Thoughts on people, teams, organizations, communities, effectiveness and success
The impetus might have been the convergence of former BP CEO John Browne’s new book on his life as a closeted exec with the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.
Or maybe it was simply bad form, like mentioning someone’s cancer prognosis or divorce when the news isn’t public.
While it wasn’t news to some in Silicon Valley, CNBC correspondent’s Simon Hobbs outing of one Fortune 500 CEO went over, as my dad would have said, “like someone loudly passing gas in church.… Read the rest
Clever won’t guarantee success though it might get you noticed.
C. S. Lewis once noted “No clever arrangement of bad eggs ever made a good omelet” and that’s a pretty smart way to size clever by itself.
So I chuckled as I saw the slogan on the back of the wait crew shirts at the recently re-opened La Rondalla restaurant in my San Francisco Mission neighborhood.… Read the rest
Outstanding talent from Hillary Clinton to Mao Tse Tung to Robert Downey, Jr. has been humbled and managed a career rebound.
Here’s one more comeback-in-progress to add to the list: Jonah Lehrer.
Lehrer’s attempt has lessons for anyone who has stumbled, made stupid mistakes, or taken a fall for someone else.
Maybe you.
Lehrer has been publicly psychoanalyzed, editorially flogged, and digitally despised.… Read the rest
There are “secrets” in the executive search trade that anyone who hopes to be headhunted (or hire a headhunter to fill an opening) should know.
A set of 10 tips are here; another 7 more are here.
Here’s an 18th tip: what you do in the search process can stick with you for a lifetime.
While the world is incredibly small – Wendy Yanowitch’s saying that “The world is made up of (just) six people and lots of mirrors” is pretty true- what you do in the search process or even what you do outside of the search process can find a home in any record a search firm keeps.… Read the rest
There are a number of ways to say goodbye to a job – some helpful and effective, some not-so-great.
Here’s a goodbye email that I received this week (names and contact info fictitious) sent blind copy from their work email account:
“I’m leaving Salesforce.com. Please use “george.richards@gmail.com.
My cell phone number will remain the same: 1-650-299-4242.
George”
What works about this blast email?… Read the rest
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum ID #65732 Eleanor Roosevelt at United Nations. Photo credit: Wikipedia
… Read the rest