Dave's Library

When things are uncertain, it can feel comforting to avoid difficult feedback. But creating stability for your team — and success for your organization — depends on your ability to learn what needs to change. Burying your head in the sand is never the safe thing to do. A culture of ruinous empathy or false harmony is not the path to success. Instead, invite criticism from your team. This is awkward at best and can be a difficult emotional journey, so the authors present six tips for how to successfully solicit Radical Candor from your employees.

Bad mentors can go absent, sap your energy or embroil you in their paranoia. Here are five tips for tackling a toxic relationship.

On the business, strategy, and impact of technology.

Find new ideas and classic advice on strategy, innovation and leadership, for global leaders from the world's best business and management experts.

Insecurity does not discriminate and can affect everyone.

The latest edition of a long-running survey finds that the share of customers who say they had a service or product problem has doubled since the 1970s.

I wrote this breakup letter a decade ago, hoping the MBTI would change. It hasn't.

Homogenous groups aren’t as effective as they seem.

In many of my posts I share solutions to technical challenges I have come across. In this post there is certainly an element of that, but it is building on some earlier work and is perhaps more about sharing a real view of what I use day to day, as a way of providing a bit of insight or inspiration into how you may be able to employ something similar. Specifically, in this post I am going to share some details of my “general” meeting template in Obsidian. Oh, and that’s “general meeting” template as in a generic template for a general, run of the mill, ad hoc meeting, not a general meeting as in governance (e.g. AGM, EGM).

There IS a Proven RoadmapFor Learning Guitar the Right Way.

There are many interview questions that inspire dread in an interviewee — from “What’s your greatest weakness?” to “Tell me about yourself.” But one in particular is especially complicated: “What are your salary expectations?” If you go too low, you might end up making less than they’re willing to pay. But if you go too high, you could price yourself out of the job. In this piece, the author offers practical strategies for how to approch this question along with sample answers to use as a guide.

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Few organizations provide strong guidance or training for managers on meeting individually with their employees, but the author’s research shows that managers who don’t hold these meetings frequently enough or who manage them poorly risk leaving their team members disconnected, both functionally and emotionally. When the meetings are done well, they can make a team’s day-to-day activities more efficient and better, build trust and psychological safety, and improve employees’ experience, motivation, and engagement at work. The author has found that although there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to one-on-ones, they are most successful when the meeting is dominated by topics of importance to the direct report rather than issues that are top of mind for the manager. Managers should focus on making sure the meetings take place, creating space for genuine conversation, asking good questions, offering support, and helping team members get what they need to thrive in both their short-term performance and their long-term growth.

Meetings have proliferated—now everyone just wants them to end. “Sometimes it’s just someone talking nonsense about something”

Some bosses believe in-person bonding is more important than ever in a hybrid work era. Mandatory fun time with colleagues fills a lot of people with dread.

On the evening of January 26th, 2023, from the comfort of his home in Palo Alto, California, Ed Schein logged onto his computer one last time to join an Immersive Learning Circle with participants from around the world. Ed was joined by his incredible son, Peter Schein, and a great mix of Organization Development (OD) enthusiasts, emerging and seasoned practitioners, and professors. All of us were eager to absorb Ed’s unrivaled insight and passion, but none of us realized we were about to bear

It was too easy to fall into a sedentary lifestyle. I had to come up with a self-care regimen.

Electric cars emit less CO₂ than gas cars. But to get maximum benefits, we need to decarbonise our electricity quickly.

A limited yet growing body of research suggests that one of the most powerful ways to support someone is also the simplest: Start a conversation.

As business needs and relationships at work continuously change, so does the relative influence of certain departments. In this piece, the author offers strategies to follow if you’re getting the sense that your department is being cast aside: 1) Reflect on the root cause of your exclusion; 2) Tie your department’s work to clear business needs; 3) Broaden your perceived value; 4) Keep driving results; 5) Build up those that are coming up after you.

The hesitance to ask for help can keep us bogged down in more work than is necessary and is a key contributor to feeling constantly overwhelmed at work. In this piece, the author outlines six strategies for unlearning old, unproductive patterns that prevent you from reaching out for assistance when you really need it.

In this article, we’ll outline the ways that the “family” metaphor can lead to dysfunction. As well as the steps team leaders can take to transform their dysfunctional fake families back into the thriving work teams they were trying to build in the first place.

Dave Stachowiak and Bonni share an update on our PKM systems on episode 445 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast

Across our society today, norms of noisiness run deep. Demands like constant connectivity and maintaining a competitive advantage still prevail in most office cultures. Few organizations prize or prioritize pristine human attention. But there are simple strategies we can employ in order to find our own personal sanctuaries and to shift broader cultures. By reclaiming silence in the workplace, we can create the conditions for reducing burnout and enhancing creative problem solving.

Bob and Brad demonstrate the 5 easiest way to decompress your spine if you are experiencing back pain.Website: https://bobandbrad.com/Youtube Channel: https:...

“I don’t know who needs to hear this but Neil Diamond, who retired from performing five years ago because of Parkinsons, just had a Broadway show of him open and it at the opening night he did this”

Learn the 5 steps to have have more productive, human conversations at work. Short video mino course. Free access to your team. Improve communcations.

The exact language you need to politely escape from all sorts of irrelevant, time-wasting, or misdirected asks.

Effective mentoring is a valuable but often overlooked method.