When I was a child, Rumi wasn’t a philosopher or a poet for me. He was candy. Every once in a while, a relative from Konya would visit and bring Mevlana şekeri. The rock sugar associated with Rumi. Sweet, shiny, and simple. How couldn’t I like him? For me, Rumi meant sugar, not wisdom. As I grew older, I started […]
You can fake a lot of things in business. Authority. Expertise. Competence. But you can’t fake certain traits, like respect. Think about the managers you’ve had in the past. The good ones. The bad ones. People do respect good managers. Why? You remember how it felt to work with them. I bet it felt safe, challenged, trusted and a few […]
There are plenty of skills you can pick up along the way. Some come from books, some through experience. A lot of it is just trial and error. And some from self reflection. You figure things out such as writing a better email, managing your time, and so forth. If you’ve done even a little research, you’ll hear the usual […]
When I wrote this piece on setting goals, I focused on the practical side: clarity, motivation, breaking down complexity. But here’s the thing. Even the clearest goal doesn’t mean much if you don’t understand who you are. It’s beyond MBTI kind of stuff. I’m referring to a closer look at yourself. That’s where the Johari Window comes in. It’s a […]
I don’t have the best memory. Hell, I barely remember what I did yesterday. Over the years, I’ve tried countless apps to track my tasks, but most of them are too complex. Sign-ins, corporate policies, integrations, fancy UIs. I don’t have time for that crap. I believe in KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid). It was one of the first principles […]