Keep up to speed on Todd’s latest thoughts, books, clients, and professional activities.
(excerpt from my forthcoming book Live Hard) We’ve all made fun of bureaucracy, right? Bureaucracy is an organizational reality that involves a hierarchy of authority with a defined reporting structure, rigid division of labor and control of resources, and lots of formal and informal policies and procedures for everything. People fill assigned roles and work […]
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[I was thinking about my two boys yesterday. They are amazing, and also normal and sometimes lazy – hey, they’re teenagers. It amazes me how much time they spend doing nothing (i.e., gaming, watching videos). I fight to remind myself that I too did a lot of nothing at their age. Then my inner pontificator […]
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Wouldn’t it be nice if work was a simple meritocracy? The rules and metrics would be clear. As a result, knowing who is performing well would also be very clear. Promotions would go to the most capable, the process would have no ambiguity, perceived fairness would be high, and so on. It’s simple, right? Not […]
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Sometimes, when I watch people engage self-improvement efforts, it reminds me of dieting. You have the crazies who are super self-motivated and never seem to stop trying things, always improving a little, reading, thinking, measuring, and striving. They are inspirational, and possibly even annoying (as all superstars can be from time to time). Then you […]
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I know that sometimes I sound like I’m coming down hard on leaders, pushing them to do better. Other times it seems like I’m coming down on employees, begging them to get a clue. Guess what? Both are true! I am an equal opportunity offender. Most leaders should be better, and most employees should try […]
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We often make heroes out of our innovators. They are activists, change agents, and provocateurs. Following their big wins, they are celebrated. But how accurate is our portrait? Not very. They always experience strife we forget. It’s true in business as it is in society. When a new gadget comes out, a fancy piece of […]
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Many people embrace personal improvement, but the process can be difficult. You see, there are only three stages of personal growth: indulging ignorance, building independence, and chasing potential. All lives begin in ignorance. Too many never escape. It’s so easy. A person is born, told what to believe as a child, and never learns to […]
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[I am about to launch my latest book The Ten Delusions, but I’ve already jump-started work on the next book too. It’s called Live Hard. It’s intended to be inspiration for living more fully, thinking outside the box, taking principled risks, etc. One possible story I’m working on for the book, draft below, deals with […]
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THE SECRET TO ACCOUNTABILITY It’s a topic people are always talking about for a reason. Holding people accountable is difficult, but it doesn’t have to be if you know what you’re doing. There are three main solutions people typically offer for the accountability challenge. First, they say that it’s a matter of setting clear expectations. […]
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What a fascinating time to watch the shift in generations across the modern talent pool. To put it mildly, what was considered progressive just a few years ago will become an absolute expectation in the next few years. Much has been said about what the younger generations value and what we must do to make […]
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