Sweet Reason with a dose of Common Sense
WRITING THIS BLOG often makes me reflect on people I’ve encountered during my career. Sometimes people ask, “Who was the oddest person you ever had working for you?” and although quite a few pop into my head, there’s one that tops all others. It’s a guy named Larry who I worked with in San Diego
IT’S A SAD DAY whenever one of the last remaining Apollo astronauts passes away, especially when it is one of the few who went to the Moon. Bill Anders, who died last week at the age of 90, was one of those guys, even if he never set foot on another celestial body. Although he
THERE’S A TON of workplace jargon we all have to navigate, but here’s a new term to get your head around — “workplace friction.” This isn’t terribly new. Stanford Professor Bob Sutton — well known for his book The No Asshole Rule — says that workplace friction is “simply putting obstacles in front of people
Editor’s Note: I’ve written a version of this weekly wrap-up for more than 20 years — from Workforce.com to TLNT.com to Fuel50. Now, I’m doing it here. Let me know what you think at johnhollon@yahoo.com. I THINK I WAS WAS BORN to lead and be a manager. I’ve been doing it since I was editing
BACK AT THE PEAK of the Covid lockdown in April 2021, New Zealand technology firm Fuel50 held a virtual FuelX Talent Mobility conference because it just wasn’t possible to stage a live event as they had done in the past. There were a number of great speakers — like Josh Bersin — but one had a very different presentation from everyone else. That speaker was Dave
I’VE MET A LOT of big-name media people over the years, but one I’ve missed is Anna Wintour, the famous (some would say infamous) and feared editor of Vogue magazine. The British-born Wintour is known for a lot of things – including being a terribly difficult person to work for – but she’s also the
EVEN I GET SURPRISED when I see something like this: According to The Wall Street Journal, companies are now turning to robots to train and coach young managers. Please insert your “bad manager” joke here. According to The Journal, the training comes in the form of a bot, “a manager-training app powered by the artificial
I LEARNED LONG AGO that user ratings — whether they be on Yelp, Amazon, TripAdvisor, or anywhere else — are easily manipulated. So, is anyone surprised that Glassdoor ratings get manipulated, too? The Wall Street Journal recently published an in-depth look at how some companies have figured out how to boost their ratings on Glassdoor
I’M A SUCKER for anything that tries to answer a question I almost never hear anyone ask much less answer: How can I be a better manager? Notice I say anything that “tries” to answer this question because I have found that most advice on how to better manage people usually goes one of two
ONE OF THE FIRST things you learn about leadership is that there are a lot of ways to be a leader. Years ago, I had a boss who tried to tell me that I wasn’t a leader. My response? “Hey, I AM a leader — I’m just not your kind of leader.” This was my
