I am a web technologist at heart and the MBA doesn't appear to carry much weight with hiring managers in the IT field. Most of them seem to appreciate it, but it doesn't seem to add to the scorecard in the hiring process. With such a large number of MBA graduates each year and a wide disparity in the education they receive, does it make sense to certify MBA grads with a standardized exam? Will this give employers a method to objectively review candidates?

We all know every MBA is not the same. You get a different experience depending on the school you go to, whether or not it is online, if you go full-time or part-time, and even the groups you are placed in (or choose). Some of the most intelligent and creative guys I know that went for an MBA did an online MBA one due to circumstances in their lives, however, these still are some of the most creative and intelligent business people I know. Would an MBA certification help them get ahead?

Why Get Your MBA?

In determining whether or not an MBA certification would be helpful, let's look at why people receive an MBA. People typically fall into one of these categories: career change, ladder climb, or status changer.

Career Change: many of the people I met (especially the full-timers) attended MBA school to seek a career change - and not only a small career change, but a 6-digit salary career change. Career change is a great reason to attend MBA school, in the time you are there, you can focus your MBA on classes in your target career. I am a partial career changer, I have focused my job search on web marketing which is distinctly different than my IT/Infrastructure background (other than That Network which has a nice web marketing component to it).

Ladder Climb: the second reason many people attend MBA school is a ladder climb. Maybe their job requires an MBA (think Finance) or perhaps if they get one they will be able to climb the corporate ladder at their place of employment. This is a common reason for part-timers attending OSU and an MBA certification would probably be less helpful for them.

Status Changer: the third reason many people attend MBA school is change their status. Perhaps they own their own company and see it as a benefit when working with partners or when seeking funding. Some people (believe it or not) just attend MBA school because they can and want to achieve it. Others just want to enhance their resume, so they go to MBA school and spend $50,000 on a new line for their resume.

The career changers could see a benefit in achieving their certification, but most ladder climbers and status changers have different goals and so may not see an MBA certification as valuable.

Quality of the Certification

The largest MBA certifying body is the International Certification Institute with their Certified MBA. The Certified MBA is a standardized exam offered to test MBA students on a variety of core curriculum topics. Potential employers need to not only know the Certified MBA exists, but also appreciate its content and purpose. If they do not value the CMBA, it will not be useful to graduates. The best way for this to occur is for hiring managers (senior company management) to understand and appreciate the value - to achieve the certification themselves. One of the ways the CMBA could achieve this acceptance is to approach companies who are thought leaders in management and certify their management team.

The Verdict

I agree with the premise - with the tens of thousands of MBA school grads each year, currently an employer has to rely on MBA rankings and their recruiters to determine the best schools and graduates. This creates a tier of schools which produce scores of quality graduates, but without a perceived quality. Achieving a certification would standardize the level of the graduate and give companies a good baseline for hiring.

However, an MBA is different than traditional certifications such as IT certifications (MCSE, CCNA, etc). An MBA is a degree and achieving it is a milestone for many in their careers. Unlike IT certifications (which many IT organizations require), the MBA is a college degree and it combined with your experience produces a quality candidate. Standardizing through a test would give the impression that a degree from Wharton can be the same as a degree from UPhoenix, depending on the graduate. MBA school truly is an experience and a standardized test cannot test lessons learned in an eight hour team session while writing a 60 page strategy paper. An MBA certification might help set you apart from other candidates, but the MBA itself should set you apart.

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The CompTIA Network+ 2005 exam had four major domains:

1. Media and Topologies (20%)
2. Protocols and Standards (20%)
3. Network Implementation (25%)
4. Network Support (35%)

CompTIA is expanding these domains to a total of six domains with the 2008 release (final specs not yet released):

1. Network Technologies
2. Network Media and Topologies
3. Network Devices
4. Network Management
5. Network Tools
6. Network Security

One of the benefits we see for individuals pursuing the 2008 version of the Network+ is the enhanced focus on the hands-on aspect of network troubleshooting. By breaking out Network Tools and Network Security, CompTIA chose to increase focus and exposure on these two critical areas.

As with the 2005 version of the certification, the 2008 Network+ certification is for networking technicians with 9-12 months of experience who have achieved an A+ certification.

We're currently working on the next edition of our free Network+ tutorial, covering the anticipated 2008 objectives over on Learnthat.com. We'll post a new entry here when it's finished.

I decided this would be a list of the good, bad, and ugly, so I hope it helps you as you begin to review your employees. These phrases for effective performance reviews can be slightly altered as needed for your employee appraisals.

Attendance and Punctuality

Positive

Jim has been a valued member of team by always being someone we can count on. Jim's attention to his attendance and punctuality has made our team function much better over the past year.

Tim is very reliable in his attendedance and consistently shows up on time.

Janet begins each day refreshed and ready for any of the challenges she faces.

George always ensures his employees adhere to their lunch schedules and breaks.

Negative

Todd is continually late for work and should work on this over the next few months to improve in this area.

Heather fails to show up to work on time and keep a normal work schedule.

Timothy leads meetings which frequently run beyond their alotted time. Over the next year, Timothy should ensure that his meetings start and end on time.

Jane consistently runs late from her breaks and needs to ensure the breaks are only for the alotted time.

Communication

Positive

One of Sally's most important skills is her ability to effective communicate complex topics. Over the past year, this ability has been very useful for the company and has helped alleviate several problems which arose.

Keith always asks for immediate feedback to ensure he is on task and performing his work correctly.

One of Frank's strengths his ability to provide candor and effectively communicate change with his employees.

Hilda's project teams always commend the way she communicates and encourages communication.

The feedback Jim provides his coworkers has been essential in how the team has improved over the past year.

Negative

Communication is one of the areas Jack should work on this year. Effectively communicating involves more than just providing information when demanded, but proactively providing information to the team as issues arise. Additionally, Jack should work on the tone of his communication. Communicating effectively means communicating in a style and tone which the listener finds easy to accept and understand.

Terry continually attempts to withhold important information from team members.

Jim should work on his ability to take feedback and criticism from coworkers. Too often, Jim feels the need to "lash out" when presented with constructive criticism.

Theo needs to "open up" and stop isolating himself from the team. In a customer facing position such as his, the ability to interact with people is crucial.

Jolie needs to improve on how she communicates bad news to her management team. She has a tendency to withhold the information for fear of how it will make her look which is causing problems on how the management team runs the business.

Cooperation

Positive

One of the postitives from this past year has been how Shirley has cooperated through the difficult company merger. Shirley has demonstrated a willingness to work with the transition teams and provided an excellent example of how cooperation can yield results.

Heather always creates a positive and inclusive work environment.

One of the more effective things about Jennifer's management style is her ability to build consensus. This has helped cut down on the animosity between the team members over the past year and improved productivity significantly.

Jerry creates an atmosphere where people can share their thoughts - good and bad - and not fear retribution or intimidation.

Negative

Kevin should work to improve his cooperation. Over the past year, there have been several instances where Kevin has refused to cooperate despite the timing pressures facing his coworkers which has caused a considerable loss in productivity for the team.

There have been multiple instances of shouting matches between Harry and his coworkers over the past year. Harry should improve his interpersonal skills over the next year.

Jim has a tendency to make other people feel intimidated when they ask for his assistance.

Creativity and Innovation

Positive

Doug shows how innovation and creativity can significantly improve a company's performance. Doug's willingness to take chances was shown in the ad campaign he pitched which on the face looked like it would bomb, but proved to be a smash hit.

Shannon took many steps to improve processes for the team over the past year. These steps were innovative and resulted in a 30% productivity gain on the team.

Kevin has a knack for changing directions when presented with new information.

A great attribute of John is his ability to skillfully move around obstacles as they present themselves.

Gina found a creative workaround to the customer billing issues which has improved revenues by 22%.

Negative

Over the past year, Ted has been a very consistent employee. Throughout this time, Ted has performed his work as instructed, but did not take any opportunities to think about new ways he could be working. Improving processes and procedures could be a significant benefit to the company, but Ted needs to work on his creativity and how to think about the steps he takes in his work and how he can reduce the time it takes.

Tim creates a stifling environment which is not conducive to creativity.

Lilly is not willing to take chances and step out.

Walter is reluctant to explore new ideas, processes, or alternatives.

The sales team has an effective telephone script which is shown to work. Jim consistently tries to "reinvent the wheel" and not work within the system which is designed for success.

Customer Satisfaction

Positive

Jim has consistently gone above and beyond his job to satsify his customers. Jim demonstrates how excellent customer service can have a lasting effect on customer relationships.

Over the past six months, Susan's attention to customer satisfaction has not gone unnoticed. Susan works with customers until their problems are resolved and often goes an extra step to help upset customers be completely surprised by how far we will go to satisfy customers.

Travis skillfully overcomes client objections.

George is a empathetic listener and makes each customer know he values their time.

Matt is clearly a "people" person and shows his clients how much he likes working with them.

Negative

Tom should continue to work on how his daily activities affect his customers. Tom doesn't consistently ensure his customers are satisified and occasionally has complaints levvied against his work. Over the next three months, Tom should work to improve how he interacts with customers, how he communicates with them, and how well he meets their needs.

Yoli needs to work on managing customer expectations. Frequent delays and problems are reported by her customers which frequently turn out to be a problem with how she managed their expectations.

Fred fails to follow up with customers as requested.

Harry has too much difficulty saying no to customer requests and it frequently causes lost revenue.

Goal and Objective Setting

Positive

One of Jane's best characteristics is her ability to set goals which are specific, measurable, and attainable. She has consistently set her goals high and met them.

George is very effective at setting goals and objectives with his employees and ensuring they meet these goals.

One of Kevin's strengths is his ability to design measurements for goals to ensure they are met. If you can't measure it, it's not a goal!

Jenny is clearly not a short term thinker - her ability to set short and long term business goals is a great asset to this company.

Negative

Jack should work to improve his abilities in goal setting. Jim likes to set high goals for himself, but infrequently can achieve these goals. Setting attainable goals will help Jack improve his performance productivity.

Terry consistently misses targets and does not stay up to date with the objectives expected of him.

James seems to want to achieve all of his goals in the last few weeks before annual performance review time, but does not consistently work towards his goals throughout the year.

One of the areas we want Tom to work on this year is his tendency to blame others when his goals or objectives are not met.

Initiative

Positive

We appreciate how Jim approaches situations with a "can do" attitude.

Harry consistently takes initiative in difficult situations and finds a resolution.

Whenever new projects arise, Jennifer is always at the front asking for additional responsibility.

Kevin's willingness to work laste hours to get the job done has not gone unnoticed.

Negative

Walter resists training and frequently reverts back to doing things the way he has always done it.

Fred does not step forward when new tasks or projects arrive and always relies on other people to take a chance.

Over the past year, the team has taken on several new responsibilities but Jim has resisting taking on any more work and has instead made the rest of the team shoulder the burden.

Tim lacks the confidence necessary to try new things and take on new tasks.

Job Knowledge

Positive

Robert demonstrates is job knowledge on a daily basis.

Jim is adept at showing his job knowledge and technical abilities.

Tim consistently keeps up on new trends in the industry and applies these new practices to his every day work.

Kate has a thorough understanding of the job skills required to perform her job.

Negative

George fails to shows even rudimentary skills for someone of his tenure with the company. George should improve his job knowledge measurably.

Doug has a tendency to produce subpar work and should improve his job knowledge to improve his work product.

Frank fails to demonstrate even the basic skillset required for this position.

Though Jane has improved tremendously over the past year, her knowledge of what it takes to succeed is still too little.

Leadership

Positive

Terry leads by example.

Holly has an innate ability to set strategic direction and manage others to meet the company's goals.

Tim's high standards of ethics is shown throughout his work.

Kevin has earned a great deal of respect from his employees and managers.

Doug's ability to schedule resources in the face of growing demand is above expectations.

Though not in a management role, Russ consistently demonstrates leadership abilities through his work pace and productivity.

Negative

Jim should work on his active listening skills over the next year.

Lilly rarely shows appreciate to her employees for a job well done.

Todd should improve his ability to set direction and goals for his team.

Yoli needs to work on her trust for her employees and learn how to delegate effectively over the next year.

Jim does not yet delegate effectively and has a tendency to overload himself with tasks which he should hand off to his subordinates.

Listening Skills

Positive

Todd has mastered the art of active and focused listening.

We appreciate how Matt listens to his employees and allows them to finish before speaking.

Harry actively elicits feedback from his customers and works to resolve their problems.

Jim has improved his listening skills significantly over the past year. He now demonstrates a sincere interest in others and listens fully before responding.

Holly always follows instructions accurately and timely.

Negative

George has a tendency to interrupt others while they are speaking and does not pay adequate attention to what they are saying.

It is obvious that Jim thinks more about the next thing he wants to say versus listening to what other people are saying.

Brian frequently has to ask questions for topics which were explained to him. Brian needs to be a more active listener and take notes when he doesn't fully understand topics.

Gina seems distracted during conversations and frequently is not paying attention.

Harry should work on being a more effective listener over the next year.

Managerial Style

Positive

Harry is very effective at providing his employees constructive feedback.

Jim's ability to maintain ongoing communication with his employees is an asset to this firm.

Holly creates an inclusive work environment where everyone feels they are a part of the team.

Tim sets very high expectations and works with his employees to meet them.

Kevin is great at setting a vision and managing his resources to meet it.

Negative

Doug frequently takes all of the credit for successes and blames others for failures.

Jim avoids confrontation which has affected his team's ability to work with other teams.

Janet doesn't hold her employees to account and allows them to get away with underperformance.

George relies too much on email and is unwilling to communicate face-to-face.

Harry plays favorites with a few employees on his team and is unwilling to see the potential in other employees.

Todd should develop a more congenial relationship with his employees.

Ty does not effectively reign in rumors which has destroyed the morale on his team.

Problem Solving Skills

Positive

Janet is very effective at identifying problems and potential resolutions.

Harry resolves problems in a timely manner.

Tim is very proactive at getting in front of problems and stopping them before they escalate.

Emily is very good at sharing knowledge and information during a problem to increase the chance it will be resolved quickly.

Negative

Jim is good at identifying problems but lacks the skills necessary to identify solutions. Jim has a tendency to refer a problem to his upper management without making recommendations for a solution.

Frank doesn't do well at identifying more than one solution for a problem. If other team members identify a different solution than the one he came up with, he is quick to dismiss it.

Peter has to ask for help with simple matters which should be easy for him to solve on his own.

Todd appears overwhelmed during every crisis and does not instill confidence in his subordinates.

Teamwork Skills

Positive

Brian is very good at building effective teams.

Jim treats people with dignity and respect.

Holly is very good at making team members feel included. The inclusion has improved her team's productivity dramatically.

Hank is very adept at resolving conflict and resolving problems before they escalate.

Negative

Tim creates a work environment which discourages team members from providing new ideas.

Walter consistently takes credit for other team member's accomplishments.

Ty doesn't share resources well.

Ike is not willing to take on difficult tasks and instead waits for easy tasks to come his way.

Tim is a distraction on work teams and is frequently discussing things out of scope.

Time Management

Positive

Ted has an innate ability for managing his time. He continues to impress us with his ability to properly assess the time it takes to complete tasks and his ability to schedule his tasks into his time at work.

Harry shows a keen awareness of his time and the ability to properly schedule tasks and get them accomplished in the timeframe he set.

Jim is a very effective multitasker.

Holly sets realistic time frames and consistently sets her customer's expectations to those time frames.

Fred uses a planner to keep himself on-task and on-time.

Negative

Lilly has difficulty accounting for her time and is consistently late putting her timesheet in.

Holly is often disorganized and appears unable to meet timelines she sets.

Harry does not pace himself effectively and has inconsistent work patterns.

Jim lacks a disciplined approach to time management and lacks the ability to effectively manage his time.

More Frequent Performance Reviews

One way you can mitigate the Annual Performance Review Blues is to provide more frequent performance reviews. When I managed a PC Support team at a large corporation, I would often provide quarterly quick review sessions with my employees. This provided them an opportunity to see how I, and their upper management, views their performance, accomplishments, and problems. Many times these were revealing and difficult sessions, but when annual performance review time came, none of what I said was a surprise.

These frequent performance reviews can be written or just verbal, but I always kept written notes of them to ease the pain of writing a dozen reviews at the HR-mandated performance review period.

If the Performance Review is a Surprise, You're Not Doing Your Job

If you walk into a performance review meeting with your employee and the employee is shocked by what you say - you're not doing your job as a manager. The role of the manager is to ensure tasks get accomplished, while motivating and correcting employees to achieve those tasks. Employees should have a rough idea of how they are performing throughout the year so when the annual review time comes around, they are not shocked from the outcome.

When I was a rookie manager, I had an employee, Todd, who was not performing very well. He was consistently doing less work than his counterparts, took a long time to accomplish short tasks, and had a tendency to not show up to work on time. I had many talks with Todd throughout the year and his performance was not improving. When it came time to perform his annual review, his self-review indicating he was the model employee. "Excellents" and "Exceeds Expectations" abounding on his self-evaluation and I wondered why he didn't see his performance problems as clearly as I did.

We sat down to do his review and he disagreed with me on almost every point! I had performance data to back up my review - he performed a third less work than his counterparts, the time he took to close certain issues was twice his peers, and he didn't rate well on his customer surveys. Though throughout the review, he debated me on each point and believed he had performed an excellent job!

At the time, I thought Todd had no clue and this was just another example of how poorly he performed. What I came to realize was that I did not do enough throughout the year as a manager to correct issues, to provide the training Todd needed, and to provide enough timely feedback to help Todd improve. I failed as a manager and need to correct my own problems in order to improve his performance.

Fortunately, over the next year, Todd was able to make significant improvements in his performance and become a good employee. Had I not realized my own shortcomings in dealing with Todd, he may have just been swept aside and we would have lost the years of knowledge and experience he brought to the team.

Dealing with Performance Based Raises

Corporations often provide a budgeted amount all salary increases must fit into. For example, the target budget percentage for the team is 4% - you can give 4% across the board, of give some individuals 5%, some 3%, some nothing, as long as the average is less than or equal to 4%. Salary increases is an area many managers make significant mistakes in, illustrated by: the penny-pinching manager, the everyone-is-equal manager, or the old-hand-gets-the-raise manager.

The Penny Pinching Manager

The first type of manager makes the mistake of making a sacrifice of the entire team to beat budget. If this manager is given a 4% budget for increases, they consistently come in well under, at say, 2%, being a miser with the money and not handing out raises many on his team deserve. This miser will often have good performers on the team who leave for managers who are more willing to give a raise and end up with a team of poor performers who are pissed at annual raise time.

Everyone-is-Equal Manager

The second type of manager makes the mistake of not wanting to offend anybody, so he gives an across-the-board raise to meet budget. This manager, if given a 3% budget for raises, gives everyone 3% regardless of performance. This manager could also shirk responsibility by giving very small differences in pay to different performers, for example, excellent performers get 3.2%, while poor performers get 2.8%. This type of manager attracts non-confrontational employees who are happy receiving equal pay with their peers.

Old-Hand-Gets-the-Raise Manager

The last type of manager gives pay increases based on the length of time you have been on the team. The longer you have been with him, the better the raises get. Alternatively, this manager gives higher percentage increases to newer employees (5% of $21,000 a year is less than 5% of $75,000 a year) and provides smaller increases the longer you are on the team. The former encourages new blood to leave, while the latter encourages employees with experience to leave for greener pastures.

The Manager with Guts

The right way to handle salary increases is to provide pay increases commiserate with the employee's performance. If the employee performs excellently, give her an exceptional raise. If she performas poorly, give her no or little raise. Being this type of manager takes guts and is often too rare in corporate America.

By being an effective manager and handling performance review time correctly, you can properly motivate and get the most our of your employees.

Now we're moving on to what to say on a performance review. Good luck!

My wife read a chapter to me this morning from Max Lucado's new book, Every Day Deserves a Chance: Gratitude for Ungrateful Days. The chapter discussed how to be grateful even when things aren't going your way or even when you're having problems or in a difficult stretch of the business. Max quotes management consultant Robert Updegraff:

You ought to be glad for the troubles on your job because they provide about half your income. If it were not for the things that go wrong, the difficult people with whom you deal, and the problems of your working day, someone could be found to handle your job for half of what you are being paid. So start looking for more troubles. Learn to handle them cheerfully and with good judgment, as opportunities rather than irritations, and you will find yourself getting ahead at a surprising rate. For there are plenty of big jobs waiting for people who are not afraid of troubles.

It is an interesting perspective - especially for those of us that own our own businesses - the troubles of your business are half of what makes up your success. As we used to joke, "Ya know, if we didn't have all these customers, boy we'd be able to get our work done!" Those customers, and the problems they sometimes bring, are the lifeblood of our businesses and we should be grateful the next time we have a customer complaining. We should be grateful the next time we come to the end of the month with $10 in the checking account. We should be grateful when the company van breaks down and we have to spend $1,000 to fix it. We should be grateful on April 15th. We should be grateful that we can be self employed and enjoy running our own business.

If you are still employed and running a part time business, you should be thankful you have an opportunity to build something for your family, even if you're up till 2:00 am doing it.

Next time you run into a problem at work, a problem with that new piece of equipment, or a habitually late employee, try thanking God for the small problems of life and your ability to handle them.

I was 21 at the time and had a great collection of romantic tips that I couldn't find elsewhere on the web. I decided to put them up on the web at my ISP's webhosting space, and eventually moved them to a hosting account when I purchased the domain Romancetips.com.

As you can see, Romancetips.com has evolved many times since its humble beginnings. In 2001, I brought in a talented author and editor, Heather Tomasello, to manage the website while I worked on Learnthat.com and other sites in That Network. Heather was a great addition to the staff and upgraded the quality of Romancetips.com tremendously.

In 2004, I wrote Creative Romance expanding on many of the tips and ideas from Romancetips.com.

Valentine's Day

It's fitting that I am spotlighting Romancetips.com with Valentine's Day only two weeks away. Valentine's Day is a great opportunity to be reminded of romance and love in your life. I want to highlight some of the ideas you can use for this Valentine's Day:

Buy a box of Valentine's Day cards and start leaving them around house on February 1st. Leave them in inconspicuous places, e.g. his sock drawer, next to the coffee tin, or in the pocket of her jacket.

While your lover is sleeping- place Hershey's kisses along the stairs leading to the bathroom, and fill their shower with rose petals. Leave a note that says, "Since I've kissed the ground you've walked on and showered you with roses, will you be my Valentine?"

Attach a valentine to the steering wheel of your lover's car, or hide one under the sun visor.

Send her a card the day after Valentine's day saying "24 hours is too long to go without saying 'I Love You'".

Unplug the TV and leave a card on top that says "Turn me on instead."

Buy eight postcards. Write only one letter on each card, in this order "I L O V E Y O U". Mail each postcard 2 days apart, over the course of two weeks she will know how you feel.

Buy a box of kids Valentines Day cards, write a note on each card, give your lover the whole lot of cards.

Write "I LOVE YOU" in chocolate kisses on a table.

Reproduce her wedding bouquet with the same flowers as she had, if you don't remember what they were, call her Maid of Honor or the mother of your bride.

Give her a dozen roses with a silk one that matches, on the note, write "I will love you until the last rose dies."

Fill the bedroom with balloons for when your partner comes home.

When your significant other is taking a bath or shower and the mirror fogs up, write a message like "I Love You" on the mirror for them to find when they're done!

Rent a love story movie and watch it with her.

Write a "Top Ten Reasons I Love You" list for her.

Hang some mistletoe over your bedroom door year round.

Tell your lover you love her three times a day, every day, for the rest of your life.

Save an empty wine bottle. Next time your partner is in the bath, place a love note inside the bottle, cork it, and let it float in the bath before they get in.

Swing together on a playground.

Mail your mate a lover letter.

Post a pad of notes around the house with romantic messages on it for them.

This Valentine's Day, try to do something out of the ordinary. Find some time to be creative -- visit Romancetips.com for hundreds of romantic ideas for Valentine's Day!