A Potential Star Employee's Wish List

If you are a manager, every so often you will come across an employee in your organization, hopefully under you supervision, that just shines above all the rest of their peers without much effort. That star or potential star employee is a gem you may have lucked upon, but it will take more than a little luck to keep them working for you and your company. And even worse than them leaving for your competition, they could get sullen and just stop putting forth any effort, and are no longer working 'with' your company. How do you keep your stars happily working in their cubicles and shining for your company? If you were to ask any of these employees, I bet the following items would all be on their wish list: * Give Them Co-Workers Who Can Keep Up - Nothing is more frustrating to a highly motivated, highly mobile worker that being partnered with a slug who just simply can't keep up. Chances are your star is not stuck up or conceited, but if you place them in teams that aren't performing because they truly can't perform or just don't care all long as the checks don't bounce, you’re just showing your star that you don't care about their level of effort. They'll find a place where movement at their speed matters. * Give Them The Resources They Need - Just like being placed with bad people, having poor or no resources available to get the job done means it will be harder--if not impossible--to get the job done. Make the jobs easier to get done, and they'll get more jobs done. * Give Them The Time They Need - Micromanagement is awful. Insane deadlines are awful. Not letting your stars get their job done, or rushing them to complete tasks sooner than they need to be completed will frustrate, confuse, and infuriate. * Give Them A Chance To Screw Up - If Jack Welsh gets to blow up a building and still become CEO of General Electric, a star employee in the making could surely survive a missed deadline, target, or even bombing a presentation. They're not screwing up on purpose. They'll learn a valuable lesson from the occasional failure, and especially from a huge failure. You've got a star employee, or a potential in the making. You've got a prime chance to directly effect the career and life of person who could be an eventual rock star CEO, or just another business burnout. Most of their outcome will truly be up to time, chance, and their own efforts. Don't be the jerk that makes it harder that it needs to be. StealthSurfer: Protection from spyware and online ID theft

On Not Getting The Blogging Job Done In 2007

(This is being cross-posted to Cool Corporate dot com & Life in Fast Forward) A newsletter I receive for talk radio host and producers recently had a rant on the basics you really needed to be a good talk show host: 1) have a personality 2) have something to say For bloggers, the same applies, except you have to add a third axiom: have time to post. Under that point, I am definitely failing in the 'big-time' blogging talent department. Excuses aren't really necessary, since no one is really reading my blogs these days (based on my lack of posting of course). It no one's fault but my own that I planned on growing these blogs (and other blogs and personal projects) and have been constantly sidetracked by my twin nemeses, “Real Life” & “Paying Job.” But it really hurts me personally that ever plan to make my personal business ventures and a personal sense of accomplishment/peace can be so easily hijacked. Trust me, I'm not missing the chance to blog because of lack of ideas. What I have is a true lack of time and energy coming from personal exhaustion. 2007 was supposed to be my break through year, and it has turned into a near breakdown. That's near breakdown, mind you. Two more months and then a whole new year. Big plans missed in 2007 will hopefully mean a chance for bigger plans to come to pass in 2008. That is what I'm shooting for, and hope you will still be around for the ride. Thank you, -J.C.

Cool Corporate Blog Picks 10/16/07

lifegoalaction would like you to stop faking it until you make it An article from the Atlantic from March of 2004 Caring for Your Introvert, which may have unwittingly touched off an Introverts' Rights revolution. Over at The M.A.P. Maker, a post on The Great Balance Boondoggle dicusses the reality of "work/life balance" and gives a quick over of the book "Juggling Elephants" by Jones Loflin and Todd Musig. Businesspundit.com takes a look beyond resumes and uses the example of rare sports find to to show What Derrick Locke Can Teach You About Hiring Good People And Edith Yeung.com give you 12 Reasons Why People Want to Keep Your Business Card Investor's Business Daily

Cool Corporate Blog Picks 10/13/07

PickTheBrain drops some knowledge I really needed right now: 7 Ways to Overcome the Fear of Failure Does your energy flow in cycles? Life Learning Today teaches how to get though by Rolling with Your Cycles Life Coaches Blog has found a way for Getting the Most out of Life StudyHacks looks into The Einstein Principle: Accomplish More By Doing Less Finally, Execupundit.com asks Why We Don't Practice Good Leadership All-Battery.com: Rechargeable Batteries & Chargers