If you feel like you’ve heard the words in the title before, it’s likely you’ve heard a song from Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (Make the Money). Change the game; don’t let the game change you. If you’ve visited this site in the last couple months, you’ve seen blog articles that are short. They’re not 1200 …
Change the game; don’t let the game change you CONTINUE READING
Before I joined Liquid Web, I had taken a year off. After twenty years of working crazy hours, it felt luxurious to step back and think critically and strategically about what I wanted to work on next. Over that time, I spoke with a lot of friends – collecting advice not so much about what …
Alan was a young software engineer who was struggling to get better at estimating. Every project he worked on was an opportunity to get better but he struggled. Bill was a more seasoned programmer who wanted to speak at conferences. But he had neither the time nor a sense of how to get started. Amy …
Great leaders regularly ask this question. Are you asking it? CONTINUE READING
Do you know what high performers have in common? Do you know what habits they share? Most of us want to be a high performer but we don’t spend any time looking at, studying, or being mentored by high performers. A couple years ago I spent 20 months doing nothing but digging into high performers. …
In most conflicts you see two roles quickly appear – the accuser and the victim. As we all know, conflicts aren’t a one-sided thing – so already there’s a problem when we take on either role. But there’s a third role that can often appear – the rescuer. I’m not talking about a mediator. I’m …
Yesterday I was reading this Vox article, Why (almost) no one wants to host the Olympics anymore. Here are some interesting insights: Since 1960, no Olympics have come under budget. Almost half of them went over budget by 100%. Most of the Olympic facilities created are too big for regular use after the games. Does …
Don’t let your next project make these Olympic-sized mistakes CONTINUE READING
At least once a quarter I try to step away from the hustle and bustle of work to think more reflectively and strategically about where things are going. The reality is that there is a lot of stuff that isn’t under our own control. And yet most of us are hard at work with our …
I have a friend who just transitioned from a startup to a corporate gig. Having lived in both worlds, I can tell you that the differences are dramatic. The one piece of advice I gave him last week was the same thing I’d tell you: Take every opportunity to learn from this new situation. As …
What you don’t hear I once had to provide a reference for a person that I was thankful no longer worked for me. I knew exactly what I could and couldn’t do. So the call came and here’s how it went. “Can you tell me about this person?” “Absolutely. They worked here from June of …
Sometimes it’s what you don’t hear that matters CONTINUE READING
This week I’ll be speaking at LoopConf in Utah. My talk isn’t about software, eCommerce, or motivational. Instead, this talk is on leadership – specifically about leading diverse teams. Of course there are a lot of ways we can talk about diversity – from gender to ethnic to age, educational or geographical diversity. And leading …