Thoughts on people, teams, organizations, communities, effectiveness and success
I had lunch with Littler Mendelson’s Lindbergh Porter today, an early Thanksgiving of sorts.
Seeing him reminded me that career choices and life opportuniities come to us in all sorts of ways and at times both convenient and awkward. Each choice you make has some consequence, both foreseen and unknown.
Lindbergh and I had worked together in the ’90’s when I was his client as an SVP of Human Resources.… Read the rest
Sometimes saying “no” is tough, even when there are all sorts of good reasons to do so. But if you are always saying “yes” to things you can’t or won’t be able to do, you’re setting yourself up for failure or dodgy performance downstream.
There are three areas where it makes sense for you to say no; 1) things that you should not do; 2) things that you can’t do; and 3) things that you prefer not to do.… Read the rest
The subject of the call with the pharma CEO was not new territory for either one of us: the non-executive chairman of his company’s board wanted to micromanage and get deeply involved when he had the time or interest, and would go missing in action when the heavy or unpleasant work (like letting the founder know he was off the board of directors) came around.… Read the rest
My doctor Michael Sdao practices what he terms “evidence-based” medicine: he puts his faith primarily in approaches and procedures that have been validated by substantiated research. While it’s not necessarily the most daring of approaches, in the main the outcomes (knock on wood) have been pretty good.
Organizations, on the other hand, are pretty hit and miss as it pertains to using human capital systems and processes that have been validated by evidence based research.… Read the rest
As my colleague Margaret O’Hanlon has blogged at the Compensation Cafe, merit budgets in 2009 are tiny: the upshot is that most employees won’t see a salary increase. At a time of 10.2% national unemployment, the goods news for the folks who have them is that they have a job – the bad news is they’ll see no compensation reward for hard work and performance this past year.… Read the rest
Just as you would in choosing a new hire, choosing a job, choosing a boss, or even choosing a mate, knowing how to make an informed assessment is critical. It is the stuff that any coach who works with executives or leadership teams (like me) should be able to do in their sleep, and it’s the type of thing that any layperson should learn and know how to do.… Read the rest