Have you ever had that thought? Yeah, me too. Even in my early sixties, I can still get that twinge of fear that I might make a fool of myself. Last week, it was over approaching one of the tradespeople in Home Depot to ask a plumbing question. You know Read more…
Keith, a colleague of mine, tells the story of going to work in a retail store where the staff seemed to wear whatever was most comfortable, regardless of appearance. After a couple of weeks of trying to fit in by wearing casual clothes, it dawned on him that doing the Read more…
I have two friends, Joe and Judy. Joe has been having trouble with his dentures. Since he can’t wear them, it’s difficult to understand what he is saying. The other day, Judy was trying to help Joe make an adjustment to one of his financial accounts. She called the bank’s Read more…
My friend Jay was watching his grandson, Jake, vacillate over a decision. After a minute or so, Jake’s mother, Tina, said “don’t be a flat rabbit.” When Jay asked about the origin of the phrase, Tina explained that rabbits start to cross the road, hesitate and then run back to Read more…
If you’re like me, you’ve had fantastic ideas in the shower. But when you’ve tried to recall them while drying off, they’re nowhere to be found in your memory. So why is this? Simple. When the brain introduces a bright idea or insight, it does so into your short-term, or Read more…
With the advent of mobile technology, it has become easy to feel tied to the workplace at all times. Do you clear the e-mail waiting for dinner to arrive? Do people ask you to stop texting during the movie? Is everyone passing you on the road because you find it Read more…
For the past 30 years, I have been asking people to tell me exactly why they’re working the career they’re in. Most times, they’ll chuckle and want to tell me a story about how one thing led to another. Roke (ro-key) is one of those people. Last week, my furnace Read more…
A recent study conducted by OnePoll found that of 2000 Americans surveyed, 74% say they have a mentor. For those who do, the average person has four. “Dad” tops out the list as most common with “mom” coming in a close second. Many people will not find this surprising. After Read more…
I was in a meeting this past week that devolved into a rather heated discussion about which way to resolve a problem. People made reasonable arguments on both sides of the issue. In fact, any one of the approaches we discussed would have worked, just in different ways. Yet a Read more…
Like most people, I have been known to act without thinking. But there are consequences. As the saying goes, good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment. What the best decision-makers discover over time is that there is an essential collection of strategies enabling us to act with Read more…
