ChangeThis
ChangeThis is our weekly series of essays from today's thought leaders that are meant to evoke conversation by bringing forth new and unique ideas.
ChangeThis
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Blog / ChangeThis
How Brilliant Careers are Made (and Unmade)
By Carter Cast
"Getting things done through others—the essence of leadership—requires a combination of technical skills (being proficient in areas important to the success of the business), intrapersonal skills (especially strong self-management skills, which are driven by self-understanding and self-control), and interpersonal skills (the ability to develop and foster strong relationships and gain the enlistment of others). People may derail due to a lack of technical, job-related skills, but more common reasons have to do with intrapersonal or interpersonal issues that impede them from enlisting people to accomplish goals. A revealing part of my research included conducting a survey of one hundred derailed managers and then executing follow-up interviews with a subset of the derailed population. My research found that 'a lack of self-awareness' and 'difficulty working with others' were the top two reasons that these one hundred people experienced a career derailment event."
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Blog / ChangeThis
People Have Power. Don't Take It Away.
By Patty McCord
"The first step in culture transformation is embracing a management mind-set that overturns conventional wisdom. The fundamental lesson we learned at Netflix about success in business today is this: the elaborate, cumbersome system for managing people that was developed over the course of the twentieth century is just not up to the challenges companies face in the twenty-first. Reed Hastings and I and the rest of the management team decided that, over time, we would explore a radical new way to manage people—a way that would allow them to exercise their full powers."
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Truth About Entrepreneurship
By Derek Lidow
"It's time we told the truth about entrepreneurship. A lot depends on it. Over $530 billion, yes billion, is spent on launching startups every year. Most of that money comes directly out of the entrepreneurs' pockets, or from the equity in their houses, or from debt. Much of it also comes from gifts, loans, or investments from friends and family. Only 10 to 20% of this money, depending upon the year and the state of frenzy in venture investing, comes from complete strangers and professional investors. Most of this money is wasted by ill-prepared entrepreneurs who have virtually no chance of success. And it will continue to be wasted, along with the time and effort that many hard working people put into these doomed enterprises, unless we can introduce them early on to the truth about what it takes to create and sustain a new business."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Accelerating into Fearless Growth: Seven Questions That Can Change Your Future
By Amanda Setili
"Though the accelerating pace of market change has made achieving growth goals more risky and perilous, it has never been more critical than it is now. There are several reasons why. Growth attracts new talent, because they see good prospects for advancement. It helps us to retain our best employees by creating opportunities for them to learn and contribute. Growth gives lenders and creditors the confidence to extend favorable terms. It provides proof to fickle investors that their money is well placed. And, when we are growing, suppliers contribute their best ideas and resources to help us improve our products and services."
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Blog / ChangeThis
We Should All Be Serial Achievers (and That Definitely Includes Your Employees)
By Jeff Haden
"To most people 'specialization' indicates accomplishment and success, when in fact the opposite is true. You, me, all of us... we're too good to specialize. And so are your employees. In fact, the pursuit of perfection is the enemy, especially on a professional level. The current professional landscape actually values generalists over specialists. Change occurs quickly. Skills that are valued today are obsolete tomorrow. Managers can't just be good at managing a certain function; they need to be good leaders. Employees can't just be good at performing a certain function; they need to embrace an entrepreneurial mind-set and constantly reinvent themselves."
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Becoming the New Boss
By Porchlight
"A story is told about a reporter who was interviewing a successful bank president. He wanted to know the secret of the man's success. 'Two words,' the president replies; 'right decisions.'"
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Blog / ChangeThis
Image Is Substance
By Andy Cunningham
"How do you influence people to buy things? How do you educate the public about companies? And how do you match potential customers with a given product or service? Essentially, how do you help companies win in the market? I discovered early on that the answer is authenticity ... When companies promote themselves authentically, they get more customers and sell more stuff. It's as simple as that, and I built my entire career on that premise."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Work/Life Balance Is Hurting Us: A Manifesto for a Better Life Because of Work, Not Despite It
By Jennifer Moss
"I believe that work/life balance is killing us. Why? Because it makes us believe that work is hard and horrible—that life is fun and work is tolerated. Too many of us cling to the weekend after just 'getting by' every other day of the week. Life shouldn't begin on Friday and end on Sunday."
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A Call to Lead with Courage, Authenticity and Service
By Kevin Cashman
"With the escalating volatility, complexity and disruptions in today's world, it would be understandable, even easy, to become discouraged. Another viable response is to pull inspiration from those leaders exemplifying courageous, authentic leadership, and to go deeper within ourselves to reframe our challenges as a potent call to step up and lead with heightened courage, values, purpose and authenticity. The toughest situations are often a call to go deeper into self first in order to serve others with greater impact."
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Blog / ChangeThis
A Values-Based Culture
By Robert Spector, breAnne O. Reeves
"In order to stay competitive, organizations must be guided by philosophies, practices, and strategies that deal with current and future market conditions. In order to ensure longevity and loyalty, organizations must have a foundation built on its non-negotiable values."
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The original idea behind ChangeThis came from Seth Godin, and was built in the summer of 2004 by Amit Gupta, Catherine Hickey, Noah Weiss, Phoebe Espiritu, and Michelle Sriwongtong. In the summer of 2005, ChangeThis was turned over to 800-CEO-READ. In addition to selling and writing about books, they kept ChangeThis up and running as a standalone website for 14 years. In 2019, 800-CEO-READ became Porchlight, and we pulled ChangeThis together with the rest of our editorial content under the website you see now. We remain committed to the high-design quality and independent spirit of the original team that brought ChangeThis into the world.