Don’t Live in Fear: The Walls You Built and How to Get Past Them
The fence isn't in the yard. It's in the dog. The job you won't leave, the raise you won't ask for, the dream you filed under too late, you got shocked once,
Category: Careers
Practical advice on managing and advancing professional careers. Covers job transitions, skill development, professional positioning, and the strategic decisions that shape long-term career trajectories.
BusinessHedge Words: 14 Phrases That Quietly Kill a Leader’s Credibility
Fourteen hedge phrases quietly discount everything a leader says, from "I'll try" to "it is what it is." Why each one backfires, the plain replacement that carries the same content standing up straight, and the shift that matters more than…
AdviceI Spent Thirty-Three Years in a Box and Called It a Career
Never went looking for better, never went back to school, never reached past the edge of what I had. Comfortable is the wall people mistake for a career.
Behind the BookEthics Is the Voice That Says Maybe I Should Not Take Credit for This
Ethics at work is not the big dilemma. It is the small voice you can overrule without anybody ever finding out, which is exactly why it matters.
Behind the BookMy First Consulting Job Paid $600. I Had No Idea What I Was Doing.
Overconfident, underprepared and completely naive, with my eye on six hundred dollars and no idea I could not do the work until I was in too deep.
SEE » The Authority Gap: 30 Days of Uncomfortable Truths series
Behind the BookThe System Crashed on a Friday Night. I Had Nobody to Call.
A complete failure, millions on the line by Monday morning, every vendor number unanswered. Twenty years in the industry and not one person I could call.
Behind the BookMy Boss Was Incompetent and Untouchable. I Had Eighteen Months Left.
He was not going anywhere and neither was I. Learning to work under somebody like that without absorbing their behavior is a skill, and I learned it because I had to.
Behind the BookI Became a Manager in 1981. The Hard Part Was People Sitting Ten Feet Away.
In 1981 the difficulty was delegating to a person you could see. The managers who succeed now are not the ones with the best org charts.
AdviceI Decided in Thirty Seconds Whether Your Resume Was Worth Reading
Twenty years on the hiring side of the table. I know what hiring managers are thinking because I was one, and the first thirty seconds decides more than anybody admits.
AdviceI Asked for a Weekend Off. My Boss Said Fifteen Minutes or You Are Fired.
Not asking permission, just telling him I would be out of range for a weekend. He said if I did not call back within fifteen minutes of a page, I was fired.
Artificial IntelligenceThe AI Skills That Will Actually Matter in Five Years
Most AI skills lists are really tool lists, ChatGPT, Claude, Midjourney, and the tools turn over every six months. The human skills underneath do not. Here are eight capabilities that mattered more in 2026 than five years earlier, and that…
Artificial IntelligenceAI Isn’t Coming for Your Job. Other People Using AI Are.
AI is not coming for your job. Other people using AI are. The doomer framing is wrong because it excuses you from the only action that matters; the hype framing fails the same way. The accurate, uncomfortable version: the machine…