Last week I was facilitating an education program in Herndon, Virginia. Herndon is an interesting little place – sat right next to Washington Dulles Airport an hour drive from the city, it’s the DC home to perhaps a dozen large companies, yet is in a completely different state to DC…
Browsing Category Career Fuel
Natural or Rounded?
My local barbershop is the legendary Astor Hair in Downtown Manhattan. As I’ve mentioned before, in New York your barbershop feels like a boxing gym, your boxing gym feels like a nightclub and your nightclub feels like a barbershop. Astor Hair looks and feels like a old school boxing gym,…
The one presentation slide to keep you on the edge of your seat
This morning I popped over to the John L. Tishman Auditorium at The New School on New York’s 5th Avenue. It was another edition of the immensely popular Creative Mornings lecture series, and this month’s guest speaker was the founder of Charity:Water, Scott Harrison. First was a slice of delicious…
Idea Fuel: The Creative Observer
Here’s a technique to help stimulate some fresh ideas. In a group situation, try out just being a quiet observer. Actively listen to the conversation of the others in the group, but without trying too hard to intellectually process what’s being said. Being a captive audience with indirect stimulus you…
Battle Scars
Every battle is different, as is each person’s experience of it. Every battle leaves its scars. Sometimes the scars are visible, other times they’re not. The battle may be oppression, or harassment, or abuse. A battle of love, or loss. It may be about moving up or moving on. It…
How to build your network in a new city, country or culture
12 ways to get going when you find yourself in some place new Moving around the world to live and work is becoming easier than ever. There are numerous factors and trends enabling and fuelling this shift: low-cost airlines, remote work, broader education access, open borders (sometimes…), an increase in…
Beyond the 1 hour meeting
The 1 hour slot has long been the default meeting duration – whether team gatherings, introductory coffees, or job interviews. While the times are indeed a changing, the 1 hour slot is largely still the default setting. Here’s another method to try when you’re meeting a fellow human being. 20,…
7 Lessons from Jim Collins on The Tim Ferriss Show
“I’m not really a business author; I just happen to have used companies as the method to study human systems because there’s great data.” Jim Collins Jim Collins is an author, teacher and consultant focused on business management and what makes for successful, sustainable company growth. With over 40 years…
Suggestible, Susceptible?
All us humans are suggestible. Entire industries have been built in part to exploit this trait: advertising, hypnosis, magic. To one degree or another, most of us know we’re suggestible. We’re certainly more suggestible than we’d like to admit (as the likes of Derren Brown [1] have proved time and…
The Portfolio Career Podcast
Two of things I love most about New York are its pay-it-forward approach and its densely networked nature. This combination means it’s possible to meet a lot of interesting people in a short space of time. Someone I met early on through this combination was David Nebinski. As we went…