Did an interesting chat recently with some lovely folks – Renée Gallant from @SheLovesData and Felipe Flores from @DataFuturology – about career paths and diversity in data. Continue reading Career Aspirations Post Pandemic: What Every Hiring Manager Needs to Know
Yesterday I took part in a discussion at a Table Talk session for Microsoft Ignite on what makes a compelling hire. My co-hosts were Lars Klint, Robert Crane, Hamish Watson, Janaka Rangama (thanks to Lars for the screenshot below). A huge thanks also to everyone who joined in and to my lovely co-hosts. The chat was lively and some of the excellent answers and advice … Continue reading Table Talk: What makes someone a compelling hire?
Managing people is a skill I’ve been a manager for over twenty years now, managing teams ranging in size from 2 to 263. One thing that I have learned is that if you want to do anything big then you need to work through other people to achieve at scale. And managing through other people to achieve goals is one of the biggest challenges when … Continue reading Critical conversations at work
Spoke at a women in technology conference recently on the topic of how to future proof your career. It might seem strange that I hardly mentioned technology at all in this talk. But the essentials for a long career are mostly outside of technology. Any intelligent person can pick up technology skills, but other essential skills include: Self analysis and self understanding NO to office … Continue reading Future proof your career – some tips for women
“We measure a leader, not by the absence of problems, but how he or she confronts those problems and takes action.” – Rosabeth Moss Kanter There has been a long and largely unprofitable debate in management circles about the difference between management and leadership. Over the years I have come to a realisation that management and leadership are inextricably linked and that they are defined … Continue reading Leaders, problems, and action
Background to the jobs free future and trade unions Recently I wrote about the jobs free future, where the traditional model of a job for life is dead and industries that were familiar employers during the twentieth century are significantly reducing their need for labour. The jobs free future represents a major structural change to the global economy. Venture capitalist, Steve Schlafman noted in a … Continue reading Trade unions and the jobs free future
In recent times I have been feeling very depressed about the state of things including sexism, misogyny, and leadership. But a few days ago came a beacon of hope. This beacon came from an unlikely source, the Australian Army. And the topic that this person addressed was the sombre one of sexism and demeaning treatment of women by serving military personnel. Yet I was moved … Continue reading What does Leadership look like? Leadership, sexism, and misogyny
With the changing business world it is a good idea to think about habitual business practices to ensure that we are not doing things that made sense for the past and which do not make sense now. Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. — attributed to Albert Einstein We all want to improve business results, driving KPIs higher … Continue reading Change or die – business, competition, and the new world
While trawling around on YouTube recently I came across a 1980s video of Tim Finn’s There’s a Fraction too much Friction and it got me thinking about the things that annoy me in dealing with businesses. I concluded that the source of my irritation is friction. I have long observed that business has many things in common with war, and friction is probably the thing … Continue reading There’s a fraction too much friction! Customers, service, and staff.
As companies embrace the notion of a reputation economy fueled by the power of social platforms this brings a new set of challenges for management and employees. I was at the Salesforce #cloudcrowd event in Sydney recently and we were discussing this issue with guest speaker Peter Coffee. The issue is that companies increasingly require employees to interact online on behalf of the company but … Continue reading The Reputation Economy, Employees, and Privacy
Aide Mémoire 