Many people believe it takes 21 days to master a new habit. Wishful thinking! Self-help books and motivational gurus have promoted the 21-day myth for at least 50 years, with little research to validate the claim. In a 2009 European study, participants took a full 66 days to adopt a new habit. As … [Read more...] about Making and Breaking Habits
Coaching
Choose To Be Well
As modern brain scientists study human behavior, they find that we operate more unconsciously than previously assumed. It’s not that we’re automatons without free will or that we lack rationality and refined decision-making skills. Our brains (specifically, the frontal cortex) simply drive us to … [Read more...] about Choose To Be Well
Program Your Own Reality Show
Reality sucks, especially on TV. Contestants are regularly voted off the island, fired from apprentice jobs and judged to be lacking in any discernible talent. In “real life,” serious disappointments are likewise bitter pills to swallow. Many of us have endured significant economic hardships — from … [Read more...] about Program Your Own Reality Show
Sales and Communications:
16 Bad Habits You Can Change
Leaders seem to forget that their human assets make or break a customer’s ownership experience.
“Interpersonal interaction, though sometimes not the top reason for making a purchase, is almost always the reason for not repurchasing.” ~ Marshall Goldsmith, Don Brown and Bill Hawkins, What Got You … [Read more...] about Sales and Communications:
16 Bad Habits You Can Change
How to Sabotage Your Success
Never let the fear of striking out get in your way. ~ George Herman “Babe” Ruth As an executive coach, I am privy to clients’ stories of success and failure. I’ve noticed over the years that they commonly share one highly destructive behavior: self-sabotage. Few of us realize how frequently … [Read more...] about How to Sabotage Your Success
Power Listening: 4 Steps to Conversation Success
I only wish I could find an institute that teaches people how to listen. Business people need to listen at least as much as they need to talk. Too many people fail to realize that real communication goes in both directions. ~ Lee Iacocca, former CEO Ford Motor Co. Listening may be the most … [Read more...] about Power Listening: 4 Steps to Conversation Success
Finding Career Satisfaction
Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life. ~ Confucius At graduation, each of us has visions of what we'll accomplish. Years later, even the best and brightest from the most prestigious universities aren't immune to feelings of failure and disappointment. Many people who … [Read more...] about Finding Career Satisfaction
The Truth About Dishonesty
"Morality, like art, means drawing a line somewhere." ~ Oscar Wilde Forbes Magazine calls a recent financial scandal "the shocking indictment of the culture of banks." This time it involves unethical, illegal fixing of financial markets by the great names of banking. Barclays has admitted guilt … [Read more...] about The Truth About Dishonesty
Coaching Conversations:
Teaching People to Think
One cannot teach a man anything. One can only enable him to learn from within himself. ~ Galileo Galilei
With so many employees being paid to think, leaders and managers should find ways to cultivate their staffs’ cerebral capabilities to boost workplace performance.
But most leaders wouldn’t know … [Read more...] about Coaching Conversations:
Teaching People to Think
The Amazing Power of Habits
Any act often repeated soon forms a habit; and habit allowed, steadily gains in strength. At first it may be but as a spider's web, easily broken through, but if not resisted it soon binds us with chains of steel. ~ American theologian Tryon Edwards (1809–1894) How much of what you do is wise? Most … [Read more...] about The Amazing Power of Habits