Dan Erwin

Thinking Ain't Everything

“Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do.”
                --Bertrand Russell

“Why is talent getting harder to find?” Just a few months ago, one of my long term clients, a managing architect, asked that very question. He’d been through the experience over the past two years of hiring 3 new architects, only to gradually let them go because of their ineptitude. But architecture has no unique grip on the problem.

The evidence for failure for newly appointed and promoted executives in both the corporate and non-profit sectors is alarming: Harvard Business School reported ...

How Women Can Use Anger To Their Advantage

Over the years women and their emotions have taken a beating in the workplace. You know the accusations: women are shrill, emotional and teary.  Having worked with some very tough females over the years, I've never been willing to believe all the malarkey about women and emotions.  I've also noticed a lot of those emotions to be typical of men.  However, whatever your experience or beliefs about women and emotions, current research indicates fairly clearly that women can often benefit from the use of anger.

Most of us are familiar with the anger antics of Rahm Emmanuel, former Illinois legislator, former Chief of Staff for Obama, and now the mayor Chicago.   I kept a copy of Ryan Lizza's New Yorker article on the theatrics of the colorful, obscene Emmanuel just for the sake of some needy clients.  In the article, Lizza points out that Emmanuel seems to employ his volcanic moments for effect ...

Text, Tweet or--Email? Try Prairie Dogging.

It’s become a recurring storyline for newspapers, magazines, tv and the web. Joe, for example, was a leading candidate for a good position in a hot firm. Before the final recommendation the recruiting firm checked out his use of social media. There was no badmouthing of his current firm. But a 20-something, Joe had sent one “harmless” picture of sexting while in college and the picture was still there. No recommendation for Joe! Even though he was now embarrassed by his college prank, there’s practically no disposal. And the recruiter found it.

Surveillance monitoring is nothing new. At the least, it dates back to the beginning of Henry Ford’s assembly line in the early 20^th century. (I suspect the Egyptians were monitoring their slaves’ production of granite block for the pyramids.) Ford’s systems were set up ...