Space Owner or Place Holder?

One of the frustrations I hear from firm leaders is when their professionals won’t step up, be responsible and make suggestions and decisions that are theirs to make. Instead, their staff rely too much on others to pick up the slack. That one void in their staff makes...

When Your Best Isn’t

What do you do when doing your best isn’t good enough? You do the usual best things and put forth your usual best efforts but they don’t achieve what you’re pursuing. Then what? Should you expect more of yourself? From others? Or should you just shrug your shoulders...

Things Don’t Just Happen

When an important client or key staff leaves, an engagement budget is blown, or something seems to just come out of the blue, it’s tempting to say “it just happened.” While it may appear to be out of your control or have any ability to anticipate it, the...

Entitled, Employed, Engaged or Empowered?

All performance begins with your frame of mind. How you see yourself and your work predict your actions and behavior. I’ve identified four perspectives that generally describe how you could see yourself. It doesn’t matter if you’re in your first year or you’re...

How To Be Unremarkable

I tried to recall a professional I met who settled for being unremarkable, but no one comes to mind. Don’t get me wrong—I’ve met plenty of people who work in one of the professional disciplines who don’t aspire to be exceptional. They had jobs, not careers; they...