Thoughts on people, teams, organizations, communities, effectiveness and success
This might seem like a story about Steve Jobs. It’s not; it’s a story about you.
Turns out that we get the hand we’re dealt in life. Events happen; it’s what you do with them that counts.
The Twitter tweet was was factual save the for last line. “Steve jobs was given up at birth; he was fired from the company he founded.… 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
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
Character counts – at least that’s what most of us are told as kids. But does it really?
What if – as the headline of this week’s New York Times Magazine blared – The Secret to Success is Failure, and not your GPA or even the schools you attended but rather your CPA – character personality average – that predicts your path forward?… Read the rest
Life as a corporate alpha male – or alpha female – can be tough.
Rivals lurk everywhere; rivals that need to be dominated and subdued. Impatience, aggression and anger for some alphas is only a millisecond away – a tough price for the “plays well with others” performance rating and getting people to spend time with you at a family picnic.… Read the rest