Inc.com Archives - Page 7 of 7

Why 44 Percent of Top U.S. Executives Don’t Want To Hire You (My Inc.com piece today)

My post today on Inc.com, "Why 44 Percent of Top U.S. Executives Don't Want To Hire You," begins: Why 44 Percent of Top U.S. Executives Don't Want To Hire You A survey of U.S. executives found 44 percent said Americans lack soft skills, which traditional education poorly teaches. Other methods work better, luckily. I went to business school mostly to learn business's "hard" skills---ones we can quantify, like accounting andÂ finance. I thought they would help me start and run businesses. One of myÂ life's great lucky breaksÂ was that business schoolÂ alsoÂ taughtÂ about softÂ skills, and that most businessÂ challenges were only superficially about money. TheÂ challengesÂ about people, teams, motivation, and communicationÂ were deeper, harder, and more important than spreadsheets and technology. But teaching about skills isn't enough. Traditional business education'sÂ lectures and case…

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February 17, 2016

Video: Avoid Taking a Job You Hate by Doing This in Your Interview

My post today on Inc.com, "Avoid Taking a Job You Hate by Doing This in Your Interview," begins: You could have learned in the interview why you'd hate your job if you'd had this perspective. Learn it and make your interviews productive. If youÂ ever left a job you expected to love, or endured hating it, these words likely ring true for you: "People join good projects and leave bad management." Leaving jobs is painful and expensive. You can learn about future managersÂ in your interview, but few people do. If youÂ don't know better, you'll choose jobs based onÂ what the company does, your title, your pay,Â the company's growth, and other things that don't affect your daily experience. In other words, "good projects." Read the rest at Inc.com:…

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February 9, 2016

Inc.com / Leadership / Relationships / Stories / Tips

Inc.com Today: 2 Questions To Ask in Every Interview So They’ll Want You Back (Video)

My post today on Inc.com, "2 Questions To Ask in Every Interview So They'll Want You Back," begins: Instead of trying to show off, making you look like a commodity, use these techniques to make interviews two-way conversations where they'll want you back. Isn't that what you want from an interview? If you want one thing most from an interview, you want the interviewerÂ to want you back. If you want a second thing, you want to know if you want to work there--do you like the people, the culture, and everything else about working there. What not to do in an interview Most people undermine both goals by trying to show off. Telling them about your features feels like itÂ should work, but since everyone doesÂ itÂ you…

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February 5, 2016

Choosing/Decision-Making / Entrepreneurship / Inc.com / Relationships

Have I wrung this opportunity dry — absolutely, completely dry?

If persistence pays off, how far do you persist? How often do you persist (politely) until you've wrong an opportunity dry---absolutely, completely dry? As I wrote on Inc.com yesterday in "How to Build the Best Relationships With Both Leaders and Superiors," people appreciate helping others---if you behave like you deserve it, but not like you're entitled. A student of mine was applying to graduate school. She told me how she applied and had visited a few of the schools she was applying to. She had researched some professors she wanted to work with but hadn't contacted them---even in her number one choice school. While I recognized she had other priorities, like her current studies, I could tell she hadn't yet learned the value of persisting…

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January 30, 2016

Inc.com / Leadership / Relationships / Tips

Inc.com Today: How to Build the Best Relationships With Both Leaders and Superiors

My post today on Inc.com, "How to Build the Best Relationships With Both Leaders and Superiors," begins: Misunderstanding how we like helping others holds many back from building relationships with leaders and superiors. Getting their help can advance you. You get that meeting with that decision-maker/founder/CEO/titan/guru/expert who can make your project happen. You've dreamed of this chance for years. How do you interact with this person? If you're like most people, you treat them deferentially, meaning you show respect. YouÂ don't ask too much of them. After all, they're doing you a favor, right? I suggest avoiding this strategy, however natural it feels. Read the rest at the site: How to Build the Best Relationships With Both Leaders and Superiors.

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January 29, 2016

Awareness / Entrepreneurship / Inc.com / Leadership / Perception / Relationships / Stories

Inc.com Today: Why You Should Never Let Anyone Call You ‘Smart’ in Business

My post today on Inc.com, "Why You Should Never Let Anyone Call You 'Smart' in Business" begins: Intelligence is good so entrepreneurs should like being called smart, right? Wrong. People call you smart when you have nothing they care about more. Look at who doesn't care if you're smart in business: Customers value products and services that solve their problems. Employees want to pay their rent and enjoy their jobs. Suppliers want to get paid. But the big concern is investors. Read the rest at the site: Why You Should Never Let Anyone Call You 'Smart' in Business

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January 27, 2016

Education / Entrepreneurship / Inc.com / SIDCHAs

How Inc. Magazine improved overnight

Inc. Magazine, in its own words: For 35 years, we've been the premier publication dedicated to entrepreneurs---the most innovative, most courageous, and most essential business leaders in America. In that time, Inc. has won widespread recognition for maintaining the highest editorial standards as we've documented that world. How did it improve overnight? They hired me as their latest columnist! Today marks my first piece, "How I Wish Business School Had Taught Me Leadership." First time here? My editor tells me I may see more readers than usual, with Inc.'s 1.57 million Twitter followers. If you're new here, the links below give you an idea of what to find here. If you like it, subscribe to my newsletter with the purple button at the top right.…

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January 25, 2016

Education / Entrepreneurship / Inc.com

Business plan competitions undermine entrepreneurship

Years ago no schools taught entrepreneurship. Some enterprising people had the idea to create business plan competitions to motivate entrepreneurially-minded people to create business plans. I applaud their idea and its implementation at the time. Business plan competitions filled a gap in academia by promoting action and learning by doing. That was generations ago. The academic gap no longer exists. Today business plan competitions are an academic distraction from business and entrepreneurship that undermine them. They distract the people they are supposed to help the most---those who know least about entrepreneurship. No customer bought a product because the company founder won a competition Entrepreneurship is about customers, profit, and other business fundamentals. Competitions skew students' perspective in many ways. They Focus students on judges instead…

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October 29, 2015