Category Archives for "Understanding Others"

A Powerful Mindset Shift: “Everyone is Doing Their Best”

Do you want to be more helpful and have more impact in your conversations? A friend of mine, Caroline asked an important question:  “Do you think most people are doing the best job they can?” I responded: “It doesn’t matter if they are or not. But if I treat every interaction with the mindset that others ARE […]

  • May 22, 2020

The Magic of Seeing Others

It doesn’t have to be massive effort – it just takes a small gesture. In a very short timeframe, the world has changed. But you have the power to help make this easier to navigate. Yes, you. You have the power to create magic. We are in this thing together. If we connect with our […]

  • March 23, 2020

How to Assess Your Value

This week I had an interesting conversation about value. The person I was coaching said, “I didn’t really do anything yesterday – I was a real piece of s**t.” And something really important clicked for me. There’s a huge difference between your economic value (what you output and give to society) and your inherent value […]

  • December 23, 2019

Why Good Metrics Don’t Always Equal Success

I love cake, don’t you? There was a cake at the big meeting, so you know it was a happy time. Our company had just completed a year-long initiative to implement ITIL – a process improvement effort to make IT more efficient. We were celebrating the completion of a ton of work- this was tough […]

  • December 9, 2019

Three Keys to Giving Effective Presentations

All technologists need presentation skills, whether you’re presenting to one person or to many. As such, here are three tips that I’ve found particularly useful that can help you get your message across. What is the cognitive effect I want my audience to experience? Often times, we forget the audience when we’re developing our presentations. […]

  • November 18, 2019

The Meaning of Sonder

Often we get stuck in our own world and think others are experiencing something the same way we are.  But often, it is not the case at all. There’s a new-ish word out there that explains it somewhat: ‘Sonder.’ I’m paraphrasing here, but ‘Sonder’ is the realization that others around you are living a life […]

  • October 17, 2019

The Hard Truth About Your Team’s Culture

In the book, All In, authors Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton focus on how managers create great places to work. The subtitle of the book is, “How the best managers create a culture of belief and drive big results.” If you’re a manager or director – I recommend it. But the hard truth is that […]

  • August 11, 2019

“You Will Gain”: An Easy Way to Focus Your Efforts

As a teenager, I really wanted to work at a bike shop, but I was running into dead ends. Over and over, I would travel to my favorite shops and apply, only to receive no callbacks. I was just another job applicant with minimal experience. I was frustrated. But then I read the book How […]

  • December 30, 2018