Leaders ask advice more than non-leaders. People think the opposite and hold themselves back from improving. People like giving advice and fancy themselves leaders. They think of leadership as the media mostly portrays, in command-and-control style, hear themselves giving instruction, and think they’re leading. If they look at their behavior, not what they think of their behavior, they’d see they weren’t leading while giving advice. How you follow when you[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on principles to create ideas people want to help you with and creating a helpful, supportive community around you. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view that series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] You wouldn’t believe how much access you have to people, both the number of people and how[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on principles to create ideas people want to help you with and creating a helpful, supportive community around you. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view that series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] Even Thomas Edison, with over a thousand patents, only produced a handful of products that stood the[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on principles to create ideas people want to help you with and creating a helpful, supportive community around you. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view that series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] The most common reason I hear from people who want to start projects or companies but don’t[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on principles to create ideas people want to help you with and creating a helpful, supportive community around you. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view that series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] People with great soft skills seem to dominate many areas in business . I think of leadership[…] Keep reading →

Continuing my series of alternative responses to the New York Times column, The Ethicists, looking at the consequences of one’s actions instead of imposing values on others, here is a take on today’s post,”Can I Hide My Beliefs During Jury Selection?” I live in a Midwestern state that has the death penalty. I am scheduled to be a juror for the first time in March, and I’m afraid I will[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on principles to create ideas people want to help you with and creating a helpful, supportive community around you. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view that series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] I’m developing a course on how to get a job doing what you enjoy. Like the leadership[…] Keep reading →

People often suggest one role of a leader is to convince people to do something. I disagree. People seem to associate the act of convincing with the outcome they want. If convincing worked as people wanted, I would associate them too, but I see it work differently in practice. If someone disagrees with you, using logic to convince someone still depends on your premises. So if the person doesn’t agree[…] Keep reading →

It’s snowing heavily and people are complaining the winter has been long. It’s as if people know the saying Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. and then forget it when things they can’t change happen. What’s the point of knowing the words of phrases but not learning how to do[…] Keep reading →