At home, we delegate some of our housekeeping tasks. Our cleaning ladies do a great job! Dishes washed, counters cleared, sink disinfected; oven, refrigerator, and bathrooms disinfected; floors vacuumed or mopped and sparkling, random housewares put away. However, there’s one little problem: When they put things away, we can never find them. Like any other […]
Does this sound like anyone you know? Over 20 years ago, I bought a book called “Build Your Own Life Brand”. I didn’t finish reading it. About a decade later, I started a blog. Didn’t write a word for another decade. 11 years after I created that blog, I finally published my first public blog […]
There I was in an interview with a hiring manager from Amazon.com. I realized later maybe I should have prepared with one of those books about questions google managers ask. My answer wasn’t well-rehearsed or highly polished. I hadn’t much considered in the past couple of years whether my performance was above and beyond for […]
We were flying down the highway on a three-hour trip, hurtling through space and time, ensconced in the drone of the engine, the whistle of the wind outside the windows, and the hum of tires on the road. We had time on our hands. He knew I have business training and experience. He asked me […]
The lead software developer on my team came by my desk to tell me she needed to tell me something. She wanted to talk in private, in a conference room, apparently due to the sensitive nature of the message. Once in the small room, she broke the news. “We’re screwed. The team and I have […]
There I am at my doctor’s office, and I ask, “How’s business?”* He says he’d like to improve customer visits and sales per visit. He gets a lot of calls, but not all are great prospects. There’s a lot of upside potential. I tell him, “That’s interesting, and maybe not surprising. I noticed your Yelp […]
There I am at work. My boss tells me he wants me to look into something for him. “I live in fear of the monthly accounting reconciliation. The results are inconsistent and unpredictable. Too often, they’re worse than expected. I need you to look into it and figure out what’s going on. Partner with our […]
There I was at work, with a client who wanted to add three staff members to my project team. Groupthink in my organization enabled a situation where that wasn’t going to happen, and that was acceptable. My option was to tell my client it was impossible: they couldn’t take part on this important project. I […]
My friend, a therapeutic professional and part of my athletic training recovery program, was accused by his boss of delivering below his sales quota. He said it didn’t seem right: a simple calculation of his number of appointments times bill rates added up to much more than the business performance reports credited him. The result […]
Contracting for new product development is risky business. There I was at my customer’s desk while he ran late from a meeting. It was my first time there. Tacked to his cubicle wall was a letter from his company’s legal department to mine. It declared a breach of contract. It demanded remedies, including assignment of […]
