Thoughts on people, teams, organizations, communities, effectiveness and success
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
The economy feels like it’s moving sideways even though data suggests it’s ever-so-slightly improving. Promotional opportunities are few for people with jobs, and budgets for developmental activities such as conferences may have been slashed.
If you do a few simple things in your job life now your career can take a better route than simply hunkering down and waiting for the economy to improve.… 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
It might be nice if you found a job that lasted you for the rest of your life. It’s unlikely to happen –
even if you’re in a profession like a teacher of doctor – and even less likely for anyone who holds what we think of as a “regular” job.
The reality, as career guru Richard Nelson Bolles has said, “is that every job has turned into a temp job — whether people are conscious of that or not.… Read the rest
Nothing’s guaranteed except change, and in business (as well as more than just a few non-profits) that means a churn of possible mergers, consolidations, and acquisitions. Across the country biotech companies, financial services firms like asset managers, hedge funds, venture capital and private equity firms, and any number of companies in other sectors are all scrambling – some to stay alive, others to grow by acquisition.… Read the rest
The call on the line is from a headhunter: now what?
Richard Nelson Bolles has noted that the best proven job hunting method is when a job hunter takes time to sit down and do some really good work on figuring out who they are and what they have to offer. And working your personal and career network is still the best way bar none to find work opportunities once you’re clear about who you are and what you have to offer.… Read the rest