Clearing “Sent” Items Folder in Gmail

I love Gmail and Google Calender, and I love them even more now that I use them in my job at 2tor, Inc. and not just for my personal email.  What I’ve never liked is the inability to relabel “Sent” items as something else, as I use my Sent folder as one way to keep track of my tasks.  I don’t want to delete any of my important Sent items; I just want to file them somewhere else permanently, as I could do in Outlook.  Well, it took some digging, and I had to wade through an interminable exchange between someone like me who needed a solution and someone who wanted to only offer a workaround.

It won’t necessarily work if you don’t have an iPhone or IPad, but that’s only because I don’t own an Android of Blackberry phone, so it make work with them as well.  Here’s the solution from the Google support discussions (go to the bottom of the link or any post deleted 3/28/11 or later):

There is a way around this if you have an iPhone or an iPad. If you have a message/mail (conversation is such a silly expression) in your Sent “folder” you can simply “move” it to one of your named folders.  And the Sent message disappears from your PC/laptop at the same time. But like everyone else, I fail to see why Google won’t sort this out so we don’t have to resort to work-round solutions.

Thanks to John Croxen, a “retired solicitor from Emberton” who posted the solution.  I just tried it using my iPhone 4 and it worked like a charm!

Aneil, aka “The Filer and not the Piler”

Income Inequality and Distrust

This from today’s New York Times:

But as a recent Economix post by Catherine Rampell reports, cross-country surveys show that income inequality is negatively related to trust. Largely as a result, the average level of trust is significantly lower in the United States than in more egalitarian countries, particularly those of Scandinavia.

And we seem to feel less trusting every day. A survey released at a recent World Economic Forum indicated that trust in both business and government had declined more steeply in the United States than in other countries as a result of the recent financial crisis.

Have sharp increases in inequality in the United States since the 1960s made us more cynical and suspicious?

I don’t agree with all of the author’s points in her article, but I do agree that rising income inequality, to the extend that it is due to government policies that favor certain groups over others, can certainly contribute to greater levels of distrust within society.  In particular, because the Federal Government provided bailouts to certain sectors and groups and not to others during the past several years, and because subsidies, favorable tax treatments, and other forms of economic support have been provided to certain groups and not others for decades, it is not surprising that we are trusting each other less.

I wrote about the economic benefits of a flat rate income tax in one of my junior papers under Professor Harvey Rosen at Princeton.  I am convinced more than ever that this is what we need to do.

Aneil

Howard Schultz talks a lot about trust…

I just had the unique opportunity (I say unique because only 300 or so of us tuned in) to hear Howard Schultz on a webcast this morning because I bought an advance copy of his new book, “Onward“.  I have not had a chance to read the book yet (too many papers to grade!), but did not want to miss the opportunity to hear Howard (virtually) in person.

Here are a few tidbits I picked up from him.

1) The reason those baristas are all so happy is that their goal is to enhance someone’s day.  What a great goal.

2) His biggest challenge: Getting big as a company, but staying small.  Even though there are over 200,000 employees, he wants them all to understand and know the Starbucks’ culture and feel like it is a small, intimate culture.

3) The reason Starbucks can successfully implement something new like mobile payments: they have their customer’s trust.

4) He feels that companies should embrace digital technologies and marketing not to sell, but to build trust and confidence with customers and to demonstrate transparency.

5) Customers want to buy from companies whose values are like their own, so customers will buy from Starbucks because they appreciate that Starbucks gives their employees health benefits and that they buy coffee beans at a fair price.  This also builds trust with customers.

Can’t wait to read the book–probably while I’m drinking my grande decaf nonfat no-whip mocha!

-karen

Tailgating: Adult bullying

I had to look up the definition of tailgating in wikipedia just to  make sure I was using the word correctly–and I am!  I’ve been thinking about this topic for weeks and each day I think that maybe I’m over-reacting, one more driver convinces me that I’m right.  How can I trust other drivers on the road if they can’t drive a safe distance behind me?

I cannot count the number of times lately that a car has come up behind me suddenly and has just hounded me, probably hoping that I will speed up.  There are still many two-lane roads in Okemos, Michigan so there is no way that I can move over.  I am always going the speed limit because there are police out everywhere to make sure we are all going the speed limit.  So, why are other drivers tailgating so often?

When it happens, it feels like I am being bullied.  I don’t enjoy looking into my rear-view mirror to see another car not only sneak up but hound me, when I am going the speed limit.  One woman the other day kept following me too closely and would not slow down.  I was so angry that when I was stopped at a red light, I opened my door and waved my hand to encourage her to slow down.  She still kept following me and just as I was ready to exhibit some road rage, she pulled up behind me at my son’s school!  As my son walked into school, the boy who got out of that car said to him, “I’m so sorry about that–my mom is a terrible driver!”

At least her son realized what she was doing wrong.  Maybe there is hope for another generation.

-karen

I wish I had not cried at work

Michelle Singletary write yesterday about managing your emotions at work.  She claims that “Women cry on the job more than men: 41 percent of women said they have cried at work compared with just 9 percent of men.“  I will admit that I am part of that 41%.  It happened almost 20 years ago, but I can still see the whole scene in my head.

When I received my promotion to manage the Pepsi Account, I assumed that I would receive the same pay, benefits and perks of the man who held the job before me.  He was my friend and mentor, so I knew what kind of company car he drove, how much more money he made than I did.  And, when I did not have much of a clue about the extra benefits, my very kind admin reminded me that he received a nice bonus that I should now be receiving as well.

So, imagine my surprise when I sat down with my boss to discuss my new pay and perks and find out that I would only be receiving a modest increase in pay–no new company car (mine was a used Ford station wagon!); no bonus; nothing else.  After being the first female and youngest salesperson ever to be promoted to manage the $75 million Pepsi Cola account (at their request), I guess you could say that I was extremely disappointed to find out that I would be treated differently than the man who had just had this job.  And yes, I broke down.  I tried to explain to him that I had been underpaid from the start and that I had trained all the men in the office who were paid more than I was, but he was resolute.  If I wanted to come back to him in six months, he might reconsider, but it was “all he could do.” I was just so embarrassed by my tears that I got up and left.

What I should have done, according to book Michelle is reviewing, Anne Kreamer’s, “It’s Always Personal: Emotion in the New Workplace” (Random House, $25), is write down my emotions and then go back and have a rational conversation with him–no tears.  Maybe I would have presented a more compelling case and would have been more successful in my plea for more money and a new company car.

Oh well, we all learn from our mistakes and I learned from mine.  I did cry again during my doctoral program, but this time, I went into my office and closed the door.

-karen

Great wisdom from CEOs…

I hope my students read this article in the NY Times today–in fact, I think I’ll make sure they do.  Each day in class, 2-3 students share an article about a company they are following and how it is relevant to our class topics.  Now it is my turn.

Adam Bryant, who has interviewed CEOs for his Corner Office column has distilled their wisdom into five important qualities that they look for.

1) Passionate Curiosity:  “Passionate curiosity, Ms. Minow said, “is indispensable, no matter what the job is. You want somebody who is just alert and very awake and engaged with the world and wanting to know more.”

2) Battle-Hardened Confidence: “I like hiring people who have overcome adversity, because I believe I’ve seen in my own career that perseverance is really important,” said Nancy McKinstry, the chief executive of Wolters Kluwer, the Dutch publishing and information company.

3) Team Smarts:  (my students will love hearing this one after all the team projects we make them do in business school!).  The most effective executives are more than team players. They understand how teams work and how to get the most out of the group. Just as some people have street smarts, others have team smarts.

4) A Simple Mind-set: A lot of people have trouble being concise. Next time you’re in a meeting, ask somebody to give you the 10-word summary of his or her idea. Some people can do a quick bit of mental jujitsu, and they’ll summarize an idea with a “Here’s what’s important …” or “The bottom line is … .” Others will have trouble identifying the core point.

5) Fearlessness:  Are you comfortable being uncomfortable? Do you like situations where there’s no road map or compass? Do you start twitching when things are operating smoothly, and want to shake things up? Are you willing to make surprising career moves to learn new skills? Is discomfort your comfort zone?

My students are all seniors, just about to graduate.  This is great advice as they launch their careers and think about the road ahead.

This is also good advice for all of us as we think about the career decisions we make and whether or not we currently have these qualities or need to improve upon them.  As I read through this list, I see Aneil.  He has embarked upon a new career and has for the first time in a long time used these qualities in his new job.  I guess we don’t always know how our current jobs will help prepare us for the next one.

-karen

Do you text when you talk?

So, the interesting article recently in the NY Times is about how people text while they are talking to us, or pretend to talk to us.  I’m sure we’ve all had that happen–people get distracted by a text or an email and can’t really quite focus on what we are saying because their attention is elsewhere.

How would you feel if they were actually supposed to be paying attention to you as a student in your class?  Believe it or not, this happens all the time.  Students think that they are being subtle and hiding their cell phones under the desk or table in the classroom while I’m teaching, but I’m no fool.  I see their little thumbs moving a mile a minute–I know what that thumb action means–they are carrying on another conversation and our classroom conversation at the same time.  Sometimes, they even tell me outright what they are doing.

Last semester, their group projects were due in class and one group was worried because the group member with the paper had not arrived yet.  All of a sudden I hear from a group member, “Dr. Mishra, Mike has been in a car accident–can I leave to go and find him and pick up our paper?”  I’m not sure which of these things to be worried about first so I ask, “How do you know this?”  “Oh, he just texted me.”  Hmmmm….Hard evidence that students are texting and receiving texts in class and not even ashamed to admit it! (By the way, this student actually lied about the accident–he never finished his portion of the paper and ultimately turned it in 5 days late to the dismay of his group!).

Anyway, people text in class, people text in meetings, people even text in church–where don’t we text?  I guess it is no wonder that we text while talking to each other.  Maybe that is why it was so hard to teach them active listening skills last week.  They are just not used to doing one thing at a time!

-karen

GM’s Parma Plant Received $60 million in new investment

As many of you read in our first book about Bob Lintz and the transformational change he led at GM’s Parma Stamping Plant in the ’80s and ’90s near Cleveland, Ohio, I thought you’d be interested in some recent news about Parma, in which GM will be invested $60 million dollars as part of the plant’s most recent modernization.

This is truly a lasting legacy that Bob left, as the plant continues to improve and be one of the world’s very best stamping plants years AFTER Bob retired.  For you Good To Great and Built to Last fans, Parma is a compelling example of a Level 5 Leader who built a Flywheel that continues to demonstrate significant bottom-line results for both GM and its employees who work at Parma.

Karen and I be continuing our profile of Bob and discussing what he has learned as a result of his inspiring leadership efforts in our forthcoming sequel, Becoming a Trustworthy Leader:  Psychology and Practice, due out later this by Routledge Press.

Aneil

Who Do You Call? Not Even Ghostbusters!

Even though I’ve always been a big phone person, I, too, use the phone much, much less than I used to, and so this recent article in the New York Times makes a lot of sense to me:

In the last five years, full-fledged adults have seemingly given up the telephone — land line, mobile, voice mail and all. According to Nielsen Media, even on cellphones, voice spending has been trending downward, with text spending expected to surpass it within three years.

Phone calls are rude. Intrusive. Awkward. “Thank you for noticing something that millions of people have failed to notice since the invention of the telephone until just now,” Judith Martin, a k a Miss Manners, said by way of opening our phone conversation. “I’ve been hammering away at this for decades. The telephone has a very rude propensity to interrupt people.”

Though the beast has been somewhat tamed by voice mail and caller ID, the phone caller still insists, Ms. Martin explained, “that we should drop whatever we’re doing and listen to me.”

Even at work, where people once managed to look busy by wearing a headset or constantly parrying calls back and forth via a harried assistant, the offices are silent. The reasons are multifold. Nobody has assistants anymore to handle telecommunications. And in today’s nearly door-free workplaces, unless everyone is on the phone, calls are disruptive and, in a tight warren of cubicles, distressingly public. Does anyone want to hear me detail to the dentist the havoc six-year molars have wreaked on my daughter?

When I solicit contributions college classmates for Princeton’s Annual Giving, I always first email my friends before calling them.  I also only solicit people with whom I want to catch up, so that when I do call them, it’s to spend time finding out what’s happened over the past year, rather than to simply ask them for money.

How have your phone calling habits changed over the years?  Do you even use a phone for calling people?

Aneil