Diamond Pencils

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Does your job title matter?
Yes. Obviously it does, in some ways. People with some job titles tend to get paid more than people with other job titles. Some levels of job title tend…
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Benyamin Elias
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When do you need approval?
The City of Los Angeles has perhaps the clearest example of an approval process that was designed to fail. Placing a single bus shelter within city…
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Benyamin Elias
1
Are you a task-solver or a problem-solver
“If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a brilliant team, they will either fix it or throw it…
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Benyamin Elias
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You can leave if you want to
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Controversial career advice: Skills first, then company (also: how to choose a company)
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Don’t trust the Process™
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Internal value vs external value
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How to get what you want at work in 2022
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Do you have a team or not?
If you’re a manager and your reports don’t regularly talk to each other, in what sense do you have a team? It’s common for new managers — especially if…
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Benyamin Elias
As a manager, your team is your peers (not your reports)
“A manager’s output = The output of his organization + The output of the neighboring organizations under his influence. Why? Because business and…
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Benyamin Elias
2
Becoming a people manager is not a promotion
“According to the story, Damocles was pandering to his king, Dionysius, exclaiming that Dionysius was truly fortunate as a great man of power and…
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Benyamin Elias
Your boss is an idiot (and so am I)
“Communication with others takes place when they understand what you're trying to get across to them. If they don't understand, then you are not…
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Benyamin Elias
1
Your team is wrong about what it can get done
“I’m not very interested in individual performance; I’m only interested in team performance. I can double a team’s productivity in a month, but an…
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Benyamin Elias
It’s not about “standing up for yourself”
When I googled “how to get what you want at work,” everything was about how you can’t get stuff without asking for it. Or about how you need to stand up…
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Benyamin Elias
How to own a mistake at work
Who knew making a mistake could lead to more trust and responsibility?
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Benyamin Elias
Diamond Pencils
The "soft" skills that nobody teaches but are what make people actually successful at work.
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