Your Career: Is the Boss Cheating on You?

It happens. You think you’re set in your job and somebody else catches your boss’ eye.

They’re prettier (or more handsome) and project a better executive presence, or code better, and perhaps could charm the skin off a snake and sell better.

The next thing you know someone has been hired over you in the corporate hierarchy  (“layered” is the HR term) and that secure feeling you had is gone south.… Read the rest

The Comeback Kid?

We all love comebacks.

Those of us who are San Franciscans really love it when it involves our much beloved US professional football team, the San Francisco 49ers.

The 49ers are in the championship hunt this year after a long hiatus, playing for their first conference championship – a step before the Super Bowl and league championship – since 1998 against the New York Giants this upcoming Sunday.… Read the rest

The Talent Test: The Problem with “High Potentials”

The headline in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month blared “Employees with ‘High Potential’ Need to Know.

There’s just one problem. If you want to screw up talent, tell them they’ve got high potential – shorthand for they’ve been tapped and they’re great.

Why?

Research (Carol Dweck) shows that labeling folks doesn’t work to improve performance. In fact, labeling folks (“great,” “high-potential,” etc.Read the rest

Man (or Woman) in the Mirror: When Do You Fire the Boss?

National Football League Hall of Fame star Mik...
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The San Francisco 49ers fired their head coach Mike Singletary yesterday.

I don’t know Singletary, but have followed his career since 1985 when I lived in Chicago for five years (comprising what I refer to as the longest decade of my life) and he played for the Chicago Bears.

Singletary was an undersized, underpowered linebacker who played with lots of smarts and heart, and it’s no coincidence that the Bears won a Super Bowl and were highly competitive with him on board.Read the rest

[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