Work, success, and meaning at every stage of your career
In a previous post, I introduced the Smalley Personality quiz, a quick take on personality types in the workplace. The types are categorized as animals: Lion, Otter, Golden Retriever, and Beaver. Otters tend to be energetic, optimistic, and enthusiastic, especially about new, shiny ideas. They’re team players and the team cheerleaders. Beavers, on the other … Continue reading Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way
Nancy Pulciano is a producer and the CEO of Silent Crowd, a clothing company based in San Diego. She’s a manager with experience in Hollywood as a producer and in the action sports and restaurant industries, so she knows a thing or two about managing creative, diverse, and sometimes difficult personalities. Writing for Rolling Stone … Continue reading When Too Many Otters is a Bad Thing
Jeff DeGraff Ph.D., writing for Psychology Today, says that somewhere along the way, ambition turned from a virtue to a vice. “Once a cornerstone of the American ethos—synonymous with self-reliance, upward mobility, and personal agency—ambition is now more often associated with selfishness, power-hunger, or hollow striving. We’re suspicious of those who want too much, push … Continue reading The Case for Ambition
American-Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross first wrote about the five stages of grief in the 1960s. They were designed to help people cope with loss by giving them a checklist of human reactions to terrible things. First shock and disbelief (this can’t be happening to me), then anger (I don’t deserve this), then bargaining (if I … Continue reading Acceptance is Your Leadership Superpower
I have a birthday this week and knowing that I’ve completed another trip around the sun always makes me… conflicted. On the one hand, growing old is a privilege; I understand that and believe it with all my heart. Plus, you get cake on your birthday. But as you reach your 60s, your perspective on … Continue reading On becoming a Former Wunderkind
In a previous post, I wrote about Value-in-Action stories, inspired by Annette Simmons, author of Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact. She says that when you tell a story about how you chose to do the right thing, even when that choice was … Continue reading Loyalty and Respect
Pamela Meyer thinks you’re a liar. It’s nothing personal; she thinks we’re all liars. And the science bears her out. Her 2011 TED Talk “How to Spot a Liar” has been viewed over 23 million times. She says studies have shown that strangers tell 3 lies to each other, on average, within the first 10 … Continue reading You’re a Liar. It’s OK; I am, too.
In this post and this post, I have written about a book that’s sweeping through the internet like a fresh cool breeze: The Let Them Theory: A Life-Changing Tool That Millions of People Can’t Stop Talking About by Mel Robbins. Mel says that we waste an enormous amount of time, energy and emotions trying to … Continue reading Let Me
As with many relationships, yours with your job may be complicated. But I believe that a healthy relationship with work (and hopefully, your job), can make your life richer and more fulfilling. It’s about the contribution you’re making, of course, which I hope also challenges and engages you. If it doesn’t, you have my permission … Continue reading A Love Letter to Your Job
Author Mel Robbins, who wrote “The Let Them Theory: A Life-Changing Tool That Millions of People Can’t Stop Talking About,” has made an instant connection with those of us who tend to over-think, over-manage, and overreact to life’s annoyances. She writes, “Modern life can feel like death by a thousand cuts—one thing after another that … Continue reading Let Stupid and Annoying People Be Stupid and Annoying
