Thoughts on people, teams, organizations, communities, effectiveness and success
The voicemail left on my phone was all-too typical. “Mike this is Kelwin. I just wanted to let you know that I’ve applied for a few jobs and you may be getting some reference calls. Thanks for any help you can send my way. I’m really hoping one of these jobs work out.”
Limp job references, like limp handshakes, are never a way to make a decent impression.… Read the rest
Many times the most important things to do with managing your career are the easiest and the simplest: it just takes a little thought, a little planning, and a little discipline. More often than not it’s these small things that make big differences in who succeeds, and who struggles in the long run.
Today I got a contact information update note from Tom Taggart, who recently took a role as the Senior Vice President and head of Corporate Communications with Union Bank at their San Francisco headquarters.… Read the rest
Corporations make decisions for all sorts of reasons. You may benefit from some of them, but it’s unlikely you will benefit from all of them. And because of that it’s important that you manage your career and your life rather than hope that someone else will manage it well for you.
And that means you need to think of any job where you work for someone else as a temporary job.… Read the rest
There is seasonality – cyclic variations based on the time of year or season – to any number of things. Just as it helps to know that back-to-school hits in July/August (so you avoid ending up with the dregs of what’s left for your kids), it advantages you to know the times of year when firms are hiring, and times when they’re likely not.… Read the rest
As my 7 year-old son Traylor periodically reminds me, it’s tough to wait.
This morning’s challenge was one under-ripe mango: serving it for breakfast when he was ready but it wasn’t still meant it didn’t taste so hot.
It can be just as tough to wait in the employment constellation we call jobs and careers. Sometimes you’re ready, but the job is not – and sometimes you’re not ready, but the job is.… Read the rest
Some people plan all their lives to become a senior executive – and it never happens. Others, through talent, timing, hard work, and or luck, become one though it was not something they sought, or even to which they aspired.
What will be in your future?
I think of these latter types of folks as “accidental execs.” I should know – I’ve been one as a Senior Vice President of Human Resources with a US Fortune 15 corporation – and any career planning behind the occurrence is as precise as the path of a butterfly on a warm, windy San Francisco day.… Read the rest