Archive

In my last post, I spoke about what anxiety does to me.  I realized that the anxiety is always driven by a certain level of discomfort at a certain spot in my life, and sometimes I don’t know exactly what it is, but I do need to figure out how to handle it and reduce it. In trying to find the best way to cope, I have found that it helps to get some time out. I write down a long list of all the possible sources of the current anxiety, and then I sit and think through each one of these to identify the exact cause. After that, I ask myself what it is I am going to do to change, reduce or eliminate my anxiety. Sometimes this could be something I can accomplish in the short term, and s...

As I go through my daily routine, I notice that I tend to sometimes become anxious—this may happen frequently on some days, far less so on others or not at all. Sometimes this anxiety can be a good thing, because it spurs me on, makes me more focused and causes me to work harder. At other times, it is an uncomfortable feeling to have as it drains me and makes me feel crabby and irritable, and this reflects in my behavior with people around me. I then wonder what I can do to reduce it, which means I first have to pinpoint the cause of my anxiety. This is easier said than done—I am sometimes able to articulate the reason, but equally often, I can’t. An example of the for...

I have written in the past about results, relationships and performance. One of the credos that I live by is that measurement improves performance. There is a certain amount of room for interpretation of this statement, but I fundamentally believe that it is true, given that you are using the appropriate metric. In the HR business, a common metric that we use during hiring is cost-per-hire, which is what it costs an organization on average to hire an individual. But in certain situations, this might be the wrong metric to apply when trying to judge the performance of an organization. Let’s consider an Organization A with 1000 employees, which is growing at the rate of 100 new employe...

I spent this past weekend at “the lake”.  My family has been spending weekends together there for almost as long as I can remember.  It is one of my most favorite places on the planet. My family is lucky enough to have a place near the water with a rather scenic view.  And through the years, though things have changed significantly in the area, the panorama of the lake has not.  I have taken countless pictures of it, attempting to capture at least a piece and take it home with me...each time to no avail.  There doesn’t seem to be a substitute for the real thing. For whatever reason, I think more clearly when I’m up there, sitting on the deck...

The other day, as I stopped at a traffic signal, a scooter zipped through the gap between my car and the one in front, inching through to the front, and reminding me of scenes normally seen in countries known for their chaotic traffic. It got me to thinking that as fuel prices soar, the composition of traffic in the U.S. is changing drastically. Once considered status symbols, SUVs are giving way to smaller and more fuel-efficient cars, and more and more scooters are seen on the roads. For those with a short commute, it makes sense to switch to scooters in fair weather. But what about those who need to traverse the highways? Aren’t they putting their lives in the balance to save on fue...

In almost every company, there seems to be a natural clash between the engineering department and the marketing department.  Why is this...aren’t these people on the same team?  Don’t they desire the same basic outcome?  Of course they do.  They all want to contribute to the success of their company.  Nevertheless, when the two groups get together, they almost seem to be speaking different languages.  And when the end-product turns out to be something less than what was expected, this communication barrier becomes painfully obvious. As a developer, I’ve had this experience before, and I’ve also grumbled my way through the painful re-writ...

One of the difficulties that people often face is trying to keep their personal and professional lives separate. While many people claim to be able to do so successfully, I am one of those individuals that are incapable of doing this—my life tends to roll into one giant muddle. So, as I think about my list of business goals for any given quarter, it is not unusual for me to include a personal goal—this could be something like exercising more regularly—with a measurable outcome such as managing to curl, say, 40 lbs in each hand—or spending more time contributing to the community I live in. There are two ways to incorporate personal goals: one is to make a separate list...

“For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” – Luke 14:28 At Kenexa, we develop world-class software.  There are a ton of things that go into writing great applications.  From management, to creating the development plan, to the developers, to quality control and testing, to the project teams, it’s good to have talented people at every step of the way.  I can happily say that we’ve got all of that at Kenexa.  And, oh yeah, the whole process is great fun as well. However, for some time now, the team of developers that I work with has been doing the boring par...