[Coaching Tips] No “I” in Team – Not Even a Team of One

Scott Berkun, whose work I generally like a lot, recently wrote a piece titled Why You Should Be a Team of One. It is a rare miss – a dud, and advice frankly which should be ignored.

Scott has written three books: all are quite good. His most recent, Confessions of a Public Speaker, is particularly good, helpful for someone like me who has 20+ years working with large group facilitation and design when I’m not doing my regular work of coaching execs and team.… Read the rest

[Ways to Say Thanks] “Great Articles”

There are a number of benefits from working with individuals as an executive coach, and working with start-up and leadership teams as a team coach. Some of them are financial, and some of them are pride in accomplishment.  Some of the benefits are the unexpected thank you’s that make you smile from the inside. Here’s one of the latter:

“Dear Mike,

I was referred to your blog by another former BGIer [Barclays Global Investors – now part of BlackRock].Read the rest

Can You Trust the Recruiter?

The voice at the other end of the voicemail sounded sincere and the message they left earlier about the possible job sounds great. But is too good to be true just that: too good to be true?

And can you trust the recruiter who left the message?

The short answer is “maybe”. And here’s more.

I spend my work life coaching people and teams to up their performance game, and one of ways to enhance performance is to improve the ability anticipate what’s coming down the pike.Read the rest

[New Rules] Did You Flunk the Test?

You have a testing problem – you probably just don’t know it.

As noted earlier [here , here and here ], the use of psychological and personality tests to make hiring and promotion decisions is on the uptick. With the recent US Supreme Court Ricci vs. Stefano decision, any number of ill-advised HR types will likely increase the use of these tests.Read the rest

I’ll Take China

My first trip to China last week as part of work with a client brought back memories of business from almost three decades ago. It was a different time and a very different place, but ff you worked in business in the 1980’s in the United States, all eyes seemed to be focused on Japan. From cars to copiers, Japanese companies could seem to do no wrong, and US companies seemed to be able to do not much right.Read the rest