Entries by First Sun Team

Leadership: To Get To The Top, Know What You Want & Be Prepared To Take Risks…So, If you Want to Make Waves in the Office, Treat your Career Like an Adventure. Be Single Minded, be Determined, Listen, & Learn

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Last week I spoke to Shellye Archambeau, CEO of Silicon Valley based Governance, Risk and Compliance Cloud Apps company, MetricStream. Additionally a Board Director of Verizon, Nordstrom, Watermark, and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, in 2014 Shellye featured at #2 in Business Insider’s list of the 25 most influential African Americans in Technology. One of […]

Strategy: 13 Podcasts that will Make you Smarter…If You’ve ever been Tempted to Describe Yourself as a Productivity Nerd, then “Back to Work” is Right Up your Hotkey-Laden Alley

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46 million Americans listen to a podcast every month. Podcasts are gaining in popularity for a number of reasons: You can listen in the car or on the train to work, you can dig deep into a topic, and you don’t have to burn your eyes out on a screen.   ‘Radiolab’ will help you […]

Strategy: Listen Up Gen Y! Advice on Personal & Professional Growth from Gen X…Those Born From 1982-2000(Gen Y) Represent the Largest Growing Segment of the Workforce Today

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Those born from around 1982 until around 2000 are commonly referred to as Gen Y. They represent the largest growing segment of the workforce today. It is estimated that 45% of the workforce today consists of Gen Y, and that number is projected to grow to about 75% by 2025. That means that Gen Y […]

Leadership:Changing The Workplace: Past & Future…The 5 Trends Shaping the Future of Work Which are Creating an Unprecendented War for Talent That is Forcing Organizations to Shift

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At most organizations around the world decisions around how we work follow a very top down chain of command . The executives or key stakeholders that sit at the top of our organizations decide everything including how we work, what we work on, what we wear, who we work with, what technologies we use, and […]

Strategy: How To Stop A Presentation That’s Going Badly…I Had Just Violated What They Thought was a Cardinal Rule of Presenting: Never Stop, No Matter How Bad it’s Going

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I learned at Skip Barber’s racecar driving school that “when you spin, put both feet in.” This means that if you’re on the racetrack and your car spins out, press the clutch and brake hard, fast and simultaneously. It’s your best chance of stopping without crashing into the wall. The same rule applies to presentations. […]

Recent College Grads: LinkedIn Disadvantage…Recent College Graduates Are at a Competitive Disadvantage on LinkedIn

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There are at least two major aspects of the functionality of LinkedIn that make it more difficult for recent college graduates, or soon-to-be-graduates, to be found, evaluated and contacted for suitable opportunities. Overcoming these challenges is critical to their success with LinkedIn. With the emphasis LinkedIn has been placing on growing their student market – […]

Strategy: 67 Pieces of Advice You Didn’t Ask for But Could Probably Use…Don’t Act While you’re Still Angry. Anger Makes the Wrong Things seem Right, & Remorse Lasts Way Longer Than Anger

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There’s no way for such an avalanche of unsolicited advice to come off as anything but preachy. But there’s also something appealing about the scattergun approach. Trying on a few dozen ideas in a few minutes will almost always leave you with something you can take to the bank, if you don’t get hung up on […]

Your Career:How To Job-Hunt After Getting Fired…Getting Fired is Not Bad for You. It Might Be the Best Thing That has Ever Happened for Your Career.

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The big thing about getting fired is not the process of getting fired itself, but the job-hunt afterwards. The good news is that the working world is changing fast. One of the ways that the traditional Godzilla structure keeps working people in line is that it tells them “If you get fired, good luck getting […]

Strategy: How To Go Over Your Boss’s Head…What Would Happen If I Went Over my Boss’s Head to See my Boss’s Boss?” In Some Organizations, No One Would Notice

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If you want evidence that the standard corporate or institutional hierarchy is a broken system, ask yourself “What would happen if I went over my boss’s head to see my boss’s boss?” In some organizations, no one would notice. In those organizations, people talk to their boss’s managers all the time. In other organizations, you […]

Strategy: How Multitasking can Kill your Productivity…Because of Email Alone we Typically Waste 1 Out of Every 6 Minutes

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The word priority didn’t always mean what it does today.  In his best-selling book, “Essentialism,” Greg McKeown explains the surprising history of the word and how its meaning has shifted over time.   The word priority came into the English language in the 1400s. It was singular. It meant the very first or prior thing. It stayed […]