leadership
I was recently listening to this amazing podcast interview of Lee Ellis by Jocko Willink (About Lee Ellis), and they talked about the leadership tension in balancing accountability (demanding performance) and caring (supporting your people), which was powerful to hear within the context Lee's 5.5-year Prisoner of
leadership
I had the honor of teaching a class yesterday with a room full of incredible Veteran entrepreneurs as part of the National Center for Veteran Institute for Procurement (VIP)'s ADVANCE program for emerging businesses. VIP is an incredible organization, which offers different training cohort-based experiences for eligible Veterans
leadership
I was recently talking with a leader who is focused on maturing her organization's operations, and I suggested she start with a small effort of establishing a single, central playbook document (e.g., Google Doc or Word file in MS Teams folder) where they can begin to capture,
CIO
As an introvert, it’s easy for me, when under pressure to prioritize a heads-down, intense work mode, which can be powerful (e.g., Cal Newport's Deep Work and Pomodoro Technique). After enjoying yesterday's HMG CIO Summit, I was reminded that building professional peer relationships is
lessons-learned
It's incredibly powerful to get tasks, goals, priorities, and meetings out of your head and into a system you trust (which is the core tenet of David Allen's great Getting Things Done methodology). Otherwise, you spend significant energy and stress trying to manage the chaos without
management
Time Block Planning is a simple concept of using a calendar view to plan your day's priorities, including both meetings and other work you'll prioritize. Many people have written about it for a long time, and powerful in its simplicity to force prioritization, so you'
investing
The Acquired podcast is fascinating. I heard about them recently from a Cal Newport blog post about their growth, and I'm glad I found them. The Acquired podcast deep dives into the stories of companies, after doing a huge amount of research, so it gives you great broad
lessons-learned
I enjoy the idea of being organized and minimalist but accumulate clutter faster than I make the time to put it away. Here's some stuff I've found useful as I've tried to make my desk an effective working space. If you want to go
career
I've heard a few different ways to think about ways your career can progress that are valuable mental models. These models are helpful, whether you want to climb the ladder or if you want to be intentional at focusing on a certain stage. For example, when I was
miscellaneous
I was trying (and doing a poor job) to scrape ice off my driveway a few weeks ago using a snow shovel, when my wonderful neighbor came over to lend me his ice chopper. After thanking him, and using it a few times, I realized how ridiculous I must have
leadership
I was recently at a charity dinner (Wellspring Group was celebrating their 20th anniversary) and was chatting with someone about leadership models, and he mentioned the Predictable Success Leadership Styles, which I hadn't heard of before, but is such a powerful way to think about people's
lessons-learned
Here's a random, unsorted list of some useful things I've found/enjoyed in the last year or so: * Metal Book Darts (bookmarks that don't fall out) * Cal Newport's Time Block Planner is a great way to plan your day's priorities