Stuck between mediocrity and excellence

When you are in a hiring process and the interviewer tells you that " we're a consensus driven organization ," what does that mean to you?  To me, it can mean a variety of things.  In order to make a decision, we need to engage everyone that will have an opinion about the decision being made; or The organization makes a decision and if it's ever questioned, no one can really point to that single point of contact that really made the decision; or  To make a decision requires a lot -- and I mean A LOT of meetings to confirm, clarify, verify, and confirm the decision being made.  By definition, consensus means "a general agreement."  Therefore, my interpretation of the type of organization that is consensus driven is that they are a "generally agreeable"  organization.  Is that a good thing or a bad thing? And what happens if you are one of the ones that likes to challenge or disrupt agreeableness?  What I've learned is that there is a right way a...

A universal truth is that politics exist within every workplace environment.  You may read about workplaces like Zappo's and Menlo Innovations . And to many of us that read about these places, there is a certain degree of skepticism because we have experienced no such nirvana.  However, the truth is that such places exist and the leaders of these companies have learned to minimize or eradicate the office politics that can drag down the productivity or efficiency of a company. Worse, office politics can keep the organization from coming close to realizing it's potential.  In the majority of companies, office politics abound and it's primarily driven by the leadership that's in place.  Here's how to tell if you are dealing with a leader that is a political animal. This is dangerous, both for employees and the company. When talking to your peers about a person they either say, "Watch your back," or "He / she is dangerous."  Red flags sho...