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Job Titles

Tuesday, May 7th, 2019

https://www.flickr.com/photos/atalaya/28580198103/

One of the dumbest (stupidest?) actions during the original dot com boom was two-fold.

The first was title inflation, with larger companies taking a leaf from the financial services industry where customer-facing positions, such as brokers and non-teller positions, were often VPs.

Second, bigger titles were often handed out in lieu of promotions and raises, while in the startup community titles bore little-to-no relationship to the person’s skills or experience.

Both created major problems for candidates when interviewing at new companies, especially for those who bought into their titles. It came as shock that the skills required to be a VP in a “real” company are seriously different than those needed in a startup.

That was then, but what’s happening now?

I got the answer in a list from CB Insights of tech’s silliest job titles.

It’s gotten worse.

Aside from confusing their customers and vendors, the titles sound totally idiotic to all but a very small slice of the tech world.

However, the titles do do a great job of strengthening gender bias and turning off women.

What more could any bro want?

Image credit: JJ Merelo

The Necessity Of Fools

Tuesday, February 21st, 2017

https://www.flickr.com/photos/francescaromanacorreale/8162774877/

Yesterday’s Golden Oldie provided links to a variety of fools, most of which you can do without.

That said, there is one variety of fool that every company should have — and that is the wise fool, as described in King Lear.

Cloaked in the form of discourteous comments or unfiltered remarks, King Lear’s fool was able to express the thoughts that others were reluctant to express. Through the mask of comedy, he would remind the monarch of his own folly and humanity. As George Bernard Shaw once said, “every despot must have one disloyal subject to keep him sane.

Look around; does your company have at least one fool? Or, better yet, one fool in each department?

As Manfred Kets De Vries, the Distinguished Clinical Professor of Leadership Development & Organizational Change at INSEAD, points out.

All in all, fools are honest and loyal protectors, who allow society to reflect on and laugh at its own complex power relations. They can act as our “conscience” by helping us question our perceptions of wisdom and truth and their relationship to everyday experience. Through humor and frank communication, the “fool” and the “king” or “queen” engage in a form of deep play that deals with fundamental issues of human nature, such as control, rivalry, passivity, and action.

As such, fools contribute to group cohesion and an atmosphere of trust by providing an opportunity to humorously and critically review our values and judgments as the powerful socio-cultural structures of power pull, push, and shape our identity.

And, beyond all that, fools are a repository of wisdom — based on strong critical thinking coupled with extensive experience — which makes them excellent role models and a great source from which to learn.

Finally, whether a boss can hire, let alone keep, a fool is an accurate reflection of their MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) and a good indicator of the prevailing culture.

Flickr image credit: Francesca Romana Correale

Expand Your Mind: Diversity Round-up

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010

expand-your-mind

Each month LeaderTalk’s Becky Robinson chooses a topic and invites some of the best bloggers to participate in the round-up that ends each month and I’m honored to be included on the list.

This month’s topic was A Leader Embraces Diversity and Bridges Differences.

In his post “Research Lessons: Diversity May (or May Not) Improve Performance,” Wally Bock gives a great overview of the sometimes conflicting conclusions people may draw from studies about the effects of diversity in the workplace. Wally’s conclusions are helpful for any managers who wants to help their teams work together successfully.

Roberta Hill’s post “Encouraging Differences Starts At Home,” offers wonderful insight about how we learn about differences from an early age and how leaders can help others in appreciating diversity.

Miki Saxon thinks about diversity beyond the obvious in this post, focusing on encouraging diversity of thought and skills in her post“Ducks in a Row: More on Creating a Culture of Innovation.”

Michael McKinney’s post “We Hire For Difference and Fire Because They’re Not the Same” gives tips about creating true diversity in the workplace, drawn from Laura Liswood’s book The Loudest Duck.

Jennifer V. Miller shares the story of one leader and the skills he has that will make him an effective leader of a global virtual team in her post, “The Diverse Leader.”

In another real life example, Jim Stroup talks about the importance of listening to dissenting opinions and being open to diversity.

Valuing others is challenging at times, especially if we perceive them to be different from us. Monica Diaz encourages us to adopt a non-prejudiced view of others.

Tanveer Naseer urges us to “Create a World Without Labels,” in this post which includes compelling video about experiences of people with mental illness.

Mike Myatt’s views are sure to get you thinking. Don’t miss this post: “Diversity.”

Enjoy!

Image credit: pedroCarvalho on flickr

Delegate, Don’t Abdicate

Friday, March 12th, 2010

delegate-not-abdicateThere is no dearth of information available and that is especially true when you are looking to improve your management skills.

My cyber buddy Elliot Ross writes an excellent blog about tech for tech challenged SMB managers.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote Self-starter Does Not Mean Self-managed and Elliot used it to discuss the same problem in IT.

In his post he hits the bull’s-eye with a phrase that any manager at any level in any size company would be wise to tattoo on their frontal lobe.

There is a big difference between delegating your IT services, and abdicating them.

Substitute whatever your group does for ‘IT services’ and you have one of the best and most succinct pieces of management advice I’ve ever seen.

But knowing it is not the same as applying it—every time for every person in every situation.

Image credit: Warning Sign Generator

Wordless Wednesday: What Good Managers Do

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Now take a look at what bad culture feels like

Image credit: arte_ram on sxc.hu

Leadership Development Carnival

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

Thanks to Mary Jo Asmus at Intentional Leadership for hosting the August Leadership Development Carnival.

The carnival offers great posts from excellent thinkers on leadership, management and a host of other topics. It’s a great way to stimulate your brain, whether you agree or disagree with the ideas.

Click over and start thinking!

Image credit: k_vohsen on sxc.hu

Responsibility: Them Or Us?

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

Do you get the feeling that corporate management has gone to hell? That those in positions of power, the folks whose visions we’re supposed to follow, are all crooks?

I have a friend who feels this way, but I don’t.

There are thousands of companies in the US and the majority are led by solid, caring managers who really do their best to do it right. Sure, some do it better than others and some are downright inept, but they aren’t crooks or scam artists.

So where did all the guys in the headlines come from? We know many of them have been around for years or even decades, but few noticed and most didn’t care.

What happened?

I think that the tiny percentage in the news these days are the guys who are 98% bad, but who’ve been previously covered by the other 2% that is comprised of luck, brilliance, or blindness in the peanut gallery.

And of those three saving graces, two are cosmic jokes, but responsibility for the third rests squarely on us—because we went along with it.

Image credit: sxc.hu

Self-improvement books and your MAP

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

Image credit:

Yet another management book, this one telling you that there are five major supports for great management

  • motivating others,
  • attracting and retaining top talent,
  • planning and organizing group performance,
  • driving results throughout an organization, and
  • lifelong development.

Which book doesn’t really matter and I’m not arguing with the list, but you’ve been told similar things over and over. While you really work at making them happen, your results are spotty and you’re not sure why.

Even when you follow the author’s how-to’s exactly your results leave you feeling less than satisfied.

What’s going on? Is there something wrong with you—or is it them?

More importantly, how do you fix it?

To paraphrase an old song, “The answer, my friend, is blowing in your MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™).” Right, in your MAP and not because there’s anything wrong with it, but because you are unique and books are written in a ‘one size fits all’ manner.

This doesn’t mean that you need to change your MAP (unless you decide that change would be beneficial), but it does mean that you need to find books, or parts of books, that resonate with your MAP. Doing so will supply you with tools you can really use and increase your satisfaction.

Here are three quick tests you can use when shopping for self-improvement books.

  • Read the Table of Contents – how someone organizes and presents their material needs to feel right to you or absorbing it moves to the difficult-if-ever category.
  • Scan some of the information and see if it makes sense to you – if you dip into the book in several places and each time find yourself scratching your head then it’s likely that the author and you are on a different wavelength. This doesn’t make either of you wrong, just different, and that kind of different makes your learning more difficult.
  • Read two or three paragraphs in at least three different places – evaluate whether the writing flows for you. No matter how good the content if the writing is so poor/dull/scholarly/etc. that you don’t enjoy it you won’t read it. And if you do manage to plow through it you’re unlikely to absorb it, which defeats the whole purpose of reading it.

Finally, being considered an expert doesn’t guarantee synergy with your MAP and it’s your MAP that needs to connect—not mine and not the reviewer’s.

How do you decide in which books to invest your time?
What are you favorite improvement books?

Management expertise

Friday, April 18th, 2008

Back when I was young in the business world I heard that the way to managerial success was to hire people smarter than yourself and then get out of their way.

Seems that happens less and less these days.

It constantly amazes me how many managers state strong views from positions of extreme ignorance—and then consider their positions/comments invincible.

Nothing sways them from their chosen position—certainly not incidentals such as facts, documentation, surveys, articles, etc. They act as if changing their minds would be perceived as an act of weakness by those around them, especially subordinates.

What do you think?

Is it possible for anyone/anywhere/any time to know everything about any given topic, no matter how narrowly defined? Or creative enough to think of every possible shading, tangent, ramification, solution or repercussion applicable to/stemming from it?

Image credit: Gropi

 

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