Birds do it. Bees do it. All humans do it, but not always well or for long. Focus is a primary ability of all living creatures, built into DNA as a necessary skill for thriving in nature. When humans pay attention and focus fully on a task, they learn, understand, and act decisively. But human … [Read more...] about The FANS of Focus
Four Promises of Effective Leaders
What makes a leader stand out as remarkably effective? Everyone expects great things from leaders—probably more than is humanly possible. But leaders must deliver only four interdependent promises to drive business results. Failure to complete a single promise will likely lead to disappointing … [Read more...] about Four Promises of Effective Leaders
Find Your Personal Passion
At some point in your career, you may sense a creeping malaise. You’re no longer enthusiastic about the day ahead. When did your brilliant career become the daily grind? What happened to your passion? “We hear a great deal of talk about the midlife crisis of the executive. It is mostly boredom.” ~ … [Read more...] about Find Your Personal Passion
How Great Leaders Ignite Passion and Performance
Look at today’s top-performing companies, and you’ll inevitably find a high degree of employee engagement. From frontline workers to CEOs, people are passionate about their companies’ purpose, values and mission. Most workers are motivated to give their best and often go beyond what’s required. … [Read more...] about How Great Leaders Ignite Passion and Performance
Improve Your Thinking Skills
Are you using your brain to its optimum capacity? What thinking skills should you develop? A recent article in Harvard Business Review proclaims that successful organizations of the future will place a premium on our thinking skills. “… in today’s marketplace, the smartest companies aren’t those … [Read more...] about Improve Your Thinking Skills
Self-Managing Organizations: The Next Wave?
Some forward-looking companies are now using self-managing principles to organize work with stellar results for both people and profits. Up to this point in history, we’ve organized work based on four very different worldviews: impulsive, conformist, achievement and pluralistic. This … [Read more...] about Self-Managing Organizations: The Next Wave?
What’s Your Thinking Style?
What's your thinking style? Just like we have personality preferences for introversion and extroversion, we also have preferred ways of thinking about problems. Typically, we handle problems in a tried and true way that we’re comfortable with. We don’t even know we have a thinking style because … [Read more...] about What’s Your Thinking Style?
A Brief History of Organizations: The Quest to Reinvent Work
The way we work isn’t working anymore. Some experts blame traditional organizational hierarchies, incentives that fail to motivate, disengaged employees (two-thirds of the workforce), and a system that overcompensates management while undervaluing frontline workers. New ways of working have … [Read more...] about A Brief History of Organizations: The Quest to Reinvent Work
How Improv Comedy Improves Conversations at Work
Conversations at work can often feel more like political debates and battles between egos. People with strong points of view argue and debate without anyone moving toward solutions or common goals. Collaboration is difficult when conversations are competitive. Instead of dialoging together, … [Read more...] about How Improv Comedy Improves Conversations at Work
Communicating Better:
4 Social Signals
Successful people are great communicators who recognize that conversations are part of an evolving social process. They aren’t just skilled listeners; they’re attuned to subtle social signals that are more revealing than words alone — and they use them to their advantage.
We’re more connected than … [Read more...] about Communicating Better:
4 Social Signals