Lately, I’ve noticed a trend on LinkedIn. A person posts a job and there is a flurry of comments that simply say “I’m interested” or “I’m interested. Please look at my profile”. Sometimes there will be over thirty or forty such comments. Job seeking is about selling (yourself). While Social Media has redefined some of the ways …

Read more “Saying “I’m interested” is the worst way to demonstrate interest in a LinkedIn job post”

Yesterday, I gave a talk on how to make learning stick.  The focus of the talk was to get back to the basic principles that make learning work.  It’s easy to get caught up in the latest fad or technology and lose sight of what makes good learning design. In my talk, I tried to remind …

Read more “How do we get corporate learning right?”

As pre-work for my Rethinking Data workshop, I ask people to send me a question or challenge that they have when working with data.  A common question I get (in both the pre-work and the workshop) is how to deal with leaders that constantly ask for data.  Here is a recent email that I received.: …

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Warren Buffet recently released his annual investor letter. It was twenty-nine pages long. It was refreshing to see. In a world where we increasingly hear that we must be brief due to decreased attention spans, Buffet chose to go with substance. I believe that was an intentional choice. Buffet wants serious investors in his company. He doesn’t want people who make …

Read more “Stop enabling poor focus and attention”

Most of the talk about using Big Data and Analytics effectively seems to focus on its technical aspects.  Do you need a data warehouse or data lake?  Should you be using R and Hadoop or some other technology? It’s true that data analytics has gotten complex.  It takes considerable skill to manage large data sets …

Read more “The three most important skills for using data effectively (SPOILER ALERT: None are about analytics)”

About twenty-five years ago, I listened to the Franklin (now Franklin-Covey) time management series. I was surprised that their first step in managing time was defining my values. They argued that time management is nothing more than prioritization and that prioritization can’t occur unless you know what matters to you. I developed a list of …

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Back by popular demand…and, it really does fit into the tune of the original song! The 2016 PNC Christmas Price Index puts the price of the actual gifts for the twelve days of Christmas at $156,507.88 (up 0.7% from last year).  Holiday time can be expensive but it doesn’t have to be for good leaders.  The …

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Creating meaning is one of the most important things that a leader does. But what is “meaning”? The most eloquent definition of meaning come in Viktor Frankel’s book Man’s Search for Meaning. Frankel ties meaning to the internal purpose for which one lives. I use a much less philosophical definition to provide a framework that …

Read more “What is meaning? And, why should a leader care?”

Chicago is on fire (but in a good way this time).  Five million people lined the streets and filled Grant Park to celebrate the Chicago Cubs World Series win.  Even people who aren’t baseball or Cubs fans seem to have been swept up in the excitement. But wait a minute.  According to what I regularly …

Read more “If people really dislike change, why is everyone in Chicago so happy?”

The other morning, I was out of town getting ready for a workshop.  My clear, quart-sized, TSA compliant “liquids” bag was on the counter.  I glanced inside the bag for my shaving cream.  It wasn’t there.  “That’s strange”, I thought to myself, “I know that I just bought a new can after my last trip.”  …

Read more “Hidden in plain sight: Are you missing data that are right in front of you?”