Keep Swimming
So many of us have our heads down in work and in life. We let inertia and momentum drive us. What if we all chose routinely to look up, assess our progress and recalibrate our course toward our goal?
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Emotional Intelligence: HALT
While driving home from work on a recent Friday, I was stopped by a police officer who claimed that I had made an illegal turn. I knew for a fact that I had turned with a green arrow, but because the attitude of the officer was very provoking, I simply said, “I am not going [...]
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Effectiveness Limiters
Common phrases have a bad habit of taking up residence in our psyche. Unfortunately, many of them, though well-intended, actually do more harm than good. From time to time, it’s important to remind ourselves that there is no easy path to success. Trite maxims will not get you to where you want to be. They [...]
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Emotional Intelligence: Sorry, Son
My son recently called me to inform me of “how bad it is out there.” When I asked him to explain, he said simply, “You wouldn’t understand, Dad. It’s really hard.” I took a deep breath before responding in a slow, steady tone. “Son, I’m sorry. I have let you down. I have done you [...]
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Change Management: Change Agent Leadership
I am a firm believer that leadership is a choice, not a position. Because of this, I believe anyone can be a leader. Each leader has a choice of how he or she will lead. At the risk of oversimplifying, I have observed that leaders can be categorized into two groups: Status Quo Leaders and [...]
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Emotional Intelligence: Stop Telling the Story
Have you been wounded in your personal and/or professional life? Perhaps you were passed over unfairly for a promotion. Maybe you were the victim of some mistruths or someone else took credit for your accomplishments. Whatever the scenario, many of us carry professional wounds with us. We tell the story to our sympathetic friends; we [...]
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Effectiveness: Be a Pencil
I recently came across an old story about a pencil and a pencil maker. In it, the Pencil Maker explained to the pencil, before putting it in the box, that there were five things the pencil needed to know to fulfill its purpose. It went something like this: 1. You must allow yourself to be [...]
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Effectiveness: If You Fail to Plan
You’ve heard it before: If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. The truth is, the failure to plan usually leads to years of aimless drift. I see it every day. As a business owner and success advocate, I work with companies and individuals who have a goal in mind but no plan to [...]