I invite you to think about a recent interaction when you felt inspired by an individual or group. What resonated with or shifted inside of you? What emerged, as a result? That experience is the influ…
The problem with change is, in fact, not change at all. Despite all we are told about how difficult it is to manage change, the truth is that as human-beings, we are wired for change and get bored wit…
What does it mean to be a leader? In the words of John Buchan, former Governor-General of Canada, “The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is th…
If you would indulge me, I would like to begin this post with a short exercise. It won’t take long. You will need a blank sheet of paper to write a few things down. Divide the paper lengthwise by draw…
We’ve all heard a lot about the power of forgiveness. Self-help books and coaching literature all talk about how liberating it is to forgive others as well as yourself. While this is of course true, t…
Leadership is the art of influencing the thoughts, attitudes, behaviors, and choices of others. In that sense, anybody who is in sales is in a leadership role, trying to influence the thoughts, attitu…
Of course I am not better than you—nor are you better than me. Comparing people’s qualities is like questioning whether Einstein is better than Mozart or whether Bill Gates is better than the Dalai La…
So many people, Ray Dalio says, often make bad decisions because they’re absolutely sure they’re right. Successful people, Dalio says—and Dalio is a super successful billionaire, hedge fund manager, t…
Recently I mentioned the Truth and Reconciliation Commission established in 1995 in South Africa. It was an exercise in restorative rather than retributive justice. Its purpose wasn’t to punish anyone…
“Things only get better when we get better,” said Tony Robbins on Instagram recently. Tony Robbins is correct. We tend to depersonalize the need for change and put the focus on things that have to get…
When people act up, whether it’s a child throwing a tantrum or an entire generation of people protesting, the cause is almost always a deeply felt pain that has been triggered. In acting up, however,…
My sadness about what is happening in America at the moment is deep and complex, as I’m sure yours is. I’m sad about the looting, the chaos, and the suffering it has caused. I’m sad—very sad—about the…
In his book, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell shares the story of the Getty museum’s kouros statue, a sixth century BC sculpture purchased in the early 1980s for $10 million (which would be just shy of $26 mil…
The fifth belief that Gallup’s forthcoming book, It’s the Manager, recommends organizations change is: Belief #5: Millennials and Generation Z don’t want a manager who fixates on their weaknesses. I l…
The sixth and final belief that Gallup’s forthcoming book, It’s the Manager, recommends organizations change is perhaps the most surprising one: Belief #6: For millennials and Generation Z, work “is n…
In their forthcoming book, It’s the Manager, Gallup recommends that organizations should change six beliefs. In earlier pieces I have addressed the first three. The fourth is: Belief #4: Millennials a…
In this piece, we expand on the third of six beliefs that organizations should change, according to Gallup’s forthcoming book, It’s the Manager. Belief #3: Millennials and Generation Z don’t want boss…
To succeed in 2019, you need to change six beliefs about young talent. This is according to the Gallup organization in its forthcoming book, It’s the Manager. In this piece, the first of six, we’ll ex…
I recently commented on the HBR article by John Coleman “You Don’t Find Your Purpose – You Build It” saying that he confuses the idea of finding meaning with that of finding purpose. What are the diff…
Promoting successful subject matter experts into positions of leadership is a common and commonsense practice. However, once in place, these experts are often confronted with a dizzying series of scen…