Newsletter
Subscribe to the Newsletter
You can sign up for our monthly newsletter by sending an email to this address with "subscribe newsletter" as the body of the message.
Subscribe to RSS
Previous Newsletters
- November 2009 — Cut Loose the Anchors
- October 2009 — Don't Just Do Something, Stand There!
- September 2009 — We Multi-Task Here
- August 2009 — Gut Power
- July 2009 Not So Great Expectations
- June 2009 — At Home To Mr. Cockup
- May 2009 — Right To Midnight
- April 2009 — How To Not Make A Lightbulb
- March 2009 — We're Doomed!
- Suggestions
If you have a particular topic you would like to see addressed in a future newsletter, please email your suggestions to steve@7stepsahead.com.
February 2010 — The Godot Effect
As published by ERE.Net
Personally, I wouldn't even know him if I saw him.
-- Estragon, Waiting For Godot
Some years ago I was sitting in a product design meeting. The discussion kept circling around some particularly knotty issues that no one in the room actually knew much about. In one sense, this wasn't a serious problem given that the company was still actively hiring and there was a recognition that more people were needed. Someone finally commented that we'd have to make sure to hire someone with the particular expertise in question and, in one fell swoop, that task was assigned to a non-existent person. Again, this is not necessarily a problem… yet. It became a problem, however, as the meeting progressed:
January 2010 — 7 Things You Should Communicate
As published by ERE.Net
It's not enough to say that if you want to keep the best people when the economy improves, you just need to communicate more. It matters what you say and how and when you say it. Communication occurs in the context that you've created over time, and how your communications will be received will depend a great deal on that context. If you want to keep your best people, then you need to do your homework. (Or, conversely, if you want to recruit someone else's key people, find companies that did not do the homework suggested in this article.)
December 2009 — Who's In Charge Here?
Originally published by The CEO Refresher
"She doesn't know how to lead!"
"Clearly, we picked the wrong person when we brought him on as CEO. He's just not a leader!"
"We don't need a leader. We're all equals."
These are all comments I've heard from Boards of Directors, senior management teams, even groups of college students. Okay, to be fair, college students don't refer to any of their number as a CEO, but otherwise the sentiment is the same. In each case, the first reaction of the group to any difficulties or controversy is to accuse the leader of being unable to lead. The groups with no leader do avoid that problem, but at the cost of not actually managing to get anything done. Sooner or later, a leader emerges, whether or not openly acknowledged.
If you are interested in reprinting one of these articles or having a new article written for your publication, please contact us for more information.
