Hard-won lessons from accomplished leaders — each one read aloud, then expanded by our analysis. From KeyLearnings.ai, the invitation-only home of Key Learnings, plus free assessments for your time and your work happiness.
Reading the feed…
A good friend of mine spent his career as VP of HR for a manufacturing company. He was older than me, and over the years he watched hundreds of colleagues retire. He also watched what happened to… — A Key Learning by Chuck Rutledge, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
In the late 1990s, ADP was recruiting me away from AT&T. The courtship started with a dinner with Brad Smith — yes, that Brad Smith, who would go on to become the CEO of Intuit. It took me about ten… — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
When I started at ADP in 1997, I met a great, ambitious salesperson named Scott Delea. We hit it off instantly, and we discovered we shared the same dream: someday, each of us wanted to build a… — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
We have all sat through the corporate ritual. The meeting room settles, the leader opens the floor, and the instruction is given: "Let's go around the room and share a bit about our backgrounds." — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
In 1998, I was promoted into a new VP of Marketing role at a Fortune 500 company and inherited a team of very talented people. They were great at what they did — traditional, old-world marketing. The… — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
During my MBA, I learned a simple model about how teams develop. Nearly thirty years later, it may be the thing from those classrooms I quote most often. — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
Most problems are one big complicated mess. It's hard for people to get their arms around them and know how to start. "I'm not happy at work." or "My life is crazy and I feel out of control." Stated… — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
I wasn’t the best student. It wasn’t that I didn’t like learning. I did. I was curious about all kinds of things. The problem was that they weren’t always the things I was supposed to be learning. I… — A Key Learning by Steven Goldthwaite, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
I had a wonderful, life-long friend named Dave Kreutzer. We grew up in the same neighborhood. In high school, we were allowed days off to visit colleges. So one day Dave and I borrowed a friend's… — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
When you're testing marketing campaigns, lead generation programs, or sales plays, you have to try a lot of things. Most of them won't work. That's not failure — that's what testing is. — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
When I was in Sales at AT&T, I got a frantic call one morning from my contact at McGettigan's Travel — a great, historic Philadelphia travel agency, that was still being run by the McGettigan family.… — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
Early in my career, I was always too busy for lunch. I'd skip it entirely, or I'd run down to the cafeteria, grab something, and carry it right back to my office so I could keep working. To me, that… — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
My first car was a 1983 Mazda RX7 GLX. Silver exterior, red leather interior, stick shift, fully loaded, with that unique RX7 rotary engine. It was the kind of car you'd walk away from, then turn… — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
Early in my career, I was in sales at AT&T, in an office in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania — top floor. One April afternoon in 1991, a colleague suddenly yelled: "Oh my god! Oh my god! I just saw a plane… — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
When I started in sales at AT&T in 1988, I did ride-alongs with some of our best salespeople. You learn more watching a great rep for a day than you do in a week of training. — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
One of my bosses back at AT&T, Mary Upchurch, shaped my career in many ways. But there's one thing about Mary that mattered more than all the rest. — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
I had a great boss at AT&T named Mary Upchurch. I learned a lot from her — lessons I've carried through my whole career. — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
If you've read my "Right to Left Thinking" post, you know how my mind works. I start with where I want to end up — a specific goal, a real date — and I work backward to today. It's served me well for… — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
My first job out of college was at Marine Midland Bank, in the World Trade Center in New York City. My mom was so proud. "My son is a banker," she'd tell people. — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
When I started my career at ADP, I was a Director of Marketing. This was 1997 — and back then, AOL was one of the most powerful companies on the planet. — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
When I worked at ADP, one of the senior-most leaders was an ex-McKinsey consultant. Initially, I had a really hard time connecting with him. Our meetings just didn't flow. — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
Back in 2003, I was on a flight, sitting next to a woman I'd never met. I started a conversation and at one point she asked me what I did. — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
There's a great Weezer song called "The Girl Got Hot." There is one line that says "What used to mean a little now means a lot”. It's about someone who used to get overlooked suddenly becomes the one… — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
Early in my career, I landed a tough new job — the kind where you feel like you have everything to prove. So I did what ambitious people do: I went away and built a plan. Not just any plan. A really… — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
The moment you think things are going great and you are exceeding your targets is exactly the time to force yourself and your team to worry. Building a business is so hard and takes so much out of… — A Key Learning by Dan Lynn, followed by our AI analysis. Read it, and take the free assessments, at keylearnings.ai.
