Education


See an NYU panel on Women in Entrepreneurship April 21!

As the faculty advisor to NYU's special interest housing floor for entrepreneurship, I asked my residents what types of events they wanted. Among the responses was that they wanted exposure to women in entrepreneurship. I asked a friend if she would speak. She responded with several women who could speak. The entrepreneur in me seeing high demand and high supply knew there was opportunity in bringing them together. I followed up by speaking to some NYU student groups that all showed interest in building the event, community formed, and meeting the initial student request evolved into a major panel of women in entrepreneurship April 21 at NYU-Wagner at the Puck Building. The speakers and moderators are all successful women in entrepreneurship. It will be an…

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A reader responds on the concepts of introversion and extroversion

An attendee at a recent seminar I spoke at that covered the concepts of introversion and extroversion read my posts on them and wrote. I asked if I could share what she wrote here so others could benefits from her thoughts and our discussion and she agreed. Hello! We met last night at the Gotta Be Good Tour at NYU, and talked briefly about the concept of extroversion-introversion. It had never occurred to me to question this idea. I'd taken it for granted and it seemed patently true. Like many things people don't yet question! So first, thank you for even questioning this concept and bringing it to my attention as something to be examined. I've read your blog posts. Well-written and quite interesting! Some…

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A testimonial from “How to Lead People So They Want You to Lead Them Again”

Following up yesterday's testimonial, an attendee, Amy, from my seminar a week and a half ago, wrote about applying what she learned days after the seminar and seeing results. I really enjoyed the seminar - it gave me a great deal to think about (and apply). In fact, I am hiring an Associate for my team and approaching it entirely differently based on your framework. The interview I had recently in which I spent more of the time understanding his deep motivations was more enjoyable that interviews I've had in the past. Probing in the way you suggest - and getting closer to understanding the person - was a terrific starting point to seeing whether we would be well suited to working together and whether…

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A testimonial from Harvard talk on Friday

An attendee, David, at Friday's talk at Harvard with GiveGetWin, spoke to me for a while before the event began and then after. He wrote the following Joshua's talk at Harvard was wonderful. He masterfully dissected the process of decision-making and the influence it has on people's lives. In less than 15 minutes he left me with enough to think about for a week. After the event we ended up speaking more and Joshua's knowledge of etymology and his precise and knowledgeable demeanor blew me away. I couldn't help sharing it. The audience asked lots of questions and shared personal issues. I can't wait for next year's tour to speak with the group again.

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See Joshua Spodek at Harvard today!

Monday I spoke at NYU-Stern with a group called GiveGetWin on Leadership and Entrepreneurship. Judging by the number of attendees who asked questions and went out for drinks with us after, the event went great and they invited me to speak at Harvard today. Sorry for the last-minute notice, but I wasn't sure I could make it work in my schedule. The details are that I'll talk about leadership and entrepreneurship along with a few other speakers involved in GiveGetWin's tour. We'll speak at the Harvard Science Center starting at 6:30pm in Auditorium D. If you're around Boston or Cambridge, please come. Entrance is free and Monday's event went great. If you contact me to tell me to look for you, all the better. A…

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A human perspective on quantum gravity

You've probably heard or read about the experimental discovery of gravity waves, a major and historic discovery in science with widespread implications, in the news lately. Understanding those implications is difficult. So is understanding the experiment. What's not hard to understand is the effect of hearing about the experimental results on someone who does understand its meaning and who explored this part of nature for decades. This video shows the unrehearsed reaction of two such people with a friendly surprise breaking of the news. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlfIVEy_YOA I notice most their interest in nature---specifically understanding what the experiments observed. I suspect to them, looking at what most people see as impossible-to-decipher equations and graphs, the data is like seeing deeper beauty of nature. I expect they feel…

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Emotional skills versus emotional intelligence

Who hasn't heard about the value of emotional intelligence? Everybody talks about how mere regular intelligence only gets you so far before you hit limits. It makes sense. Emotions affect your relationships and for projects bigger than you can finish alone, which means nearly everything, you need to use relationships. Deeper than how well you lead others, emotions help you understand yourself, so understanding emotions helps you improve your life too. As much value as emotional intelligence has, I feel the concept misses something important. The more I learn about and coach people on emotions, the more value I see not in just knowing about emotions, but in the skills to use them, which means action, behavior, communication, and practice, all of which come through…

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Read KQED’s story about Joshua Spodek adopting inquiry-driven project-based learning at NYU-Poly

Read KQED's story about how I've adopted inquiry-driven project-based learning in teaching my class at NYU-Poly, Entrepreneurial Marketing and Sales, in "Can University Professors Benefit from K-12 Progressive Teaching Tactics?" You no doubt already read my post "Inquiry-driven project-based learning rocks!" describing my experience at EduCon in Philadelphia and starting to value and use this style of teaching. If you didn't, go there for background. The KQED reporter who wrote the piece found me there as one of the few or maybe only university professor there and followed up by interviewing me. I don't know how many professors teach this way. I hope this story helps us find each other to create some community and support to help other professors who would benefit from it…

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My Q&A with a Nobel Prize winner

Following up yesterday's post on Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz's talk and my Q&A with him... He spoke on leadership and ethics. I felt honored and flattered for him to describe my question as "A great question, really the core question." He spoke mainly about the many corporate decisions business and political leaders made that hurt many people and the systems that enabled them, as well as the beliefs and assumptions that also enabled them. For the decisions, think of the predatory lending leading to the recent great recession, schemes pharmaceutical companies made to make creating generic drugs impossible, BP in the gulf, or any number of other corporate or government acts that resulted in people dying, losing their homes, or further inequality. For the…

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Meeting my fourth Nobel Prize winner

Sorry no big insight today, but I couldn't help note that in attending a talk by Joseph Stiglitz and participating in the question and answer afterward, I got to interact with my fourth Nobel Prize winner. I met more of them when I studied physics, in particular studying with one. I also got to be friends with a Professor who had been hired by one of the other laureates in the department specifically to work on hard problems---one of the major prize-winners, who could have won it twice---and then was there when another professor was awarded the prize. I'm probably just bragging. And to say I met him might overstate our interaction. But Stiglitz's talk was great. He knew his material and presented it simply…

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“I can talk to my brothers and sisters again” — coaching client

Coaching works. The quote above, "I can talk to my brothers and sisters again," came from one of the one-hour coaching sessions I have with students. We were talking about business relationships and understanding---specifically the perspectives in this post, "My boss sucks. How do I manage my manager?" We did the exercise in this post,  "How to make someone feel understood: confirm and let them correct you," which he applied it to another part of his life. He paused to take it in after saying that, speaking with a focus and intensity for the rest of our conversation. An experienced person can see blind spots you can't and can get you to face them. Overcoming them can help you in areas you never expected. Results aren't…

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The value of entrepreneurial skills for artists and vice versa

Pyragraph Magazine just published a piece I wrote, "The Value of Entrepreneurial Skills for Artists," on how I hustled (a term that for me in entrepreneurship means only positive things) my way into a prestigious teaching gig at NYU while creating a big public art work. I loved and benefited from each. Neither opportunity could stand on its own, but both together worked. And the city, the school, and the students benefited. You don't have to make art to see how you can apply the story to your life. Check out the story.

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See Joshua Spodek on a distinguished panel on Entrepreneurship and Leadership at NYU March 27

I've been invited to participate on a panel with several distinguished entrepreneurs and leaders at NYU March 27 6pm-7:30pm. Click here for the announcement and to register (the event is free, but you have to register). Below is the text. NYU Entrepreneurs Network & NYU Leadership Development Initiative present Entrepreneurship VS Leadership Similarities, Differences, & Lessons Learned We often talk about leadership and entrepreneurship as if they were the same thing. Have you wondered what is the relationship between these two fields? How transferable are the skills and capacities that might be required for each? What role does entrepreneurship play in leadership and vice versa? Join us for an exciting panel discussion as we explore what these two fields mean, how they are different and…

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Inquiry-driven project-based learning rocks!

If you lead, coach, or mentor, knowing effective teaching methods help you. People have been learning to teach for thousands of years, so we stand to learn from them. I recently attended a phenomenal conference on education called EduCon in Philadelphia, co-hosted by longtime friend Chris Lehmann, who founded The Science Leadership Academy, which ranks as one of the most inspirational educational communities I've participated in, including several Ivy-League universities. I had the chance to get a crash course in "inquiry-driven project-based learning," a style of teaching that focuses on students first, recognizes testing often comes at the cost of learning, and puts engaging the student at the forefront of educating them. It asks the teacher to care about the student and plan teaching with…

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“How to Lead People So They Want You to Lead Them Again” My March 15 Leadership Seminar in NYC

Because January's seminar sold out and people reviewed it so positively, we're repeating it on March 15. And it includes a copy of my book with admission. Want to motivate people more effectively? Come to my March 15 seminar, "How to Lead People So They Want You to Lead Them Again," which will be held at NYU-Stern, conveniently located in Greenwich Village. Past attendees of this seminar rated it very highly. Here is the text from the Columbia Business School Alumni Club announcement: Effective leaders motivate people from the inside---so people they lead contribute fully and thank the leader for giving them the opportunity to work with them. You can learn this skill too. Is someone thanking you for motivating them to work hard on…

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Thank you, attendees and organizers!

I want to thank all the seminar attendees and organizers for a fantastic experience at Saturday's seminar "How to Lead People So They Want You to Lead Them Again." I had given that seminar several times before, but this was my first with fifty people in a room at capacity. Everyone seemed attentive, genuinely interested, and open to experimenting. I only know other people's perspectives what they tell me, but everybody who spoke afterward found the seminar valuable, useful, and engaging. From my perspective, the exercises, simple and brief as they were, gave the most value. That's generally the case -- that people learn the most from exercises -- and I put more and more focus into that part of a seminar all the time.…

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More inspiration from Martin Luther King, especially if you haven’t achieved much yet

Perhaps the best honor one person can give another is to understand them and continue their legacy. I'm writing today's post to suggest you can do that with Martin Luther King more than you think. Many people believe Einstein got bad grades, but I understand he didn't. Martin Luther King, Jr got bad grades. He started graduate school at a school near Philadelphia called Crozer. Note among his grades -- the grades of one of the premier public speakers I've heard of -- he got a C in Public Speaking one term and a C+ in another term. He also got a C+ in Church Music and a C- in another class. Now look at his college grades. They are hard to read, but you'll…

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Sold to capacity

With bittersweet feelings, I report that Saturday's seminar, "How to Lead People So They Want You to Lead Them Again," is at capacity for the venue. I expect we'll book future seminars on the topic. I look forward to seeing everyone there. Previous sessions have gotten great reviews. I plan to deliver a great seminar tomorrow.

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“How to Lead People So They Want You to Lead Them Again” — My January 18 Leadership Seminar in NYC

Want to motivate people more effectively? Come to my January 18 seminar, "How to Lead People So They Want You to Lead Them Again," with the Columbia Business School Alumni Club of New York, which will be held at NYU-Stern, conveniently located in Greenwich Village. Past attendees of this seminar rated it very highly. Below is the text from the CBSACNY announcement: Effective leaders motivate people from the inside — so people they lead contribute fully and thank the leader for giving them the opportunity to work with them. You can learn this skill too. Isn't someone thanking you for motivating them to work hard on your project the holy grail of motivation? People remember effective leaders their whole lives. If you had leaders and…

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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on John Wooden — one of the best basketball players on one of the best coaches

You can learn a lot about leadership from what great leaders say about people who led them. I'll show a video of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on his college coach, John Wooden, and then describe how it teaches a lot about leadership -- specifically motivating others. First a few words on each. Who are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and John Wooden? Abdul-Jabbar ranks among the best basketball players (and athletes of any sport) ever. According to Wikipedia's page on him, he was a record six-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP), a record 19-time NBA All-Star, a 15-time All-NBA selection, and an 11-time NBA All-Defensive Team member. A member of six NBA championship teams as a player and two as an assistant coach, Abdul-Jabbar twice was voted NBA Finals MVP.…

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The Method: the series

[EDIT: I covered this series in more depth in Leadership Step by Step, so I recommend the book, but the core is here. I use this technique as a part of my life, basically daily.] Here is The Method on how to use The Model---my model for the human emotional system designed for use in leadership, self-awareness, and general purpose professional and personal development---in series form. I find the Model and Method the most effective and valuable foundation for understanding yourself and others and improving your life. The Model tells you how we work. The Method shows you how to use The Model to lead yourself and others and create the lifestyle you want. I recommend reading The Model Series first, then reading this series…

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Coaching highlights from coaching Columbia Business School students: Two months in Tibet

[This post is part of a series on Coaching Highlights from coaching Columbia Business School students. 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.] Two months in Tibet is a technique that complements accountability for the long-term part of leadership and personal development. It overcomes a major source of resistance for many people trying to change. Some background: One of the major sources of resistance when you try to change is other people. They know they old you. If they like you they like the old you. Changing your behavioral patterns without warning may confuse them and prompt them to worry if they will lose the…

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Coaching highlights from coaching Columbia Business School students: For changes to stick, change both beliefs and behavior

[This post is part of a series on Coaching Highlights from coaching Columbia Business School students. 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.] How do you start to plan? You've figured out a change you want to make in your life. How do you start to plan? You've always done X and now you want to stop it. Or maybe you've never done Y and you want to start. Or you want to do something differently. Coaching sessions with students often hit a break after we finish interpreting their feedback reports and they've chosen a leadership behavioral skill they want to work on and change.…

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Coaching highlights from coaching Columbia Business School students: Assertiveness does not mean aggressive, domineering, or trying to influence

[This post is part of a series on Coaching Highlights from coaching Columbia Business School students. 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.] As an earlier post in this series mentioned, assertiveness ranks highly as a skill students at Columbia want to develop as part of their leadership training. Most recognize it as an important skill for leadership -- that if they don't assert themselves, instead of leading they'll end up being led by others who assert themselves more. Most haven't had or created the opportunities to assert themselves professionally, having had few leadership roles. I find one of their biggest hurdles to asserting themselves…

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