know-it-all

How to Deal With an Obnoxious Know-It-All

How to manage an obnoxious employee or vendor? Glad you asked—and I know you’re “asking for a friend” because no one wants to admit they’ve...

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ramble

Bring the Rambling Show-Off to a Stop

You run into ramblers everywhere: On a Zoom webinar. In the board room. In your training class. The reasons vary: They have extensive experience....

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hypothetical question

How to Keep Hypotheticals From Burying You

Suppose you’re in a staff meeting or rolling out a new policy in an all-hands meeting, and Rani, an employee, poses this question to you: “You...

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literary agent

Why Do Literary Agents Take So Long to Respond?

“The agent requested my proposal right away after I sent my pitch. But it’s been two weeks, and I haven’t heard a word. Is that good or bad?...

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hiring interview

Structuring the Hiring Interview

In my first few years as owner/CEO of a small business, I wasted far too much time in interviewing job applicants. My habit was to ask a few softball...

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first-impressions

How to Reverse a Bad First Impression

You’ve heard it said: “You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.” That may be true—but you can definitely change that...

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