Thoughts on people, teams, organizations, communities, effectiveness and success
It has become the dreaded phrase you don’t want to hear; “I’ll follow-up and get back to you”
Why? Because when you hear that phrase you know that 90% of the people you deal with won’t get back to you.
I’ve stopped chuckling when I get the email from someone with whom I’m scheduled to meet (“Are we still on to meet at 2 PM tomorrow”) because I realize we live in a world where people, rather than do as they say they’re going to do, do as they say they won’t.… Read the rest
There are jobs that last a lifetime, and jobs that are over before they really start. In between is the job that has a predictable arc with a start and a finish; you just need to know when it’s time to move on.
And in the C suite, where fortunes might be made, and juggling competing egos and agendas can be a full day’s work all in itself, the risks and rewards of figuring this timing stuff out is even greater.… Read the rest
Sometimes the job you’ve been promised won’t be there; sometimes the job you think you’ve lost may return.
So how do you know if it’s a sure thing?
You won’t.
Learn why the “sure thing” today is likely the maybe thing tomorrow, and what you can do to make yourself better prepared when that sure-thing-to-make-or-nothing happens.
Why is the sure thing is not exactly the sure thing?… Read the rest
This might seem like a story about Steve Jobs. It’s not; it’s a story about you.
Turns out that we get the hand we’re dealt in life. Events happen; it’s what you do with them that counts.
The Twitter tweet was was factual save the for last line. “Steve jobs was given up at birth; he was fired from the company he founded.… Read the rest
Sports are an imperfect analogue.
But like Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, analogues and metaphors provide representations that if properly understood can give us insight to the real world – not simply shadows on the cave wall.
So what does this have to do with the most American (as in the United States and Canada – not the rest of the countries in the Americas) of sports, baseball?… Read the rest
The myth is that startups mostly exist in places like San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Austin, Portland and Boulder, Boston or New York City.
That part is no myth; startups up do exist in those places.
But there is another startup in the town where you live. In fact, it’s even got your name on the door.
It’s the startup called you.… Read the rest