February 8th, 2011
Walt Kelly’s famous Earth Day poster proclaimed “we have met the enemy and he is us.” This statement rings true for many aspects of modern life, but perhaps none more so than in the management of our career.
Throughout my business experience, first as a corporate leader and now as an executive coach, I have witnessed numerous promising trajectories flatten-out because of the debilitating effect of ego. Shooting stars turn into falling stars. Supernovas fizzle and die. Incandescence to irrelevance. You get the picture. Read the rest of this entry »
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January 8th, 2011
There are few things in this country of ours around which there is universal agreement. I challenge you to identify five things in the next five seconds. Go. Not so easy, is it.
Except when it comes to explaining the disappointing payroll numbers for December. After an encouraging ADP jobs report on Wednesday that forecasted a net add of 297,000 jobs in December, the Department of Labor threw a wet blanket on the celebration by reporting a net add of only 103,000. Groans rose from every corner of the economy and Wall Street in response to the disappointing results. Read the rest of this entry »
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December 29th, 2010
It is hard to believe that yet another year has passed as we sit on the precipice of 2011. Now is the time for all of those New Year resolutions, most of which whither around mid-March. We are mostly well-intended, but we run out of energy, focus and commitment before we run out of resolution. Such is life. Read the rest of this entry »
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December 9th, 2010
Tis that time of year again. The holiday season is directly upon us. Bad fruitcake, cheesy decorations, alcohol laced eggnog and the all-important gift-giving. But in this last category, the times have begun to change for the better, at least a little bit. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Economy | 1 Comment »
November 24th, 2010
If you attended B-School or spent any time studying organizations, you likely have heard of the Hawthorne Effect. This phenomenon gets its name from productivity studies conducted in the late 1920s at the Hawthorne Works, a Chicago area plant of the Western Electric company. The findings are fascinating and worth five minutes of Wikipedia reading. The upshot is that the productivity of workers consistently increased throughout the period of time that they were being analyzed, without regard to the factors being manipulated. Read the rest of this entry »
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