Good Enough
In my very first job as a young engineer fresh out of college, I worked under an old, curmudgeonly manager who was approaching retirement. Bob (his real name) was an anxious chain-smoker, in the days when smoking in the office was allowed. For all his idiosyncrasies, he taught me some important lessons about “thinking outside […]
The Ultimate Guide to Power and Influence: Everything You Need to Know by Robert L. Dilenschneider – A Review
The thought of someone who seeks power and influence brings forth images of one who is greedy, immodest, inflexible and insincere. The Ultimate Guide to Power and Influence by Robert L. Dilenschneider works against this stereotype as the author describes how to position yourself to gain power and influence, what to do with it when […]
What is Your Job?
In William Shakespeare’s comedy As You Like It, the character Jaques has no job in the plot- he only provides wry comment on the others. Most of us have worked with people like this. Jacques is remembered for the iconic line, “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players…”. If […]
Connections Are Everything
My doctor, my financial planner and my trust attorney all roll their eyes when I tell them I intend to live to 100, but I am dead serious. Although I have yet to become a germophobic vegan gym rat, I am still drawn to click-bait like “10 ways to Live Longer and Better.” Beyond the […]
Show the Value of What You Do by Patricia and Jack Phillips: A Review
Bragging at work, even the humble kind, is generally not looked upon favorably. In performance appraisals where I have been required to rate myself, I feel I am treading on dangerous ground – too high and I’ll appear arrogant, too low and my superiors will suspect I know something that they don’t. In Show the […]
Influence and Impact by Bill Berman and George Bradt – A Review
Most of us, myself included, were raised believing that if we kept our focus and put in the hard work, we would get ahead. Tough times make us tougher, we were taught, and perseverance will prevail. Influence and Impact by Bill Berman and George Bradt debunks this myth, explains why many careers become frustratingly stagnant, […]
The #Pace Process for Early Career Success by Mark Zides – A Review
The early phase of my own career transpired about 50 years ago, and while some of the basics of success remain the same, the emergence of things like search engines, social media, and the hybrid office have altered the landscape. The #PACE Process for Early Career Success by Mark Zides is up to date with […]
Eat That Frog! for Students: A Review
I approached this book as a life-long learner, undaunted by the promised focus on students. From this perspective, the lessons apply to both college students and those in a career where progress requires keeping up with the latest knowledge. Eat That Frog! For Students by Brian Tracy is much more than just the time-management book […]
Everything Else
Multi-Tasking is a fantasy. There are plenty of high-energy people out there who say they can Multi-Task, and many a job-seeker has laid claim to this skill in an interview. The truth is, they are lying. Humans can only do one thing at a time. Our modern tools have propagated the Multi-Tasking myth. Our Smart-TV’s […]
The Canonical Weekend
A former boss of mine had a well-rehearsed response for any employee who complained they had too much work. There are twenty-one 8-hr workdays in a week, he would say; three in each of the seven 24-hour days. If you are only using five out of those twenty-one, you are clearly just lazy. Although the […]
