Overcoming Career Setbacks
Reaching the top of the corporate pyramid is rare, but it’s especially tough for women and minorities.
Every career has its chutes and ladders, pauses and moments of opportunity.
We turn to two executives who faced periods of indecision during their careers and found inspiration for what to do next. As it happens both are black.
When Deborah Wright, CEO of Carver Bankcorp, New York was laid off from the investment bank First Boston she turned to Robert Holland, the first black partner at McKinsey and Company but is perhaps better known as CEO of Ben and Jerry’s for advice about what to do next. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: career decisions, Carver Bankcorp, consultants, executives, Globalhue, intutition, McKinsey and Company, mentors
Management Lessons from the Weather
During a particularly balmy January interlude in the middle of the last decade, I exmained the consequences of warmer office temperatures in a story called Some Like It Hot. In many ways it was a lighthearted piece, written during record breaking high temperatures. By the time the story was published and set to drop on doorsteps and driveways, the area was hit was a massive blizzard delaying and cancelling deliveries, once again proving weather holds sway over our best decisions. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: innovation, management decision making, negotiating skills, office temperatures, telecommuting
Ethical or Not?
About a decade ago, I wrote a story about corporate ethics and what companies were doing to practice more ethical behavior. Ethics is one of those stories that gets covered extensively when the economy is in reverse.
So are companies doing all they can to behave ethically? How we behave when others aren’t looking is a mark of character for individuals and is for companies also. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: contract workers, corporate citizenship, discrimination, ethics, executive privacy, fiduciary responsibility
A Million Jobs Here, A Million Jobs There, but Unemployment Remains High
It was just before New Year’s when Associated Press reporter Pallavi Gogoi broke the news that many U.S. companies are hiring…..overseas.
The Economic Policy Institute a think tank in Washington, D.C. estimates American companies created 1.4 million jobs overseas in 2010, compared with fewer than 1 million domestic jobs.
Now Ed Stoddard at Reuters is reporting that during the last two years as unemployment hovered at or near double digits, over 1 million immigrants found work. Many were here illegally.
The common denominator in both these stories is one of cost savings for employers.
Tags: Associated Press, Economic Policy Institute, hiring, immigration, job creation, outsourcing, Reuters
Five Essential Skills for College Grads; The Majors Most Likely to Land Jobs
What skills do employers find most desirable in jobs candidates? Late last year the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania surveyed employers and came up with five and perhaps not surprisingly verbal communications skills topped the list.
Read the rest of this entry »
Are You the Boss You Need to Be?
Linda Hill and Kent Lineback ask that question on Harvard Business Review site today.
Should You Turn Down a Promotion to Management?
Linda Hill, the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, and faculty chair of the Leadership Initiative , has just co-authored a new book with Kent Lineback called Being the Boss. It was Mr. Lineback who a decade ago wrote about entrepreneurship in the Silicon Valley with Randy Komisar in The Monk and the Riddle.
Mr. Lineback, spent 25 years as a manager and executive and has been candid about his shortcomings. The book he and Dr. Hill wrote may provide new insights for managers and leaders, in the post recession economy. It may even spare employees some grief as their new managers negotiate a learning curve. Dr.Hill says she frequently asks executives, “How many people have suffered as you tried to learn to do this job?”
Tags: leadership, management, mentoring
Networking in the New Year 2011
As many economists say that 2011 is expected to bring a thaw in hiring, even as the unemployment rate may temporarily rise as discouraged workers come back into the workplace, networking remains important asset in any job search.
Some job seekers are taking a cue from very visible twenty and early thirty somethings who are writing their own rules about employment. Dan Schwabel is one.
Dan has created a splash with his 2009 title Me 2.0 Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success and a new version published in October, 2010 called Me 2.0 Revised and Updated: 4 Steps to Rebuilding Your Future (Kaplan Publishing). He can be found on his website www.danschawbel.com and also blogs at www.personalbrandingblog.com where he’s entered personal branding predictions for 2011.
Late in 2010, I received an invitation to interview Dan through one of his sponsors, DeVry University. No limitations were placed on questions I asked and he wasn’t paid for his participation. The interview was brief and capped at seven minutes.
I asked Dan, who has been widely covered in the media, what is the most difficult part of keeping a brand fresh. He said to keep the information relevant, up-to-date and consistent. Consistency is important he says because you are making an implicit promise to your network.
And when I asked what it was necessary to do to avoid having a brand become overexposed he highlighted the importance of being focused and singled out Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as being particularly effective.
As social media continues to evolve, there will likely be new branding outlets that become popular. Still, the essential truth of networking is you get out of it what you put into it.
A New Era of Telecommuting, Part Two
With the Blizzard of December 26 and December 27, 2010 wreaking havoc with personal and transportation schedules, many who would have otherwise commuted to offices, spent the day after the holiday weekend telecommuting. It’s possible their productivity was interrupted by shoveling snow or keeping an eye on children playing (this being a vacation week after all).
While working from home can bring fewer interruptions and better concentration, there are times when there are clear signs that even the most experienced remote employees may need to consider heading back to the office. Bryant Rice, who is based in San Francisco and heads the North American government sector for DEGW, a strategic business consultancy suggests being alert to these changes. Read the rest of this entry »
A New Era of Telecommuting
In November, President Barack Obama announced a two year pay freeze for federal workers, eliminating plans for a 1.4 percent across-the-board raise in 2011 for 2.1 million federal civilian employees, including those working at the Defense Department and no raises at all in 2012. (The pay freeze doesn’t affect those in uniform or civilian being promoted who would still get the higher pay that comes with a position.)
Then last Thursday he signed the Telework Enhancement Acot of 2010 H.R. 1722 that directs each federal agency to design policies to promote telecommuting. About 5% of federal workers telecommute. The goal is to increase that number. Read the rest of this entry »
