A reader and friend wrote about his SIDCHAs: Hey Josh, How’s it going? I was reading your blog and found your SIDCHA example and explanation post. Really enjoyed the distillation of it all, especially as my insecurities have many times led me to search for info rather than action. One thing I have been (attempting to) do is a Daily Review. It’s just a checklist of all the SIDCHAs I[…] Keep reading →

Somewhere around today I hit 60,000 cumulative burpees since starting in December 2011. I don’t keep track rigorously, I only know I haven’t missed a burpee. Sometimes I do a few extra, like to show someone how to do them, if I lose count and want to make sure I do enough, or if I want to make up for eating candy. What started as ten burpees per day has[…] Keep reading →

My team won the first sports tournament I played in on Sunday that I remember since college (which I don’t remember that well). I may have won some tournaments playing with the elite teams I played on in club and the co-ed team I went to Nationals with in 1998. There’s nothing like the feeling of winning a hard competition. It was just summer league, more of a fun league[…] Keep reading →

If you find yourself thinking someone else is wrong and you have to convince them what’s right, you probably aren’t leading that effectively. Once they sense you trying to impose your values on them, you’re probably motivating them to debate you, which is not getting the job done. Successful leaders motivate people to get jobs done. When you view the object of leaders’ work as people, you realize you have[…] 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 my take on today’s post, “Is It Wrong If a Friend Sells My Hand-Me-Downs?” I have two small children and am frequently divesting our household of toys, clothes and other child supplies. I sell the larger items, but I typically give[…] Keep reading →

When programmers work, the objects they work with tend to be computers. When plumbers work, they tend to work with pipes. Carpenters work with wood. Leaders work with people. People are the objects of leaders’ work. Their tools are conversations—their equivalents of keyboards, wrenches, and saws. Most professions require thought, planning, and writing those plans out—programmers, plumbers, and carpenters included. After they finish planning and writing their plans, they act[…] Keep reading →

Everyone outside large corporations believes they pay their CEOs more than necessary for their performance, or at least a huge majority. In the latest of a million articles on the topic, “How Much Is a C.E.O. Worth? America’s Confused Approach to Pay,” the New York Times continues to ask ineffective questions about changing anything. Like most articles, it asks “Do corporate chief executives make too much money, or too little?”[…] Keep reading →

I did someone a favor and didn’t get thanked. No big deal. I’m not offended, but I’m not inclined to help them again. I read about leaders who send handwritten notes to people in their teams and the loyalty and dedication such little shows of appreciation create. I’ve written “how to get a mentor in two easy steps that work.” Showing appreciation influences people a lot. It doesn’t take much[…] Keep reading →

Many people believe you have to overcome a huge challenge forced on you to lead or to reach the top—the Harvard Business Review article “Crucibles of Leadership,” for example. I tend not to agree. I don’t see the necessity of overcoming a huge challenge forced on you from the outside. Logically, one counterexample will show you don’t need such a challenge. To suggest people need crucibles fits too much into[…] Keep reading →