Thoughts on people, teams, organizations, communities, effectiveness and success
The Twitter stream has carried a great dialogue regarding the merits of hiring “generalists” versus “specialists” the last few days.
As someone whose “Quick Start” work with start-ups has enabled companies to get fast, effective out of the gate performance, I have a point of view, and the experience of 25+ years in business, about when to hire – and when to avoid – either type.… Read the rest
A recent post for would-be Chief Financial Officers on this site gives a great overview of what sort of attributes financial types who aspire to be CFOs should have.
But what about the rest of us non-CFO types? What’s the one sure thing employers want from employees and candidates?
First a caveat – the “take this with a grain of salt” advice: if you ask 100 career coaches you’ll get 100 different answers about THE skill to have.… Read the rest
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
We live in a world of spin: from embellished resumes to downright lies, people seem to have forgotten truth with their honesty manners. It’s hard to know if it’s always been this way, or if it’s changed over time. Certainly George Washington, whose birthday was celebrated last week as a US Federal holiday, would be appalled. George, as the legend goes, was the young man who voluntarily told his father that he had chopped down a cherry tree rather than lie about it.… Read the rest
The question from my client was common: who do you spend limited resources for coaching and development of high potential employees? And, even harder, how do you know it’s money well spent?
The takeaway from working in and around corporations for almost 30 years is that most of the efforts spent on high potential employees – employees who their employer has deemed as having the skills, abilities, and interest to move to more senior positions with the corporation – is a waste.… Read the rest
Things are bubbling in the technology start-up world: not 1998 frothy, but clearly bubbling nonetheless.
And even while there is sobering reality – for example Tom Abate’s piece yesterday in the San Francisco Chronicle Why Silicon Valley Faces Fresh Threats – there are telltale signals that things may be changing.
Signs of a cautious optimism can be found from the uptick in the amount of venture capital investment – noted courtesy Chubby Brain here in the highest number of deals occurring in the US in Q4 2009 at US$5.5 B with an aggregate of US$20B for the year – to articles such as Dharmesh Shah’s in OnStartups.com… Read the rest