Expand your inputs. I saw a post today from somebody I follow that shared “the best 14 nonfiction books you should read”. Every single book had a white, male author. I actually liked his list, and even recommend several of those books (e.g. Atomic Habits) to clients. But I’m also aware that such lists create…
Month: September 2023
Choose the game you want to play.
Choose the game you want to play. There are a lot of different games people play in their careers: — The promotion game. Figure out what it takes to get promoted, and do what it takes. I knew somebody at Google who had mastered this game and got promoted every two years like clockwork. —…
How do you escape being overwhelmed?
How do you escape being overwhelmed? A common anti-pattern for high performers is that they know how to do something well, so they keep doing it because it’s faster for them to do it than teach somebody else to do it. However, this doesn’t scale as their scope increases as it fills their day with…
How do you escape being overwhelmed?” “” “A common anti-pattern for high performers is that they know how to do something well, so they keep doing it because it’s faster for them to do it than teach somebody else to do it. However, this doesn’t scale as their scope increases as it fills their day…
Stop thinking in abstract terms, and do something.
Stop thinking in abstract terms, and do something. I was offering networking advice this morning, and realized that when I think of it as “networking”, it feels very daunting. What does it mean to network? How do I make sure I connect with the right people? Where do I even start? The advice I gave…
How do you deal with overwhelm?
How do you deal with overwhelm? I’m experiencing a bit of overwhelm this week, and I can feel my body wanting to shut down and withdraw from everything as a result. I did that for a couple hours yesterday afternoon, but that made things worse, as I then felt even further behind, and my Inner…
Change one action, change the system.
Change one action, change the system. Systems sometime feel unchangeable, because there are so many interlocking parts that reinforce each other that to dismantle the system would require changing everything all at once. When I was younger, I would look at behavior I didn’t like at a company, see how it was reinforced by the…
It’s different looking for a job as an executive. So much of succeeding as an executive is trust and alignment with your fellow execs. A personal connection is essential to setting yourself up for that success, which means networking.
It’s different looking for a job as an executive. So much of succeeding as an executive is trust and alignment with your fellow execs. A personal connection is essential to setting yourself up for that success, which means networking. I love this HBR article from Herminia Ibarra on what is different about networking as an…
When should you trust your judgment?
When should you trust your judgment? I’m facing a situation where I have experts telling me to choose one option, and my gut intuition is leaning towards another. On the one hand, I trust my gut intuition, as my brain is good at pattern matching. On the other hand, pattern matching only works if you…
What if you don’t need to do anything?
What if you don’t need to do anything? Many high achievers like to solve problems themselves. They are rewarded for it as students and as individual contributors, and so they learn that solving problems brings them success. But as they advance in their careers and become leaders, this strategy doesn’t work as well. Rather than…