I first heard about Slack, a new software app for internal communication, in early 2014. At the time, our team was growing, and we were struggling to keep everyone aligned. We were using email for all our internal communication, and it was proving insufficient to keep everyone on the same page. Specifically, we didn’t have […]
Latest Blog Posts - Page 24
4 Steps to Developing a Diverse Team
Growing up, I was surrounded by a lot of people who looked like me. My childhood was spent Circleville, Ohio, which is in the middle of the country. My family was lower-middle class. We went to a church that wasn’t exactly cutting edge. Even when I went off to college, I was exposed to ideas […]
When It’s Not a Wonderful Life
I love watching the movie where a guy named George finds himself stuck in a crummy little town working in a shabby little office. Everyone else has moved away to bigger and better things. His hardscrabble life and years of sacrifice and responsibility chip away at his dreams of seeing the world. Suddenly, a financial […]
How to Beat the Holiday Blues
Nat King Cole. Pinatas. Swedish meatballs. Ravioli. Gingerbread houses. These are things that come to mind when I recall my childhood Christmases. One might even say that these are a few of my favorites things, in the words of the old song from “The Sound of Music” that became an unlikely Christmas classic in its […]
How 4 Leaders Keep Their Eyes on the Prize
Goal visibility is one of the key but often overlooked components of goal achievement. So as 2018 draws to a close, I asked four business leaders how they keep their goals in front of them once they’ve been set. They all had different ways of doing it, yet they all make the effort. Maybe one […]
The Science of Tackling Large Projects
My sister is obsessed with games. Video games, board games, role-playing games – she loves them all. She will readily admit that the pure glee she derives from unlocking achievements fuels this obsession. She isn’t alone. Quests result in gold, each round of Tetris earns additional points, and grown adults spend more time searching neighbor’s […]
How to Handle Own Goals
Steve Smith is a Scotland-born, Canada-raised hockey defenseman whose NHL career spanned 15 seasons. He is less well known for winning three Stanley Cup championships than for a single mistake. In 1986, while a rookie skating for the 2-time defending Stanley Cup champion Edmonton Oilers, Smith took the puck behind his own net and looked […]
You Say You Want a Resolution
For all of the champagne, new diets, and gym memberships folks are about to experience, only about eight percent of resolution-takers succeed in attaining their goals. What goes wrong? Any number of answers might hold a kernel of truth, but I’d offer the following: New Year’s Day is not a real new beginning. Much as […]
When Life Throws You a Curveball
With the holiday season upon us and the New Year just around the corner, especially driven people are in introspection mode as we analyze the year that was and make intentions for the year to come. Goal setting is extremely important and valuable, and I am going encourage you to do the necessary soul-work for […]
The Peter Principle and How to Avoid It
“In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.” Laurence J. Peter wrote those words as satire in 1968. But as with most effective satire, it points to an underlying truth. The Peter Principle describes what can happen when an employee does well in one job and is subsequently promoted. She […]