Keep up to speed on Todd’s latest thoughts, books, clients, and professional activities.
(an excerpt from my forthcoming book, Live Hard) Self-improvement isn’t difficult to understand. You just have to ask the right questions and seek answers honestly. You must be genuinely open to feedback – a terribly useful and sometimes painful catalyst for change. Feedback comes from many sources: self-reflection, observation, task performance, comments from others, opportunities […]
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Success is about being brave in the face of THE FEAR, and open to THE CHALLENGE, in order to realize THE DREAM. We all have THE DREAM. It represents a desired future state. Your hopes and aspirations, your glowing picture of what you wish to achieve. We all dream, but, far too few of us […]
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There is a growing movement of people who are anti-business. They dwell on the damage, both real and perceived, done by businesses to individuals, communities, and the planet. They are wrong. Well, kinda. They make many immensely important observations about less than productive behaviors. It’s their conclusion that is wrong. Business is the only real […]
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There are two main phases of success: before you’re successful and after you’re successful. Before you make it, you’re successful in spite of what you don’t have. That’s the defining characteristic of life before success. You fake it until you make it. You stretch resources and get creative. You clock major hours. You take risks. […]
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(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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