How to Explain Your Career Transition

by Dorie Clark

Shifting careers is often hard to explain. Whether you’re moving from one department to another in your own company or starting over in an entirely different field, you’re likely to face a litany of rejoinders: Why would you want to do that? Isn’t that a little risky? Are you really qualified? Others won’t raise any outward objections, but privately, you can tell they’re skeptical.

The most important step in getting others onboard with your career transition is crafting a compelling narrative. It’s a tool often overlooked by “professional reinventers,” but it can be a critical determinant of success in winning others’ support for your professional goals and vision for the future. Continue reading

The Most Overlooked Leadership Skill

80-peter-bregmanby Peter Bregman

Even before I released the disc, I knew it was a long shot. And, unfortunately, it was a clumsy one too.

We were playing Ultimate Frisbee, a game similar to U.S. football, and we were tied 14-14 with a time cap. The next point would win the game.

I watched the disc fly over the heads of both teams. Everyone but me ran down the field. I cringed, helplessly, as the disc wobbled and listed left. Still, I had hope it could go our way. Continue reading

How To Solve Onboarding’s Awkward Alienation Problem

Even if you’re a management professor, starting out at a place feels weird. Such was the case for Francesca Gino, who left the Univerisity of North Carolina for Harvard back in 2010.

It’s 2010 and Francesca Gino is just about to start teaching at Harvard Business School. She was excited yes, but also “a little anxious” about meeting the standards of her new organization–proof positive that starting at a new place is a heady experience, even if you’re a professor of management. Continue reading

Outsourcing: myths, facts and statistics

 by Martin Conboy

Work is no longer bounded by co-worker proximity or time zone. It also involves a much broader set of ‘workers’ – not just employees, suppliers and partners, but customers, freelancers and an increasingly capable network of smart devices and interconnected systems, all tied together by business processes that span organizations, time and distance. Outsourcing is an integral part of this story. Continue reading

10 Communication Secrets of Great Leaders

It is simply impossible to become a great leader without being a great communicator. I hope you noticed the previous sentence didn’t refer to being a great talker – big difference. The key to becoming a skillful communicator is rarely found in what has been taught in the world of academia. From our earliest days in the classroom we are trained to focus on enunciation, vocabulary, presence, delivery, grammar, syntax and the like. In other words, we are taught to focus on ourselves. While I don’t mean to belittle these things as they’re important to learn, it’s the more subtle elements of communication rarely taught in the classroom (the elements that focus on others), which leaders desperately need to learn. In today’s column I’ll share a few of the communication traits, which if used consistently, will help you achieve better communication results. Continue reading