How To Be Your Own Boss Even When You Aren't⁠

Originally published Apr. 21, 2014 on Forbes.

I'm going to tell you a secret that you already know, but probably forgot. This secret has the potential to transform your career from pretty good to spectacularly wonderful. This secret is powerful, foolproof, and highly versatile.

Are you ready?

The path to anything is to be what you want to become.

If you want to be entrepreneurial, be entrepreneurial.

If you want to be independent, be independent.

If you want to be happy, be happy.

The mistake that vast numbers of people make is that they think: I will be happy when ______ happens.

"I will be happy when I'm rich and powerful" is no way to be happy. It is a path to being unhappy for all or most of your life.

"I will be happy when I get a different boss" is a path to being a downtrodden subordinate for the rest of your life.

Most people have a boss - or 12 - above them. Your boss impacts your life, no doubt, but your boss cannot impact what's inside your head, unless you make the mistake of giving them access to your most personal of personal spaces.

Your boss can make you stay late, or answer 517 stupid questions, or do work for which he takes all the credit. But your boss cannot control whether you think like an entrepreneur or a divergent thinker.

You control your thoughts. The path to what you want is to think as though you already have what you want.

If this sounds like mumbo-jumbo to you, it's because you do not understand how people overcome incredible odds. This is how an unknown boxer becomes a world champion. It's how a "kid" becomes founder of a startup that goes public. It's how a 13-year-old girl ends up in a starring role on Broadway.

For every such success story, there are countless other people who never reached such outward success, but who far surpassed their previous "limitations" by thinking as though they already had what they wanted.

So if you want to be your own boss, be your own boss. For some time, you may have to deceive your current boss into believing that she is in charge of you, but deep inside you will know this is fiction. You are what you want to be, what you believe you are.

If you want to be proud, be proud.

Start by being proud of your ability to control what is inside your head. Focus on that, and build the you that you have always wanted to be.

Be Consistently Good Instead Of Occasionally Great⁠

Originally published Apr. 14, 2014 on Forbes.

How many people do you know who consistently fail to make any progress because they are always trying to leap past all the folks who are actually working? I'm sad to say I know more than a few.

Our business world is filled with aspirational mumbo-jumbo, from the posters put up by HR to the latest pep talk given by your newest boss. Everyone aspires to be the best of the best. Besides Avis, I can't think of a business that advertised the fact it was number two.

That having been said, I'd be thrilled to: have a book that's number two on the New York Times bestseller list, help a client go from a startup to number two in their industry, or have one of my kids be number two in his or her class.

(To make sure you get the point and don't get hung up on the number two, I'd be thrilled to be number nine on the bestseller list.)

I'm not suggesting you aim low; I'm suggesting you aim for consistent excellence rather than once-every-five-years brilliance. Try setting your sights on being trustworthy, reliable, persistent and expert. Instead of trying to be the superstar, be the person on whom others can consistently depend.

Our world loves sports, and most sports are a zero-sum game; one team wins, and the other loses. But this is a horrible model for our increasingly interconnected world. We need to stop glorifying winners and teaching our young people to admire only the Olympic gold medalist or the World Champions. It is far better to encourage someone to embody the Olympic work ethic than to brainwash them that the only path to success is to beat everyone else.

99.9% of us won't beat everyone else. We won't be great in the sense that we vanquish all others. But we still can be great in the sense that we consistently do our best and help others in a meaningful way.

Give me 20 people who are consistently good and we can change the world. The same is true for you. Align yourself with people who care more about progress than pride, who have a bigger work ethic than ego. Get stuff done. Get excited by what you achieve, and share that excitement with others.

While someone else is aiming for the stars, you will actually make a meaningful difference in our world and in the lives of people with whom you interact.

The Surprising Benefits of Managing Your Career Like an Academic

Originally published Mar. 11, 2014 on Forbes.

The traditional view of careers looks something like a straight line that hopefully slopes in an upwards direction. Professionals seek to get more money and bigger jobs, year after year, until they just can't do it any more.

But this is a model for a world that changed slower than ours does today. First Blockbuster and now Radio Shack are disappearing from retail strip malls... Kodak went from everywhere to nowhere... large public companies have all but stopped growing.

To top it all off, social media has changed the balance of power. Without even knowing each other, customers of a firm band together to ridicule their service, quality and prices. News travels in seconds. Social influence is even toppling entire governments today, so how can you expect your career path to still go in a straight line?

In this environment, you have to be flexible. Leave your expectations behind, and change as the world changes. The future belongs to the most flexible, not the strongest or smartest.

The problem, of course, is that no one knows how the future will evolve. That's why I've been looking at a wide range of possible answers.

One out-of-the-box idea is that academic careers might serve as a new model for other types of careers. To illustrate, here's a thought-provoking passage from a research paper by Yehuda Baruch:

…lateral and even downwards movement are accepted (e.g. when a Dean returns to serve as a Professor, conducting research and teaching, it is not considered “demotion”). Upwards mobility is limited, even not desired (becoming a Dean might take scholars off the research route)… Sabbaticals are part of the career. Perhaps more fundamental, the academic career model builds on networking within and across organizations.

The main reason this idea caught my attention is that while professors aren’t always known for their flexibility, they are expected to both conduct research and drive learning in their chosen field. This quest for knowledge should power your career as well.

Thinking of your career through the lens of this “academic” model might lead you to a much more interesting and robust career than you would get from employing a traditional corporate mindset.

For example, your goal might morph from trying to get promoted as often as possible to becoming a leading expert in your field. You might compare yourself to all experts in your field, instead of to all the managers in your department.

You could also ask yourself a question that many, including myself, have trouble answering: who are the other people in your space? Academics can usually name their colleagues at other universities who are pursing research or interests similar to theirs. Can you do the same?

One more thing… academics frequently collaborate with other academics, and collaboration is often a very good idea.

This article was adapted from the author's book, How to Self-Promote without Being a Jerk.

Why It Is So Hard To Bring Out Talent In Others⁠

Originally published Mar. 3, 2014 on Forbes.com

Great managers bring ordinary people together to accomplish extraordinary things. If your strategy for success is to build a "dream team" of all-stars, you are setting yourself - and your company - up for disappointment.

It is no easy task to bring out the best in other people. Human nature makes it extremely difficult for most of us to do this. It is tempting to hire the people you like best, to like the people who are most impressed with your ideas, and to promote the people who are easiest for you to manage.

In other words, human nature explains why so many business teams are ineffective, disorganized, and frustrated. We all have egos, and ego is like a voice whispering in your ear to reward the people who make you feel good. The problem is that the center of a great team is not your ego, but a common purpose.

To rise to the level of a great manager, you must first tackle your own limitations...

To offer a personal example, I'm an intuitive person, and sometimes unearth an answer while others are still eager to discuss numerous possibilities. The flip side of this tendency is that I can be impatient with "overly" detail-oriented people, and I abhor long meetings.

To be clear, these are biases. They are weaknesses.

Over time, I've learned that the more complex a problem, the more important it is to include detail-oriented people on a team. It also becomes important to collect a diverse group of people who look at the situation through different mental models.

Does any of this sound familiar? If you think you lack biases, you aren't being honest with yourself. Everyone has them; the trick is to not allow yourself to be handicapped by yours.

Pay attention

To bring out the best in others, you must learn to listen to the things you don't want to hear...

• The people who disagree with your own opinions

• The people who love the sound of their own voices, but who actually say things of value

• The people who are too shy or nervous or disenchanted to participate

• The people who think this whole process is a waste of time... and just might be right

A few people are innately talented at listening. Most of us are not. It is hard work to learn to pay attention, but you will never be a great manager unless you learn to pay attention.

Work behind the scenes

In our social media age, CEOs and entrepreneurs often take on the role of rock stars; they hog the press, and take too much credit.

A great leader does the opposite... she or he often works behind the scenes to empower others, to develop their talents, and to boost their careers.

Think of it this way: you are paid to produce certain results, not to deceive yourself that you walk on water. If successful, you will make things happen, and be handsomely rewarded for doing so. Do you really need applause for every smart move you make?

Be open-minded. Be present. Be humble.

Add it all up, and this simple formula is deceptively simple to execute. The truth is, it is not hard to figure out how to bring out the talent in others. It is just hard to be a big enough person to do it.

Go ahead... give it a shot.