Complaining is a good signal. At a job early in my career, I was incredibly frustrated with the state of the company and leadership, and many of my coworkers were complaining as well. One of my older, wiser coworkers said this was a good sign, because complaining meant that people cared. Once they stopped complaining,…
I will be a speaker for the Ganas Ventures Expert Series with Lolita Taub later this year, and I’d love for you to attend on November 7th as I speak on the topic of #leadership and #alignment.
I will be a speaker for the Ganas Ventures Expert Series with Lolita Taub later this year, and I’d love for you to attend on November 7th as I speak on the topic of #leadership and #alignment. The speaker series is for experts to share valuable insights for underestimated founders, funders, and friends on their startup-investor…
Reading people is a key skill for executives.
Reading people is a key skill for executives. One question leaders often have is how to effectively manage people who are doing work you haven’t done. If you’re a VP of engineering, you generally have a good sense of what the engineers under you are doing; even if you’re not coding every day, you understand…
Want to learn about people’s deep fears?
Want to learn about people’s deep fears? Listen to what they accuse other people of. Projection is human. Our brains assume that everybody else is exactly like us. When somebody accuses you of something that feels awful, they are rarely talking about you; they are projecting their own shadow onto you. Once you learn this…
They’re doing the best they can.
They’re doing the best they can. How often do we hold people to a higher standard than that? “They should know better” or “they should be acting this way” is far more common, particularly for managers and company leaders That’s understandable! With greater power comes greater responsibility, so we’d like them to be better. But…
Treat it like a tantrum.
Treat it like a tantrum. I have two young kids, so I am learning to deal with tantrums. The key is for me to realize that their tantrum is not about me – they are expressing their big feelings about the situation. When I take it personally as an indictment on my parenting, I get…
What does it take to be sustainably productive?
What does it take to be sustainably productive? A lot of my clients are high achievers who are driven to be productive and have impact. They are ambitious and competitive, and often refuse to stop working until all the work is done. These are great traits…until they reach a point in their career when there…
Seppo Helava’s post is spot on in examining the tension between tolerating difficult working environments and overdelivering.
Seppo Helava’s post is spot on in examining the tension between tolerating difficult working environments and overdelivering. One of the harder years of my life was 2009, when I worked most if not all weekends, and I think Labor Day was the first holiday that year that I wasn’t in the office. And yet I…
“Freedom is being disliked by other people.”
“Freedom is being disliked by other people.” I’m reading The Courage to Be Disliked, by Ichirou Kishimi and Fumitake Koga, which is an exploration of Adlerian psychology through a fictitious conversation between a young man and a philosopher, and just came across this quote which I assume serves as the basis for the book title….
Give yourself time to explore.
Give yourself time to explore. In your career, it can be tempting to choose the next available option. I did this for the first 20 years of my career. I would get bored at one job, I’d start looking around, and then take the next job that accepted me. I would take a couple weeks…