Category: News Update

news

A NEW STUDY FINDS BAD MANAGERS AREN\’T THE MAIN REASON EMPLOYEES QUIT

Good management is important. We all know this. In fact, multiple studies have shown that not getting along with a manager is often the strongest influence on employee engagement—and eventual departure. Or, at least, that\’s what we thought.
According to new research from IBM on why employees quit, the old HR adage \”people don\’t leave companies, they leave managers\” is being called into question. After surveying 22,000 people, IBM found out the following:
  • 14 percent leave because they are unhappy with their manager
  • 40 percent leave because they are unhappy with their jobs
  • 39 percent leave for personal reasons (e.g., spouse relocation, child care, health, etc.)
  • 20 percent leave because they are unhappy with the organization
  • 18 percent leave due to uncertainty in the organization, following a change
Even with the ability to pick multiple reasons for leaving, only 14 percent named their boss as a reason for leaving. Of course, this doesn\’t mean that we don\’t need good managers. But it does mean that HR and the senior staff should think more holistically about why people quit before pinning it on individual managers. Let\’s take a closer look.

40 Percent of People Are Unhappy With Their Job

Is it the work? Is it the pay? Is it the coworkers? All of these things can weigh in on an employee\’s mind. If we don\’t have interesting, challenging work and growth opportunities, people will go elsewhere. If we allow toxic employees to torment their co-workers, people will go elsewhere. While the work needs to get done (and some work just will never be interesting), we need to make sure that we\’re offering the best that we can.

39 Percent Leave for Personal Reasons

Can you fix personal reasons? Maybe and maybe not. If a spouse is in the military and gets transferred, your employee will need to move. If you can\’t bear to see the employee leave, consider the option to let people work remotely. If the employee doesn\’t accept, then you\’ll know it\’s probably a bigger issue with the role than \”personal reasons.\”
Childcare is also an important consideration when it comes to personal departures. Subsidizing daycare, allowing more flexible schedules and part-time work, and ensuring that overtime never comes as a surprise will make it easier to retain working parents.

20 Percent Are Unhappy With the Organization

Unhappiness with the organization, or sensing organizational uncertainty, is an issue that stems from the top. Are leaders being honest with employees, or are they making unexpected and unexplained changes?
While it\’s easy to say, \”people leave because they don\’t like their managers,\” that answer often lets everyone else in an organization off the hook. By facing the fact that there are several other reasons people quit their jobs, company leaders can improve retention by evaluating a range of potential issues. If you want to retain your best employees, it\’s time to start looking at the big picture.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Webinar: "It Really Is a Team Effort – How Employees and Employers Create High-Performance Workplaces," with Kim Dority

Are you striving to create a positive and performance-driven work environment?
\”Negative workplaces often frustrate managers, disengage staffers and generally demoralize the entire group, causing an uncomfortable and low-performance work environment,\” said Scott Traylor, Associate Campus Director for Online Education at Bryant & Stratton College.
Acclaimed career coach Kim Dority discussed in depth, multiple strategies to help managers and staff work together to improve workplace morale with acclaimed career coach Kim Dority.  Kim is a frequent presenter for Bryant & Stratton College Online and has been writing about and teaching courses on career training for more than a decade. Registrants who attended this free event learned more about the best practices on how to improve the workplace, including assuming personal responsibility, engaging with fellow colleagues and creating strategic plans on both the individual and team level. This webinar will enable attendees to:
  • Create and take charge of their own professional growth agenda
  • Align their agenda with the strategic goals of their team, department and organization
  • Help managers create an environment that elicits and supports the best efforts of their diverse team members.

Watch Recorded Webinar Now
Kim\’s Resources from the webinar for High-Performance Contributors, Managers, and Workplaces:
Buckingham, Marcus and Donald O. Clifton. Now Discover Your Strengths   and   Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance.
Dorsey, Jason R. Y-Size Your Business: How Gen Y Employees Can Save You Money and Grow Your Business.
Goleman, Daniel. Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More Than IQ   and  Working with Emotional Intelligence.
Lencioni, Patrick.  The Five Dysfunctions of a Team   and  Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team.
Pink, Daniel H. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Allen, David. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.
Leeds, Regina. One Year to an Organized Work Life: From Your Desk to Your Deadlines, the Week-by-Week Guide to Eliminating Office Stress for Good.  (The “Zen” organizer)
Levit, Alexandra and Julie Jansen. They Don’t Teach Corporate in College: A Twenty-Something’s Guide to the Business World.
Klauser, Henriette Anne. Write It Down, Make It Happen: Knowing What You Want and Getting It.
Tracy, Brian. Goals! How to Get Everything You Want – Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible. For more recorded webinars or to register for our next event click here!  
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO CREATE A \’CULTURE OF FAILURE\’?

In my last post, I discussed the importance of failure in company culture. In order for people to take risks and push the envelope, they need to have a certain level of comfort with defeat. In other words, you don\’t only need to walk before you run to succeed—you also need to be okay with stumbling every once in a while.
But what does this \”culture of failure\” look like, and how is it achieved? Embracing failure isn\’t about patting people on the back when they miss the mark—at its core, a culture of failure is about feedback that helps you make the mark next time. If you want to progress as an individual or as a company, you need to be willing to identify your weaknesses and maximize your strengths.
However, even the most self-aware people are limited in their ability to identify these strengths and weaknesses on their own. They need help—and, based on my experience, they want help. If you look at recent research on the millennial generation—which, in many ways, I believe strongly reflects the desires of every generation—you\’ll find that almost everything points back to the desire for growth and development, for continuous feedback. Most people are craving conversations that push them to the next level. The question is, how do you get there?

Build Structured Communication

Creating a culture of failure comes down to communication—communication between employees and managers, between managers and VPs, between VPs and the C-suite. As director of talent management at Cornerstone, I\’ve focused a lot of my time and energy on fostering the type of communication that leads to a company and workforce not only open to risk-taking, but prone to it.
At Cornerstone, we train managers to provide their employees with \”stretch projects.\” The key to these projects\’ success, however, doesn\’t lie in giving the assignment—it lies in the conversations that occur before and afterwards. Prior to the project, the manager asks the employee, \”What\’s your likelihood for success? What\’s your expected failure rate? What are your obstacles?\” After the project, the manager debriefs with the employee to identify successes and failures on both ends: \”What were the unforeseen obstacles? Was the task as clearly communicated as possible? Were the challenges identified individual blocks, or systemic blocks? And if they were systemic blocks, who should have gotten on your side?\”

Teach People to Ask For Feedback

With structured communication, employees will begin to feel more comfortable taking on stretch assignments. First, because they know the goal isn\’t success—it\’s growth. And second, because when they fail—and, usually, they are bound to \”fail\” in some sense—they will have a deep understanding of how to succeed the next time around.
The second benefit of structured communication—and another step toward fostering a workforce comfortable with failure—is that it will teach people to be comfortable with feedback. When most people ask for \”feedback\” today, I\’ve found that what they truly expect is congratulations. Why? It\’s not that they don\’t want to improve—it\’s just that they aren\’t used to hearing constructive criticism, and are therefore unsure of how to handle it.
Structured communication familiarizes both employees and managers with receiving and providing tough feedback. After a few stretch assignments, employees will learn to be their own best advocates and managers will learn how to truly coach their employees. Instead of asking, \”How did that go?\” employees will learn to ask, \”How could that have gone better?\” And instead of a nonchalant \”Good job!\” managers will be able to provide both congratulations and criticism.

Prioritize Growth

Last but not least, it\’s not enough to simply encourage employees and managers to communicate or discuss feedback. It needs to be a formal part of your culture, embodied by your values. Because as I\’ve learned during my career, there are two truths about culture: 1) Culture can be made and 2) Whether you consciously make it or not, culture will happen.
If you aren\’t mindful and strategic about integrating failure into your company culture—through formal communication, trainings and leadership by example—you won\’t realize the eventual success that comes from risk-taking. It is critical to prioritize manager feedback, employee reviews, and general stretch assignments. As a CLO or CHRO, you can beat the drum of \”failure is a good thing\” all you want—but unless you formalize this belief, and immerse your workforce from the start in a company that encourages feedback and growth, you won\’t see a true cultural shift.
An excuse I hear all too often is, \”I want to give feedback—it\’s just that I\’m too busy.\” The hard truth is that at the end of the day, your employees are the only thing you should always have time for. If you\’re too busy for them, then you\’re failing to invest in the future of your personal career, team and company. Like all good things, this is easier said than done—but as I\’ve learned throughout my career, your biggest failures will take you farther than any small success.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

WHAT I\’VE LEARNED ABOUT EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT TRAINING

Success in the new world of work is less defined by checking boxes, and more defined by thinking outside of them.
This shift has inevitably impacted the way we see management: In the industrial economy, management was defined quite literally—managers oversaw employees clocking in and out, completing tasks and adhering to safety regulations. In the knowledge economy, however, the role of management is more nuanced. Managers are not only responsible for overseeing work, but also crafting team culture, teaching hard and soft skills, and helping individual employees flourish.
The bottom line: Modern management is a hard job, and as Steve Dolan, a consultant at 2020 Talent Management, writes, even the most talented employees struggle with it. The solution? If you want great managers (and, subsequently, more engaged employees), you need to invest in teaching great management skills. I recently kicked off a five-month, intensive global management training at Cornerstone, and wanted to share my takeaways thus far on designing a program for real impact.

1) Create Room for Different Perspectives

Management is a multifaceted role. By selecting participants with diverse experiences—whether it\’s across levels, departments, offices, countries or all of the above—you\’ll be able to better prepare people for the multiple personalities and situations they\’ll encounter as managers.
At Cornerstone, our training program includes people from the UK, France, Germany, Australia, Singapore, India and more, and the participants include both new and veteran managers. The rich tapestry of experience and perspective they bring to the table is invaluable; in addition to providing a global understanding, the diverse group gives people an opportunity to collaborate with people they wouldn\’t traditionally encounter.
But as we learned in the first few months, you can\’t just bring a group of people together—literally or virtually—and expect magic. You can create a community, but that doesn\’t mean you\’ve created community. Make sure participants have plenty of opportunities to interact with each other—as a whole and in small groups—and, as a moderator, offer up your own vulnerabilities and problems as a manager in order to make the program a safe space for discussion.

2) Consider Scalability

For a long time, we had two main management trainings at Cornerstone: one for brand new managers and one for experienced managers. Both were two-day, in-person trainings, and went well: They were relatively simple to execute and participants enjoyed them. The problem? The programs were far from scalable.
In our latest program, scalability was a huge influence. The pilot program has two \”cohorts\” of 14 people each, but as a company of 1,600 employees, we asked ourselves, \”How can we eventually expand this to anyone who wants to take it?\” The answer was designing the program to be almost entirely online. The new program consists of e-learning courses, TED Talks, an interactive online community, reading assignments and a 45-minute virtual seminar once a month. The only in-person contact is a one-on-one with me three times over the course of the program (which can still be done virtually for international managers).
Additionally, an online program provides more flexibility—we are able to adjust the program prior for each cohort to ensure it\’s relevant.

3) Think Long-Term

Training is often thought of as something to check off the on-boarding list, but in the case of management training, it needs to be ongoing to have the most impact. In part, that\’s why we decided to take the long-term approach to our program, designing it like a college course. Every month, we have a theme: 1) back to the basics, 2) time management, 3) situational leadership and feedback, 4) communication and 5) engagement and motivation.
The benefit of a long-term program is that it offers training in practice: Participants can apply the lessons in real-time. For example, one participant had two talented people on their team applying for one job opportunity. The manager shared that she used the skills from our training to communicate to the employee why they didn\’t get the job in a way that made them feel empowered and inspired to keep improving. The length of the program also provides more opportunity for participants to be “player-coaches.\” Every month, we select a small group of participants to be discussion leaders, bringing their experience, research and thoughts to the group.
Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that even managers needs management, and mentors need mentorship: Every employee has a myriad of goals, tasks and behaviors—no matter their seniority. Investing in a thoughtful, integrative management training program will bring out the best in your mid- and upper-level employees, which in turn will bring out the best in your company.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

WHY RECRUITERS ARE YOUR COMPANY\’S BEST BRAND REPRESENTATIVES

When you think about who communicates with people outside of your company the most, you probably think of sales reps, but you should be looking at your recruiters. In fact, they spend almost all their time talking with or about people who aren\’t employees. Glassdoor says each corporate position receives an average of 250 applicants. Of course, that number is going to vary wildly depending on the position, but recruiters can potentially interact with thousands of people every year.
Even though they aren\’t public relations specialists or marketing pros by title, a big part of their job is not only to attract and select the right candidates for the right roles, but also to present your organization in the best possible light to individuals and organizations—such as universities or talent agencies.
Because of the sheer number of people they interact with on a regular basis, recruiters play a crucial role in generating a positive impression of your company. Here\’s how recruiters can serve as marketing agents, brand ambassadors or even PR agents, outside the scope of hiring new employees.

Job Candidates Are Consumers, Too

No matter what your company does, it\’s quite possible that your job candidates are also your customers. You want every one of those candidates to continue to do business with you even if they don\’t get the job. That requires treating all candidates with respect and ensuring they know you value their time.
Candidates fill other roles—they\’re consumers, they work for other firms and they conduct business with your competitors. They have a voice. It used to be that PR reps could control a company\’s image—now, anyone with a Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Glassdoor account can build a following and change the perception of a company.

The Recruiter\’s Guide to Brand Representation

Knowing that every customer recruiters interact with can have an impact on your brand perception, it\’s important for recruiters to be truly good brand representatives. To do that, they need to do a better job with regard to candidate experience. Today, almost 60 percent of job candidates say they\’ve had a negative candidate experience, and 72 percent of those have shared their bad experience online.
Here\’s how recruiters can change their ways, and keep candidates postive about the company:
  • Keep candidates updated and informed. No ghosting!
  • Send rejection emails as well as offer emails. People want to know when they should move on.
  • Reward people for applying. When Hard Rock Cafe opened a restaurant in a new city, they gave a free drink coupon to everyone who applied, and everyone who interviewed got a free meal coupon as well. I interviewed the company about the promotion, and they told me that applicants not only redeemed these offers, but also brought their friends.
  • Treat candidate\’s time as precious. They have jobs (often), homes and families, so use their time judiciously. Limit the number of times they need to come in for face-to-face interviews. If you want to see sample work, work with hiring managers to create a manageable assignment that will take less than an hour.
Doing these things gives people positive feelings about your company, regardless of whether or not they get the job, and that\’s good for your company\’s brand. When your company has a great reputation, not only will people want to do business with your company, they\’ll also want to work for it.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

DEAR REWORKER: SHOULD I RISK LOSING MY EMPLOYEE\’S TRUST BY REPORTING HARASSMENT TO HR?

Dear ReWorker,
If an employee reports harassment to their manager, is it the responsibility of the manager to report it to HR? What should if the employee doesn\’t want the complaint to go to HR, and the manager doesn\’t want to lose the employee\’s trust? And, what should a manager do if the employee describes the situation, but doesn\’t provides the name of the alleged harasser? Does a manager need to take any steps if an employee goes directly to HR and claims they don\’t want an investigation?
Sincerely,
Reluctant to Report
___________________________________________________________________________________
Dear Reluctant,
When an employee comes to you with a complaint, the subject of the complaint is critical.
If your employee says, \”I can\’t stand working with James because he\’s always talking about Minecraft and it drives me insane! Can you do something about it? And please, don\’t tell him I said anything,\” then you can decide how to best handle the situation. You can tell your complaining employee to suck it up. Alternatively, you can go to James and say, \”Hey buddy, can you knock off the Minecraft talk?\” without mentioning who brought it up. Or you can ignore the complainer entirely. Easy peasy.
It\’s not a big deal because a Minecraft discussion, while annoying to some, has no legal ramifications.
But, if your employee comes to you about racist jokes or sexual comments made by a colleague, then you\’ve got a problem that you can\’t ignore. As a manager, you are now acting on behalf of your organization and once the company is aware of a problem, it has to act. If you ignore this or tell the person to suck it up, you are opening up the company to legal liability. Here\’s what you need to do to handle the harassment, while protecting the employee that reported it:

Follow Your Company\’s Procedures

Your company should have a spelled-out protocol for reporting illegal harassment complaints—follow it! Most likely, you\’re required to report the incident to your manager and/or the HR department. That\’s right, it\’s your responsibility to turn it over to HR, no matter what your employee requests.
Why can\’t you just handle it yourself? Because procedures need to be followed. This isn\’t just because your HR manager loves paperwork—it\’s because consistency is important when it comes to legal matters and ramifications. If you simply tell the accused to knock off his racist jokes and assume that the problem is taken care of, it seems like a decent solution until you find out that Sonja in another department was suspended for making racist jokes. Suddenly, you\’ve made the company susceptible to a gender discrimination lawsuit from Sonja, since her punishment was more strict than James\’ for the same offense.

Tell the Reporting Employee Why You Must Involve HR

This is the hard part, but you\’ll have to be honest with the employee that brought the harassment to your attention. Try a dialogue like this: \”Jane, I really appreciate you coming and telling me about this. We take sexual/racial/religious harassment very seriously. I know you want to keep this quiet, and I respect that. However, the company has to investigate your claims and solve the problem. I promise you that you will face no retaliation for coming forward, and we will do our best to protect your privacy.\”
Your employee may not like hearing that, and that\’s unfortunate. But, this is a situation where you can\’t respect an employee\’s request to do nothing.
The law and your company policies require action. When you report the problem to HR, make clear that you promised your employee that this would be handled in the most professional and confidential manner possible. That should be standard, but it never hurts to remind people.
Sincerely,
Your ReWorker
Suzanne Lucas, Evil HR Lady
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

HALF OF YOUR EMPLOYEES THINK THEY\’RE UNDERPAID—HERE\’S WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT

Do you pay your employees fairly? Of course! You did your research when making salary offers, you award regular cost of living raises and you pay for their overtime work. Still, according to a recent study by Robert Half, 46 percent of employees feel that they are underpaid.
This, of course, doesn\’t necessarily indicate the truth about salary, since these particular findings are based on feelings. I\’m a fan of dealing in facts, so I\’d want to double check everyone\’s salaries, and, depending on my findings, come back and say, \”Yep, even though you feel like you\’re underpaid, you\’re not. Now get back to work.\”
But, that\’s bad management advice. People\’s perceptions are their realities. If you simply dismiss their concerns with \”I\’ve double checked, and you\’re not underpaid,\” it\’s not likely to fix how they\’re feeling, which could lead to disengagement over time. Instead, if an employee approaches you to discuss their salary, I\’d recommend taking the following steps.

1) Find Out What They Really Do

The job someone does and the job you think they do are often two different things. Good employees, especially, tend to take on additional responsibilities just to make sure the work gets done. You may not know that Jane does an audit by herself because Heidi never gets her half done on time. Steve may be writing code to automate routine tasks.
There may be many things they are doing that you are not aware of, which is not to say that you are a bad manager. On the contrary, it\’s likely that you are a good manager who allows your employees to work independently and they\’ve risen to the occasion. Just ask, and determine whether they\’re doing enough additional work to constitute a pay raise.

2) Ask What They Consider Fair Pay

If someone says she\’s underpaid, it makes sense to ask what she thinks fair pay is and why. After all, she must have some idea of what she wants if she\’s asking. If she says she\’d like a raise \”Because I do a good job,\” that\’s a less substantial claim than\”I know that our competitor pays $5,000 more for this same job.\”
If there\’s actual data to support an employee\’s request for a larger salary—be it intel on competitor salaries, or a documented improvement in output and performance—you should absolutely consider it. If an employee is earning less than she could make elsewhere, there\’s a good possibility that she\’ll quit, and you\’ll have to hire someone new—making the market rate. You\’re not saving any money not paying someone correctly.
On the other hand, it\’s also possible that your employee has wildly unrealistic ideas about salary. She may be new to the workforce and not understand that you don\’t get a 10 percent raise every six months. Or she may be under the mistaken impression that everyone else earns substantially more. Regardless, if this is the case, you can sit down and show her data to support how you arrived at her current salary. If she still insists she\’s underpaid, you have to say, \”I disagree. If something changes, we can re-evaluate, but until that time, this is your salary and it\’s fair.\”

3) Don\’t Be Defensive and Dismissive

Employees\’ concerns that they\’re underpaid often stem from finding out what their co-workers earn. The law allows employees to discuss their salaries, so never punish someone for raising this issue, and don\’t dismiss their question. In fact, it\’s worth taking a regular look at what similarly situated employees at your company earn. Are you willing to stand up in court and justify why a woman at your firm is making less than a man in a similar role? Are their jobs really that different?
An employee that comes to you with a salary complaint is much better for you than an employee who goes to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, hires a lawyer or leaves to get new job. Take their question as a gift, and an opportunity to re-evaluate what everyone earns.
As for those people who feel they earn too much? Yeah, well, we should all be so lucky.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Webinar Recap: "Exploring Career Options: How Many Ways Can You Use Your Degree?"

The “Exploring Career Options” webinar provided tactics and information resources to discover a variety of professional paths to attendees. The  presentation also enabled attendees to:
  • Understand and be able to use the best frameworks to explore the diversity of degree-related career opportunities
  • Identify and use the best people and information resources for researching their options
  • Determine the best questions to ask, and how to ask them so potential employers and career-connectors will want to respond
Acclaimed career coach Kim Dority lead the webinar. Ms. Dority is a frequent presenter for Bryant & Stratton College Online and has been writing about and teaching courses on career training for more than a decade.
“Several careers can stem from every degree, but it can be difficult to figure out what possibilities exist. There is both an art and a science to translating knowledge from a degree and personal experience into a variety of careers,” said Dority. “This webinar will provide practical step for job seekers and students wondering what career options are available to them.”
View Recorded Webinar Now
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Workplace Capabilities: Don\’t be Milton or Nina

Attitude
One of the workplace capabilities listed in all of the supplemental syllabi is attitude. Why is this listed on a syllabus? How is this addressed in a classroom setting, especially in online learning? A great way to think about attitude is to think about what kind of people you would like to work with. Is it more pleasant to work with someone who is friendly and ready to tackle projects, or someone who is sarcastic and grumbling?  Why wait until graduation to be the kind of employee that employers want to hire?
The classroom setting, whether online or in person, offers great opportunities to practice cultivating a positive attitude.  In interactions with peers and instructors, being polite and positive will make your personality shine.  It isn’t necessary to be overly chipper or falsely positive, however taking the time to reign in negative reactions will demonstrate a level of maturity employers value. Read the following short article for more ideas about how attitude impacts the workplace: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/negative-positive-attitudes-affect-workplace-21287.html
Enthusiasm
A related workplace capability also listed on supplemental syllabi is enthusiasm. Again, being over the top and inauthentic can be a turn off. Remember Nina, the perky accountant from the movie Office Space?
However, being eager to work, especially on a new and challenging project, sets you apart from others in the workplace. When employers are considering employees for a promotion, a person with a positive, enthusiastic attitude is more likely to be considered over an employee with similar skills and a less positive attitude. While it may seem challenging to convey these attributes in an online setting, there are concrete ways to accomplish this. Enthusiastic students email instructors to introduce themselves, post early in the discussion week and are polite and friendly in interactions with instructors and peers. In contrast, students who complain about coursework or are less than professional are damaging their relationships with others and missing a valuable opportunity to practice a positive attitude.
Interpersonal Skills
Both of these capabilities are related to interpersonal skills. Remember Milton from Office Space? No amount of productivity would compensate for his painful lack of social skills.
In our virtual world, we all have to try harder to work on interpersonal skills. Making eye contact, paying attention to the non-verbal cues of others and using reciprocity in conversation is essential for success in the workplace.  If a co-worker asks you about your thoughts on a project, reciprocate the question after answering it. Reciprocity can easily be accomplished in an online setting.
Making a conscious effort to be enthusiastic and personable will make you shine as a job candidate, and ensure you make some great friends along the way!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Jumpstart Your Accounting Career with a Bachelor\’s Degree from Bryant & Stratton College

Are you ready to jumpstart your career by returning to school and obtaining a degree? You might want to turn your sights towards a BBA in Accounting. When students complete their degree in accounting at Bryant & Stratton College, it’s about more than just the numbers. In addition to learning the fundamentals of accounting, our graduates are also provided with a solid business foundation, having completed courses including management, marketing, strategic planning, and business law. Our accounting students are also required to take courses in business-related computer applications, teaching them to analyze business data, communicate the results, and solve technology challenges. Combined, these skills provide the perfect launch pad for adults who are ready take their career to the next level.
Here are some of the ways a BBA in Accounting from Bryant & Stratton College will help advance you on your accountant career path:
Job Versatility
According to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics (PDF), the average American holds 11.3 jobs between the ages of 18 and 46. This means students need to be prepared to work in a variety of environments. Your accounting degree will provide a tremendous amount of versatility. Every business is designed to turn a profit and it takes a solid accounting department in order to make that happen. A BBA in Accounting will allow you to work in virtually any industry as a bookkeeper, auditor, accountant, tax preparer, budget analyst, financial manager, and more. You may be the sole accountant for a small business or the manager of a large accounting department for a multi-national corporation. Either way, your accounting degree will provide the foundation you need to increase your earning potential and climb the career ladder. There are many jobs you can get with an accounting degree.
Increased Earning Potential
Statistics show that adults who have a college education earn more, and are unemployed less often, than individuals with a high school diploma. While a few Quickbooks computer courses or an AA in accounting may be all you need to obtain a ground-level accounting or bookkeeping position, what happens when you are ready to take your job to the next level? The BLS Occupational Handbook states that most businesses require accountants and auditors to have a BA in Accounting or a related field. Your employer may expect you to continue your education if you want to increase your earning potential via promotions. The more education and job experience you have, the greater your lifetime earning potential.
Be Your Own Boss
Have you always wanted to own your own business? While experience and/or a great idea is important, you will also need capital. Your BBA in Accounting will show prospective investors that you have the basic business and financial know-how required to understand the bottom line. It will lend you a certain amount of credibility that, paired with your experience and acumen, can help you secure the loans you’ll need. Once your business is up and running, your accounting degree will provide a wealth of information to draw from as you begin to make the decisions that will determine the future of your business.
Are you ready to jumpstart your career by obtaining a BBA in Accounting or a related field? Contact the Admissions Office at Bryant & Stratton College. Our accounting department provides a supportive environment where returning students can achieve their academic goals.
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A Student\’s Guide to ICD 10

The upcoming transition to ICD-10 is a hot topic in the healthcare community. Learn more about the transition and how Bryant & Stratton is preparing Medical Reimbursement and Coding degree students for this change.
If you’re a student earning an associates degree in medical billing and coding, then you’ve probably heard about a big change on the horizon. The field is abuzz about the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10. ICD stands for International Classification of Disease and is a United Nations-sponsored World Health Organization standard diagnostic tool for epidemiology, health management and clinical purposes.
This guide sets the standard for how professional medical coders assign alphanumeric code(s) to a patient’s record. ICD-10 refers to two classifications, International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) and International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Procedure Coding System (ICD-10-PCS). ICD-10-CM will replace ICD-9-CM volumes 1 and 2 and be used to report diagnoses in all clinical settings. The other update, ICD-10-PCS, is the procedure code group that is for inpatient hospital procedures and will replace ICD-9-CM Volume 3.
The ICD-10 implementation may hit seasoned professionals harder than individuals who are just entering the field. The codes for diagnoses and procedures are both changing with the new system, so professionals who have memorized codes may find themselves referencing guidelines more often than they are accustomed to now. Chris Schenk is a certified ICD-10 trainer and has already trained many people on the new guidelines.
“People think it’s a big scary monster,” said Mr. Schenk. “But, if you can read guidelines, look up words, correlate information, you can do ICD-10.”
Today, the U.S. is one of the last countries of its economic size to still be using ICD-9, guidelines that were created over 30 years ago. Because ICD-9 was developed so long ago, it does not reflect current medical technology and intelligence, which limits how many details can be included in a record. ICD-10 increases this ability to allow for the capture of more specific diagnoses. In the new guidelines there will be approximately 70,000 codes, an increase from the 15,000 codes in ICD-9. ICD-10 also has the ability to accommodate future changes in medical technology or know-how, making it adaptable for future needs.
The ICD-10 transition date has recently been extended and will not take effect until December 31, 2015. Still, Mr. Schenk and many professional medical and coding associations encourage individuals to learn ICD-10 ahead of the new implementation. Mr. Schenk’s advice is simple.
“Get educated and read the new guidelines,” he said.
For new coders, he suggests verifying that degree programs include a background in anatomy, physiology and medical terminology before enrolling in them. Bryant & Stratton College’s associate’s degree in medical reimbursement and coding is currently teaching ICD-10 to all newly enrolled students so graduates are prepared for the upcoming transition.
If you are interested in learning more about the degrees Bryant & Stratton offers in the medical field, particularly an associate’s degree in medical billing and coding, call 1.888.447.3528 to speak with an admissions representative.
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B.Ed. I semester – Medium of understanding (Child\’s own language)

How a country chooses the language for its education system is not an easy process. The decision is usually influenced by multiple factors: colonial history, origins of immigrants, legal recognition of minority languages, cultural diversity, political interests – to mention but a few. In some cases, instruction is provided in more than one language; in others the medium of instruction may vary between primary and secondary education.
Underneath this tangled and evolving web of policies and priorities, however, lies an undeniable truth: teaching and assessing children in a language they understand will result in better learning.

The Global Monitoring Report of “Education for All” (UNESCO) 2005 argued that there can be no discussions of quality in education without consideration of the language of instruction. It lays out some key recommendations to ensure that children are taught in a language they understand.
1.      At least six years of mother tongue instruction is needed, if the gains from teaching in mother tongue in the early years are to be sustained.
2.      Education policies should recognize the importance of mother tongue learning. A review of 40 countries’ education plans finds that only less than half of them recognize the importance of teaching children in their home language, particularly in early grades.
3.      Teachers need to be trained to teach in two languages and to understand the needs of second-language learners. Teachers are rarely prepared for the reality of bilingual classrooms. In Senegal, only 8%, and in Mali, only 2% of trained teachers expressed confidence about teaching in local languages. The paper suggests hiring teachers from minority language communities as one policy solution to the problem.
4.      Teachers need inclusive teaching materials and appropriate assessment strategies to help them identify weak learners and provide them with targeted support.
5.      Provide culturally appropriate school-readiness programmes: Locally recruited bilingual teaching assistants can support ethnic minority children from isolated communities as they make the transition into primary school.
6.      Second-chance accelerated learning programmes in local languages can help the disadvantaged to catch up.
In an education system riddled with inequities, language can also be an obstacle that comes in the way of learning. Educationists agree that it\’s best to teach in the child\’s mother tongue, but the issue is a complex and emotive one, given the diverse number of languages and dialects in the country and the attendant linguistic chauvinism that politicians are eager to exploit for their own gains. English, considered the passport to social mobility, is meanwhile becoming the preferred language of instruction among parents.
The three-language formula
The National Curriculum Framework 2005, which lays down broad guidelines for teaching and learning, sums up the views of experts when it says: \”A renewed effort should be made to implement the three-language formula, emphasising recognition of children\’s home language(s) or mother tongue(s) as the best medium of instruction. These include tribal languages.\” The framework recommends that English should find a place with other Indian languages.
The National Policy on Education framed in 1968 and later in 1986 also recommends the three-language formula. Three Indian states, Mizoram, Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir, use English as a medium of instruction while all other states use the regional language as the medium, he explains. \”English and Hindi are the second and third languages, with Hindi being the second language for children who are non-Hindi speaking,\” says Jalaluddin. In Tamilnadu, however, Hindi is an optional language.
The three-language formula helps in fostering bilingualism and multilingualism, traits that improve \”cognitive growth, social tolerance, divergent thinking and scholastic achievement\”, according to the National Curriculum Framework.
The NCF report stresses that multilingualism should be made use of in the classroom. For instance, it says, \”Language teaching needs to be bilingual not only in terms of number of languages offered to children but also in terms of evolving strategies that would use the multilingual classroom as a resource.\”
The complexity of the issue is addressed by a paper on multilingual education brought out by UNESCO in 2003, which looks at the \”contrasting and deeply felt positions\” that the choice of language of instruction evokes in people. \”Questions of identity, nationhood and power are closely linked to the use of specific languages in the classroom. Language itself, moreover, possesses its own dynamics and is constantly undergoing processes of both continuity and change, impacting upon the communication modes of different societies as it evolves,\” says the introduction to the paper. The document says that political changes have led to new language policies in post-colonial countries; many languages have disappeared while others are endangered; the Internet has \”dramatically affected\” the way in which languages are used for communication and learning; and globalisation \”increasingly challenges the continued existence of small, local identities frequently based on language\”. The paper supports multilingual education, and points to a resolution adopted by UNESCO in 1999, which says that the \”specific needs of particular, culturally and linguistically distinct communities can only be addressed by multilingual education\”.
Udaya Narayana Singh, director of Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, says that internationally, experiments by experts have pointed to the fact that one learns best through one\’s mother tongue. \”This is also the basis of UNESCO\’s recommendations on multi-lingual education. My choice would be to educate the child through her mother tongue keeping a strong component of English side by side.” However, one should be cautioned that when English is the medium of instruction, many children could get \”thrown out of the system\” if they have not been exposed to the language in domains such as homes or playgrounds.
While state governments can decide the standard in which English should be introduced, many have chosen to start teaching English from class one itself. Ideally, the second and third languages should be introduced from class three and above, says educationist A K Jalaluddin. The idea is that by the time children complete their secondary education, they should know three languages.
Jalaluddin notes that if children learn in English, they are often not exposed to the literature in their mother tongue. \”A major part of the linguistic experience comes from literature,\” he emphasises. One way of tackling this problem is to teach English as a subject well.
The other side of the problem
Students learning in regional languages do not have the kind of resources they need, as English books [for instance, on Physics] are not translated into their mother tongue, says Kumar. \”Knowledge is available only to those who understand English, and initiatives have not come from regional languages for translation,\” he adds.

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Reading and Reflecting on Texts – "The Happy Prince"

Dear future teachers,

It is mandatory for every educated person to read and reflect over what she has read. Otherwise, it is impossible to develop Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). 

The aim of this Skill Based Course is to make reading as your habitual action, almost your permanent behaviour. Hence, I believe that, you will develop good reading skills and sustain your love of reading in future also.

Do have a literary bend of reading while you read this incredible short story of Oscar Wilde.

HAPPY READING EXPERIENCE !!!!!


The Happy Prince – Oscar Wilde
High above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince. He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glowed on his sword-hilt.
     He was very much admired indeed. \’He is as beautiful as a weathercock,\’ remarked one of the Town Councillors who wished to gain a reputation for having artistic taste; \’only not quite so useful,\’ he added, fearing lest people should think him unpractical, which he really was not.
     \’Why can\’t you be like the Happy Prince?\’ asked a sensible mother of her little boy who was crying for the moon. \’The Happy Prince never dreams of crying for anything.\’
     \’I am glad there is some one in the world who is quite happy\’, muttered a disappointed man as he gazed at the wonderful statue.
     \’He looks just like an angel,\’ said the Charity Children as they came out of the cathedral in their bright scarlet cloaks, and their clean white pinafores.  \’How do you know?\’ said the Mathematical Master, \’you have never seen one.\’
     \’Ah! but we have, in our dreams,\’ answered the children; and the Mathematical Master frowned and looked very severe, for he did not approve of children dreaming.
     One night there flew over the city a little Swallow. His friends had gone away to Egypt six weeks before, but he had stayed behind, for he was in love with the most beautiful Reed. He had met her early in the spring as he was flying down the river after a big yellow moth, and had been so attracted by her slender waist that he had stopped to talk to her.
     \’Shall I love you said the Swallow\’, who liked to come to the point at once, and the Reed made him a low bow. So he flew round and round her, touching the water with his wings, and making silver ripples. This was his courtship, and it lasted all through the summer.
 \’It is a ridiculous attachment,\’ twittered the other Swallows, \’she has no money, and far too many relations;\’ and indeed the river was quite full of Reeds. Then, when the autumn came, they all flew away.
     After they had gone he felt lonely, and began to tire of his lady-love. \’She has no conversation,\’ he said, \’and I am afraid that she is a coquette, for she is always flirting with the wind.\’ And certainly, whenever the wind blew, the Reed made the most graceful curtsies. I admit that she is domestic,\’ he continued, \’but I love travelling, and my wife, consequently, should love travelling also.\’
     \’Will you come away with me?\’ he said finally to her; but the Reed shook her head, she was so attached to her home.
     \’You have been trifling with me,\’ he cried, \’I am off to the Pyramids. Good-bye!\’ and he flew away.
     All day long he flew, and at night-time he arrived at the city. \’Where shall I put up?\’ he said \’I hope the town has made preparations.\’
     Then he saw the statue on the tall column. \’I will put up there,\’ he cried; \’it is a fine position with plenty of fresh air.\’ So he alighted just between the feet of the Happy Prince.
     \’I have a golden bedroom,\’ he said softly to himself as he looked round, and he prepared to go to sleep; but just as he was putting his head under his wing, a large drop of water fell on him. \’What a curious thing!\’ he cried, \’there is not a single cloud in the sky, the stars are quite clear and bright, and yet it is raining. The climate in the north of Europe is really dreadful. The Reed used to like the rain, but that was merely her selfishness.\’
     Then another drop fell.
     \’What is the use of a statue if it cannot keep the rain off?\’ he said; \’I must look for a good chimney-pot,\’ and he determined to fly away.
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But before he had opened his wings, a third drop fell, and he looked up, and saw – Ah! what did he see?
     The eyes of the Happy Prince were filled with tears, and tears were running down his golden cheeks. His face was so beautiful in the moonlight that the little Swallow was filled with pity.
     \’Who are you?\’ he said.
     \’I am the Happy Prince.\’
     \’Why are you weeping then?\’ asked the Swallow; \’you have quite drenched me.\’
     \’When I was alive and had a human heart,\’ answered the statue, \’I did not know what tears were, for I lived in the Palace of Sans-Souci where sorrow is not allowed to enter. In the daytime I played with my companions in the garden, and in the evening I led the dance in the Great Hall. Round the garden ran a very lofty wall, but I never cared to ask what lay beyond it, everything about me was so beautiful. My courtiers called me the Happy Prince, and happy indeed I was, if pleasure be happiness. So I lived, and so I died. And now that I am dead they have set me up here so high that I can see all the ugliness and all the misery of my city, and though my heart is made of lead yet I cannot choose but weep.\’
     \’What, is he not solid gold?\’ said the Swallow to himself. He was too polite to make any personal remarks out loud.
     \’Far away,\’ continued the statue in a low musical voice,\’far away in a little street there is a poor house. One of the windows is open, and through it I can see a woman seated at a table. Her face is thin and worn, and she has coarse, red hands, all pricked by the needle, for she is a seamstress. She is embroidering passion-fowers on a satin gown for the loveliest of the Queen\’s maids-of-honour to wear at the next Court-ball. In a bed in the corner of the room her little boy is lying ill. He has a fever, and is asking for oranges. His mother has nothing to give him but river water, so he is crying. Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow, will you not bring her the ruby out of my sword-hilt? My feet are fastened to this pedestal and I cannot move.\’
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     \’I am waited for in Egypt,\’ said the Swallow. \’My friends are flying up and down the Nile, and talking to the large lotus flowers. Soon they will go to sleep in the tomb of the great King. The King is there himself in his painted coffin. He is wrapped in yellow linen, and embalmed with spices. Round his neck is a chain of pale green jade, and his hands are like withered leaves.\’
     \’Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,\’ said the Prince, \’will you not stay with me for one night, and be my messenger? The boy is so thirsty, and the mother so sad.
     \’I don\’t think I like boys,\’ answered the Swallow. \’Last summer, when I was staying on the river, there were two rude boys, the miller\’s sons, who were always throwing stones at me. They never hit me, of course; we swallows fly far too well for that, and besides, I come of a family famous for its agility; but still, it was a mark of disrespect.\’
     But the Happy Prince looked so sad that the little Swallow was sorry. \’It is very cold here,\’ he said \’but I will stay with you for one night, and be your messenger.\’
     \’Thank you, little Swallow,\’ said the Prince.
     So the Swallow picked out the great ruby from the Prince\’s sword, and flew away with it in his beak over the roofs of the town.
     He passed by the cathedral tower, where the white marble angels were sculptured. He passed by the palace and heard the sound of dancing. A beautiful girl came out on the balcony with her lover. \’How wonderful the stars are,\’ he said to her, \’and how wonderful is the power of love!\’ \’I hope my dress will be ready in time for the State-ball,\’ she answered; \’I have ordered passion-flowers to be embroidered on it; but the seamstresses are so lazy.\’
He passed over the river, and saw the lanterns hanging to the masts of the ships. He passed over the Ghetto, and saw the old Jews bargaining with each other, and weighing out money in copper scales. At last he came to the poor house and looked in. The boy was tossing feverishly on his bed, and the mother had fallen asleep, she was so tired. In he hopped, and laid the great ruby on the table beside the woman\’s thimble. Then he flew gently round the bed, fanning the boy\’s forehead with his wings. \’How cool I feel,\’ said the boy, \’I must be getting better;\’ and he sank into a delicious slumber.
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     Then the Swallow flew back to the Happy Prince, and told him what he had done. \’It is curious,\’ he remarked, \’but I feel quite warm now, although it is so cold.\’
     \’That is because you have done a good action,\’ said the Prince. And the little Swallow began to think, and then he fell asleep. Thinking always made him sleepy.
When day broke he flew down to the river and had a bath.
     \’What a remarkable phenomenon,\’ said the Professor of Ornithology as he was passing over the bridge. \’A swallow in winter!\’ And he wrote a long letter about it to the local newspaper. Every one quoted it; it was full of so many words that they could not understand.
     \’To-night I go to Egypt,\’ said the Swallow, and he was in high spirits at the prospect. He visited all the public monuments, and sat a long time on top of the church steeple. Wherever he went the Sparrows chirruped, and said to each other, \’What a distinguished stranger!\’ so he enjoyed himself very much.
     When the moon rose he flew back to the Happy Prince. \’Have you any commissions for Egypt?\’ he cried; \’I am just starting.\’
     \’Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,\’ said the Prince, \’will you not stay with me one night longer?\’
     \’I am waited for in Egypt,\’ answered the Swallow. To-morrow my friends will fly up to the Second Cataract. The river-horse couches there among the bulrushes, and on a great granite throne sits the God Memnon. All night long he watches the stars, and when the morning star shines he utters one cry of joy, and then he is silent. At noon the yellow lions come down to the water\’s edge to drink. They have eyes like green beryls, and their roar is louder than the roar of the cataract.\’
     \’Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,\’ said the Prince, \’far away across the city I see a young man in a garret. He is leaning over a desk covered with papers, and in a tumbler by his side there is a bunch of withered violets. His hair is brown and crisp, and his lips are red as a pomegranate, and he has large and dreamy eyes. He is trying to finish a play for the Director of the Theatre, but he is too cold to write any more. There is no fire in the grate, and hunger has made him faint.\’
<  6  >
     \’I will wait with you one night longer,\’ said the Swallow, who really had a good heart. \’Shall I take him another ruby?\’
     \’Alas! I have no ruby now,\’ said the Prince; \’my eyes are all that I have left. They are made of rare sapphires, which were brought out of India a thousand years ago. Pluck out one of them and take it to him. He will sell it to the jeweller, and buy food and firewood, and finish his play.\’
     \’Dear Prince,\’ said the Swallow, \’I cannot do that;\’ and he began to weep.
     \’Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,\’ said the Prince, \’do as I command you.\’
     So the Swallow plucked out the Prince\’s eye, and flew away to the student\’s garret. It was easy enough to get in, as there was a hole in the roof. Through this he darted, and came into the room. The young man had his head buried in his hands, so he did not hear the flutter of the bird\’s wings, and when he looked up he found the beautiful sapphire lying on the withered violets.
     \’I am beginning to be appreciated,\’ he cried; \’this is from some great admirer. Now I can finish my play,\’ and he looked quite happy.
     The next day the Swallow flew down to the harbour. He sat on the mast of a large vessel and watched the sailors hauling big chests out of the hold with ropes. \’Heave a-hoy!\’ they shouted as each chest came up. \’I am going to Egypt!\’ cried the Swallow, but nobody minded, and when the moon rose he flew back to the Happy Prince.
     \’I am come to bid you good-bye,\’ he cried.
     \’Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,\’ said the Prince, \’will you not stay with me one night longer?\’
     \’It is winter,\’ answered the Swallow, and the chill snow will soon be here. In Egypt the sun is warm on the green palm-trees, and the crocodiles lie in the mud and look lazily about them. My companions are building a nest in the Temple of Baalbec, and the pink and white doves are watching them, and cooing to each other. Dear Prince, I must leave you, but I will never forget you, and next spring I will bring you back two beautiful jewels in place of those you have given away. The ruby shall be redder than a red rose, and the sapphire shall be as blue as the great sea.
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     \’In the square below,\’ said the Happy Prince, \’there stands a little match-girl. She has let her matches fall in the gutter, and they are all spoiled. Her father will beat her if she does not bring home some money, and she is crying. She has no shoes or stockings, and her little head is bare. Pluck out my other eye, and give it to her, and her father will not beat her.
     \’I will stay with you one night longer,\’ said the Swallow, \’but I cannot pluck out your eye. You would be quite blind then.\’
     \’Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,\’ said the Prince, \’do as I command you.\’
     So he plucked out the Prince\’s other eye, and darted down with it. He swooped past the match-girl, and slipped the jewel into the palm of her hand. \’What a lovely bit of glass,\’ cried the little girl; and she ran home, laughing.
     Then the Swallow came back to the Prince. \’You are blind now,\’ he said, \’so I will stay with you always.\’
     \’No, little Swallow,\’ said the poor Prince, \’you must go away to Egypt.\’
     \’I will stay with you always,\’ said the Swallow, and he slept at the Prince\’s feet.
     All the next day he sat on the Prince\’s shoulder, and told him stories of what he had seen in strange lands. He told him of the red ibises, who stand in long rows on the banks of the Nile, and catch gold fish in their beaks; of the Sphinx, who is as old as the world itself, and lives in the desert, and knows everything; of the merchants, who walk slowly by the side of their camels, and carry amber beads in their hands; of the King of the Mountains of the Moon, who is as black as ebony, and worships a large crystal; of the great green snake that sleeps in a palm-tree, and has twenty priests to feed it with honey-cakes; and of the pygmies who sail over a big lake on large flat leaves, and are always at war with the butterflies.
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     \’Dear little Swallow,\’ said the Prince, \’you tell me of marvellous things, but more marvellous than anything is the suffering of men and of women. There is no Mystery so great as Misery. Fly over my city, little Swallow, and tell me what you see there.\’
     So the Swallow flew over the great city, and saw the rich making merry in their beautiful houses, while the beggars were sitting at the gates. He flew into dark lanes, and saw the white faces of starving children looking out listlessly at the black streets. Under the archway of a bridge two little boys were lying in one another\’s arms to try and keep themselves warm. \’How hungry we are\’ they said. \’You must not lie here,\’ shouted the Watchman, and they wandered out into the rain.
     Then he flew back and told the Prince what he had seen.
     \’I am covered with fine gold,\’ said the Prince, \’you must take it off, leaf by leaf, and give it to my poor; the living always think that gold can make them happy.\’
     Leaf after leaf of the fine gold the Swallow picked off, till the Happy Prince looked quite dull and grey. Leaf after leaf of the fine gold he brought to the poor, and the children\’s faces grew rosier, and they laughed and played games in the street. \’We have bread nod\’ they cried.
     Then the snow came, and after the snow came the frost. The streets looked as if they were made of silver, they were so bright and glistening; long icicles like crystal daggers hung down from the eaves of the houses, everybody went about in furs, and the little boys wore scarlet caps and skated on the ice.
     The poor little Swallow grew colder and colder, but he would not leave the Prince, he loved him too well. He picked up crumbs outside the baker\’s door when the baker was not looking, and tried to keep himself warm by flapping his wings.
     But at last he knew that he was going to die. He had just strength to fly up to the Prince\’s shoulder once more. \’Good-bye, dear Prince!\’ he murmured, \’will you let me kiss your hand?\’
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     \’I am glad that you are going to Egypt at last, little Swallow,\’ said the Prince, \’you have stayed too long here; but you must kiss me on the lips, for I love you.\’
     \’It is not to Egypt that I am going,\’ said the Swallow. I am going to the House of Death. Death is the brother of Sleep, is he not?\’
     And he kissed the Happy Prince on the lips, and fell down dead at his feet.
     At that moment a curious crack sounded inside the statue, as if something had broken. The fact is that the leaden heart had snapped right in two. It certainly was a dreadfully hard frost.
     Early the next morning the Mayor was walking in the square below in company with the Town Councillors. As they passed the column he looked up at the statue: \’Dear me! how shabby the Happy Prince looks!\’ he said.
     \’How shabby indeed!\’ cried the Town Councillors, who always agreed with the Mayor, and they went up to look at it.
     \’The ruby has fallen out of his sword, his eyes are gone, and he is golden no longer,\’ said the Mayor; \’in fact, he is little better than a beggar!\’
     \’Little better than a beggar,\’ said the Town Councillors.
     \’And there is actually a dead bird at his feet,\’ continued the Mayor. \’We must really issue a proclamation that birds are not to be allowed to die here.\’ And the Town Clerk made a note of the suggestion.
     So they pulled down the statue of the Happy Prince. \’As he is no longer beautiful he is no longer useful,\’ said the Art Professor at the University.
     Then they melted the statue in a furnace, and the Mayor held a meeting of the Corporation to decide what was to be done with the metal. \’We must have another statue, of course,\’ he said, \’and it shall be a statue of myself.\’
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     \’Of myself,\’ said each of the Town Councillors, and they quarrelled. When I last heard of them they were quarrelling still.
     \’What a strange thing!\’ said the overseer of the workmen at the foundry. \’This broken lead heart will not melt in the furnace. We must throw it away.\’ So they threw it on a dust-heap where the dead Swallow was also lying.
 \’Bring me the two most precious things in the city,\’ said God to one of His Angels; and the Angel brought Him the leaden heart and the dead bird.
     \’You have rightly chosen,\’ said God, \’for in my garden of Paradise this little bird shall sing for evermore, and in my city of gold the Happy Prince shall praise me.\’
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