Kivilcimi sondurmeyen atesi zapt edemez.-L.N. Tolstoy
29 Ocak 2014 Çarşamba
22 Ocak 2014 Çarşamba
The Right Way to Answer “What’s Your Greatest Weakness?"
Thomas Jefferson once said that “honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom”.
Dishonesty can be taught. In my experience, I’ve noticed that, of all culprits, college career centers are exceptional traffickers of such miseducation. In the process, they’re hurting their brightest students’ chances of making it in the world of startups by convincing them to give dishonest answers to tough interview questions.
” Boston College advises students to “Turn your weakness into a positive (for example) ‘Because I tend to procrastinate, I have learned to work well under pressure in order to always get work done on time.’”
This is terrible advice. Responses like these tell me little about how a candidate faces challenges and immediately implies a lack of sincerity. It doesn’t demonstrate to me how they think — beyond their ability to creatively avoid being honest or self-critical. It indicates to me that they’re not willing to stand up and say what’s not working — the opposite of what a startup needs. That’s why my recent interviews with college graduates have all started to follow the same pattern. I start with two sentences: “Forget what your career center has taught you about interviews. I want to have a real conversation with real answers, and I promise to do the same.” The candidates take a minute to evaluate whether I’m somehow tricking them. If they lean into their discomfort and take me at my word, the level of conversation improves dramatically — we have a great time getting to know one another in an authentic way. I’m not really looking to find out whether their organizational skills could use improvement, or that they struggle with presenting to large groups or even leading large teams. I’m trying to find out whether they have self-awareness; whether they are able to be critical; and most importantly, whether they’re able to tell the truth — when it’s difficult.
” Boston College advises students to “Turn your weakness into a positive (for example) ‘Because I tend to procrastinate, I have learned to work well under pressure in order to always get work done on time.’”
This is terrible advice. Responses like these tell me little about how a candidate faces challenges and immediately implies a lack of sincerity. It doesn’t demonstrate to me how they think — beyond their ability to creatively avoid being honest or self-critical. It indicates to me that they’re not willing to stand up and say what’s not working — the opposite of what a startup needs. That’s why my recent interviews with college graduates have all started to follow the same pattern. I start with two sentences: “Forget what your career center has taught you about interviews. I want to have a real conversation with real answers, and I promise to do the same.” The candidates take a minute to evaluate whether I’m somehow tricking them. If they lean into their discomfort and take me at my word, the level of conversation improves dramatically — we have a great time getting to know one another in an authentic way. I’m not really looking to find out whether their organizational skills could use improvement, or that they struggle with presenting to large groups or even leading large teams. I’m trying to find out whether they have self-awareness; whether they are able to be critical; and most importantly, whether they’re able to tell the truth — when it’s difficult.
The Hidden Skills in Your Most Reliable People
When you need something done — and done right — you probably know who you can count on. Even at work, most people have someone they can call on at a moment’s notice.
If you gave your team a basic personality test, the reliable people would probably score high in conscientiousness, one of the five basic personality dimensions.It reflects how organized, disciplined, thorough, and careful someone tends to be. Starting in the 1990′s, organizational research has found that people displaying these traits tend to succeed in management roles.
Here are three suggestions for keeping a closer eye on your conscientious employees, and helping develop their critical hidden skills:
http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/03/the-hidden-skills-in-your-most/
If you gave your team a basic personality test, the reliable people would probably score high in conscientiousness, one of the five basic personality dimensions.It reflects how organized, disciplined, thorough, and careful someone tends to be. Starting in the 1990′s, organizational research has found that people displaying these traits tend to succeed in management roles.
Here are three suggestions for keeping a closer eye on your conscientious employees, and helping develop their critical hidden skills:
- Keep track of assignments. Make sure that you’re not loading them up with extra tasks just because you know that they’ll do them.
- Reward them. Give them time to work on projects they value personally. The autonomy and appreciation strengthens their bond to the company and increases the chances they’ll stick around.
- Watch them closely. You know you can take the hands-off approach with conscientious employees, but closely observing their work will give them a chance to display their strengths.
http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/03/the-hidden-skills-in-your-most/
Gorulmesi gereken kutuphaneler
Avrupada ki kutuphaneler icin faydali bir site:
http://www.bookstoreguide.org/
Virgin Megastore
Selexyz Dominicanen Bookstore
Shakespeare and Company, Paris
El Ateneo Grand Splendid
Le Bal des Ardents Bookstore
John W. Doull Bookseller
Kid’s Republic Book Store
Livraria Lello & Irmão
Lutyens & Rubinstein
The Last Bookstore
9 Ocak 2014 Perşembe
How to Be a Family-Friendly Boss
Focus on What, Not How or When. With today’s information technology, more and more work can be done in places other than the office and at times outside of traditional business hours. This is particularly true of knowledge work.
Get Better at Measuring Performance. For managers to become comfortable with employees working more flexibly, they need to get better at measuring performance. When they don’t have a good handle on output, they rely on generalized impressions of people’s work, or worse yet of the people themselves
Frequent sessions between supervisor and employee (timed around the rhythms of client projects rather than arbitrary annual deadlines) should focus on goal-setting and coaching as much as reviewing accomplishments.
Delegate, Coach, and Let Your People Earn Trust. Another great investment that pays off in the long-term is spending the time to develop employees to the point where they can work more autonomously in the medium- and long-term.
Providing coaching, feedback, and resources to help people not show up might seem counterintuitive — and it will surely be extra work, for a short while. The payback, however, comes with higher productivity and greater mutual trust. Having the confidence to allow employees more discretion over how and where they work frees you up to focus on more value-adding work than double-checking theirs.
Serve as a Work-Family Balance Role Model. Finally, you can help employees struggling with work-family balance by showing them how it’s done. Make it a habit at work to mention your family activities and ask your employees about theirs. Over time, these conversations can change the culture in your workplace
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/01/how-to-be-a-family-friendly-boss/
Get Better at Measuring Performance. For managers to become comfortable with employees working more flexibly, they need to get better at measuring performance. When they don’t have a good handle on output, they rely on generalized impressions of people’s work, or worse yet of the people themselves
Frequent sessions between supervisor and employee (timed around the rhythms of client projects rather than arbitrary annual deadlines) should focus on goal-setting and coaching as much as reviewing accomplishments.
Delegate, Coach, and Let Your People Earn Trust. Another great investment that pays off in the long-term is spending the time to develop employees to the point where they can work more autonomously in the medium- and long-term.
Providing coaching, feedback, and resources to help people not show up might seem counterintuitive — and it will surely be extra work, for a short while. The payback, however, comes with higher productivity and greater mutual trust. Having the confidence to allow employees more discretion over how and where they work frees you up to focus on more value-adding work than double-checking theirs.
Serve as a Work-Family Balance Role Model. Finally, you can help employees struggling with work-family balance by showing them how it’s done. Make it a habit at work to mention your family activities and ask your employees about theirs. Over time, these conversations can change the culture in your workplace
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/01/how-to-be-a-family-friendly-boss/
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