…when the tide goes out. Warren Buffett
Pretty insightful statement huh? I think what he means, and I certainly agree, is that in difficult times margins disappear and every move you make counts – either for you or against you. There’s simply no margin for error.
I’ve been following a blog by a pretty smart guy named Umair Haque who writes for Harvard Business Review and heads the Havas Media Lab. While I don’t necessarily like what he’s predicting, in my heart I think he’s right. He sees tomorrow, and it is vastly different that anything we know. In one of his recent posts he writes an open letter to 20th century business, saying:
The only viable solution to the zombieconomy is a better kind of business, built from the grass-roots up: a new generation of radical innovators that challenge and disrupt lame, brain-dead 20th-century business. The kind of business that, for example, push-markets toxic junk to kids. Read the rest of this entry »
Apologies for a tardy post. How’s this for a whirl wind of technological dependence– I’m on the road, I’ve forgotten my wireless connector, my connecting airport’s Wi-Fi mysteriously alludes me and Comcast is down for three days at my destination. Had to find a Starbucks post haste!
I’ve been thinking about leadership lately.
Not unlike beauty or pornography, leadership is probably in the eye of the beholder – we know it when we see it. Name the last leader on whom both you and the opposition agreed. John Kennedy? Ronald Regan? Who was the last person who honestly inspired you – to risk being better? A teacher?
No matter how long you’ve been in your career, the past 30-40 years had a familiar ring. Predictable business model, predictable risks, certainly not much demand for leadership. We expected what we got. Just follow the dotted line, no questions necessary, and heaven forbid, don’t listen to those nagging little doubts or your intuition — stay on the reservation and kiss the status-quo.
That is until this recent sea change occured, which begs for leadership at all levels from your little village right up to Washington. Reading Seth Godin’s little book Tribes, is dizzying. It evokes an emphatic Yessss! Godin may be parsimonious with his words, but they’re mighty fine words indeed, and ones we should take to heart. Leadership may be calling YOU. Read the book and risk being inspired…to do something out of the ordinary to lead your tribe. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: courage, Guy Kawasaki, Leadership, Power of Internet, risk, Seth Godin
I read social media blogs for inspiration before writing my weekly column. One website I like is Careerealism – Because EVERY Job Is Temporary.
This morning the question was:
May 8, 2009
I just started a new job a month ago. Unexpectedly, I have the chance to go on an all-expense paid vacation to St. Thomas. However, I’d need a week off from work. I obviously don’t have any vacation time. Do you think I could ask them to let me go and owe them the time? I can’t afford to take the week unpaid. It’s the chance of a lifetime! What can I do?
Are you serious? Are you kidding me?
There are lightening bolts flying out of my head over the pathetically telling stupidity of asking, even under cover of darkness, such a question — of even whispering it to your best friend who won’t judge you no matter what idiotic thoughts you utter in confidence!
Tags: attitude, customizing multiple resumes, finding the right fit, helping yourself, how not to stand out, interviewing behaviors, job search, marketing, Power of Internet, preparing for interviews, presentation, realistic expectations, resume content, Selling yourself
There’s a wonderful saying that applies now more than ever:
Man plans, God laughs.
What happens next? Armageddon or A Government Funded New Utopia?
- Will my company survive the R word?
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Will salaries tumble the way housing prices have?
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Will there be new jobs in 09 that we previously could not have envisioned?
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Can I fit into the new world or will we experience paradigm paralysis?
Sometimes it’s amusing to look back, to just see how wrong or how accurate we were with our lofty prognostications and smug assumptions. Like a plane hitting an air pocket or encountering windshear, could anyone have predicted the shifts in perspective we’ve experienced recently? As my very smart friend Jane Secci said last evening, the seasaw effect has totally polarized everything. We’ve had such extreme points of view and both sides are so far apart, it will be interesting to see what materializes that might bring us back towards a reasonable center. We lived through Bob Dylan fifty years ago and he’s relevant again. The times they are a-changin.
So now that we’ve had a couple of months to digest the economic realities of layoffs, mortgage foreclosures, bailouts and credit smack downs, what do you think is in store for us in 09 and beyond?
Have a laugh by reading the convention wisdom forecasts of a few months ago:
Top Ten Demographic and Social Trends Most Likely to have a Major Impact on Our Workplace
- Large numbers of baby boomers (1945-1964) retiring around the same time
- Aging population
- Demographics shifts leading to a shortage of skilled workers
- Growth in number of employees with caring responsibilities (elder care, child care or both)
- Increased demand for work/life balance
- Rise in number of individuals and families without health insurance
- Generational issues — recognizing and catering to groups such as GenY (1980-2000) GenX (1965-1980) etc.
- Increase in chronic health conditions such as diabetes, heart condition, etc.
- Poor educational performance of US students compared with global competitors
- Changes in commuting, community development and business location as a result of increasing fuel costs
Top Ten Economic and Employment Trends Most Likely to have a Major Impact on Our Workplace
- Continuing high cost of health care in the US
- Threat of increased health care/medical costs on the economic competitiveness of the US
- Threat of recession in the US or globally
- Increasing price of fuel/gasoline in the US and globally
- Economic uncertainty and great market volatility
- Decline in the value of the US dollar compared with other currencies
- Economic growth of Asia, especially China and India
- Increased cost of living in the US
- Overall decline in the workforce readiness of new entrants to the labor market
- Increased corporate downsizing and bankruptcies
Top Ten Global Trends Most Likely to have a Major Impact on Our Workplace
- Decline in the value of the US Dollar compared to other currencies
- Overall decline in the workforce readiness of new entrants to the labor market in the US, as compared with other countries
- Increased global competition (jobs markets talents)
- Poor educational performance of US students compared with global competitors
- Economic growth of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) emerging markets
- Acceleration of rapid change globally
- Increase in competition from emerging markets for the most talented foreign workers and entrepreneurs
- Greater need for cross-cultural understanding/savvy in business setting
- Growing economic interdependence among world’s countries
- Increased expansion of US companies into the global marketplace
Extracted from Society of Human Resource Management Workplace Forecast 2008
For you golfers, you’ll understand the comparison to kinda being long and wrong.
So what now? And what are you doing about it?
You tell us.
Tags: Dollar value, economic conditions, education, fuel costs, global competition, global marketplace, health care costs, retiring baby boomers, workforce readiness
Do old wives tales teach us anything?
- An apple a day keeps the doctor away – Studies suggest that apples contain high levels of phenolics, which work as a potent antioxidant that can reduce the risks of certain cancers.
- Full moons bring on a seizure – Research has shown significant clustering of seizures around the time of the full moon.
- Chicken soupfor a cold – Amino acid cysteine is a common byproduct of chicken soup which holds the same properties as acetylcysteine, a common antibiotic prescribed for respiratory infections.
- Fish is brain food – Fish contains omega-3 fatty acids, found to be important to brain function.
- A broken mirror = 7 years bad luck. In ancient times a mirror was considered so expensive that it would take seven years to save enough to replace it. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: attitude, customizing multiple resumes, finding the right fit, helping yourself, interviewing, interviewing behaviors, job loss, job search, marketing, preparing for interviews, presentation, realistic expectations, resume content, Resume types, Selling yourself
Winston Churchill said, “There’s nothing wrong with change, if it’s in the right direction.”
Meet frequent commenter, this week’s guest columnist, and my friend, Gary Kenefick, one of the most insightful senior executives I’ve ever met. Haemonetics is very lucky to have landed him.
In my work, Change = Reality. It’s probably true that change is reality for most of us, whether we’re changing as individuals, small business owners, or part of a larger organization. When I think about change projects, I always consider Harvard Business School professor, John Kotter, who has written clearly and extensively on the subject. A good example is Kotter’s Leading Change. I’ve paraphrased some of his valuable thinking below.
Kotter, who is widely regarded as the world’s foremost authority on leadership and change, says there are different ways to lead change. One approach is for a few people to select the things that need to be fixed. But this approach can bring resistance from the larger group, forcing the question, is the organization the problem that needs to be solved?
Another approach is tapping a few people to identify the questions that need to be answered. Then others can be brought together and they can identify what currently works, and what is needed to get to the future state. In my expeirence, this second approach results in more people being engaged and motivated towards action.
“Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.” Unknown
A fundamental point to remember – change happens. There are ways to think about and encourage it, so that it makes the most sense. What follows is my consolidated change thinking with the hope that you are inspired to share your reactions and thoughts to these ideas. Read the rest of this entry »
“It’s not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”
In December when I wrote that in the blink of an eye our collective complacency had been kaleidoscopically shattered, I had no idea of the enormity of that statement. We’d set out to write a blog about the challenges of balancing work and life. That word soon morphed into “blending.” Meanwhile, increasingly our marketplace conversations were more about the escalating changes in the economy, the evaporation of not only jobs, but also of entire professions and industries. It was hard to decipher what was left to blend. Dr. Jane Secci, someone whom I admire immensely, commented only a week ago, that she had never in her life time, seen so many seismic shifts in our trusted economic systems.
How did we counsel folks who had just seen everything they believed about work suddenly rendered irrelevant in the marketplace? The cascading problems caused by the foundering economy would not be solved with traditional solutions. This wasn’t about balance or blend — it was about complete reinvention. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: attitude, change catalyst, economic downturn, helping yourself, Power of Internet, realistic expectations
I’ve had blog withdrawl these past two weeks we’ve been attempting to “fix” the spam/hacker problem we experienced several weeks ago. Hopefully the proper corrections have been made, but we’ll see as we distribute our latest post.
Meanwhile, 
the simple safe and secure solution is to click the RSS feed button at the top of the masthead, and subscribe to our weblog, at which point new posts will appear on your home page of choice. Then you can elect to read our posts at your leisure without an e-mail alert clogging up your inbox. At some not to distant point, we will suspend the distribution method of sending out e-mails, because the list is getting too large. For that I am grateful. 
But most important, weblogs are about community. They are a forum for you to speak up and share your thoughts, experiences, concerns, questions.
I am honored that so many of you privately tell me that you read the posts and enjoy them.
Now what can we do to get you to join the conversation and tell us what’s on your mind?
Weren’t we always taught that honesty is the best policy?
Well, maybe not. I’m known for saying, it depends.
Is truth always self evident? In epistemology (theory of knowledge), a self-evident proposition is one that is known to be true by understanding its meaning without proof.
Sometimes the truth sets you free, sometimes it torpedoes your plans and blows up in your face. Being self aware — realizing when a truth is no longer relevant, or when it has the opposite effect — can be critical to achieving your goal.
I was recently in the process of engaging the services of someone with whom I had a long standing relationship going back to the previous generation. It was an important financial decision for me and I needed to choose the right company with which to do business, but I also wanted to be loyal and supportive to people I know and like. Read the rest of this entry »
Social Networking in the new order.
I’m really trying to get my head around this stuff so that I can be more informative in these posts, because everyone I talk to is asking the same questions. But it feels like being in Germany without my Berlitz guide. Sind sie mein freund?
Social to me is not part of work. Social is play. Where I was brought up, work and play don’t go together . Social is somewhat related to goofing off — or at the very least, not productive. (Must be that waspish work ethic.) My MBTI profile even says I’m not allowed to go outside and “play” until all my work is done.
However, something I read the other day in Chris Brogan & Julia Smith’s brilliant manifesto Trust Economies changed my thinking: Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: change catalyst, Facebook, Linked In, Selling yourself, Social networking, Trust Economy, twitter