Work, success, and meaning at every stage of your career
In a terrific article by Arthur C. Brooks for The Atlantic, he talks about how we humans love to criticize but hate to receive criticism. In other words, we love to dish it out, but can’t stomach receiving it. I believe that’s why internet forums are so popular and so toxic; we can hide behind … Continue reading How To Give Better Criticism – and Take it Better from Others
Ryan Holiday, who has authored several books based on Stoic philosophy, says that most self-improvement books are focused on how to succeed. But his book titled The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph focuses on how to overcome problems, failures, and other things that stand between us and our … Continue reading Getting Unstuck
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
