Business

I’m currently reading the book, Drive, by Daniel Pink. In the Introduction the author sets out the 4 main psychological needs, much like the physical needs set out by Maslow. Here are the psychological needs: We need to feel we belong. We need to feel valued. We need to feel we’re good at something. We need to feel we have a secure future. That’s a lot of feeling, but this is profound. It corresponds directly to what I’ve said before (and possibly written here) that I look for in an employer: money, people, and work. Money helps to pay for things, and it helps to show value in someone (granted, it’s an extrinsic value). People helps define the belonging. And work defines that we are good at something. But the last psychological need, I missed that. ...

I have worked for many companies in my career and noticed some basic trends regardless of size, industry, or composition. I’m labeling these trends the Four Horsemen of Companies, and each one is named after a specific type of inflammation (-itis). My advice to budding job seekers is to work for a variety of places so that experience and understanding can be gained. If you only work for one particular type of company, you and the company end up being more prone to these horsemen than you think. If you are already employed, consider whether any of these horsemen are already present in your organization. ...

I was talking with one of my mentees last week and we happened upon the topic of money and wages. I mentioned to him that, in order to talk about money properly, you have to define the word “expensive.” Naturally, people think the word “expensive” means that the price of something is too high, but the problem with this definition is that it lacks context. I explained it to my mentee in this way. ...