Category: Management

Management sailing–smooth or choppy?

I spoke to a woman I know who was being offered a new job with a new company; the money was good, not a huge jump, but an industry she wanted to be in, and willing to take it for a not-so-big increase, a perfectly legit reason. Well regarded at her current company, she announced…
Read more

Pope Benedict’s management lesson..

I don’t follow the papacy very much, but as Benedict’s sudden resignation has been front page news everywhere, I just finished reading a front page in today’s (14 Feb) IHT/NYT, headlining that he had no choice but to step down, calling him a ‘weak manager.’ That piqued my curiosity. Not a weak leader, but a…
Read more

Tortoise and Hare management lesson

I recently wrote ’8 pointers on how to get a job’, but neglected one important point. Do not martyr yourself and die on the job. I know plenty of people who have a distinct work modus operandi – I see it on CV’s and this is reinforced when I meet them. They take a new…
Read more

Send In The Clones??

Many corporates believe that in order to build a high performing team, hire top talent, in turn they’ll attract their own ilk, et voila, problem solved for talent acquisition. The best hire the best, right? Mediocre talent hires even worse talent. That’s the thinking, and has been ingrained in management. This is, of course, nonsense,…
Read more

The Snake in the Grass

I recently had coffee with a friend, a former senior hedge fund manager. He now works on his own, paid his dues over many years in the banks, and for a number of years ran the Asia-Pac investment-banking practice for one of the white-shoe financial institutions. As is my wont, we talked about corporate politics.…
Read more

Please please me

I had coffee last week with a woman who is General Counsel for a US based consultancy. She reminisced about her first job 20-some years ago, working with a senior partner in a law firm who was a notorious SOB. His reputation was to intimidate and grind down those who were supposed to help him.…
Read more

Hiring? Thoughts on ‘smart’ rather than ‘fit’

When clients decide to make an external hire, they [almost] always state that candidates must have industry experience-to fit in more quickly, to engender credibility, have an easier learning curve, and to ‘hit the ground running.’ Industry knowledge helps, no argument. Indeed, if the job to be filled is mid or low level, technical or…
Read more

The fear of hiring

That may sound peculiar, but I often see clients get cold feet when committing to a new hire.There could be many reasons; no one wants to make a hiring error with a big job; concern that no one externally can fit into the culture quickly enough; an uncertain economic climate, which always gives an easy…
Read more

The [overly] ambitious subordinate… look out

The other day I spoke to a friend, a regional director, where he’d been recently, how his new hires were doing, work chit-chat. He said that one new hire (working elsewhere in the region) was doing very well; smart guy, good pedigree and contacts, presents well and ‘made a contribution from day one.’ My friend…
Read more
All articles loaded
No more articles to load
Load more