Side Order of Empathy

"High performer" individual contributors don't always make high performing teams. The skills that make people good at their job before coming manager are the same skills that make a great leader. What are the signs and what can you do about it?

Ever been told "you're the smartest in the room" and it not really come as a compliment? Well, we have. Maybe we are too philosophical or maybe we just think differently.

Okay, so we sound lazy now... but really there's some work that just isn't the right work for me. Or maybe isn't the best use of skills or even really valuable. And we all want to be valuable, right? So how do we work on something else without just saying "NO".

Maybe we should chill out on comparing ourselves to others. While it may be useful to benchmark now and then, in the bigger picture that doesn't support a notion of how far we've come.

Can playing games at work help you solve business problems? We think they can.

How can a game unlock competition and cooperation in new an interesting ways to solve business problems? We've got some ideas...

Too often good work goes unnoticed. Don't let the vacuum of information get filled up by negative perceptions.

Sometimes the numbers just don't move people to act. Why is that? Well most people have a hard time relating to things that are even a little abstract; especially when your point contradicts something they may already believe. In this episode we talk about telling a compelling story.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion... right? Sure, but in some situations others may not feel like you have the right. Sometimes people don't build up their credibility first and then others discount their opinions. We've stumbled into both pitfalls. Here's some ideas on how to avoid it.

When facing the challenges of today's competition, do you play the team you have or do you trade out in hopes of getting star players? This week we dig into some of the pros and cons.

We learn from failure, but it can still hurt. Here's some perspective we use to help us see our failures as opportunities.

We all have our creative process, but sometimes we get stuck or lose inspiration. Here we share our individual creative process and some tips to refocus when we get stuck.

Ever felt like you can't be yourself while at work? Felt labeled or misunderstood. Here's some ideas to still be authentic to yourself while keeping you job.

Interviewing a candidate is a standard step in the hiring process. The way in which interviews are conducted vary widely. And what the interviewer and the candidate learn from the process varies widely too. Here's our take on some interviewing technique; a multi-part series on hiring.

When work (or life) stresses you out what do you do? Do you push it down so you can get through or do you manage it? Here's a couple tips that have helped us manage stress, especially in the workplace.

We've all been in situations at work when you want to say something... do you bite your tongue or speak up? We discuss some ideas about assessing the situation and simple techniques to defuse a potentially tense situation.

Everyone has thought at one time or another, is it time to change jobs. Should I look for a new company? A new career? We have a simple way to frame those questions to help you make a confident decision.

How do you take control of your own career. Here's some simple and practical tips to grow your professional skills.

We pick our topics almost on the fly. We live and breath our topics all day long and we want to keep things really conversational, unscripted and non-technical. Sometimes are pick a topic 5 minutes before recording. We thought you might like to hear the process.

Red tape is a soul crushing ruin to anyone's day. How to overcome red tape. And can bureaucracy be a good thing?

When cultural and working norms are opaque it's hard for people to be effective and it damages organizations. So how do we recognize it and beyond transparency what do we do about it.

Why do some people easily carry on great conversations during a meeting or conference with people they've just met? The reasons are not what you may think. Here we debunk (a little) some common misconceptions and provide some practical tips that we've learned to be more approachable, carry great conversations and set up lasting connections with people at work.