Tag Archives: career

How I trimmed 1,900 messages and never felt hungry!

By Steve | Published: August 23, 2010
I reduced my work inbox from 1,904 messages to zero over the weekend. I can’t tell you the peace of mind. Back about 1,800 inbox messages ago, I started to fret. The scrolling screens of red unread messages were my hamster wheel. A thousand inbox messages later, I felt symptoms of drowning each time I [...]
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A book for resolve: Change or Die

By Steve | Published: January 1, 2010
Change or Die by Alan Deutschman was referred to me by a physician who is using its ideas to help her patients make life changes (thanks, Deb). It was an ideal read to usher in a new year, a new decade and a new phase in my career. Many of the change ideas were familiar to [...]
Posted in Book reviews, Leadership, Life, Organizational communication, Organizational culture | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Poet brings vision statement to life

By Steve | Published: December 23, 2009
Tears of pride welled up yesterday as I watched a corporate video. A corporate video! Diane Gage-Lofgren, our national VP of communications and PR, had asked a poet/performance artist  to bring life to our communication team’s new vision statement. A stroke of genius. I will forever have a visual and resonant image to add soul [...]
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Filmmaker’s advice for great business storytelling

By Steve | Published: December 18, 2009
Filmmaker Peter Guber (Rainman, Batman, The Color Purple) once used storytelling to win Fidel Castro’s support for filming in Havana Harbor. The official application form had been torpedoed, but El Presidente enthusiastically endorsed the project once he heard Guber tell of the harbor’s historic significance and Castro’s responsibility to the world to share that piece of [...]
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Book review: Must-read for job seekers

By Steve | Published: May 20, 2009
In her new book Tell Me About Yourself, Katharine Hansen provides actionable advice for incorporating storytelling in cover letters, resumes, job interviews, and conversations with the boss. As someone who is on the hiring end of the equation, I can vouch for the effectiveness of strategic storytelling (see my posts, What I look for in [...]
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Story of the week: Optimistic college grads

By Steve | Published: May 17, 2009
The jobless numbers are bad, as the TV anchor team reminded us in their lead-in. But even so, students who got their sheepskin Saturday at University of Colorado Denver were upbeat. How could they not be? The heavy cloud cover broke up precisely at 9 a.m., just as Pomp and Circumstances began to play. In [...]
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What I look for in resumes

By Steve | Published: April 18, 2009
Of the 200 resumes I have looked at over the past two weeks, only one stands out. At the end of this resume, the applicant provided her personal mission/vision statement: My mission is to be better than I was yesterday. My action is not to get through the day, but to gain from the day. [...]
Posted in Applied stories, Your career | Also tagged | 3 Comments

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