I’m learning to draw. It’s hard, I’m not very good at it, it is taking a ton of effort. I have a goal of trying to do 30 minutes per day to hit that as an achievement. What I draw in the space of that 30 minutes is totally up to me. But when you are not very good at something and you are literally starting at Ground Zero – it can take a significant…
So what do you think? Is this what you want? Am I on the right track? Tough questions when via email, chat, voice or more importantly standing right in front of you asking you face-to-face. If you are in the business of constantly being asked for feedback by your peers or direct reports than you should check out this piece written by Seth Godin on giving feedback. It provides a great set of guidelines and…
On a recent vacation, I had the pleasure of driving through an incredible Canadian Landmark in Cape Breton – The Chabot Trail. If you’ve never been, it’s an amazing drive going from 0 to 500 metres elevation with an incredible view of the ocean. It can also be, at times, incredibly nerve-wracking and white-knuckling as you maneuver yourself up and down the tight mountain turns. As we were doing so, we were relying mostly on…
Sounds cliched right? Well it is. I am constantly amazed by the paradigm shift in some people’s contribution to a problem when they are the tasked as the owner of it vs when they are now a bystander looking in, i.e., part of the gallery. Sure being the owner of a problem, a particularly critical one, is not always fun, but it is work that has to be done and someone needs to take the…
I’ve written about this before, in other places, but it bears mentioning again in case you have forgotten. When it’s a visit to a customer site to address any of the following; Release a new patch or version of your software. Demo the latest vaporware your company is putting together. Meet with end-users to identify their requirements. Present your roadmap for the next year. Train the users on how to implement Feature X. Troubleshoot problems with the…