Hold Onto Your BUT

Imagine yourself hearing this. “We’re happy with your work but we’re making a change.” Um, it sure sounds like they’re not that happy with your work, and what did you do wrong anyway? Or they might say: “You did a good job on the project but there’s room for improvement.” You hear: “It must not…

That LinkedIn Feeling

You’ve run into this, I’m sure. You get a connection request on LinkedIn—somebody wants to be part of your professional network. Maybe you accept automatically. “The more, the merrier,” sums up your approach to social media. Or maybe you check their profile, see if you know people in common, and give it some thought. Then…

Are you a Trusted Advisor, or just giving advice?

You hear this a lot, especially from people who give advice for a living. Could be financial advice, health advice, get-your-kid-into-college advice, whatever. “I’m a trusted advisor to my clients,” they’ll say, as if “trusted advisor” were printed on their business cards. It’s not, usually. And I’m not sure how many of the people who…

Pays To Be Pretty—Or Does It?

At a Professional Presence workshop, we tackled the sometimes-sticky issue of appropriate attire for the office. “Why shouldn’t I wear jeans and a t-shirt?” they wanted to know. “We’re business casual!” My answer: When you get dressed for work, the big issue isn’t what can you get away with today. You’d be better off to…

Nope, Uh-uh, No Siree Bob

You’ve been there, right? You applied for a promotion—it went to someone else. Offered your services to the perfect client and heard, “No, thanks.” Interviewed for a job you didn’t get. I just ran into the rejection buzz saw. And it sent me back to look at what I’d learned from Jia Jang when he…