Reading List: Take Command
Sgt. Jake Wood served four years in the Marines, including tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. But it wasn’t until the former sniper and decorated soldier left the military in 2009 that he decided to form an “army” of his own, one able to rapidly deploy to natural-disaster zones to swiftly and efficiently set up aid […]
4 Leadership Lessons from the Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royals had just lost their third game in a row to the Boston Red Sox 6-0, but if you looked around the clubhouse on July 20, you wouldn’t have seen a team that looked like they had just lost their ninth game in 12 days. Instead, you would have seen group of […]
4 Great Ways to Make Breakthroughs
Steve Jobs, Apple’s maverick co-founder, once said, “Creativity is just connecting things…. Creative people… connect experiences and synthesize new things…. They were able to do that [because] they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.” This presents us with an interesting dilemma. We are taught that we should […]
How to Encourage Introverts in Meetings
Remember the kids in fourth grade who constantly and frantically raised their hands, eager to dominate class discussions and flaunt their knowledge? When they grew up, they probably overwhelmed a brainstorming group. University of Texas at Arlington professor Paul Paulus says that having group members write their ideas at first and then pass them along […]
Reading List: Uncontainable
In 1978 Kip Tindell and his partner were 20-something entrepreneurs who passionately believed that if they built a brick-and-mortar store selling inventive organizing solutions, the customers would come. When The Container Store first opened in Dallas, customers did come—by the dozen (most were friends and family). Soon the dozen became hundreds… then thousands and millions. […]
Tech Tools: Make the Office Inspiring, Not Tiring
[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_large”,”fid”:”28967″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”350″,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”480″}}]] Philips Hue (MeetHue.com) The future of lighting is the LED bulb—the most energy-efficient, colorful advancement since the days of Edison. With Hue ($199.95 for a starter pack), Philips has created an interactive lighting system for homes and small offices. The setup is simple, and using Wi-Fi and apps, you control the color and temperature […]
Is Poker the New Golf?
About 40 women (and a few men) are gathered in midtown Manhattan to nosh, network and practice their poker face—not the Lady Gaga song, the Texas Hold ’em version. “Learning how to play poker helps women enhance their business and life skills,” says Ellen Leikind, a former corporate executive and founder of POKER-prima-DIVAS. An avid […]
Reading List: Mind Gym
How we interpret the world around us has an “enormous effect on how fortunate or unfortunate you are,” write Sebastian Bailey and Octavius Black, the co-founders of Mind Gym, an international firm that teaches people the art of using their minds more effectively and productively. To prove the value of thinking differently, the authors present […]
John C. Maxwell: A 1-Week Leadership Listening Challenge
In a TED Talk I viewed recently, economic development expert Ernesto Sirolli told the story of working to develop sustainable agriculture in Africa for six years during the 1970s. Sirolli said his first project seemed simple enough: Plant a garden and teach the local Zambians how to grow tomatoes and zucchini. Initially they made great […]
The Secret to Putting Humpty Dumpty Back Together Again
The first time I can recall my sense of humor having a dramatic effect on my life was when I was in the third grade. I was performing in our school play, Alice in Wonderland. No, I wasn’t Alice. I was Humpty Dumpty—you know, the egghead who was damaged irreparably when he found out he […]
7 Steps to Shape Great Character
How would you describe your nature or disposition? If you’re like most, it’s difficult to explain. Your disposition is one part of the complex entity we call character. Here, speaker and top-selling author Brian Tracy helps explain the ambiguity of character and gives you ways to cultivate a respectable one. Related: 6 Essential Traits of Good […]
3 Reasons You Lose Sales
If you ask any group of salespeople the reason they lost a recent deal, the vast majority will lay the blame on a lower-priced competitor. When you ask that same group how they chalked up their last win, they’ll tell you it was their relationship, the trust their client had in them, their knowledge or […]