Weekly updates, WSJ, What I Heard & Read

This is the WWW issue of the newsletter with Weekly Updates, WSJ and What I heard. So lets go!

"Don't forget to send me your weekly report," he turned back from the door and added, "because it will help decide your increment and maybe even your promotion."

I groaned. Does my boss not trust me? Or is it a clever way to ensure I am accounting for every minute I spend in the office?

I spoke to Rascal Rusty, my classmate from the M-B-A days. He always knew what to do. He saw the first weekly report and said, "All that you have left out is what you ate for lunch every day."

What to write in the weekly report

Imagine your favorite team is playing a cricket match. And you watched it all day. Your friend missed the match and wants to know what happened. You would tell him or her the highlights and not about every ball bowled or every run scored. In short you would share the highlights. That is a good way to understand the weekly report.

Your monthly check-ins are an opportunity to agree on the priorities for the month and what you need to start or stop doing. If you receive any feedback from your manager, add a line in your weekly report to show that you are working on it and the result of that action. Read more here

The Article for The Wall Street Journal

There is something very special about seeing your name in print. This week I partnered with Jennifer Shappley VP of Talent at #LinkedIn to write about what companies are doing about Career Development. They are doing this as a way to stay competitive.

The Skills Gap is Worrying

Nearly 50% of executives fear their employees lack the skills to drive business strategy. Companies that fail to upskill their workforce risk falling behind.

? Companies with robust career programs are 11% more confident in profitability and 15% ahead in generative AI adoption compared to those without.

? Generative AI personalizes career development at scale, delivering real-time coaching and tailored learning plans—helping employees stay ahead.

? Only 15% of employees got career planning support from their manager last year—a 5% drop from the previous year, signaling the need for new approaches.

I would be thrilled if you clicked on this and read the article. Thanks for doing it

Book Recommendation: Training from the BACK of the ROOM!

This book begins with a bang. Before she has said ANYTHING and by that I mean ANYTHING, Susan Bowman asks you to do a Google search and look up what people say about Cognitive Neuroscience and to ask an expert what they think of the subject and do a little quiz. And I am saying to myself, and so what are those 65 things you are going to tell me about training from the back of the room!

Where to Spend Your Learning Budget: Core skills or Emergent skills?

The Jan-Feb 2025 issue of Harvard Business Review asks this interesting question. 60% of the employees will need to be retrained before 2027 according to the World Economic Forum. But the average investment in training is dropping.

Where is your training budget better spent? In strengthening the core skills or should you send everyone on some skill that you saw being advertised?

Investing in strengthening the core gives you a 5 times impact on performance. Read more here

A podcast I heard

Your resume is a powerful signalling device. But does it send the right signals?

Read this to find out

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Thanks for your help

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