Jo McDermott

diy executive development

  • Don’t Take Your Needs to Work

    Basics/Needs/Wants My first exposure to the idea of how my needs impacted my career came from Laura Berman Fortgang’s book, Take Yourself to the Top. Fortgang divides things into basics/needs/wants.  Most of us can tell what the basics are–enough food, housing,… Continue reading

  • Dealing with A**holes

    For some reason I’ve talked to a lot of people in the last couple of weeks who were having problems with people in their lives—mostly at work.  The problem when you have to deal with people who are difficult is… Continue reading

  • Can You Really Earn a Living Doing What You Love?

    Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow You hear it all the time.  “Do what you love and the money will follow?” But is it true?  I’d have to say, “Kind of.”  When you are working doing things you… Continue reading

  • Keeping Up

    Why Should I Care? I talk to people who want to get promoted.  I talk to people who just lost their job.  I talk to people who want to go work for a cool company they know about.  I talk… Continue reading

  • My Boss Doesn’t Listen to Me!

    What Language Are You Speaking? My first question to you is– Are you speaking your boss’ language?  And, I’m sure your answer is, “Of Course!”  But are you really?  One of the most important tools that I use to help… Continue reading

  • New Job? Here’s What You Do:

    First Thing The first thing you do is remember that you don’t know what you don’t know.  Be very careful about your assumptions.  If you had the same job in a different organization, remember it might not be the same… Continue reading

  • What You Believe About How the Organization Works is WRONG

    If you are the CEO-Founder of the organization, nothing I’m going to say applies to you.  If you are anyone else, it probably does.  We all have beliefs about how organizations work.  For the most part, at least some of… Continue reading

  • Great Leaders and Their Paradoxes

    I have always loved the concept of paradoxes.  A paradox is a self-contradictory proposition.  Paradoxes  are the embodiment of complexity.  Great leaders are full of them. Extreme Self Confidence v. Humility: I don’t think you can be a leader without… Continue reading

  • Lead from where you are

    Tops, Middles, Bottoms Are you the same kind of leader at work that you are at home? at church? with your friends?  If you’re like most people, probably not.  Why is that?  Most people have a picture of the “power… Continue reading

  • Fail. Fail. Fail.

    Failing Isn’t Fun. I really, really to hate to fail.  In fact, I hate it so much that I rarely admit that I failed when I do–it’s not that I lie about it–I just don’t even admit to myself.  So… Continue reading