Updated December 2018 LinkedIn has a problem. Or rather, it has a branding issue. You see, before online social networking came around, there was just regular old networking. You had to go out and meet people and have conversations with them. A lot of people hated networking. One of the main reasons: the obnoxious attendees that seemed to populate every networking breakfast and conference cocktail reception. In fact, one of the first Chamber of Commerce meetings I ever went to came complete with "Bill", a life insurance salesman who seemed to embody every negative stereotype possible, from the overly aggressive business card … [Read more...]
The Drums Were Only Part of the Lesson
I tell people that I'm a self-taught drummer, but that's not quite true. When I was twelve I had about 3 "lessons" from my Uncle Tommy, who was a wicked good drummer. He was my mom's brother and like all of her siblings (9 of them), he had played in drum corps growing up. Even as an adult, he continued to play in marching bands and he was fast, precise, and tight. All great things for a drummer. He stood me and two of my cousins at a 2x4 balanced on kitchen chairs, and he taught us how to hold a stick, how to count time, and what a paradiddle is. We only met a few times before the busyness of life discontinued our lessons, but it must … [Read more...]
Don’t Judge Yourself Against Others
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living – Dale Carnegie
I was recently trying to cull my slightly out-of-control book collection and pulled this book off the shelf. It had been years since I'd read it and thought I might give it a quick reread just to see what would stand out. I'm glad that I did. Right now, most self-help books are either reports on the latest neuroscience findings or the meandering thoughts of the latest guru. It would be easy to dismiss How to Step Worrying and Start Living as a dated relic of the last century, but then you'd miss out an a valuable read. How to Stop Worrying and Start Living is a little different. Dale was a great storyteller, and he was fanatical … [Read more...]
How to Find Harmony in Business Like a Zen Master: Balance Strategy and Tactics
What's more important: strategy or tactics? What's your first impulse? Don't worry about getting the right answer, because there isn't one. It's a trick question. I think it's a false dichotomy and that neither is more important. It's likely, though, that your knee-jerk response favored one or the other. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but it's worth noting which way you leaned. Your unconscious tendencies have a strong impact on where you put your focus. This means they also can give us clues as to what we are missing. I've built my career looking at how professionals can be more successful by paying attention to how … [Read more...]
The Magic Opportunities that Will Supercharge Your Internal Network
"I'm not in sales and I don't run the company, so why bother networking?!" I often hear a version of that question when I tell people about the power of networking, especially when talking with professionals who work for large organizations. It's easy for these people to think that networking isn't for them; that they just need to show up and do their job well. But this couldn't be further from the truth! Networking isn't just about selling - it's about building mutually-beneficial relationships with the people around you. In a large corporate environment where there can be thousands of employees in different departments scattered … [Read more...]
Improv Wisdom – Patricia Ryan Madson
When I first stepped on an improv stage for a highschool ComedySportz league, I knew that I had found something important. For someone like me who is a inveterate thinker and a planner, this environment provided a way to get out of my own way and let my mind and imagination run free. Even though I never pursued improv to its full extant, I've always stayed in touch with it, attending classes here and there over the years and going to see shows when I could. I picked up Improv Wisdom because of a recommendation in Dan Pink's To Sell is Human. The title caught my eye. And it was well worth the read! Big Thought "Life is an … [Read more...]
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