How do you promote yourself for a promotion? When you want a role on a project, how do you suggest you’d be great for the role? Promote too much and you risk sounding insecure, presumptuous, inauthentic, or like you’re bragging. Promote too little and you risk not getting the role. Talking with one of my clients yesterday, when I described how I successfully promoted myself to a recent project, she[…] Keep reading →

If you like entrepreneurship and you don’t know General Assembly, you should. They teach great courses and have built a great community around teaching relevant skills. On Sunday, September 28, 10am-5pm, I’ll lead a seminar with General Assembly on leadership in New York City. Register here, you’ll be glad you did. Here is the announcement (they use short descriptions, for a fuller description, see this announcement from an earlier event):[…] Keep reading →

I talked my way out of a guy threatening me with a knife. Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe the girl earlier in the night, maybe the physics, but something gave me the courage. As we both walked away I kept looking back, worried he might come after me, but he never did, and I went to my friend’s place to sleep. The year must have been 1998 or 1999[…] Keep reading →

I woke up this morning with pain in my back. I felt it yesterday morning too. It had woken me up both nights before, I guess when I moved in ways that caused it to hurt more. Then this morning when I did my burpees the pain got searing. I had to stop at seven. The pain was bad enough I had trouble breathing. The pain was in the same[…] Keep reading →

I prefer posting original content, but I found such valuable and new insights in this interview of big-time author Sam Harris on how the mind worked I couldn’t help it. He put into words what I’ve experienced but hadn’t thought to express so clearly. That clarity helps clarify the observations and let you use them. The awareness his descriptions create lead you to greater self-awareness and ability to understand and[…] Keep reading →

People ask me if there’s value to learning leadership if you don’t plan to lead. Yes, at least with the style of leadership I teach, based in self-awareness and emotional skills. It helps across many areas in your life, especially your relationships and self-awareness. I’m not sure if command-and-control or some other styles help as much. Here are six reasons, not comprehensive, that come to mind first. 1. Leadership skills[…] Keep reading →

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about a group I’m in with a leadership vacuum, “How to handle leadership issues when you don’t have authority.” Several people in that group wrote with appreciation for the message in that post. None wrote to say they had problems with it, though the person with authority did push back slightly. Then after an anonymous comment from an attendee of one of my seminars[…] Keep reading →

Over the summer, after a great meeting, a well-placed woman I met began the process of offering me a job. To put me in touch with the decision-maker at the firm, she asked for my resume. I told her I preferred not to send it. Why did I decline to send it? The job looked great—a part-time role that would complement my personal projects, with autonomy, leadership, and the opportunity[…] Keep reading →

I compiled most of my posts on cold showers into a series so you can easily read them at once. Click here to read it. If you think they’re crazy, try them. At least start by reading the series. I couldn’t imagine them being helpful before trying them, but I think they’re incredible now.