[Life Back West] January 2011 – “Most Likely to Succeed?”

David Brailer does not have  a background that causes you automatically to pick him as most likely to succeed.

And that’s why his success story is interesting for me as an executive coach, and why it holds at least two insights helpful for you.

Brailer grew up in the coal mining town of Kingwood, West Virginia; his father was a coal miner and later a maintenance supervisor, and his mother a surgical nurse.… Read the rest

[More Hoax of the “A” Players] NFL Version: The Curse of the “Best” Talent Available

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Talent Wars: The “A” PlayerHoax details an HR practice called “tograding.” The approach has some good advice (depthful, behaviorally focused interviews with well trained interviews) mixed with an often simplistic, and unproven application techniques.

Check out this tograding promotional blurb:

“Can you reliably pick the right people?

CEOs report that “picking the right people” is one of their most serious challenges.Read the rest

The Job Hunt: When the Shoe Fits

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Most everyone wants a job or role that “works:” sufficiently challenging to keep you engaged, room for growth, pays fairly (aka “well”) in the form of monetary or psychological (if it’s volunteer work) compensation, fits in your schedule, fits with your geographic preferences, and comes with a boss and co-workers that you like and respect.

In other words, we want to it all.… Read the rest

The 3R’s of How-to-Job-Network: Small Town, Big City

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Research supports that networking is the best way for most (people like you, as Richard Nelson Bolles of What Color is Your Parachute fame and I would suggest) to find your next job.  It’s estimated that 80% of job openings are unlisted, which means that most jobs will be filled through networking, not tossing a resume into a company’s applicant tracking system or even having coffee with your favorite executive recruiter.… Read the rest

Jed York: When the Boss Needs A Helping Hand

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The boss, it turns out is, human.

That can be hard to believe in an age where CEOs can be paid a lot of money and deified at the drop of a hat. But it’s true, and easy to spot when the CEO is younger, less experienced, and front and center of the spotlight. With the pile-on week for 49er’s President Jed York by journalists and fans (and me too) still in process following the firing of 49er head coach Mike Singletary, it helps to remember that Jed York is all of 29 years old.… Read the rest

“How long should I wait until I look for another job after realizing the one I just got isn’t the right fit for me?”

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My twitter friend Hutch Carpenter noted (tweeted actually) that “Quora is the new black” – always a signal that something may become popular – the website provides an interesting mix of questions and answers in a quasi-curated format. Co-founders Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever and the rest of the team have created for the moment a site what provides a rich collection of questions and answers on a host of topics.… Read the rest