From Bad LinkedIn Profiles To Breaking Up Amazon: June’s Top Leadership Stories

This month, recruiters share with us what the worst LinkedIn profiles have in common, the possible implications of Amazon’s announcement to acquire Whole Foods, and why you might want to stop sending those “friendly reminder” emails.

These are the stories you loved in Leadership for the month of June:

1. Recruiters Explain What The Worst LinkedIn Profiles Have In Common

When recruiters need to find someone to hire, LinkedIn is the first place they go. That means going through a lot of boring and unmemorable profiles. This week they shared what makes them pass by immediately. For instance: If your headline just restates your unexciting job title, you’re probably getting overlooked.

2. It’s Time To Break Up Amazon

This month, Amazon announced that it’s buying Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. Media theorist and digital economics professor Douglas Rushkoff argues that the deal poses a threat that’s unique to the digital economy. As he sees it, when companies are platforms, they see every new market they enter as a means to an end—and eventually “extract all the value from a given region before closing up shop and moving to the next one.”

3. This Emotional Intelligence Test Was So Accurate It Was Creepy

When Fast Company associate editor Rich Bellis took an emotional intelligence test, the results took him by surprise. Not because it was completely unexpected–but because he found them to be incredibly accurate. So much so that when he asked the developer of the test, Steven J. Stein, what he can do to be more “flexible” (one of the traits Bellis didn’t score high on)–Stein made a guess that Bellis ate almost the same breakfast every day (which he does), and suggested that he shake it up.

4. Everyone Secretly Hates Your “Friendly Reminder” Email

You know those emails you send when you’re trying to follow up on something? The kind that starts in “Just a friendly reminder that.” If you’re about to send one right now, you might want to hold off. At least don’t start with those phrases in an attempt to seem more polite, because you won’t. Instead, consider being more direct and sending a calendar invite, or even picking up the phone to send a clear signal that you need something actioned ASAP. No one likes to be reminded, so there’s no point being passive-aggressive about it.

5. My Company Tried Slack For Two Years. This Is Why We Quit.

Slack has become almost synonymous with office communication. Whether it’s hashing out your Monday lunch plans with your colleagues or giving your boss quick updates on where you’re at with your project, many conversations in the office these days happen over the real-time messaging platform. But Slack’s impact on office productivity has been debated. One productivity app company, Doist, adopted the platform in a bid to make their remote workforce feel more like a team. But then in the words of their founder and CEO, they “quit Slack cold turkey” after two years. He listed out several reasons why Slack didn’t work for their team, including its unsuitability for big-picture discussions and impossibility to “sustain a full conversation from start to finish.”

6. 3 Secrets Of People Who Always Get Job Offers

Some people seem to have all the luck. They land their dream jobs without filling in the time-consuming job applications—come to think of it, are you sure they even sent in a resume? So what’s their secret? In a nutshell, being willing to break a few rules of the job search can go a long way.

7. How To Write A Work Email When You’re Really Pissed Off

There will be times in your working life when you’re really angry and need to write an email to check in on whatever it is that got you fired up. Your first instinct might be to pour your heart out, or else to spend so long agonizing over your response that all the words on the screen start to blur. Don’t do either. Writer and editor Jennifer Romolini shares how to keep it short, simple, and as emotionless as possible.

8. Do These Four Things To Make Your Boring Presentation Sound Interesting

It’s hard to make all presentations interesting. Yes, you can include a compelling anecdote, but when all you have to go on is facts and figures, it’s really difficult not to resort to slideshow reading mode and put your audience to sleep. Speaking coach Anett Grant offers some tips on how you can make those types of presentations less boring, like including an unfamiliar piece of information and turning your data into striking visuals.

9. A Former Navy SEAL On The Hidden Influencers In Every Team

Every organization has a formal structure, but hidden within it are informal relationships that influence every team member’s actions and decisions. This month Chris Fussell, a former Navy SEAL, recounted having to teach this to a new civilian he once hired. His method? Fussell put his new hire on a 90-day crash course in spotting their team’s hidden, unofficial influencers. Here’s how it worked.

10. This Flowchart Tells You Which Fictional Boss You Are

Everyone’s leadership style is different–and like everything else in life, there’s no consensus on which one is best. That might be why TV shows portray bosses in so many ways, from ice-cold and buttoned up to go-with-the-flow and slightly disorganized. If you want to know how your leadership style stacks up to your favorite onscreen characters, this flowchart is for you.