Zero Secrets; One Number Never Changes; Hire a “Hopper”; Econ Recon: Real Rally; No Euphoria, Yet

Your “Zero Secrets” Company

This past year’s revelations of the Ashley Madison “dating” site, the leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee and the hacking of the Target customer database have leaders everywhere wondering how safe and secure their secrets might be (legitimate or “other.”)

This short article from HBR suggests that it is no longer possible for C-Level executives to protect all their secrets or proprietary information, and provides some insight about which secrets are worth protecting and how to do it. Take a minute for some tips on Leading in a World Without Secrets.

Just a week from now we will be asking ourselves: What will we do differently in 2017? Things can change if we want them to, but the number of hours in a day, or the week, will not. The 168 hours in the week is the ultimate constraint. Maybe our other resolutions will be easier to achieve if we first do better with what time we have been given.  In a recent 12 minute TED Talk, Time management expert Laura Vanderkam studies how busy people spend their lives, and she’s discovered that many of us drastically overestimate our commitments each week while underestimating the time we have to ourselves. She offers a few practical strategies to help find more time for what matters to us so we can “build the lives we want in the time we’ve got.” (some of these tips come from Ms Vanderkam’s book “I Know How She Does It” which combined extensive research and interviews with hundreds of professional women who in many ways are more time constrained than their male peers.)

Another great resource with innovative approaches to time and productivity management is Maura Thomas of “Regain Your Time”  who talks to Vistage Groups across the US.

I am hopeful that in 2017 we will all do a better job managing the only resource we cannot buy more of!

Hire a “Hopper”

2017 will not bring any respite in the war for talent. Maybe we could increase our odds of hiring the candidates we need by breaking some old habits; specifically, learning to take a second look at resumes of so-called “job hoppers.”  In years past, long tenure with an employer was seen as indicator of a solid employee. Those who changed jobs every few years were shunned as unreliable or assumed to be incompetent and not given further consideration.

Increasingly, employers are taking a second look at these resumes as more and more qualified candidates have less and less tenure at a particular employer. This article from Forbes may give you a different perspective on those whose resumes demonstrate “employment mobility”. Check out these “Five Reasons to Hire a Job Hopper” and share it with your HR department.

Econ Recon

The Rally is Real: The market continues to surge. Is it real? Will it last? Can it last? Economist Brian Wesbury thinks the market was undervalued by 30% on Election Day…and that it’s been undervalued for years. This short blog posting will tell you why.

Not Euphoria….Yet: Alan and Brian Beaulieu at ITR Economics also think the market may have a ways to run…but for different reason.  Check out their one page blog posting Positive Economic Signals for 2017.