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
[Forks in the Career Road] An Early Thanksgiving
I had lunch with Littler Mendelson’s Lindbergh Porter today, an early Thanksgiving of sorts.
Seeing him reminded me that career choices and life opportuniities come to us in all sorts of ways and at times both convenient and awkward. Each choice you make has some consequence, both foreseen and unknown.
Lindbergh and I had worked together in the ’90’s when I was his client as an SVP of Human Resources.… Read the rest
[Coaching Tips] Why and How You Should Say “No” – Even to Your Boss
Sometimes saying “no” is tough, even when there are all sorts of good reasons to do so. But if you are always saying “yes” to things you can’t or won’t be able to do, you’re setting yourself up for failure or dodgy performance downstream.
There are three areas where it makes sense for you to say no; 1) things that you should not do; 2) things that you can’t do; and 3) things that you prefer not to do.… Read the rest
[Executive Coaching Tips] Managing Conflict with the Chairman of the Board
The subject of the call with the pharma CEO was not new territory for either one of us: the non-executive chairman of his company’s board wanted to micromanage and get deeply involved when he had the time or interest, and would go missing in action when the heavy or unpleasant work (like letting the founder know he was off the board of directors) came around.… Read the rest
[Veteran’s Day 2009] Your Song
Yesterday marked Veteran’s Day across the United States: it also marked the 6th anniversary of my father’s passing in 2003. A proud veteran of World War II, he had lived a good and long life when he died at 96 years old.
He was born at a time before airplanes, MTV, Xerox photocopy machines, cell phones and even the Internet. None of those events seemed to impact him much – throughout most of his life he got great joy out of reading books and talking with people, both activities which have been done for centuries.… Read the rest