Never Less Than Success

Career Tips for Aspiring Management Consultants and Accountants

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6 Ways to Give Directions So You Don’t Have to Give “Constructive” Feedback Later

How to Give Direction

The hardest part of managing people is…the people. Every person has a unique personality, a particular set of needs, and a life outside of work that can infringe on neatly placed work boundaries at any given moment.

And that’s not to mention that each people manager has the exact same elements in play.

What that means is that on any given day, there is a chance – hopefully, a small one – of each of those elements on both sides seeming to conspire against you to create “one of those days”. [Read more…]

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3 Reasons Virtual Meetings Will Always Be a Secondary Option

Virtual Relationships

Relationships might be built online but they are solidified in person, whether that be business (think client buyers) or personal (think online dating). That’s on my mind because I just got back from a meeting in Salt Lake City and it made a world of difference. I think I was in town for roughly 16 hours and was asleep in the hotel room for a decent chunk of that. It was kind of funny, because my flight out got delayed to the point that I was checking in for my flight home before I even left the San Jose airport.

A big part of why some folks like virtual meetings isn’t what you think. The official reasoning might be that it saves on travel cost or time wasted migrating between meetings but I know some people who won’t walk next door if there is a webex link in a meeting invite. Some of it might be laziness but I think the more likely culprit is work overload. [Read more…]

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4 Ways to Win When You’re Against the Odds

4 Ways to Win When You're Against the Odds

After being in management consulting for so long, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that I’m wired to identify problems. If you think about principles of performance management and project management that are large parts of what consultants do, it makes sense that you get the most bang for your buck by spending your time addressing things that aren’t going well and need attention/change more so than the things that are going just as you planned.

The downside of this exception-based management is that people who are performing well don’t always get the recognition they rightfully deserve to encourage them to keep it up.

This brings me to Tom Brady, a guy who by most accounts is winning at life. He’s rich, a pro athlete, has a supermodel wife (also rich), and may have just solidified his status as the greatest quarterback in the history of the National Football League based on the outcome of the Super Bowl (his 5th championship).

And what did I do? I sent you an email about the train wreck that was the Atlanta Falcons. While the lessons to learn from the Falcons’ collective shortcomings were legit, we can also learn what it takes to beat the odds by looking at what the Patriots did during that same game. [Read more…]

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What the Atlanta Falcons’ Unprecedented Collapse Can Teach Us About Business

Atlanta Falcon meltdown has some valuable lessons

I’m just going to come right out and say it. The Atlanta Falcons gave us the most epic collapses in Super Bowl history, and possibly all of sports (this and this make it a tough choice). In case you’re not an American football fan, the Atlanta Falcons boasted one of the most prolific offenses in the National Football League all year and managed to get up 28-3 in the biggest many of them will ever play. It was announced during that game that no team up by 19 or more points in a playoff game had ever lost. This scenario had happened 93 times prior to this year’s Super Bowl.

Luckily for me, meltdowns make for more compelling writing than blowouts and as sad as that game was for anyone, who calls the Falcons their team, there are 3 important lessons you can draw from their shortcoming. [Read more…]

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I got called out by a kindergartener for underperforming (and he was totally right)

my kindergartener called me out

I’ve had quite a few occasions to talk about times where I’ve had to do some major self-reflection on my career choice to go into consulting. There was that one time that my son imitated me by grabbing my carry-on suitcase and bee-lining for the front door (here’s the proof). Sidenote: isn’t great how you can always trust your kids to hold up a distortion-free mirror with a reflection of ALL of your behaviors.

And there was this other time when my daughter told me she was so glad I came over…when all I did was come home…from yet another work trip. It was almost enough to make me quit management consulting.

I got called out again the week before last. [Read more…]

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How to Account for Client Retainers and the Mistake Many Small Businesses Make

how to account for retainers

If you’re starting a service business, you may have concluded that it makes sense for you to charge a retainer up-front. When dealing with small business or individuals, charging a retainer can help you make sure you don’t get stuck with invoices you have trouble getting paid. Maybe your clients ran out of cash unexpectedly or maybe they decided the agreed upon work wasn’t actually what they wanted and refused to pay. In any case, work you perform has a cost associated with it so covering yourself to prevent losing money on deals is a top priority. If you can’t collect more cash than you spend, your business will face certain death, no matter how popular your offering. [Read more…]

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Keeping up with the Blacks

onion volcano

Tonight my family and I decided to go out to dinner to one of those hibachi style restaurants. We don’t go there often but when I do, I like to make the most of it. By that, I mean the lobster tail and filet mignon combo is usually my go to.

A little after the onion volcano – easily the fan favorite – my wife asks if I saw her text. I hadn’t so I checked to see why she was texting me from 3 feet away. [Read more…]

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5 Reasons You Should Be Proud to Ask Dumb Questions at Work

asking dumb questions at work

I was in this restaurant, home of some of the best pulled pork I’ve had in some time, and a noticed a sign on the wall that resonated with me.

It said “asking dumb questions is easier than correcting dumb mistakes”.

How many times have you been in a training or workshop or speech and had a question you wanted to ask but you held back because you didn’t want to be the person asking the stupid question?

Instead, you hold your tongue and try to quiet your curiosity until the urge to clarify your understanding passes. You can do better than that. [Read more…]