Category Archives: Leadership & Management
Some “what if” questions you should be asking right now
Shifting the need of our agendas from the reactive “to-do” agendas that are set to deal with the urgencies of a particular week to the proactive “What if?” agendas that can help us reimagine the future for our ourselves, our customers and our organizations. Before we get to some questions you can build your “What […]
Leadership by fools
If you’re willing for a time to be thought a fool, you’ll end up with the last laugh. After a brief run of fewer than three years, Brandless has bitten the dust. The SoftBank-backed startup was conceived on the proposition that it could make consumer staples more affordable by selling them online and unbranded, streamlining […]
Stop Rushing In With Advice
Why your words of wisdom probably aren’t worth very much. There’s a time and place for advice. But when giving it is your default response to colleagues and friends who face difficult situations (and for most of us, that’s the case), it becomes a problem. It’s an insidious habit — one you’ve been encouraged to […]
5 Mental Exercises to Strengthen Your Emotional Fitness
Achieve the mindset that allows you to not just endure chaos, but to thrive in it. In times of crisis, there are those who become overwhelmed by fear and those who rise to the occasion. They know that they have the mindset to not just endure but to thrive in the middle of chaos. They […]
The Iceberg Illusion
The Iceberg Illusion: the hidden logic of success. Success is an iceberg — what people see is very different from reality. Most people don’t count all the costs successful people have paid overtime (below the surface) to get to what they see (above the surface). People only see the end goal, the glory, the monumental […]
How to Make Meetings Suck Less
Jessica Powell, the former Google vice president who wrote The Big Disruption and told you how to quit your job, is here to answer your common but tricky work questions. Whoever owns the meeting needs to keep it moving. I am a manager with a secret: I hate meetings. I’m at a big company and […]
Are companies about to have a Gen X retention problem? (HBR)
As a result of the attention paid to Baby Boomers and Millennials, Gen X often gets short shrift, a trend that has continued over time. Generation X, represented by cultural icons such as Molly Ringwald, Kurt Cobain, and Alanis Morrissette, was long ago written off as the “slacker generation” — apathetic, cynical, and anti-establishment. Like […]
4 Questions The Best Managers Answer To Energise Employees
“The best managers reinforce how and why each person’s contribution is fundamental to the team’s success.” Gallup. First Question: What is your contribution? People are energized when their contribution is understood and appreciated. Here’s a walk-about question you might use today. “I believe you’re making important contributions. What contributions do you think you’re making?” (Find […]
How people are ‘ghosting’ their employers
From faking their own deaths to hiring people to talk to their bosses for them, vanishing from the office without a trace is now a common method of workers quitting. But it’s risky. Yuichiro Okazaki and Toshiyuki Niino are great at quitting. In the last 18 months, they’ve resigned from at least 1,500 jobs. But […]
What Deep Breathing Does to Your Body
Breathe in for 4, out for 8 For being free and incomparably easy to practice, deep breathing is a pretty miraculous healing exercise: It can reduce anxiety, bring you into the present moment through mindfulness, and even help you remember how to respond to your specific stressors. The average person is cognizant of deep breathing’s […]