Yesterday I talked about my prediction for a Benefits Revolution (I’m working through my top 5 trends over the next 5 years). Today I continue to peer into the crystal ball. I’m seeing something. I see led people. 2. Leader Visibility Over the next five years, we will see a shift in expectations and relationships with senior leaders. Specifically, leaders will need to be much more visible and assessable to their people than they have in the past. A few factors are contributing to the formulation of this prediction. Someone’s grandmother had to have had some platitude along the lines of “Out of bad something good is learned.” During the recent economic crises ...

Time magazine came recently with a cover story about 10 Ideas for the Next 10 Years. The article got me to thinking about what trends I could predict, so I dusted off my crystal ball and peered in. Perhaps I’m a little rusty, perhaps it is because I am still somewhat near-sighted, but I could only come up with 5 trends over the next 5 years. 1. The Benefits Revolution The economic shift of the last year or so will affect many aspects of our work lives, but I think the area that will see the most dramatic change over the next five years will be in terms of employee benefits. Employers often turn to benefits first when looking where they can trim down on overhead expenses, yet benefits...

“What’s on your iPod?” seems to be one of the more popular interview questions being asked by Western media. I guess this is an attempt to grab a sneak peek into the private life of celebrities and interviewees. But what the question really reveals is the wide spread acceptance of owning an iPod. The very question “what’s on your iPod?” implies it is common to own an iPod - at least in some markets. When I walk the streets in US or UK, it is common to see the little white bid earphones stuck in the ears. But the same level of market penetration does not exist in India or China.   According to the UBS Prices and Earning 2009 ...

If you were poised at the beginning of 2000 and had to pick the two countries that would go through the decade with over five percent GDP growth, would you have picked India and China? Now, I’m asking the same question at the beginning of 2010—what countries would you predict are likely to grow the most over the next decade? Personally, I would bet on Brazil, Argentina and South Africa. My reasoning behind this is that the biggest predictor of international acceptance and growth is the ability of a country to be chosen by the International Olympic Committee or FIFA to host the next Olympic Games or World Cup. When it is given to the underdeveloped nations, they tend to go through...

A few weeks ago I asked a colleague, Duke Daehling, if he could give me a ride home from work. He sent back an e-mail with the simple, but resounding reply: YES! The power of his simple response evoked not only a smile from me, but left me feeling good the rest of the afternoon. The experience made me realize how readily we let negatives into our lives, yet tend to be much more cautious in how we promote the positive. Duke didn’t have to make such an emphatic response, but yet he did. As a result it broke through to me in a way that another positive, yet more restrained or more couched response couldn’t have. When I was an assistant head resident in college (or “My prec...