I had a young man come into my office the other day looking absolutely terrible. He kind of barged in and planted himself on my couch. In that bit of silence, I noticed a leadership book in his hand. “Hey,” I said, “how’s that book? I haven’t read it yet.” “It’s great. There’s so much […]
In my normal morning rounds, a young man asks if I’d made contact with a guy in Tennessee I said I would. It went a little like this: Him: “CMC, did you talk to that guy last night?” Me: “I sure did.” “Great! Did you tell him I wanted this, or this, or I’d get […]
With New England Ribfest right around the corner here in Bangor on September 15th and 16th, I’m reminded of how good ribs changed my career for the better and taught me an important lesson. A long time ago, I was trying to get a project started with another office on the other side of town. […]
I remember my high school math classes where the instructor insisted we show our work. For most of you, I bet you have a similar memory in your head from the title. It didn’t make sense back then. This is easy, and who cares if I show my work or not if the answer is […]
My boss has a question. It’s my job to get the answer, but I don’t always have it in my back pocket. Between his question and whoever has that answer, there is always some empty space while I look for the information I need. So, after some running around, phone calls, and emails, I finally […]
The new guy sits across from me. Today’s his first day, but I can see the future: – He’ll be late, probably tomorrow. – He won’t listen. – He’s going to embarrass his manager and create strain on his department. – His personality isn’t going to mesh well with the rest of the team. – He’ll […]
I received an email from a reader who was on her way to a new job and wanted advice on how to make a good first impression. There’s a great book out there titled The First 90 Days, which is a guide for people at the upper level, but most in middle management don’t have […]
This one is overtly Navy-themed. I just couldn’t figure out a way to talk about this in different terms. People who don’t really understand the Navy often ask me what I do. When I was in medicine, the answer was easy. I had a technical trade with a title that everyone understood. Nowadays, it’s a […]
I said earlier that if there’s some discussion I keep having with my boss, specifically if it’s a positive one, I should share. This article is a bit of a twist on that. When my last boss and I discussed our success, he said it wasn’t that we were doing amazing things, just that we […]
Bad news… A list came out one night at sea, and it wasn’t a good one. Specifically, it was bad news for a list of certain people. It wasn’t official, but it was pretty close, and the boss and I knew this was exactly what seven or eight people didn’t want to hear. We had […]
