“Opinion:  Facebook is Using You” by Lori Andrews (The New York Times, Sunday, February 5, 2012) should be required reading for everyone.  Andrews, a law professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law and author of I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did:  Social Networks and the Death of Privacy, describes how Facebook, Google, MySpace, and other social media use the data we input at their sites.

“Facebook makes money by selling ad space to companies that want to reach us,” Andrews writes.  However, that is not where your or my data stops.  “Material mined online has been used against people battling for child custody or defending themselves in criminal cases.  LexisNexis had a product called Accurint for Law Enforcement, which gives government agents information about what people do on social networks.”

During the undergraduate college classes I teach, I warn my students to not post inappropriate pictures or comments online since recruiters regularly search to find potential candidates on social media sites.  My students don’t really believe me because they are certain a recruiter can’t access their profiles.  There are ways, however, I caution individuals.  One of my students had a great interview with a human resources screener and even though she had given him her resume, he wanted to know how to find her LinkedIn profile.  Andrews found that “Employers sometimes decide whether to hire people based on their online profiles, with one study indicating that 70 percent of recruiters and human resource professionals in the United States have rejected candidates based on data found online.”

Each time I leave the Internet, I clean my PC of cookies—or as many as I can remove with the three programs I use.  The law professor suggests that “We need a do-not-track law, similar to the do-not-call one” and I totally agree.  It is my right to have my online privacy and not know who is searching my g-mail or showing me ads that I don’t want to see. 

It is time that the government step in and get a closer look on how social media is using us.

“LockerDome:  The Facebook of Team Sports” is making strides to become the go-to site for athletes, club or high school sports programs and a growing number of recruiters.  The company started with offering to “launch a sleek, customizable website” in 60 seconds for a club or high school sports program, one that could become a sports network where athletes could “create profiles, upload media, and gain national exposure.”

“LockerDome’s now ready for the big leagues. Or so it hopes,” writes Lydia Dishman in “Passion Play: LockerDome Wants To Win By Building A Better Facebook For Athletes” that appeared online on January 5, 2012 at Fast Company.  “The bet we made is that people are more passionate about sports than anything else,” said Gabe Lozano, Co-Founder/CEO of LockerDome.

Dishman writes that, “With revamped back-end architecture and a growing network of members, youth programs, and professional athletes’ pages, LockerDome’s attracted a $750,000 round of angel investing led by Jim McKelvey, a cofounder of Square, and Brian Matthews of Capital Innovators.”  She goes on to quote Lozano, “‘There’s the one company that you can [invest in] and sell for $100 million and then there’s the one company that will bring in ‘Monopoly money’ in the billions.’ Matthews had a hunch that LockerDome could be the latter.”

My hope is also for Gabe and his team to develop the best site possible.  He is not just a good tech guy, he’s a good leader, one who knows how to build and sustain a business while helping others succeed as well.  He’s someone who loves sports and is earnest in his commitment to the athletes who play them.

On Christmas Eve, I received an invitation to be one of Gabe’s sports connections on LockerDome’s ‘Facebook.’  That was a surprise but I accepted although the only sport I play is Pilates!

On January 20, Gabe included me on the following e-mail message about an athlete who was recently recruited to join the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team:

I wanted to pass along a cool video that St. Louis Cardinal, Erik Komatsu, posted today on LockerDome following his hitting session with Mark McGwire: http://erikkomatsu.lockerdome.com/media/56572

This is awesome content and exactly how we envision LockerDome being used.  Whether you’re a 10 year-old hitting your first home run or a MLB hopeful hitting with a legend, your sports content goes on LD.

Komatsu is also a talented rapper.  I exchanged private messages with him on LD and he wants to write an LD theme song!  You can listen to some of his music here: http://erikkomatsu.lockerdome.com

Cheers,
Gabe

All the best, Gabe!  Hope LockerDome makes it to the big leagues soon!

“Lookin’ for Hires in All the New Places,” an article by E.B. Boyd in the November 2011 sample issue of Fast Company caught my attention when I was flipping through the pages.  The article describes how instead of seeking and hiring college graduates or Ph.D.s, the option is to hire techies who have been self-taught.

“Silicon Valley companies have notoriously strict hiring standards for engineers.  They want grads from the country’s top computer-science programs like Stanford’s and MIT’s or people with sparkling resumes and deep experience,” writes Boyd.  However, start-up and small technology companies are also interviewing and hiring individuals who have not graduated from college (maybe not even high school).  Instead, these candidates for a position are found to be qualified because they have spent time teaching themselves how to code.

The article contained an interesting insight from Roy Bahat, the President of IGN Entertainment who is very open to hiring the self-taught employee.  Bahat asks:  is software a science or should it be seen as a craft or an art—implying that someone would use their natural talents and experiential learning.  Not everyone is a craftsman or an artist.  But those who are given the chance to learn on their own in order to meet the requirements of coding at a technology company are being taken seriously in part because interviewers realize that they are passionate and committed to doing work on a par with colleagues who have initials after their names.

As an educator, I don’t think that everyone needs to or should attend college.  There is evidence that you don’t really need to go to college to be successful in your field.  For example, in a sidebar in Boyd’s article there are a dozen images of very successful people who have dropped out of college or high school and gone on to stellar careers.  Some of the people profiled include Steve Jobs who dropped out of Reed College when he was 18 in 1972, Bill Gates who dropped out of Harvard University when he was 19 in 1975, and Lady Gaga who dropped out of New York University when she was 19 in 2005.  Walt Disney didn’t make it to college; he dropped out of high school when he was 16 in 1918.

As I mentioned in my previous post “The Learning Organization,” I was a guest speaker for second year graduate students at Columbia University’s School of Social Work on Wednesday.  It was a wonderful experience for me and the feedback I’ve gotten from students and the instructor tell me that sharing my consulting experience and tips on organizational development was well received.

When the instructor and I were getting ready to go out into the cold air, she thanked me again and I said, “You know, I have never taken a management class.”  The irony is just that I’m a trusted adviser and coach, I teach in the Management Department at the Zicklin School of Business.

When I was a temporary secretary at Lazard Frères & Co. in the early 1990s, I went to an open house at the Stern School of Business at New York University to see if an M.B.A. was for me.  After attending and learning the cost for a part-time program, I decided that working at Lazard was the business school I could afford.  After I left, assignments and consulting work at other businesses including Merrill Lynch & Co. and Allianz Dresdner Asset Management, non-profits, etc. taught me more than a classroom could have done.

Don’t overlook opportunities to succeed as a technology engineer even if you don’t have a college degree.  There are companies out there looking for your self-taught skills.

“The Impact of Technology on Workplace 2020” was the title of the final written assignment by students in my “Organizational Behavior” class that ended in late December.  After receiving Fortune Magazine’s January 16, 2012 edition, I’m not certain I will assign that same topic again since my students can find a lot of detailed information in one source.

“The Future Issue:  What’s next in technology, energy, banking, medicine, offices, education…” is a good overview of looking into a crystal ball of what 2022 holds for us.

For instance, the double pages on “Brave New Work:  The Office of Tomorrow” begin the narrative with this:  “Walk into a corporate office a few years from now, and you’ll be struck by how much it physically resembles the office of today.”  On the pages you see a typical layout of corporate offices with callouts to what are new ways of doing business—and ordering lunch—with advanced technology.  As for employee behavior, there will be a new kind of team building since “the challenges the world throws at them will change rapidly and unpredictably, team members will have to share certain psychological traits, especially flexibility, adaptability, and resilience.”

Colleen Leahey forecasts in “What—Me Retire?” that people will work into their golden years.  It’s a financial must for some people, a habit for others, and a community center for the rest.  Not one of my students mentioned what to do with the older worker but I know from the article that “The U.S. Labor of Statistics estimates that 13.2 million workers 65 and over will office hours in 2022, up from 7.3 million today.”  Make way, Millennials, for the Baby Boomers that are not going away soon!

When I look into my crystal ball as to what I’ll be doing in ten years, I see the same routines of writing, teaching, coaching, etc.  As an entrepreneur, I have the flexibility to work from home already and travel when going to a speaking engagement.  But instead of an in-person presentation will I be able to sit at my computer and deliver my talk through my PC?  Of course, privacy is a major, major issue of the future.

I suggest that you read the additional Fortune tellers so you, too, can see what just might be in store for you and how you can prepare for entering that space.

When I see my students’ eyes and hands stuck to their smart phones in class, I often think, “Are you really that important that you can’t wait until the end of this session to check your e-mail to see if your manager has contacted you or you’re needed at work?”  Addiction to e-mail is a growing concern, one that is taking those affected away from their families, friends, and others in their lives—including their college classmates and instructors.

However, if you want to stay connected with your job after work, you don’t want to be part of the staff at Volkswagen, Europe’s largest automotive company. 

According to “Volkswagen Curbs Company E-Mail in Off Hours – NYTimes.com” by Reuters (December 23, 2011), Volkswagen labor representatives agreed with management that staff members “will receive e-mails via Blackberry from half an hour before they start work until half an hour after they finish.”  In other words, this level of personnel in the corporation will have no access when not at work.

If you are a board-level executive, don’t worry.   You will still be able to get your e-mails.

Why won’t staff get access to e-mails?  At first, I thought it was to keep the company information confidential.  The real reason, however, is a positive one:  to keep business separate from personal time.  According to the article, “Bitkom, a German technology organization, published a study this year showing that 88 percent of German workers are reachable for clients, colleagues and bosses by e-mail or mobile phone outside of working hours, compared with 73 percent two years ago.”

The basic reason for pulling the plug on e-mails was that Volkswagen was concerned that their employees were burning out.  In Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, “burnout is blamed for almost 10 million sick days a year.”  Burning out by checking e-mails when home is not a good return on the investment for an automotive or any company in Germany, Europe, or any country.

Thank you, Volkswagen!  I hope that this sets the stage for those in the U.S. to set the same standard of allowing staff to work and also have a life.

“Writing to Be Heard” was posted on July 16, 2007, the first time I used my blog.  After writing hundreds of posts since then—especially this year—I decided to share my favorite posts of 2011 with you.

The posts below all have a story behind them, a reason to share the information, and a desire to help you on your career journey.  The posts could have been written to address an issue that came up during a coaching or consulting meeting, a topic that was discussed in a management class I teach at the Zicklin School of Business, an opportunity to expand horizons, etc.  The focus of each one is categorized by one or more of the tiles above the post which include Career, Coaching, College, Culture, Economy, Health, Leadership, Life Business, Management, Technology.

Below is a month-by-month list of posts that I hope you will find relevant, inspiring, and even fun.

January 17:  Are You Afraid of Feedback?  The topic emerged from two different threads.  The first was to offer guidance to decision-makers who were working with a very resistant executive.  The second was the loan of an academic colleague’s DVD on feedback.

February 21:  The Price of Ignoring Corporate Culture  As I told my students in an “Organizational Behavior” class, teaching corporate culture is my favorite unit to teach.  It is because of the environment executives create and how it impacts employee’s behavior.  In this particular case, the executive did not take into account his behavior in an established culture.

March 10:  Women’s Month 2011: Shake the World  To acknowledge the progress women make in a range of fields, I wrote about their accomplishments including that of Justine Siegal who had fulfilled her dream of throwing batting practice for the Cleveland Indians in spring training.

April 4:  Lasting Impressions  I am impressed by the number of people who even when we have not seen or spoken with one another for months or years, still remember me and the work I do.  The need to make a good first—and subsequent—impact on everyone you come in touch with is an important part of career development.

May 27:  Shakespeare in a Management Classroom  In April 2010, I attended a workshop on teaching Shakespeare in the workplace.  To my delight and my students’ reluctance, I developed a class session on emotional intelligence by having students get on a stage with a partner and recite excerpts from scenes in Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet, their favorite because they get to yell!

June 17:  Ten Guideposts on Your Reinvention Highway  Exploring a new career can be stressful and tiring.  Since I have reinvented myself a few times—I like to call it evolution—I share ideas on how to practice active patience to realize a new career.

July 7:  Holistic Professional Resume  In addition to teaching a business course, I also teach a program called “SuperCharge Your Career” at Zicklin.  What I don’t see on many resumes is Activities or another heading that can fill out the profile of a candidate and give an interviewer a sense of their lives outside the company.

August 30:  Career as a Farmer:  Sasha J. Farkas  Not everyone wants to work in an office in New York or any urban environment for that matter.  USA Today’s headline on December 26, 2011, “More Young People See Farming Opportunities,” confirmed that those in their 20’s and 30’s who have been downsized or unable to get a job, are seeking ways to survive on a farm.

September 13:  LockerDome:  The Facebook of Team Sports  Gabe Lozano, Co-Founder and CEO of a website for young athletes, read my post Women’s Month 2011: Shake the World and left a comment.  That comment led to a conversation, two interviews—his and Justine Siegal’s—and my own profile on LockerDome’s social media site.

October 29:  Disability:  A Second Career for L.I.R.R. Workers  Last year, I wrote about the ethical behavior of Long Island Railroad workers who claimed disability when they were obviously fine since they played golf sometimes daily.  Recently, I read that the cost of disbursing those on disability can be close to $1 billion.

November 12:  Walking Meetings  One of the many takeaways I had from reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson was learning the pleasures of a walking meeting.  A friend gave me that opportunity and I’m very grateful for it.

December 24:  Dear Santa:  My Wish List  It had been ages since I wrote a “Dear Santa” letter so I put tongue in cheek and infused my humor into the serious requests I made for the greater good—and not just the sweater and earrings I hoped Santa would bring!

Thank you for your time to browse and read my posts.  Looking forward to writing more in 2012!

Very best wishes for a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Yesterday, I wrote two posts about workplace 2020, the topic for one of my students’ written assignments in “Organizational Behavior.”  I chose the topic of “The Impact of Technology on Workplace 2020” because I know that it will challenge individuals to reflect on what and how technology will be part of not just work lives but also personal lives.

Technology as I define it in the context of the assignment refers to electronic computers, devices like smart phones and tablets, programs, applications, etc.  When I was reflecting on what life will be like for me eight years from now, I realized that I had come through an earlier technology revolution embracing new tools that made me more efficient and effective—plus I got so good at it that I developed and delivered training programs on the same tools.

Technology can be seductive and make you do what you don’t want or need to do.  And that is what concerns me about the future of technology: it is taking over our lives and telling us what we have to do.  For instance, today I received an e-mail from Apple telling me that I can now move my MobileMe email, contacts, calendar, files, etc. from MobileMe (a program that didn’t work for Apple but they still let me pay for it) to iCloud where I can get free storage.  That is, I can make the transition if I update my PC to Windows 7.  Unfortunately, that won’t work because I don’t intend to get Windows 7.  From my perspective of using the program at Baruch where I teach, Microsoft made ‘7’ too complicated and less intuitive.  My solution is to stay with the operating system I have now and use my external hard drive to back up my files.

Below are five more reasons that we all need to think about the implications and seduction techniques of the future that Microsoft, Apple, Google, IBM, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. and others are developing and offering—or mandating—you buy and learn how to use at work and at home.

1.  Expect a more transparent environment.  How will your current use of the Internet change—or will it?  What about privacy issues?  Will our information on the Internet be forced to be even more transparent so that there is little if any of a person’s privacy left?  “Facebook Agrees to F.T.C. Settlement on Privacy” appeared in the New York Times on Tuesday, November 29.  The Federal Trade Commission accused Facebook “of ‘unfair and deceptive’ business practices, (and) the government announced a proposed settlement that compels the company to obtain consent before making changes to users’ privacy settings.”  According to a similar Times article about Facebook’s activities in 2009, “the commission contended that Facebook, without warning its users or seeking consent, made public information that users had deemed to be private on their Facebook pages.”  The caption to go along with the story reads, “Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, said in a blog post Tuesday that the company had made ‘a bunch of mistakes.’’  Mistakes?

2.  Manage the role of technology in the workplace.  Yesterday I came across an article at Yahoo! News from ABC News on “Tech Firm Implements Employee ‘Zero Email’ Policy.”   “CEO Thierry Breton of the French information technology company said only 10 percent of the 200 messages employees receive per day are useful and 18 percent is spam.”  The hope at Atos is to eliminate all internal emails in 18 months then mandate that 74,000 employees “communicate with each other via instant messaging and a Facebook-style interface.”  There are many benefits to this approach within an organization, most of all to limit access to personal e-mail or to Facebook.

3.  Develop a skill set to be prepared and relevant.  And that skill set is broken down into how to manage people and use technology.  One of my past students wrote that an important skill in 2020 is managing people.  Yes, it is important to learn new and updated technology.  But it is also important to be able to interact with colleagues in person or online.  During training sessions on “Technical Writing” that I taught at a Social Security Office, I heard from more than one attendee that individuals were not to talk with their team leaders or managers.  Instead—even if they were just one or two cubes away from the person they wanted to see—the manager said to send her an e-mail, a regular routine in the department.  Employees have needs and feelings that often cannot be translated to an e-mail.  Technology is already causing people to lose their jobs; the people who are still employed should be respected and treated as a contributor to the greater good of the organization.

4.  Working from home or modules in strip malls.  Are large corporations downsizing themselves?  Is it time to invite more and more employees to work from home—or a temporary small office in a mini-mall or similar location when a meeting needs to take place?  My students are energized thinking that they will be able to work from home and take care of their children.  Work-life balance may fit one’s personality but not everyone is wired to work from home—and I don’t mean the electrical connections.  If you are self-directed and have an entrepreneurial attitude working from home can be great.  There are people, however, who are people people and need to be around colleagues in order to feel that they are at work.  There are also the disorganized or attention deficit individuals who meander from one room to another, watch TV, eat at odd times of day—or spend so much time on taking care of family members that they can’t get complete their work assignments.  Once they go into work, however, they feel at home.

5.  How to balance technology with a personal life.  “A Silicon Valley School that Doesn’t Compute” appeared in the New York Times on October 22.  The description of the school’s curriculum does not include one tool that you’d expect at an elementary school:  technology in the form of computers.  Who sends a lot of students to the Waldorf School so that their children can experience and manipulate the real world without being focused on a computer screen?  The answer is the same technical executives who work for companies that are selling hardware, software, and peripheral items to schools throughout the United States and beyond.  It seems like they are doing one thing to educate their children to the best of their abilities but turn around to not believe in the same pedagogy for the larger population of students.  As an educator, this doesn’t make sense; well, it could make a lot of ‘cents’ for those who are selling the technology to schools.

Going forward, I will continue to use technology in a responsible way so that I don’t lose my identity and I will always remember that people are what make an organization—and the world—sustainable.

As I mentioned in my previous post Baby Boomers on Future Technology, my college students will be writing on “The Impact of Technology on Workplace 2020.”  The technology, however, won’t be confined to the workplace but supports, challenges, and at times invades the life we live—for better or maybe not.  Below are some references to articles and websites about the impact of technology on us now and in the future.

“For Their Children Many E-Book Fans Insist on Paper” is the headline of an article by Matt Richtel and Julie Bosman (New York Times, November 20, 2011).  The authors of the piece state that parents want bound books even though they “are die-hard downloaders of books onto Kindles, iPads, laptops and phones….they want their children to be surrounded by print books, to experience turning physical pages as they learn about shapes, colors and animals.”  The most poignant and reasonable decision to go for printed books is that “Parents also say they like cuddling up with their child and a book, and fear that a shiny gadget might get all the attention. Also, if little Joey is going to spit up, a book may be easier to clean than a tablet computer.” 

It was recently announced that Facebook has engaged HTC to build a smart phone that is “Facebook integrated at the core of its being.”  My take on this means that you will be buying a phone that will take you directly to Facebook and you will probably be inundated with ads and other Facebook related information and programs.  Oh, the name of the phone:  Buffy the same name as the name of the TV show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”  I don’t know if Buffy will respond in a similar way to that of Siri on the Apple iPhone4S.  And who would win the game of “My Siri is better than your Buffy!”  Personally, I enjoy speaking with live with people and not relying on programmed responses.

Speaking of Siri and her programmed responses, Christopher Shea wrote in the Wall Street Journal on November 29, 2011, that he wonders “Is Siri Pro-Life?”  He asks that because “the voice-controlled personal assistant installed on the latest iPhone, can’t/won’t help you if you say you have an unwanted pregnancy and are considering abortion. (Instead, the program provides the names of anti-abortion counseling clinics.)”  He goes on to say, “It will, however, give you advice, tongue in cheek or otherwise, about paying for sex and buying marijuana.  P.S. And disposing of a corpse!”  I don’t find that particularly funny.  Siri is following directions from someone at Apple who has an opinion that is biased and disrespectful of women who believe in choice.

There have been a series of articles in the New York Times on what is brewing at Google including “At Google X, a Top-Secret Lab Dreaming Up the Future,”  “Project Suggestions for the Google X,” “6 Q’s About the News | Google X and the Future.”  Although many Google employees are kept from knowing about Google X, there are lots of ideas being generated at the lab of 100 ideas that is generating “shoot for the stars ideas.”  Some of the ideas mentioned include a refrigerator connected to the Internet so that an order can be placed when groceries are low, driverless cars (which haven’t been doing too well in Los Angeles), robots who will be programmed to do many tasks, etc.

Microsoft is not to be left out of future developments and is working on them from different perspectives.  If you input “Microsoft Labs” on an Internet search engine, you will get a return of a list of sites.  Microsoft Research is a place to begin looking into the future as envisioned by Microsoft.  You might also want to visit another Microsoft site FUSE Labs that “works in partnership with product and research teams to ideate, develop, and deliver new social, real-time, and media-rich experiences for home and work. FUSE Labs experiences give users new ways to create, connect and collaborate with the people, information and ideas that matter to them.”

I use technology extensively but I am also a people person.  That’s the balance that I want to reach currently and also in the future.  What’s you vision of the future?

“The Impact of Technology on Workplace 2020” is the topic of the final written assignment this semester for my undergraduate management students.  They are to answer the following questions in their paper:  What job you will be doing? What technology will you will using? Why will you be using that technology? Where you will be using it (be specific)? How will technology impact your personal life?

Since generally there are millenials in my classes who feel that ‘older’ people cannot learn new technology, I decided to post a request to the members of my high school alumni group on Facebook to let me know their thoughts on technology.

Baby boomers have adapted well during the technology revolution, many starting early like I did in 1982.  That’s when I sent my first e-mail on a product known as Comet while working at Computer Corporation of America and liked the communication program that I went on to train personnel and departments at Wall Street firms.  In addition to the technology my classmates liked, however, I also want to learn what my classmates thought would be the technology eight years from now.

Following are sample results from my informal survey.  You are invited to contribute your responses by leaving a comment at the end of this post.

Question #1 and Responses

What is one piece of technology which you find has helped you the most at work or at home?

Most people thought it was most helpful to have a personal computer and others weighed in on specific items such as a high-speed router, wi-fi enabled network at home, and a drop box (free online storage in a cloud).  One person responded on the larger impact of technology:  power tools at work and a microwave oven at home (imagine living without a microwave!).

Question #2 and Responses

What is one piece of technology that you feel will be enhanced or developed by 2020?

In forecasting the future, some people focused on the evolution and enhancement of the cell phone, iPhone, and iPad.  Others offered specific wishes:  enable home and office operated voice recognition; NFC (Near Filed Communication:  wireless connections to devices in proximity); more efficient transportation and more enhanced communication devices.

My vision of technology in 2020?  I want to be alive and well enough to see what develops!

When recovering from major surgery, you have to relax and ask others for help, take naps to revive your energy, and enjoy walks that get longer each day.  My recovery is going well, especially because one way for me to relax is to read some good books, scan magazine articles looking for the relevant and outstanding ones I want to return to later, and go online to find the Opinion pieces in The New York Times.  Below are the most interesting ‘reads’ that span interest for a variety of ages from those their twenties to those moving on in life.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson captured my attention and engaged me for five days from page one until the end of the text on page 571.  The ‘official’ biography of Jobs includes details from his eating habits to his volatile behaviors to his finding a type of peace when he introduced Apple’s revolutionary products.  I’m glad that I read it.  The list price is $35 but I got it through Barnes & Noble for a total with discounts of $16.54.

Jobs’ death and the book have generated a plethora of written stories and articles, interviews on the radio and TV, and commentaries and reviews on the book itself.  I agree with Joe Nocera (The New York Times) that Isaacson seemed that the author was too gentle on Jobs.  Criticizing, demeaning, and insulting competitors, colleagues, and employees—plus friends—was outrageous untamed behavior.  Yet, that area was treated in a gentle way.

Following the look of the cover of Isaacson’s book, Fortune Magazine put a similar picture of Jobs on the November 7, 2011 cover and in large print offered:  “Steve Jobs:  The Biography—An Exclusive Excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s New Book.”  Note there were four additional covers after the first one; a creative approach to leading with different stories in different media areas.

The next book I think I’m going to read is First Family:  Abigail and John Adams by Joseph J. Ellis, the Pulitzer Prize-Winning author of Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation.  As he did in a similar fashion in Founding Brothers, in First Family Ellis “brings America’s preeminent first couple to life in a moving and illuminating narrative that sweeps through the American Revolution and the republic’s tenuous early years.”  Ellis is a wonderful author who can give you an enlightening reading experience.

I bought Full Circles, Overlapping Lives:  Culture and Generation in Transition by Mary Catherine Bateson about five years ago but didn’t pick up the book until my recovery.  A cultural anthropologist and the daughter of the renowned anthropologist Margaret Mead, Bateson “…helps us think about the great divide that we all live with but few discuss: the enormously different life experiences of members of different generations” according to Deborah Tannen, author of You Just Don’t Understand.  Since I enjoyed that book, I decided to find another by Bateson.  Composing a Life was the book I wanted but when I went to buy it there was a newer and more interesting book:  Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom.  In the description on the back cover says that, “She redefines later adulthood as an opportunity to understand our deepest priorities and potentials and challenges us to use it to pursue new sources of meaning and ways to contribute to society.”  Note: there is a Margaret Mead Film Festival from November 10-13 at the Museum of Natural History.

In addition to reading, I read most of the magazines that I get by subscription and were given to me cover-to-cover.  In the Atlantic, I read “What, Me Marry? — In today’s economy, men are falling apart.  What that means for sex and marriage” by Kate Bolick.  I sent a link of this very interesting essay on changing demographics and society’s culture to the young women in their early twenties and their mothers.

Another excellent article was “Hacked!” by James Fallows.  After his wife’s e-mail account was hacked, he took “A trip to the inner fortress of Gmail, where Google developers recovered six years’ worth of hacked and deleted e-mail, provides specific advice on protecting and backing up data now—and gives a picture both consoling and unsettling of the vulnerabilities we can all expect to face in the future.”  A fascinating and informative read that makes me wonder the safety of all that is on the web.

MORE:  For women of style and substance (translated: over 40) was one of the three magazines that a dear friend of mine brought to me.  A compelling article was Your New Job Security Starts Here by Virginia Sole-Smith who feels that “A stable work future isn’t about finding a lifelong employer.  It’s about being able to land the next professional opportunity—which means mastering the digital job hunt.”

Working to be a leader requires being kept up to date and I’ve had time for that during my recovery—and more.  I’ve also had time to think about how I am going to compose my further life.