This is my favorite time at the office. Phones are slow, emails are fewer and less urgent, people many times are away, and most everyone runs to a slower cadence than usual. Unless you’re in retail, the temptation is to also slow down (I”m all for that) and get little done (no way – heck I’m performance coach – I’m mostly about accomplishment).… Read the rest
[Life Back West] December 2009 – The Darkest Days
In earlier times, people in the northern hemisphere marked the winter solstice – the time of the year when daylight for the hemisphere is at its shortest – with rites and rituals. Even today those traditions live on with things like the California Revels and their event productions held in Oakland.
This time of year was regarded as marking the sun‘s ebbing presence in the sky, and the deepest moment of the cold winter’s dark.… Read the rest
[Coaching Tips] “This Never Happens to Me”
Good business coaches use of host of tools and skills working with executives and teams: how they use those tools, and the robustness and effectiveness of the tools themselves is what separates coaches that are great and highly effective from those that are ho-hum and well, pretty ordinary.
One of those skills is the ability to see patterns of behavior where most might miss the connection between the dots, and to be able to use that insight to inform a host of suggested alternative approaches with a client.… Read the rest
[Best Advice I Ever Got] “Good Execution Beats a Bad Idea”
Fortune Magazine’s November 23, 2009 issue features Willbur Ross in the “Best Advice I Ever Got” section. It’s well worth the quick read. My favorite line: “The biggest risk is the question you forgot to ask because the danger is always something you don’t know.”
Ross speaks to two blind spots possessed by many organizations and their leaders – even mine as a solo practitioner consulting firm.… Read the rest
[Building Great Companies] 5 Talent / Location Factors Founders Should Consider
There are a lot of ways to build a company – some by accident, some products of history, and some by poorly conceived thinking (see Charlotte, North Carolina – who would think Charlotte would become a world banking headquarters?). An obvious goal is to base your business where it’s got good access to customers, talent, transportation or perhaps capital: do none well and you suck up time in travel, recruiting, and moving people that could be otherwise spent toward serving customers and making great products.… Read the rest
[Tips for Job Candidates] The Kindergarten Open House
Analogues from which job candidates can learn exist almost everywhere. While sometimes the lessons don’t fully translate, you can glean tremendous insight from some situations that you can use when you’re in the hunt for a new job.
Last night’s open house for parents sponsored by my son’s grade school was one such situation. In the crazy kindergarten application process that exists in San Francisco – where 30% of kids go to private schools and supply grossly outstrips demand – the ways that applicant families can do well or do badly have lots of lessons for job candidates.… Read the rest