Pushed by Pandemic, Amazon Goes on a Hiring Spree

Without Equal
By Karen Weise

The company has added 427,300 employees in 10 months, bringing its global work force to more
than 1.2 million.

SEATTLE — Amazon has embarked on an extraordinary hiring binge this year, vacuuming up an
average of 1,400 new workers a day and solidifying its power as online shopping becomes more
entrenched in the coronavirus pandemic.

The hiring has taken place at Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle, at its hundreds of warehouses in
rural communities and suburbs, and in countries such as India and Italy. Amazon added 427,300
employees between January and October, pushing its work force to more than 1.2 million people
globally, up more than 50 percent from a year ago. Its number of workers now approaches the
entire population of Dallas.

The spree has accelerated since the onset of the pandemic, which has turbocharged Amazon’s
business and made it a winner of the crisis. Starting in July, the company brought on about
350,000 employees, or 2,800 a day. Most have been warehouse workers, but Amazon has also
hired software engineers and hardware specialists to power enterprises such as cloud computing,
streaming entertainment and devices, which have boomed in the pandemic.

The scale of hiring is even

larger than it may seem
because the numbers do
not account for employee
churn, nor do they include
the 100,000 temporary
workers who have been
recruited for the holiday
shopping season. They
also do not include what
internal documents show
as roughly 500,000
delivery drivers, who are
contractors and not direct
Amazon employees.

Other retailers — both with physical stores and online ones — competed with Amazon on Black
Friday and were strategizing on how to make the most of the busy end-of-year sales period, which
has been upended by the pandemic. Many encouraged curbside pickup and put social distancing
measures in place on Friday, but they saw light foot traffic. Amazon has the largest share of e-
commerce, where sales are expected to grow by as much as 30 percent over last year’s holiday
season, according to the National Retail Federation.

Amazon’s rapid employee growth is unrivaled in the history of corporate America. It far outstrips
the 230,000 employees that Walmart, the largest private employer with more than 2.2 million
workers, added in a single year two decades ago. The closest comparisons are the hiring that entire
industries carried out in wartime, such as shipbuilding during the early years of World War II or
home building after soldiers returned, economists and corporate historians said. “It’s hiring like
mad,” Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor historian at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said of
Amazon. “No American company has hired so many workers so quickly.”

Even for a company that regularly sets new superlatives, Amazon’s employee growth stands out as
a stark illustration of its might. At this pace, it is on track to surpass Walmart within two years to
become the world’s largest private employer.

Its expansion is unfolding as lawmakers and regulators in Washington and Europe have sounded
the alarm over tech power. This month, European Union regulators brought antitrust
charges against Amazon, accusing it of unfairly using its size and access to data to harm smaller
merchants in its marketplace. Amazon has said merchants are thriving on its site, with their share
of sales growing in the pandemic. The Federal Trade Commission is also examining the company,
with President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. expected to continue scrutinizing the tech giants.

“We are turning into Amazon nation,” said Margaret O’Mara, a history professor at the University
of Washington and a contributing New York Times opinion writer.

Having employees in nearly every state gives Amazon, which has warehouses around the country
to be closer to customers, potentially outsize political leverage, Ms. O’Mara said. She added that
history has shown there are risks when a region or country becomes too dependent on any one
employer, though she said Amazon had not reached that point.

Amazon has portrayed its hiring as a boon for workers laid low by the pandemic-induced
recession, as unemployment has soared and as restaurants, airlines and other businesses suffer.
“Offering jobs with industry-leading pay and great health care, including to entry-level and
frontline employees, is even more meaningful in a time like this,” Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder
and chief executive, said last month when the company reported blockbuster financial results.

Some government policies have helped Amazon’s recent growth. In March, a taxpayer-funded $2
trillion stimulus package allowed local governments to shut down traditional retail stores to reduce
the spread of the virus. As the stores closed, demand for items through Amazon rose — and it
hired.

Adding so many new workers so fast in a pandemic has been a herculean task. Many
workers feared catching the coronavirus in warehouses, so Amazon rolled out a fleet of safety
measures to address Covid-19. And it revved up its hiring machine, which relies on technology and
traditional recruitment.

That includes promoting its training, benefits and pay. Of its 810,000 workers who are in the
United States, about 85 percent are frontline employees in warehouses and operations who earn a
minimum of $15 an hour. That is higher than traditional retail work, where an average sales
worker makes $13.19 an hour, but lower than typical warehousing jobs. On Thursday, Amazon said
it would pay bonuses of $300 for full-time employees and $150 for part-time employees.

To get the word out, Amazon used staffing agencies and advertised on television, billboards and in
mailboxes by highlighting sign-on bonuses of up to $3,000 and its precautions against Covid-19.
In one recent TV spot, an Amazon employee wearing a mask said, “Safety, safety, safety!”

In many places, the hiring has come easily because Amazon is one of the few employers with open
jobs. In the week leading up to Sept. 16, which the company billed as “Career Day,” it said it
received more than 384,000 job applications in the United States and Canada, or 38 a minute.
“It is happening in the context of an unprecedented loss of jobs elsewhere in the economy,” said
Ellora Derenoncourt, an assistant professor at University of California, Berkeley, who has studied
Amazon’s minimum wage.

Amazon is not the only beneficiary of how the pandemic has pushed people toward buying online
instead of in stores. Walmart has added 180,000 employees in the United States since March, and
its online sales rose 79 percent in the latest quarter. Target’s e-commerce sales similarly soared 155
percent.

In that sense, this downturn has differed from past recessions, when usually all industries slowed,
said Jed Kolko, chief economist at Indeed, the online jobs site. “This period has been partly about a
recession but also about a pretty dramatic shift of economic activity from some sectors to others,”
he said.

Just two years ago, Amazon’s work force numbered fewer than 650,000 people. At the time, the
company hit the brakes on hiring to focus more on profits. The hiring pace picked back up a year
ago, after it introduced one-day shipping in the United States, an enormous effort that required
more warehouses and more workers to pick, pack and sort packages.

When the coronavirus hit the United States in March, online shopping condensed years of
expansion into a few months. From April to June, Amazon said, it sold 57 percent more items than
a year earlier.

That spurred its first pandemic hiring wave of about 175,000 temporary workers. Many were hired
to replace employees who had taken advantage of an unlimited unpaid time off policy at the outset
of the pandemic. To attract new employees, Amazon offered workers an extra $2 an hour and
increased overtime pay. It said the extra wages were not “hazard pay,” but incentives.
Amazon had the hiring infrastructure in place to grow fast, said Ardine Williams, the vice
president for work force development. As Covid-19 kept people like her elderly parents sheltering
in place for safety, she said, consumers turned to e-commerce, accelerating the need to hire more.

“Some of that growth has clearly been planned,” she said. “I think that the head count ramp,
though, has really been fueled by customer demand.”

Over the summer, Amazon converted most of the 175,000 temporary workers to permanent
employees and ended the extra pay bumps for all workers. Since then, it has continued with waves
of hiring.

The company has also almost tripled the number of U.S. warehouses used for last-mile deliveries
this year, said Marc Wulfraat, founder of the logistics consulting firm MWPVL International,
who tracks Amazon’s operations. The delivery drivers are usually contractors, so Amazon does not
disclose their numbers in regulatory filings.

“They have built their own UPS in the last several years,” Mr. Wulfraat said. “This pace of change
has never been seen before.”

Ms. Williams said Amazon also built relationships with companies that were reducing staff, such
as Uber, American Airlines and Marriott, to promote its hiring.

“We dedicated a group that did nothing but connect with organizations who were furloughing
people, whether it was temporary or permanent,” she said. “That allowed us to take a skilled,
quality work force, and very quickly and easily move them into opportunities that were appropriate
at Amazon.”

The effort has been aided by 1,000 technology workers who create software for Amazon’s human
resources teams, many building portals and algorithms that automate hiring, she said. Prospective
employees can find jobs, apply and be hired entirely online, without talking to a single person.
To grow so much, Amazon also needs to think long term, Ms. Williams said. As a result, she said,
the company was already working with preschools to establish the foundation of tech education, so
that “as our hiring demand unfolds over the next 10 years, that pipeline is there and ready.”
Mentally Strong People: The 13 Things They Avoid
Cheryl Conner Former Contribution

Editors' Note: Following the huge popularity of this post, article source Amy Morin has authored a guest
post on exercises to increase mental strength here and Cheryl Conner has interviewed Amy in a Forbes
video chat about this article here.\

For all the time executives spend concerned about physical strength and health, when it comes down to it,
mental strength can mean even more. Particularly for entrepreneurs, numerous articles talk about critical
characteristics of mental strength—tenacity, “grit," optimism, and an unfailing ability as Forbes contributor
David Williams says, to “fail up.”

However, we can also define mental strength by identifying the things mentally strong individuals don’t do.
Over the weekend, I was impressed by this list compiled by Amy Morin, a psychotherapist and licensed
clinical social worker, that she shared in LifeHack. It impressed me enough I’d also like to share her list
here along with my thoughts on how each of these items is particularly applicable to entrepreneurs.

1. Waste Time Feeling Sorry for Themselves.

You don’t see mentally strong people feeling sorry for their circumstances or dwelling on the way they’ve
been mistreated. They have learned to take responsibility for their actions and outcomes, and they have an
inherent understanding of the fact that frequently life is not fair. They are able to emerge from trying
circumstances with self-awareness and gratitude for the lessons learned. When a situation turns out badly,
they respond with phrases such as “Oh, well.” Or perhaps simply, “Next!

2. Give Away Their Power: Mentally strong people avoid giving others the power to make them feel
inferior or bad. They understand they are in control of their actions and emotions. They know their strength
is in their ability to manage the way they respond. 3. Shy Away from Change. Mentally strong people
embrace change and they welcome challenge. Their biggest “fear," if they have one, is not of the unknown,
but of becoming complacent and stagnant. An environment of change and even uncertainty can energize a
mentally strong person and bring out their best.

4. Waste Energy on Things They Can’t Control: Mentally strong people don’t complain (much)
about bad traffic, lost luggage, or especially about other people, as they recognize that all of these factors are
generally beyond their control. In a bad situation, they recognize that the one thing they can always control
is their own response and attitude, and they use these attributes well.

5. Worry About Pleasing Others. Know any people pleasers? Or, conversely, people who go out of
their way to dis-please others as a way of reinforcing an image of strength? Neither position is a good one. A
mentally strong person strives to be kind and fair and to please others where appropriate, but is unafraid to
speak up. They are able to withstand the possibility that someone will get upset and will navigate the
situation, wherever possible, with grace.

6. Fear Taking Calculated Risks: A mentally strong person is willing to take calculated risks. This is
a different thing entirely than jumping headlong into foolish risks. But with mental strength, an individual
can weigh the risks and benefits thoroughly, and will fully assess the potential downsides and even the
worst-case scenarios before they take action.

7. Dwell on the Past: There is strength in acknowledging the past and especially in acknowledging the
things learned from past experiences—but a mentally strong person is able to avoid miring their mental
energy in past disappointments or in fantasies of the “glory days” gone by. They invest the majority of their
energy in creating an optimal present and future.
8. Make the Same Mistakes Over and Over: We all know the definition of insanity, right? It’s
when we take the same actions again and again while hoping for a different and better outcome than we’ve
gotten before. A mentally strong person accepts full responsibility for past behavior and is willing to learn
from mistakes. Research shows that the ability to be self-reflective in an accurate and productive way is one
of the greatest strengths of spectacularly successful executives and entrepreneurs.

9. Resent Other People’s Success: It takes strength of character to feel genuine joy and excitement
for other people’s success. Mentally strong people have this ability. They don’t become jealous or resentful
when others succeed (although they may take close notes on what the individual did well). They are willing
to work hard for their own chances at success, without relying on shortcuts.

10. Give Up After Failure: Every failure is a chance to improve. Even the greatest entrepreneurs are
willing to admit that their early efforts invariably brought many failures. Mentally strong people are willing
to fail again and again, if necessary, as long as the learning experience from every “failure” can bring them
closer to their ultimate goals.

11. Fear Alone Time: Mentally strong people enjoy and even treasure the time they spend alone. They
use their downtime to reflect, to plan, and to be productive. Most importantly, they don’t depend on others
to shore up their happiness and moods. They can be happy with others, and they can also be happy alone.

12. Feel the World Owes Them Anything: Particularly in the current economy, executives and
employees at every level are gaining the realization that the world does not owe them a salary, a benefits
package and a comfortable life, regardless of their preparation and schooling. Mentally strong people enter
the world prepared to work and succeed on their merits, at every stage of the game.

13. Expect Immediate Results: Whether it’s a workout plan, a nutritional regimen, or starting a
business, mentally strong people are “in it for the long haul”. They know better than to expect immediate
results. They apply their energy and time in measured doses and they celebrate each milestone and
increment of success on the way. They have “staying power.” And they understand that genuine changes
take time. Do you have mental strength? Are there elements on this list you need more of? With thanks to
Amy Morin, I would like to reinforce my own abilities further in each of these areas today. How about you?

The Secret to Becoming a Market Leader

Graham Kenny, CEO of Strategic Factors, is a recognized expert in strategy and
performance measurement who helps managers, executives, and boards create successful
organizations in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors. You can connect to or
follow him on LinkedIn.

The best-kept secret about strategy is that you are in control. You get to choose the game you want
to play and how you might win it. Further, you can choose to lead on a variety of dimensions –
market share, innovation, product quality, or customer service. You can tip the odds of success in
your favor with these decisions.

If shoes were your business, for example, is your market “shoe retailing”? Or is it the retailing of
“high-priced, custom-made women’s leather sandals”? Your answer will determine your chances of
becoming a market leader. You may have no chance of dominating the shoe market in general, but
you may become a market leader in your niche. So why not forget about school shoes, sneakers, and
slippers and focus on the part of the market that interests you the most?
Choose Your Marketspace

FCB Group, which now describes itself as “Australia’s leading workplace relations specialists,” was
faced with the need to define its market during the early stages of its existence. It began in 1995 as a
mediocre employment services firm. Years into its existence the partners realized that the firm was
never going to become a market leader by spreading itself thinly over a wide range of expertise and
an even bigger range of customers. They had to bite the bullet and clearly define the firm’s market.

FCB zeroed in on the medium-sized enterprise with “complex employment structures” in three
industries – logistics, retail, and manufacturing of fast-moving consumer goods. They reasoned that
clients in this category lacked the required in-house legal expertise to successfully deal with legal
issues, while still being big enough to create them.

The partners decided that FCB Group would become these clients’ outsourced legal department in
human resources. Its early mantra was “timely access to a quality response.” And it worked. They
chose their market, focused on it, and reinvigorated the business. Today FCB is the market leader in
its niche.

This realization can be like an epiphany. After a recent online strategy workshop, I asked
participants for feedback on which of my five sessions they found the most beneficial. The CEO of an
IT contracting firm told me, “Defining your market and focusing on your target customer. We’ve let
ourselves be led around by big clients. We haven’t built the business,” he said. “After the session
finished, I immediately got on the phone to my two senior managers and told them we have to sort
this out. We’ve been mucking around with this issue for years.”

Of course, you must be very thoughtful about how you select a focus. Defining your market requires
an assessment of both client needs and your business’s capabilities. You need to find a market
demand large enough to support your business’s growth.

Go Deep to Dominate

Narrowing your view of “the market” allows you to go deep and dominate. By focusing you can meet
more of your customer’s specific needs.

Take the German manufacturer of dishwashers, Winterhalter, as an example. It explains its

awakening thus: “We analyzed the entire market for commercial dishwashers and found that our
world market share was well below 5%. We were an insignificant follower. This prompted us to
completely realign our strategy. We tailored our services to serve hotels and restaurants exclusively.”

In doing so the company decided to go deep ensuring that the end-result for its customers is close to
perfect. Instead of chasing fickle trends in the domestic retail market, the executive team pivoted to
present their chosen market with new services, including state-of-the-art water treatment devices,
effective detergents and rinse aids, and close-to-the-customer service.

FCB Group has also gone deep to build the customer experience using technology and a subscription
model. Over the last ten years FCB Group has progressively “technologically enabled” its routine
work. This move has allowed its professionals to concentrate on providing high-level, in-depth
expert advice and systems to support it. One example of this is enableHR. It’s a cloud-based
technology that provides a centralized employee records system with standard contracts for the
employment of staff and contractors. It also houses best-practice guides on work health and safety
procedures. One client, Solotel, runs 19 hotels and restaurants with 1,200 employees.

This move has been coupled with a subscription model that builds a close and on-going relationship
with clients. The firm found that many of its clients struggled with costs – specifically the hourly
rates of lawyers. They regarded them as “really expensive.” So, the Group introduced a monthly fee
based on the number of employees, contractors, and volunteers a client had. EnableHR, for example,
has over 11,000 subscribers. FCB uses its close relationship with its market to anticipate needs for
products and services. In other words, it proactively leads the market, rather than reacting to it.

Gather the Courage

The CEO of the IT contracting firm I mentioned said that “we lacked the courage to make the
necessary decisions.” This trepidation holds entrepreneurs and CEOs back from making a
commitment to focus. Instead, they play it safe by trying to be all things to all customers. Mediocrity
and average returns become the result – at best.

Remember what Steve Jobs, once CEO of Apple and its co-founder, said: “Deciding what not to do is
as important as deciding what to do. That’s true for companies, and it’s true for products.” So, think
differently about your “market.” Doing so will boost your chances of success and of becoming a
market leader.

How to Play to Your Strengths

by

Laura Morgan Roberts, Gretchen Spreitzer, Jane E. Dutton, Robert E. Quinn,Emily D. Heaphy,
and Brianna Barker

Most feedback accentuates the negative. During formal employee evaluations, discussions invariably
focus on “opportunities for improvement,” even if the overall evaluation is laudatory. Informally, the
sting of criticism lasts longer than the balm of praise. Multiple studies have shown that people pay
keen attention to negative information. For example, when asked to recall important emotional
events, people remember four negative memories for every positive one. No wonder most executives
give and receive performance reviews with all the enthusiasm of a child on the way to the dentist.

Traditional, corrective feedback has its place, of course; every organization must filter out failing
employees and ensure that everyone performs at an expected level of competence. Unfortunately,
feedback that ferrets out flaws can lead otherwise talented managers to overinvest in shoring up or
papering over their perceived weaknesses, or forcing themselves onto an ill-fitting template.
Ironically, such a focus on problem areas prevents companies from reaping the best performance
from its people. After all, it’s a rare baseball player who is equally good at every position. Why should
a natural third baseman labor to develop his skills as a right fielder?

Why should a natural third baseman labor to develop his skills as a

right fielder?
The alternative, as the Gallup Organization researchers Marcus Buckingham, Donald Clifton, and
others have suggested, is to foster excellence in the third baseman by identifying and harnessing his
unique strengths. It is a paradox of human psychology that while people remember criticism, they
respond to praise. The former makes them defensive and therefore unlikely to change, while the
latter produces confidence and the desire to perform better. Managers who build up their strengths
can reach their highest potential. This positive approach does not pretend to ignore or deny the
problems that traditional feedback mechanisms identify. Rather, it offers a separate and unique
feedback experience that counterbalances negative input. It allows managers to tap into strengths
they may or may not be aware of and so contribute more to their organizations.

During the past few years, we have developed a powerful tool to help people understand and
leverage their individual talents. Called the Reflected Best Self (RBS) exercise, our method allows
managers to develop a sense of their “personal best” in order to increase their future potential. The
RBS exercise is but one example of new approaches springing from an area of research called
positive organizational scholarship (POS). Just as psychologists know that people respond better to
praise than to criticism, organizational behavior scholars are finding that when companies focus on
positive attributes such as resilience and trust, they can reap impressive bottom-line returns. (For
more on this research, see the sidebar “The Positive Organization.”) Thousands of executives, as well
as tomorrow’s leaders enrolled in business schools around the world, have completed the RBS
exercise. running in place.) Second, the lessons generated from the RBS exercise can elude you if
you don’t pay sincere attention to them. If you are too burdened by time pressures and job demands,
you may just file the information away and forget about it. To be effective, the exercise requires
commitment, diligence, and follow-through. It may even be helpful to have a coach keep you on task.
Third, it’s important to conduct the RBS exercise at a different time of year than the traditional
performance review so that negative feedback from traditional mechanisms doesn’t interfere with
the results of the exercise.

Used correctly, the RBS exercise can help you tap into unrecognized and unexplored areas of
potential. Armed with a constructive, systematic process for gathering and analyzing data about your
best self, you can burnish your performance at work.

Step 1

Identify Respondents and Ask for Feedback

The first task in the exercise is to collect feedback from a variety of people inside and outside work.
By gathering input from a variety of sources—family members, past and present colleagues, friends,
teachers, and so on—you can develop a much broader and richer understanding of yourself than you
can from a standard performance evaluation.

As we describe the process of the Reflected Best Self exercise, we will highlight the experience of
Robert Duggan (not his real name), whose self-discovery process is typical of the managers we’ve
observed. Having retired from a successful career in the military at a fairly young age and earned an
MBA from a top business school, Robert accepted a midlevel management position at an IT services
firm. Despite strong credentials and leadership experience, Robert remained stuck in the same
position year after year. His performance evaluations were generally good but not strong enough to
put him on the high-potential track. Disengaged, frustrated, and disheartened, Robert grew
increasingly stressed and disillusioned with his company. His workday felt more and more like an
episode of Survivor.

Seeking to improve his performance, Robert enrolled in an executive education program and took
the RBS exercise. As part of the exercise, Robert gathered feedback from 11 individuals from his past
and present who knew him well. He selected a diverse but balanced group—his wife and two other
family members, two friends from his MBA program, two colleagues from his time in the army, and
four current colleagues.

Robert then asked these individuals to provide information about his strengths, accompanied by
specific examples of moments when Robert used those strengths in ways that were meaningful to
them, to their families or teams, or to their organizations. Many people—Robert among them—feel
uncomfortable asking for exclusively positive feedback, particularly from colleagues. Accustomed to
hearing about their strengths and weaknesses simultaneously, many executives imagine any positive
feedback will be unrealistic, even false. Some also worry that respondents might construe the request
as presumptuous or egotistical. But once managers accept that the exercise will help them improve
their performance, they tend to dive in.

Within ten days, Robert received e-mail responses from all 11 people describing specific instances
when he had made important contributions—including pushing for high quality under a tight
deadline, being inclusive in communicating with a diverse group, and digging for critical
information. The answers he received surprised him. As a military veteran and a technical person
holding an MBA, Robert rarely yielded to his emotions. But in reading story after story from his
respondents, Robert found himself deeply moved—as if he were listening to appreciative speeches at
a party thrown in his honor. The stories were also surprisingly convincing. He had more strengths
than he knew. (For more on Step 1, refer to the exhibit “Gathering Feedback.”)

Step 2

Recognize Patterns

In this step, Robert searched for common themes among the feedback, adding to the examples with
observations of his own, then organizing all the input into a table. (To view parts of Robert’s table,
see the exhibit “Finding Common Themes.”) Like many who participate in the RBS exercise, Robert
expected that, given the diversity of respondents, the comments he received would be inconsistent or
even competing. Instead, he was struck by their uniformity. The comments from his wife and family
members were similar to those from his army buddies and work colleagues. Everyone took note of
Robert’s courage under pressure, high ethical standards, perseverance, curiosity, adaptability,
respect for diversity, and team-building skills. Robert suddenly realized that even his small,
unconscious behaviors had made a huge impression on others. In many cases, he had forgotten
about the specific examples cited until he read the feedback, because his behavior in those situations
had felt like second nature to him.

Finding Common Themes

The RBS exercise confirmed Robert’s sense of himself, but for those who are unaware of their
strengths, the exercise can be truly illuminating. Edward, for example, was a recently minted MBA
executive in an automotive firm. His colleagues and subordinates were older and more experienced
than he, and he felt uncomfortable disagreeing with them. But he learned through the RBS exercise
that his peers appreciated his candid alternative views and respected the diplomatic and respectful
manner with which he made his assertions. As a result, Edward grew bolder in making the case for
his ideas, knowing that his boss and colleagues listened to him, learned from him, and appreciated
what he had to say.

Other times, the RBS exercise sheds a more nuanced light on the skills one takes for granted. Beth,
for example, was a lawyer who negotiated on behalf of nonprofit organizations. Throughout her life,
Beth had been told she was a good listener, but her exercise respondents noted that the interactive,
empathetic, and insightful manner in which she listened made her particularly effective. The
specificity of the feedback encouraged Beth to take the lead in future negotiations that required
delicate and diplomatic communications.

For naturally analytical people, the analysis portion of the exercise serves both to integrate the
feedback and develop a larger picture of their capabilities. Janet, an engineer, thought she could
study her feedback as she would a technical drawing of a suspension bridge. She saw her “reflected
best self” as something to interrogate and improve. But as she read the remarks from family, friends,
and colleagues, she saw herself in a broader and more human context. Over time, the stories she
read about her enthusiasm and love of design helped her rethink her career path toward more
managerial roles in which she might lead and motivate others.

Step 3

Compose Your Self-Portrait

The next step is to write a description of yourself that summarizes and distills the accumulated
information. The description should weave themes from the feedback together with your self-
observations into a composite of who you are at your best. The self-portrait is not designed to be a
complete psychological and cognitive profile. Rather, it should be an insightful image that you can
use as a reminder of your previous contributions and as a guide for future action. The portrait itself
should not be a set of bullet points but rather a prose composition beginning with the phrase, “When
I am at my best, I…” The process of writing out a two- to four-paragraph narrative cements the
image of your best self in your consciousness. The narrative form also helps you draw connections
between the themes in your life that may previously have seemed disjointed or unrelated.
Composing the portrait takes time and demands careful consideration, but at the end of this process,
you should come away with a rejuvenated image of who you are.

In developing his self-portrait, Robert drew on the actual words that others used to describe him,
rounding out the picture with his own sense of himself at his best. He excised competencies that felt
off the mark. This didn’t mean he discounted them, but he wanted to assure that the overall portrait
felt authentic and powerful. “When I am at my best,” Robert wrote,

I stand by my values and can get others to understand why doing so is important. I choose the
harder right over the easier wrong. I enjoy setting an example. When I am in learning mode and am
curious and passionate about a project, I can work intensely and untiringly. I enjoy taking things on
that others might be afraid of or see as too difficult. I’m able to set limits and find alternatives when a
current approach is not working. I don’t always assume that I am right or know best, which
engenders respect from others. I try to empower and give credit to others. I am tolerant and open to
differences.

As Robert developed his portrait, he began to understand why he hadn’t performed his best at work:
He lacked a sense of mission. In the army, he drew satisfaction from the knowledge that the safety of
the men and women he led, as well as the nation he served, depended on the quality of his work. He
enjoyed the sense of teamwork and variety of problems to be solved. But as an IT manager in charge
of routine maintenance on new hardware products, he felt bored and isolated from other people.

The portrait-writing process also helped Robert create a more vivid and elaborate sense of what
psychologists would call his “possible self”—not just the person he is in his day-to-day job but the
person he might be in completely different contexts. Organizational researchers have shown that
when we develop a sense of our best possible self, we are better able make positive changes in our
lives.

Step 4

Redesign Your Job

Having pinpointed his strengths, Robert’s next step was to redesign his personal job description to
build on what he was good at. Given the fact that routine maintenance work left him cold, Robert’s
challenge was to create a better fit between his work and his best self. Like most RBS participants,
Robert found that the strengths the exercise identified could be put into play in his current position.
This involved making small changes in the way he worked, in the composition of his team, and in the
way he spent his time. (Most jobs have degrees of freedom in all three of these areas; the trick is
operating within the fixed constraints of your job to redesign work at the margins, allowing you to
better play to your strengths.)

Robert began by scheduling meetings with systems designers and engineers who told him they were
having trouble getting timely information flowing between their groups and Robert’s maintenance
team. If communication improved, Robert believed, new products would not continue to be saddled
with the serious and costly maintenance issues seen in the past. Armed with a carefully documented
history of those maintenance problems as well as a new understanding of his naturally analytical and
creative team-building skills, Robert began meeting regularly with the designers and engineers to
brainstorm better ways to prevent problems with new products. The meetings satisfied two of
Robert’s deepest best-self needs: He was interacting with more people at work, and he was actively
learning about systems design and engineering.

Robert’s efforts did not go unnoticed. Key executives remarked on his initiative and his ability to
collaborate across functions, as well as on the critical role he played in making new products more
reliable. They also saw how he gave credit to others. In less than nine months, Robert’s hard work
paid off, and he was promoted to program manager. In addition to receiving more pay and higher
visibility, Robert enjoyed his work more. His passion was reignited; he felt intensely alive and
authentic. Whenever he felt down or lacking in energy, he reread the original e-mail feedback he had
received. In difficult situations, the e-mail messages helped him feel more resilient.

Robert was able to leverage his strengths to perform better, but there are cases in which RBS
findings conflict with the realities of a person’s job. This was true for James, a sales executive who
told us he was “in a world of hurt” over his work situation. Unable to meet his ambitious sales goals,
tired of flying around the globe to fight fires, his family life on the verge of collapse, James had
suffered enough. The RBS exercise revealed that James was at his best when managing people and
leading change, but these natural skills did not and could not come into play in his current job. Not
long after he did the exercise, he quit his high-stress position and started his own successful
company.

Other times, the findings help managers aim for undreamed-of positions in their own organizations.
Sarah, a high-level administrator at a university, shared her best-self portrait with key colleagues,
asking them to help her identify ways to better exploit her strengths and talents. They suggested that
she would be an ideal candidate for a new executive position. Previously, she would never have
considered applying for the job, believing herself unqualified. To her surprise, she handily beat out
the other candidates.

Beyond Good Enough

We have noted that while people remember criticism, awareness of faults doesn’t necessarily
translate into better performance. Based on that understanding, the RBS exercise helps you
remember your strengths—and construct a plan to build on them. Knowing your strengths also
offers you a better understanding of how to deal with your weaknesses—and helps you gain the
confidence you need to address them. It allows you to say, “I’m great at leading but lousy at
numbers. So rather than teach me remedial math, get me a good finance partner.” It also allows you
to be clearer in addressing your areas of weakness as a manager. When Tim, a financial services
executive, received feedback that he was a great listener and coach, he also became more aware that
he had a tendency to spend too much time being a cheerleader and too little time keeping his
employees to task. Susan, a senior advertising executive, had the opposite problem: While her
feedback lauded her results-oriented management approach, she wanted to be sure that she hadn’t
missed opportunities to give her employees the space to learn and make mistakes.

In the end, the strength-based orientation of the RBS exercise helps you get past the “good enough”
bar. Once you discover who you are at the top of your game, you can use your strengths to better
shape the positions you choose to play—both now and in the next phase of your career.

The Pandemic Has Hit Women-Owned Businesses Harder, Says

This Facebook Survey
The social media company's Global State of Small Business Report says that micro-businesses have also struggled.

A new global survey of small-business owners shows they've grown more optimistic about the
future but still need government help. It also shows that women-owned businesses have suffered
disproportionately during shutdowns.
In May, Facebook began conducting monthly surveys of small and midsize businesses that have
Facebook pages. The surveys, done in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-
operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank, asked about business closures,
workforce reductions, and government aid, as well as leaders' domestic responsibilities, their
overall optimism, and other topics. More than 25,000 business leaders responded each month,
totaling more than 150,000 respondents in more than 50 countries.
Here are some of the key findings from the sixth survey, conducted in October and released this
week, along with a report analyzing all the data the researchers collected in 2020.
The smallest businesses have struggled to survive.
About 29 percent of respondents were micro-businesses, or those run by just one person. The
report states that these businesses were more likely than their larger peers to have suffered a 50
percent or greater drop in sales compared with 2019, and were more likely to have closed in a
given month. Businesses with fewer than 10 employees were also less likely than larger firms to
have received bank or government loans.
Women-owned businesses have suffered more from lockdowns.
Women entrepreneurs were most affected by the stay-at-home orders issued early in the
pandemic, because they were more likely to run "non-essential" businesses. As a result, women-led
businesses were disproportionately hurt by the stifling effects of shutdowns, and more likely to
close than those run by men.
Women also bore the brunt of increased domestic responsibilities: 31 percent of women
respondents said they had spent more time on domestic tasks since the pandemic started,
compared with 26 percent of men. The gender disparity was largest in the U.S., where the share of
business owners who said their domestic responsibilities have increased because of the pandemic
was 21 percentage points higher among women than among men. And more female than male
entrepreneurs reported that homeschooling, child care, and household chores affected their ability
to focus on work.
Overall, entrepreneurs were slightly better off--and more optimistic--in October than in May.
In the most recent survey, 55 percent of businesses were still reporting lower monthly sales year-
over-year, compared with 62 percent in the first survey. The share of businesses seeing dramatic
declines has shrunk, too. In the first survey, 57 percent of businesses said their sales had decreased
by more than half year-on-year; in the latest survey, 47 percent said so.
The majority of entrepreneurs--56 percent--said that they were optimistic or very optimistic about
the future of their businesses, up from 54 percent in the first survey. Indeed, in every global region
except Europe, the segment of optimistic business leaders was higher in October than in May. (The
report states that Europe's pessimism might be due to a spike in Covid-19 cases at the time of the
most recent survey.)
Business owners still want help from their governments.
According to the report, the government support that respondents said would be most helpful to
their businesses stayed consistent: loan and credit guarantees, tax deferrals, and salary subsidies.
And entrepreneurs don't just need financial help. In the latest survey, 22 percent said they would
like assistance with caring for children or other family members, while others said that as they
adjust to the post-pandemic environment, they could use support in accessing new markets (46
percent) and adopting digital tools (35 percent).
While business owners say they still need financial assistance, fewer of them are receiving
government support than at the start of the pandemic, the report says. The share of firms that
said they were receiving aid has decreased each month, dropping from 23 percent in May to 12
percent in October.

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