Thoughts on people, teams, organizations, communities, effectiveness and success
It’s been a bad calendar quarter for funerals (two too many) but a good 90 days for learning.
The metaphorical coin that carries what you’d like to keep on one side has something that you’d like to avoid on the other; learning from others while they’re living and learning from others after they’ve passed on seems like no exception.… Read the rest
It can be tough being a candidate, whether it be for a job or even one of those roles of a more public political variety.
Even if you’re seen as a slam dunk pick (think Hillary Clinton as the “inevitable choice” during the 2008 presidential campaign), things derail. The same is true of job candidates.
A client recently was being wooed by a firm until he thought they’d gone frosty on him; his hunch was that they’d decided he was really a “generalist” in background when they’d figured out they really wanted a “specialist.… Read the rest
It was a nice compliment – as a finished a full day of facilitating and flipcharting – from a participant at an offsite I facilitated in Hong Kong.
“You have,” she said, “an amazing ability to distill what somebody said to a few words and capture it perfectly.”
“Thanks” I offered; “I’ve had lots of practice.… Read the rest
“No, no, no” I thought to myself as the senior executives at the leadership team retreat I facilitated outlined their “objectives” for the year.
A goal is simply something you plan to do; it becomes more meaningful when you have a time frame attached to it.
Goals are not, as I saw at the retreat, a rostering of things that people might do, might consider, or might explore with no time frame attached.… Read the rest
Is there a perfect first “real” job?
Probably not. But there are some real stinkers to avoid if you have the choice.
And I’m not talking about summer jobs, volunteer work, and or that paid – or unpaid internship – that might be out there. All of them, IMHO, are important.
But for serious importance it’s hard to match that first fulltime real job.… Read the rest
It’s the rare person who doesn’t want things to be better: better job, better career, better income, better everything.
And if only things were better then that person – maybe you, maybe me – would finally have the life that they deserve.
Life, it seems, seldom works that way.
The reality is that you are you, and it’s what you do with yourself that makes all the difference in the world.… Read the rest