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Curb your enthusiasm
If you've ever been the new kid in school, you know it's hard to fit in. No matter how much you tried to blend in you were prone to unfortunate gaffes like raising your hand too often in class or...
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Spread cheer, not fear
Believe it or not, having fun can be stressful. Revelry is especially wearisome during the holiday season when many of us try to jam a quarter's worth of events into a single month. If you have any...
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Choose the right tool
Every time I type more than five words in the "Notes" column of a spreadsheet, I have to jump through several click-heavy formatting procedures-to wrap and left-justify the text, start the words from...
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Buzzer Kill
Oh, the thrill of the New Year! We shuffle in, sluggish from holiday sloth until our faces light up with wonder as-one by one-our teammates trot out their new toys. Is that 4G?, we ask. Look at that...
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You Have to Earn Your Position
The only people who get my immediate attention and respect are police officers, fire fighters and soldiers, and it's likely their uniforms have a lot to do with that. I hold all others, regardless of...
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Flinch and you lose
When he got bored, my older brother sometimes made me play a game called "Flinch and You Lose." The rules were simple. I tried to avoid flinching while he wielded dangerous objects close to my face,...
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Toss out a few bread crumbs
When was the last time you were lost? Not momentarily confused or a bit out of your comfort zone, but completely, totally lost? I remember two times. One involved taking the wrong exit onto a long,...
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Recovering from Assumption Syndrome
Houston, we have a problem. Either I'm unable to ask the right question or you keep answering the wrong one. It's probably something in between. First case in point: I recently tried learning how to...
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Restroom Rules
Sometimes, the togetherness is too much to take. From the moment we get in line at the coffee cart in the morning until we pull our cars out of the parking lot in the evening like a presidential...
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Creating the New Normal
There isn't a lot to look at when you're lying on your back in a dentist chair. So, while unspeakable acts were being performed inside my mouth, I distracted myself by mentally scanning my closet,...
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I’d rather believe you than like you.
People who claim not to care about what other people think are full of baloney. All things being equal, things seem easier and much more pleasant when you're liked by those around you. There is a...
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Why wait until you walk out?
Mark Twain once advised us to “dance like nobody’s watching; love like you’ve never been hurt; sing like nobody’s listening; and live like it’s heaven on earth.” I think if he’d ever resigned from a...
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Too many spices can spoil the dish.
I love to cook, and often do so without the encumbrance of a recipe. When enhanced by just the right blend of spices, common ingredients like broth, carrots, and rice can temporarily transport me and...
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Nobody wants to see the same old bag.
If you want to see first-hand what raw, unfiltered disappointment looks like on the faces of usually-reserved adults, spend a few hours in the baggage claim area at a busy airport. Weary business...
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Let Me Hear Those Three Little Words
I recently embarked on a quest to gather more insight about the customers my company serves. You’d think I was asking to book passage on the first commercial space flight. I expected responses like,...
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I can read lots of things, but not your mind.
What is it about the principles of effective delegating that eludes even the smartest leaders? Twice last week, I got tangled in the barbed wire of poorly delegated tasks. One of my assigned tasks...
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Your meeting might be a drag if…
Do you schedule or lead an ongoing meeting? Do you have any idea if it adds value? Do participants look forward to your meetings? Or, do they secretly (or openly) hope for some unforeseen circumstance...
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When did 7 become the new 8?
I used to love early mornings at the office. I'd awake with the birds and gather several of my own style of worms before the rest of my chirping, squawking, focus-disrupting colleagues got out of bed....
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Too much consensus means something else is amiss.
During the last week I was invited to at least three meetings that, in my opinion, were unnecessary. At all three an overly large contingent was assembled to discuss and decide on things that were...
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Can you smell that smell?
Either I was born with canine-level olfactory organs, or no one else in my office cares that the refrigerator-in which they store their lunches-smells increasingly of decay. But I care. And last week I...
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