Stuck between mediocrity and excellence

For almost the past 11 years, I was on the road. (Traveling Monday through Thursday to some foreign land in the domestic United States). I think that I can say that in those 11 years, I had one project that was local and it was for 6 months. The irony about that local project was that I absolutely hated it. I hated Atlanta traffic. I hated paying for parking. And I hated not being able to expense lunch. Keep in mind that I was single with no kids. Fast forward and now I am no longer traveling. Soon my Delta status will cease to exist. I will no longer be Platinum at Marriott or Starwood. The corporate Amex Platinum is gone. Every status that once defined me will disappear. And unlike a lot of my friends that are big wigs at other companies, I took a hit in compensation in order to get off of the road. My decision was purely based on spending more time with my family and watching my son (16 months now) grow up. I will tell you that that there is a lot to adjust to. Income go...

In Marcus Buckingham's book, The One Thing You Need to Know, he says, "If you can't do, teach. And if you really can't do, consult about it." It's no wonder that at some point I'd like to teach college and more specifically, why I'm still in management consulting. I either can't do or I'm just plain incompetent. I decided to make the move from an extremely large management consulting practice to a local one. One of my very first blog posts was about how much I hated my old firm's new performance review process. Fast forward to today and let's just say that one of my "asks" at my new firm is to look at the review process and identify any pertinent gaps. Man, karma is alive and kicking. Either way that I look at this, there is no way that I can make everyone happy -- whatever the output is. If there is one thing that I've learned, it's that whenever you are associated with an impact on someone's compensation - ...