I’ve been very fortunate and have learned a ton about how companies work, who succeeds and what works. I try to distill my observations into practical insights.
I’ve gathered a few bits of wisdom and career advice that I’d like to share from my own experiences (and mistakes), listening to my Hult Business students and working with hundreds of entrepreneurs and innovators. This career advice applies equally to both those early or those later in their careers. Some notes: I have found that the …
What if We Could Control What People Think about Us? The opinions other people form and adjust about us can be critical personally and professionally. People’s opinions of us give us our practical authority, our ability to influence and our ability to draw satisfaction from our work. Managing expectations is a skill that can be …
As my @Hultbiz class of 2016 gets ready to graduate later this week, I’ve been thinking a lot about what advice to give them about getting ahead professionally in an increasingly competitive world. I’d like to offer something beyond simple platitudes like “work hard,” “know what you want,” and “be your own advocate.”
As my graduate students @hultbiz near their graduation, I thought I’d share some practical ideas about finding a great job that I’ve be sharing piecemeal with them as they’ve asked: Build and actively manage your professional network. This is more than just going to job fairs. With apps like Meetup and incredible events and organizations, there …
My MBA start-up competition @hultbiz just finished. My best teams were awesome. Every team demonstrated plenty of inspiration and perspiration, but the best teams were willing to do a few very uncomfortable things that the average teams weren’t.
One of my Masters students @Hultbiz asked me what advice I would offer as he takes his next step into the corporate world. Here is my advice below: 1. Define and follow productive daily routines to improve health, learning and relationships. @tferriss is a great resource 2. Your next 5 years are 99% about learning. Make decisions …
Is explicit skin-in-the-game the reason that lean and agile are so novel and impactful? Would you rather fly on a plane controlled by the world’s best pilot remotely from a control center or on a plane flown by an average pilot in the cockpit of your plane? I know my answer. In the old models of building …
I’ve been struck by how many times I’ve heard people say – “I hate marketing” or “I hate being marketed to.” While I’ve probably said the same thing myself, I feel myself nonetheless getting defensive. It makes me uneasy. I would argue that what they’re really saying is that they hate BAD marketing. They dislike being …
Nobody really hates marketing, but everyone hates BAD marketing (updated) Read More »
I’ve aggregated some observations I’ve made from working with a number of consultants and doing some consulting myself. These are focused on corporate management consulting, but are mostly applicable to any type of consulting.
I’ve been working with real estate agents to help them market themselves online. In many ways, online profiles are like first interviews. They are the first place that customers (or employers) go to learn about you – often before they’ve met you. And, like many real world first interviews, they can often be rambling and disorganized. …
“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” Mark Twain With words, it’s very easy to confuse quantity with quality. Here are some ideas about how to get to the point: Pretend your audience are children Outline everything, de-dupe and then cross out anything not absolutely relevant Write in …
Turning ideas into sharable emotional journeys But, I’m not a salesperson Despite their sometimes sketchy reputation, sales skills are amongst the most valuable in life. We’re constantly selling ourselves and our ideas. We sell ourselves to our potential partners, friends and employers. Much of our daily communication is largely about selling our ideas. Think about …
Selling 201: Storytelling (Or, How I Came To Love Stories) Read More »
I have a hypothesis: The single largest factor in success is how a person/group uses time. More specifically, their ability to be patient at the right times and impatient at the right times. Some examples: – Investors who can afford to spend a little time/money to let 10’s or even 100’s of investments pass by …
When you get stuck on a hard problem, here are 6 questions that might help get you unstuck. If I had all the time, resources and money in the world, how would I solve this problem? Often un-bounding yourself from known limitations will provide insights that could apply within your limitations Where else has this …
I was invited through LinkedIn to join a new service called Mosaichub (www.mosaichub.com) – as I suspect many people reading this were. It is a pretty straightforward and well executed idea – connect managers, leaders and entrepreneurs with each other and some independents (i.e. consultants, students, writers) to share ideas and find talent. One of …
