All too often, we make ourselves fit available options rather than making options fit us. It's true of job-searching, partner-seeking, or life-building. I believe that we are better served when we flip that and make the options fit us. Too many of us are trying to figure out how to package … [Read more...] about Unleash Yourself: How To Make Your Next Interview Your Best Interview
How Boundaries Prevent Burnout Before It Starts
We live in a society that's constantly busy. Whether we're dealing with the stress of managing our ever-changing schedules or just the general ups and downs of life in the working world, one thing is abundantly clear: we are collectively feeling burned out. We’ve talked about burnout before, and … [Read more...] about How Boundaries Prevent Burnout Before It Starts
3 Ways to Deal with Your Crisco Watermelons
Most collaborative projects start out simple enough but somehow can end up getting slipperier and more chaotic as time goes on. Here are 3 things that you can keep in mind when dealing with a project that gets as slippery as a Crisco watermelon. One of the traditions of the Boy Scout summer camp … [Read more...] about 3 Ways to Deal with Your Crisco Watermelons
4 Statements Leaders Need to Be Saying More Often
A client of mine is going through a catalytic shift in her career where she's bringing on someone to manage her current business while she's moving on to manage someone else's business. It's going to be a challenge, especially with learning how to shift between founder-CEO in one business and … [Read more...] about 4 Statements Leaders Need to Be Saying More Often
Stuck on the Intro? Write it Last.
Don't let the blank screen and ghosts of deleted intro paragraphs haunt you and keep you stuck. You don't have to start writing from your intro; you can start in the middle and come back to your intro once you've figured out where you've gone. When I was a philosophy graduate student, I had … [Read more...] about Stuck on the Intro? Write it Last.
Launch Your New Career: Leading Turnarounds and How It Shaped My Career
Leading through a turnaround or big mess scenario creates springboards for your career. In today's atomic essay, I share the two most significant big mess scenarios that shaped my career. In The CEO Next Door, the authors note that one of the three major career catapults for executives is the Big … [Read more...] about Launch Your New Career: Leading Turnarounds and How It Shaped My Career
Work From Home Workers Need Nudges To Go Home
When you're working on-site or in the office, there are lots of cues and norms about when it's time to go home. Without those cues and norms, WFH workers are struggling to stop working. Leaders, it's on you to nudge your WFH teammates to "go home." One of the underrated benefits of leading a … [Read more...] about Work From Home Workers Need Nudges To Go Home
37 Universal Verbs to Use for Your To-Do Lists
A common trip-up when people are making their to-do lists is that they’re either not using verbs in front of action items or the verbs aren’t working for them. In an earlier post on writing effective to-do lists, I showed how using verbs helps us create momentum on our projects so we don’t spend … [Read more...] about 37 Universal Verbs to Use for Your To-Do Lists
How Much of Your Team’s Time Is Spent Looking for (Metaphorical) Keys?
Many owners and leaders avoid making SOPs, checklists, and workflows because it takes time from doing the actual work. But when you look at what doing the actual work entails, it's spending time doing stuff that SOPs, checklists, and workflows would prevent. After nearly 15 years of running with … [Read more...] about How Much of Your Team’s Time Is Spent Looking for (Metaphorical) Keys?
How MailBrew Has Helped My Digital-Primary Reading Practice
The internet is massive (to say the least), with information swirling around in an infinite number of places. Even if you’ve narrowed down your favorite social platforms and websites to a couple of dozen, it still takes a lot of brain space to stay updated on everything. Add to that the challenge of … [Read more...] about How MailBrew Has Helped My Digital-Primary Reading Practice
3 Ways to Pay off Dunkirk Spirit Debt
Dunkirk Spirit is the extraordinary effort that teams have to muster to accomplish strategic imperatives while overcoming the effects of poor planning, coordination, communication, or unforeseen developments that require an urgent response. It's a reference to the heroic effort of civilian sailors … [Read more...] about 3 Ways to Pay off Dunkirk Spirit Debt
Making Space to Let the Truth Come Out
Oftentimes, it's only after space is made for the truth to come out that we can find the clarity and support we need. Recently, one of my favorite clients and humans felt unsupported and unheard in our coaching session. They were thinking about hiring a team to do some work for them and I had … [Read more...] about Making Space to Let the Truth Come Out
A Push to Get Clearer About Your Pull Factors
All too often, we decide to do things based on push factors, but it's our pull factors that keep us going when the new devils who accompany the new levels show up. Reasons to do something fall within two broad buckets: push factors and pull factors. Push factors are things you want to avoid. … [Read more...] about A Push to Get Clearer About Your Pull Factors
What Are Your Default Mental Traps?
“Are you being lazy or are you being cheap?” Angela’s piercing blue-green eyes and her question arrested me mid-bite of my breadstick. I had stopped, not because the question hurt my feelings, but because it was an incredibly helpful pattern interrupt, asked in a way that I could hear … [Read more...] about What Are Your Default Mental Traps?
Is Your Leadership Posture Working for You and Your Team?
This morning, I texted Cory the following: Remember to have fun today, bro. Especially during the dress rehearsal. We’ve got four-five months of ready-aim-fire-aim-fire in front of us and your first of many ideas is already going well. The posture/vibe to try on for the meeting is “how can we … [Read more...] about Is Your Leadership Posture Working for You and Your Team?
How to Make Better Weekly Plans
It’s frustrating to get to the end of a week and feel like you haven’t really gotten anywhere, even though you’ve been working your tail off. All too often, it’s not that we haven’t been working hard — it’s that we’ve been working on things that don’t align with what matters most. To make sure … [Read more...] about How to Make Better Weekly Plans
My 3 Biggest Obstacles to a Digital-Primary Reading Practice
In June 2021, I started the process of habituating myself to effectively read from digital sources. Specifically, I’m working on encoding and referencing the information. I read a lot on a screen, but I don’t retain it and I don’t have a good process for finding my references compared to how I do … [Read more...] about My 3 Biggest Obstacles to a Digital-Primary Reading Practice
Three Delegation Skills to Get Your New Hires Contributing Right Away
After weeks — or maybe even months — of sifting through candidates, methodically hosting interview after interview, and finally narrowing your search down to the one right person, you’ve found your new teammate. Hooray! But a new hire isn't immediately ready to contribute to the team — they'll need … [Read more...] about Three Delegation Skills to Get Your New Hires Contributing Right Away