[Jerry Rice] The (Simple) Secret to Your Success

There is a secret to your success.

It’s on page 9 of the Sunday, February 9, 2010 print edition of the San Francisco Chronicle’s article about American professional football player Jerry Rice.

It’s the same secret that Malcolm Gladwell covered in Outliers, when he reported on the work of K. Anders Ericsson.

It’s the same secret that the research that Stanford professor Carol Dweck uncovered and reported on in her book MindSet in which she identifies two types of approaches: a “fixed mindset” and a “growth mindset.”Read the rest

[Tips for Leaders] How to Face Your Critics AND Give – and Get – Great Feedback

John Baldoni recently blogged on the best way to handle  your critics, using President Obama’s recent session with Republican Congress members as an example. Baldoni’s post at the Harvard Business Review – How to Face Your Critics –  suggests the following steps:

  • Show up.
  • Be cool.
  • Acknowledge your shortcomings.
  • Criticize gently.
  • Smile frequently.
  • Leave them asking for more.

Beyond facing your critics, a key foundational pillar for you to be a good manager and an even better leader is your ability to give and get great feedback.Read the rest

[The Job Hunt] If the Recovery is Here, Are You Ready? 5 Ways to Be Prepared

One of the adages in career coaching is that the best time to look for a job is before you need one.

With the signs of both Spring (at least in San Francisco) and an economic recovery in the United States appearing, a thaw in job opportunities looks like it has hit. But the jobs won’t likely be in exactly the types of roles as before, and maybe not even in the same geographies as the bumpiness of an uneven recovery hits different parts of the country.… Read the rest

[Life Back West] Leadership & Boards of Directors: Proof of the Pudding is in the Performance

The best adage I know for good cooking is captured in the phrase “Proof of the pudding is in the eating.”

For teams, the perfect saying might as well be “Proof of the team is in the performance.” And while we’ll hear a lot about good and bad teams over the next couple of months – from the Super Bowl, to the Winter Olympics, to the US men’s and women’s collegiate basketball tournament known as “March Madness” – the fact of the matter is that the best teams are teams that perform well when called on.… Read the rest

[Coaching] 2 Ways to Increase Your Effectiveness: Two Sides, Same Coin

The challenge for most of us is to do more with less: less time, fewer resources, and do it more efficiency and effectively. Sounds like a tall order but grabbing a moment to pause, think, and then act will frequently help you do all three.

Pulling rabbits out of hats?

Nope. Just performance basics that any successful executive, or a parent with more than two kids will tell you: figuring out how to sequence work so you pick up some efficiencies or batching things to time of day to optimize how effectively you work with them.… Read the rest