Michael Jackson and Communicating Through the Language of Music

June 29, 2009

Much has been written about the shocking and untimely death of Michael Jackson.  He was truly one of the greatest communicators of all times.  There is unlikely to be anyone like him again. As David Segal wrote in The New York Times , “On the most basic level, this is matter of business and math. Michael Jackson has sold an estimated 100 million copies worldwide of the 1982 album ‘Thriller,’ which spent more than 31 weeks at the top of the Billboard charts. It’s one of those high-water marks that nobody  will touch Read more

Don’t Go Through Life With a Catcher’s Mitt in Both Hands

June 26, 2009

I’ve never failed to be touched by the many wise sayings sprinkled through the writings of the poet and writer Maya Angelou. The beauty of her words and lyrics always inspire.   I’ll begin with my favorite quote because it is a constant reminder of how important in life and business it is to extend a helping hand – to a friend, someone in need, a young person just beginning the journey of a career. Read more

Are CEOs Good at Rewarding Employees?

June 4, 2009

No doubt, employee morale is low at companies that are downsizing. So I sent a note to several people whose opinions I respect with the question: “Do you feel that CEOs acknowledge the value employees bring to the success of their companies? Can you share a personal experience you’ve had working for a company and how the company recognized and rewarded employees?” Here are several thoughtful answers (edited for space).  I start with an executive recruiter who is in a position to know what a lot of CEOs are doing to reward their people. Read more

• Try Different — Seth Godin

  The usual mantra is to 'try harder'. Trying harder is impossible when you're already trying as hard as you can.

  But you can always try different.

  Years ago, I was creating trivia questions for a product we built for Prodigy. We had a 99% accuracy rate in doing the questions. Which was great, except there were 1800 questions in a batch, which meant 18 wrong each time, which was totally and completely unacceptable. These were honest mistakes, made by smart people working as hard as they could.

  No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't do better than 99%. So we switched our system completely and did it in a totally different way. Same number of people, same number of hours, 100% accuracy.

  If it's not working, harder might not be the answer.

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