Three Professional Tips I Learned from Cooking in the Backcountry
This September, John, Godfrey and I along with a gaggle of other fellows headed north of Vancouver to hike Elfin Lakes in Garibaldi Provincial Park. That day we had a lot of fun climbing to the top of an ancient volcano…
Three professional lessons from your favourite college films
This week millions of students all over the world will be heading back to school. Most peoples’ experiences at university bear little resemblance to the Hollywood hijinks in films like Old School. But there are pearls of truth in plenty…
Four Professional Lessons We Can Learn from Gawker (RIP)
This week, Gawker posted its last story. The snarky, gossipy website was the scourge of the New York media establishment, Hollywood and Silicon Valley (among other communities). Plenty has been written already about who killed Gawker and whether we should…
What I am Learning from Dinner Conversations about Gratitude
Having dinner together as a family is one of the simplest things that you can do to build a healthy community at home. Whether you share a meal with one person or twenty, taking time together to reflect on our…
How to Show Up for a Grieving Colleague
It might be a death in the family, a miscarriage or a new life situation that hugely alters their life trajectory. Whatever is the event, it plummets your colleague into grief. While many workplaces offer short term bereavement leave, it’s…
Five Lessons about Learning from Home Renovations
Last weekend my family moved into our new home, which needs many minor renovations. Things like re-sealing toilets, gutter cleaning and caulking, fence-repair, dimmer-switch-installing, and many similar tasks me uncomfortable because I suck at them. A recent HBR article by…
Three Ways to Make Someone’s Day
Great leaders – the ones who can really get the best out of people – understand the importance of working with folks holistically. It’s essential to treat people as human beings, not just employees, because human beings get pushed on…
Five Lessons in Awesomeness from Tom Petty
My favourite podcast is called Stop Podcasting Yourself and a few months ago its hosts Dave Shumka and Graham Clark talked about Running Down a Dream, the documentary about Tom Petty that you can find on Netflix. I love Tom…
Six Strategies for Solving Big Problems
In our professional lives, we’re frequently confronted with difficult decisions whose scope and complexity can be overwhelming. Big problems can place you in organizational paralysis. Here are six strategies for breaking out of that stasis to solve big problems effectively…
Three Professional Lessons from my June Sports Soccer Tournament
Earlier this month, I travelled with soccer players from the Vancouver Street Soccer League to Alert Bay to compete in the Aboriginal soccer tournament called June Sports. To read more about this tournament, you can check out this excellent article…