Human Resources: HR.com's Thought Leaders for January 24, 2008

Welcome to Thought Leaders for January 24, 2008

Each week this newsletter features the most inspiring, educational and powerful stories from some of the world's greatest business leaders. Each five-minute video will give you the courage, energy and know-how to accomplish your tasks and motivate your team to do the same.

This week's free video is from our partner Fifty Lessons. Be sure to check out what today's thought leaders have to teach us about managing people, our careers and our lives.

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Paul Anderson
Chairman, Spectra Energy

Don't Deliver Bad News Badly
Having to fire someone is a difficult, but unavoidable, management challenge. A good manager should avoid skirting around the issue and ensure that the employee fully understands the news being delivered to them. The best way for a manager to do this is to eschew the sugar-coated approach in favor of straightforward honesty.

The above video is just one of many educational videos from Fifty lessons. View the entire Fifty lessons library by becoming a Premier Member of HR.com. Each Fifty lessons video is about 5 minutes in length, in addition each lesson has a lesson summary, ideas for action and questions to ask yourself to help make the most out of your time. Upgrade to Premier

Below is a listing of some additional video lessons that are available to purchase from Fifty lessons and for free for HR.com Premier Members:



Always Deliver Honest Feedback	Putting Business Interests Above Personalities	Remove People Sooner Rather Than Later

Amelia Fawcett Former Head Former Vice Chairman & COO, Morgan Stanley International	Sir Peter Middleton Former Chairman Barclays Group	Erroll Davis Jnr Former Chairman Alliant Energy Corporation

For a leader, the "soft" option is never an option: ignoring a problem and hoping it will go away will just make things worse. Direct, candid feedback is essential; people deserve such honesty and are likely to thrive as a result.	Crises in senior management are not usually about policy, but about personality. All organizations need a peacemaker who ensures that business interests are maintained above the personalities of those involved.	If a manager has clearly communicated what is required of someone who is under-performing yet that individual continues with a sub-standard performance, letting them go should not come as a big surprise. It can also be a relief to everyone involved.

Looking for more information on Fifty Lessons videos? Go to www.hr.com/fifty_lessons today!

			In Sam We Trust When Sam Walton died in 1992, he had amassed what was then the greatest fortune in American history. Wal-Mart, the company he founded, had grown from one tiny variety store on the main square of a small Arkansas town to become the world's largest retail empire. In Sam We Trust offers an exhaustive in-depth investigation into the powerful retailing empire. Bob Ortega, The Wall Street Journal's authority on Wal-Mart, goes beyond the headlines and Sam Walton's carefully crafted public image to reveal the ruthless penny-pinching manipulator behind the visionary genius. He also provides an illuminating history of retailing that includes case studies of such important Wal-Mart competitors as Sears, L.C. Penny, Price Clubs and, of course Kmart.

Below are additional Business Book Reviews available on HR.com
for Premier Members

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Getting Into Your Customer's Head: 8 Secret Roles of Selling Your Competitors Don't Know

Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

Creative Destruction: Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market—And how to Successfully Transform Them


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