Entries Tagged 'Life' ↓

When I started this blog, with my real name and occupational information prominently displayed, I received quite a few concerned comments from friends, family, and colleagues. In general their issues boiled down to this: why expose yourself to this? Why put yourself out there, increasing the risk of someone using the information you have out there against you in the future?

Continue reading →

In my continuing effort to add to the cluttered world of sports analogies in business conversations, today’s post covers a rather sensitive topic to this Tom Brady fan.  You want your quarterback to get sacked once in a while.
Continue reading →

Some time back, I talked about some lessons I’d learned from a couple different (fairly geeky) games.  There’s a valuable lesson I didn’t include there, and I think it deserves its own post.  In honor of the start of the American Football season, I’ll even add some sports analogies.

The lesson is simple: don’t ever forget the object of the game.  But there are a couple side lessons which follow from it.
Continue reading →

Our high school guidance counselor used to ask us what you’d do if you had a million dollars and you didn’t have to work. And invariably what you’d say was supposed to be your career. So, if you wanted to fix old cars then you’re supposed to be an auto mechanic.

This line from Office Space cuts to the chase.  What would you do, if you didn’t have to do anything?  I’ve asked myself that question over the years many times, and in my youth I I sounded a bit like Peter when I answered it:

I would relax… I would sit on my ass all day… I would do nothing.

It’s ironic that it’s hard to answer the question until you’ve been around the block a few times.  Here you are at 30 or 40, finally knowing what you want to be when you grow up, and you’re 10-20 years into something different.
Continue reading →

There’s a lot of competition in the workplace.  Individuals compete for recognition and salary increases, teams compete for budget, products compete to stay alive, companies compete with each other.  It’s very easy to find yourself believing that seeing others fail is somehow good in that it protects you.
Continue reading →

Here’s a bit of a “professional checkup” question.  Do you know who you work for, and do you act like you work for them?

I don’t mean who you report to.  I certainly hope you know who that is (though in the world of matrix management, sometimes that answer can be tricky to arrive at).  I mean who you work for.  Who are the people without whom you would not have a job?

Another way to ask this question is “Who are your customers?” (and if you have zero customers, well, congratulations and condolences, I guess!).  It’s important to know who these people are, because regardless of how well your manager thinks you are performing, it’s ultimately your customers who decide your fate.
Continue reading →

(It’s no secret to you that I am a geek, but today’s post is really going to push the boundaries.  I apologize in advance for losing my less-geeky readers.  Come back, I promise I’m not always like this.)

Today I’m going to share some life skills lessons I learned from James T. Kirk and Magic: The Gathering.  Yes, really.
Continue reading →

In the corporate world, it’s easy to feel powerless, but there are things within everyone’s reach which can improve the culture of your team (and taken to its logical conclusion, your company). One of these is taking time to say Thank You.

Our successes in the workplace depend a great deal on those around us. Every day, our co-workers make decisions which impact us. And when that person does something that makes our lives easier, what should we do? We all learned this as kids. We say Thank You.
Continue reading →

I’ve written before about how confusing it can be to navigate this new world where your boss follows you on twitter and your mom reads your professional blog. It got me thinking about the sorts of boundary problems people can run into in meatspace as well. I was thinking it might be interesting to find analogs for various online activities. Of course, there are complications….
Continue reading →

I’ve got good news and bad news. First, you may soon see a drop in activity on this site.  (Wait, wait, that’s the bad news, not the good news, stop cheering!)

The good news is that it’s because we’re due to have our first child in two weeks.

When this happens, I’ll be taking a couple weeks away from work to concentrate on being home with my family.  Given the circumstances, I may not have a lot to say that fits into this blog (then again, maybe I’ll be up all night and resort to blogging to pass the time ).

Even after this, my blogging schedule will likely change.  I plan to continue regular updates, but you will probably not see new posts every work day.  No promises I can’t keep, remember?  So I promise to update regularly.  I hope that’s good enough.

Have a great weekend everyone.