Thoughts on people, teams, organizations, communities, effectiveness and success
Getting and keeping great talent is one of the biggest jobs any CEO may have.
So why (the subject of this post) can the getting part be so tough?
It’s hard for any number of reasons. Here are some of them:
Excellence is in fashion. And excellence is what everyone wants to hire.
Consider two examples:
As sure as night follows day, a “bubble” envelops CEOs and other senior leaders once an organization starts to grow beyond 10 or 15 people. It’s the nature of having a leadership position, the number of people in an organization, and the fact that humans operate in certain predictable ways.
While it’s a bubble that can provide some needed buffer, it’s also a bubble that disables.… Read the rest
Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg (pictured) does a terrific brief talk at TEDwomen “Why Few Women at the Top” – worth everyone viewing and everybody – not just women – taking note.
It is like my good (female) friend at a leading global investment bank who asked me to help her network with other senior women in financial services in San Francisco when I managed recruiting for Barclays Global Investors (at the time the world’s largest money manager – it’s now owned by BlackRock).… Read the rest
The boss, it turns out is, human.
That can be hard to believe in an age where CEOs can be paid a lot of money and deified at the drop of a hat. But it’s true, and easy to spot when the CEO is younger, less experienced, and front and center of the spotlight. With the pile-on week for 49er’s President Jed York by journalists and fans (and me too) still in process following the firing of 49er head coach Mike Singletary, it helps to remember that Jed York is all of 29 years old.… Read the rest
I hope to have coffee soon with a friend I’ll call “Margie.” While it won’t be Wizard of Oz dialogue (Cowardly Lion: “What makes a king out of a slave? Courage!”), there will some similarities.
And those similarities will have a lesson for entrepreneurs who are female.
For starters, the impact and power and roles models is well understood and well researched.… Read the rest