In my coaching business, I often have discussions regarding the personal leadership skills and styles of the executives with whom I work.  There is a plethora of low cost tools and services available such as Myers-Briggs, Kolbe, DISC, and 360^o Benchmarks to help executives or a management team understand their leadership style; both strengths and weaknesses.

As someone trained in the sciences and graduating as an engineer, I began my career believing most of these tools were a waste of time.…

Why do so many companies make it so hard for their customers to buy? They try to be all things to all people and end up confusing the hell out of everyone as to what they are, what they do, why they are good at it and what is their value. Sound familiar? I have done this rant before (Why is selling my Product or Service so hard?), but I am finding that the same rant applies to people looking for their next job.

I have had a busy stretch so have not done my normal amount of networking, that is,…

Do you have time for a coffee?

 I receive at least half dozen emails like this each month. The sender is often a senior executive who has been introduced to me by someone who is trying to help them. They are educated, credentialed, experienced and looking for their next job. Many are trying to build networks that they either never developed or let lapse.

 There was a great article in the Globe this week; "Why is your resume extinct and how to fix it."  It got me thinking about the issue of…

I often hear people say "It's a small world". It is and tools like LinkedIn are rapidly making it smaller.  I've had three small world encounters in the last few weeks and there is a lesson to learn from each.

Story #1:

In 2006, I worked for a year in Chicago. I developed and have maintained strong connections of those colleagues.  Three weeks ago, I saw on LinkedIn that one of those people had a new job and sent a congratulatory email. He lives in San Francisco so we don't see each other…

I am frequently asked about my career, often by recent grads that are looking for career advice. I enjoy these discussions, because they provide a great sense of gratification that I am hopefully able to help someone else achieve their goals.

It was during one of these recent discussions that I stumbled upon the recognition of one the keys that have contributed to my success, starting from the very beginning. For the last 30⁺ years, 7am has been the time that I arrive in the office or at my…

I am a networker. That means that I meet lots of people every month so I quickly form impressions about them and those impressions dictate my behavior and interactions with them from then on. Conversely, the initial impressions that I leave will also guide them towards or away from future interactions and business opportunities together.

 For example, I attended a CEO roundtable breakfast meeting this week. I met a first-time CEO of a 5-week old start-up. Our conversation before the breakfast…

In mid-February, a number of stories appeared that Ottawa-based Halogen was being sued by SuccessFactors for allegedly creating a phony company to act as a prospective customer in order to obtain competitive information from SuccessFactors.  I have no insight into this situation or lawsuit other than what I have read in the media but did want to talk about the implications of actions like this on a company.  In an earlier Blog, I talked about the $1.3B in damages that SAP must pay to Oracle for…

In my last blog, I talked about a Business Analyst who had accepted a job and then resigned before starting to accept another job.

I received a lot of feedback regarding that post, including a question on what to do if caught in a similar situation. Would I recommend that the person take the job they committed to, even if they now don't want it?

The position the Business Analyst found himself in is a very difficult one. If I were helping a friend with such a dilemma, the first question that I…