Popular essays

Popular posts from my newsletter:

1. 15 principles for managing up - When your boss loves you, you have options. Here's how to help your manager get what they need, so you get what you want.

2. Rigorous thinking: No lazy thinking - How to teach your team to think strategically and build culture of thoughtful debate.

3. How to give a senior leader feedback (without getting fired) - How to increase the chances your leader listens and takes action, while reducing the chances they feel threatened.

4. Start right before you get eaten by the bear - How to avoid backstory scope creep.

5. Why high performers make assertions - An insight is just a starting point. The rare, courageous thing to do is to develop an assertion, i.e. a hypothesis and point of view that answers "so what?"

6. How to be concise - The truth about why it’s so hard to be concise, and tactics I use to tighten my communication.

7. How I give the right amount of context (in any situation) - Most people suck at managing up. They waste their manager's time with too much (or too little) information. Here’s how to give the right amount of context.

8. Strategy, not self-expression: How to decide what to say - If you’ve ever wondered, “Should I say this? Will it hurt or help?”, this framework will help you.

9. Are your standards too low? In defense of raising the bar - Why you should consider raising your standards.

10. Spiky point of view: Let’s get a little controversial 🌵 - A spiky point of view is a perspective others can disagree with. But it’s not being contrarian for the sake of it. This is the quickest way to differentiate yourself.

11. Take 3 minutes to delete these words and improve your writing forever - Before you hit “send,” delete these words from your writing. Your message will be stronger for it.