Reading Time: < 1 min It’s great to be authentic. Sharing your struggles and strategies can be a huge benefit to many people. However, if you lay back and just be solely “authentic”, that’s a lazy approach to life. We all know someone that “just tells it like is” that no one wants to be around, because they’re often just […]
Empathy
Writing with empathy
Reading Time: < 1 min Empathy is the key to great writing. If you can really understand the worldview of those that are reading what you write, you’ll tend to be much more effective. In her book “Everybody Writes“, author Ann Hadley shared two great quotes that go into this. First, she shares how empathy isn’t just something you have; […]
What do you expect in return?
Reading Time: < 1 min In a recent podcast episode I heard from Gary Vee, he explained that when giving something away, there is a very simple difference between kindness and manipulation. Kindness is doing something for someone with no expectation of a return. Manipulation is doing something for someone with an agenda behind it. There are times when you […]
Attunement versus Empathy
Reading Time: < 1 min I talk about empathy on here quite a bit, but the exact definition of it can still get a little fuzzy for me. The book “To Sell Is Human” talks a bit about empathy versus attunement, and I thought it was an interesting comparison: Attunement means understanding what others are thinking, and should not be […]
The right question is more important than the right answer
Reading Time: < 1 min I work hard to come up with the right answer to questions that are put in front of me. However, if the wrong question is being asked, the answer to it is worthless regardless of accuracy. John Tukey put it this way: “It is better to have an approximate answer to the right question than […]
Criticize or change?
Reading Time: < 1 min When you see a problem in the world that you want to address, you have two choices: You can complain about it. You can do something about it. I find that many people fit squarely into one of those options every time a problem comes up. Some people always sit back and complain, and some […]
Understanding is not accepting
Reading Time: 2 min The people I meet have a lot of different ideas about a lot of different things. I agree with some of them and disagree with others, but I do my best to at least try to understand their point of view. I don’t necessarily always go as far as to create a steel man argument […]
Great ideas can come from either “side”
Reading Time: < 1 min I know that right off the bat, some of you will disagree with the premise of this post because certainly someone from “that side” could never have a solid idea. That thought is quite common, and is likely holding many of us back. In his book “Thank You For Being Late“, author Thomas Friedman posits […]
Assume good intentions
Reading Time: 2 min As digital communication continues to expand into different formats, it can be increasingly difficult to determine the intentions of the person you’re talking to. Of the various common ways that we might communicate, I think intention becomes more difficult to discern as you work down this list: In person Video call Phone call Email Text […]
Steel man, don’t straw man
Reading Time: 2 min I’ve always been a big proponent of trying to see both sides of every issue, like pointing out friends that can see both sides of the aisle politically. Simply acknowledging the other side can be a great place to start, but what if you actually helped the other side construct their strongest possible argument? Enter […]