Thoughts on people, teams, organizations, communities, effectiveness and success
Even in the big planet we call earth, life exists like it’s one small town.
My friend Wendy Yanowitch’s saying that “Life is made up of six people and lots of mirrors” plays out in my world weekly, and I suspects plays out in yours as well if you start watching the connections.
If this small world theory is really the case, it means that what you say, and even more important, what you do, sticks with you wherever you go.… Read the rest
It happens.
The new senior hire (formerly called a senior suit in the days when the males who mostly occupied those roles actually wore matching jackets and pants) is keen to make their mark at the new place so they make changes. Often big ones.
Sometimes those changes work, and sometimes they bomb.
New CEO Marissa Meyer has clearly put her mark on a number of shifts at Yahoo in the five weeks she’s been on board changing some obvious practices: free food (a la Google, where she formerly worked) at many of Yahoo’s locations, instituting weekly check-in meetings (called FYI in Yahoo-speak), a reinvigorated and more rigorous hiring process, and engaging in greater dialogue and access with programmers than her predecessors. … Read the rest
“When a great adventure is offered, you don’t refuse it,” trailblazing aviator Amelia Earhart suggested.
The same can be said about that unexpected job opportunity that surfaces; the one that you didn’t foresee, is off the planned career arc and yet you find intriguing.
Take it or punt? Kick the heart-racing-intrigue down the road until you’re “ready” or take a flyer and pursue it.… Read the rest
Interim roles frequently have hair on them. They are imperfect jobs where you toil in a state of “pretend” for those who hope temporary will become the “real” job.
Last week’s post Career Quandry: Should You Take the “Interim” Job surveyed the landscape of people taking interim roles when their boss vacates his/her role. Inspiration for the piece came from Yahoo’s appointment of Marissa Mayer as their new CEO coming on the heels of the expectation that interim CEO Ross Levinsohn would be tapped for the permanent role.… Read the rest
If you live in a certain City by the bay, sooner or later little surprises you.
Annoy you? Yes. Delight you? Often. Alarm, disappoint, thrill, and endear? Always.
It’s those differences that make the place so special. Take away those difference and ultimately it leads to one destination; the land of boring, common, even mediocre.
Some workplaces are just like that City.… Read the rest
Your boss has been hired to take another job and will be leaving the company. Or perhaps your boss has been whacked and that’s the reason the job is now vacant.
Either way that box in the organization chart that used have a name is empty.
Do you raise your hand and volunteer to take the job on an interim basis, or do you wait to see if you get tapped – and decide then if you want “interim” next to your name?… Read the rest