5 Things To Do Before You Start A New Role

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by Dr. Peter Fuda

Whether you’re moving within the C-Suite or overseeing a shift for a company employee, these steps can help you succeed.

Whatever your profession, age or seniority, chances are that you will change your job (and possibly even career) sometime in the next one to three years. In my own network of senior executives, approximately 30% are in transition at any given moment. This happens so frequently now, that it feels like I have a part-time job in executive transition.

In my experience, the difference between those who transition successfully and those who fail rarely comes down to their capability or commitment. It comes down to what they do in between roles: whether they jump straight into the next thing or take some time to set themselves up for success.

If you are moving into a new role sometime soon, there are five tactics that I recommend you embrace before you start. Equally, if you are welcoming a new hire into your team sometime soon, then I recommend you encourage and support them to adopt these same five tactics.

Revitalize, Reconnect and Reflect  Continue reading →

The top 10 IT outsourcing service providers

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 By Stephanie Overby

Accenture, TCS, and Cognizant remain atop an IT service provider market in a year of global upheaval and talent challenges, according to Everest Group’s 6th annual rankings.

The top four outsourcers on Everest Group’s annual ranking of the top IT service providers remain unchanged this year, with Accenture taking the top stop for the fifth year in a row. Coming in behind Accenture are TCS, Cognizant, and Wipro.

All four continue to be the preferred partners for large enterprise buyers, particularly during the uncertainty of 2020. “Despite early challenges during COVID, all of them continued to be strong on execution even as service resilience and India as a reliable location for global IT services delivery came into question,” says Abhishek Singh, partner with Everest Group.

While the top four remain solidly atop this list, their future rankings are not necessarily certain giving ongoing challenges of talent availability and upskilling.

Another nuance to note among the top four IT outsourcing providers is the significant amount of changes seen within Wipro and Cognizant in the past two years. Brian Humphries, former CEO and board member of Vodafone Business, joined Cognizant as CEO in April 2019, where he has focused on growing the company’s international market and expanding its innovation portfolio. Thierry Delaporte — the former COO of CapGemini, who was credited with overhauling its India operations — took over as the new CEO of Wipro in July, driving the company’s stock price up before he even began his tenure. Continue reading →

How to train your brain to become more patient at home and at work

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BY STEPHANIE VOZZA

Becoming more patient is something you can practice—and it can have a big impact on your career.

To quote musician Tom Petty, “The waiting is the hardest part.” And it’s getting harder. We live in a world of same-day delivery, microwaveable meals, and on-demand entertainment. Patience is a virtue and often in short supply.

“Humans like instant gratification,” says Courtney E. Ackerman, author of The Book of Patience. “We are wired to seek out pleasurable experiences, not in the future, but now right now. If you’ve ever had an event coming up that you are really looking forward to, you know how hard it can be to wait patiently.”

Adding to impatience is the uncertain world in which we live. Over the past 18 months we learned that all we really have is the present moment, so we want it to be as pleasant as possible, says Ackerman. “When something comes up that puts more time or distance between us and our goal, we often react with irritation and a sense of urgency,” she says.

In addition to needing patience for life in general, being more patient can help in your career, says Dorie Clark, Fast Company contributor and author of The Long Game: How to be a long-term thinker in a short-term world.

“Meaningful goals take a while to happen, and along the way, there is a lot of attrition,” she says. “A lot of talented people give up too soon. There are societal pressures around short-term results. And social media does not help because it can seem someone else is achieving success faster. That can be discomforting.”

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5 times Ted Lasso reminded us what great leadership looks like

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BY GWEN MORAN

If you’re planning on watching the show, proceed with caution—there are spoilers ahead. 

One of the occupational hazards of writing about leadership for more than a decade is that you start to see lessons all around you and ascribe meaning to the actions of others. Sometimes those “others” include the main characters of eponymous television shows. Apple TV’s Ted Lasso is like a cheat sheet for being a good leader.

Good buzz about the show, starring Jason Sudeikis as an American football coach in London, resulted in the streaming service’s biggest premiere viewership to date, and a six-fold audience increase, according to a report in Variety. While the streaming service isn’t releasing hard audience data, it’s clear that the series is gaining traction. The show also racked up 20 Emmy nominations, including four in the Best Supporting Actor category.

Ask fans why they (we) love the show, and you’ll hear a familiar refrain: It’s a bright spot in a painful world. The writing is sharp and manages to be optimistic, wise, and hilarious without being cloying. Each of the characters has flaws and weaknesses that keep them from becoming caricatures. In a recent episode that paid homage to romantic comedies (funnier and cleverer than it sounds), the Lasso declared, “I believe in ‘rom-communism’”—the philosophy that everything will work out in the end, even if it’s not the way you think it would. These days, that can be hard to believe. Therein lies some of the show’s appeal.

And if you’re looking for examples of how leaders behave—or should—Ted Lasso is fertile ground. Here are five times Lasso and his cohorts reminded us of the way leaders should act:

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If Networking Makes You Feel Dirty, You’re Doing It Wrong

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By Dorie Clark

How to win friends, influence people—and still feel squeaky-clean in the morning

Nearly every professional recognizes that networking is good for them. The connections! The opportunities! And yet a significant percentage simply can’t bring themselves to do it.

Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino knows why: It makes them feel dirty.

In one study she conducted, the perceived moral contamination of networking clouded people’s perceptions so much that they developed a sudden and disproportionate interest in personal-cleansing products such as soap and toothpaste.

It’s no wonder. We’ve all occasionally experienced a “favor assailant” who cozies up to us with a “getting to know you” call or coffee, and then springs a sneak attack. One colleague recently told me about someone with whom he thought he’d been building a friendship—until the other person hit him up with a request that required significant political capital. “It made me wonder,” my friend said. “Was this his plan all along? Had he been pacing it out, pretending to be interested in getting to know me, and just waiting to make his ask?”

No one wants to be like that.

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