Dark strips of unfulfilled need, checkered fields of loneliness

It's easy to set boundaries when you're only accountable to yourself. But when you have a manager, direct reports, coworkers, clients, company founders, and so on, it gets a bit more complicated. Here are several scenarios, some of which are in the person’s control, some of which are not. See if you can spot the difference. You would love nothing more than to make the resolution to not accept projects that have deadlines of less than three days away. But...

Support groups have been transformative for my adult life, both personally and professionally. Monthly masterminds, weekly men's groups, spiritual communities, quarterly networking clubs, these social networks have helped me grow and connect in powerful ways. What's more, they've helped me contribute to the growth of others. As the saying goes, sometimes you need the group, sometimes the group needs you. But something I've noticed along the way is, not all support groups are created equally. Sometimes the group fails to...

During a leadership meeting years ago, our employee survey reported that our startup had two primary complaints. The first was that our company had a work life balance problem. And the second was that our company had a productivity problem. My immediate reaction was confusion. How is that even possible? Because the first problem would suggest that people are working too much, in which case, they would probably be more productive, not less, solely based on the volume of hours...

Some people can't make decisions without other people. They’re overly dependent on others to give them reassurance, even for the most mundane things. One of the designers from an old job used to be like this. She would second guess, edit, censor and doubt herself into a frenzy on an hourly basis. Even mundane things, like where to go for lunch. By the time she was finished ruminating, researching and polling the rest of the team to see who else...

Falling in love has been called a socially acceptable form of insanity. It's also been called the most prudent form of accident in our lives. But that's the beauty of it. The fact that you can't make love happen by going out and looking for it is what makes it so special. It's called falling in love because falling is an activity that you can't do on purpose. For example, have you ever watched a soccer game where a player...