DCO Weekend Reader - 11/21/08
The web is a vast repository of opinions, commentary and occasionally, wisdom. Here’s a selection of the best articles I read over the past week.
If you would like to recommend an article, blog or book, please leave a comment with your suggestion. Weekend Reader is a regular feature here at DCO, and you can read past Weekend Readers here.
Another solid week with lots of good stuff for you to read. The news about Mark Cuban and Jerry Yang was especially interesting to me and will be even more interesting to see how both play out. Mark’s situation as there is always more to the story that meets the eye and it will be interesting to see how Mark is treated in the context of Martha Stewart’s trial. In Jerry Yang’s case, very few entrepreneurs go on to actually run their companies. Jerry just took on the CEO role about a year ago and he’s already in trouble. I’ll be watching to see if he can recover.
A lot of information again this week on the topic of your career, protecting it against the recession, and making yourself more visible/valuable. I hope these posts continue to be interesting for you. My assumption is with everything going on and the continuing economic troubles we are all taking a hard look at our options and keeping those paychecks coming in the mail.
Less than a week until Turkey Day. Have a great weekend.
Personal Excellence & Leadership
- Marshall Goldsmith helps us understand, in today’s economy, what’s the good in being good?
- Living your core values - a strategic exercise. 5 minutes that may be an eye-opener.
- Leading through chaos. Sound familiar?
Entrepreneurship
- Let’s start off entrepreneurship this week with two high-profile entrepreneurs in the news, and not in a good way. High-flying entrepreneur and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is charged with insider trading (from 2004), and Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is stepping down (apparently turning down a $31/share Microsoft offer is not good for the career). That Yang post is pretty interesting as it contains Yang’s memo to company employees. Entrepreneurs can be a bit quirky at times, and it appears this one has a fear of capital letters!
- Turns out VCs have a new investment strategy for coping with the economic downturn. Invest in solid business opportunities. Hmmm, who would have thought? (This is one of those irritating 4-page posts, but if following VC thinking is your thing, it’s a good article.)
- This little post will take you about two minutes to read, but every entrepreneur should read it and take it to heart. Of all the mentoring conversations I have with entrepreneurs, this is the one that takes the longest to sink in.
Thought-Provokers
- I’m not quite sure what went on last week, but I truly thought I wasn’t going to have any thought-provokers to post. Finally, at the last minute, The New York Times comes through with a nice look at how companies survive drastic change. “You have to be willing to walk away from the things that have made you great” is the line that sold me on this one.
Tips, Tricks & Resources
- Good post on writing LinkedIn recommendations. Chris’ approach is to proactively write a few honest recommendations every week, and you won’t have to work for your own recommendations. Although I agree with one of the commenters that these two-way recommendations in the same time period can look a little “crafted”, my sense is that timing is soon forgotten and having a solid number of honest recommendations can only help. Good advice in here for how to word the recommendations you write for others.
- A positive process for dealing with a team member who is ruining your team.
- Lots of people are understandably nervous in today’s economic climate. It can be cold comfort, but those of us with some experience under our belt have history to draw upon and realize this won’t last forever. If I have any readers in their 20’s however, these times may be especially scary. Here’s a good post to help you put things in perspective and help “recession-proof” your career.
- Entrepreneurship tends to run counter-intuitive. In bad economic times, we actually see a rise in people starting new businesses. It happens for a variety of reasons. One of the simplest things you can do is become a freelance consultant. If you have recently taken the plunge, or are considering it, make sure you actually charge what you’re worth.
- Mind wandering, too many distractions? Here’s a nice list to help bring focus into your work. They’re probably not what you’re expecting either.
One For Fun
- A little over a week early, I give you the 10 best resources for Black Friday deals.
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