Success

What makes you meaningfully different at work? I used to ask my staff that question all the time. Not to be cute. I asked it because most careers stall for the same reason: people confuse competence with distinction. One day, a senior associate walked into my office, furious that she didn’t get promoted to manager. She was loaded for bear. She gave me the usual speech—elite schools, straight A’s, scholarships, leadership, great reviews, works hard. The whole resume. After a few minutes, I yawned. Not to be cruel. She needed shock paddles. It worked. Because everything she was telling me …

Beyond the Numbers (Part 2): What Made Me DifferentRead More

Maybe you’ve heard the term “soft skills” and know, or at least have a general idea, what it means. Or maybe you have no clue. No matter. Here’s the nut of it: Soft skills are the human skills that make your technical skills useful. How you communicate, earn trust, read a room, and move work (and people) from confusion to clarity. And in a world where AI will be encroaching on most of the tasks previously performed by new hires, mastering these skills, especially the art of conversation, will set you apart. In other words, these are the skills that …

Beyond The Numbers (Part 1): You’ll Find PeopleRead More