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A Positive Mindset Leads to Success
Success only moves the goal posts further away, which pushes happiness over the horizon.
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How to Increase Your Happiness
You will increase your happiness and optimism if, every day, you write down or say three things you’re grateful for.
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Rational Optimism
When we are surrounded by negative input our brains start to think negative things are more true than positive things.
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The Importance of Purpose in Life
Sue Langley believes in life balance, not work-life balance. It’s all who you are.
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Plan Success in 18 Minutes Per Day
You are more likely to do things if you decide when and where to do them.
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Stay Focused on Top Priorities
Most time management systems focus on organizing work, not on managing work and time around priorities.
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Connect Your To Do List with Your Key Objectives
Peter Bregman selects five things to focus on. All his daily activities are organized around a to-do list that lists those five things plus the “other five percent.”
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The Need to Identify Team Assets
A team that knows and understands its own assets is much more effective.
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The Golden Rule of Resilience
Resiliency to change is a matter of limiting stress by controlling more of what you can and letting go of what you can't control.
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Three Mindsets to Embrace Change
The three mindsets for embracing change include a growth mindset, an opportunity-seeking mindset, and healthy detachment.
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How to Ask for a Raise
Sharon Melnick shares her surefire advice for asking for and getting the raise you deserve.
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How to Instantly Calm From Anger
When you're feeling frustrated or angry, it's time for the cooling breath technique.
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How to Stay Calm
Learning to stay calm means learning to balance the on–off button in your nervous system.
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Get to Sleep and Stay Asleep
When you wake up in the middle of the night with your mind going 90 miles per hour, left nostril breathing gets you back to sleep fast.
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One More Hour of Uninterrupted Time to Think
To get more time think, you need to eliminate whatever distractions you can and learn to manage the rest. Taking advantage of the acronym ACT lets you do both.
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Attitude of Gratitude
Practicing an attitude of gratitude can reap benefits in health, relationships, and even careers.
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Managing Your Boss: Keep Them Happy
If you do your part to keep your boss happy, your job will be much more pleasant.
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Managing Your Boss: Giving Your Best Work
Your boss needs to know how to get the best work out of you.
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Managing Your Boss: Success
The secret to success may lie in how successfully you can manage your manager.
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Managing Your Boss: Moving Up
Your ability to move up in an organization depends on your relationship with your boss.
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Managing Your Boss: Preventing Overwork
Your time is a resource that needs to be protected and utilized well.
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Controlling Emotions
Embrace your emotions, but don't let them totally control your reactions and decisions.
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Life At Home: Don't Miss the Ride
Juliet Funt tells a story that illustrates the importance of taking time for your family. Because happy people are more engaged than their unhappy colleagues, 50 percent more motivated, and 50 percent more productive.
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The Best Managers Catalyze Strengths
A manager who has a cookie-cutter approach to management is limited in his ability and is potentially limiting employees in their own abilities and careers, Stephen Harding explains. He outlines a much better way to develop employees.
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Make the Most of Meeting Presentations
Presentations are a regular part of meetings, so learn how and when to use them for the greatest benefit.
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Virtual Meetings That Work
Virtual meetings are infamous for their bad behaviors and poor participation, but there is a better way.
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Effective Meetings Require Structure
Meetings require structure to be effective. Using the PALPAR acronym makes it easy to frame discussion and produce better results.
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Overcome Meeting Conflicts
Solve conflicts during meetings with a "forces review" that looks at the positive and negative pressures affecting progress and gets team members to move forward.
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Resilience Versus “ Presilience”
The concept of resiliency is insufficient; that's why you need presilience.
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Laughability and Alignment Create Perspective and Purpose
Laughability provides perspective while alignment provides purpose. Both are necessary for moving forward despite obstacles.
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To Adapt, Change Your Vantage Point
True adaptability is being able to see a situation from multiple points of view.
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Beware of Adaptability Demons
Adaptability demons are the forces that stop you from thinking positively and moving forward.
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Mapping Your Career Strategy
To reach your career destination, you need to map out a strategy, recognizing that the straightest course is not necessarily the best way to get there.
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Say No Without Alienating Others
When you are pulled in multiple directions, something has to give. It is possible to say no without endangering your relationships.
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Create a Mastermind Group to Grow Your Career
Give your career a big boost by creating a group of like-mind professionals to learn from and with.
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Wheel of Change: Planning for the Future
Improving your life or work, or the life or work of those around you, is easier using the four quadrants from the Wheel of Change as your guide.
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Establish Expertise to Secure Your Career
To acquire "career insurance," you need to establish your expertise within your organization. That means learning continuously, sharing your knowledge, and communicating your value.
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Think Before Reacting
Reacting badly to a situation does not solve the problem—it makes you the problem. Always take the time to stop, breathe, and think before responding.
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To Be Better, Ask For Input
You cannot be better on your own. Being better means asking others "What can I do to be better?"
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Developing Yourself As A Leader
You are a leader when others see you as a leader. It all starts with this question: How can I be a better _____?
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Play Your Own Game
Early in Jeri Finard’s career she was offered an assignment that was not a promotion, but sounded like fun. A mentor said, “Play your own game.” It’s not about promotions. It’s more important to love what you do than to worry about the title on your card.
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Five Easy Ways to Stop Wasting Time
Five simple but critical steps can prevent you from wasting your time.
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Meeting Malpractice
Like most classic crimes, meeting malpractice begins long before the main event.
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The Cohort Effect
The world’s best teams combine seemingly counter-productive work styles to create unusual success.
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Love Your Job, Don't Leave It
Jordan-Evans shares four steps for how to get what you need in order to love your job.
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Unrealistic Demands
Work is only going to get more demanding, and employees need to find healthy ways to deal with it.
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Increase Your Visibility
If you want to be noticed, you have to stand in the line of view.
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Be Proactive About Opportunities
There is more to getting promoted than just doing a good job.
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Gain Trust to Attend Important Meetings
You’ll have to prove to your boss you’re ready if you want to take on more duties.
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Getting Recognition
If you want recognition, sometimes you’re going to have to toot your own horn.
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Be the Boss’s Favorite
Build a good relationship with your boss if you want to be the favorite.
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Break into the Inner Circle
Breaking into the inner circle takes planning and intention.
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Influence Senior Management
To get ahead, make sure that your boss is getting ahead.
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Promote Myself
Promote yourself in a positive way that suits your ethics and integrity.
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The First 90 Days: Relationships
In the first 90 days at a new job, you should focus on building relationships.
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Political Savvy Versus the Influence Effect
Being politically savvy carries a lot of negative connotations, but understanding how corporate culture works is key to moving up. For women who think politics is too sleazy, there is another way.
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Scenario Planning
When you're heading into unchartered territory and trepidation sets in, scenario planning alleviates anxiety and empowers you to press onward no matter how enormous the job ahead is.
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Keep Influence Groups in the Loop
Don't leave your influencers wondering what happened. Maintain momentum for your initiative by looping back to the people who support your idea.
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The Power of the Informal
The power of the informal is putting relationships to work for you.
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Women Being Political
Women and men view being political at work very differently, but fortunately, there are specific strategies women can use to reframe the topic in a more positive light.
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The Influence Effect
Just as wearing an off-the-rack suit can be uncomfortable, being political in a way you don't like is also going to be uncomfortable.
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Exceptional Operations Management: Focusing on the Customer
In this video Virginia Barnes talks about an operations manager who sets a new standard for operations and project management.
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The Four Ps and the C
Harry Halloran’s explains the phrase “The Four Ps and the C” - his motto for success.
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Modeling Ethical Behavior
To create an environment of ethical behavior, the entire organization must behave that way. Venkatesh Valluri explains why it’s important to model ethical behavior.
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Get Smart Before Your Next Meeting
Identify the players, the business conditions, and how it relates to the meeting agenda. Research the people thoroughly. Focus on the mood of the room. Boil all this down to bullet points. And don’t forget what you need to discuss.
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Habits for Highly Effective Meetings
Have a leader and a scribe, send agendas ahead of time, make decisions not talks, keep meetings to 45 minutes or less, keep presentations to 18 minutes at the end, no gadgets, and list who promised what in the last 5 minutes.
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How the Best Leaders Run Meetings
Start on time with what’s going right, stick to the agenda, focus on the decision, listen deeply, lead the meeting to as logical conclusion, leave when the time for the meeting is up, and avoid the meeting after the meeting.
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How to Be a Great Meeting Partner
Prepare for the meeting ahead of time, show up early, volunteer to take notes, don’t bring gadgets, don’t interrupt, help to keep the meeting moving along, and write down each promise you make, including a due date.
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How to Use Skills and Contacts
When you draw on assets from different areas of your life in both skills and contacts, you can expand your circle of successes.
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How to Delineate and Maintain Boundaries
Knowing how—and when—to delineate boundaries puts you in control of your own life.
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Warmth Drives Behavior and Loyalty
To demonstrate that your intentions are worthy of others' loyalty, apply the principle of worthy intentions.
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Why You Need Power Skills
It’s a tough world. You need power skills to keep your job.
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The Power of Insight: How Self-Awareness Helps Us Succeed at Work and in Life
For most leaders, the increasing rate of change—at work and in life—is downright dizzying. They face industry disruption, growing to-do lists, shrinking budgets, and the challenge of managing a demographically diverse workforce. And the behaviors that helped them in the past aren’t the same behaviors they will need to succeed in the future. Fortunately, reveals Dr. Tasha Eurich, the foundational skill of future-ready leadership is also highly learnable.
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Your Network is Your Net Worth
The importance of networking can never be underestimated. Glain Roberts-McCabe discusses why you can never stop networking and how you can continually build your network.
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The Power of Team Problem Solving
Leaders don’t always have to have all the answers. Lauri Curtis shares why some of the best solutions to problems come from letting employees address the issues.
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The Ethics of Business Decisions
Most business decisions have ethical dimensions.
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Adapting to Changing Market Conditions
Terri Kelly discusses how teams at W.L. Gore reacted to recent changes in the market and how they adapted to it by putting the enterprise first.
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Are You Working at Your Maximum Level of Productivity?
To increase productivity: 1) keep it neat; organize as you go; 2) stay hydrated with water; caffeinated beverages are diuretics; 3) stop being a perfectionist; 4) quit procrastinating; set deadlines for small chunks; and 5) visualize success at the start and end of each day.
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Time is the Most Precious Resource
Good time management is crucial to success. The eight biggest time wasters are the Internet, socializing, personal communications via electronic devices, personal business, smoking, arriving late and departing early, job-hunting, and spacing out.
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Don't Forget the Family
To create family time rearrange your work schedule, telecommute, hire household help, have a sit-down meal together, combine business travel with vacations, limit your kids’ extracurricular activities, and turn off the electronics. Focus on the family.
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What is Stress?
Positive stressors include exercise and a promotion. Even negative situations such as fear of failure can drive productivity. Stress and productivity increase together up to a point; further stress lowers productivity. Disengage at that point to recharge your batteries.
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Avoid Distractions at Work
Distractions include technology, people, and your brain. Disable email alerts, except from important people, and other communication devices. Discourage drop-in visitors through signals and barriers. If your brain distracts you, write it down and keep working.
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Slip Your Electronic Leash
Paying too much attention to your email can lower your IQ by up to ten points. Constant connection to electronic devices can have the same effect as missing a night’s sleep or smoking marijuana. Disconnect to socialize, recharge, and increase productivity.
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Work-Life Flexibility
"Work-life balance" is really about a flexible work schedule.
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Emotional Intelligence in Effective Leadership
Paul Hiltz shares a story of how people can be so emotionally charged about issues near to their heart and explains what leaders can do to prepare resistance to change in the work world.
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How to Be a Better Decision-Maker
To be a better decision maker pay attention to data, not assumptions.
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How to Develop Confidence in Yourself and Others
Confidence is not all or none; there are four levels: 1) the confidence to try—to attempt; 2) the confidence to learn—to progress; 3) the confidence to do—to be competent; and 4) the confidence to teach—to fuel the confidence of others to try.
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Integrity Is a Character Issue
Character is who you are when nobody is looking. Integrity is the distance between your lips and your life—between what you believe and what you do.
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Tips on Team Collaboration
You can take several practical steps to ensure a healthy and productive team collaboration. John Foster shares how he develops highly effective teams.
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Live Event: Creating Order Out of Chaos--Staying Afloat in a World of Too Much to Do
This Live Event was originally broadcast on Wednesday, March 7, 2018.
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The Social Media Diet
The only way to strengthen emotional connections and make good business decisions in a virtual world is to go on a social media diet.
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Avoid Making Decisions on Audio Conferences
On the phone, emotions get taken out of human voices, so it’s best to make decisions after you hang up.
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Ethics: Penalties to Potential
Ethics is more than avoiding fines, penalties, and sanctions. Ethics also involves care. Not hitting people in the workplace means we should care for them. Envision organizations where people feel valued.
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Tame Your Anxiety
Fixating on yourself can make anxiety turn into a monster but focusing on others has a calming effect.
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Fight Imposter Syndrome
Do you ever feel like an imposter? That's just anxiety talking, not the truth.
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Three Questions to Lessen Anxiety
Define your anxiety and you lessen its power over you.
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How to Feel Less Nervous
Putting your own special twist on a presentation can actually make you less nervous.
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How to Feel Comfortable at Social Events
Unstructured social events are a main driver of anxiety, so introducing structure can lessen that nervousness.
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Safety Behaviors
The very safety behaviors that people use to calm stress may actually be counterproductive.
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Receiving Feedback
Receiving feedback with a positive attitude and growth mindset is preferable to acting defensively.
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Ways to Gain Confidence
The learning curve at a new job can be intimidating, but confidence will come with practice.
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Small Blunders Increase Your Likeability
Little mistakes can actually make you more likeable as a person.
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Reduce Anxiety by Breathing
Feeling stressed? Skip the deep breath and try to blow a bubble instead.
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Uncover Personal Agendas Through Trust
Most senior executives don’t know the personal agendas of key stakeholders. You won’t learn those agendas by asking. To open up a personal agenda you must invest time in a long-term relationship. It works both ways; you must share your own personal agenda.
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Three Steps to Accelerating Your Career
Knowing your passions and goals are the starting point for accelerating your career.
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The Secret to Building Stakeholder Relations
Stakeholder relationships can help you advance your career at any stage.
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Ethical Leaders Commit to Learning
Ethical competence is a moving target. We need to embark on a life-long personal learning journey. Linda Fisher Thornton tells of a baker who bakes gluten-free bread. He switched to rice flour, which is cheaper but has arsenic. He didn't know because he hadn’t kept up.
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Honoring Ethics and Profit
If we talk more about profits than ethics, employees will assume that profits are more important. Your core values should help employees choose when ethics and profits appear to conflict—when the right thing to do may lower the quarterly numbers.
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Leading for the Long Run
Ethical leaders maximize their positive impact and minimize their negative impact. They do good without doing harm. They think in terms of long term impact, not just short-term gain. The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children.
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What Is Ethical Leadership
The seven lenses of ethical responsibility are profits, laws, character, people, communities, the planet, and the greater good. All seven perspectives are important in order to live ethically in a global society.
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Leading from a Strong Moral Center
Profitability is not a strong guiding value when we make ethical decisions; profitability substitutes money for morality. Keep ethical expectations and values on the wall, on the meeting agenda, and on the radar. Describe what ethics looks like, especially in gray areas.
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Trust Through Transparency
The wife of a colleague who often worked late thought he was having an affair. The wife locked him out of the house until she saw his credit card statement. He refused. Vineet Nayar asked whether his purpose was to have the conversation or to get into the house.
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Evaluating Your Career Satisfaction
Dominic Barton wants to make a difference in the emerging world, and evaluates himself with respect to that purpose. A co-worker he trusts periodically asks him questions like, “Why do you to do this? Do you think it makes a difference? Do you have enough time?”
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My Day Got Away! How to Turn an Unproductive Day Around
Try these techniques when you feel like you’re not accomplishing anything.
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Reduce the Unimportant - Maximize Your Productive Potential
Laura Stack identifies four steps to take to increase your productivity.
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Five Keys to Effective Meetings
To make meetings work, 1) someone is in charge, 2) an agenda explains why people are there, 3) the people at the meeting are the people who need to be there, 4) the meeting has clear outcomes and responsibilities, and 5) someone keeps the meeting on track.
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Leadership Self Development
To be a better leader, pick one area for development. Check it with allies. Ask what the new behavior would look like. Then get feedback. For a CEO who wouldn’t listen, a subordinate reported the percent time he talked, and encouraged him to ask opened-ended questions.
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The Importance of Having a Vision
A vision is like an internal compass; it tells us what is important and guides us through good weather and bad.
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Forging Strengths in the Flames of Adversity
We create our missing strengths in the flames of adversity, through will and skill.
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Alchemy - Harnessing the Power of Adversity
Think of adversity not as an impediment but as a pathway to greatness.
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Pioneering Possibilities: Problem-Solving and Innovating
The most exciting times in life occur when one reaches out and becomes a pioneer.
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Better Decision Making Through Debate Making
When an important decision must be made, announce the meeting well in advance. Encourage participants to arrive with strong, well-researched positions. Also require participants to switch and argue their opponent’s position.
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Navigating a Career Like a Climbing Wall
The traditional career ladder has been replaced by a new and updated climbing wall, which offers more opportunities.
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Choose Success
How we respond to adversity determines our success and happiness. Our greatest resource is the ability to choose our mindset. We seek evidence to support our outlook, whether it is positive or negative. Our success is determined by our choices, not by our circumstances.
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Persevere through Desire
Terry Fox was a Canadian cancer amputee who ran across Canada on only one leg, to raise money for cancer research. He said he did it “one telephone pole at a time.” We persevere when our desires are more powerful than our disappointments.
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Consistency is More Important Than Perfection
You win a point in tennis if you hit the ball over the net one more time than your opponent. To perform consistently you must distinguish fear from anxiety. Fear is based in reality; anxiety is imagining a negative event. Anxiety disables us and holds us back, not fear.
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How Do I Become the Successful Person I Dream About, and Deserve to Be?
People don't achieve goals because they don't write them down, plan, commit, and make goals that are achievable.
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Dealing with Adversity
Dealing with adversity is a five-step process: 1) own it; 2) identify the best short term and long term outcomes; 3) do something you can do without asking permission; 4) identify someone you need to influence to achieve a desired outcome; and 5) take action.
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Who's Got Your Back?
Who can you count on in the work place? Who always tells you the truth? Who will let you hold them accountable? Who holds you accountable? You need people you respect and who make you feel safe. Reach out to them. Make a bond to make sure neither of you fail.
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Redefining Staff Meetings
Shift meetings from report-outs to collaborative problem solving. Identify the problem in advance. Then discuss it in groups of three or four. This allows everyone to speak, which encourages candor, diversity of opinion, truth telling, innovation, and inclusion.
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Business Partnerships: Trust and Trade-Offs
If you try to do business with people you don’t trust, the relationship will not last.
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Choosing What to Do
Jot down every task you do in a given week. Eliminate or delegate 50-75 percent. For each remaining task, ask whether you feel frustration or reward from its completion. If it’s frustration, do it quickly or delegate the task.
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Comfort Zone Is the Enemy of EQ
If you’re an introvert you avoid social situations. That’s not emotionally intelligent if the situation calls for social skills. Remind yourself what’s in it for you to change, and create accountability mechanisms to keep the change. Raising your EQ increases your happiness.
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EQ and Income
Jen Shirkani has been described as someone who teaches unimportant “soft skills.” However, people with high EQ make $29,000 more per year than others. The ideal combination is competence, an average IQ, and as much EQ as you can develop.
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What is EQ?
EQ is Emotional Intelligence, the ability to 1) recognize yourself — your strengths, weaknesses, moods, etc.; 2) read situations and other people, and 3) respond appropriately. EQ isn’t taught in school and it gets harder as we ascend the career ladder.
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Invest in Yourself
If you haven't invested in yourself, you won't have anything worth giving away to others.
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Be Intentional to Be Successful
John Maxwell gives his absolute best single piece of advice to people who want to win.
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Follow Your Own Path
Ultimately, people have to decide for themselves which career path they want to follow. Sharon Wood talks about when to listen to others’ advice and when to rely on your own instincts.
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Collaboration: Me to We
Unlike his own childhood, his kids don’t know what it means to live alone. They are connected to others continuously. The shift from me to we brings tolerance, and creates a more productive and sharing society that believes there is virtue in collaboration.
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Competency Traps
“What got you here won’t get you there.” Indeed, what got you here won’t even keep you here. We keep doing whatever made us successful while the world keeps changing. This is a competency trap. We need to work on things that don’t come naturally.
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Transitional Leadership
To avoid being left behind, you need to evolve your job, especially as the environment changes. You also need to evolve your external network, so you’re in touch with what’s happening. And you need to evolve yourself as a leader.
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Reach Outside Your Comfort Zone
Imposter syndrome is a real thing, but it can be easily overcome with a few reminders.
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Get Noticed as a Young Professional
Young professionals who get involved get noticed. Participating in meetings is a great way to get started.
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Avoiding Situations
Avoiding life-threatening situations is natural, but most work situations aren't going to be do-or-die.
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SWOT Analysis for Individuals
Though generally used on businesses, a SWOT analysis can be just as useful for evaluating yourself.
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Step Outside Your Comfort Zone: Hidden Truths
You are flexible, brave, and capable. And you can step outside your comfort zone.
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Overcome Your Inner Critic
Nearly everyone struggles with an inner critic, but it can be defeated.
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Three Questions to Ask to Determine if You Are in the Right Job
Peter Bakstansky outlines three questions to ask yourself when questioning if you are in the right job.
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Decision Making As a Skillful Collaboration
The collaborative decision-making process takes skillful leadership to pull off. But when you do pull it off, Larry Dressler says, its rewards are significant.
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Ego: Ignore at Your Peril
Bob Burg tells of a U.S. Senator who demanded extra butter because he was a Senator. The waiter replied that he, the waiter, controlled the butter. There will be times when others control your butter. To get what you want, treat them with kindness and respect.
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The 8 Key Words of Powerful Persuasion
To persuade another person to take an action such as waiving a fee, begin by agreeing with them, with tact and kindness. Then say, “If you can’t do it, I’ll definitely understand.” This communicates respect and value while providing a win-win result.
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Measure Your Worth So You Can Negotiate Your Worth
Negotiating the best possible salary or getting the best possible raise starts with understanding and measuring the value you bring to your organization.
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How to Match Your Time with Your Key Priorities
Track how you spend your time for a week. It sounds easy but it’s not.
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Techniques in Networking
Treat networking as the start of a relationship, not as a hunt for prospects. Help others and they will help you.
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The Five Levels of Relationships
The five levels of networking relationships are 1) identify; become aware of someone; 2) engage; start talking; 3) strengthen the relationship offline; 4) collaborate; help each other; and 5) inner circle; the relationship is now personal.
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The Four Key Ingredients
The ingredients that guarantee success in networking are 1) visibility; you have to be seen by the people who matter; 2) credibility; deliver on your promises; 3) social capital; help others and they will help you; and 4) personal branding; be known for what you do.
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Understanding Emotional Alignment
As a leader you set the emotional tone. Be aware of your own emotions, acknowledge how others feel, and look for ways to help them feel pride, caring, excitement, even humor.
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The Importance of Change
Jo Owen tells stories of tribes around the world—in the Mongolian steppes, the northern arctic, and East Africa—that were forced to change in fundamental ways. The message is simple: change or die.
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Implementation in Decision Making
Decision-making is fundamentally political.
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Take Charge of Your Professional Development
Rote box-checking on annual performance reviews confirms that you're able to do your job. But to improve professionally, you have to set development goals that enhance your skills over time.
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Dealing with Distractions
Distractions aren’t intentional, yet dealing with them requires deliberate action. Dorie Clark shares her tips for dealing with the distractions that waste your time.
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Sustaining Productivity
Sustainable productivity involves more than just getting a bunch of work done.
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Introverts at Work
Introverts are valuable employees, but they are often misunderstood.
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A Strong Online Presence
To build a strong online presence, focus on gaining expertise in a specific niche.
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Overcoming Bad Decisions
Everyone makes bad decisions occasionally; what's important is to know how to move on.
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Pace, Place, and Space
Taking control of your time and schedule requires thinking through your pace, place, and space.
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Managing Anxiety at Work
Anxiety can be managed at work with a few crucial tips.
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Managing Social Energy
Heading to an extrovert-oriented event? Prepare ahead to manage your energy level.
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Leapfrogging Your Career
Working at high intensity for short bursts can propel your career in spectacular ways.
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Your Best Schedule
When you have a work schedule that fits your needs, you’ll enjoy work more.
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Setting Your Vision
Your vision for life is a combination of short-term and long-term goals.
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How to Get What You Want
Whether you’re selling a product or the idea of a pay raise, Aarons-Mele gives you tips to make sure you get what you want.
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Setting Boundaries for Accessibility
Smartphone technology is new enough that there are no set guidelines around accessibility.
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Make an Impact in Your First 60 Days
Dan Cable shares three pieces of advice for setting yourself up for success in a new job.
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Learn to Play to Your Strengths
Lots of people will tell you to play to your strengths, but Dan Cable will tell you how to actually do it.
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Streamline Decision Making
Decision making, or the lack thereof, is a chief source of stress and complexity in the workplace.
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Focus and Take Control
Having focus is the kind of skill that makes everything else simpler.
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Get Your Time Back
With a few simple tips, you can reduce the amount of time you spend on the phone or in meetings and start taking back your time.
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Simplify to Get Rid of Clutter
When you begin to simplify, don't try to tackle everything at once.
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Get Rid of Clutter
Using the example of Southwest Airlines, Lisa Bodell illustrates how getting rid of clutter can help you focus on strategy.
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Own It!
Elite performers take responsibility for every outcome in their lives. When things go wrong they never point outward.
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Four Steps to Get Past Your Fears
First, embrace the fear; don’t be afraid of it. Second, “dis-identify” with the fear; the fear is not you. Third, identify and come to peace with the worst-case scenario. For skiers, for example, it’s death. Fourth, run a reality check; ask how likely that scenario is to happen.
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Prepare Like an Athlete
The preparation puts the athlete in the right states of mind and body. You can use the same techniques to prepare for meetings and sales calls.
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How to Control Stress
You can attenuate stress if you prepare for it ahead of time. When stress does hit, pay attention to your reaction.
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Develop Emotional Intelligence
Developing emotional intelligence is a matter of building stronger pathways in your brain through practicing emotionally intelligent behaviors.
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Switch Off After Work
To be the best version of yourself when you get home, take time to switch off before you get there.
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Get Simplified
To simplify, you have to change your mindset and put simplicity at the forefront of everything you do.
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Whose Purpose is it Anyway?
Organizations that perform at a high level stand for something and contribute to the world. Profits without purpose lowers motivation.
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The Five Attributes of Emotional Intelligence
Intelligence, toughness, determination, and vision are not enough for today's leaders. Neither are IQ and technical skills.
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The Other Boat
Marshall Goldsmith uses a parable to dispel misconceptions.
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Avoiding Destructive Comments
Marshall Goldsmith describes the importance of avoiding destructive comments.
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Total Persistence: No Matter What the Odds
The single characteristic of successful people is total and absolute persistence.
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How to Tell Your Story
To better understand your own value to the organization and how to convey that value to other people, ask friends to describe you in three words, write down experiences that were important to you, and relate your past to the future you desire.
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Create Your Own Opportunities
Most people don’t try to achieve the highest levels because they assume they can’t get there. Learn new things by volunteering with professional associations, ask to shadow senior executives, and tell others what your goals and ambitions are.
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The Two Most Important Questions in Life
Are you proud of your professional and personal choices?
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Change: Deal With It
Change isn't new. Stop making a big deal about change.
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The Different Perspective on Work-Life Balance
Balance isn't about time; it's about the quality of the relationships. It's about attention.
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The Pitfalls of Personal Goal Setting
Pursuing goals without regard for anything else sets blinders that close off opportunities.
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Ethics
Integrity is vital in business. Lord Kalms shows how the only rule your company should never break is upholding honesty and ethical behavior.
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Time Management: The Root Cause of Procrastination
The temptations of the present overwhelm the good intention of the future.
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Why People are Predictably Irrational
Humans have evolved to be irrational. We think we are rational but we respond emotionally to stock market swings.
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The Most Powerful Forces that Shape Business Decision-Making
Often we have an intuition, follow that intuition, and discover it is wrong. We need to test our intuitions.
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Ethics: The Context of Our Character
People cheat to a level they are comfortable — the fudge factor. Knowing the fudge factor can reduce cheating in the workplace.
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How to Become More Resilient
Replace negative voices in your head with positive voices. Say positive things to others; that boosts your energy. Be physical; swing your arms. Being slightly out of breath puts blood in your brain. Tell jokes. Choose the space, light and temperature you work in.
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Diversity In Teams
"Leader builder" Robin Ryde discusses the benefits of diversity and shares strategies for getting the best out of different teams and differing people.
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Interviewing with Confidence
Having confidence during an interview demonstrates not only your competence, but also that you are the best person for the job.
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The Hidden Job Market
The secret of the hidden job market lies within jobs that are not yet available. Here’s how to be first in line when the job you want opens up.
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Finding Career Happiness
When you identify what you like to do and the skills you want to use, you can focus your energy on finding happiness in your career.
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Meeting Moments
Seize the moments that matter most. Learn to recognize and use them to conduct meetings that stand out.
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Meeting Logistics
Looks matter, changing participants’ approach toward meetings. A well-organized and well-supplied space improve engagement levels.
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Make Time for Self-Development
People who take time for self-development see improvements in their personal relations and job performance. Take half an hour each day to read, talk, or otherwise be inspired. Treat these activities as daily rituals.
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Emotional Intelligence Can Be Learned
We respond to events emotionally before we respond rationally. Unlike IQ, which is fixed, EQ can be learned. Changing your EQ changes your brain. Only 36 percent of us can identify our emotions in the moment, but we can rewire our brains through practice.
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Emotional Intelligence Defined
Emotional intelligence is made up of four skills. Self-awareness and self-management are personal skills. Social awareness and relationship management are social skills. The two awareness skills — self-awareness and social awareness — are the hardest to learn.
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Take a Step Back
Although she was in line to be CMO at Yahoo, Jennifer Dulski took a demotion to get a better job fit as general manager in a business she knew nothing about.
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Lean Into Your Discomfort
We don’t want to see our shortcomings. But EQ hinges on self-awareness. To improve your EQ you have to look at the things you can’t tolerate. Those are the behaviors you need to change. You can’t increase self-awareness without it.
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Creating The Appropriate Work/Life Balance
Alliant Energy's Chairman discusses the importance of life outside work and how encouraging this creates a more productive environment within your company.
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How to Be Liked in the Workplace
Possessing natural charisma is great but most people have to put forth extra effort in the likability department. These six tips offer a successful plan to improve your likability.
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Survey Your Habits
Are bad habits holding you back? You can ACT to reprogram them in three easy steps.
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Treat Other People's Money As If It Were Your Own
Acquiring, spending, and leveraging corporate dollars is a measure of success but can also lead to unnecessary risk-taking. Ray Anderson reminds leaders that outsiders' funds should be protected, respected, and invested like they were our own.
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Seek Expert Advice
When faced with a challenge, the first question you should always ask is, "Who can help me?" Get SET with strategic, emergency, and tactical experts.
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Best Practices for Rebels at Work
Are you a rebel at work? If so, practice Carmen Medina's top five dos and don'ts for sharing your ideas without sabotaging your career.
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Exercise to Execute
Exercise is like a magic pill that can make you perform better and feel better. Are you ready to stop sitting and start doing?
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Understand Your Why
The ability to persevere is the difference between those who succeed and those who don't. Find out how to push through your darkest moments.
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Protect Your Personal Brand
Treat your social media profile the same way you’d treat your credit information. Protect the value you’ve invested in your brand.
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Undermining Your Personal Brand
Some professionals damage their personal brands without even being aware of it. Are you?
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Social Media and Your Personal Brand
Social media is crucial to building and communicating your brand.
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Professional Reputations
Discover how to establish and protect your number one asset: your professional reputation.
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Time Management and Your Personal Brand
How you spend your time is direct reflection of your priorities.
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Define the Purpose of Your Personal Brand
Developing your personal brand depends on having a strong plan. These three steps lead you to identify and developing your purpose.
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The Value Proposition of Your Personal Brand
Creating a value proposition is integral to your personal brand. Design your value statement as if you are marketing a new product.
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Taking a Break
Taking time off is crucial for being a healthy human being.
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Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
Digital minimalists are all around us. They're the calm, happy people who can hold long conversations without furtive glances at their phones. In this session, Cal Newport gives us a name for this quiet movement, and makes a persuasive case for its urgency in our tech-saturated world.
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What's The Worst That Can Happen?
A little perseverance goes a long way. Jeffrey Hayzlett recounts one his first experiences as a salesperson in this story of how to pick up and move on in the face of adversity.
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Define The Purpose Of Your Leadership
True and lasting leadership derives from intrinsic motivations. William George shares a touching story about how never to lose one's sense of purpose.
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Balancing A Need For Achievement With Your Personal Life
Clayton Christensen is a noted professor and researcher at Harvard Business School, but he also knows the value of balancing a need for achievement with healthy personal relationships. In this lesson he shares how he started his life on a path that would lead to a successful "career" in marriage and parenting.
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Out Work Your Competition
As Jerry Rice explains, determination and a tough work ethic are what allow you to out-perform the competition.
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Business Ethics Is About A Bunch Of Small Decisions
Like a stone thrown into a pond, the effects of our actions may reach farther than we realize. Heather Loisel recounts an example of a small action with extensive consequences, illustrating how business ethics involves many minute decisions that build on one another.
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Adapt To Your Customer's Buying Process
Ultimately, a business succeeds or fails based on its ability to deliver the goods and services that its customers require. Colleen Honan recounts a pivotal moment when adaptability to changing needs became the key to retaining a valued client.
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Nail the How
To do its job, your team needs you to set ground rules for how that job is to be accomplished.
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Sticky Floors
Sticky floors are the self-limiting beliefs that prevent individuals, especially women, from reaching their potential. Here’s the way to get unstuck.
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How to Deal with Managers Who Pile on the Work
Too many projects? Too few priorities? Is your manager the cause of your overload? These four steps allow you to tame any beast of a manager who continuously heaps work onto your plate.
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If You Don’t Disrupt Yourself, the Market Will
In an unpredictable, rapidly changing marketplace, you have to get out of your comfort zone. Will you choose disruption or yield to destruction?
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The Ultimate Skills List
What skills do you need to be successful in the next 20 years? Bill Jensen shares his ultimate list of the skills that are critical to creating value.
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Defining Personal Success
Defining your own version of success puts you in an immensely powerful position to shape your future. So... what are you waiting for?
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How to Simplify
In a chaotic world, the ability to simplify is a valuable superpower. Bill Jensen shares five steps to becoming Mr. or Ms. Simplicity.
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The 3-2-1 Rule for an Awesome Day
Turn each and every day into an awesome day with Bill Jensen’s easy-to-implement 3-2-1 rule.
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Greatness: How to Be Your Best
The road to greatness begins with “just not sucking.” To be your best, you need to be present, listen for understanding, and make more purple.
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How to Get Out of Time-Wasting Meetings
With an average of 62 meetings per month, half of which is estimated to be wasted time, learning how to how to decline meeting requests is essential to productivity.
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Three Strategies to Maximize Your Time
Although it’s impossible to have more than 24 hours in a day, strategically choosing how to use the hours you do have can make it seem like you have more time.
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Planning Your Career
Don’t leave your career to chance. By strategically focusing some of your time and efforts now, you can take control of your professional future.
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How to Be Seen As More Creative
Having a reputation for creativity can ignite your career, but sometimes your competency can overshadow your creativity. These strategies help you showcase your skill as a creative contributor.
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How to Think Like an Entrepreneur
Whoever you are, whatever you do, and wherever you work, following three key principles will help you to become an entrepreneurial thinker.
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Getting Annoying Tasks Done Quickly
Everyone has a lot of little tasks to do every day, but not everyone completes those tasks efficiently. Use these strategies to tackle painful tasks and get back to doing what matters.
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Reduce Stress in Your Office
By introducing a few subtle practices that reduce stress for others, leaders are able to lessen the overall level of stress in the office, including their own stress level.
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Which Conferences Are Worth Your Time?
Professional development can be pricy, so it’s worth the effort to figure out which conferences you should invest in.
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Cultivate Multiple Mentors
As it becomes increasingly difficult to find a mentor who has all the right qualities and enough available time, individuals are creating a mentor board of directors.
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Effective Goal Setting
How do you put a priority on the most important things you need to do when you have so many different things to do? Dorie Clark shares three essential strategies for setting goals.
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Get Your Talents Noticed
In a world where everyone is being pulled in different directions, your talents can easily go unnoticed—unless you’re using these three techniques to get recognized.
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Three Tips to Stop Feeling So Overworked and Overwhelmed
Being overworked and constantly stressed out doesn’t have to be your fate.
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Want to Be Happier at Work and in Life? Ditch the Balance Metaphor
Juggling, segmenting, blending, eclipsing, or balancing: Which kind of work–life relationship is best for you?
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Creating a Positive Emotional Footprint to Maximize Your Impact
People’s emotions spread throughout the workplace, and it takes deliberate effort to spread the positivity that builds up organizations.
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How to Work for Someone You Don't Believe In
It can be quite the challenge to work for a boss you don’t believe in. These tips help you to make the best of the situation and, at the same time, develop your own leadership skills.
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Willpower as a Tool for Productivity
The more willpower you use, the less you have, until eventually you run out. Learn the strategies to keep your well full so that you can maximize your productivity.
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Self-Awareness as a Tool for Productivity
Tired of productivity tips that never seem to work? There’s a reason. Productivity starts with self-awareness and figuring out what works for you, not what works for everyone else.
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Productivity Tip: Time Chunking
When your current approach to scheduling keeps you from getting your work done, the practice of time chunking increases your productivity.
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Making Powerful Requests
If you’re one of the many people who find it difficult to ask for help, a shift in how you think about help can make it easier.
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Stop Mental Exhaustion in Its Tracks
Ignoring the signs that you’re suffering from mental exhaustion can do serious damage to your job and your health, but you can stop it before you spiral out of control.
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How to Increase Trust
Building trust requires that you have a high ranking in each of the four elements of trust.
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Stop Overthinking
People have as many as 70,000 thoughts per day, many of them negative. Gisele Shelley shares a simple but life-changing model for taking control of your thoughts.
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Stress and Sleep
Establish a bedtime routine. Go to bed at the same time. Keep the room dark; even the light from the alarm clock can be disturbing. Know that waking up every 90 minutes is normal. Medications don’t provide the right kind of sleep. Sleep clinics can offer suggestions.
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Signs of Stress
Early signs of stress include tightness in the neck and shoulders, and difficulty breathing. Later signs include sleeplessness and upset stomach. If stress progresses further it can lead to various illnesses.
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Stress: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Stress can motivate and energize us, but it can also produce depression, Crohn’s disease, gastrointestinal problems, heart attacks, and strokes; 80-90 percent of all illnesses have a basis in stress. Stress can also worsen the symptoms of people who are already sick.
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Work-Life Satisfaction, not Work-Life Balance
Work-life balance doesn’t mean spending the same time on each. Prefer work-life satisfaction, instead. Make decisions based on things that make you happy. Her father was busy working when she was growing up, but later learned the joy of being a grandfather.
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The Benefits of Stress
We need stress. Stress motivates and energizes us, and helps us be better at problem solving. Our muscles are stronger. Athletes want a certain amount of stress. Without stress there is no motivation to change and progress.
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Handling Unexpected Stress
Stress snowballs. If you start to feel stress, act quickly. Deep breathing convinces your body it’s not being stressed. Drinking cool water hydrates you and allows the blood to flow, so you can think more clearly. Standing and stretching helps get rid of tension.
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Take Micro Breaks
You can’t work for long periods with high productivity. You need breaks. They don’t need to be long. Stand up. Go for a walk. Get a glass of water. Micro breaks keep productivity high. If you have a difficult problem, step away to let the subconscious solve it.
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Handle Stress with SOS
The first S is Situation. How can you eliminate or reduce the things that are causing stress? The O asks if you are sleeping, eating, exercising well, and taking a break from stress, all in a healthy rhythm. The last S is Support. Who can you talk to?
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Types of Stressful Events
The four categories of stress are 1) things that are anticipated, such as marriage; 2) cumulative things, such as conflicts between co-workers; 3) unexpected things, such as an accident; and 4) personality, which colors the way we deal with the other three areas.
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The Importance of Self Understanding and Awareness
If we detach ourselves and try to see our own motives, we can see things in different ways.
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Inventing the Future
Nigel Barlow explains how we can create our future.
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Rethinking How to Open Your Mind
Stop saying "Yes, but." Start saying "Why not?" and "What if?" instead.
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The Creative Leader Avoiding Job Blindness
Nigel Barlow explains how to remain a curious, creative beginner.
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Break Down Big Goals
If you want to achieve a big goal, break it down into smaller goals first.
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Building Confidence in Yourself
Confidence in yourself is the foundation from which all of your actions take place. By building that confidence, you stand stronger as a person and as a leader.
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Discovering Your Theme for Change
To make change easier, look for the one big theme that intersects between what other people want for you and what you want for yourself.
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Where You Should Put Your Time
Change is not about trying to fit more into an already overloaded schedule. It’s about putting energy into the right things and eliminating the things that don’t make a difference.
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The Confidence Factor
To increase confidence, perform an action that's just beyond your comfort zone every day.
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How to Get Promoted
Be your own public relations agent, and prepare for promotions by networking with the people who may help you.
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How to Make Learning Sticky
Share the training with others at every stage and tailor the training to individual needs, desires, and learning style.
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Effectively Managing Across Boundaries
Spend time with people who are different from you. This will expose you to ideas that can lead to innovations.
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Humility
Rick Warren reminds us that humility is not self-deprecation, but rather understanding our strengths and weaknesses, and knowing how to reach out to enrich others and yourself.
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Putting Work and Life into Perspective
According to Rick Warren, you need to balance your output with your input. If you have more output then input, you'll be stressed.
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Discussions to Make Sense of Opportunity
Pitfalls when assessing new opportunities include premature convergence, lack of dissent, and premature bias to action.
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Take Back Control with Electronic-Free Zones
Your phone isn't the one out of control; you are. Take charge of your phone to take control of your life.
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Don’t Multitask. Singletask!
Despite its perceived worth as a business skill, multitasking is detrimental to the brain and to productivity. Singletasking, however, increases focus and efficiency.
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Bring on the Battles to Resolve Conflict
In a genius partnership, conflict that is approached correctly can be healthy and productive.
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Learning at the Speed of Trust: Organizational Trust
Like a pit crew in competitive racing, the answer to organizational trust lies within well-defined roles, sequences, teamwork, trust, and a clear leader.
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Learning at the Speed of Trust: Self Trust
Self trust is about you and your credibility. The four cores of credibility are your integrity, your intent, your capabilities, and your results.
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The Ethics of Interdependence
Dr. Maciariello talks of the Japanese notion of interdependence. It is what people are responsible for and how they perform it in relation to all of the other staff and departments within the company regardless of their physical location.
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Dealing with the Fire Hydrant of Life
We are all overwhelmed with the demands of everyday life. Most people want to push it all away. That doesn’t work. Embrace the fire hydrant. Most of the demands are unimportant, but some of them are. Prioritize based on important people and important tasks.
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Trust Inc.
The businesses of the future are built around trust, not transactions and managerial bureaucracy.
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How to Raise a Values Question Without Putting Your Career in Jeopardy
People facing a values issue may think the leader doesn't care. Most leaders do.
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Should I Compromise? Weighing Healthy and Unhealthy Compromise
When judging when to compromise, recognize that you have a choice, count the costs, ask whether the gain is worthwhile, and weigh your options.
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The Myth of Multitasking
The time it takes to complete a task is increased by about 30 percent when you allow interruptions like phone calls and e-mails. The more you are fully focused on a task the more quickly and more thoroughly you complete that task.
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Overcoming Immunity to Change
A commitment to change often competes with other commitments, with the result that nothing changes. To move forward, test the assumption that something bad will happen if you do change.
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Manage Energy not Time
Tony Schwartz talks about the importance of managing energy, not time.
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FeedForward
An exercise that's fun, fast, and helpful when you want to change a behavior.
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Flawed Assumptions of New Women Leaders
New women leaders often assume they have to do all, but reframing this flawed assumption prevents problems for them, their employees, and their organization.
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Get More Results: Pick Up Accountability and Let Go of Responsibility
Move from being the go-to person to being a leader of go-to teams by becoming accountable for results.
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Everything You Do Has a Wake
Your wake (like the wake of a boat) is much more powerful than you realize. “It’s a Wonderful Life” is all about wake. A business where everyone is mindful of their wake has an unassailable competitive advantage, and is a much more enjoyable place to work.
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Three Keys to Maximize Productivity
Identify what to stop doing, continue doing, and start doing.
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Influencing Up
See the boss as a partner.
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Knowing When to Think Critically
We all have the ability to think critically, but we need to know when to apply that skill.
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The Trust Game
Lisa Callahan describes a two-person game where the outcome can be win-win or win-lose depending on trust, a feeling associated with oxytocin in the brain. We can, however, be fooled by our brains; it is important to step back and be objective in situations of trust.
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Daily Journaling and Self Reflection
Spending five minutes on a diary at the end of a day helps workers to keep things in perspective and deal more effectively with problems. Diaries help the worker celebrate progress in work and personal growth, cultivate patience, and plan the future.
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Intergenerational Cohesion
Companies may have employees from five generations, each with a different work style. The friction can be a source of innovation and conflict. Some companies write vignettes of each generation, so other generations can understand. Others use reverse mentoring.
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Feed the Dog, Not the Wolf
A medicine man counseling a young man observed that a dog is trustworthy, loving, gentle, and kind, while a wolf is vicious, ruthless, and angry. Both are fighting inside you. Which one will you feed? Which will become stronger? Feed the dog, both in yourself and others.
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Invest in the Process, Not the Outcome
Actions are within your control but not their outcomes. Set goals; then forget them. Put all your energy into the activities needed to reach the goals. John Wooden, in the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and coach, never talked about winning, only about effort.
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Embrace Whatever Comes Along
We feel stress when the universe doesn’t behave the way we want. Accept whatever happens to you. Embrace it joyfully. That doesn’t mean you don’t do anything, only that you accept that you don’t have control. Actions are within your control, but outcomes are not.
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How to Be As Resilient As a Daruma Doll
A Daruma doll has no arms or legs and is weighted at the bottom. Knock it down, and it always springs back. To be like a Daruma doll invest in the process, not the outcome; and live in appreciation and gratitude of what is good in your life, not on what’s wrong.
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To Enable Creativity Care About What You’re Doing
We are inherently creative. That creativity only needs to be released. The quickest way is to care—deeply care—about what you’re doing.
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Bullying by Expectations
If everyone in your group feels overwhelmed, go to the boss as a group, but if you are the only one feeling overwhelmed, that’s bullying.
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The Second Mindfulness Capacity: Inquiry
Inquiry stimulates a genuine interest in what is taking place in and around you. By pausing to reflect, you gain insights that lead to greater efficiency and productivity.
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The First Mindfulness Capacity: Allowing
Mind time practices are meditations developed to teach three key mindfulness capacities. Allowing, the first capacity, prepares you to go to a place of choices and learning.
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Mindfulness Practice with AIM
“Mind time” can alter the shape and structure of the brain. Ten minutes can make a difference in your ability to focus, control emotions, empathize, and adapt your behavior.
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The Third Mindfulness Capacity: Meta-awareness
Meta-awareness practice is a conscious act of tuning into everything that’s happening to and around you by concentrating your energy and focus on the present. Without awareness, change cannot occur.
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Supervisor and Subordinate Roles
Supervisor or subordinate? Most likely you wear both hats, but are you clear on what your responsibilities consist of for each role?
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Being Authentic
How do you know if you are authentic or fake? Discover how identifying and conforming to attributes that apply to your personality lead you to being true to yourself.
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Goal Setting
When setting a goal, ask how you will know when you have achieved the goal.
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Knowing Your Values
For Steve McDermott, his most important value in business is fun.
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The New Road to the Top
The program describes changes in demographics of executives in the Fortune 100 from 1980 to 2001.
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Job Hopping and Career Advancement
Insiders became CEO faster than outsiders.
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Create Relationships with Teammates
Why you would want to create relationships with those you work with? Because of the many benefits you derive from building a rapport with them.
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Developing a Values Culture
The learning organization helps drive the values culture. All new hires undergo six modules built around six core values. Basic business activities are related to each value. For example, everyone fills out a time report because that reflects the value of integrity.
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Making Business Ethics Part Of Your DNA
As a prime directive of her job, Phillipa Foster Back gets up close and personal with the concept of business ethics.
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Tap Into Your Unconscious Brain
Your unconscious brain — your prefrontal cortex — will help you achieve a goal if you define both the goal and where you are with respect to that goal. For example, if you want to get a promotion in six months, ask yourself frequently how you are progressing.
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Agility Requires Assessments
To be more agile in a fast changing environment, as a person or as a company, stop from time to time to assess where you are with respect to your goals. The sooner you know where you are, the sooner you can make changes.
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Promotion Focus Versus Prevention Focus
Are you a promotion person or a prevention person? Promotion people are creative and comfortable with risk, but poor planners. Prevention people are dependable and analytical, but risk averse — “defensive pessimists.” Embrace your strengths.
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Achieve Goals with If-Then Plans
Goals like lose weight and exercise more are too vague. Increase your chances of achieving goals by pairing specific conditions with specific actions. If it’s 3:00 I will walk up and down three flights of stairs — exactly what to do, and when and where to do it.
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Balancing A Career & Family
Achieving a satisfying work-life balance is often difficult, but it can be done. After years of work-related travel and moves, Eva Majercsik reveals how to manage family and a career.
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Improving The Quality Of Your Contribution
Only speaking up when you know you have the right or popular answer may be safe, but it isn't the best contribution you can make, as Don Vanthournout shares from his own experience.
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How to Increase Accountability
To increase your accountability, ask the opinion of someone you respect and admire. This will increase your chances of acting on the advice given.
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Moving To Dynamic Problem Solving
The quicker pace of technological changes means that training and problem solving have to advance more quickly as well. Chris King discusses how the US Army stays on top of moving targets.
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Mindfulness Is a Powerful Tool
To manage stress and improve performance, mindfulness is a mighty tool.
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Manage Distractions with Mindfulness
Have trouble paying attention? Take a mindful pause to reset your brain and get back on task more quickly and more effectively.
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Eating Habits Impact Performance
Bad eating habits can negatively impact performance at work, but with mindfulness you can turn bad habits into good ones.
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How to Build Trust
At the start of a team meeting, ask everyone for their proudest moment that week and why. What is one new thing they’ve learned this week about themselves? What are two things that shaped you to be the leader you are today? How will that show up in this team?
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Dream Out Loud
Energy is created when you say your dream out loud. For example, saying that she was going to run the Boston Marathon helped her start training. Saying it out loud also helps other people to help you. These people are often one to three degrees of separation away.
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Fear Means That It Matters
Whenever Whitney Johnson feels fearful about doing something new, she knows she cares. We’re happiest when we’re unstuck—when we’re in the messiness—when we’re doing something that matters for ourselves, our family, and our community.
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Defining Yourself Can Hold You Back
Whitney Johnson wanted to be a jazz musician but didn’t try; she thought she wasn’t good enough. Writing, on the other hand, came naturally. To become an expert, approach things as a beginner, with a desire to figure things out. For her, interviewing is an example.
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Work-Life Balance: The Story of Celina
Celina was the primary breadwinner and wanted the best for her two small kids, but lived in New Jersey and worked in the financial district of Manhattan. Liz O’Donnell describes some of the conflicts Celina faced in trying to balance work demands with family.
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The Role of the Amygdala: The Almond Effect
We often have a “fight or flight” response to change and other unsettling issues in the workplace. Anne Riches explains where this response comes from and how it impacts people in their workplace.
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When We Get Our Best Ideas
We’d ideally love to have great, innovative ideas at our beck and call. But it doesn’t work that way. Anne Riches tells us why, and she offers strategies for recharging your brain.
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Identifying Obstacles to Creative Thinking
Creative thinking is an integral skill that directly impacts a company’s health and future. But while it is in ever increasing demand, it seems to becoming more elusive. Gaia Grant explains why creativity has dropped off in recent years.
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Nurturing Your Own Creative Thinking
If you really want to be a creative thinker, you need to approach your day systematically and guard your time so that you can focus on projects and issues, shares Gaia Grant. Here, she talks about how to take control of your time.
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Creative Solutions Require Determination, Not Luck
Creative people who come up with solutions and are highly successful are often both admired and perceived as lucky. Not so, says Gaia Grant. The primary ingredient to creative thinking is perseverance.
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Anyone Can Learn to Think Creatively: Taking the Creative Leap of Faith
At times we feel we are stuck, that there are no solutions to the problem we face, that we can do nothing about it. But no problem is insurmountable. Gaia Grant explains how we all can learn to move toward creative solutions.
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How We Spend Our Days Is How We Spend Our Lives
The quote, from Annie Dillard, is a reminder to be mindful about how we spend our days. Step back from time to time. Are you productive? Are you around people you like and admire, at home and work? Are you serving people in ways that only you can?
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Time Management and Productivity
As Allison was interviewing for the job of coaching a new CEO, he was invited to participate in a vendor selection meeting and asked Allison if he should attend. She said he had people for that. He needed to step back and consider the highest and best use of his time.
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Setting Goals in Four Dimensions
Write down your priorities for the short, medium, and long terms in four major categories: your career, your relationships and family, your role in the community, and as caretaker of your mind, body, and spirit. Review and rebalance the priorities periodically.
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The Illusion of Scarcity Part 1: Scarcity vs. Abundance
Scarcity thinking is a disease that will ruin any group. Tim will help you get over the disease by the end of this series.
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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
The 7 Habits embody the essence of a balanced, integrated, powerful person and creating a complimentary team based on mutual respect. They are a complete framework of sequential principles.
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Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Stephen Covey advises us to create blueprints to guide our lives, as individuals, families, and organizations.
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Habit 1: Be Proactive
Stephen Covey points out that we choose how we respond to life's circumstances.
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Habit 3: Put First Things First
To put first things first we must learn to say no to other things that may be urgent but not important.
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Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
The Seventh Habit is about taking the time to regularly "sharpen the saw"; to renew physically, social/emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
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The High Cost of Low Trust
Trust is the basis for positive relationships. In business low trust environments are filled with political games, interpersonal conflict, interdepartmental rivalries, and hidden agendas.
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How to Become an Essentialist
Essentialists live by priorities. Priority setting is not something on a to-do list; it’s the work of life. It’s not just that setting priorities matters; it’s “This is who I am.” Only failure and leadership can simplify your life. Choose to simplify by setting and living by priorities.
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Do the Hard Things First
An investor in Silicon Valley said the most important advice he ever received was, at the end of each day, to prioritize the top six activities for the next day. Then spend up to two hours on the highest priority activity when he first arrived in the morning.
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The Four Decision Styles
A decision style may be directive, democratic, participative, or consensus. A style may need to change with increased competition, a new CEO, or a merger, but organizations need a predominant style to provide clarity.
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Making your Meetings More Productive
1) Every agenda item should be a decision or input to a decision. 2) Clarify individual decision-making roles. 3) Distribute materials in advance; no Powerpoint presentations. 4) Decide who will take the next step by what date.
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Need Role Clarity in Decision Making? Use the RAPID Tool
D is the Decision maker. R is the person who Recommends the decision. I is for people who provide Inputs. A is for people who must Agree. P is the person who Performs or executes. Make sure you have only one D, R, and P.
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The Anatomy of Making an Effective Decision: What, Who, How, and When
What decision is it? How is it framed? It there more than one decision? Who plays what role in the decision? How is the decision made? Who does what to whom when? When should the decision be made?
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The Four Components of Decision Effectiveness
The components are quality (making good decisions), speed (deciding faster than the competition), yield (executing as intended), and effort (not too little or too much).
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Identity: How Do We Know Who We Are?
Our identity includes memories of our past, what others say about us, and the programs others have given us. We can also create a new identity.
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To Help Others Develop, Start with Yourself
To help others get better, let them watch you get better.
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Career Transition
Promotions and transfers often require new skills. Understand what the new position requires. Show your commitment; ask others for their opinion, take classes, or find a mentor.
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Reevaluating Goals
Goals are important. It’s also important to know when to give them up.
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How Are You Perceived?
If you don't have access to an executive coach, 1) conduct a 360 on yourself; ask others who know you (don’t be defensive); 2) Google yourself; and 3) conduct your own focus room; assemble people you trust; ask them what your strengths and weaknesses are.
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Intentionomics: The Economics of Intention
Intentionomics gets at the reason you do what you do--and it has an impact at both micro and macro levels, explains David Penglase.
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From Passion to Goals, Clarity to Certainty
With doubt comes uncertainty. Keith Abraham explains how to get over this hump so that you can achieve those things about which you are most passionate.
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Identify Your Personal Goals
Don’t let life pass you by. Keith Abraham shares why it’s important to stop every now and again and recharge your personal battery.
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Creating Momentum
Activity cures inactivity. Keith Abraham shows why people don’t need to be motivated; they just need to create momentum.
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Advice From a 95-Year-Old Man
Most people have three fears: fear of failure, fear of success, and fear of change. Keith Abraham shows what it takes to overcomes these fears and, surprisingly, it’s not all that difficult.
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The High Cost of Low Ethics
Unethical behavior affects 1) prestige; a lost reputation can alienate customers, shareholders, and prospective employees; 2) productivity, especially of highly skilled workers; and 3) profitability, through employee fraud, litigation, and high absenteeism.
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The Myth of Multitasking
You can have a conversation with the person in front of you and the person in the Blackberry, but not at the same time. That’s impossible.
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Articulate Your Intention
It’s important to be able to articulate your intention, says David Penglase. It lets people know exactly what you are focused on doing, and why, and it helps develop a rapport with people.
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Ask Yourself Every Hour, 'What Did I Do?'
Do you really know how you spend your day? David Penglase suggests tracking your time for one day--with the intent of being more intentional and creating good habits.
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Practical Prodding: Intention Reminders
We all need a bit of practical prodding--some sort of reminder of our intention, to keep us on track--explains David Penglase.
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Authenticity: Representing Yourself as You Truly Are
Representing yourself as you truly are engenders trust quickly.
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Organizational Authenticity: The Alignment of Say, Do and Believe
Authenticity means that we actually believe what we say and do.
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Managing Positive and Negative Stress
Max McKeown describes a stress clock, with negative stress on one side and positive stress on the other.
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Being In Your Element
To say that someone is in his or her element means they’re doing something for which they are really suited.
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Pursue Your Passion
College is not for everybody. Sir Ken Robinson tells the story of a man who only wanted to be a fireman. His high school teacher discouraged him but that’s all he wanted. Later, as a fireman he saved that teacher’s life.
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Office Politics
Office politics are unavoidable, but you can learn to make the most of the system with these essential tips.
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Dealing with Gossip
Gossip is an unfortunate fact of life, but it is simple enough to address in an adult manner.
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Overcome Imposter Syndrome
Am I good enough? Do people know I’m a fraud? Questions like these plague individuals who suffer from imposter syndrome, but there are ways to overcome self-doubt.
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Achieve Your Goals
Are you among the 8 percent of people who actually achieve their goals? If not, this action plan will help you to accomplish what you desire.
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Decision Making for Tentative Decision Makers
To make better, more rationale decisions, provide a clear guide that enables people to push aside the thoughts and feelings that often get in the way.
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Decisions That Make the World Better
To positively impact our organizations, our communities, and the world itself, we must lead and make decisions as humanitarians.
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How to Be a Trusting Person
There is no trust without risk. If you practice trusting others at your own risk, they will return the favor. Say, “At the risk of,” and fill in the blank with what you’re afraid of. For example, “At the risk of appearing a little ignorant here, I’m not sure I understand.”
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How to Increase Your Trustworthiness
Trust equals credibility, reliability, and intimacy, all divided by self-orientation. To increase your trustworthiness build on intimacy, the most important factor. For example, comment on other people’s feelings, e.g., “It looks like you’re a little upset. I’d be upset, too.”
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How to Build a Trust-Based Organization
Ask four groups to list five behaviors demonstrating the absence of the four virtues, one virtue per group: credibility, reliability, intimacy, and low self-orientation. Repeat with the four values: other-orientation, collaboration, long-term focus, and transparency.
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Virtues and Values
Virtues are credibility, reliability, intimacy, and low self-orientation, i.e., individual trustworthiness. Values encourage trust in the organization: focus on others, collaboration, focus on relationships, and transparency. Work on one virtue and value each day.
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Dealing with Uncertainty
Uncertainty can put anyone on edge. Eddie Obeng shares three techniques for dealing with all the things you can’t control.
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Choosing What Not to Do
For those times when you have too much to do, Murli Thirumale shares advice on how to choose what not to do.
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Ask for Feedback
The person most responsible for your success is you, so do not leave it up to your boss to give feedback.
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Improve Decision Making Through Debate
A little debate can go a long way toward improving your decision-making processes.
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Native Genius Increases Team Performance
To increase team performance, make the most of each person's native genius.
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Frameworks for Decision Making
Develop decision frameworks aligned with your values and know what your bottom line is.
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Live Event: Working Better Than Before: Understanding Habits to Manage Yourself, and Others, Better
This Live Event was originally broadcast on Tuesday, September 20, 2016.
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The Three Stakeholder Groups and the Role they Play in Your Career
Interactional stakeholders are your peer group; your career depends on them. Observational stakeholders are the local work community. Reputational stakeholders know you only through their communication with others. Build relationships will all three types of stakeholders.
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Identifying Strengths in Yourself and Others
What activities drew you as a child, as a young adult, and last year? What patterns do you see? Ask your team what they see when you are at your best. See the strengths of team members and work to deepen them. Ask what’s right before asking what’s wrong.
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How to Earn Respect: Everyone Else's, and Your Own
Don't respond to baiting. You'll earn everyone's respect, including your own.
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Corporate Ethics: The Golden Rule of Growth
Living by the Golden Rule drives profitable growth.
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Marcus Aurelius on Change
Embrace change. Change brings opportunity. The question is, Who can be the most nimble in exploiting the change, and be the winner?
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The Next Level: Pick Up Accountability for Many Results, Let Go of Responsibility for Few Results
Scott Eblin explains the difference between accountability and responsibility.
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Breaking Our Unconscious Focus on Fear
We learn to be fearful from our parents and later from unpleasant encounters. We tend to believe we’re not worthy. When we’re fearful the brain releases cortisol, the stress hormone. When we’re curious the brain releases serotonin, which allows us to be creative.
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Building Trust and Credibility
Leaders build trust and credibility by making their values come alive for others.
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How to Manage Your Time and Energy
Managing your personal energy can help you be a more productive worker.
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Put Bias in Neutral
Using a clutch metaphor, Howard Ross describes how to shift personal biases into the neutral position.
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Acknowledge Unconscious Bias to Make Better Decisions
Developing an awareness of previously unconscious biases improves your ability to make good decisions.
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How to Increase Your Value
To increase your opportunities for advancement learn everything you can about how your organization functions—not just your job, but how your job fits into the grand scheme.
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In the Online World, Focus on What Matters
Peter Thonis learned how to identify and concentrate on important information in college. He applies those skills today in business.
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Strategic Relationships
We have personal relationships with people we choose, functional relationships with those we tolerate, and strategic relationships with people who invest in our personal and professional growth.
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Making a Relationship Currency Deposit
Relationship currency deposits are investments you make in your most valuable relationships.
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The Real Organizational Chart
Think of ROI as Return on Influence.
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Using Calculated Risks to Define Your Value
Defining your value requires having the courage to take calculated risks based not only on your own strengths but also the strengths of others.
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Focus on What Fulfills You
It’s important to find what fulfills you, because when you’re fulfilled, you’re successful.
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Getting People Out of Your Office Quickly
Laura Stack provides you with eight tips to get people out of your office quickly.
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How to Say No Without Saying No: Refusing Requests with Tact and Grace
Laura Stack discusses ten ways to say no without saying no.
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Successfully Managing Up
Asking your boss some key questions can help you manage up more successfully.
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Participate in Meetings
Even if you do loads of work, if you aren't contributing during meetings then you're probably being overlooked.
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S.M.A.R.T. Goals
Changing a long-held habit can be difficult, but applying the S.M.A.R.T. method gives you an edge.
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Long Work Hours
Long work hours are the norm, with fewer people doing more, but you can do something about it.
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The New Time Management
Jurgen Wolff presents a new strategy for time management – what he calls the “alter-ego strategy”.
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Adversity and Opportunity
As humans, we’re all fragile. Somewhere in our personality, our persona, lies an area of insecurity, of doubt. How do you overcome something that has been so trying, so difficult?
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Dealing with Conflict
When two people don’t agree, first reward them for bringing up the issue. Then observe the issue in a neutral light, explain how it affects you, what you want, and end with a contract. Handle conflicts assertively, not aggressively or non-aggressively (as a passive aggressive).
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Meetings with Purpose and Energy
Ditch meetings that are a waste of time in favor of meetings that have a good purpose, bringing together many engaged minds to achieve a specific objective.
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Time Management: The Six Box List
A six box to-do list can help you be much more productive on your main goals.
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Reframing Risk
Think of risk-taking as a skill you can develop. Normally we are in our green zone, where we’re comfortable. Don’t jump from there to a red zone risk, where it’s scary. Move into a yellow zone place of growth. Jodi Detjen gives an example of a person dealing with conflict.
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Perfection
Women feel they need the perfect job, the perfect house, the perfect everything. It holds them back. What is the cost of that marginal increase toward perfection? Better to live in the messiness of imperfection. Learn from the mess. Have fun in the mess.
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Be Selfish
Don’t assume you’re not important. Your needs are important as anyone else’s. Add your voice at the table. If you have a conflict, speak directly. State your view, how you feel about the situation, and what you would like to see happen. Jodi Detjen gives an example.
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How to Improve Your EQ
Emotional intelligence is not fixed; it can be improved upon over time.
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Busyness Does Not Equal Productivity
Being busy doesn’t always guarantee that you’re being productive.
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Stay True to Your Passion
Ron Cohen’s dad used to advise, “To thine own self be true.” What do you want to with your life? What turns you on? What gets you up in the morning?
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The Secret to Ultra Productivity
It takes only a few simple habits to become ultra-productive.
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Developing Yourself: Be Proactive in Getting Feedback
Everyone on Nicole Piasecki's team has a self-development plan.
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Email Sanity
As email arrives decide whether to delete it, file it in an action folder or a reference folder, or act on it if the action takes less than two minutes. Make your decisions quickly.
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Having Complete Creative Skills and Integrity
Writing ability predicts success in college and beyond. A good writer is a good reader and oral communicator.
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The Keys to Getting Things Done
First, you need to know what “done” means. What is the outcome? Second, you need to know what ”doing” looks like, where it happens, and who is doing it. That is, what is the next physical action?
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Build in your Personal Reset Button: The Weekly Review
A weekly review is a one- or two-hour period when you look at your list of projects and your calendar or diary, step back, reset, clean up, see things from a different perspective, and start fresh.
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Mastering the Five Stages of Workflow
The five stages of planning are 1) define the purpose, 2) define success, 3) brainstorm the elements of success, 4) organize the elements by priority, sequence, or major components, and 5) decide what to do and who will do it.
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The Five Stages of Gaining Control
David Allen shares the five steps to getting things under control.
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The Two Core Elements of Self and Organizational Management
The two elements are control and perspective—having things under control and focused appropriately.
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Priorities: Making Trusted Choices
Deciding what to do next depends on your overall strategy; where you are, the available time, and your energy level; and type of activity—whether to work items already on a list, respond to unplanned activities, or process incoming information to define the work.
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How Do You Get Room to Think?
To get psychic space, you need to identify and remove or manage distractions.
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The Most Important List (The Projects List)
A projects list is the most important list to make you feel in control of you work.
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Leading With Emotional Courage
Leaders don't fail because of ignorance; they fail because they lack emotional courage.
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How to Regain Control When Under Attack
Instead of letting your instincts control you, give your body four seconds to decide how to proceed.
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Avoid Constant Performance Mode
Individuals need to set boundaries to avoid being sucked into the work culture of constant performance mode.
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Break Rituals Increase Productivity and Prevent Burnout
Break rituals refresh your mind and body, making you healthier and more productive.
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Anxiety Is a Frienemy
Like a frienemy, anxiety has a good side and a dark side, and we need to understand how to make the most of both.
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RESET to Increase Positivity and Productivity
Americans need a reset button--a change in mindset or behavior--in order to relax and refresh from the stresses of work and life.
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Choose Your Values
Looking for meaning or motivation? Develop your values.
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Overcome Emotional Feelings
Focus on your physical feelings to take power away from your emotional feelings.
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Turn Stress Into Positive Pressure
When Shawn’s mother was diagnosed with cancer, she turned negative stress into positive pressure by exercising control. She built a support network that included physical, nutritional, and pastoral therapy, artists, musicians, and laughter. Action brings clarity.
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How to Make Better Decisions
Firefighters ordered to drop their gear to escape a fire didn’t, and died. To avoid fixations, medical students were told to say, out loud, in the presence of others they trusted, all the symptoms, all possible diagnoses, and a plan to eliminate the diagnoses one by one.
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Individual Accountability
Bob Sutton describes organizations where everyone feels individually accountable. People are recruited who reflect that mindset, and are placed in groups that live the mindset. These employees feel obligated to correct each other, and admit their mistakes publicly.
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Amid Chaos, Learn to Improvise
We grow when we are uncomfortable—when we have “growing pains.” Learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable.
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The 5C Approach to Career Mobility
When it's time to develop your action plan, take advantage of the 5C approach to launching your career mobility strategy.
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Career Mobility Roadmap
Once you've embraced career mobility from a kaleidoscope mindset, it's time to design your roadmap.
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Three Rules for Leaving Your Current Job
So you've decided to leave your current job... Do you know the cardinal rules of what you need to do and what you need to avoid doing?
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It’s as Important to Be Kind as to Be Clever
The importance of human connection may not fit on a spreadsheet, but it is incalculably worthwhile.
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Career Development
Employees want career development and will go wherever necessary to find it.
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Interactions Define Relationships
Our interactions define our relationships. What kind of relationships will you build?
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A Kaleidoscope Mindset for Career Mobility
Career mobility is similar to a kaleidoscope in that three major factors combine to make a plethora of options.
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To Achieve Work-Life Balance Do What Makes You Happy
If you are happy every day going to work you’ll make it work.
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A Challenge Is an Opportunity
Internal struggles and awakenings can make us better leaders. Karina Andersen shares a personal story of how the challenge of dealing with a personal tragedy turned into an opportunity for growth.
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Psychological Power
Psychological power is not about power over others; it’s about power over yourself — the ability to self regulate so you can bring out your best self. Psychological power is related to creativity and positive mood, so you can feel good about yourself.
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Why Resolve Wins
The difference between winners and losers is the ability to keep going.
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Managing Energy
Jim Loehr describes four aspects of personal energy: its quantity, quality, focus, and force.
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Stress Management
We need to experience stress to grow, but growth actually occurs during the recovery period that follows stress.
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The Truth about Mental and Emotional Engagement
The best predictors of engagement are the connection between activities and values, and your physical health.
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Better Meetings Means More Dialogue
Leading a meeting doesn't have to automatically cause a sense of dread, especially if you focus on audience participation.
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Brainstorming Begins with Questions
Does your approach to brainstorming start with asking everyone to yell out ideas? If so, Levy has an easier, less-intimidating, and better way to begin.
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Four Steps to Solving a Problem
Even if your problem is well stated, it may not be solvable. Follow these four steps to frame your problems in a way that makes solutions possible.
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A Better Way to Find Solutions
To become an expert problem solver, you need to see opportunities that no one else sees. And to do that, you need to understand a problem-solving strategy called "generate mass."
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Benefits of Friendly Competition
To solve a particularly difficult problem, challenge individuals to tap into their inner Frankenstein.
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The Six Emotions to Setting Goals
If you’re lost, decide. If you’re frustrated, pursue the opposites of what you don’t want. If you’re confused, design a plan. If you’re unclear, follow your heart. If you’re unsatisfied, ask what matters. If you’re uncertain, stay focused.
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The Why Formula
Most people spend their life earning a living rather than designing a life. If you don’t have a strong enough “why” you’ll never do the “how.” What work matters to you? What’s the next step toward that work? By what method? How can you create momentum?
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Two-Way Elevator Conversation
Sam Horn gives a quick lesson in how to turn an elevator pitch into a vibrant two-way conversation.
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Controlling Emotions
To control emotions, stop, think, act, and rewire.
