A robot managerPalto/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Cartoonist Scott Adams predicts that robots will dominate managerial jobs before they dominate blue-collar jobs because of what he calls the Dilbert Principle: The least skilled employees are promoted to management. "You need your most skilled people doing interface design, engineering, and the hard stuff. Management is mostly about optimizing resource allocation, and that is something a robot can learn relatively easily, at least compared to most skilled jobs," he suggests. Scott Adams Blog
Many new supervisors wait years for training
Leadership development consultant Jack Zenger says we wait too long to train our leaders. His database shows that the worldwide leaders participating in his company's programs had an average age of 42, but the average age of supervisors in the companies they came from was 33, and many started as supervisors around age 30. So they operate for about a decade without proper training. Harvard Business Review Blogs
No replies to your e-mail? Maybe you're too wordy
If you're not getting a response to e-mails, Nathan Zeldes, an expert in information overload, recommends writing your e-mails short, to the point, and with clearly marked action items to gain response. Another technique: Send the original note again, with the word "resend" in the subject line. NathanZeldes.com
Building great intranet demands time and staff
On average, it takes 42 months, or about 3.5 years, to create a great intranet from inception to launch, Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen has found. Intranet teams keep growing in size in the organizations with the best networks, to 1.4 Intranet staff members per thousand employees in the organization. Nielsen Norman Group
Smartphone app can find WiFi sites on road
Marketing consultant Fred Perrotta recommends a smartphone application called WiFi Finder when you're on the road. It finds WiFi hotspots anywhere, filtering the results by factors such as venue and whether the service is free or paid. Lifehack.org
Special to The Globe and Mail
Harvey Schachter is a Battersea, Ont.-based writer specializing in management issues. He writes Monday Morning Manager and management book reviews for the print edition of Report on Business and an online work-life column Balance. E-mail Harvey Schachter