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How do you know what to do?
Before I was a meddling executive myself, I used to lose sleep over executive meddling. Why can’t they just trust I know what I’m doing? Why can’t they…
Feb 12
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Benyamin Elias
1
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How do you know what to do?
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November 2023
How (not) to present an idea
About 5 years ago I was so stressed at work that a blood vessel popped in my eye. I was getting great results at work — the kind of up-and-to-the-right…
Nov 29, 2023
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Benyamin Elias
6
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How (not) to present an idea
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October 2023
The fundamental soft skills (but not the *most* obvious ones)
I started writing this newsletter because there are soft skills that nobody teaches you, and that will quickly become the limiting step on your career…
Oct 10, 2023
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Benyamin Elias
6
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The fundamental soft skills (but not the *most* obvious ones)
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May 2023
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…
May 9, 2023
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Benyamin Elias
5
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Does your job title matter?
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April 2023
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…
Apr 24, 2023
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Benyamin Elias
3
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When do you need approval?
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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…
Apr 18, 2023
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Benyamin Elias
6
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Are you a task-solver or a problem-solver
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February 2023
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…
Feb 26, 2023
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Benyamin Elias
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Do you have a team or not?
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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…
Feb 19, 2023
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Benyamin Elias
1
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As a manager, your team is your peers (not your reports)
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January 2023
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…
Jan 1, 2023
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Benyamin Elias
2
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Becoming a people manager is not a promotion
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December 2022
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…
Dec 11, 2022
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Benyamin Elias
3
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Your boss is an idiot (and so am I)
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October 2022
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…
Oct 16, 2022
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Benyamin Elias
2
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Your team is wrong about what it can get done
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August 2022
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…
Aug 28, 2022
•
Benyamin Elias
2
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It’s not about “standing up for yourself”
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