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Ask someone about their craft
This is so simple and so powerful. Any managers out there want to understand what motivates their employees? Want a surefire way to get a glimpse into a person’s values? Ask them a “craft question”.
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How to approach a very big meeting or conference
I’m lucky to be traveling to a big work meet-up (aka company offsite) next week, however, it’s easy for me to be unfocused at large events like this. Too many people and too many choices. I tend to come away not knowing what I got out of it. This time around, I’m going to try…
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Do you have a user guide for you?
Maybe you should? “A User Guide for a Person creates clarity on how you work—what you value, how you look at problems, what your blind spots or areas of growth are, and how to build trust with you.”
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Family-friendly work
I started reading Of Boys and Men by Richard V. Reeves, and, as a man and a father who recently went part-time so that my wife could go to work full-time, there is a lot here that resonates, especially so the discussion around balancing work and family.
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Energy makes time
I’m a big believer that being a little selfish is a prerequisite to being able to be selfless. In other words, you need to take care of yourself in order to take care of others.
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Sensitive antennae
In the excellent book Unreasonable Hospitality, there is a chapter about managing relationships called “Relationships are simple. Simple is hard.” I saw the title of this chapter and jumped to it right away. 😃 So often, we confuse things by saying something is complicated when it’s really just hard.
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The abundant mindset
The “growth mindset” has become a bit of a cliché, but there’s a good reason for that. Approaching things with a beginner’s mind is something we should all aspire to. On a similar note, The Abundant Mindset, one of my favorite chapters from Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act, describes something very similar and equally powerful.
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The Goldilocks Rule (and why I love Zelda so much more than Elden Ring)
I was reminded about The Goldilocks Rule this week, and it made me think about two random and seemingly disconnected things.
Writing and drawings by Nick.
