Jo McDermott

Career development

  • Should Your Subordinates Like You?

    Should you be liked OR respected? This post is a follow on to my last post, Underground Relationships.  One of my readers said that he had a boss tell him that people working for you shouldn’t like you, just respect you.  He… Continue reading

  • Recruiters Are Prejudiced

    Recruiters Are People I know lots of recruiters.  I like lots of recruiters. In fact, maybe I like all the recruiters I know.  Recruiters are regular people.  And like regular people (yes, that means you too), recruiters are prejudiced.  We… Continue reading

  • Update Your LinkedIn Profile. Seriously.

    Why Do You Need To Fix Your Profile? I had a friend ask me recently if I knew someone to fill three positions that he had open in his department.  I was sure that I did.  I knew a lot… Continue reading

  • Are You Incompetent? Unreliable? Probably.

    Competence and reliability and trustworthiness are in the eye of the beholder.  You know how hard you work.  You know how much you are stretched across many deliverables for many people.  You know that you’re doing the best you can… Continue reading

  • Brand Schmand. Defining Who You Are.

    Branding When you think of Coca Cola what comes to mind?  The iconic bottle?  The taste?  What about Apple?  Or Amazon?  Or Chanel?  If products are well-branded then when you think of them, you think of the product, the name,… Continue reading

  • Wanna Be Happy At Work?

    We spend an awful lot of time at work to spend our time there unhappy. So, if you’re unhappy at work, you need to do something about it.  Years spent unhappily at work are wasted.  There are four ways to… Continue reading

  • Personal Change Management

    Personal Change Management Is More Important Than OCM “Organizational change management” is usually listed on job descriptions as a required skill for executives.  Don’t get me wrong, it is a critical job skill.  Personal change management is just much more… Continue reading

  • Get Your Business Started. What Are You Waiting On?

    It’s Time to Put Up or Shut Up So you want to start a business.  Someday.  Someday will come and go and where will your business  be?  What are you waiting on?  You want to get everything set up first?… Continue reading

  • Stand Out: Work On Projects

    Internal People on Projects When I work as a consultant on big change projects in companies, there are always consultants (outsiders) and business representatives (insiders).  The insiders are usually identified as subject matter experts, business leads, and sponsors.  Despite what… Continue reading

  • How Do You Get Motivated On Sunday?

    Dreading Sunday Evening? I recently had someone ask me how to get motivated on Sunday.  Great question!  My question is what do you need to be motivated to do?  I assume that when most people wake up on Sunday, they’re relatively… Continue reading