Thoughts on people, teams, organizations, communities, effectiveness and success
It’s been a tough few weeks for standards.
While the details and allegations aren’t settled, the arc of the scandals involving Herman Cain, the Penn State University football child sex abuse case, Tokyo-based Olympus CEO firing and coverup, and the Jon Corzine -MF Global debacle is familiar; people betrayed positions of public trust.
There are standards that everyone flaunts (Are you driving 60 miles per hour in a 55 mph zone?… Read the rest
There are jobs that last a lifetime, and jobs that are over before they really start. In between is the job that has a predictable arc with a start and a finish; you just need to know when it’s time to move on.
And in the C suite, where fortunes might be made, and juggling competing egos and agendas can be a full day’s work all in itself, the risks and rewards of figuring this timing stuff out is even greater.… Read the rest
Steve Jobs changed millions of lives. I know; he changed mine too.
From time to time people come along who greatly inform you, either by their immediate presence or the impact of their work.
Jobs did both; from the “insanely great” products he strove (and drove others crazy) to build to the example he set as a maverick (“pirate” might be his preferred youthful self-description).… Read the rest
Being a CEO of a public company used the be the ultimate role for anyone in business. So when did it become so undesirable – and just a stepping stone to a better things down the road?
Jobs and roles in companies go through cycles. ABC’s Pan Am shows us that being an airline stewardess was the hot job to land for working women in the 1960’s (boy, does that concept seem dated) and NBC’s The Office vilifies most roles, unless you’re the boss, in organizations today for the unpleasantness you have to tolerate to survive.… Read the rest
Sports are an imperfect analogue.
But like Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, analogues and metaphors provide representations that if properly understood can give us insight to the real world – not simply shadows on the cave wall.
So what does this have to do with the most American (as in the United States and Canada – not the rest of the countries in the Americas) of sports, baseball?… Read the rest
Journalist (and Twitter friend) Kara Swisher noted regarding the Carol Bartz debacle that “there really is no good time to fire someone.”
I think Kara’s work is great, and I’d suggest otherwise.
There are good times to fire people.
Lord knows that as someone who worked as a corporate HR exec during the height of the restructuring boom in the 80’s and 90’s I’ve fired more people than I can count.… Read the rest