“The top four tips to keeping your office from being a corporate playpen are best described by the acronym C.A.L.M.: communicate, anticipate, laugh and manage up.”

- from “10 ways to manage bad bosses” by Lynn Taylor of CareerBuilder.com. Under stress, we revert to childlike ways. That’s Taylor’s theory, at least. And while this guide purports to advise on handling bad bosses, it’s actually helpful for anybody who’s dealing with workplace insecurity and angst. Isn’t that everyone?

Guest Post by Sharon Meers, co-author of Getting to 50/50

Photo courtesy of Vince Tarry

Do men resent powerful women?

One of the most intriguing statistics in “A Woman’s Nation,” the recently released survey by Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress, is this: 69% of women think men resent women who have more power than they do. Only 49% of men agree.

Who knows who’s right. What we know for sure is that men and women can’t agree about power–and aren’t very comfortable talking candidly about it.

To research Getting to 50/50, the book I wrote with Joanna Strober, we found that fear of candid talk is the biggest logjam blocking the progress of women in the workplace. For one thing, men shy away from giving women honest feedback. One male CEO of a tech start-up told us: “Every senior male executive I know has been threatened with discrimination charges regardless of the goodness of their track record.” He added, “I’ve seen it make cynics out of a lot of men who started out very differently.”

All of us–men and women alike–contribute to this problem. In our politically correct workplaces, discussing male/female differences has become so taboo that the topic is broached only in heated moments, when colleagues let loose their true opinions about gender and power.

It’s a messy management issue. HR lawyers say that employers ask how to avoid suits when their priority should be retaining and promoting women, with the help of honest dialogue about everything from performance issues to maternity leaves.

But too often, men cower at giving feedback to female subordinates. That CEO of the tech start-up confessed that when he was at a big media company, his peers advised him to leave his office door open during reviews of female employees–and best to stay within earshot of his assistant so he’d have a witness if the employee made a complaint. “How much candor can you offer with your door open?” he asked me rhetorically, with understandable exasperation.

Moreover, lots of line managers keep women out of their networks (and even avoid going out to lunch with them) because it just doesn’t feel comfortable. Many managers steer clear of difficult conversations. Don’t be too hard on the guys: They’ve never been told how to engage the right way.

Rod Kramer, a professor and management expert at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, believes that men’s discomfort relates to a common insecurity: “Men often seem to think (heroically) that they should be masters at the conversation–that they should know the ‘right’ things to say.” His advice to men and women: “Be more curious about each other and their experiences. Just ask good leading questions–and invite questions in return.”

Meanwhile, women’s tendency to be super-serious (as men perceive them, at least) compounds the workplace dysfunction. “Women can make anything a chore,” a former Microsoft (MSFT) executive told me. “They’re too serious and don’t seem to understand that work is a game.”

What should women do? One of our interviewees, Larry, a partner in a national architecture firm, told us about a woman who blew up over her male colleagues’ risqué pin-ups and jocular behavior; she complained to HR and quit. Larry wishes that she had confronted the guys who offended her: “Tell guys to their face,” he says, advising women in general. “Say, ‘Hey, what’s that?’ And be funny about it. You have to do it in a way so that guys don’t feel threatened, but you are making your point.”

In the stories we heard, “right” and “wrong” were rarely obvious. But the need for a male/female lingua franca was clear.

Some wise employers are getting a jump on inventing this new language.

Deloitte, for one, has moved aggressively to bring male and female executives together to discuss questions like “Would you want your daughter to work for a company that has lower expectations for women?” Open dialogue and better insight into what women need to be successful has helped Deloitte command a lead among professional services firms in utilizing female talent.

The University of Michigan has also made strides. With backing from the National Science Foundation, the University enlisted male professors to comb research on implicit gender attitudes. For example, most people will select a resume with a male name over one with a female name, even when the resumes are identical. Professors turned their survey into a workshop and shared their insights with the University’s hiring committees. Female science hires have since risen dramatically.

It may be a long while ’til we reach 50/50. But understanding the issues and learning to understand each other is a good start.

Sharon Meers is the co-author of Getting to 50/50 and a former Managing Director at Goldman Sachs (GS).

“A key Jobs business tool is his mastery of the message. He rehearses over and over every line he and others utter in public about Apple, which authorizes only a small number of executives to speak publicly on a given topic. Key to the Jobs approach is careful consideration of what he and Apple say — and don’t say. “

–Fortune’s Adam Lashinsky on Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs. Lashinsky’s cover story, “Steve Jobs: CEO of the Decade,” in the current issue of Fortune, explains how the “showman…salesman…magician…tyrannical perfectionist” redefined not just one industry, but four: movies, music, mobile phones and computing. Check out the video below for more on how Jobs did it. –Jessica Shambora

“There hasn’t been a day in Steve’s life that he doesn’t get up, think about the company he works for, or what he’s going to do next. These are things that drive him.”

–Bill Campbell, Intuit (INTU) chairman and former CEO, about Steve Jobs–Apple’s (AAPL) CEO and Fortune’s “CEO of the Decade,” on the cover of the current issue. Once Apple’s VP of marketing and now on the board, Campbell  claims he’s never seen Jobs be anything but intense. In fact, Campbell says, Jobs is so focused on creating the next groundbreaking product, he doesn’t even stop to think about what it all means. “He wants to create something that has value, that has a legacy. ‘Legacy’ is my word. I’m not sure he ever thinks about legacy. He’s just driven like that.”

More big names in business offer their reflections on Jobs here. –Jessica Shambora

“He’s involved in details you wouldn’t think a CEO would be involved in.”

–Ken Segall, a former Chiat/Day creative director who has worked with Apple (AAPL) on and off for years, talking about Steve Jobs, Fortune’s “CEO of the Decade.” Jobs commissioned the 1997 “Think different” campaign, says Segall, long before any of Apple’s new products were introduced — or even described to the ad team. “He’d say, ‘The third word in the fourth paragraph isn’t right. You might want to think about that one.’”

The new issue of Fortune, featuring a in-depth retrospective on Jobs, hits newsstands today. –Jessica Shambora

“The threshold for the release of the first product should be, ‘What would Steve Jobs do?’”

– Marc Andreessen, venture capitalist and Netscape co-founder, who often evokes Apple (AAPL)’s maestro CEO in his advice to entrepreneurs. Andreessen is quoted in the Fortune cover package, “Steve Jobs: CEO of the decade,” hitting newsstands Friday. Fortune’s retrospective of “all things Steve” includes timelines, online photo galleries, and testimonials from Jobs’ friends and colleagues. For the next week, our Power Points–the quotes we post frequently on Postcards–will be plucked from this coverage of the world-changer whose comeback is the ultimate story of redemption. –Jessica Shambora

Situational awareness: being aware of what’s happening around you to understand how information, events, and your own actions will impact your goals and objectives.

This is how Wikipedia defines this concept that’s been bandied about a lot lately, since those Northwest (DAL) pilots got distracted on their laptops and flew wayyyy beyond Minneapolis, their destination. Whatever the rogue navigators were viewing or doing on their mini computer screens, they were oblivious to the world and to their job.

So situational unawareness can be dangerous these days.

I’ve thought about the concept a lot, actually, even before it came into vogue. Walking down Broadway to work each morning, I stare at my BlackBerry, thumb poised on my rollerball. I’m oblivious to traffic, at my peril.

Others around me are oblivious, but immobile. The New York Times recently published a rant on cellphone users who stand in the middle of sidewalks and subway stairways. “This new brand of boor,” the writer called these people. The blog post drew an avalanche of comments from readers.

Situational awareness is a challenge for every leader, from President Obama on down. “The hardest thing about my job is staying focused,” the President told 60 Minutes. And as I pointed out in a Postcard called “How the best bosses find focus,” former CEOs Meg Whitman of EBAY (EBAY), Anne Mulcahy of Xerox (XRX) and A.G. Lafley of Procter & Gamble (PG) are just a few of the corporate leaders who say that knowing what not to do is as key to success as knowing what to do.

Avon (AVP) chairman and CEO Andrea Jung, who is on the boards of Apple (AAPL) and General Electric (GE), made this same point to me last week. We were talking about Steve Jobs, actually, and Jung noted that “tightness of vision” has been one of the many reasons Apple consistently stays on course and rarely falters.

And then there’s the master of situational awareness in sports: Derek Jeter, who we’ll see tonight when the Yankees meet the Phillies in Game 1 of the World Series. In a fascinating story about the Yankee captain in the New York Times today, Jeter contends that his success is based on “simplifying things.” He’s better than almost anyone–in baseball, at least–at reducing the clutter that can overwhelm players, especially All-Stars in the spotlight. The story offers lessons for any leader–or anybody aspiring to stay in a job.

“Life is long but time is short.”

– Google (GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt, on acting boldly and taking risks. This line—along with points about passion and vision and keeping customers first—is one of 10 lessons that author Ken Auletta says he took away from researching Google for his new book, Googled: the End of the World as We Know It. Auletta’s book is due out next week from Penguin Press.

Yesterday on Postcards, we talked about viewing your career as a pyramid. That’s Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz’s image. I prefer the idea of a jungle gym. Same point: In today’s non-linear, difficult-to-predict environment, you should strive for diverse experience because the step-by-step ladder won’t take you far enough.

I was talking about this idea with Claudio Fernandez-Araoz, senior advisor at Egon Zehnder International. He’s a globetrotting Argentinian–not a headhunter like most at the big search firm, but a go-to consultant on talent development. His 2007 book, Great People Decisions, is based on research on how the best developers of talent–Southwest Airlines (LUV), McKinsey, Intuit (INTU), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), and General Electric (GE), among them–manage their high-potential people. These companies stretch their execs in all directions. And the execs learn not just multiple skills but also how to be flexible.

Fernandez-Araoz’s latest research involves “competency assessments” of executives in Japan–part of 6,000 or so talent assessments that Egon Zehnder conducts across the globe annually. To his surprise, Fernandez-Araoz told me, “In Japan, unlike in other countries, there’s a negative correlation between age and competency.” Japanese executives show higher-than-average potential early on, but later they tend to flag, according to Egon Zehnder’s research.

Actually, it’s not so surprising why “competency”–the firm’s measure of fitness for a job–declines as Japanese executives grow older. “Their potential is not being developed because they don’t switch jobs and companies and industries,” Fernandez-Araoz says, adding that in Japan’s age-based HR system, managers tend to get promoted for tenure, not competence. “This limits the development of the high-potentials, while lowering the overall level of competence.”

So go ahead, stretch yourself. And think about the four keys to successful leadership, according to Fernandez-Araoz: strategic orientation, results orientation, influence and collaboration, and team leadership. In today’s collaborative world–where success also rides on lifting confidence in all around you–team leadership, I’d guess, is most important of all of these.

“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? So this is what we’ve chosen to do with our life. We could be sitting in a monastery somewhere in Japan. We could be out sailing. Some of the [executive team] could be playing golf. They could be running other companies. And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it. And we think it is.”

– Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs said this to Fortune’s Betsy Morris last year but his words resonate now more than ever. Today, Apple reported its most profitable quarter in history, earning $1.82 a share on revenue of $9.87 billion for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2009. The results far exceeded expectations and sent shares soaring, up from the closing price of $189.86 to $202.87 by 5:41 p.m. — an all-time high. “We are thrilled to have sold more Macs and iPhones than in any previous quarter,” Jobs said in a prepared statement. While the monastery, sailing and golf are all interesting options, can there be any doubt that Jobs made the right choice? –Jessica Shambora

by Patricia Sellers

“Control your expenses better than your competition. This is where you can always find the competitive advantage.”

That was said, simply enough, by Wal-Mart (WMT) founder Sam Walton. And though today it’s widely known that Wal-Mart is the world’s most efficient retailer, a little-known fact is that for 25 years–long before Wal-Mart became America’s largest retailer–it ranked No. 1 in its industry for the lowest ratio of expenses to sales.

Efficiency runs in the water here in Bentonville, Arkansas, where I’ve spent the past 36 hours. I hadn’t been to the center of the retail universe since 1996, when Wal-Mart crossed the line of $100 billion in annual sales. This past year, the company, which started in 1962, crossed the $400 billion line.

And while it’s now 17 years since Sam has died, the rules he established when he opened his first five-and-dime, on Bentonville’s town square, still apply. On Monday night, when I had dinner with Wal-Mart financial services president Jane Thompson and seven other corporate officers, everybody chipped in $20 a piece for the wine. That’s because Wal-Mart’s founder refused to pay for alcohol of any kind.

Over at the home office (which Sam Walton preferred to “headquarters” because he thought the latter term sounded highfalutin), I ran into Mike Duke, Wal-Mart’s CEO who took charge in February. I asked Duke if I could take a peek of his office–which are Sam’s old digs–and as he escorted me into the tiny room, he noted with pride, “Same wood paneling from 30 years ago.” Duke’s fanciest decoration is an aquarium in the corner. “That’s from David Glass,” he said, referring to Wal-Mart’s chief after Sam, “and I’m just trying to keep the fish alive.” What did Duke add to the space? “Just the pictures on the wall,” he replied. Two framed photos above his desk show Sam’s first store and below that, a picture of the world. “Because that’s where we’re focused now,” the CEO said.

Before moving into Wal-Mart’s top job, Duke headed international operations and worked in a low gray shed next door. At 40,360 square feet total, this may be the world’s smallest office responsible for $100 billion in sales. (Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRKB) headquarters in Omaha comes close, in terms of efficiency. See Monday’s Postcard on “How Warren Buffett manages his managers“). Now Doug McMillon, who succeeded Duke as international chief, works out of the unsightly barracks, where a few fortunate execs get a jailhouse-type window through which, as Duke says, you have to crank your neck to see the sun.

I was invited to Bentonville by Wal-Mart’s women officers, a group that just passed 100 in number and self-finance their events by chipping in $100 each every year–another mark of management’s extreme self-denial. (Anyone who sells to Wal-Mart knows that its managers aren’t allowed to accept even a bottle of water without paying for it.) Yesterday, at their special ”Fortune Most Powerful Women” event, I interviewed Susan Chambers, EVP of Wal-Mart’s Global People Division, and Ursula Burns, the new CEO of Xerox (XRX)–which you’ll read more about on Postcards later. Before the day ended, Thompson, the financial services chief, drove me past the spot where Sam Walton is buried, alongside his wife, Helen. It’s a barely noticeable grave in a crowded cemetery tucked behind Wal-Mart’s home office. Even in the afterlife, Sam Walton is saving money.

Warren Buffett calls the CEOs who run his companies “All-Stars.”

The world’s most renowned investor picks his managers practically as well as his stocks. But branding the bosses of businesses owned by Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) “All-Stars” may also be a clever people-management ploy on his part–to inject so much confidence in his people that they feel they must be the best…and duly pressured, they are.

At the recent Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit (where Buffett, one of the few male attendees, says, “For a guy who couldn’t get a date in high school, this is heaven”), he and two of his All-Stars clued us in on how he motivates.

One “All-Star” in attendance, Cathy Baron Tamraz, sold her company, Business Wire, to Buffett sight unseen, after speedy negotiations by phone, in 2006. The deal worked out well, because “if I had met her, I would have paid more,” Buffett said, calling the news-distribution service “a fabulously successful business.”

Tamraz suspects that Buffett has a psychology degree because, she said, “Warren makes us feel like we can do no wrong.” He’s no trained psychologist, but he may be as good as one. “It’s a very frightening thing to do to us,” Tamraz said. “We’re not going to sleep at night because we’re going to get it right every single day. It’s extraordinary.”

The other “All-Star” at the Summit: Susan Jacques, the CEO of Borsheims Fine Jewelry and Gifts in Omaha. Twenty-seven years ago, Buffett explained, Jacques arrived at Borsheims as a $4-an-hour clerk. He detected certain skills in this dynamic young woman from Zimbabwe, and 12 years later he made her CEO of the jewelery retailer. The promotion surprised many people, he admitted, but “she turned out to be a fabulous CEO.”

Jacques said that the best advice she’s gotten from Buffett comes in a memo that he sends to his 77 All-Stars every couple of years. Every memo includes some version of this message:

We can afford to lose money–even a lot of money. We cannot afford to lose reputation–even a shred of reputation. Let’s be sure that everything we do in business can be reported on the front page of a national newspaper in an article written by an unfriendly but intelligent reporter. In many areas, including acquisitions, Berkshire’s results have benefitted from its reputation, and we don’t want to do anything that in any way can tarnish it. Berkshire is ranked by Fortune as the second-most admired company in the world. It took us 43 years to get there, but we could lose it in 43 minutes.

“This is the mantra I use every day in both my personal and professional life,” Jacques said, noting three more pieces of wisdom from Buffett: “Think like an owner. Tell us bad news right away. And if you don’t know jewelery, know your jeweler.”

P.S. Buffett introduced a Summit session called Most Powerful Women in Small Business, which spotlighted a new program from Fortune and American  Express (AXP)–where Buffett is the largest shareholder. We selected 10 extraordinary female entrepreneurs and brought them to the Summit. Stay tuned to Postcards for more about this new initiative.

by Jessica Shambora

Who’s hiring? Hardly anybody, yet. But as you dream about recovery, you’d better be thinking about how to upgrade your talent. You’ll be hiring again someday. Really.

We talked about hiring at the recent Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, where this year’s theme was “Betting on the Future.” A session called “Building a Standout Start-up” was led by two CEOs who are in major hiring mode. We thought we’d share some of their expertise.

Susan Lyne, who left the helm of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO) to run the much-buzzed-about Gilt Groupe, is in a hiring frenzy. When she joined the company a year ago, there were 55 employees. Today Gilt Groupe employs more than 300. That equates to adding 10 employees every week.

When she arrived at Gilt, Lyne inherited a policy: No one can be hired after  being interviewed only by people in their intended department. “They always have to meet with two or three other departments so that there’s a consensus–so there’s a cultural fit,” Lyne says. This can mean six different interviews for some candidates.

It’s worth it. “It’s often hard to articulate exactly what makes a fit,” the Gilt boss explains, “but people tend to know it when they see it. So if you can get someone out to enough people, you tend not to make the same mistakes.”

Gina Bianchini, CEO of Ning, co-lead the “Standout Start-up” session with Lyne. She launched her company, which helps you build your own customized social-network, with the help of Netscape founder Mark Andreessen. What does she look for in recruits? Exceptional passion and comfort with uncertainty, she says.

Bianchini illustrated her point by telling a story about hiring Ning’s chief technology officer, Diego Doval. She found her Doval by reading his blog. The fellow was getting his PhD at Trinity College in Ireland and, she says, clearly had a passion for “large-scale distributed networks,” which is what Ning is all about. He was from Argentina–which turned out to be quite appealing. “He was telling us in our initial conversation how in one day the price of bread would go from 50 cents to $50,” Bianchini explains. “I was like, ‘You’re hired.’ Because that is truly the reality of a start-up situation.”

Bianchini seeks “people who have been through high highs and low lows,” she says, recalling the dotcom bust in 2001. Back then, she was struck by how many people showed up in her office with “looks of terror.” Many had come from big companies; that’s what everyone was doing then. Although she was much younger than many of these execs, she found herself telling them: ‘You’re going to have to chill out. You’re going to have to just get it together because this is an uncertain situation, but we need to move forward.”

She finds herself saying the same thing today.

All the more reason to hire wisely. And then you have to build the culture. Lyne certainly knows about culture, coming from Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and Walt Disney (DIS). At Gilt, where so much talent is coming on board so fast, she says she has to communicate more than ever before. So every morning at 10 a.m., Lyne holds an “all hands” meetings for any employees who want a daily update on the company’s doings and direction.

Culture-building also includes events like bowling nights and Halloween dress-up. These are also ways to “democratize perceptions” of Gilt’s leaders, Lyne says. Translation? “I’m not great at karaoke,” she adds.

P.S. We agree that comfort with uncertainty is a must for any leader today. Former Avon (AVP) President Liz Smith, who recently left to become a CEO elsewhere, has talked about it. So has new Xerox (XRX) CEO Ursula Burns, who says that the best managers “make a decision, and when they find out it’s not right, they change and get on with it.” American Express (AXP) CEO Ken Chenault, in this post, noted one of his favorite quotes from Darwin: “It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most adaptive to change.”

The uncut version of Yahoo (YAHOO) CEO Carol Bartz’s first-person “Just Deal With It,” which we published on Postcards last Monday, drew lots of traffic. So we’re giving you an unedited version of another first-person piece that appeared in Fortune’s Most Powerful Women issue (September 28). This one is by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. The most senior woman at Google (GOOG) before she joined Facebook, Sandberg is one of the fastest rising stars in business–leaping to No. 22, from No. 34, on this year’s MPWomen list–and one of the youngest too. Her resume includes two degrees from Harvard, stints at the World Bank and the U.S. Treasury, board memberships at Starbucks (SBUX) and the Brookings Institution…and she’s only 40.

In fact, it was Sandberg’s out-of-the-blue phone call from Mexico, where she was celebrating her 40th birthday with old girlfriends, that led to this piece. “I want to write something called “Don’t Leave Before You Leave,” about young women cutting back their career ambition, and would you consider running it your Most Powerful Women issue?” she asked me over a static-y cell connection. I immediately said “Yes” because I knew Sandberg’s commitment to encouraging the next generation of women leaders. (Her home dinner gatherings of established and up-and-coming women are sought-after invites in Silicon Valley.) I also knew Sandberg to be an adept juggler of family and career. What I didn’t know: She can write. So here is Sheryl Sandberg’s “Don’t Leave Before You Leave,” the unedited version:

Last week at work I had a conversation with a woman I will call Jamie. We have a new project, and I offered her the opportunity to be its leader.  She seemed flattered to be asked but then quickly became very hesitant. She told me she wasn’t sure she should take on more right now. Just before she got up to leave, I looked at her and quietly asked, “Are you worried about taking this on because you are considering getting pregnant sometime soon?”

A few years ago I would have been afraid to ask such a direct and personal question. Nothing is more private than the decision to have a child. Bringing up that topic in the workplace feels like a dangerous thing to do.  We are not supposed to show any bias or take childbearing plans into account as we manage people. But after watching talented woman after talented woman let her career go before she actually leaves it, I now ask this question and I ask it directly.

I always give people the option of not answering, but so far, everyone has appeared grateful for a chance to talk.  There is just one reason why I ask–to make sure people aren’t leaving before they leave.

Here is what happens.  An ambitious and successful woman starts considering having children, typically once she finds a domestic partner. She thinks hard about how busy she is and realizes that finding time for a child means something will have to give. As soon as that thinking process starts, she is already looking for ways to scale back. She no longer searches for new opportunities; if any are presented to her, she is likely to decline or offer the kind of hesitant “yes” that gets the project assigned to someone else, just like “Jamie” did last week in my office.

The problem is that even if she gets pregnant immediately, she still has nine months of pregnancy ahead of her, months of maternity leave and then another lengthy period after returning to work to even catch her breath. And since women usually start the thinking process before even trying to conceive, often several years actually pass. By the time she is back to focusing on her career, she is in a radically different place than she was before.

She was always a top performer–always on par with her peers in responsibility, opportunity, and pay. But now she is not. By not finding ways to stretch herself during the years before she has a child, she has fallen behind.

While I don’t believe that the choice to work fulltime and be a parent is the right choice for everyone, it is a wonderful–and often necessary–choice for many people. I also believe that once you have a child, it becomes necessary to make real changes, including potentially deemphasizing your career. But slowing down too early is a mistake that too many women make today, often without even realizing it. Because they sincerely want to stay in the workforce, they try to make room for everything and they slow down–or unconsciously pull back–well before their circumstances actually change. By the time they fully return, they are in jobs that no longer challenge or reward them enough to hold their attention.

I don’t know any women–or men for that matter–who do not have days when they wonder if leaving their children in someone else’s care for their careers is the right thing to do. I know I do. If your job feels less fulfilling because you have been in the same role for too long or are no longer paid comparably to your peers, that choice becomes a hard one to make day after day. One of the tragic ironies for working women today is that the very desire to stay in the workforce leads to decisions that eventually cause them to leave.

No one can know in advance the choices they will make after going through a life change as profound as becoming a parent. But if you want to preserve the option of staying in the workforce and building a career, my advice is simple.  Stay fully engaged, take on new and interesting challenges, and do so until you have a child. Keep your foot on the gas pedal until your life actually changes. Then you can make the decision to keep driving quickly, slow down, or step out of the car.

I joined Facebook as its COO when I had just returned to work from having my second child. The timing was far from ideal. As many people had told me–but I had not believed–having two children was more than double the work of having one. At the time I was not looking for a new opportunity but rather trying to get through each day. But both my husband and I recognized that if I waited until the time was exactly right, the opportunity would be gone. So I jumped in.

I can’t say it was easy. The first six months were a struggle both at work and at home. But now I am settled in, finding just enough balance to make it work, and learning and growing with new responsibilities and challenges.  Looking back, if I hadn’t taken on something new, I might easily have left the workforce by now, because it would not have been worth making the daily tradeoffs to continue in the job I’d held for the previous six years.

There is a broader lesson here that applies not just to women contemplating starting a family, but to anyone trying to plan for the future. Making decisions too early, trying to plan life too carefully, can close doors rather than keep them open. Any time you make a plan, you do it with imperfect information; the further in advance you make that plan, the less information you have. You never know how you will feel or what choices you might face.  Take life one step at a time and don’t make decisions before you have to.

A few months ago we were interviewing a fantastic woman to join Facebook’s Business Development team. After we extended an offer, she came in to ask some follow-up questions about the role. She did not mention lifestyle or hours. But she was the typical age of the people who leave before they leave.  So I shocked her by asking the question no one asks. “Priti,” I said, “I’m sorry for bringing up something so personal, and feel free to tell me you don’t want to discuss it. But just in case you are thinking that you might want to have a child sometime soon and need to stay where you are to have room to slow down, I’d love a chance to tell you why that makes it even more important that you change jobs now.”

Priti accepted our offer. And just a few weeks later, she found out she was pregnant. Her timing could not have been better.

Addendum: The Starbucks Via Taste Challenge kicks off Friday and runs through Monday in Starbucks stores across the U.S. and Canada. But I got a head start Tuesday morning, as I noted in the post below: I disagree with CEO Howard Schultz’s “guarantee” that you won’t be able to tell the difference between Starbucks’ drip and its new instant (or “ready brew,” as he calls it). Starbucks Bold drip handily beat Bold Via in my taste test–for what it’s worth. This morning (Wednesday) at my local Starbucks, I tried the lower-test brews: Pike Place drip vs. Columbia Mild Via, side by side. Verdict: Via wins. Then again, what true coffee lover loves Pike Place?

“We’ve literally cracked the code on being able to replicate a cup of Starbucks coffee that I can guarantee you would not be able to tell the difference.”

- Starbucks (SBUX) CEO Howard Schultz on his entry today into the $20-plus billion instant coffee market. I tried Via, Starbucks’ new product, this morning: The barista served me a cup of the new instant bold brew and a cup my usual bold drip coffee, and I drank them side by side.

Howard, I have to tell you, they do taste different. Your new Via lacks the burnt taste that causes some people to call Starbucks “Charbucks.” I actually prefer the burnt taste of your bold drip. Via seems to me to be short on flavor. Though the barista insisted that the regular Via is better than Pike Place drip.

It’s interesting that Starbucks is introducing its value brand, Via (“less than a dollar a cup,” notes Schultz in the video below), the same week that the guy who tried to balance value and quality and got the boot, Jim Donald, landed a new CEO job elsewhere. Former Starbucks chief executive Donald, whom Schultz replaced with himself in January 2008, has been under the radar for almost two years (roaming, rowing, speaking, teaching, and serving on boards), but he just accepted a job as CEO of Haggen, a food and drugstore chain based in Washington state. (Haggen’s website claims that it was the first grocer to have an in-store Starbucks Coffee shop, in 1989.) Donald’s earlier career was in grocery–senior posts at Safeway (SWY), Wal-Mart (WMT), and Pathmark–so he’s going back to his roots.–Patricia Sellers

Xerox’s $6.4 billion deal to buy Affiliated Computer Services–which walloped the stock yesterday–is evidence that new CEO Ursula Burns knows what she wants and won’t waste time getting it. “Top line revenue growth,” Burns replied, at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit, when asked what is Xerox’s “unfinished business.”

The Summit interview was the first public sit-down for Burns and Anne Mulcahy since the former took over from the latter in the historic CEO handoff this past July. (It was the first time that a woman succeeded another woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company.) And despite the ease of their transition (Mulcahy, still chairman, called it “startlingly seemless”), Burns hereby IDs herself as a grower vs. a cost-cutter–the latter being Mulcahy’s  identity since she rescued Xerox from near-bankruptcy almost a decade ago.

If the Xerox-ACS deal goes through–which is likely despite early investor angst (Xerox stock is up today)–how big will the new Xerox (XRX) be? It will have more than $22 billion in revenue, vaulting Xerox up the Fortune 500 to the territory of Google (GOOG) and Oracle (ORCL)–though, as tech investors know, Oracle is a ravenous acquirer and sure to leap up the rankings too. Via the ACS (ACS) buyout, though, Xerox will likely climb past Nike (NKE) and giant utility Exelon (EXC) on the Fortune 500.

Quite a rise for Burns, who started at Xerox as an intern in 1980 and hardly imagined she’d rise to the top. (She is also the first black female CEO of a Fortune 500 company.) Click here to read a smart take by my colleague Jon Fortt, who interviewed Burns yesterday. And here is Ann Moore, the CEO of Time Inc. (TWX), Fortune’s parent, interviewing Burns and Mulcahy at the Most Powerful Women Summit two weeks ago.–Patricia Sellers

It’s hard to believe this is August. Because I’m working way too hard.

You too?

Unless you’re one of the growing multitude out of work–with no job at all–no doubt you are. Here’s evidence of the working-too-hard trend in a new McKinsey study called “Leaders in the Crisis”: Executives are working harder than ever–55 hours per week, vs. 45, on average,  before the global economic crisis began.

McKinsey also suggests that executives aren’t being very smart about how to motivate employees in these trying times. Executives whom they surveyed said they motivate their people mainly by “talking about company’s values and direction” and “talking about company’s financial performance.”

Seriously, how can you inspire when “financial performance” is probably nothing to brag about?

A better way to motivate workers, McKinsey’s consultants suggest, is to help build their skills, publicly recognize high performance, and show interest beyond their work. “Making personal connections and helping managers find meaning in their work” is more important than ever, McKinsey contends.

This onus on executives also makes leading and managing more difficult than ever before. Want advice? Check out yesterday’s Postcards Guest Post, “How to Inspire Your People”, by MediaCom CEO Stephen Allan, who is quite savvy on the subject. Incidentally, after reading the post yesterday, WPP (WPPGY) CEO Martin Sorrell, who is Allan’s boss, emailed me to say that his message is right on.

If you’re really stressed out and working too hard, my best advice is: Do not move to Asia. A study of “Prices and Earnings” in cities across the globe, released by UBS (UBS) yesterday, is trove of fascinating stats, and among them: People work 1,902 hours per year, on average, in the cities that UBS surveyed, but they work longest in Asian cities. The average in Asia: 2,119 hours annually. The most onerous work hours, actually, are in Cairo, where employees clock 2,373 hours annually. Seoul comes in a close second.

And who, among global citizens, are smartest in terms of holding a job and keeping short hours? Workers in Lyon and Paris, says the UBS survey. Oh, how I envy the French, especially in August!

by Stephen Allan, Worldwide Chairman and CEO of MediaCom

As CEO of MediaCom, it’s my job to hold onto our best people and keep them happy and motivated. Today, when challenges to morale threaten around every bend, this task is harder than ever. Nonetheless, I do believe there are clear ways to keep people inspired and engaged. At MediaCom, we do this with the help of a program we call Freshness.

Freshness is a series of initiatives designed to motivate, teach new skills and stimulate curiosity. It covers everything from life coaching to creativity training to professional development programs. Our goal is to make our people look forward to coming to work everyday and also develop as people—professionally and personally.

We launched Freshness in 2005 in MediaCom’s U.K. operation, which has helped that business consistently place highest in its sector in the prestigious annual Sunday Times “Best Companies to Work For” list. Early this year, we rolled out Freshness across our network of 110 offices in 90 countries.

One of my favourite Freshness initiatives is “If I Ran the Company…” This competition involves every single member of the MediaCom staff worldwide. I like it because it encourages everyone to have a say in how MediaCom is run and also helps us evolve in a rapidly changing media landscape.

It works like this: The entire staff in each office is split up randomly into teams. Then they’re given one broad brief to think about. This year, the brief was to come up with an actionable idea that would help us deliver our vision: “MediaCom has the world’s best culture for curious, forward-thinking people.” Then, each team must pitch its idea to management–in two minutes.

Each year, the winning idea is put into action and, ideally, becomes an integral part of our culture. This year’s winning idea came from a team in our Austrian office. They proposed Inspiration Days, where everyone in the company would be entitled to one day every year spent away from the office, learning about or indulging in some non-work-related but inspiring activity. An employee’s only obligation is to give a presentation about their day to their colleagues–thus spreading the inspiration through the company.

We liked the idea because it’s extremely simple and can be implemented immediately and everywhere. And despite its simplicity, the benefits–in terms of keeping our staff motivated and in bringing new perspectives into MediaCom–are potentially immense. We’ve seen the payoffs, which are more than coincidental. In the UK, post-Freshness, we’ve dramatically increased the number of creative awards that we’ve won. We’ve become the biggest media agency in the country–the first to top £1 billion in billings.

And in Asia, one year after we introduced Freshness, our number of industry award wins–primarily for creativity and innovation–increased threefold.

Besides those benefits, the very existence of the competition pays off. The random teams mean that people who don’t usually work together spend time with each other. And the fact that all 4,000 of our staff are working on the same brief and pitching on the same day strengthens the “network-ness” of MediaCom.

And, of course, we end up with a shortlist drawn from 500 great, transformative ideas to help keep us ahead of our competition. One winning submission in the U.K. devised a ‘green initiative’ that, after we implemented it, secured MediaCom a place among the 10 greenest companies in the U.K., according to The Sunday Times.

The real evidence of success is our people–remember, my job is to keep them happy and motivated. Well, according to our surveys, 80% of our employees say that Freshness helps them be more creative; 82% feel safe to step out of their comfort zone at work. And 86% think Freshness makes their job more fun.

And in these trying times, couldn’t we all use a little more fun?

Stephen Allan is Worldwide Chairman and CEO of MediaCom, a WPP (WPPGY) company and one of the world’s largest strategic media planning and buying agency networks. MediaCom’s clients include Audi, Dell (DELL), Diageo (DEO), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Hasbro (HAS), Subway, Staples (SPLS), Warner Bros. (TWX), Volkswagen (VLKAY), Shell (RDSA), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

You never know who your summer intern will turn out to be. In 1980, Ursula Burns was a summer intern in mechanical engineering at Xerox (XRX). Last month, she became CEO there. In 1985, Sallie Krawcheck was a summer intern at Fortune. She later climbed to the top tier of Citigroup (C), where she served as CFO and ran a $13 billion wealth management unit. Last week, Krawcheck moved to Bank of America (BAC) to head its global wealth and investment management business.

So, treat your intern well. He or she could be your boss someday. As we mention in the current Fortune, smart bosses employ interns to learn how the world is changing. Morgan Stanley (MS) recently published a report on digital media that was written by a 15-year-old summer intern. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) CTO Phillip McKinney has interns live with him–to help him understand young consumers.

Another company that manages interns well is Siemens Hearing Instruments, a unit of German-based Siemens AG (SI). Here’s Christi Pedra, president and CEO of Siemens Hearing, with some advice for giving interns the best summer experience and getting value in return:

When I attended college (could it really be 30 years ago?), we picked majors that were suitable to a lifetime career in one field. With one position in mind. You could be an accountant or a nurse or a teacher. If you graduated with a general business degree, you hoped for a long career at IBM (IBM), Xerox or some financial institution.

Steadfast and secure. That was then.

This is now. It’s acceptable to change jobs frequently, or pursue a totally new career. With life expectancy approaching 80, you could easily have three or four successful and distinct careers.

As CEO of Siemens Hearing, how can I help young people navigate the bridge from college to career?

When I joined Siemens Hearing in 2007, I launched a summer intern program–and in designing it, I took input from my nieces and my son who were in the midst of internships (good and bad). One of my nieces had a great experience at a PR firm in New York City. The CEO invited all the interns to a reception in his home midway through the summer. In contrast, my other niece complained about getting an assignment that her supervisor assumed would take several days. When she finished the project early, there was no one to ask for the next assignment–because her manager went on vacation for three days. The better part of her week was spent browsing the Internet, trying to look busy!

We used these lessons, along with ideas from our employees, to shape our program, which has turned out to be really successful. A few ideas I’ll share:

First of all, we make a big deal for our managers to get interns. Department managers submit a proposal for a project that can be completed in 10 weeks. It must have a measurable outcome and benefit to the business. The best proposals are granted interns. HR helps in the sourcing and selection process. For the last three summers, we’ve hired 12 to 16 interns in their third or fourth year of college, and we pay them attractive wages–on average $18 an hour.

Second, we make it challenging. We give interns assignments that matter to them and to us.  This is not a shadow experience. The interns report to a department manager and are assigned a mentor. They’re assigned tasks as part of a cross-functional project team and manage assignments against a time line. I’ve had interns co-author a research paper, redesign a manufacturing line that resulted in a 24% productivity improvement, conduct and publish interviews for on-line media, and create video marketing segments.

Third, we make it real. Each year, we have our interns present their assignments. It used to be that the audience consisted of intern supervisors and me. But over the past couple of years, interest grew so much that we opened it up to all managers and department colleagues. Last year, intern presentation day was standing room only; this year, we reconfigured our training room to accommodate more than 30 attendees. Once again, the intern projects far exceeded expectations. For example, our interns simplified manufacturing tool kits, audited and redefined work instructions, developed internal communication campaigns and validated software. Ten weeks ago, they entered Siemens Hearing Instruments as students, and now they will be leaving us as professionals.

The results have been truly rewarding. We’ve offered permanent employment to at least one intern from each summer program. We’ve hired these interns in sales support, web marketing and finance. A win-win for all. And this year, we expect to extend two intern assignments into the fall and hire another two interns into permanent positions.

I kind of wish I were 22 again.

Unlike the job-hopping young people she writes about, Pedra has been with Siemens for more than 20 years. She graduated from Montclair State University and earned her MBA at Rutgers.

Tuesday’s Guest Post by Starbucks barista Sun Min Kimes jolted Postcards readers like a pot of extra bold Joe. We got over 50 comments–the most comments, as well as the most traffic, of any Guest Post we’ve run except for “The Great Depression, as I remember” by Walt Stoiber.

She struck a chord. As one reader, Oliver in Chicago, said, “Move this person to the Executive suite ASAP!”

Thank you for the comments. We welcome them, always.

And in this case, we’re hoping that Howard Schultz, the man who built Starbucks (SBUX) and is now the company’s chairman and CEO, read his passionate employee’s–or as says, partner’s–good advice.

For Schultz and all the other folks rooting for a Starbucks turnaround, here are a few highlight comments:

Tom in Denver wrote: “PLEASE, Howard, dedicate just one register in the morning for drip coffee. I have a simple order: ‘Grande House.’” Several Starbucks managers replied that this idea is good in theory but not in practice–and not a path to better profitability.

Jim in Florida suggested more promotions to compete with an ever-more aggressive McDonald’s (MCD): “SBUX could probably get more business if they offered some more promos. McD’s has been giving out coupons for free breakfast sandwiches with purchase of a latte ($3 in my area). It ends up being not a bad deal, considering the latte itself is kind of pricey IMO.”

John, a former Starbucks manager in Philadelphia, griped that corporate is more “focused on communicating profit than they are communicating the side of Starbucks that matters.” He noted that “Howard Schultz went on a training rampage about 2 years ago.” But training has slipped, and “a store manager faced with mandatory spending cuts will likely cut training for a Shift Supervisor or Barista and put them directly on the floor.”

Kevin, a Starbucks store manager in Pittsburgh, agreed thay more training is needed, adding, “I have parters ready to attend the Starbucks Experience class but can’t because no one is available to teach it. What happened to Situational Leadership class, or Supervisory Skills class?”

And Donna in Christiansburg, Va. offers advice that I wholeheartedly agree with: “Please turn down the music. Sometimes it is so loud I can’t concentrate on what I’m reading or hear my partner’s conversation.”