Comments for Let's Do Lunch.....Leadership and Career Growth in Silicon Valley

Comment on Is the Job Market Beginning to Turn Around? by Kiou Houshmand

Kiou Houshmand — Wed, 04 May 2011 21:31:03 +0000

Hi Devin,
This is an outstanding guide. I really enjoyed reading it. Well done. Thank you very much. Q Houshmand

Comment on “I” and “Me” vs. “Us” and “We” Leadership by Theda E.

Theda E. — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 05:34:30 +0000

How coincidental! This same Dilbert cartoon has been circulating in our group. Are you and Scott Adams both flies on the wall with the goings-on of our re-org? Thanks for posting this and for reminding me what is expected of good leaders to keep teams motivated. It’s very important to me to keep the team I work with motivated and productive as we wade through the uncertainty.

Comment on Burnout: Things are Just Going Wrong by Theda E.

Theda E. — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:18:55 +0000

Perspective. Loved this. So very true — often I have to step back and dig deep to understand what ‘set me off’ and it’s usually not what is in front of me. Need to remember to step back and have a look around more often.

Comment on Does PowerPoint inhibit decision making? by Kim Ringeisen

Kim Ringeisen — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:11:33 +0000

Poor Powerpoint presentations inhibit decision making, as it presents more questions then it answers. Key to an effective powerpoint will be to ensure your ask is clear and that it explains a) the opportunity, b) cost of doing so (time, people, resources) and c) the cost of inaction. Clearly, no one wants a brainmelting presentation, make is long enough to provide insight, but short enough to give folks time to digest and discuss.

Comment on Death By PowerPoint by Kim Ringeisen

Kim Ringeisen — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:42:27 +0000

When defining the audience, you need to determine if your presentation will use inductive reasoning or deductive. With executives, a good approach is the inductive format, since you will highlight your thesis and lead the audience as to why it is needed or is of value. You should also limit your presentation to 10 slides, if you need more then more then likely you are giving a training versus a presentation Yes, there will be the engineering slides or the project commits, that will go on for 30 slides, but these are more reviews and not presentations – let’s not confuse them as they are different.

By keeping your slides to 10, front-loading your proposal and closing with your ask, your audience will first appreciate that you considered their time and you have provided them with enough facts to come to a decision on if they will meet your ask or if it warrants additional analysis.

Last thing, keep it simple – just because powerpoint has transitions, bells and whistles, they are a distraction from your content so save them a class reunion presentation…

Comment on Death By PowerPoint by Bob

Bob — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:11:17 +0000

I’ve had this problem in all of the companies that I’ve worked. One effective way to focus groups is to ensure that there is an agenda and to manage the time for each item closely. One company that I worked at insisted that there was an agenda for every meeting, there was no more than 15 minutes per subject. All subjects required action items. this was a great way to ensure that meetings are productive and that they move the business forward. I’ve found that presentations often become a crutch to avoid real work.

Comment on Does PowerPoint inhibit decision making? by Devin

Devin — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 23:58:19 +0000

Chris,

Great post, I agree that the speed drives the lack of details and, sadly, the poor decisions that often come with them. Try a good briefing or summary, really focusing on both content and format, and judiciously apply it. See if it resonates. Let me know how it works for you.

Comment on Does PowerPoint inhibit decision making? by Chris

Chris — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:37:22 +0000

We are also obsessed with speed and personal efficiency. I think in many organizations one would struggle to get even a well crafted briefing read — it is almost a cultural thing. Being myself in the middle of trying to get a decision made, mostly via Power Point, this post resonates (sadly). Tufte has some great anti-power point diatribes out there. I wonder if I could get somewhere with a good briefing…

cheers

Comment on The Purpose and Importance of Your Resume by Devin

Devin — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:59:20 +0000

Erik,

Click on the highlighted text in the blog post. That is the link

Comment on The Purpose and Importance of Your Resume by Erik Alberts

Erik Alberts — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 15:07:25 +0000

Could not agree more. The way I’ve learned to think of resumes is that their goal should be to land you an interview.

This means that the resume should frame your contributions at just enough level of detail to make the potential employer want to bring you in for an interview to learn more. This means keeping things high level and focusing on what you achieved, but not how you achieved them (interviews can cover this information).

Any chance you could post the link to the WSJ article you mentioned?