Todd Dewett - UCSC Extension in Silicon Valley

Welcome to the third and final installation of On Tattoos and Leadership. I’ve been pondering the possible ties between my love of ink and my love of leadership and professional life. Part 1 addressed the need to resist stereotypes. Part 2 tackled the need for balance between short-term and long-term decision-making. What have I learned [...]

Hello. My name is Todd and I am a tattooaholic. Maybe if I had more taste I’d be a tattoo aficionado. In any case, I’ve been a fan since age nineteen. That very first tattoo seriously heightened my awareness of social norms. In one social context – a party with other young adults – the [...]

I used to be a walking contradiction. I was a professional who sported many tattoos. While the stigma still exists in the United States, it is fading fast. I am becoming normal. One in five people have ink in our country. It is a normal right of passage for many. We have multiple television programs [...]

This week was my youngest son’s first school play. He was Pig #2 in a version of The Three Little Pigs. As I stood on a chair in the back of the room aiming my video recorder it dawned on me that there were a few useful leadership lessons unfolding before me. Try these on: [...]

I teach and preach leadership to one audience or another 365 days each year. The biggest slice of the leadership pie is probably communication. One of the most interesting topics within the area of communication is email use. Excuse me… what I meant is email abuse! Technology is fascinating but it must be used with [...]

The CEO begs them once more, “We need new ideas guys.” While he speaks this sentence, every member of his top team averts their eyes, choosing instead to look at the floor, a report, or their smart phone. I’ve watched versions of this scene thousands of times. In this case, the history of dealing with [...]

One of the best pieces of advice I can give you regarding decision-making is to stand on your own two feet. Yes, there will be times you will find it strategically useful to defer to someone else’s view. Yes, there are times when you need to go along to get along. Fine, but most of [...]

The world recently lost one of the finest visionaries ever: Steve Jobs. Like many others, I feel compelled to say something about it. There will be two quick parts to this rant.  First, a note about how we unproductively think about our heroes in unrealistic and idealistic ways. Second, I would like to share a few [...]

Our economy is enormous and is still the envy of much of the world, despite our decaying financial condition. How best to improve our economy in the long-term? I suggest the answer has little to do with stimulus spending or reductions in the size of government. Depending on your view, these variables might have an [...]

Most professionals tell me they never have enough time to do everything they wish to do in a given day, week, or month. That is bull. They simply have not used the available time correctly. There are three main issues that you have to contend with if you want to control time instead of allowing [...]

One of my favorite topics in professional life concerns the things we do to develop ourselves. The most interesting part of this topic is realizing that it is not complex. The ideas you need to master are well known and quite simple. The only question is whether or not you will become committed to building [...]