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Why Your Startup Needs a Lead Dog
Tweet Share on Facebook July 7, 2009 CommentI am told that in dog-sled racing circles, a lead dog is a very valuable commodity. A good lead dog spells success or failure.
It is the same in your business, particularly if it is a startup.
In your startup, you will hear all kinds of excuses from your new sales staff. Excuses like, “The prospects have never heard of us!” or “If we would only advertise on [insert the most expensive media here], we could sell more.”
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When a Coworker Gets Special Treatment
Tweet Share on Facebook July 6, 2009 Comment (21)A reader writes:
How do I deal with a manager who clearly gives special treatment to a coworker? She is very irresponsible, and yet my manager takes her lateness to work as almost cute behavior on her part. A couple of times, my coworker did not even show up to work but my manager never took appropriate action. They have a good relationship, and any other manager would have already fired my coworker for her behavior. How should I handle this situation? It makes me sick sometimes.
Well, you really don't know what's happening behind the scenes. Maybe your manager did take action--it's unlikely that you would know about it. Your manager wouldn't share that with you, and your coworker, if she's like most people, probably wouldn't confess to you that she's in trouble.
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Drawing Lines on Doing Favors
Tweet Share on Facebook July 3, 2009 Comment (1)At what point is it ethically proper to use connections and do favors?
This is an easier call when you are the favor seeker. If you are unemployed and have family and friends who can put in a good word for you, why not ask them to do so? Their recommendations may open a door, but in most cases it won’t guarantee a job. You’ll have to land that on your own.
The question gets harder when you are the person who’s been asked for the favor, particularly if you are inside an organization. It can be difficult to make a strong recommendation without having it interpreted as a form of coercion. On the other hand, if your recommendation is too weak, it may seem that you are damning the candidate with faint praise.
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Set Goals to Move Your Dream Along
Tweet Share on Facebook July 2, 2009 Comment (1)Dreams of how things could be are wonderful things. They give us something to aim for, and they serve as a blueprint for what our world could become. But for far too many people, those dreams will never see the light of day. Why? Because a vital piece of the equation is missing: action.
Dream-building sounds like exotic, airy stuff, but nothing could be further from the truth. Dream-building happens in the mundane, day-after-day steps you take. Some of those steps are energizing, and some of those steps are just things you need to get done. But they all have one thing in common – they must be taken.
When you take care of the steps, the dream will take care of itself. One way to make sure you keep taking the action you need to take is setting process goals.
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A Job Interview is Just a Conversation
Tweet Share on Facebook July 1, 2009 Comment (6)The tougher the job market, and the longer you’re out of work, the more likely it is that you'll be nervous at job interviews.
This is bad because the key to successful job interviewing is to be relaxed enough to relate, on a human level, to your potential employer. Job hunting is all about selling, and selling is all about making an authentic human connection. Yes, it’s true, a lot of career (and life) success comes down to chemistry.
But fret not: you can ace the whole chemistry thing if you teach yourself to think of your interview, not as a test you’re terrified you’re going to fail, but as a conversation. This means:
