Some people think leadership is the act of saying, “Come this way.” They think the leader is solely responsible for setting the goal and the direction. Worse, they might think the leader is the person who tells people what to do and how to do it. True, parents do that with children, especially when the […]
What Does Leadership Mean to You? Read More »
I had a big business surprise from one of my book distribution partners earlier this week. That upended all my careful plans. Since I’d been away from my office, this was my week to “catch up.” Ha! Foiled again. By definition, surprises are things we cannot anticipate. And this one was a doozy. While I
How Do You Manage Surprises? Read More »
A few months ago, in October 2023, I noticed a strange pimple on my nose that bled after I washed and dried my face. I checked with my doctor who said to see a dermatologist. I didn’t panic, but I made an appointment as soon as I could. (An urgent reaction.) The diagnosis was squamous cell skin cancer.
How Can We Combine Our Feelings of Urgency and Calm to Be Most Effective? Read More »
I learned a lot about my mental models last week. That’s when several people asked me “obvious” questions about specific software tools. I hope I was reasonable when I answered. But I assumed they exhibited learned helplessness. Wasn’t the answer obvious to everyone? Clearly not. Then, this week, I did exactly the same thing. Twice.
When Is the Problem Not Learned Helplessness or Confusion But Our Mental Models? Read More »
Most of us have been in a position where we feel as if “we’ve been here before”—even if we know we haven’t. Sometimes, we smell something or hear something, but we feel as if we’ve been here before. There’s a name for that: deja vu. But sometimes, we feel as if this thing—that maybe we’ve
How Have You Used Vuja De to Support Your Creativity? Read More »
If you’re like me, you have plenty of improvement goals. I have personal, professional, and office-cleanup goals. (Since my office appears to be a perennial mess, I count that as a separate and very subsidiary goal.) I often use the compounding effect to make those improvements. The compounding effect works very well for money. Put
How Can You Use the Compounding Effect to Achieve What You Want? Read More »
Too often, we frame resilience as a way to bounce back from a circumstance, such as an event, hardship, or adversity. But we don’t need bad things to happen to us to need resilience. In fact, most of the time, bad things don’t happen. But something changes, and we notice. That’s when we need to
How Can You Reframe Resilience As Bouncing Forward to the Next Decision? Read More »
I continue to see more senior leaders who want everyone to return to the office because they think people were more productive then. However, these same companies have a ton of data that they are actually more productive when people work from their desired location. The data doesn’t deter these leaders from wanting what they
How Many Other Ways Can You Get What You Want? Read More »
Fred, A sixty-ish colleague, said, “My son is so overloaded at work. But he refuses to work overtime. He says it compromises his ideals. Is overtime something Millenials don’t do?” I asked, “When do you think it’s okay to work overtime?” Fred said, “Whenever the company needs me to work overtime.” “How many days do
When and for How Long Do You Choose to Compromise? Read More »
I listened to Tim Harford’s podcast, La La Land: Galileo’s Warning (Classic). Galileo warned that adding more layers of risk management does not prevent bad outcomes—and might create them. Yet, I’ve said I respect risk management. Not all risk management is created equal. We can use additional steps, sequential occurrences, to manage risks. Layers are the concurrent practices we might
How Many Layers Do You Add to Manage Risks? Read More »