physical inactivity due to sitting too much is causing an estimated 3.2 million deaths annually! 1 Apart from sleeping, our bodies are meant to move. 2. Get Up And Move Inactivity is not only bad for our bodies but bad for our brains as well. Recent studies and historical texts have shown physical activity is linked to optimized cognitive function. 2 Movement is how

Culture Amp was founded in 2011 (Photo courtesy of Culture Amp/www.cultureamp.com) Startups talk about culture all the time. Building it, championing it, spreading it. Its importance is recognized by the broader ecosystem because it represents a key foundation to growing a company. Businesses are encouraged to create a workplace that facilitates both employee empowerment and prolific performance. But the challenge of building such a culture is rooted in a lack of trackable data. If culture isn't measured, how can it be deliberately improved? An Australian startup called  Culture Amp  is addressing this problem by giving companies analytics and data on their culture. Culture Amp is an “employee feedback and analytics platform” founded by Didier Elzinga, Jon Williams, Douglas English and Rod Hamilton. By using “research-backed surveys,” Culture Amp collects data on teams by asking for honest and relevant feedback. The responses given by employees, which boast an “80%