It seems that we’re all afflicted with the same innate, inborn, biologically driven negativity bias. We can have 20 people tell us that we did a great job, but let one person be less-than-satisfied and we’re liable to dwell on that one negative comment for years to come. If we’re ever to achieve success and be happy, we’ve got to …

While the pandemic has taught us a lot about our world, one of the main things we’ve learned is that lots of people are able to perform their job functions in isolation, with many more people working from home than pre-pandemic. Lots of them have been successful and content in this position, especially those people who already experienced working in …

It’s impossible to do any kind of work in the public eye without sometimes slipping up. Occasionally, these errors can hold grave consequences. But it’s unavoidable; we’re all human and we all screw up sometimes. The best of us try to learn from our missteps, working hard to minimize future errors, and quickly rectifying any damage done. We’ll never totally …

We all desire to be viewed as competent; knowing exactly what it is we’re supposed to be doing. We want our family, our friends, and our clients to hold us in high regard; to view us as experts in our field. All too often, in our quest to be viewed as the authority, we confuse confidence with certainty. Being certain …

Are we hacks? The title “hack” often carries with it a negative connotation, but it shouldn’t be that way. A hack is someone who delivers exactly what a customer is looking for, often a little cheaper than everyone else. We need hacks. There are customers out there who are looking for hacks, actively searching them out, wanting to work with …

Starting something new, like a new business, can be frustrating. We try to pitch our idea, our service, or our product, but most people we encounter have no real interest in listening to us. If we walk into each interaction with the belief that we’re great, our product is great, our service is great, and everyone is going to love …

There’s a pattern to the way that most businesses handle customer problems: Deny, deny, deny, and hope they go away as quickly as possible. Most businesses today choose to do the bare minimum. What’s the least that I can do and still play by the rules? And, unfortunately, it often works. They still stay in business. The customers just keep …

We’d love it if everyone was on board with everything that we wanted. Wouldn’t that be great! The world would be such a lovely place! Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple. No matter how right we think we are, we can’t make people agree with us. Everyone has their own thoughts and opinions. The best we can do is lay …

“Judgment—the ability to combine personal qualities with relevant knowledge and experience to form opinions and make decisions—is the core of exemplary leadership,” according to Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis in their book Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls. In today’s world, it’s not too often we’re called upon to exercise our judgement. The companies we work for, the organizations …

It’s easy to think we’re doing worse than everyone else. Hell, social media is happy to reinforce this belief 24/7. We’re always running behind, trying to catch up to some imaginary goal that’s always right beyond our reach. That coworker, that business, that relative, that industry, that stranger is doing better than I am, and I’ve got to catch up. …