When In Doubt: Hire the Best Writing Skills…

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Kris Dunn has a great blog postover at The HR Capitalist entitled “When in Doubt: Hire the Best Writing Skills…”.

In his post, Kris states that a person’s ability to write well is strongly correlated with their ability to communicate verbally.  Kris goes on to write that with the large volume of email communication that occurs in Corporate America, strong writing skills have never been more important.

Image Courtesy of Creative Commons by © Peter Lindberg http://ow.ly/UuCS6
Image Courtesy of Creative Commons by © Peter Lindberg http://ow.ly/UuCS6

And Kris clarifies what he means by writing skills:

“When I say hire someone with writing skills, I’m not talking about someone who can write term papers, because let’s face it, no one reads those. I’m talking about the ability to write down some thoughts in an engaging, personable, influencing manner.  You know it when you see it.”

I definitely concur…

Over the years I have noticed an extremely strong correlation between the ability to write well and overall job success. The people who write well tend to speak well, and in turn, tend to do their jobs well.

Like everything else in life – there are exceptions to the rule.

But bottom line –  the connection is definitely there.

 

Humans Are Underrated – Geoff Colvin’s new book

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I read an article this morning on Fortune magazine’s website entitled, “Humans Are Underrated”.  The article is adapted from Geoff Colvin’s upcoming book by the same title.

The article discusses Geoff’s premise that technology continues to grow at an incredible pace.  Computers are able to perform increasingly complicated tasks that no one ever anticipated them having the ability to perform.  Computers are beating Grandmasters in Chess.  Computers are starting to drive cars. It seems everywhere we turn – computers are replacing human.

Image Courtesy of Creative Commons by © Kumar’s Edit http://ow.ly/Q4ztT
Image Courtesy of Creative Commons by © Kumar’s Edit http://ow.ly/Q4ztT

But there is definitely hope…

According to Geoff – humans should stop trying to beat the machines at the tasks that machines are designed to do. Instead humans should focus on developing the skills and abilities that are distinctly human.

He goes into more detail in the article regarding what are the specific skills and abilities that we need to develop to not only survive but to thrive in the future.

It is an incredible read….

I am waiting to get a copy of the book – and I will blog about it in more detail at a later date.

But if you have time – wander over to Fortune’s website and read the article.

You’ll be glad you did….

Refuse to Fail

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Last week I was speaking to a VP R&D who I have known for over 20 years.

We were discussing a search that I was working on for him.  One of the things that he stressed was that he preferred someone with direct experience in his specific industry segment as opposed to someone coming from outside of the industry.

I thought this was an interesting request especially because he himself had actually made a similar type of transition years ago.  I asked him why he was reluctant to hire someone from the outside – especially given the fact that he himself had made the exact same transition.

He replied that his own industry transition had been extremely difficult.  No one thought he would make it. (He said that he found out years later that his own co-workers had started an office pool betting that he would not make the transition and be fired.  The question to his co-workers wasn’t if he would be fired – it was simply a matter of when.)

So I asked him to what reasons did he attribute his successful transition.  Was it a helpful mentor reaching out to him? Was it his co-workers pitching in to show him the ropes?

He simply replied: “I refused to fail.”

Image Courtesy of Creative Commons by ©Tim Hipps, FMWRC Public Affairs http://ow.ly/O5cwe
Image Courtesy of Creative Commons by ©Tim Hipps, FMWRC Public Affairs http://ow.ly/O5cwe

He went on to say: “I would stay late – often to 10pm at night.  I would work weekends.  I knew that I would only get one good nights sleep during the course of a week – on Saturday night – because every other night I was either at work late – or thinking about work.  I had decided that failure was not an option and I would do whatever it took to be successful.”

Refusing to fail.

How many of us make that same level of commitment in our own lives?  How many of us are willing to “burn the proverbial bridges” and leave no way to turn back when we embark on a new career, new project etc.

Many times it takes that type of drive – that level of commitment to achieve any degree of success in life.

We are powerful when we decide that some goal is so important to us that no matter what we have to do – we will accomplish that goal.

We are powerful when simply refuse to fail.

 

 

 

None Of Us Is As Smart As All Of Us

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I just came across a great and motivating quote by Seth Godin today:
“None of us is as smart as all of us.”
I think his quote is spot-on.
While it is hard not be somewhat overwhelmed by the problems we all face on a daily basis…the reality is that as severe as our problems currently are…whether those problems are personal or professional…..if we all work together, collectively we can…and we will….find solutions.
That is why networking and working together with our colleagues is so important.
Image Courtesy of Creative Commons by © Toffhoff http://ow.ly/IiWmn
Image Courtesy of Creative Commons by © Toffhoff http://ow.ly/IiWmn
Remember this – No one single person is smart enough to solve all of our problems.
But all of us together are smart enough to solve them….

5 Reasons to Consider a Lateral Move

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In my last post, Career Advice – Step Back To Step Ahead, I wrote about the advice I had received from a very successful Sr. Executive I know about the value of making a lateral career move.

Well, it appears that Megan Ragsdale, writing over at at the Career Revolution website concurs.

She recently wrote a post entitled, 5 Reasons a Lateral Move is Better than a Promotion.

In her post, Megan wrote:

“It’s human nature. We want to move up in the world, make more money, improve our social standing and even increase our power. In a world that’s so focused on being upwardly mobile, why would anyone waste her time making career moves from side to side?…..One common element among those most successful people is that they understand the difference between pay and promotion and career progression, and that you don’t need the first two things in order to achieve the third.”

Megan goes on to list the following reasons:

1) Lateral career moves can better position you for the future.

2) Parallel career moves demonstrate strong learning agility. 

3) Moving laterally improves your visibility with a broader group of leaders. 

4) It shows your boss and your leaders that you’re willing to do the work. 

5) Lateral moves can keep you better engaged. 

Megan’s complete post can be found here.

It is a good read and definitely provides some interesting perspective.