Work Naturally.
When you are bigger than everyone else, you are much more likely to get hammered for irritating people. It doesn’t matter if that’s physical size or “work” size, where you have the capability to do a larger job than the people around you. This is one of the key problems of Hidden High Potentials (HHPs). Work comes in different sizes, …
In my lessons on the Tao of Joe: Redeeming Our Stories, I’ve pointed out that the patriarch’s model was to forget well before he ever forgave. Forgetting not only the wrongs, he forgot those who had wronged him (in his case, his brothers). Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh (Forget), saying, “God made me forget all my hardships and my parental …
My RSS feeds have been down for awhile, apparently, depending on how you access them. And the earlier fix took down all the category pages, archive pages and even individual posts. Yikes! Should’ve seen it but didn’t. Your RSS feed should be http://feeds.feedburner.com/RequisiteWriting regardless. This is a good argument for outsourcing your IT.
I’ve been reading the fascinating You’re In Charge — Now What?: The 8 point plan by Thomas J. Neff and James M. Citrin. It’s mostly about how incoming CEOs can handle the first 100 days. What got me hooked is that the process they describe in their first chapter is pretty much the one that I’m writing up about Jos Wintermans at Canadian Tire and Acceptance, Ltd. If you are starting a new managerial job, above Level 3 especially, I’d recommend taking a look at their points. They fluff some elements that require more rigorous thinking, but it is correct in its essentials.
The passage that struck me today is a short one about how a marketing guy, Jeff Killeen, handled the culture shock of starting as CEO at GlobalSpec. GlobalSpec is an engineering-focused company, and here he talks about the struggles he had both in developing a relationship with technical genius & founder, John Schneiter, and the engineers of the company. If you work with engineers or developers, this is relevant.
Last time we looked at why you don’t have a mentor, and focused on the Hidden High Potentials. Today, let’s look at the generational parts of Why You Didn’t Get a Mentor. This is specific to the United States, but you may find it applicable (or not) if you live elsewhere. It turns out that those born from around 1961 …
[updated 2013 August 29] Did you ever think that the reason why you didn’t get a mentor was that it was almost impossible to mentor you? A good mentoring relationship requires you to share a growth trajectory in how you handle complexity. Most people’s capacity for handling complex work issues increases over time along predictable paths once in their 20s. …
The disaster in Japan is devastating to see. Although my friends in Japan are all safe, many of their friends and family are still missing. The death count is high. The destruction is staggering. I don’t want to make light of the horrible tragedy, and indeed I pray for them and wonder what we can do to help. This is …
Greg McElroy’s alleged Wonderlic score has been leaked and it’s created a buzz. The Wonderlic is a part of the bevy of tests the NFL puts draftees through and generally measures what is known as “general mental ability”. SEC standout quarterback McElroy’s problem is that his Wonderlic score is almost 2 times as high as the average NFL quarterback. And …
People make the mistake of assuming that the job market for them is the same as it is for everyone else. In today’s financial crisis influenced hiring, that’s simply not true. Steve Eddington has some interesting comments on today’s job market (“The Hiring Decision – In the Current Job Market, Who’s on First?”): As the headhunter, we have the distinct …
Let’s get to the many questions that “underachievers” have been asking me. Now I call them “underachievers” because these people think of themselves that way; they simply don’t yet understand how the world works and how the rules are different for them. Your job is bad for you not just because it’s not at the right level. It’s too small …
