Just Because It’s Catchy Doesn’t Mean It’s Right “I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day, you bet on people, not on strategies,” said Lawrence Bossidy. One of the most important things a manager can do is…

Don’t Let Your Boss Get Complacent with Your Salary Let me tell you about a problem. Your salary is not based on your performance. It should be, but in most companies, it's not. Instead, it’s based on what your boss thinks will keep you happy and staying in your job. …

Separate the Quality for the Toxic Once upon a time, self-help advice made you feel better. Now, it makes you feel like crap. Not all of it, of course. I tend to think Medium is a bright spot in a broader sea of online toxicity. But it does seem that…

I know, it seems unlikely. But stay with me for a minute. In 1944, the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA, set out to disrupt the Axis powers in any way that they could. One tactic was to publish a how-to guide on sabotaging various industries and…

Be Comfortable Saying “I Don’t Know.” Let me tell you two secrets about management. One is that none of us really know what we’re doing. And the second is that we’re all afraid everyone will find that out. You can see this behavior whenever an employee asks their boss a…

Combat Backfire Effect in Work and Life “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool,” wrote Richard Feynman. It’s a struggle that most of us deal with every day — we want to expand our knowledge, but we dislike…

Create a Culture that Attracts Top Employees “No one wants to work anymore.” That’s what a manager told me while complaining about his retention problems. He couldn’t keep talented people in the job, and he’d already decided that it wasn’t his fault. His employees were the problem. They just didn’t…

The Next Time People Do It, Try This Instead Here’s the problem: it feels really good to complain. Someone does something that upsets us. We’re frustrated and we’re angry. Those emotions build up and they need somewhere to go. Complaining is an easy, low-risk way to vent those feelings. It…

Who are you inspiring? “In everybody’s life, you have to have someone who believes in you and tells you to stay at it.” I read that the other day in an interview with Bob Newhart. The interviewer asked him how he broke into comedy and Newhart credited his friend Dan…