I watched the news about the hurricane approaching. They had me scared. During the storm I went for a walk. People were out in shorts, T-shirts, and flip-flops. They were walking their dogs, no problem. I’m sure the storm was worse in some places. I just logged on and haven’t had the chance to read much news and I hear there was a lot of damage. But I know the[…] Keep reading →
My rule for posting has been not to miss a day. In the words of my friend who started me writing If you miss one day, you can miss two. If you miss two, it’s all over. Words to live by. Our habits define a big part of who we are. I hope people don’t mind my back-posting today. Downtown Manhattan is without power, water, internet, etc. The hallways and[…] Keep reading →
A hurricane or tropical storm is hovering in the Atlantic soon to hit the east coast, including my home in New York City. I keep seeing predictions of the size of the damages from however the storm affects us. You see similar predictions of the size of how many things affect us — people estimate, say, how much money in productivity traffic delays cause us and things like that. I[…] Keep reading →
When I was younger and studied physics when I thought of the Egyptian pyramids I would wonder at how they overcame the engineering challenges — how did they get the big rocks to the top, how did they measure the angles accurately enough, and so on. As I got older, worked in larger teams with more intricate teamwork, and led teams my sense of marvel shifted from overcoming engineering challenges[…] Keep reading →
My five months in Shanghai have been my longest time away from home in a long time — probably since my year in Paris about twenty years ago. And I was even home for a week in August. I could write a lot about what I like about home, but I’ll keep it simple with the top few. Sleeping in my own bed Mom’s home cooking for Thanksgiving Nieces and[…] Keep reading →
The past few posts talked about using self-talk to lead yourself. Today I’ll mention a few things about leading others by influencing their self-talk. To me, influencing someone’s self-talk feels easier than changing their beliefs, but the effect is roughly the same. Trying to change other people’s beliefs sounds hard, especially if you can’t change your own beliefs. It’s easier when you realize some simple things about how others have[…] Keep reading →
Knowing your self-talk lets you change how you perceive and influence your world more than almost anything. That knowledge helps you understand and influence how your team members, peers, bosses, and so on perceive their worlds. It’s a powerful lever. Your beliefs affect how you perceive your world. Everything you observe gets filtered through your beliefs. If you think Bob is a jerk, you will filter everything you see about[…] Keep reading →
Yesterday I posted a short passage of self-talk you might have come up with yourself doing the self-talk exercises I recommend as two of the best exercises I know to raise your self-awareness (exercise 1: write your self-talk; exercise 2: voice your self-talk). Let’s do another, this time in the context of walking into a crowded room in a social situation. First, have you noticed what people do when they[…] Keep reading →
I’ve written before about the value of raising awareness of your self-talk and two exercises to raise it. The first is to write out your self-talk. The second, and harder, is to voice it. I still consider the first — writing your self-talk a few times a day every day for a week — one of the best, if not the best, self-awareness raising exercises I know of. I start[…] Keep reading →