Sending a generic mass email is efficient. It reaches a wide audience without much effort, and it theoretically puts your message in front of the people you want to reach. But it’s rarely effective. I can’t tell you the last time I opened and read an email that started with “Dear,”, “Hello,”, or some other …
We’re taught that it doesn’t matter if we win or lose as long as we “leave it all on the court.” So we take this to mean that we should be physically exhausted at the end of the game. We should feel as though we have no more physical effort to give. Personally, I don’t …
The default request from some people is information provided COB, or by 5 pm on a given day. It’s quick to write and it intuitively makes sense. But unless the information will be reviewed in the evening or over the weekend, why not make it due first thing the following morning? It’s a minor detail, …
I can’t wait until I retire so I can travel. I can’t wait until my project is finished so I can spend time doing the things I enjoy. I can’t wait until I get promoted so I can relax. … Often when I catch myself in this type of thought process (I can’t wait until …
The first time I played the board game Risk with my friends, I made a rookie mistake. Without thinking about it, we went right into the game. There were no special precautions or plans put in place. And coincidentally, about an hour into the game, I had to use the restroom. So not thinking, I got …
Just before the college football season kicked off, I wrote about the inevitable overreactions that would take place. The next day, my team, the Univesity of Michigan, lost a terrible game to Notre Dame. They played poorly, and despite only losing by seven points, never really seemed to be in it. So people overreacted. Personally, …
Professionals show up and do their work, even when they don’t want to. They don’t skip a workout because they “don’t feel like” working hard They don’t waste time. They don’t just work when they feel passion. Passion comes and goes. Anyone who says they feel overwhelming passion about getting to work every day is lying. …
Perhaps the most surprising thing I’ve learned during my time in sales is the following: Be sold before you sell. Before I could effectively make a pitch and convince a customer to work with my customer, I had to believe. I had to believe that we had the right capabilities. I had to believe that …
When writing contracts, we essentially have the ability to hide whatever we want in the fine print. Most people look at the price, glance over the defined work scope, and assume that the contract is written to solve their problems as they’ve been described. Thus, the writer of the contract has the chance to hide …
Big picture planning is important. It can help to keep us on track and give us a deeper meaning in life. But there’s a risk of spending too much time focused on the big picture at the expense of the day-to-day work. It’s hard to get anything done when we’re constantly reflecting on whether our …