Look, we know there is nothing new under the sun. We’re not nearly as original as we think we are, sitting in our offices, living rooms, or airport lobbies while firing off wisdom nuggets for our blogs.

How many times have I posted a brilliant blog post, only to then go to catch up on three days worth of RSS blog feeds and find that someone else just posted about the same topic? It happens to all of us… heck, many of us are reading one another’s stuff regularly, so it’s bound to happen… we have each others’ words imprinted on our collective subconscious! Sometimes we do it on purpose in order to build off of an idea.

And you know, I think we’re generally OK with the back and forth of ideas, because we’ve gotten to know one another a bit in this here blogosphere, and as we have, we’ve come to recognize each other’s styles, points of view, and pet topics. We know what is “borrowable” and what makes up the core of another’s message. We’ve seen the cross-traffic (or at least the links), so we know that when someone is building off one of our ideas, we’re going to get a link or at least a mention. And if there’s a miss, that there’ll be a make-good in the future, maybe in the form of a correction, or a plug on Twitter, something. We’re cordial and friendly. We balance cooperative and competitive forces as we support one another while also trying to be more insightful, more helpful, and more expert. It’s a process of that keeps us focused on the greater good, builds the community, enhances our offerings to the outside world, and brings out our best.

Not everyone knows (or cares) about the rules of the game. There are those who are the blogging equivalent of script kiddies, who cut content from others and paste it on their own sites as if it were their own. If there is a reference to a source, it’s buried and incomplete. And while when you can’t find the source of a quote (after spending time searching for it), you acknowledge as much and ask your readers to help locate it, they take that quote and purposefully strip out the source.

I came across one such blogger last night, who shall remain nameless because I don’t want to drive a single visitor to the site. I gave the person a heads up, gave them the link to the original article that they had swiped, and a reason to use it. They were so insulted they just took down the whole darn post.

Which was just fine by me.

The irony is, the person describes himself (herself?) as (1) a Baby Boomer and (2) net savvy.

Uh… when you steal half an article from CareerBuilder and are outed less than 24 hours later by a guy who was quoted in the article who saw his name come back through Technorati, not so much on the savvy, ya know?

I’m all for tearing down generational boundaries, so no comment on the Boomer part of the equation. But if by “savvy” you really mean, “the one eyed man in the land of the blind,” then just say so.

The only price for admittance into the Net world is being honest about who you are.

Posted under Personal, How to Self-Destruct

Along the way from functional doer to executive thinker, you have to cross a magic, invisible line, where on yonder side, things like knowledge of the company’s budgeting or on-boarding processes suddenly and inexplicably become… irrelevant.

What?! Did he just say “irrelevant?”

I did. Now be quiet and pay attention.

(And as a sweetener, at the end of this post I’ve included a link to the actual content of an entire book which lays out for you how you’re completely messing up your career, and what to do when you want to start getting it right. So hang in there, Sparky.)

I understand, oh ye careerist, that the Holy Grail of Executive Training appears to be a strategic finance class that shows you precisely how to calculate the impact of an increase in bad debt allowance on your Q3 P&L. I also understand that by the time you get to corporate executivedom, you will be so consumed by the relative merits of a bond offering versus a stock offering versus a sale that you will have little time for P&L reviews and will be forced to hire quality underlyings—with the mindset you have today, ahem—to handle such items.

So what are you to make of this mystical transition? How will you respond to my cry that thy vision of tomorrow’s job is no more than a cursed mirage, offering no respite from the desert wasteland that is your work life? How can you possibly prepare for such craziness?!

For starters, take advantage of the link below and start reading How to Self-Destruct: Making the Least of What’s Left of Your Career.

Here’s a little snippet from this week’s installment, from a chapter on screwing up an executive job interview:

I’m neither strategic nor execution-oriented, and I want to capitalize on my severe shortcomings in these areas [to self-destruct]. Any tips?

Don’t take the lead by anticipating questions.
If you get the gist of where the interview is heading, keep it to yourself! The willingness to take appropriate risks in pursuit of your goals is a desirable trait in leaders. In an interview, determining the pattern of the interview and then leading your interviewer along could get you the job by signaling such risk-taking.

What if I want to get the job?

Plan to answer every question from the perspective of the position you are interviewing for.

If you can’t see yourself in the new job, neither can the interviewer. This means you need to go beyond projecting confidence; it means you need to demonstrate deep awareness of the types of issues, struggles, opportunities, and decisions you will face in the new role, as well as an appropriately high-level perspective for addressing them. You need to do all this in addition to interviewing fundamentals like sitting up straight.

Want the rest of the book? Click here and scroll down. The first 5 chapters are already live… the rest are being posted one at a time each week.

Posted under Job Interviews, How to Self-Destruct

Yep, that’s right. I continue to roll out chapters on a weekly basis, and this week is no exception… Chapter 3 now up at howtoselfdestruct.com!

Like what you’re reading? Support the effort by buying a hard copy at Amazon or at your local bookstore!

Posted under How to Self-Destruct

Why is success so hard sometimes? How can it be that some people—maybe even you—can know exactly what to do and still have such a tough time doing it? In short, it’s because we put all the bad things we know we should stop doing into a mental bucket called “comfort zone,” and we stick a label on that bucket that reads “Do not throw away.”

Now get ready for the most blatant visual metaphor since “this is your brain on drugs.”
(Anyone else suddenly in the mood for fried eggs?)

Posted under Coaching & Consulting, Self-Development, How to Self-Destruct

Yup. Chapter 2 of How to Self-Destruct can now be read… for free… online.

After you fall in love, be sure to buy a keepsake of the time you spent together with those brilliant passages… by clicking on the Amazon link and actually buying the book.

Posted under How to Self-Destruct