DCO Weekend Reader – 12/5/08
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.
Many times I embed rich media into the Weekend Readers that may not show up in E-mails or RSS readers. For that reason, I generally recommend you click through to my blog to read Weekend Reader posts.
Welcome to December! Turkey Day is over and we’re headed straight into the heart of the holidays. I had an enjoyable Thanksgiving and hope you did also. I don’t know about you, but it seems like those couple T-Day pounds take longer and longer to work off every year that goes by.
In observance of the holiday, I did not publish a Weekend Reader last Friday, so we’ve got a jam-packed on this week, with something for everyone I think. There are so many great articles this week you really should browse through them all to pick out what interests you most. If I had to pick this week’s must read I would direct you to the CEO’s recession survival guide under Leadership and the article asking if you’re ready for Web 2.0 under Thought-Provokers.
I trust you’re all well. Can you believe there are only 20 shopping days left until Christmas!
Personal Excellence & Leadership
- In praise of praise. I couldn’t agree with this article more.
- Okay, here’s a tough one and as the author points out, one that many of us try to avoid in any number of ways: firing underperformers. Not taking care of this type of situation is not fair to the organization, it’s demotivating to co-workers and ultimately hurts the underperformer also. As the New Year approaches, maybe it’s time to take a hard look at your staff and make some overdue changes.
- On the opposite end of the specturm is having to terminate a great performer due to the tough economy.
- Make sure you don’t have behaviours that are damaging trust.
- Over my lifetime, I’ve had a number of very interesting conversations about whether it’s possible to really change who you are. I’m not sure the debate has settled on an answer, but I do know one thing: to change an ingrained trait or habit, it takes consistent, concerted effort. Personally, if I want to change something about myself I will make it the first thing I think about when I get up, I’ll make sure to work on it every day, and I’ll make it the last think I think about before I go to sleep. George Ambler just wrote on that very topic, recasting personal change as experimentation, a critical trait of leaders.
- Written by the CEO of an online real estate broker, this first-timer’s CEO recession survival guide has a lot of great tips. The lead-in makes the point that the real estate market went into the dumper a year ago, so this guide is born of real-world experience.
Entrepreneurship
- For the past six months or so, I’ve been hearing and reading that “green” startups are not the automatic investment that you might be lead to believe. In fact, most investors I’ve talked to in our region say they are putting very little money into green or sustainable startups. Now, with falling energy prices, there is even more pressure on green energy suppliers, and therefore startups in that space.
- It’s always fun to get multiple VCs on a panel. If you’ve never seen them together and get an opportunity to do so, take advantage of it. It’s almost guaranteed to be entertaining. Anyway, VC money is a very misunderstood source of funding, but if you understand what it is and it’s for you, here are some comments from a recent VC Outlook panel in Southern California.
- Entrepreneurs, it’s up to you to save the economy.
- The popular thinking is that investments are harder to come by these days. Most of the investors I talk to in our region are telling me they have plenty of money, they just need good opportunities. Even if the money is out there, bootstrapping is still a great way to go for as long as you can. Here’s some thoughts on the art of bootstrapping.
Thought-Provokers
- Is your company ready, willing and able to take advantage of Web 2.0? I recently wrote about the difficulty mature industries have in incorporating social channels into their marketing strategies. The article above does a great job of adding to that conversation and giving you some challenging questions to think through your readiness.
- Transformational Gratitude. Please read this one.
- What good is an idea?
- I like the recent trend of articles I’m finding around gratitude and positive leadership. Maybe it’s the spirit of the holidays or maybe I’m simply finding what I’m looking for. Either way, I like it. Here’s a short article on 5 ways gratitude will change your life. This is a good one.
Tips, Tricks & Resources
- Looking for gift ideas for clients? Here’s a list with 25 of them. Nothing too exotic, but some you might not have thought about. I like the cautionary comments with some of them; like thinking through whether giving a gym membership is sending the wrong message.
- 8 things to do if you lose your job. Basic stuff, but a good checklist if you find yourself in this situation (and here’s hoping nary a DCO reader ever does). I can speak personally to #1 – “get a gym membership”. While I haven’t lost my job, I have been under some decent stress lately and have tried very hard to regularly use the exercise equipment in my basement. Both the physical exercise and simply the routine of working out have both been very helpful.
- You’ve probably heard of LoJack for your car. Basically it’s a small transmitter you put in your car that helps locate it if it’s ever stolen. Well, now you can do the same for your laptop PC. Here’s a couple of “lojack” options for your personal laptop computer.
- Okay, full disclosure – I have yet to try this one. But here’s a website that promises to help you pronounce difficult names. If anyone actually tries this, I’d love to get a comment from you on how it worked.
- Some tips for keeping your temper under control.
- Collection strategies for a bad economy.
- Simon Stapleton is an experienced “technical professional in the IT sector”. He pens a very nice blog on professional development and career management. While it is authored from the context of technology professionals, in my opinion most of his expert advice is widely applicable. Continuing the theme of helping those of you who are worried about losing your job, have lost your job or are planning to switch jobs in this horrendous economy, I want to direct you to a nice three part series of post Simon just wrapped up: Part One: preparing for the interview (including those trick questions), then Part Two: preparing your interview questions and issues of attire, and finally Part Three: final preparations and nerves. Simon has a lot of really useful career advice on his site, so if this is where you’re at, I’d recommend taking a tour and signing up. (Like these 6 powerful questions to ask at your interview.)
One For Fun
- The Christmas holiday brings a time to reflect and give thanks, family get-togethers, maybe an office party, and in recent years the inevitable silly Internet promotion. Last year it was Elf Yourself, where you could put you and your families faces on dancing elves and send a signing Christmas card to friends, family and co-workers. What could top that? Well, this year the early contender appears to be Critter Carols, where you do mostly the same thing, only with pets. (Be sure to turn your speaker volume down before clicking the link.) Enjoy!
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Dave,
I really like this format and the timely information. Just right to cap off the week. Thanks.
Mark