I’ve been wondering lately if life-balance is a myth. As a set of empirical observations, I heard a lot about life balance as a manager in small and larger tech companies. I met very few people in those organizations, if any, who would actually say that they had a balanced life. As a manager, I…
Book Review: The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die
Dear Blog Subscribers: Welcome to the Sort of Book Club of the Month. Sort Of … because I am only going to post a book review when I have actually read one that I like a lot. No matter how often that is. Which could turn out to be more or less once a month,…
First, Don’t Be a Lousy Leader
Have you ever had a lousy boss? Or worked for a company where the senior leadership seemed hopelessly out of touch? There is nothing more discouraging. In fact, not surprisingly, survey data consistently shows that the reason people quit their jobs usually has a great deal to do with their immediate manager. What’s more, those…
10 Things You Need to Know Today About Working
Most of us – unless we come from a very wealthy family or win the lottery – spend a great deal of our adult lives at work. Certainly, I have. The great thing about work is that, beyond getting a paycheck, you can learn an awful lot. Even if some of that learning is accidental…
To Turbo-Boost Your Career, Think Big and Think Small
During my first year of business school at Stanford, I went to one of those panel sessions that are common at business schools where alumni show up and talk about the “real world” of work. I still remember one particular panel, not for anything exceptional that was said, but rather for something mundane. The panelist…
Exit, Voice, or Loyalty- What Do You Choose?
A long time ago, I began a PhD program in Economics. For reasons that seemed complex at the time – I couldn’t figure out what to do with my life – and also simple- I met the woman is who now my wife of 32 years – I never finished the program. But during that…
Ten Things I Would Tell Myself About Careers If I Could Go Back in Time
About ten years ago, someone working for me asked me for career advice. I was in the middle of a really busy day, but I like thinking about such things and I took the time to write her an email with ten thoughts about careers; the first ones that came to my mind. Then I…
Fear and Hope
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about fear and hope. At the risk of dividing the entire human race into only two types of people, humans seem to be driven primarily by either fear or hope. Those who are driven by fear focus mostly on security and protection; on resisting change. They tend to start…
The Path of Least Resistance
We all get stuck sometimes in our lives. In that place where we just aren’t sure what to do next. It’s happened to me several times. There is one rule of thumb that I’ve learned over time about getting stuck. When we are stuck, the best thing we can do is create something new….
What is Health?
I’ve been thinking lately about health. It seems that the more you go through life the more this subject comes up. At least in the United States, the traditional medical community/ bureaucracy focuses on a narrow definition of health. They think of health mostly as the absence of disease; if you are not sick, then…