Latest Articles
In the News: Todd Cherches Tells Crain’s Where He Finds His Best Ideas
Hired Guns blogger Todd Cherches was quoted in yesterday’s Crain’s NY Business, in an article (“Fountain of inspiration”) about possible reasons that the best ideas often seem to come in the shower:
Mr. Cherches’ activity of choice involves heading for the bath—–a direction made considerably easier by the fact that he runs his business from his Manhattan apartment and has no employees. “Showering blocks out everything and everyone, so you’re away from it all,” said Mr. Cherches…. “You’re creating a cocoon of solitude.”
For Mr. Cherches, it’s all about the “creative pause,” a term probably coined in the 1960s by Edward de Bono, a famed scholar of creative thinking. The concept refers to a time when someone stops thinking about a problem on purpose, engages in another activity, and often unexpectedly comes up with a solution without even trying.
The Five Best Things About Being a Working Mom
Jan Brown recently left corporate life to work as a life and career coach. She blogs for The Hired Guns about ways that working moms can achieve balance in their life, and also about methods that stay-at-home moms can use the reenter the workplace effectively. Before heading out on her own, Jan advised Fortune 500 companies on philanthropy.
If you are a working mom like me, you already know what’s hard about it. And pretty much every portrayal of a working mom on TV and in movies and magazines depicts the stressed-out, crazy nature of it.
I’m not saying it ain’t so. But just as there are so many things I love about being a parent, there are also many things I like — sometimes even love — about working outside the home. To kick off the New Year, I want to spend some time celebrating a few of my favorite things about working. Read More →
The Leadership Journey: A Picture Worth a Thousand Words, and Hours of Discussion
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. And that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And that leadership is not a destination . . . but a journey. I’m not exactly sure who “they” are, but regardless of who said what, there’s something moving and memorable about the power of a beautiful, colorful visual image like this one — and a simple, thought-provoking metaphor.
In my leadership workshops, as well as in the NYU graduate course I teach on “Transformational Leadership and Team Building,” we spend almost an hour discussing — and pretty much an entire semester referring back to — the single, powerful metaphor that we refer to as “The Leadership Journey.” “An hour on one simple picture? How can that be?” you might be wondering. Read More →
Bullet Points: HR and Recruiting
- You might be doing it wrong: 10 misconceptions about social recruiting.
–Sirona Says Blog - How do you tell the boss his fly is down?
–Barbara Pachter - Why Googling job candidates isn’t going away. A cautionary tale.
–Kris Dunn, HR Capitalist - “NOT THE PRECIOUSSSS!!!” All that amazing institutional knowledge you’ve accrued through hard experience? You should be sharing it, not hoarding it.
–HR Fishbowl
Six Mantras for a Rock-Solid Resume
In his new series for us, Kenneth Hein will survey the best ways that job seekers can promote themselves and their brands, both with the tried and true and with newer methods. Either way, Kenneth will be drawing on the hard-won experience and knowledge he gained, first as a journalist on the marketing and advertising beat and then working as a marketer himself.
As the “writer” among my friends, I have always been on the receiving end of “Dude, what do you think of this?” From love poems to term papers (back in the day) to cover letters and resumes (today), I am the go-to guy. And, of course, my experience with resumes has only grown more after having looked at hundreds of them over the course of my career in communications.
Lately, a month hasn’t gone by without an acquaintance reaching out to me to doctor their resume. It’s gotten to the point where I’ve found myself repeating the same mantras. Whether it’s someone who works in politics, production, or public relations, there are some very basic facts about resumes that most people tend to forget. Don’t be one of the forgetful. Here are six mantras to remember: Read More →
To Achieve Goals in 2012, You Need to Plan for the Obstacles, Too
Todd Henry runs The Accidental Creative, a speaking and consulting firm that helps teams do their best work consistently, not haphazardly. His book of the same name, about “how to be brilliant at a moment’s notice,” is out now.
It’s the time of year when many of us dream about what the new year holds in store. For many of us, this means setting goals and trying to decide which new ventures we’ll take on, which objectives we’ll set, and how we’ll engage life and work in the coming twelve months.
In other words, it’s a time of renewal. Renewal of expectations, renewal of action, renewal of hope. Hope is critical for the creative spirit. Without hope, we have no expectancy. Without expectancy, we have no reason to create. Read More →
Bullet Points: Just Say No
- A New Kind of New Year’s Resolution: Saying No
—Jocelyn K. Glei, The 99 Percent - “A while back, a colleague approached me with an idea. She wanted me to be a part of a professional development event…. She recommended biweekly check-in calls for the next eight months, leading up to the event. ‘Have you organized an event like this before?’ I asked. ‘Can you actually get the participants? Why don’t you test the demand first?’ When none materialized, I realized I’d saved myself nearly half a week’s work … by insisting the event had to be ‘real’ before we invested in it.”
—Dorie Clark, Five Things You Should Stop Doing in 2012 - Stop Spending Time on Job Boards and Pick Up the Phone to Find a New Job
—Alan Henry, Lifehacker - Worried about keeping a New Year’s resolution through the month, let alone all of 2012? A recent study showed “that the people with the best self-control, paradoxically, are the ones who use their willpower less often. Instead of fending off one urge after another, these people set up their lives to minimize temptations. They play offense, not defense, using their willpower in advance so that they avoid crises, conserve their energy and outsource as much self-control as they can. ”
—John Tierney, Be It Resolved - Tired of meeting people and not getting much done because of it? Business Insider has 10 ways to get out of “grabbing coffee sometime,” including having that meeting in your office and limiting it to just 22 minutes:
3 Things Newbie Managers Need to Know
We’re glad to welcome to the blog today the digital strategist Danny Flamberg, who writes about marketing, advertising, and culture on his blog, Manhattan Marketing Maven. In his new series with us, he’ll be covering the tools, tricks, and ways of thinking that managers must have to help their staff do the best job they can.
Most first-time managers have specific tasks they need to get accomplished, and often their first job is to change their mindset from “How can I do this?” to “How can I help my team do this?” They must work to change their actions and attitude from that of an individual player to an effective coach and supervisor.
To succeed at this, focus on the three crucial “W’s”: Read More →
How to Succeed on Panels and Q&As: Make Yourself a “Point” Guard
I give an annual presentation for members of a religious group about how to ensure that their faith is presented fairly in the media and in the rest of society. What they most want to know is what to do during panel discussions, TV interviews, and other unscripted scenarios in which participants aren’t in control and are sometimes taking unfriendly fire. Here’s what I tell them…. Read More →
Making Healthy New Year’s Resolutions That You Can Keep
It’s that time of year again, when we start making promises to ourselves to live a better life. According to various polls throughout the years, 40 to 45% of adult Americans make resolutions each New Year’s. The top resolutions tend to be about weight loss, exercise regimes, and quitting smoking. But it’s hard to make these good intentions stick: a 2002 study in the Journal of Clinical Psychology found that less than half of those who resolved to do something were able to maintain their resolutions six months later.
Going by all the blogging, tweeting, and Facebooking of my colleagues and other health professionals, lots of them say that resolutions can set you up for failure and that you should focus on a healthy lifestyle year-round instead. While I don’t disagree with these sentiments, I’m still in favor of resolutions. I love the idea that we can get a fresh start each year — as long as it doesn’t set us up for failure or postpone what could we could have started today. Here are some of my B Nutritious tips for healthy resolutions: Read More →
