How to Succeed? Try and Fail! And Try Again.

Albert Einstein noted “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

So what’s up with the craving for the sweet smell of success people that people are determined to avoid the taint  of failure?

Biotech CEO Robert Johnson told me that when he did business development at Lilly he was paid to bring deals forward for the firm to consider.… Read the rest

Cause for Conflict? How to Avoid the “You Dirty Rat” Syndrome

Trust, it’s been suggested, is comprised of three underlying elements: motive, reliability, and competence. Have all three and you have trust; miss on one and you likely have skepticism and distrust.

This post helps you to better understand the motive part of the equation, and how you can improve the ability of people to trust you.

Just as with working as a candidate with recruiters – see Can You Trust the Recruiter?Read the rest

How to Get a Great Start: “Back to School”

The art of the good, strong start is something that many of us should master, but few of us seldom do.

Why? Probably because it’s a little like that set of occasions (weddings, funerals, baptisms and bar/bas mitzvahs etc.) that happen enough to notice but seldom enough to avoid generating a best practice mindset.

Many schools – like my son’s grade school Marin Country Day School in Corte Madera – have the practice down to a fine art, in part because the start happens on a regular basis, they believe it’s important to do it right, and if you’re smart enough to do it well it can form a foundation for a host of activities and programs to follow.… Read the rest

What Motivates: Gold, Glory, or God?

Motivation comes in many forms, and knowing what motivates the people you work with can make all the difference from “has done” to “has been.”

Pay, or as the HR people like to say, compensation, has turned out not to be the end-all-be-all for motivational purposes. As Dan Pink has ably exposed in his latest book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (and TED presentation here) research demonstrates that money in certain situations degrades, not improves, performance.… Read the rest