Everyone wants to be Bruce Lee, but few want to put in the 10,000 (or more) hours of practice and preparation. It is only when the bar is held high that we can consistently put in the practice and push our skills to the highest levels. What makes for an ‘A’ Player? The simplest possible … Read more
In 1920, at the age of 20, my grandfather took an exam, obtained high marks and got a full time job at The Bank of Ireland. He worked for the next 45 years in the same company, and then retired on a full pension. This world is gone. Today, job stability is gone. Where do I start … Read more
I came across a study reported in Mark Murphy’s book Hiring for Attitude. (Here is a summary of Hiring for Attitude [pdf]). The findings are based on 5,247 interviews. Mark and his team categorised the top five reasons why new hires failed (were fired, asked to leave, received disciplinary action or significantly negative performance reviews). The 5 Biggest Reasons … Read more
Take a moment and think about the people you know well. Who is the most psychologically resilient of your friends or family? Who would cope the best with major setbacks? Who would be able to keep their heads while all about them are losing theirs? Dealing with Failure: Resilience I was at … Read more
This, or a version of it, arrives a few times a week: “Dear Conor I need to talk to you. Can I have some time? X” By the way, its not from my girlfriend, or my daughter. They get a yes. My mum, dad, brothers, sister – they get a yes. However, generally these emails … Read more
If someone asked you, “What is your job?”, what would your response be? Go ahead, take a minute to think about your answer. I asked a similar question a few weeks ago in my post Become Indispensable: Solve Interesting Problems) Professor Fred Kofman tells a story about a question that changed his outlook on this … Read more
How do you respond when a person says “Tell me about yourself?” It might be called confidence, it might be called belief – do you let others see the best version of you, or do they see a dull, low-intensity, passionless version of yourself? Why do we find it difficult to sell ourselves? I spent … Read more
Crossroads? A fork in the path of life… I was with a 65 year old successful entrepreneur at a direct marketing conference on Wednesday. I had given a speech and he came up and began to chat over coffee. He finished an MBA at Harvard 30 years ago. I asked him what was going on, … Read more
When does the switch from aiming to succeed to aiming not to fail occur? Has any company ever avoided it? NASA, Microsoft… and next up? Apple? Dan Ariely asks this question on his blog. Why did NASA go from the ambitious 1960’s to 1980’s era moon missions to the conservative, blame-finding, cover-your-arse culture of the … Read more
I just watched Thomas Hyunh speak about his lifetime obsession with Sun-Tzu, the 2,500 year old Chinese General, at Authors@Google (video at the bottom of this post). Sun-Tzu was only 30 years old when he led the smallest region of China to victory over the largest region. This victory made him famous, and made … Read more