What are your principles for making decisions? I loved working for Patrick Pichette when he was CFO at Google. He was so crisp and clear in his thinking, and had 4 questions about any project: — What will this cost? — What’s the benefit to Google if it works? — What are the key assumptions…
Month: March 2021
How are you spending your time?”
How are you spending your time? Our time is finite. How we spend it is the one thing we can potentially control. So I’ve been doing an exercise with clients, asking them to imagine how they would spend their time in a positive vision of their lives. When they step away from what they “need…
Continuing the theme of influence, one of my go-to interview questions at Google was: “Tell me about a time when you changed somebody’s mind who held power over you, like a manager or a client.””
Continuing the theme of influence, one of my go-to interview questions at Google was: “Tell me about a time when you changed somebody’s mind who held power over you, like a manager or a client.” I was fascinated by all of the different answers people gave, as their answers showed their willingness to speak up…
What does influence mean?”
What does influence mean? Many of my clients are told to improve their influence skills, and aren’t sure what they are supposed to work on. While talking to one client this week, I came up with a phrasing that resonated with them, and wanted to share it here in case it might help others: Influence…
How do you tell the difference between your truth and your autopilot reactions?”
How do you tell the difference between your truth and your autopilot reactions? I was talking to a client about the challenge of finding your way forward in your career. It’s hard to do in a strictly rational fashion, because you often end up with long lists of pros and cons and no way to…
Are you able to be with this exactly the way it is with no agenda to change it?”
Are you able to be with this exactly the way it is with no agenda to change it? This question, from Steve March, is one I find to be powerful in helping me notice when I am getting caught in an attachment to how I think things “should” be instead of accepting how they actually…
The effort isn’t the point.”
The effort isn’t the point. Many of us learn in school that working harder than the people around us gives us an advantage. So that becomes a strategy we use in our career – when we need an advantage, work harder. And yet, working hard isn’t always the answer. The metric we should use to…
What is the real commitment?” “” “Many people I know take pride in getting things done, so when they are asked to do something, they leap into action and get to work. And because they are good at getting things done, they get asked to do more, so they inevitably end up overloaded until they…
What is the real commitment?”
What is the real commitment? Many people I know take pride in getting things done, so when they are asked to do something, they leap into action and get to work. And because they are good at getting things done, they get asked to do more, so they inevitably end up overloaded until they learn…
What does “No” mean to you? “
What does “No” mean to you? I’ve come to appreciate “No” as a gift. I used to fear that saying “No” would irreparably damage a relationship, so I said “Yes” too often because I didn’t trust others to handle the “No” and find other ways to get the work done. I felt I could just…