Welcome to The Competence/Charisma Model. I created it to describe the two broad skill families that are required for success in IT careers. For the purpose of this model, competence is your technical skills. It’s your ability to perform the tasks of your job. If you’re a server administrator, for example, it’s your ability to […]
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Click here to go directly to the complete article. TLDR: Setting Boundaries in Technical Support What Happens When You’re Not Setting Boundaries When I was first supporting end users, I ran into the same situation over and over again. Maybe this will sound familiar to you. I would head out on a site visit that
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Click to skip directly to the story. TLDR: Leadership Blind Spots Read the whole article below the video. A 17-Year-Old, a Bus Stop, and a Leadership Lesson That Lasted for Years I was seventeen, standing alone at a bus stop in Denver late at night. Streetlights buzzed overhead. The city had gone quiet in that
I recently encountered someone who acted condescending toward me. They put on an air of superiority and treated me as though I wasn’t very bright. I’m not the smartest person I know, but I did qualify for membership in Mensa, the high-IQ society. (To be clear, it’s nothing to be proud of. It’s something you’re
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TLDR: How to Work with Someone You Don’t Like • You do not have to like everyone you work with, but you are responsible for how you treat them• Working with people you don’t like is a leadership skill, not a personality flaw• Awareness and intentionality reduce conflict and improve outcomes• The five principles of
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TLDR: 2 Words That Change Everything Read more just below the video. From Transactions to Relationships: A Compassionate Geek New Year’s Resolution That Actually Works Most of us don’t wake up thinking, Today I’m going to treat people like transactions. It just happens. It happened with me in the early days of my career and
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Here’s a truth most of us don’t like to admit: the personal leadership principles that guide our lives rarely come from bestselling books, viral posts, or polished keynote stages. (As an author and keynote speaker, this is very difficult for me!) They come from regular people saying something simple, true, and stubbornly useful at exactly
Three Aphorisms for Your New Year: Personal Leadership Principles Read More »
It’s Wednesday, December 24, the day before Christmas. Normally, I would have spent Tuesday preparing a blog post that would publish today. Instead, yesterday I spent hanging out with my grandkids and Janet, my wife. My granddaughter and I spent Monday making marshmallows from scratch. My grandson is starting to experiment with music, so I
TL;DR: Remembering Names Matters Read more beneath the video. About once a week, I stop by the Gibb’s coffee kiosk near my home in Auburn, Washington. Riley, the barista, always remembers my name. That alone is impressive, but she also remembers how I order my coffee and how Janet (my spouse) orders her coffee. But
TLDR: People Skills for IT Technicians Read the full article just below the video. Do People Skills Really Matter for IT Engineers and Technicians? Engineers and technicians are often thought of as the problem solvers in the workplace, the people who fix things when technology goes wrong. This reputation is well earned, built on technical
Do People Skills Really Matter for IT Engineers and Technicians? The Definitive Answer Read More »
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