You’re at a reception, and you’ve just met someone. You’ve exchanged names and traded the line you always say about what you do. Then comes the pause where the conversation either goes somewhere or it doesn’t. Three things can happen next. You stay on facts. She mentions she’s been at her firm four years. You offer something similar about your own path. The two of you trade biography for a while, pleasant and forgettable, until one of you spots someone across the room. You mo

Early in your career, meetings tend to feel fairly straightforward. You speak, people look at you while you’re talking, and then their attention naturally turns to the next speaker or to whoever is facilitating the conversation. Once your comment is finished, the spotlight moves on. At some point, that changes. As you take on more responsibility, people start watching you even when you are not speaking. While someone else is sharing an idea, eyes drift toward you. When a coll

My wife and I homeschool our two children. It’s something we love, and our kids seems to love too. We get to design their learning around their interests, explore topics deeply, and create an environment that’s supportive and fun. But we face one recurring challenge. Because homeschooling doesn't follow a traditional schedule, our roles as parents and teachers are constantly shifting. We're always moving between being mom or dad and being the teacher or the coach. Sometimes,

Some thoughts arrive unexpectedly. Others return again and again. You revisit the mistake you made. You rethink the conversation that did not sit right with you. You imagine everything that could go wrong tomorrow. The thoughts may begin automatically, but the longer they stay, the more of your attention and energy they consume. Over time, preparing what I think of as a redirection thought has helped me. If you find yourself dwelling on a specific thought repeatedly, you can

Most presenters close by summarizing and sit down without asking for anything. When you don’t ask your audience to act, you let them off the hook. Here’s why presenters skip the ask, and why a no is worth more than silence.

Conventional wisdom about slide decks leads many professionals to think they should design minimalist slides, like the ones we see in TED Talks. Slides from Matt Cutts’s TED Talk, “Try Something New for 30 Days.” But slides like these rarely make sense in workplace settings where detailed information is necessary to make and support an argument. Left to their own devices, many professionals swing to the opposite extreme: slides overloaded with text and graphics. In short, man

AI tools can generate slides instantly, but that doesn’t mean they’re effective. This post explores what AI can and can’t do when it comes to building a clear, compelling slide deck. If you're using AI in your presentation workflow or thinking about it, this piece will help you understand how to get the most out of the tools without giving up control.

This post explores how bracketed subject lines can save time, reduce confusion, and make internal communication more efficient.

Some people become more confident and decisive when they step into leadership roles. Others become louder, less receptive, and harder to reach. Over time, I’ve noticed how power can subtly reshape how people lead and not always for the better.

Early in my career, I worked in a department where the office manager kept track of our vacation time. Every month, she’d send out a...