All in Careers
From early on, we’re taught to be “good” at our work which typically translates to developing strong, technical expertise.
We’re required to learn the right processes, the tools to be deployed and the results to be achieved as a result of following that process.
If we do this well, we’re hailed as ‘process experts’ which, generally speaking, is a good thing.
Experience is a great educator. Over time, it teaches us and provides us with a reasoned view of life and all that makes us who we are.
However, as I discuss in today's episode, this isn't an automatic process. It's one that requires a strong sense of perspective, as well as the right mindset.
One of the problems I constantly struggle with when playing guitar is that, when I’m noodling around, I’ll gravitate towards the same chords and progressions.
In other words, I want to play something fresh and original, but I’m constantly back at G, Am, C and D.
At the end of the movie, Jurassic Park, the lead actors are in an enclosed space, surrounded by menacing velociraptors. It looks like their time is up, until suddenly, out of nowhere, a T-Rex suddenly appears and attacks the velociraptors, allowing our heroes to escape to safety.
That plot twist is called a Deus Ex Machina, which is Latin for God From The Machine…
Labels are an everyday part of our language - to such an extent that we use them, often, without serious thought.
As I discuss in today's episode, because the labels we grow up with are often fraught with misperceptions and frankly, prejudice, such that we'd do well to rethink them.
Déformation professionnelle is the tendency to look at people, events and situations from the vantage point (or filter) of our own profession or expertise or training.
This is understandable because we put a lot of our lives into that training and development, and if we believe in what we do, we consider that worldview ‘defining’.
At the end of the day, I think the most important type of wealth we’re after is time. In particular, the freedom to do what we want with it.
I know the conventional thinking is that we’re after financial freedom, but the reason we’re after that is to be able to do whatever we want i.e. to use our time as we please.
Earlier this week, I was in an Uber on my way to a client meeting.
As we rolled up to the building, my driver pointed to the client’s name emblazoned on the building and exclaimed: “This is a Moroccan company! I grew up in Morocco and their products are everywhere!” I smiled and said they’re a very big brand.
Confidence and volume are two separate ideas, but often, when it comes to our communications, we tend to conflate the two.
There is a material difference and, as I discuss in today's episode, it's important we work to understand that distinction.
I’ve always held to the view that the root cause of poor behavior (towards others) is low self-esteem. That’s always made sense to me: if we don’t have enough self-confidence or belief in ourselves, how can we expect to accept others’ (differing) perspectives - and not react in some way?
Well, Adam Grant posited a somewhat different - perhaps a more nuanced - point of view, based on research published in journals such as Psychological Review.
How we spend our time on a day to day basis is materially influenced by the extent to which we're responding to signals or to noise.
In today's episode, I speak to the need to think about which cues we pick up and what we react to - the signals versus the noise.
Is it an investment or a cost?
That seems like semantics but I think there’s a bit more to the question.
When we're trying to sell an idea or a product, we want to say all the right things to the prospect, so that we can close the deal quickly.
In doing so, we can at times, sugar coat the message, or gloss over key issues that need to be grappled with upfront. All the more reason, as I discuss in today's episode, that we always be upfront - even if that means talking about difficult things.
Having our “fingers in multiple pies” seems like a good idea when we’re starting out.
Business environments are competitive, clients are demanding and surviving means doing whatever’s needed to make money.
Expectations management is everything in business. We understand and buy that when it comes to big picture issues - such as a client delverable.
But, as I discuss in today's podcast, it matters just as much in our more common day to day activities.
When markets are at an all time low and everyone else is selling, there are the brave few who wade right into the thick of things and start buying.
They do this despite the ‘evidence’ to the contrary, because they’ve done their homework, formed an educated point of view and are willing to bet on their own logic (versus the consensus view).
We love being the hero in our stories. But Donald Miller talks about there being only 4 key roles you can take on in your business story.
And being the hero isn't one of them. You need to be the guide, as I discuss in today's episode.
We tend to think of competitions as absolutes, that there are always clear winner and losers.
But other than in sports, that’s just not the case. (And even in sports, depending on your timelines, it’s absolutely the case.)
Is it still breaking the rules if everyone knows you’re doing it?
My kids’ High School has this tradition near the end of Senior Year called “Senior Ditch Day”, where kids skip school and just hang out. Now, this was never a thing when I was growing up (I didn’t grow up in the US) but it seems to be here.
In today's episode, I talk about the idea of partnerships.
The word "partnership" is easy to throw around when the stakes are low. But when the going gets tough, we really find out who is (and isn't) a true partner.
