5 trends driving the future of work
As the year draws to a close, you may be assessing your career plans against the backdrop of holiday hoopla and the uncertain employment climate. To get a leg up, grab an eggnog and read on to learn about trends that could change how you'll be making a living in the years to come: Trend 1: Independent consulting to see hockey-stick growth curve According to a new study from MBO Partners, a company offering services to independent consultants, by 2013, the number of independent workers in America is expected to grow from 16 million to more than 20 million. By 2020, that figure could climb to include more than half of U.S. workers, leading to a new independent majority comprised of freelancers, consultants and other independent workers. Blame the economic turmoil or a change in values, but more people are demanding greater self-reliance, control and satisfaction in their professional lives. Other key findings from the study: Trend 2: Order books, movies and now ... workers online Related:
Michael Moritz: The best advice I ever got - Dec. 22
Michael, Moritz, Silicon Valley's VC visionary, could have taken a different career path without a little help from his friends. FORTUNE -- "Steve Jobs told me that you should never go to a meeting or make a telephone call without having a clear idea of what you're trying to achieve. And Don Valentine, the founder of Sequoia Capital, told me to trust my instincts, which lets you avoid getting dragged into conventional thinking and trying to please others. "But the best advice I ever got came from Bill Deedes, who was editor of the Daily Telegraph and a grand old figure of Fleet Street. Michael Moritz Age: 57
10 Proven Strategies of High-Performance Teams [INFOGRAPHIC]
Ronald Brown is a successful startup CEO with an extensive background in technology and consumer marketing. His new book, Anticipate. The Architecture of Small Team Innovation and Product Success is available via iTunes, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Who drives product innovation? These types of teams are obviously essential for startups, but many large companies approach team-building in the same way, especially those that lead the industry in terms of product revenue. What are the essential elements — the genetic structure, if you will — of a high-performance team? Image courtesy of iStockphoto, francisblack
55-Hour Week?
Research shows that consistently working more than 40 hours a week is simply unproductive. For many in the entrepreneurship game, long hours are a badge of honor. Starting a business is tough, so all those late nights show how determined, hard working and serious about making your business work you are, right? Wrong. That's bad news for most workers, who typically put in at least 55 hours a week, recently wrote Sara Robinson at Salon. The most essential thing to know about the 40-hour work-week is that, while it was the unions that pushed it, business leaders ultimately went along with it because their own data convinced them this was a solid, hard-nosed business decision….Evan Robinson, a software engineer with a long interest in programmer productivity (full disclosure: our shared last name is not a coincidence) summarized this history in a white paper he wrote for the International Game Developers’ Association in 2005. Are your 55+ hour weeks really productive and sustainable?
Analysis: Big Pharma gets a driving lesson from carmakers
The Happiness Project
Successful Delegation - Team management training from MindTools
Using the Power of Other People's Help © iStockphoto/AlexRaths Even "Super You" needs help and support. There is no shame in asking for assistance. Do you feel stressed and overloaded? If you work on your own, there's only a limited amount that you can do, however hard you work. However, if you're good at your job, people will want much more than this from you. On the positive side, however, you're being given a tremendous opportunity if you can find a way around this limitation. One of the most common ways of overcoming this limitation is to learn how to delegate your work to other people. Why People Don't Delegate To figure out how to delegate properly, it's important to understand why people avoid it. After all, which is easier: designing and writing content for a brochure that promotes a new service you helped spearhead, or having other members of your team do it? When to Delegate Tip: Other factors that contribute to the delegability of a task include: The Who and How of Delegating
What's Killing the American Entrepreneur?
Old-school entrepreneurship didn’t care about how the entrepreneur was wired. It assumed one could walk up to a buffet of business strategies served up by gurus, educators, experts and consultants - try a bit of everything - and see what works. That is where the systemic frustration, which we see now in the entrepreneurial community, comes from. Based on my study of "Entrepreneurial DNA",I found that there are four distinct groups of entrepreneurs, not just one. Each encompasses their own unique modus operandi, strengths, weaknesses, needs and buying behaviors. Here are some of the highlights from this project. “The Builder”, or B DNA, make up 10% of business owners. Knowing your Entrepreneurial DNA allows you to filter decisions, people and solutions to find the ones best suited for you. We found that the decisions entrepreneurs make are often tied to their primary and secondary DNA.
Why Should One Act on Principle? | Ayn Rand, Objectivism, and Individualism
A person of "principle" is commonly thought to be one who cleaves to his moral ideals and shuns "expediency" and compromise. Objectivism, by contrast, holds that principles, when properly understood, are extremely expedient because a person who thinks in principles makes himself aware of the most practical means of achieving his ends in the full context of his life. Nevertheless, Objectivism recognizes the essential connection between a person's principles and his moral integrity. Such a connection is possible because the traditional dichotomy between the realm of morals and the requirements of one's own life and happiness is false. Happiness in life is the highest moral goal we can achieve. The moral is the practical, and moral principles are essential to achieving our happiness in practical terms. Concepts and Principles According to Objectivism, a principle is a proposition that integrates one's knowledge of an important subject. Principles put the power of abstraction to work.
