[This post is part of a series on Communication Skills Exercises for Business and Life. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] A couple of my Communications Skills Exercises begin with asking people what their passion is, including “Meaningful connection” and “How to make someone feel understood: confirm and let[…] Keep reading →

When you hear the temperature is rising a degree or two over the course of decades it doesn’t sound like much. I came across a quote to put it in context. Because the atmosphere is so big, even little temperature increases like that get multiplied over a huge volume compared to usual human scale. Climatologist James Hanson, of my alma mater, Columbia University, describe the current rate of increase in[…] Keep reading →

I don’t know about you, but a lot of people see me as nerdy and geeky. Growing up, the labels intimidated and debilitated me. Athletes seemed to get more attention and respect. I associated doing well in science and math with being made fun of. Since I did well in those subjects I hid my ability and didn’t make a show of it. When I started college I took a[…] Keep reading →

Here’s another post in my Genius Business Idea series one day after the first. This one came during the same homework assignment as yesterday’s, I hope indicating great ideas can come quickly. Like many ideas, this one also came from personal experience. For all I know, such a profession already exists, but I don’t know about it so I’m writing it up anyway. The unmet need If you’ve had your[…] Keep reading →

I haven’t posted something for my Genius Business Idea series in a while. I thought of this when I also did a homework assignment I assigned my students in the class I’m teaching at NYU. The unmet need Many people are choosing to take vacations from work without leaving their home towns, which they’re calling “staycations.” They cost less money and take less planning while still giving people a chance[…] Keep reading →

A longtime reader and friend told me a way he put together to make himself feel better, going back to my 2009 post, “Less, please“. He said “You know how I get to feel better when I’m feeling down? You have your burpees and SIDCHAs. I do my Joshua Spodek Ten. Whenever I feel down, I set a goal of getting rid of ten things.” He described that he had[…] Keep reading →

How to up-lead After my leadership seminars, someone always says “This material is great. I can see how it will improve my life. I’m starting to implement it. But you know who could really use it? My boss!” Most of my clients who have problems at work wish they could change their bosses, a process I call up-leading or up-managing. Come to think of it, our success developing up-leading skills[…] Keep reading →