Here are two truths. 1. Everyone loves thank you notes. They are small labors of love, a gift. 2. Everyone hates email. Getting an email adds to your work burden. It’s like giving someone flowers in a broken vase. So why is it so common that the two get combined? A hint: we are busier […]
Set Boundaries Or Join The Walking Dead
Those who have no boundaries have greater stress. And they’re less effective. Indeed, they’re the walking dead of your company. You know what I mean by boundaries. Or at least I hope you do. The boundary that you set about not working on Saturdays, although you’ll be happy to work on Sundays if needed. The […]
How To Get More Spare Time
Focus is power. Scheduling leads to focus, which can dramatically save time. For years, I have advised organizations and individuals on the power of the forward project schedule, that is, keeping a list of projects organized by which quarter they will be done in. A project docket that doesn’t have a time aspect is just […]
Stop This Bad Habit To Gain 5x Productivity
Well, if that wasn’t a clickbait headline, I don’t know what was. But, really. Stop ONE bad habit and you’ll gain 5x productivity. Two words: Stop agonizing. You know what I mean. When you read an email over 20 times before you click send, because you’re afraid that your boss will see a typo and […]
The Myth of Permanence And Impostor Syndrome
Things go wrong. Anybody who tells you otherwise is selling something. Yet, when things go wrong, most of us, especially high achievers, start thinking that there’s something wrong with us. “I’m totally an incompetent fraud.” Impostor Syndrome. I know someone in the HR world who has worked at some of the biggest and best companies […]
Sharing Best Practices–With Competitors?
Although I’ve been in the private sector, I have spent most of my career in the public sector. I am often told that the type of networking that I did while I was in the private sector — sharing best practices even with other organization — was a unicorn, a myth. “Sure, sharing best practices […]
Do Remarkable Work: Six Steps
Darren Rowse, “the nicest man on the Internet,” and founder of ProBlogger.com, addressed a group of web content producers and marketers today at the Copyblogger Authority 2014 conference. If you substitute “reader” for “customer”, what he said was applicable to anyone trying to do remarkable work, like you. Here’s a summary. “Every time I come […]
Top 5 Ways To Do Cool Stuff At Your Dorky Job
I’m returning from Interop in Vegas, fresh from a talk about how to climb the career ladder, “So You Want To Be A CIO”; I thought I’d share a point that resonated with the audience: everybody wants to do cool stuff at work, but: “nobody trusts you to do cool things if you don’t have […]
Got A Terrible Manager? So Does Everyone. Succeed Anyway.
People blame things on bad management because, well, it’s fun. But they’re also looking for a scapegoat. If you want to create great work, you must also realize that most management is imperfect and that you must succeed despite this. In one of my roles years ago, my staff was bitterly complaining about executive management […]
On Causing Unreasoning Love In Customers: You Are Amazing! You’ve Got This!
What turns something from a death slog-fest into a life-affirming event? As it turns out, an over-the-top amount of encouragement. In any profession that causes as well as alleviates work pain, we’d do well to remember that. I ran the Black Mountain Marathon a few weeks ago. Beautiful conditions at the start line; it was […]