All in Careers
At some point in the evolution of any organization, we have to build in structure and process.
The pure quest for growth and, hence, total focus on execution, in a company’s early days inevitably leads to a situation where some level of resource organization is necessary.
That makes sense. We’ve been so focused on getting things done that we’ve spent less time trying to figure out how best to get it done.
‘Messing up’ is par for the course.
Any time you take on an initiative or a project or a venture, there’s a strong chance that you’re going to mess up along the way.
The more visible the initiative (in whatever sphere of life you’re operating within), the more public that mess up will be - and the more prominent the impact on some stakeholder or constituent. In other words, someone’s going to get hurt, in some form or fashion.
Forecasts and projections come with the territory, regardless of whether we’re speaking to business, social or political subjects. From new industries to climate change to our own companies, we’re desperate to know what the future holds.
What’s the potential? How long do we have? How serious is this?
Setting standards is important.
Standards help us define the level at which we’re performing and, in the event, we’re not at par, how far we need to go to get there. Standards serve a real purpose as they push us to be better - to master our craft, change the way we think and deliver greater value, both to ourselves and others.
I was in the car with my family the other day and we were heading to lunch. We were having a conversation, and in the midst of it, we noticed that my daughter’s answers were short, to the point, not really like her normal, jovial self.
My son actually noticed it first, and he asked her what was wrong.
Mark Manson wrote that we should overestimate our future but underestimate our past. That sounds about right to me.
Many of us tend to do the reverse - we overestimate our past (both in terms of the implications of what we’ve achieved, as well as the ramifications of the mistakes we’ve made) and we underestimate our futures (in terms of what is still possible).
There’s a difference between rolling the dice and taking a calculated risk. Often we tend to confuse the two.
We avoid taking specific actions in specific areas of our life because we believe “it’s a lottery”, when instead, there are parameters - fundamentals - that we can assess, evaluate, extrapolate to come to a reasonable expectation of an outcome.
This month's podcasts focus on the art of communication - a critical skill no matter what we do for a living.
Today's episode focuses on the idea of objectivity in what we believe and what we communicate. It's important to believe in ourselves but still be objective enough to understand the reality of our situations.
The thing is, no one actually has the answer.
We want to believe someone does - perhaps that we do - but we don’t actually know that to be a fact.
Sure, we might believe our version of the answer right to our very core. We might be convinced that our boss or our peer can be trusted to get us where we’re trying to go. But what we’re trusting is our versions of the story. We’ve made a judgement based on the accumulated data at hand.
This month's podcasts focus on people, specifically the different aspects to consider when it comes to the talent acquisition, development and management.
My last episode talked about the value of the team, even when we have a star performer in our midst. Today's episode discusses the idea that, while it still is about the team, we should all strive to adopt the star performer's mentality.
I think we get so caught up in the goals that we’re after that we lose sight of the need to focus on the process. Especially when the goals are big, audacious.
This makes sense, intuitively, of course. The bigger the goals, the higher the stakes, the more invested we are in their achievement. It’s natural then that we takes these goals seriously, and that they occupy our thought processes.
This month's podcasts focus on people, specifically the different aspects to consider when it comes to the talent acquisition, development and management.
Today's episode focuses on the star performer - or rather the need to recognize that, despite the extent of their star qualities, the team is always the most important thing.
This month's podcasts focus on people, specifically the different aspects to consider when it comes to the talent acquisition, development and management.
Today's episode focuses on the need to hire the right people and how fit and genuineness are among the most important criteria to consider.
This month's podcasts focus on the topic of mindset, and the kinds of traits and ideas we need to embed to achieve what we want.
In today's episode, I speak to the importance of being an optimist, to fight cynicism. Many view unbridled optimism as a weakness, because it requires a health measure of vulnerability. To the contrary, I believe it's a superpower.
Authenticity has become a rare commodity.
I mean, at first blush, you’d think it would be abundant in society, personal or professional. Because when what you see is what you get, there are no illusions, no need for personal estimations or second guesses. What you saw would, in fact, be what you got.
But in a world driven by social media, the lure of the instant, ADD-fueled soundbite, and the much-discussed finality (and hence, importance) of the ‘first impression’, most of us are on our toes.
“Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others.” Pablo Picasso
When we hit upon a winning formula, it’s tempting to think we’ve got it all figured out. Because we actually do. We’ve understood what the market wants, what customers are seeking, at least at that specific point in time.
We believe - with good intent - that we’re trusting individuals. That’s important, because trust forms the very foundation of our relationships. Without trust, there can be no relationships, in any environment, personal or professional.
But how do we build trust? What’s our specific role in developing trust among our colleagues (or our family)?
This month's podcasts focus on the topic of mindset, and the kinds of traits and ideas we need to embed to achieve what we want.
In today's episode, I talk about a decision to remove someone from my LinkedIn Network because of their constant negativity. There's no point in encouraging that behavior, and in fact, I'd argue it demands a stronger response.
If you compare a song off of Radiohead’s first album, Pablo Honey, and their third album, OK Computer - for example, a song like “Anyone Can Play Guitar”, with “Let Down” - you can hear a real sonic difference.
From the complexity of the songwriting to the musicianship, right through to the production work, you can hear an increasing level of sophistication. Essentially, you can hear the growth and evolution of the band over the years.
You don’t need to have all of the answers. I don’t know how to get there is actually fine as a response.
As leaders, though, we think that isn’t an option. We think we need to know exactly the way there.
But the reality is we won’t - not all the time anyway, and certainly not when it comes to big ticket changes that we’re putting in play.
