As the old joke says, “There are two kinds of people in the world…” In my corner of the universe, there are those who love working in/with startups and those who don’t. Those to love it never question why someone else likes it. Those who have either never done it or who have low tolerance [ Read More ]
Definition of “Command” from StrengthsFinder2.0: Instinctively, you earnestly apply yourself to seeing things as they really are. You bring a practical, matter-of-fact, and unsentimental outlook to various discussions, projects, or planning meetings. It’s very likely that you seem willing to take chances. You frequently venture into unknown territory when that can make the difference between [ Read More ]
Definition of “Focus” from StrengthsFinder2.0: Instinctively, you are industrious, diligent, and persistent. You naturally set difficult-to-reach goals. These normally demand a great amount of your time. While your work ethic is evident, you question whether the promotions, titles, opportunities, or status symbols you desire could exact too high a price. Driven by your talents, you [ Read More ]
Definition of “Significance” from StrengthsFinder2.0: Driven by your talents, you are determined to be in charge of your own destiny. This is your life. You intend to be the ultimate decision maker regarding personal and professional matters. Instinctively, you yearn to get ahead. You strive to acquire many of the status symbols and special privileges [ Read More ]
Definition of “Strategic” from StrengthsFinder2.0: Chances are good that you can reconfigure factual information or data in ways that reveal trends, raise issues, identify opportunities, or offer solutions. You bring an added dimension to discussions. You make sense out of seemingly unrelated information. You are likely to generate multiple action plans before you choose the [ Read More ]
Definition of “Activator” from StrengthsFinder2.0: Driven by your talents, you trust your expertise and knowledge of special topics to guide your decision-making. You act quickly when your choices directly relate to your areas of mastery and past success. By nature, you regularly set up rivalries between yourself and others. Your take-charge style ordinarily allows you [ Read More ]
I admit it: I’m an assessment junkie. I enjoy taking different assessments to see what they say, where I think they are accurate and where I think they are full of it. Invariably, I will usually find something insightful in most of them that helps change the way I think or communicate with others. As [ Read More ]
Last week I wrote an opening rant about “strategists.” In the comments that ensued, I am now inspired to clarify what I mean while I continue to write this series. I am not talking about consultants who are hired to help hone and build out a strategic vision for an organization; nor am I talking [ Read More ]
Like Luke Skywalker, apparently I can no longer escape my destiny. After years of avoiding self-employment, I’m now in the thick of it. And because one of the most important things to being successful in this space is connecting with others, Charles and I are starting TechRanch’s Employee to Entrepreneur program this week. It’s been [ Read More ]
Strategy is sexy. Operations is not. This is often a problem in the modern business world: everyone wants to be a strategist. Aside from being seen as the best place to get to experiment with the new, fun stuff, it’s also usually seen as the side of the business with all the perks — travel, [ Read More ]
My husband constantly points out how irreverent I am. He does this mostly in a light-hearted, good natured way, but he still definitely finds it frustrating. He will often feel like I am being actively disrespectful to individuals or institutions that deserve my deference. The fact is that I am not disrespectful at all. What [ Read More ]
Job hunting is rough for oh-so-many reasons. One of the things that is hardest about it, though, is managing your own attitude and spirits. If there is one thing that is liable to get you into trouble during a job hunt, it is unmanaged anxiety. I’ve written before about some of the things that I [ Read More ]