Accountability matters. It’s not enough to ask somebody to do something, and expect them to do it. Each of us is overwhelmed with endless tasks and requests and none of us can get through them all. So holding people accountable has tangible value. When I was Chief of Staff, my VP Jerry Dischler was excellent…
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Name the core emotion, and address it directly.
Name the core emotion, and address it directly. One of my clients was feeling scattered in our session, where he had a lot of nervous energy and was working on a lot of things on his to-do list, but didn’t feel like he was making progress. When I observed that he was feeling scattered and…
How do you find that magical moment when you “click” with somebody?
How do you find that magical moment when you “click” with somebody? I don’t think there’s any single answer: — Some people say you have to spend time in person together, but that’s not enough – I’ve been spending a bunch of time with other parents from my kids’ school, and haven’t quite found that…
Are you underappreciated in your job, working hard, indispensable in your area of expertise, and yet not being given opportunities to reach the next level?
Are you underappreciated in your job, working hard, indispensable in your area of expertise, and yet not being given opportunities to reach the next level? That’s because you’re doing it wrong, thinking like an individual contributor rather than the executive who creates impact beyond their personal output. You are likely: — Taking on the hardest…
I finally got around to trying Google’s NotebookLM by uploading my book and asking it to create an audio overview (a podcast-like summary of the book). It’s surprisingly good! In fifteen minutes, the two AI “hosts” cover the major themes of the book while offering practical tips, all in naturalistic voices.
I finally got around to trying Google’s NotebookLM by uploading my book and asking it to create an audio overview (a podcast-like summary of the book). It’s surprisingly good! In fifteen minutes, the two AI “hosts” cover the major themes of the book while offering practical tips, all in naturalistic voices. Check it out at…
Let’s meet up live in SF next week!
Let’s meet up live in SF next week! I’ll be speaking at a LeadDev Meetup event next Thursday evening, May 8th, at New Relic on Spear Street on the topic of growing your executive influence. You will accelerate your career dramatically once you understand what executives care about and communicate in their language. This talk…
“If you want to understand how executives think, you have to understand the money.”
“If you want to understand how executives think, you have to understand the money.” That statement from Alan Morley during my master’s program in Technology Management at Columbia University changed the course of my career. I had been a software engineer for almost ten years, regularly getting frustrated with how business decisions were made at…
What motivates this person in front of me?
What motivates this person in front of me? Many of us make the mistake of assuming that other people think and feel the way we do about a situation. But different people are motivated by different things, and are looking at different parts of the situation than we are. These differences are an opportunity. When…
Growing your influence skills will help you get the right things done.
Growing your influence skills will help you get the right things done. In my 20s, I was that engineer calling the CEO an idiot at all hands meetings and wondering why my insights weren’t appreciated. I was objectively right in that case (that CEO led the company into bankruptcy in part because he ignored the…
Wise words from Jerry Colonna:
Wise words from Jerry Colonna: “What’s required of leaders now—truly, what’s required of all of us—is to resist the anesthesia of neutrality. To choose empathy over indifference. Voice over avoidance.” Jerry talks often of being complicit. That doesn’t mean you are at fault for something, but that you are an accomplice to it, part of…