Learn from Success
“Learn from your mistakes.” How many times have you heard this? It’s good advice, as far as it goes. The lessons of our failures are valuable — burn your finger once and you learn to steer clear of the hot stove. But how often have you conducted an autopsy of a success? What might you learn if you did? Chip Heath and Dan Heath’s reader-friendly book “Switch — How to Change Things When Change is Hard” invites us to devote more attention to our successes — both for what we can learn about how to solve a problem and to help avoid overwhelm...
Read MoreLearning from the Seventh Circuit — the Art of Being Influenced
The New York Times’ recent article about Seventh Circuit Judge Diane Wood, a “left-leaning woman in a world of right-leaning men,” highlights her ability to influence her colleagues — most notably conservatives Judge Richard Posner and Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook. Her skills as a persuader make her an attractive potential Supreme Court nominee to Democrats like me seeking to replace retiring Justice Stevens with a jurist who can influence Justice Kennedy to side with the more liberal wing of the high court. Enormous credit is due the extraordinary Judge Wood,...
Read MoreTaking Your Game to a Bigger Arena
I am just back from a trip to New York to pitch my old law firm, Davis Polk & Wardwell, on the value of coaching and try to persuade them to include coaching in their associate development and retention program. I’ll cut to the chase: I was unsuccessful. My lack of track record in a firm setting, management’s structural concerns, and the current economic climate all conspired to make my proposal a non-starter. And while I feel disappointed, I’m not crushed. I don’t feel like a failure. I actually feel proud of myself. So what’s that about? It’s...
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