Thoughts on people, teams, organizations, communities, effectiveness and success
Chris Guillebau’s recent retweet – “never take a job you’re already qualified for” – combined with playdate with a mom with two small kids yesterday – reminded me (once again) that sometimes you take a job because it is just a job. And a job for which you’re well qualified.
The fantasy among some career counselors is that career planning is strategic planning with precision tactical implementation.… 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
As my colleague Margaret O’Hanlon has blogged at the Compensation Cafe, merit budgets in 2009 are tiny: the upshot is that most employees won’t see a salary increase. At a time of 10.2% national unemployment, the goods news for the folks who have them is that they have a job – the bad news is they’ll see no compensation reward for hard work and performance this past year.… Read the rest
Where communications abilities takes us a host of other trends and patterns follow.
For better or worse it’s given us a world where you can be tethered to work by iPhone or computer, and share information via short text bursts and immediate access And as this week’s Wall Street Journal chronicles in “Why E-Mail No Longer Rules“, changes in the nature of communication have changed how we fundamentally think of a host of related relationships – such as jobs.… Read the rest
When the rain started right before we stepped on the ferry boat tonight to take us from central Hong Kong to Kowloon, there was little idea how much and how hard the storm would hit us. While the thought of watching the nightly laser light show from the harbor seemed a good idea, spending time on a rocking boat during a subtropical squall changed any fantasies quickly into the reality of two adults and one seven year old child trying to figure out if any of us knew how to say “rescue” and “life preserver” in Mandarin or Cantonese.… Read the rest
Life today seems to move ever so quickly. Though it’s likely an observation shared by people throughout the centuries, our Twitter / 24 by 7 news cycle lives seem to almost eliminate the time to pause, to think, and to talk deeply. It seems true for people, and it seems true for organizations.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Earlier this month I had a chance to catch a reunion of college friends from the small liberal arts college (“the first university in the West”) from which I received my undergraduate degree.… Read the rest