Flip dilemmas to see abundance
Dilemmas have replaced problems in our VUCA (volatile, uncertainty, complex and ambiguous) world. Disruptive change is everywhere we turn, and it’s accelerating exponentially. By their very nature, dilemmas are insolvable. Consider the global economy, world peace, and...
5 ways to pay attention–to your verbs
“Attention, attention must finally be paid to such a person.” -- Linda, speaking about her husband, Willy Loman, in Death of a Salesman. Playwright Arthur Miller won the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for this 1949 drama, and he went on to write many other memorable...
Personalize your LinkedIn “congrats”
Kudos to LinkedIn for encouraging the practice of recognizing others. If you’re part of LinkedIn, you probably get email messages or announcements about people in your network who have earned a promotion, started a new job or done some other noteworthy action....
Take tiny steps to make big changes
Want to make a big meaningful change? Take itsy bitty actions every day. “Believe in baby steps,” is the mantra of the psychologist BJ Fogg who developed the breakthrough Tiny Habits® method. As you take tiny steps, you start changing little by little. These small...
Best brain books for 2013
Looking for a list of the best change leadership books published in 2013? You won’t find it here. This year, I’m breaking from my popular tradition. Instead, I’m offering my “go to” list of favorite books about the brain. This topic is top-of-mind now that I’m serving...
Want to motivate others? Be fair!
Cooperate versus compete? If you want to encourage greater collaboration with your team and inside your organization, focus on improving cooperation. Forget about competition, unless you want to play games at holiday parties or picnics. Tug-of-war is appropriate in...
Make your mirror neurons fire for better collaboration
“Maybe Marissa (Mayer, the Yahoo CEO) was right,” a client mused to me this week as he showed me his new office. A former two-day-a-week telecommuter, my client has recently joined another tech company. This one requests that all of its employees work at one of its...
Share info early and often with feeling
“Just the facts” is an iconic way to operate. Back in the 1950s, the actor Jack Webb made the phrase popular with his portrayal of Sergeant Joe Friday in the classic Dragnet radio and TV series. Sixty years later, some executives still think it’s an appropriate way to...
Making celebrations a habit
Celebrating our achievements. Why is it so hard for some of us? Many of the leaders I coach and consult with tell me that they don’t celebrate their individual successes. Their reasons run the gamut of: Celebration doesn’t fit their personality or situation. They...
