Reading List: How Google Works
When Google Executive Chairman and ex-CEO Eric Schmidt joined the company, he wanted to hire Sheryl Sandberg, who is now Facebook’s chief operating officer. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page weren’t in favor of the idea “because she wasn’t an engineer,” write the authors. Today, roughly half of all Google employees (aka Googlers) are […]
How will.i.am Turned Imagination into an Empire
Ideas are currency. Ideas plus implementation are the bank. Even before he grasped that he had a gift for conjuring beats, hooks and melodies that the world would find as irresistible as a virus and a whole lot more fun, will.i.am intuitively understood the power of collaboration. “I never wanted to be a leader of […]
Reading List: The Small Big
What simple “small big” can get you the help you need? (Just ask.) What “small big” can make the difference when it comes to negotiation? (Make the first offer.) What “small big” should you add to your recipe for employee productivity? (The opportunity to see, hear or read about the human impact of their work.) […]
Tech That Makes It Easy to Keep an Eye on Inventory
It’s not the sexiest topic around, but managing inventory can be critical to a business’s success. Failure to do so can result in excess products wasting valuable space. Those with a short shelf life may perish. Shortages mean an inability to promptly fill orders and a loss of customers. Efficiency experts equate manually tracking inventory […]
Reading List: The Marshmallow Test
In 1972 psychologist Walter Mischel, then at Stanford University, published the results of his now-iconic (and somewhat controversial) experiment called The Marshmallow Test. Here’s a refresher on it: Looking to understand how willpower develops and manifests, Mischel presented preschoolers with a scenario designed to measure self-control. Each child was given two options: Eat one marshmallow […]
Reading List: Scrum
Waste is a crime. Multitasking makes you stupid. Half-done is not done. Working too hard only makes more work. These “takeaways” are but a few examples of the guiding principles of Scrum, a team-focused project management system originally co-created 21 years ago by Jeff Sutherland. Scrum includes rules such as prioritization (creating a master wish […]
It’s a Marathon: Give Up Sprinting for Long-Term Growth
In 2002, as email and Internet use were rapidly growing, Ryan Buchanan, a former financial analyst for Intel, saw opportunity in the nascent field of digital marketing. “There was this whole revolution going on with dot-coms and all this innovation happening and all these people striking it big,” says Buchanan, the founder and CEO of […]
Defend Your Boundaries to Take Back Control
One summer, I was struggling with feelings of resentment toward a family member. Let’s call her Carol. I loved Carol very much, but every time I saw her number on the caller ID, I got a sick, overwhelmed feeling. I started avoiding her calls. I realized, thanks to a candid chat with a friend, that […]
Overscheduled? 7 Ways to Reclaim Your Day
At our first meeting, my executive coaching clients typically start the first conversation by sharing their top priority and what they want to improve. I hear them describe the desires to communicate better, manage frustration with others and be a better leader. But a bigger issue often lurks below the surface. As we talk about […]
Tech Tools: 6 Travel Essentials
[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_large”,”fid”:”27261″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”350″,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”480″}}]]Able Planet Linx Fusion (AblePlanet.com) Able Planet has quietly (no pun intended) made a name for itself over the years in the noise-cancellation field. The company’s latest headphones, the $349.99 Linx Fusion, combines its active ambient noise-canceling technology with ViviTouch—a type of audio enhancement that delivers some sound via gentle vibrations. The method has been […]
Reading List: Smartcuts
“Traditional paths [to success] are not just slow; they’re no longer viable if we want to compete and innovate,” writes journalist and entrepreneur Shane Snow. What today’s entrepreneurs and innovators need are unconventional approaches, the titular “smartcuts.” In Snow’s lexicon, a shortcut is a rapid, short-term gain, whereas a smartcut is a sustainable success achieved […]
John C. Maxwell: How to Create a Culture of Innovation
A few YEARS AGO an Argentinian mechanic named Jorge Odón saw a YouTube video showing how to extract a cork from inside a wine bottle by inserting a plastic bag, inflating it so it surrounds the cork and then pulling it out. He and a friend tried it out over dinner. It worked! For most […]