As I reflect back on the short period of time I’ve had on earth, I think about the three things I’ve done right. 1. I’ve failed miserably. 2. I’ve had my heart broken. 3. I chose meaning over money. Through these three things, I discovered my true self, realized that I wasn’t going to be [...]
Creating Your Intention Statement
How many of you truly know and can articulate your life’s intent? And by intent, I mean your never changing purpose, the reason you exist or your personal mission statement. Ask yourself, how will you better those around you? Also, how will you not just better who you are, but what you can become? If [...]
Everyday Leadership
Popular culture has continually framed our idea of leadership to be something that is bigger than the individual. Because of this, we treat the title “leader” as something that one day we’ll deserve while giving little thought to the small things we do daily and how they are transformational to the lives around us. Leadership [...]
Leadership and Career Development Advice from Twitter
Every week day, I try send out an inspirational, motivational or thought-provoking post to my Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ pages. Here are 75 of those posts, in 140 characters or less, that received positive feedback. If you’re not doing it wrong, you’re doing it wrong. Fail fast…learn, unlearn and relearn…make change. The secret to [...]
8 Secrets for Using LinkedIn to Land Your Next Job
Career advancement in the 21st century looks drastically different than it did even a decade ago. Climbing the proverbial corporate ladder isn’t as much of an option as organizations outsource, offshore and flatten their hierarchies. Instead, you have to continually develop your personal suite of skills by taking lateral moves, and sometimes steps backwards, that [...]
Career Advice from Healthcare Executives
I was very fortunate to moderate a panel of metro Phoenix healthcare executives on January 23rd, 2013. The event was organized by the Arizona Healthcare Executives (AHE), was held at Grand Canyon University and the topic was Career Positioning: Proactively Managing Your Professional Development. The panel included Tim Bricker, President and CEO of Mercy Gilbert [...]
Use Hardships to Develop Your Career
Technological changes have been impacting humanity for thousands of years. Although agricultural advancements allowed for population growth and urbanization, industrialization shifted focus away from the creation of sustenance to a primary focus of the development of goods, services and information. A technology-driven society fosters significant changes in the lives of the average man as more [...]
Preparing for the New Year
As you begin to plan for 2013, take time to reflect on the previous year and the many accomplishments you’ve had. Oftentimes, we get consumed by our to do list, or tasks we didn’t accomplish, and forget to celebrate the wonderful things we’ve done. Pausing for reflection helps us to remember that the destination is [...]
Making Your Brand Systemic
Noted management expert Peter F. Drucker once said, “Since we live in an age of innovation, a practical education must prepare a man for work that does not yet exist and cannot yet be clearly defined.” The same theory applies to innovation and finding meaning in one’s career. You must learn continually and prepare for [...]
Economics and Your Career Outlook
On October 24th I attended the Global Wealth Management Summit at the Thunderbird School of Global Management. A variety of world-class speakers spoke about economic uncertainty, policy changes and how investing will change in the coming decade. I love attending these events because they provide considerable insight into implementation strategies for career transition and your [...]
Your Personal Advisory Board
Jim Rohn once said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Whether we like to admit it or not, we are greatly influenced by those closest to us. They can affect multiple aspects of our lives, but most importantly how we think. Because thoughts have the ability to [...]
Make Quantum Leaps, Not Incremental Change
In my previous two blog posts about The Top 10 Factors Impacting Your Career Search (read one here and two here), I reviewed the political, economic, sociocultural and technology (P.E.S.T.) trends that will materially affect your ability to find a job that allows you to be your true self. The ten factors have significantly altered [...]
Top 10 Factors Impacting Your Career Search (part one)
Organizations spend considerable amounts of time determining what changes in the marketplace will materially affect the implementation of their strategic plans. A common analysis tool used to determine changes and trends is the P.E.S.T. acronym. Attempting to determine the Political, Economic, Social and Technological factors that will influence your business helps to lay a strong [...]
The Servant Economy, Avoid or Enter?
Dan Froomkin wrote a piece recently about the steady decline of wages in America. Read it here. He argues that neither political party has a specific plan for the long-term creation of meaningful, high-wage jobs. Froomkin quotes Jeff Faux, a progressive economist who founded the Economic Policy Institute, throughout the article. Faux’s research suggests that [...]
Career Search Imperatives and Constraints
People in career transition, or those seeking career change, often struggle with a variety of issues related to making the transition. You have probably seen those around you fall into one of the following six categories. You may also fall into one of them yourself. I think I know the process I want to do [...]
Be a “Go-Giver”
The day of the “go-getter” has passed. He has been supplanted by the “go-giver”. A “go-getter” may be described as the individual who is solely focused on the attainment of wealth through bottom line profit generation. A “go-giver” is the individual who out-behaves those around him in his drive to secure triple bottom line wealth; [...]
Generative v. Extractive Career Search
We all know the war for talent is heating up and is going to get real hot, real soon. But why should any organization choose you over the other 300 individuals who applied for the same position? We can talk about resumes, unique selling propositions, personal branding and the strength of your network, but in [...]
An Oath of Honor
In 2006, the Thunderbird School of Global Management was the first business school to institutionalize a pledge for responsible management. Although it was not warmly accepted at that time, attitudes changed quickly two years later when a focus on short-term profits led to the global economic meltdown. Much of the same behavior that caused our [...]
Deconstructing the Career Ladder
For decades, professionals worked long hours and put in the extra effort required to climb the career ladder. They searched for the next project, relationship or strong performance appraisal that would allow them to be considered for a promotion. The world, and the career growth process, was relatively structured and predictable. Not anymore. Incredible amounts [...]
Project Team Communication
I had the good fortune of spending yesterday evening at the Thunderbird School of Global Management. Professor Denis Leclerc led a discussion on cross-cultural communication when working in project teams. Through many of his international travels in recent months, he has been surveying individuals and has collected data from over 640 individuals who are actively [...]
Achievement Over Accolades
David McCullough Jr.’s commencement address at Wellesley High School on June 1 has sent reverberations throughout the World Wide Web. Popular on YouTube (with more than 1 million views) because of its’ “you are not special” tilt, but it should be more popular for the more encouraging message somewhat hidden underneath. Watch the video here. [...]
The Support of a Loved One
Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich, is a wonderful text about how positive human thought can manifest itself into physical things. The book is worthwhile because it helps to remind us that there are certain things in life that will continue to go unexplained because they’re not tangible. Although not tangible, they are somehow [...]
How to “Out-Behave” Others
I just wrapped up a long weekend spent with friends who truly understand the importance of human character. It seems that so many people have replaced honesty, integrity, and trustworthiness with a focus on the personality ethic. To me, the personality ethic is a focus on the accumulation of iStuff (i.e. iPhones, McMansions, brand name [...]
From Success to Significance
Although the debate about the cause of The Great Recession rages on, you can’t help but recognize that life is being conducted differently. Large organizations continually push productivity measures and try to do more with fewer human resources. Individuals are spending more time at work constantly striving for the mythical place termed “work-life balance”. Constant [...]
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