“I don’t have time to exercise.” Everyone has said it at some point. It’s a lie. At best, it’s ignorant. If you want to lead others, you better know how to lead yourself. Effective exercise can take a few minutes a day. The hard part about effective exercise is that you don’t feel motivation to do strenuous things. I’m not saying it’s easy. The point is that if you talk[…] Keep reading →

I’ve written before how I avoid lecturing. Instead of trying to give students the answers, which lecturing does, I try to give them experiences that will lead them to discover the answers for themselves. Instead of organizing a syllabus around the how to order presenting information, I organize it around exercises and projects. I find that when students discovers an answer, they remember it longer, know how to apply it,[…] Keep reading →

How does a course get student reviews like these? “This is one of the greatest classes I have ever taken. It was engaging, thought provoking, challenging, and fun. Josh is an incredible teacher, mentor, and friend to everyone in the class who is passionate about the subject matter. If I could take this class all over again, I would” — “10/10 would take again! I loved every second of this[…] Keep reading →

This week’s New Yorker’s article reviewing a book on personal and professional development was annoying and snarky, but revealed the problem with books on professional and personal development. The book the article reviews, whose name doesn’t matter for this post, has a format that’s familiar in contemporary nonfiction: exemplary tales interpolated with a little social and cognitive science. The purpose of the tales is to create entertaining human-interest narratives; the[…] Keep reading →

On vacation over the winter, I found myself swimming in a pool. I realized I don’t swim much. As best I remember, it was the second or third time I swam since swimming across the Hudson River in 2008, pictured at the top of this page. I took a few surfing lessons in the meantime. I don’t know if I should count when I have something that floats with me.[…] Keep reading →

Want to learn and practice one of the most effective leadership techniques? Then join me for a workshop, Monday, March 14th at 6:30pm. Click here to register! I look forward to seeing you there. From the announcement: Feedforward by Professor Joshua Spodek Interesting Talks is incredibly excited to welcome Joshua Spodek. Joshua is professor at New York University and is visiting London. We are lucky enough to have him speak at[…] Keep reading →

I’ve meant to post a video of my burpee sidchas. Someone writing a book on high intensity interval training asked me for a video, so I finally recorded my morning and evening burpee sidchas. Maybe my burpee sidcha will show up in a book. I don’t claim they’re glamorous but I haven’t missed a burpee in over four years. I do them every day. I started with ten burpees a[…] Keep reading →

Here is the video from Sunday’s webinar on How to Make Meaningful Connections, which, as I describe in it and you’ll find if you practice the exercise in it, is about how to develop compassion. The exercise in this webinar teaches some of the most valuable skills you can learn about relationships. Every leader I’ve ever heard talk about compassion describes it as critical, up there with empathy and self-awareness.[…] Keep reading →

Prelude A client’s friend had lunch with Warren Buffett. He talked a lot about passion. In fact, she wrote Throughout the conversation, Buffett stressed the significance of passion—how necessary it was for his own journey and how imperative it is for us to find ours. Passion was the fire behind his focus that encouraged him to absorb all things business, all the time. It was a job, it was his[…] Keep reading →