I stood in the parking lot savoring this moment. The years of anticipation, the months of planning, the hours of reviewing my guide book, and the countless trips to outfitters and grocery stores had brought me to this moment: my first day on the Appalachian Trail. It was 11:00 a.m. The gravel parking lot where I…
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How should you reply to the “What’s your rate” or “How much does this cost” question? Should you answer immediately? Or try to discover their expectations? When all it’s all said and done, should you just “split the difference?” The answer to those questions and many similar ones are what Leigh Thompson, the author of The…
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“That’s so simple! How did he write a best-selling book on this stuff?” Those were my first impressions after reading David Allen’s Getting Things Done when it was first released. I was amazed that an entire book could be written on managing to-do lists. Yet, I found myself using the system and actually getting more done than I…
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My father-in-law spent most of his adult life as a cardiologist. That’s a highly specialized and highly technical area in the field of medicine that deals with the heart. Not every physician can claim to be a cardiologist. It requires rigorous training under the close supervision of an existing cardiologist. That period of training and…
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As we enter the last quarter of 2014, I’m reminded of a story by Mike Greene that I read recently in the Business Journals (check it out here). Paraphrasing, the story went something like this: A man walked into an old country store late one afternoon. As he wandered around looking at the merchandise, he…
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Because I said so!” Ever hear that growing up? I certainly did on more than one occasion, typically when I had exhausted my parent’s patience with me. Unfortunately, many IT Leaders adopt this behavior as part of their leadership style. What most don’t realize is that using the dictator style of management doesn’t bring out the best in your…
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Hiring the wrong person is costly. There are the hard costs associated with the search as well as delayed projects, lowered morale, and expensive employee benefits. Yet many companies do not have a well-defined and comprehensive interviewing process. They leave it up to individual managers to make hiring decisions while neglecting to provide sufficient…
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Nature abhors a vacuum. And so does your team. According to Wikipedia, a vacuum is a space that is empty of matter. A natural vacuum in nature cannot persist for very long; it will be filled with something. The same is true for leadership and our teams. If there is a vacuum or absence of leadership in…
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