Unwritten Business Advice

Last week we published an article on “Pre-Wiring” – The Art of Getting Stakeholder Buy-In, and were blown away with the discussions that happened afterwards. As a reminder, pre-wiring is when you meet with stakeholders to get their buy-in and input before a decision. One question we thought worth diving in deeper was this: What are […]

Some Unexpected Advice… Several years ago, I was chatting with a friend / mentor of mine (someone who had spent years as a management consultant at one of the world’s most well-known consulting firms). I had just accepted a job to work for a consulting firm in Boston, and wanted his advice. “What is one

I’m going to just say it – most presentations are boring. They’re usually a little ugly, not relevant for everyone, and little action is taken afterwards. I have saved a number of presentations from early in my career and each click of a page now sends a cringe worming down my whole body. In one

Is this the most anxiety inducing message of all time? Take a quick look at this slack message below. Assume it’s from your boss. Did your blood pressure spike? Did you feel the cold-hand of dread grip your heart? Did it stress you out thinking of the last time your manager sent you something along

On an exceptionally cold April day back in 2019 I was at work and got a call from Brigham Young University (BYU). I taught there as an adjunct professor just one semester per year, in an exceptionally fun class I had developed for MBA students called Storytelling with Data. On the phone I got an interesting

The Four Burner Paradox “In order to be successful you have to cut off one of your burners. And in order to be really successful you have to cut off two. ” My classroom of fellow MBA’s all nervously laughed at that comment as we listened to the day’s lecturer, a successful former real estate

Companies have them; why shouldn’t you? I have been using a personal board of directors for years and can’t imagine my life and career without it. What’s a Board of Directors? First of all, let’s talk about what a board of directors is. A board of directors (BOD) is a group of people who guide

Intro: Beware the Data One of the things we’re taught (by mistake) in school is to trust the completeness of data that the teacher throws up on the PowerPoint slide. Unfortunately, that mindset can have tragic consequences as a group of Harvard MBA students learned (as told in a fascinating story from the New York

How Winetasting and Storytelling with Data Intersect Recently I went out to dinner with some coworkers and they were talking about wine, expounding on the differences, their preferences, and who had drunk the most expensive ones. I decided to do a little experiment – I ordered four glasses of wine for the table but didn’t

What’s the big deal about Year End (YE)? One of the questions I get asked often by co-workers is “how to do well at their Year End Performance Review”. This question matters to people because “Year End” (YE for short) is where you essentially get your professional “grades” for the year. This of course directly