Jo McDermott

Latest Posts

  • What Does It Take To Be An Executive In Your Org?

    What Does It Take To Be An Executive At Your Org? Executives come in all flavors.  Organizations also come in all flavors.  People who want to be Executives come in all flavors.  How do you know what your organization needs… Continue reading

  • My Five Favorite Books on Leadership

    So Hard to Pick Just Five! Boy, this was hard.  I thought about writing several blogs–My First Five Favorite Books on Leadership, My Next Five Favorite Books on Leadership . . .   Then I thought about writing a blog titled… Continue reading

  • Fed Up With Looking For a Job?

    Fed Up With Looking For A Job? Have you been looking for a job for a while?  Have you sent out dozens of resumés and heard NOTHING back?  Have you talked to recruiters who told you that you weren’t qualified… Continue reading

  • Keep Up Or Fall Behind

    If You Want To Stay Employed To stay marketable in today’s workforce, and to be considered for continued promotions, you HAVE to keep up.  Maybe back in the day that wasn’t as necessary–maybe you got to be an expert within… Continue reading

  • Life, Death and Legacies

    Death-Bed Regrets I bet you have all heard the story about the guy on his death-bed who regretted how much he worked and how little time he spent with his family, or doing what he loved, or making a difference… Continue reading

  • Getting Things Done Without The Title

    How Do You Get Things Done When You’re Not the Boss? I deal all the time with people in organizations who are trying to get things done without the direct authority to ‘order’ people to do it.  These are people… Continue reading

  • The Transition From Manager to Leader

    Leaders v. Managers I’m sure you’ve probably heard about the differences between managers and leaders.  Managers do things right and leaders do the right thing–right? I think that this is an interesting discussion, but it isn’t that easy.  Managers do… Continue reading

  • Break the Rules? Only After Careful Consideration.

    Rules Have Reasons Rules in organizations are there for a reason.  Someone at some time figured out that there needed to be guidelines in place to govern the situation.  These rules can be formal–procedures written in manuals that have multiple… Continue reading

  • Get a Mentor. Use a Mentor.

    Get a Mentor I know you’ve heard it.  If you’ve been reading this blog, you’ve heard it from me.  You need a mentor to help your career.  Easier said than done, right? Typical questions about mentors and mentoring are: What… Continue reading

  • Stephen Covey and his Gifts to Business People

    All business people owe a lot to Stephen Covey, who died this week at the age of 79.  Covey wrote his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, in 1989.  There were no earth shatteringly new concepts in it—to… Continue reading