Crisis Communication: The Fastest Way to Demonstrate Leadership

Crisis Communication: The Fastest Way to Demonstrate Leadership

Every now and then we all have to break bad news to our superiors, our customers, our investors, or whatever audience to whom we ultimately answer. As it was, is now, and forever shall be, Adam’s advice to young employees holds true: the farther out you can spot potential trouble and let your manager know, the better chance there is that you can prevent it from becoming a larger issue. But we all know that things we can’t always do this. What do you do when the opportunity to nip a problem in the bud is long, long past? 

Want to Be Taken Seriously? Communicate Like a Boss

Want to Be Taken Seriously? Communicate Like a Boss

Communicating with your superiors like peers is a subtler extension of the same practice of thinking like a manager from the outset. By interacting with your managers on their level, you encourage them to treat you like a peer as opposed to someone whose experience and judgment pales in comparison to their own. By communicating with them the way their peers do, you encourage their communication “muscle memory” to take over so they don’t think to adapt their style....

New Managers: You Can Guard Your Time and Still Mentor Your Team

New Managers: You Can Guard Your Time and Still Mentor Your Team

Once you become a manager, you are always accountable in two directions: upward to your bosses for your team’s output, and downward to your direct reports who require feedback and coaching. If you have an office with a door, it can be tempting to keep it closed all day just so you can get some work done before six o’clock in the evening. But that’s not the job.

Transitioning into Management? Prepare to Be Unprepared

Transitioning into Management? Prepare to Be Unprepared

Smart, young apprentice talent is foundational to how most large organizations get work done. Worker bees at the bottom stay heads-down accomplishing tasks; Middle managers make sure the tasks fit into cohesive projects; Senior managers makes sure all the projects come together to accomplish a business plan. As a worker bee, the formula for career advancement can seem straightforward: outwork everyone. Before long however, that formula breaks down. Assuming they advance to the next stage, the people exiting the apprenticeship stage who don’t realize that the determinants of success are about to change can be in for a rough adjustment...

Want to Rise Fast In a New Job? Get Your Mental Model Right

Want to Rise Fast In a New Job? Get Your Mental Model Right

There is a simple but effective process I like to use to quickly speed up the learning curve in a new company. It’s called a “positioning map”, and it is a means of plotting your company visually against its competitors based on the strategies that each are pursuing. The graphic is simple; the effort lies in distilling your competitors’ strategies well enough to group them along strategic dimensions.

Getting Things Done: How to Drive Acceptance of Your Ideas

Getting Things Done: How to Drive Acceptance of Your Ideas

Big ideas usually are not accepted right away – at least not by everyone whom you need on board. Most of us have our own versions of my terrible meeting story, and the moral is always the same. You might feel confident to the point of certainty about an idea, but getting your audience to feel as confident as you do is often a slog. It takes cleverness, persistence, and plain old hustle to get a big idea across the goal line. 

Three Ways You Can Make Your Organization Better Right Now

Three Ways You Can Make Your Organization Better Right Now

There are several benefits to focusing on smaller-scale problems challenges that you can get your arms around. First, there are bound to be many smaller-scale yet still important problems crying out for attention that you can make actually progress against on your own. It’s helpful to not need to rely on too many other people for your pet projects that you might be working on at irregular intervals. Such projects are great for racking up wins and building career momentum early...

The Seven Types of Failed Thought Leaders

The Seven Types of Failed Thought Leaders

A real thought leader is recognized as an authority in their field on the basis of their powerful, original ideas and ability to drive adoption of them by the mainstream. The three key words to pay attention to in that statement are recognized, original, and adoption. Thought leadership means more than just having ideas: you have to effect real change...

Considering Grad School? Here's What You Need to Figure Out First

Considering Grad School? Here's What You Need to Figure Out First

Something about spending so much of our adolescence preparing for the college application process has conditioned our generation not to question the value of education (full disclosure, I don’t have a postgrad degree). Our cohort has taken out hundreds of billions of dollars in loans to get MBAslaw degrees, and other postgrad credentials, trusting that education is always a good investment even when the experiences of our peers should at least make us think twice...

We All Want to Get Promoted - Just Don't Let it Hurt Your Career

We All Want to Get Promoted - Just Don't Let it Hurt Your Career

Success can become the enemy in your career if chasing promotions crowds out your other career goals. The prospect of recognition and promotions may motivate you to work hard and develop skills, but it can also distort your vision. This is especially true if you are wired to crave tangible progress and constantly need to feel like you’re “winning” at your job. 

Enjoy Your Career: Be Careful What You Get Good At

Enjoy Your Career: Be Careful What You Get Good At

The great paradox of learning is that diverse expertise gives you freedom to try more new things, but gaining expertise in one area always means ignoring others, reducing your freedom. Developing expertise in anything worthwhile takes time, and your time is limited. And while it’s not every day that you embark on a new career path, you will regularly make choices about where to develop skills. Whenever you engage in additional training, take a class, jump into a new project, or even choose a book to read, you build knowledge in some areas rather than others...

Networking Isn't about Meeting People - It's about Helping People

Networking Isn't about Meeting People - It's about Helping People

Something about the networking event image causes many young professionals to confuse networking with just plain old conversation. When you meet anyone whom you think will somehow be a valuable person to know down the road, don’t settle for small talk. Try to instead approach meeting someone as an opportunity to find a way to help them with something...

Mentors Aren't Assigned - They're Earned

Mentors Aren't Assigned - They're Earned

A real mentor is invested in your professional development because they genuinely care, not because they are assigned to you. Mentors tend to see bits of themselves in the junior colleagues in whom they take an interest. How can someone be assigned to believe in your potential? Remember that an arranged marriage only guarantees the arrangement - not the attraction.