Two minute reads
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Don’t waste your annual career review
It’s the season to start preparing for your annual career review. They can be a bit lame. You discuss what you did, agree a few objectives, tick the box and carry on. Here’s how to turn your career review into a more fruitful conversation. Make it...
Oversharing: Should we keep our private lives out of work?
Has the ‘bring your whole self to work” message gone too far? Call me old-fashioned, but I think work is for our worky bits. It's what we used to call being professional. Self-help gurus encourage us to bring our whole unfiltered selves to work: all our messy...
About time. An easy way to feel in control of your day.
How long should each task take? If you don't know, work will always feel harder than it needs to. I avoided a dull but important admin task recently — there are far more fun things to do in August than fill out a form for your accountant. Until my...
Lessons from Dolly Parton in Working 9 to 5.
Dolly Parton's 1980 movie Working 9 to 5 is a glorious lesson in toxic workplaces and gender inequality (way before these were even a thing). Three women are stuck with a boss who is lazy, controlling and spectacularly good at taking credit for other...
Don’t Waste August
The best careers are built in the quiet moments. How will you show up in September? August gives us something that's in desperately short supply for the rest of the year: space to think. By September, we will be back-to-back again. New projects will be...
Work like you are going on holiday tomorrow
Last week's heatwave, the World Cup, the latest round of distracting political shenanigans, and a packed calendar have all reinforced one simple truth: if you don't decide your priorities, the world will happily decide them for you. I help organisations shift from...
Your productivity problem isn’t time. It’s being too helpful.
What if the reason you are overwhelmed isn’t your workload? What if it is your reputation - for being capable, reliable, helpful, an eager beaver? People come to you all the time, for advice, decisions, reassurance, help, or just news. Many of you are in...
Flogging a dead horse? Are you distracted by other people’s pet projects?
Pet projects are vanity pieces of work that are still pursued long after they have stopped making commercial or strategic sense. These time-wasters drain scarce resources and damage team morale. My job is to help people prioritise, but it's not easy to kill off...
Beware the Mama Bear Manager, when protection goes too far
The stereotypical bad boss is an insensitive bully. Word soon gets round about them. Are they a dying breed? You tell me. Harder to spot is another bad boss, the rescuer, or what I call a Mama Bear Manager. These are good people but weak managers. I coached a...
How leaders set the weather and why being consistent is more important than ever.
Leadership is not a popularity contest, but it is a spectator sport. What you do matters because people are watching you. I was told to never start an article by describing living in VUCA times, for risk of boring readers right from the off. If you didn’t know,...
Not in the mood? How to defeat procrastaffafing
Procrastination isn’t about not doing something. It’s about not starting it. An average colleague who gets things done contributes more than a high potential who sprinkles their attention round like an excited puppy. Most productivity problems stem from the...
A Cheat’s Alternative to Tedious New Year’s Resolutions
Happy New Year. I’m braced for LinkedIn posts drawing cringeworthy parallels between a new habit and career success. ‘The gym is a metaphor for life. It teaches me about overcoming adversity and never giving up.’ These painful posts won’t be around...
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