Friday 26 September 2014

Wearing Your #LifeHacks


If you were among the many who tuned into last week's Apple Live event you were probably excited by the announcement of the Apple Watch. It's interesting to see how technology is evolving into an ever more personable, wearable platform and is transforming beyond the smartphone, tablet and PC.
The interesting part of the entire announcement was how applications would morph and shape as a result of wearing something that has a monitor 85% less the surface size of a modern smartphone. Since it's impossible to type on the device: voice activation or one touch will be a huge factor in how the device works. It's also unlikely many will use it for heavier lifts like online banking or gaming. At least not yet. Those areas will come in time, however for now it does open up a whole new threshold: applications built around quick, simple efficiencies and areas of productivity. We are now entering the formalized era of wearing personalized utility.
Life hacking is nothing new. It's been around as long as others have used storytelling to share how to enhance one's life or work in many areas. From improved self-awareness, personal efficiency, weight loss, health improvements, exercise, memorization, nutrition, multitasking, removing red wine from a white carpet, getting stains out of clothing, moving from a server to the cloud, learning to play soccer, riding a bike while wearing a skirt, etc.
The first personal life hacking digital app I used was back in 2006 with Nike+. I affixed a sensor to my shoe which kept track of the mileage I ran synchronized with my iPod. The program helped me improve my art of running so that I could be harder, better, faster, stronger. Yet the first wearable life hack I really used that I recollect wasn't digital at all. In fact it was when a German professor who taught with my late father told me to don a pair of cleats in 1979 to properly play the sport of soccer. Up until that time I wore flat canvas sneakers with no traction. Cleats or "boots" as many call them in the U.K. helped me become a better player at an early age when the footwear was still uncommon in the youth game stateside. Boots helped with mobility, kicking the ball with more power and prevented injuries by being more sturdy than a canvas sneaker. Suggestions like this have been around us forever, it's just now they will be more digital and data driven based on our own personal metrics and how we want to integrate those metrics with others in the world at large.
This scalable wearable tech landscape now opens up a whole new economy of innovation. Just like how mobile app stores have altered commerce, many businesses will come to fruition to alter the entire business landscape in this new emerging area activated from your wrist, your ankle, around your neck or wherever else wearable technology ultimately can be affixed.
While I see many health and wellness programs being adopted heavily using this technology, there are also areas that may diffuse from early adopters to the late majority and laggards as a result. Some of these include:
  • Professional life hacks: Time management, Personal brand building, Brainstorming, Note taking, Programmatic updates, Synchronized scheduling
  • Educational life hacks: Quick learning, Translation, Efficiency variables, Visual reminder learning
  • Disruptive life hacks: Repetition course correction, New ways to learn, Financial advisories
Many of the above noted functions exist in the world of the mobile web but don't have as much personalization metrics as a device worn on the body which can take repetition, heart rate, atmospheric conditions and time tracking of an activity into consideration. Nor do many have the ability to take into account what a person's daily calendar or work/life scheduling looks like and how all these various apps will speak to one another down the line to increase efficiency and wellness in the individual using them. This is where players like Cortana* and Google Now could really shake up things even further.
Like the goldmine rush in 2007 where new players have taken hold and become part of our digital lives (Foursquare, Uber, AirBnB, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, just to name a few), there are many entrepreneurs and companies now from Seattle to San Francisco to Bogota to Tel Aviv to Moscow to London to Beijing to Lagos, Nigeria to Bangalore, India to New York City to Detroit to Vancouver sitting down and mapping out how to reach more people via this personal conduit. How exciting it will be to see what these next companies and their services look like and what utility they provide for the population at large.

The Top 5 Things You Should Never Do At Work


I had an 18-year corporate career in publishing and marketing that was highly successful on the outside, but on the inside, it was not. I rose to the level of Vice President and managed multimillion-dollar budgets and global initiatives, but throughout my career, I faced a number of excruciating experiences of gender discrimination, sexual harassment, work-life balance failures, chronic illness and exhaustion, being sabotaged and betrayed by colleagues, and the continual nagging feeling that I was meant for different work.
And I made a great number of huge mistakes. I did some important things right too, but my missteps were legendary (at least in my own mind). When I look back on my 30 years of working, and the careers of the hundreds of folks I train, coach and teach, five blunders stand out from all the rest as the most negative, damaging, and irreversible in your career and professional life.
The 5 things you should never do at work are:
1. Speak, behave or quit out of rage or revenge
Most people spend more hours at work than anywhere else, so it’s normal and expected that we will experience the full gamut of emotions while engaged in our work. I’m all for bringing our whole selves to work as well, and being as authentic, honest, and transparent as humanly possible at our jobs. That said, I’ve watched the inevitable destruction of losing control of your emotions and acting out rashly and impulsively from rage or despair.
For example, in my early 20’s, I screamed an obscenity at the top of my lungs to my boss who I felt was harassing me, and I did it in front of the entire office. He had no choice but to fire me. Thankfully, I had another job offer in the wings so the damage was not too serious. While it felt fantastic (for one split second) to swear at him, what has stayed with me over time is the shock and shame of how out of control I felt during that time. I vowed never to lose it like that and act out of rage or fury again. If you act impulsively and rashly at work, you will likely lose much more than your self-respect.
2. Backstab your colleagues
I’m astounded at how many people today feel completely comfortable ridiculing, disparaging or undermining their colleagues, co-workers and even their friends. I used to be that kind of person – talking behind someone’s back if I felt they were behaving poorly, meanly, or less than professionally. I learned later (in my therapy training) that this is called triangulation – telling a third party about something that makes you anxious or upset instead of dealing with it head on with the individual in question. Why do we do that? Because we lack the courage and fortitude to address the problem directly, or we feel it just won’t work out if we do. It relieves our anxiety to share the problem, but it does nothing to resolve it.
Other folks may call this “gossip” (gossip, by the way, is another “must not do” in the workplace). But backstabbing your colleagues is a special brand of negative behavior because it aims to hurt. And when you desire to hurt others, it will be you who suffers. In one job, I backstabbed a colleague because it seemed that she received all the accolades, promotions and perks because of her beauty and her obsequiousness to our bosses. All of that might have been true, but trying to take her down behind her back didn’t work. That behavior never will, in the long run. You’ll only embarrass and humiliate yourself and it will come back around to bite you eventually.
3. Lie
We tell lies most often when we think that the truth will hurt us somehow, or when we want to avoid facing the consequences of our truth. The problem with lying is two-fold: 1) When you tell yourself you’re not capable of facing reality or dealing with the consequences, you make yourself right – you’ll grow less powerful, capable, bold, respectable, and trustworthy over time, and 2) the lies you tell must be perpetuated, which is exhausting and drains you from vital energy you need to reach your fullest potential.
If you have told lies at work – about your skills and talents, experience and background, about the status of work you’re overseeing, or about who you are and what you are capable of, I’d highly recommend taking a long, hard look at what you’re afraid of, and instead of keeping up the front, get in the cage with those fears and begin working through them.
4. Proclaim that you’re miserable
Just the other day, I was talking to a former client who had marched into her boss’s office that week and shared that she was miserable at work and volunteered for a severance package. I’ve done that myself – been so unhappy at work that I put my hand up for a package. I didn’t get it, and neither did my client. After sharing that news and not receiving the package, you’re stuck in a deeply unsettling situation of the employer knowing you’re a terrible fit for your role. There are a few specific instances where this might be the right move, but in general, sharing that you hate your job is not the way to go.
But what if it’s the truth? My father used to say that there are 10 different ways to say anything, and I think he’s right. Phrases like “miserable,” “unhappy,” “fed up,” “ready to leave,” and “need to go” are not helpful when you’re talking to your colleagues, bosses, or HR staff.
What is the better way? Talk about what you’re great at and love to do, what you’ve accomplished, and what you’re ready for. Share your work highlights and new directions you’re excited and committed to take your career, and discuss your plans and desires for growth and change. Open the door for new opportunities at your current employer that will expand our skills, your resume and your talents. Try to find ways at your current job (where you’re already getting paid) to grow, stretch and build yourself. Explore every option available to you for becoming what you want to without walking out in anger and disgust. Your employer might very well be able to sponsor and support your growth and change, but it won’t happen if you stomp in and say “I’m miserable and it’s your fault.”
5. Burn bridges
Literally the biggest lesson I’ve learned in business is that success is all about relationships. It’s truly about who you know, and how they feel and think about you (and how you make them feel). I’m not saying that your amazing talent and skill aren’t important. Of course they are. I am saying that we don’t thrive and succeed alone. We need other people. And these people are not just our former bosses – they are people who reported to you, teamed with you, shared coffee and drinks with you, took training sessions with you, got yelled at alongside of you, and weathered tough times with you.
Every single one of your relationships is vitally important to you and your future, so craft them with care. Avoid people you don’t trust or like, but don’t burn bridges. After 30 years in business I’ve seen that there are hundreds of people we interact with daily who eventually could become our strongest allies, advocates and fans, if we protect and nurture our relationships as the key, enriching asset they are.

Monday 15 September 2014

Apple iPhone 6 Review

Apple iPhone 6 Review

Apple iPhone 6 Review Scoring Summary

Style & Handling
User Friendliness
Feature Set
Performance
Battery Power
Overall Score3G.co.uk grey star

 

Pros:Cons:
+ Beautiful build- Relatively low-res screen
+ Good size camera- Expensive
+ Great camera- Lacks innovation

Full Review and Specification for the Apple iPhone 6


The iPhone 6 is perhaps the most eagerly anticipated phone of the year and in just a few short days you’ll be able to buy one, but should you? There’s no doubt that it’s a great handset but for better or worse it’s also a big change over the iPhone 5s and on paper it doesn’t really offer anything that you can’t get elsewhere. So is it worth your hard earned money? Read on to find out.

Screen

Apple iPhone 6 - Display

After all the leaks and rumours in the run up to its announcement the iPhone 6 is a phone of few surprises and one of the biggest changes- its screen size, has been long expected. It’s gone from 4.0 inches as found on the iPhone 5s to 4.7 inches, which is the same size as the Samsung Galaxy Alpha or the original HTC One for example.

For our money that’s a good thing. 4.0 inches was starting to look distinctly on the small side and it’s about time Apple caught up, but we’d wager that a lot of people liked the compact design of iPhone’s past so for them it may not be such a welcome change.

But 4.7 inches is still far from the phablet territory of the iPhone 6 Plus. It’s a size which means the iPhone 6 is still easily pocketable and can just about be used with one hand, while at the same time it makes it far better for typing, web browsing and watching videos than the iPhone 5S ever could be.

Whether you’re a fan of the screen size or not the actual quality is pretty impressive. At 750 x 1334 it’s higher resolution than the iPhone 5S but with the extra size it still has exactly the same pixel density, so if you were happy with how sharp the iPhone 5S’s screen is you’ll be happy with this too.

That said Apple could have done more, because that’s a pixel density which falls some way short of most Android rivals and the difference in sharpness is noticeable if you put them side by side.

Thankfully while Apple may have slightly dropped the ball on the resolution, its Retina HD display is about more than just packing in the pixels. It also delivers superior contrast and viewing angles to any previous iPhone and even has better colour reproduction and an improved polariser so that it’s easier to see when wearing sunglasses.

All of which leads to by far the best viewing experience we’ve yet seen on an iPhone and means the iPhone 6 has one of the best phone displays around, despite the slightly disappointing resolution.

Design


If there’s one thing Apple always gets right it’s design and the iPhone 6 is one of the company’s best looking products yet. With a metal and glass build it was always going to look premium but Apple hasn’t simply used expensive materials, it’s also thought about the construction.

You can see that in the way the curved edges glide almost seamlessly into the screen and in the fact that despite being bigger than before it’s also slimmer at just 6.9mm thin. It looks and feels great and while you won’t mistake this for an iPhone 5s you also won’t think it’s anything other than an Apple handset.

Apple iPhone 6 - Thin Design

Being bigger at 138.1 x 67mm it’s naturally harder to use one-handed but Apple has thought of that too, by moving the power button to the side and elongating some buttons as well as working in clever features on the screen to ensure that whatever you’re interacting with can always be aligned with your thumb.

It should be a little more durable than past iPhone’s too, thanks to a supposedly stronger display. This isn’t sapphire but it is supposedly strong enough to survive drops and scratches. It’s a little disappointing that Apple didn’t go one step further and make its phone dust and water resistant like other companies are starting to do though.

Power


It’s never easy to directly compare the power of an iPhone to anything else because on paper its specs just don’t match up. But to make things even harder we don’t even know for sure what the specs of the iPhone 6 are, as Apple has simply said that it has a 64-bit A8 chip, though many sites claim that it’s a 1.4GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM.

Whatever the case though, in use the iPhone 6 feels as slick and smooth as you’d expect. Of course there’s nothing out there to really tax it yet, with all currently available apps and games designed to work smoothly on the iPhone 5s, so it’s hard to say how it will fare down the line but Apple promises that it’s substantially more powerful than last year’s phone.

Gamers can rest easy too, as the Cupertino company has included a new technology called ‘Metal’, which allows the CPU and GPU to work together to deliver console-style games.

Camera

Apple iPhone 6 - Camera

We couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed when we heard that Apple once again put an 8 megapixel camera in its phone, but this isn’t the same 8 megapixel camera as we got in the iPhone 5S.

Focus Pixels allow it to autofocus faster than ever, there’s improved face detection, exposure control, digital image stabilisation to counter motion blur and shaky hands and improved photo apps to let you quickly edit images.

The video camera has seen even more improvements. It can film in 1080p at 60fps or 720p in slow-motion at 240fps. There’s video stabilisation to keep shots steady, continuous autofocus and you can even shoot time-lapse videos.

Meanwhile the FaceTime HD camera can capture up to 81% more light than previously and features a new burst mode which can take 10 photos per second, making it better than ever for both selfies and video calls.

Features


The iPhone 6 is light on new features which don’t directly tie into something else such as the camera or the screen, all of which have been discussed above. The main new feature is Apple Pay which uses NFC to allow you to make contactless payments. It’s got the potential to be a hugely useful feature and with Apple backing it contactless payments might become a lot more common than they are now.

On the other hand Android phones have included NFC and contactless payment solutions for a long time, so while it’s a useful feature it seems more like Apple is playing catch-up here than truly innovating.

The two big features from the iPhone 5S have made a return too, specifically the motion co-processor which tracks your activity without killing your battery and Touch ID, which lets you unlock your phone and approve purchases with your fingerprint.

These features are just as good as ever and in combination with iOS 8 Touch ID is getting even better, as developers can now use it with third-party apps. While the M8 motion co-processor can now measure steps, distance and elevation changes.

Battery life, memory and connectivity

Apple iPhone 6 - Connectivity

As usual Apple hasn't confirmed the size of the iPhone 6’s battery, so we’ll have to wait for someone to take it apart. But the company has said that it can last for up to 14 hours of talk time, 10 days of standby time, 11 hours of internet use or 11 hours of video.

All of which is pretty good and is down to a combination of the battery itself and a more efficient processor. It still doesn’t sound like quite a match for the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S5 for example though.

The iPhone 6 comes with a choice of 16, 64 or 128GB of storage, with 32GB MIA for some reason, so there’s the potential for a lot, but there’s no microSD card slot and with the 128GB model costing £699 Apple hasn’t made higher storage capacities all that affordable.

For connectivity you get Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth 4.0, 4G and NFC. It’s worth noting that the iPhone 6 also supports 4G LTE-A speeds of up to 150Mbps.

Early verdict


The iPhone 6 is a phone which has almost everything you could want all delivered in a stunning new design and with flagship power. It’s as expensive as always, the screen could be higher resolution and we can’t help but feel that it’s one of Apple’s less innovative offerings but the whole package has been put together so well that it hardly matters.

Apple iPhone 6 Specification



iPhone 6
Colours
Available in silver, gold, and space gray,
Dimensions
138.1 mm x 67.0 mm x 6.9 mm
Weight
129 grams
Screen
4.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit widescreen Multi‑Touch display with IPS technology
Resolution
1334-by-750-pixel resolution at 326 ppi
Chips
A8 chip with 64-bit architecture

M8 motion coprocessor
Memory
16GB,64GB and 128GB  
iSight Camera
New 8-megapixel iSight camera with 1.5µ pixels

Autofocus with Focus Pixels
Facetime Camera
1.2-megapixel photos (1280 by 960)
Video recording
1080p HD video recording (30 fps or 60 fps)
Touch ID
Fingerprint identity sensor built into the Home button
Battery
Talk time: Up to 14 hours on 3G

Standby time: Up to 10 days (250 hours)

Video playback: Up to 11 hours
Connectivity
NFC, VoLTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4G LTE
SIM Card
Nano-SIM

Thursday 11 September 2014

Why It's Okay to Do Laundry When You Work at Home


When you tell people you work at home, it's usually one of two reactions: "Oh, I'd love to be able to work in my PJs. It'd be so much less distracting." Or: "I could never. I'd watch TV and do laundry all day." The past 8 years, on and off, my home office has been my primary one, my cell phone the tether to coworkers near and far, and the video conference my main meeting room.
There are a lot of cliches and stereotypes about this new world of work. My favorite is that no one's working and that productivity goes down with a workforce at home. From the trenches of my small corner of the world, here are some truths about laundry, PJs, repair men, barking dogs, and what people really think you're doing when you're cozied into your remote office.
Remote Work Isn't For Everyone
As big a fan as I am of working at home, it's not for everyone. I know the same people you do who obviously are going to park themselves in front of a reality show and just respond to email via phone to look busy. Or the folks who are prone to long lunches that never really deliver any solid outcomes. Likewise, solid performers at work aren't always going to convert to productive remote employees. Ask yourself: Do you have initiative and drive that's coming from a place of motivation and passion about what you do? I'm much more sold on the remote situation for folks who motivate themselves because they're engaged in what they do, not because they need a boss to prod them or a team to collaborate or compete with.
I usually suggest doing a trial of 2-3 days, if not a week, to see how this fits for you before you decide it's a perfect fit. Ask yourself the hard questions about how much work you're putting out compared to the same time period in the office. We all know when we've had an insanely productive day. Those have to be the norm when you're at home for it to work out.
You're Narrowing the Lens You're Seen Through
When you're in an office, folks get to see you in meetings, at the lunch table, out for coffee, giving that presentation, going for a beer after hours, stepping up in meetings, delivering the file on time, one on one. You're this dynamic, multi-faceted coworker. But when you're at home, folks experience a much narrower range of your amazingness. There's a limit to the diversity of that interaction, which means that you put yourself under a microscope.
So don't become a narrow version of yourself. Send out an impromptu IM conversation to connect just because. Ring a colleague who you'd like to connect with and have a "lunch date" from your respective patio tables. Talk about your outside of work enough to be yourself. And make a point to send emails to your team and reach out to solicit feedback and give your opinions. Just because you're out of sight doesn't mean you should be out of mind.
If You Work Less, You Also Have to Work More
Here's the laundry paradox, friends. I have no problem if you throw a load of jeans in before your 10 a.m. meeting and then move them to the dryer before lunch and fold them before you go pick up your son from daycare. That is if you have no problem taking the 6 a.m. call with the Paris office or coming home from dinner to check email one more time before bed and responding to any urgent requests. The trouble with laundry is when it's just laundry, and not a two-way street where sometimes you work in the middle of your personal life and sometimes you do personal things in the middle of your work life. Your business deserves all the time it's paying you for.
Balance is key. Take an hour off for the dentist or to oversee your stove repair, and put an extra hour in the next morning or that night, assuming your boss is cool with this arrangement also. Too often, I hear about this balance tipping in favor of a little more time for you and a little less time for your employer. This gives all of us a bad rep for being slackers. And to paraphrase advice my dad used during his 35 years running a small business: Slacking off on the job is stealing from the company.
Make an Actual Office at Home
I did a 3' x 3' desk in the corner of my small house's bedroom for 2 years, and it was an eyesore and an earful with fans revving or the occasional email beep if I forgot to hit Mute. It also made it easy to get up and dive straight into work rather than keeping a schedule that attended to other important things, like exercise or a breakfast, before I jumped into work for the day.
Whenever possible, set up dedicated space--not community or well-trafficked space, not a corner coffee shop table, but quiet, professional space where you can have the same meeting you'd have if you were in the office. I'm a stickler on this: We don't want to hear your animals or your kids or lawnmowers or low coffeehouse jazz whenever we talk to you. And it's not because we don't love your animals, your kids, your tidy lawn. It's because folks in the office go to the effort to set a professional environment for phone and video calls, and like it or not, you need to do the same. Clients and coworkers deserve it. And it's never fun to be the one person who creates all the distractions and spends the call apologizing for it rather than focusing on the actual work of the call.
If this sounds harsh, I'll add that this is better for you too--a room with a door on it lets you turn work on and off at appropriate times in your day, which helps you stay sane, rather than stopping in to check email every time you walk by the dining table.
Embrace What's Different
In the comfort of your own home, you've got the opportunity to work as distraction free as your calendar allows. No one stops by your desk to chat about that report that's due in a week. The gossip mill is one you can check out of unless you make an effort to keep those ties. You also don't happen to see Greg in the hallway and have the impromptu conversation that leads to an important process change between your teams. Or to have face time in front of the leaders you're pitching your next project too.
So set some new expectations and determine what your success looks like. Before, it might have been that you and the VP of Marketing got were synched because you were down the hall from each other and got to have side conversations about everything before it happened. Now it might be that you have the chance to do some Skunkworks projects with a few other remote people who can deliver back a new innovation because you're seeing things differently from the outside.
Every quarter or so, I find it helpful to stop and take stock of what's changed in your work life. Where are you politically in your organization? What new relationships have you built, and are there old ones you've let go of? How connected are you to your team? How are you thought of in your team? It's easy to get locked into a feedback void at home because you're not around other folks who depend on you. So make the effort to ask: How am I doing?
A year and a half ago, a conversation on that very topic led me to move closer to my work again, not because I wasn't effective remotely, but so I could be half in the office and half out. My key partner in building products and I discovered that we wanted more face time and closer collaboration, and it wasn't going to happen with me 3-4 hours away.
And in that move, I also discovered the last and perhaps most important part of working from home.
You Have to Do What You Love
Because no one is there to check that you're not on Facebook every day or that you're actually logging those hours. Sure, goofing off will catch up with you eventually. But you're miles ahead if you believe in what you go to your desk to do every day. The people you do the work with are often the most rewarding part of the journey, so take some time to give those relationships room to grow and breathe and flourish regardless of where you're located. Find new reasons to fall in love with your company all over again. Even (and especially) if you get to do the work within a hundred-foot commute.

Wednesday 10 September 2014

How to Spot a Bad Boss Before you start a new job

If you’ve been in the workforce long enough, you know the feeling of having a bad boss. You stay up late, refusing to surrender to sleep because it means going to work the next day. You wake up dreading going to work, hitting the snooze button multiple times before dragging yourself out of bed. You feel an uncomfortable sense of almost magnetic repulsion as you approach your office door. At work, you’re on edge, and can’t shake the sense of imminent catastrophe. Everyone is walking around on eggshells. Weekends become a refuge where put your mind as far away from work as possible and you shudder at the thought of Monday.
Bad bosses are terrible for your career. They’re terrible for companies. They’re terrible for the economy and, in a wider sense, they’re terrible for society. We’ve all encountered bosses who project their own insecurities onto other people by carving out small fiefdoms and ruling them with an iron fist. These bosses are hypocritical in what they demand of their employees verses what they themselves accomplish. They issue orders instead of leading. They micromanage. And they refuse to take accountability.
When you start a new role, it sometimes takes weeks or more before realizing you’re stuck with a bad boss. But is it possible to spot a bad boss before you start a new job? Are there any signs in an interview that can tip you off that you should run in the other direction?
Here are 5 questions you should ask yourself during an interview to help determine whether you’ve got a good or bad boss on your hands:

1. How do the other employees seem when you come in for the interview?

When you go into a new office, observe the body language of other employees in the workspace. If they avoid eye contact, or seem sullen or disengaged, dissatisfaction with the supervisor might be the culprit. If it’s for a more senior-level role, does the hiring manager let you interview with peers? A good boss will be conscientious of building a thriving ecosystem, and he or she will want buy-in from other members of the team before adding to it. A boss who’s overly controlling will isolate the members of the team they supervise. So pay attention to interactions with current employees, or lack thereof.

2. Does the supervisor speak overly negatively of previous employees?

Recruiters and career experts often give candidates the piece of advice that you should never speak negatively about a previous role in an interview. It makes sense. You don’t want the employer to think that you’re going to badmouth this job if and/or when you move on. But hiring is a two-way street, and candidates need to be just as mindful of similar behaviour in hiring managers. A boss who speaks overly negatively about previous employees might have unrealistic standards of behaviour, or they might be overly willing to throw their team under the bus for their own failings.

3. Are they distracted in the interview or overly pushy?

You should have a certain tolerance for outside interruptions during an interview, especially if it’s a fast-paced workplace. But an effective leader will be fully engaged during an interview and won’t be consistently taking calls, answering emails, checking their phone or (we’ve heard this one surprisingly often) leaving the room. This type of behaviour shows a lack of focus at best, and a tactic to seem important at worst. Likewise, does the interviewer let you speak without interruption, and do you feel like you’re being heard? These are questions you should ask yourself as the interview progresses.

4. Have you looked up the company culture online?

When you’re interviewing, it’s important to look at a new opportunity the same way you would look at a major purchase. There’s a huge wealth of information online. So you want to do your homework. Not just in terms of understanding a company and its culture so that you can nail the interview, but also so that you can determine whether it’s going to be a rewarding place to work. You can use sites like glassdoor.com which provide employee feedback about various companies. You can also check out the role on LinkedIn. Run a search for the job and evaluate whether there’s been lots of turnover. Are there tons of people with the same role who were there only for a short while? That could be an indicator of a bad boss.

5. Have you asked them what kind of boss they are?

Sometimes, instead of trying to ascertain a boss’s method of leadership indirectly, it’s helpful to just come out and ask a prospective supervisor about their leadership style to see if it jives with the way you like to work.
It’s certainly the case that not everyone is in a position to pick and choose who they want to work for. But a bad boss can be such a drag on your career that it’s worth considering these questions before you go in for a role.
We love all the discussion this post has generated. Tell us your stories of bad bosses on Twitter using the hashtag #BadBoss!