Odds are you work in a factory. Not a traditional factory, with an assembly line and a cartoon-like whistle blowing at each shift change (although you might). Seth Godin’s new book, Linchpin, sets forth the idea that the majority of us do factory work: we do routine, average anonymous tasks for routine, average, anonymous wages. [...]
I recently had a bittersweet lunch with a friend of mine. It was exciting to catch up with him, but sad to hear his story. He’s unhappy in his current job, but unsure what to do about it. His family is too accustomed to the quality of life his income provides and he is unsure [...]
Last week I had the opportunity to give a talk at the inaugural IgniteOKC event in Oklahoma City. I chose three essays in the “How to Fail” series and compiled them into the talk you see below. For those of you unfamiliar with Ignite, it is a style of presentation where speakers are given 5 [...]
Conventional wisdom tells us that we ought to live for the moment. Experts tout that the past is history, the future a mystery and so today is our present. Sounds wonderful and appealing to book marketers, even though it is deeply flawed.
Consider for a moment, the story of Norman Bourlag. In 1970 Norman Bourlag was [...]
David Beckham knows something you don’t.
Sure, Beckham knows how to curl a soccer ball 35-yards over a wall of opposing players and have the ball dip into the bottom corner of the goal at just the right moment. But he also knows a bigger secret: as long as he can bend a soccer ball like [...]
I have a friend who volunteers for just about everything. She spends countless hours on the phone, worrying for other people. She spends significant amounts of money helping others who may or may not use her help properly. She volunteers for just about every activity that church and family want her to participate in.
She says [...]
I have a dream to be the lead singer of a rock band, filing small clubs with raving fans. I have a dream of owning a restaurant, probably a steakhouse, where sophisticated and important clients discuss world events and make deals over aged prime steaks. I have a dream of having dinner with the President, [...]
I have a colleague who is chronically unorganized. It seems as though every time I talk to her, she is telling me how she forgot to do something or made an error on some piece of paperwork. The other day, we had a meeting over lunch. The rest of us arrived on time and waited. [...]
Peter Gibbons spoke for all of us. Gibbons, the main character of the movie Office Space, is asked what he would do if he had one million dollars. The question, used by motivational speakers and high school guidance counselors alike, is intended to help people discover what they should do with their working life. When [...]
I have a friend whose boss makes his life miserable. This boss takes no interest in my friend’s professional development or how he can develop as an engineer. Once during dinner, my friend asked me how such an incompetent manager could have been promoted in the first place.
The answer is explained by the Peter Principle.
Professor [...]
About
David Burkus is the editor of LeaderLab, a community of resources dedicated to promoting the practice of leadership theory. He is an executive coach, a sought-after speaker and an adjunct professor at Oral Roberts University’s School of Business.