I did many things well as a manager, but I struggled with “difficult conversations.” So I brought in some experts to give me and readers of this newsletter some advice. Undoubtedly, any conversation considered “difficult” — including performance issues, behavioral problems, compensation and promotions, upcoming organizational changes or layoffs, etc. — is
There’s a big difference between a job pathway and a skills pathway — and 2026 will mark the year a skills-focused career takes center stage. Right now companies around the world are taking stock of the human talents they need to complement the AI systems they have. “Human talent” departments
“Executive presence is how you show up so that people listen to you, trust you, and have confidence in you handling important work.” I’ve rarely heard a crisper definition of something so important to career success: Your presence on a team or in an organization. Thank you Cassie Divine
I’ve been lucky in my career to know people who can only be defined as “sales champions”— those people who have finished not in the top 10 percent, but in the top 1 percent. I reached out to a number of these champions to weigh in on how the
Everyone has a source of greatness — what’s yours? Readers of this newsletter know I believe in the age of AI that the corporate ladder is dead or dying — and career pathing is being replaced by chapters in a career story. Each job role is a chapter in a longer
When I first started managing people I developed a reputation for being a “line of sight” manager — meaning, I tended to ask the last person I saw to do the same thing I had just told the person before them, and maybe another person or two before them. Sometimes I
I’m calling for a mentoring revolution in the age of AI. When I was working for former Cisco CEO John Chambers, his calendar would be filled with meetings with first-time CEOs. I often found myself on their calendars, as John wanted me to share Cisco best practices. It’s
“The future is already here – it’s just not very evenly distributed.“ I love science fiction, and the way it taps into our imagination about the future. No doubt, it’s my favorite storytelling genre. That’s why I appreciate these words from William Gibson of Neuromancer fame and so
Every Career Story is a Three-Act Play. In the first episode of “Breaking Bad,” we learn that the main character, Walter White, is a high school chemistry teacher with a terminal disease who takes a decisive turn to the dark side of life in order to ensure his family is
Discover 5 actionable tips every manager needs to teach in 2025. Learn how to help your team stand out in an AI-driven workplace through relationships, learning, and career development.
“What do you want to be known for — what’s YOUR brand?” For boomers, life on the corporate ladder could last 20 or 25 years, or longer. My 93-year old dad reads my Substacks, and he recently told me he spent 35 years in the same function at Bristol-Myers moving
“Directionally, I agree with you.” Seriously. If you ever doubted the power of the corporate ladder for boomers, consider the fact that people continuously moved up the ladder despite working in an era when passive-aggressive behaviors were tolerated, often encouraged, sometimes even rewarded. What I love about being a boomer