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"Conflict. Most of us avoid it like crazy. But what if harnessing conflict was your best chance to build trust, transform relationships and create championship teams that produce greatness? What if it's a healthy thing for a team to erupt so that they can transform from the ashes?"
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"Networking is a phrase that elicits a number of opposing responses. Extroverts think of a party or a social event where cocktails are served and stories are shared. Work agenda items may be attended to... or not. Overall, a pleasant time is had by all. Introverts often see networking as a 'must I really attend?' activity. It may be necessary for career advancement or to connect with colleagues, but often these events are situations which test their social limits. They are deemed an exercise in futility. All of us, whether we are extroverts or introverts, have an opportunity to reframe networking and re-imagine it in a way that unleashes the 'power of the Informal' as a strategy to exponentially increase our personal and professional influence."
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"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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"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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"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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