November 14th, 2008 |
Published in
Life, Productivity, Progress, Quotes, Work
Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.
—An African proverb as quote in Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat (2005), p. 114.
November 11th, 2008 |
Published in
Language, Work, Writing
Matt Perman instructs us how to write better emails. In our email-dominant workplace, good email communication skills are essential. For the love of your co-workers, please read this.
November 7th, 2008 |
Published in
Links, Productivity, Work
If you’re into productivity blogs, be sure to check out What’s Best Next. The author, Matt Perman, was my boss for four years — and he’s the most organized guy I know.
October 27th, 2008 |
Published in
Leadership, Quotes, Work
Effective management without effective leadership is, as one individual has phrased it, “like straightening deck chairs on the Titanic.” No management success can compensate for failure in leadership.
—Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, p. 102.
September 26th, 2008 |
Published in
Leadership, Psychology, Quotes, Work
It’s amazing how someone’s IQ seems to double as soon as you give them responsibility and indicate that you trust them.
—Timothy Ferriss, The 4-Hour Workweek (2007), p. 106.
August 6th, 2008 |
Published in
Art and Design, Quotes, Work
If you don’t create a little confusion, it’s unlikely you’ve built something remarkable.
—Seth Godin
August 5th, 2008 |
Published in
Philosophy, Quotes, Religion, Work
For human beings the spiritual and the practical are, and should be, inseparable. Alone, practicality becomes dangerous; spirituality, alone, becomes feeble and pointless. Alone, either becomes dull. Each is the other’s discipline, in a sense, and in good work the two are joined.
—Wendell Berry, “Preserving Wilderness” in Home Economics (1986), p. 145.
August 1st, 2008 |
Published in
Business, Psychology, Quotes, Work
Imagine you’re the CEO. I come to you with an idea that you think is very good. Rather than just pat me on the back and say, “Great idea!” your inclination (because you have to add value) is to say, “Good idea, but it’d be better if you tried it this way.”
The problem is, you may have improved the content of my idea by 5 percent, but you’ve reduced my commitment to executing it by 50 percent, because you’ve taken away my ownership of the idea. My idea is now your idea—and I walk about of your office less enthused about it than when I walked in.
That’s the fallacy of added value. Whatever we gain in the form of a better idea is lost many times over in our employees’ diminished commitment to the concept.
—Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There (2007), pp. 48-49.