Quickthink

From Examiner.com, Jessica Burchard shares Naomi Wolf’s six secrets for writing dangerously. I think she is right on the money.

Fred Wilson offers a nice case study why promoting tolerance is a pre-condition for building a prosperous ecology. This is important in the US where labor is very mobile. But not only. It is true in every place that is competing for the best minds around.

Connectivity is the mantra these days. We hear, for example, that we are “connected” 24/7. Perhaps we are even “too connected”. But it is odd that with all the talk about connectivity, we don’t spend that much time talking about what makes connection work. We tend not to ask what is the “glue” that turns loose interaction into a relationship. And what is it that turns a relationship into a partnership.

I am talking about moving from being a “lone wolf” to the “life of the party”. And this has nothing to do with how much you tweet or use Facebook. Moving from lone wolf to life of the party requires both vision and set of skills. The vision, BTW, is pretty simple. Here it is. Whatever you are doing can be done a hell of a lot better in a group. Why? Because the group sees the process from different perspectives and offers learning to the group that no one individual can find on his or her own.  Not only that, but it is a hell of a lot more fun to do things in groups than it is alone. BTW, that does not mean that every aspect of what you do is collective. It means that you have group input in establishing standards for how to do those things better.

So there is the vision. What are the requisite skills? Here we go again. They are soft skills. A combination of cognitive and behavioral skills that enable you to see the potential in others and realize that potential.  I posted on this just a while back, and if you are interested in thinking more clearly about soft skills, check out my post. The key point is that mastering soft skills doesn’t just mean making the people around you more engaged. That is important. But doing that  gives you stuff like this

adaptability

resilience

optimism

integrity

critical thinking

pro-activity

empathy

This stuff is worth having.  I could see them in Jane Wurwand as she gives down to earth advice that she learned from creating a hugely successful skin care product business.  BTW, I noticed something new as well. Jane understands that the anchor for gaining better skills is in what you do with people — not how much of an expert you are on your own. Doing something well beats just being smart any day. So she is proud that she does not have an advanced business degree. Indeed, she never went to university. Instead, she learned how to take care of skin. And she translated that into training people how to do that. She was first in the market. The first to share. What fun!