Published by Clarke Bishop on 23 Sep 2008
et cetera: Why Clarke Needs Another Blog
Et cetera is a Latin expression that means “and other things”, or “and so forth” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Et_cetera). This blog is for all the “other things” that didn’t fit anywhere else!
I seem to be interested in everything which is both a blessing and a curse. It’s great because I get to be involved in a lot of things and learn a lot. But, it’s also a problem. I hate being asked: “Clarke, what do you do?”
Originally, I studied electrical engineering in college, and I worked as an engineer for about ten years. I’m still involved in software development and technology, but I’ve also become very interested in people and management. I’ve often found a home bridging the gap between business people with a need and technical people who know how to build things.
OK, I’ll eventually have to answer the “What do you do?” question, so here goes. Some of my current projects are:
I work with companies to have them hire great employees, and TalentAppeal is a blog that focuses on hiring and talent management.
A few years ago, I met Brad Smart who wrote the book, Topgrading: How Leading Companies Win By Hiring, Coaching, and Keeping the Best People. I developed an eLearning DVD on Topgrading and in the process learned some great methods for successfully picking the right person. I’ve continued to work with Brad to develop other new products and to market Topgrading.
In the 1990’s, I was CEO of an eLearning company and thought I was pretty good at selecting talent. I was good at finding and developing technical people, but, as it turned out, not at recruiting good managers and sales people. If I knew then, what I know now, that company would have quickly grown larger and been a lot more successful.
Talent Appeal exists to support my Talent Management Consulting activities and also to teach other managers what I wish I’d known earlier!
Did you know that bad bosses cause about 40% of all turnover? That’s an enormous impact in itself, but bad bosses also cause poor morale and missed opportunities.
There are a lot of misguided ideas about how to be the boss. Many people get their notions about how the boss should be from their parents or TV and movies.
I’m developing the idea of Leadership Spirals to help bosses learn how to be great bosses. You see, every leader is creating spirals all the time. What matters is if they are creating upward or downward spirals.
Better Boss Project is there to support my Business Consulting activities and to explain how to create upward Leadership Spirals and how to be a great boss. It also has information for people who are stuck working for a bad boss.
I’ve been designing and building software since college, and I’ve always focused on making technology work to solve business problems. Having great technology that people won’t use obviously fails to impact the business, so I’ve also been interested in creating great user experiences.
The World Wide Web is great because you can access it from anywhere. But, browsers were mostly designed to display documents, not to create great user interfaces. AJAX helps this a bit, but it’s still pretty limited. So, early on, I got interested in Flash for building web application client software. It used to be pretty challenging, but with the last couple of Flex releases, it’s gotten much easier.