I told my friend I wanted to kick a bad habit but I didn’t know where to start. She said, “Start by measuring how often you do it.” […]

If it takes less than two minutes, do it now. That’s the one piece of advice I remember from my first management class in college. When I abide by it, I feel better, because I procrastinate less. […]

Whose opinions and feedback really matter to you? […]

Your thoughts on mentoring were awesome. Here are some highlighted quotes from you all. […]

I am asked this question a lot. But I don’t think I’m informed enough to answer it well. I’d like to change that. Maybe you can help. What makes a good mentor? In your eyes, what are a mentor’s primary traits and responsibilities? Are there resources that have clarified mentorship for you? If so, please […]

The holidays bring holiday events, and holiday events bring conversations with strangers. On the advice of Terry Gross, I’ve started using a four-word phrase to navigate these moments: “Tell me about yourself.” Dubbed “the only icebreaker you’ll ever need,” tell me about yourself allows you to start a conversation with anybody without accidentally bringing up […]

In The Power of Moments, Chip and Dan Heath cite a 2016 customer-service study by Forrester, the market research firm. The study demonstrates how focusing on what’s working—rather than what’s broken—can transcend team dynamics and make a big difference to a company’s bottom line. The Heaths suggest that, at any given time, companies devote their limited […]

1. “What’s our goal here?” At Lessonly, we sometimes forget to set clear goals for our projects and initiatives. We assume everyone is on the same page about why we are working on something, so we jump right to the planning stage. It’s important to plan—to account for things like to-dos, timelines, and divisions of […]

Last week, I asked for your feedback on some ideas we’ve been tossing around about meetings. I learned a lot from all of your responses. Here’s a summary of my takeaways: On holding a no-meeting day Many companies hold no-meeting days. By far, the most popular day of the week for this was Wednesday. Friday […]

We’ve been thinking about embracing a no-meeting day at Lessonly. The idea is to discourage internal meetings on a specific day of the week so that people have dedicated time to get things done. We are also thinking about doing a hard reset on all recurring meetings, asking every manager to take an inventory of […]

Many months ago, after my wife suggested it, we decided to give Lessonly employees the afternoon off on Election Day, November 6th. Here’s why: Turnout for American midterm elections is painfully low. In 2014, only 37% of eligible national voters showed up to vote. In Indiana, that number was even lower at 28%. We’re all […]

Your influence boils down to two big things: What you do and what you celebrate. What You Do If you want your team to behave a certain way, you have to behave that way yourself. It’s really that simple and it’s really that hard. Want people to show up to meetings on time? You need […]