The Workosaur Blog

The Harvard Business Review (HBR), a monthly research-based magazine published by the Harvard Business School and written for business practitioners, enjoys the reverence of academics, executives, and management consultants. Since 1959, the best thinking to appear in HBR’s pages have been honoured with the McKinsey Awards. This award is given to two articles that are most likely to have a lasting, worldwide influence on business. The winning articles present ideas that deftly bridge the gap between theory and practice; that make their way into organizations, where they are discussed, adopted, and even adapted; and that change management for the better. Here, on the workosaur blog, we shall be visiting these award-winning articles and documenting the key lessons from these articles that all of us could use in our workplaces.

We start this series with key lessons from an article by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones titled ‘Leading Clever People’ from the March 2007 issue of HBR. The lessons assume great importance for today’s executives and managers who have to lead a team of rockstar workosaurs. Read the rest of this entry »

We have blogged earlier about our admiration for Peter Drucker and now we feel its time to share some of his timeless wisdom that helps workosaurs, better understand the world around them.

Recently I have been wondering how people stay relevant in the fast changing workplace. Well once again this seems to be a question that has already been answered by Drucker and all I will do is paraphrase.

In a career that spans 50 years or so, it is important to keep expecting change and embrace it. Realize that B-School learning will, however comprehensive it may be, will not take you through 50 years of your career. Keep learning.

There is no magic pill, there is no panacea that will work here. I always hate when that is case, but sometimes that is the way it is. As Drucker puts it, “Knowledge worker becomes obsolete if he/she does not go back to school every three or four years”. Not only will the tools of the trade change, the body of knowledge that you posses will be come obsolete. Change is so pervasive that even people will change in response to their environments, needs and perspectives.

Love change, realize you can’t manage it, try and anticipate it to stay ahead of the curve as much as possible.

Next Steps:
Send this post to a person who has is looking for the guy who moved his cheese.

Workosaur.com strives to get higher-paying jobs for its smart audience. So, in line with our objective, we decided to set up a Cause on Facebook - In Support of Higher Paying Jobs. This cause has been initiated to get together the smartest people across the world to endorse our core beliefs:
1. There is always a job that could pay you more.
2. You deserve to work with smarter people and a smarter boss.
3. You can be a millionaire sooner than you think.

So my fellow workosaurs, go ahead and support the cause and invite your friends too.

A sure shot question at most interviews (even till the middle management level) is, ‘What are your strengths/weaknesses?’ In many ways it is the most honest question asked at interviews. The question could be simple or challenging based on whether you have thought it through. Hence do prepare for it.

Seasoned interviewers have certain expectations when they ask the question, hence here are some tips! Read the rest of this entry »

To add to our own 5 Steps to Success using Linkedin here is 10 ways to use Linkedin by Guy Kawasaki. Great advice, all in a pretty PPT on Slideshare.

Next Steps:
1. Participate in the discussion - For more LinkedIn Tips
2. And once again… Send this post to the girl who is still irritating you on Orkut.

In today’s high stress corporate world, workosaurs can use all the help they can get in managing stress. Dr. Robert Sapolsky (Stanford University) has studied stress his entire life. How stress affects us and how we can deal with it. He found the answer studying Baboons in the Savannah. Turns out we are not all that different… Read the rest of this entry »

Success of companies, large or small is based on how teams and people within the teams collaborate to achieve a common corporate goal. Yet, sometimes we find the concept is lost is ego clashes. Leisa Reichelt of Disambiguity.com explains how to collaborate to make the process of brainstorming work.

PPT presented at web 2.0 expo in Berlin. Found on Slideshare.net.

Next Steps:
Forward this article to the unorganized project/team head(s) in your organization.

Keep yourself updated to keep your career on the right track, yet another Workosaur Linkfest bring you the best career advice from around the world.

1. Hate social networks? Sick of people poking you on Facebook and asking for recommendations on LinkedIn. Suck it up! Your network will soon be your be a Job Qualification.
2. Marshal Goldsmith answers 2 relevant career questions on the Harvard Blog.
a. Do you have any advice for someone who is just getting started in the stressful workforce?
b. How to Overcome Discrimination and Get the Promotion You Want? The question was asked by an Afrian American woman in the workforce, but the response is just as relevant for anyway facing discrimination.
3. Anne Holland on how to survive and flourish despite marketing layoffs?
4. Sylvia Ann Hewlett on how the financial sector is maintaining gender diversity in tough times?
5. Too much competition among workers causes jealousy/envy among employees and reduces workplace productivity - University of Notre Dame Study.

What do you do when you want to impress at work? You make a PPT. PPT files unlike a Word document are easy to navigate; they can be peppered with cool visuals and multimedia in the forms of images, videos, graphs and more. With the help of these you can really drive through your ideas and make a great impression.

Yet when it comes to selling ourselves, we still use the archaic word document CVs. One company is out to change all that - VisualCV.com.

A typical VisualCV looks like this (the founder Philip Merrick’s CV). Read the rest of this entry »

Many of us have a dream company that we would like to work for. Getting the right person attention requires some serious networking and even then there is a fair element of chance.

Now it seems there is one more way out, some never say die souls are using their Facebook connections to help them out and they are not shy to advertise themselves, through Facebook ads.
Read more about it here.

Now I thought I would give it a shot myself to see how much it would cost. I mean come on, I never saw a newspaper ad for “Job wanted” or newapaper ads that look like Resumes right! That just costs too much! Read the rest of this entry »