Have you noticed that when you are facing a big challenge, your productivity plummets? Let me give you some examples. In college, finals week was the time I’d choose to catch up on all my laundry. When I’m about to start a new project, the first thing I need to do is switch my task…
“Focus is a matter of deciding what things you’re not going to do” – John Carmack You are on a mission. You wouldn’t be doing this work if you weren’t. There’s something fundamental that you know is broken, that’s intolerable. Some opportunity, that, if you don’t grab it, someone else will. But it’s not going…
“Hi, my name’s Brad, and I’m a doomscroller.” It started with the pandemic. I wasn’t much of a social media consumer before that, but I wanted to stay on top of the news when the virus hit. Things were changing all the time, so I kept checking back. Then it was the protests, then the…
As I talked with one of my clients last week, he said something that blew my mind. Mike went to law school as a mid-career switcher. His background is in product development and engineering, but now he owns a law firm. We talked about how things have changed for him during the last few years…
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” — Bruce Lee We all want to be exceptional. If to achieve my goals, I have to be exceptional every day, that’s going to be exhausting! I’m not sure I have it in me to keep that up day after day after day. But the…
2021, I want to have a serious conversation about your performance. As you know, we brought you in to replace someone who had severe performance issues. 2020 started off on the wrong foot, then just a few weeks later, their decisions had a major impact on the whole organization. I’m a believer in second chances,…
Welcome back! I’m hopeful that you’ve gotten a good break at the end of a long year and are back at it, ready to take on 2021 with new vigor and enthusiasm. I had some great downtime this holiday season. My business partner gave us a back yard fire pit! We were grateful for the…
It’s nearly the shortest day of the year, and after a long year filled with new opportunities, unexpected changes, loss, serendipity, and work – lots of work, it’s time to hibernate for a couple of weeks. If you’ve been reading along all year, you’ve seen 142 emails come your way from me, almost 30,000 words….
This week I’m reprising some emails I sent out early in the pandemic to help remind folks of the basics and make sure we’re still focused on keeping everyone connected. Earlier the subject was the team and clients; today I want to talk about taking care of your company’s #1 asset, you! Tame the anxiety When…
Back in March, just as the pandemic was shutting us all down, I wrote about using your telephone to reach out to people, to make connections, and to listen to what’s going on. Unfortunately, we’re still in that crisis. Social Distancing measures are coming back, and it seems like every day there’s a new challenge…