Following up yesterday’s post, “Value people who refer and recommend you!“, on my friend’s job that didn’t work out, I forgot to add an important part of the conversation: questions to ask during interviews. Everyone prepares for interviews thinking of how to answer questions asked of them. They kind of know it helps to ask questions, but they tend to ask questions to show they know about the company or[…] Keep reading →

A friend started a job and found after a week that she couldn’t stand it. She asked me for advice on leaving, wondering if after one week was too soon and how to tell the person she was working for. The first thing I asked her? “Did anyone refer or recommend you to this job?” She said yes, two people recommended her. I said “Since you asked me for advice[…] Keep reading →

I’ve worked with people in the upper echelons of business, academia, government, coaching, community organizing, and more. Of them all, I consider Chris Lehmann the most effective and accomplished leader. He happens to be a long time friend and former teammate I competed at Nationals with in the 90s, but that’s not why I consider him so effective and accomplished. He is the founding Principal of the Science Leadership Academy[…] Keep reading →

Want to know how people feel when you lead poorly? Think of a time when you’ve felt misunderstood. Not making people feel understood undermines your ability to lead them. Try pausing for a minute to remember a time someone you cared about didn’t understand you. How did it feel? Do you want people you lead feeling that way toward you? As for me, it makes me feel Frustrated Futility that[…] Keep reading →

Science is the study of nature, looking for patterns, to predict results. For the moment I’m not approaching leadership with the institutional view of science with researchers applying for grants from the National Science Foundation to do double-blind controlled experiments for peer-reviewed publication, though I’ve had a few graduate students approach me to do research like that. Here’s a simpler view: science turns observations about nature into models and predictions[…] Keep reading →