If you catch the right seat at Cafe de la Presse, you can get a full view of the Dragon Gate, boldly guarding the entrance from the shopping area along Post and Grant Streets to San Francisco’s Chinatown. When I took my seat to collect some interview data in my coaching consultant role I had more than the conversation at hand, and the Dragon Gate on my mind.… Read the rest
[Dept. of Bad Advice] Your Brand is Not – Repeat Not – Your Elevator Pitch
I could blame my grumpy reaction to this last set of rainy days in San Francisco, but I won’t. Instead I’ll attribute to the type of “nice graphics first, let’s think about what it means later” approach that pops up every once and a while. And a case of bad career advice.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers is running something called Personal Brand Week. Their web page has a cute set of five name tags, conveniently corresponding to the five days of a traditional workweek and arranged in ascending order, foundations first.… Read the rest
[CFO Job Hunters Version] What Do Employers Really Want?
One mystery for more senior job hunters is the question of “What do employers really want?” in terms of backgrounds, skill sets and experience.
Thanks to one executive search person you can get one good answer – particularly if you’re looking fill a Chief Financial Officer role.
Karen Quint of Spencer Stuart addressed the San Francisco chapter of Financial Executives International, the preeminent association for CFOs and other senior finance executives last month.… 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
[Recruiting] How to Say “No Thanks” to Candidates – Facebook and Others
Organizations tell you lots of about themselves from how they deal and treat applicants. The task, for candidates, is to make sure you’ve got your radar up, and don’t bliss out and fall in love to the point were you stop tracking all the things that go on in front of you.
If a company treats candidates poorly, you shouldn’t be surprised if some of that behavior carries on after people come on board.… Read the rest
[Scott Berkun] How “Trying” Improves Your Performance
Readers of this blog know that the body of emerging research by people like Carol Dweck from Stanford or Angela Duckworth at the University of Pennsylvannia show that trying, self discipline, and constant learning – rather than simply going to the right schools, having a high IQ, or having the right credentials – is what drives performance over the mid-to-long haul.… Read the rest