Leadership

Inc.com / Leadership / Stories

What You Can Learn from the Best Leader in America’s Bold Job Interview Strategy

My Inc.com article today, "What You Can Learn from the Best Leader in America's Bold Job Interview Strategy" begins What You Can Learn from the Best Leader in America's Bold Job Interview Strategy Interviewing for the job that brought her national prominence, she prepared and behaved differed from most standard advice, but was incredibly effective. Of those responsible the Girl Scouts camping out on the White House lawn, Frances Hesselbein may have been the most important. As the CEO of the Girls Scouts from 1976 to 1990, she helped turn the organization around, tripling minority enrollment, and increasing their focus on leadership, science, technology, and math. Her work earned her the Presidential Medal of Freedom among other honors--bringing her to the White House--not to mention…

May 16, 2016

Entrepreneurship / Inc.com / Leadership

Have a Great Plan? Without Answering These 2 Questions You Don’t.

My Inc.com article today, "Have a Great Plan? Without Answering These 2 Questions You Don't." begins Have a Great Plan? Without Answering These 2 Questions You Don't. Plans are easy. Executing them is harder and takes a lot longer--and not for what you can plan for. Here's how to prepare for the unexpected. A client showedÂ me his ambitious plan for professional development. It showed he had developed a lot, learned his values, learned what he was capable of, set high standards, and listed many SMART goals. He also said it would entail moreÂ than an hour a day every day for the rest of the year--237 days at the time, since he included weekends. I know almost no one whoÂ added 237 hours of work on 237…

May 9, 2016

How not to be afraid to be yourself, Italian style

Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making / Exercises / Fitness / Leadership / Nature / SIDCHAs / Tips

How not to be afraid to be yourself, Italian style

The other day I was interviewed for a podcast (I'll link to it when they edit and post it). The interviewer asked me how I accomplished so much. I told him and his listeners to look up sidchas on my blog. Everyone who aspires to greatness knows the importance of building discipline, integrity, dedication, and other skills. I accomplish things by acting by my values. I practice with small challenges like daily exercise, daily writing, cold showers, and so on. Almost nobody does these things or their equivalent for them, yet they want the benefits. You have to do things to get the benefits of doing them. Well, today's post is the smallest yet activity you can do to develop such skills. I don't care…

May 7, 2016

Awareness / Leadership / Nature

Op/Ed Fridays: How travel distorts your values

My Inc.com story today, "On the Road Too Much? How Travel Warps Your Values and What To Do About It" begins On the Road Too Much? How Travel Warps Your Values and What To Do About It Everyone cares about the environment until they get on a plane Would you mind someone burning your house down if they gave you a dollar for your troubles? Would you do an activity that led youÂ to lose perspective so much that you couldn't tell the difference? This article is about values, the most important foundation of leadership, business, and relationships, or close to it.Â It's aboutÂ you doing thingsÂ you would fire your CFO for. TravelÂ leads to confusingÂ values this muchÂ by nearly everyone who travels a lot. I'll write about its effects…

May 6, 2016

Video: What a leadership course can deliver, part 4

Education / Entrepreneurship / Exercises / Leadership / Models

Video: What a leadership course can deliver, part 4

Here is an interview with a student who took my online leadership course, Chris, a born salesman and entrepreneur. Hear how the leadership course increased his business while calming his life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzm7iL6reFY Reach your potential in business and life. My courses don't take time from the rest of life. You work with people in your life that you care about on projects that you care about without distracting from the rest of your work and life. Learn more about the course and register here Read testimonials about my courses here I look forward to having you aboard.

May 3, 2016

Wasting less, could still waste yet less

Awareness / Freedom / Habits / Leadership / Nature

Wasting less, could still waste yet less

On January 27th I made a video about starting a new trash bag for my waste. I predicted I would take six months to fill it. With a guest staying over, we ended up filling it in just over four person-months. I think I can produce less waste, but I'm pleased with how I did so far. In no way did I feel constrained. On the contrary, I felt less confined by stuff and certainly less dirty, having less garbage around. Here's a video about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MYxs6wAdUk Efficiency and Responsibility Why do I post about garbage? Who cares about it? Your waste affects everyone. Within your teams, you create less garbage, literally and figuratively, when you run more lean. Beyond your teams, your garbage is…

April 30, 2016

Education / Inc.com / Leadership / Relationships / Stories

Six Lessons I Learned at Lunch With the Best Leader in America

My post on Inc.com today, "Six Lessons I Learned at Lunch With the Best Leader in America," begins Six Lessons I Learned at Lunch With the Best Leader in America Experience trumps everything in leadership and she has more than you do. From the Girl Scouts to the White House. IsÂ Alan Mulally, former CEO of Ford, whose stock price went upÂ 18 timesÂ under his watch, a fair judge of good leadership?Â How aboutÂ Peter Drucker, the "founder of modern management"?Â How aboutÂ Marshall Goldsmith, named the #1 leadership thinker in the world in 2015? If we can accept them as reasonable judges, they all named Frances Hesselbein--advisor to the U.S. Military Academy atÂ West Point,Â fourteen-yearÂ CEO of the Girl Scouts, holder of almost two dozen honorary degrees, and more--as the best leader…

April 29, 2016

Video: What a leadership course can deliver, part 3

Awareness / Education / Exercises / Freedom / Habits / Leadership / Nonjudgment

Video: What a leadership course can deliver, part 3

Here is an interview with a student who took my online leadership course, Isabeaux, an undergraduate at NYU who hadn't taken an experiential course before, which initially threw her, before she came to find it led to more growth than she'd ever seen, despite going to an elite university. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxo-msa9dGQ Reach your potential in business and life. My courses don't take time from the rest of life. You work with people in your life that you care about on projects that you care about without distracting from the rest of your work and life. Learn more about the course and register here Read testimonials about my courses here I look forward to having you aboard.

April 28, 2016

Inc.com / Leadership

America’s Best Leader Doesn’t Waste Time in Airports. Why Are You?

My Inc.com article yesterday, "America's Best Leader Doesn't Waste Time in Airports. Why Are You?" began America's Best Leader Doesn't Waste Time in Airports. Why Are You? Business class and travel apps exist for a reason: because traveling is awful. If the most effective leaders can do more while traveling less then so can you. Ask someone at home about travel and they may think of the Eiffel Tower, but traveling is more like long lines at dirty, intrusive airports, traffic congestion, and wasted time. Plus your flying causes more pollution than nearly any other activity. Why do you think business class exists? Because business travel would be unbearable without it. Think of it: if you enjoyed getting in a cramped space for hours after…

April 26, 2016

Education / Exercises / Leadership / Models / Stories

Video: What a leadership course can deliver, part 2

Here is an interview with a student who is taking my online leadership course, Ellen, who is an entrepreneur who recently sold her latest business. As you'll see, she is also finding that the lessons she's learning apply to other deeply challenging areas in life.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnblmP_VlHg Reach your potential in business and life. My courses don't take time from the rest of life. You work with people in your life that you care about on projects that you care about without distracting from the rest of your work and life. Learn more about the course and register here Read testimonials about my courses here I look forward to having you aboard.

April 21, 2016

Entrepreneurship / Inc.com / Leadership

Hope Is For Losers. Here’s What Winners Have Instead.

My Inc.com story yesterday, "Hope Is For Losers. Here's What Winners Have Instead." begins Hope Is For Losers. Here's What Winners Have Instead Mainstream society values hope. If you're in business, relying on hope means you've nearly failed and you should know why. In a scene in the great TV show Cheers where Sam is down on his luck, Diane says in a chipper tone to cheer him up, "At least you still have your health." Everyone at the bar -- Norm, Cliff, Woody, etc -- suddenly groans, like they just saw a puppy die. "What? What did I say?" Diane asks, confused and surprised. Carla explains, "When you say someone has their health, it means they have nothing else. They've hit rock bottom. You're…

April 20, 2016

Video: What a leadership course can deliver, part 1

Education / Exercises / Leadership / Models

Video: What a leadership course can deliver, part 1

Here is an interview with a student who took my online leadership course, Bethany, who is an Associate Partner at IBM and has an MBA from Columbia Business School: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoL4zWav8Hw Reach your potential in business and life. My courses don't take time from the rest of life. You work with people in your life that you care about on projects that you care about without distracting from the rest of your work and life. Learn more about the course and register here Read testimonials about my courses here I look forward to having you aboard.

April 18, 2016

Exercises / Fitness / Leadership

You’re lying if you say you don’t have time to exercise

"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 about time when the challenge is motivating yourself to overcome demotivation, you're focusing on the wrong issue and you won't solve the problem.

April 16, 2016

Entrepreneurship / Freedom / Inc.com / Leadership

“How to Break Rules and Succeed Like Kobe Bryant”

My Inc.com piece today, "How to Break Rules and Succeed Like Kobe Bryant," begins How to Break Rules and Succeed Like Kobe Bryant Kobe Bryant polarized and broke rules most of us can't, yet earned admiration and support. Why can some people break rules, yet get support? The LA Times called Kobe Bryant "the most polarizing figure in the history of L.A. sports." He spoke out against his team. He publicly quarreled with his teammate. These are transgressions that could end many people's career's, no matter how talented. Yet Kobe leaves the game admired and supported. Why can he break so many rules, yet exit so admired? As entrepreneurs and leaders, the answer matters. We work in spaces where rules aren't as clear as in…

April 14, 2016

Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

If you think business is about money, people will control you with it. If you offer value, they’ll want to hire you.

If you think business is about money, people will control you with it. If you want money and they have it, you'll do what they want. What do you think looking for a job is? It's finding people with money and asking them what you can do for them. It reminds me of a student of mine at NYU who came to me asking for referrals for a job. After a short conversation explaining that I didn't find that method of looking for a job helpful, I suggested doing something to give to a community. We decided to organize a panel with panelists from the community she wanted work in. Organizing the panel would give her reasons to talk to people in the community but,…

April 12, 2016

Hustling

Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership / Models / Stories / Visualization

Hustling

What do you do when they cancel your flight? In the late 70s, a man and his fiancÃ©e were visiting the Caribbean. They found themselves stranded in an airport when their airline canceled their flight to Puerto Rico. The man was disappointed, but based on his experience running a record business that he had founded, he took initiative to solve the problem. Noticing other people from the same flight were also stranded, he called a chartering company to find the cost to charter a plane. $2,000. He agreed to charter it. He divided that cost by two less than the number of seats in the plane, wrote a sign to show that price for a seat on a chartered plane to Puerto Rico, walked around…

April 9, 2016

Entrepreneurship / Inc.com / Leadership / Models / Perception

“Resilience: What The New York Times, New Yorker and Most of Academia Got Wrong” (My Inc. story)

My latest Inc.com story "Resilience: What The New York Times, New Yorker and Most of Academia Got Wrong" begins Resilience: What The New York Times, New Yorker, and Most of Academia Got Wrong If you want to be resilient, not just know about resilience, research and the media won't help you. [the story starts with a picture of an athlete covered in mud, struggling to make it] You're covered in mud, exhausted, bruised, and have a long way to go. Disaster or glory? Any leader or entrepreneur knows it's how you look at it. The active among us find ways to motivate ourselves and our teams. Resilience is a hot topic. It's valuable to know to handle challenges and recover from adversity. Those who can…

April 1, 2016

Choosing/Decision-Making / Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

My courses will lead students to leave traditional, lecture-based universities — to greater success and reward

I loved university. Studying physics, universities are about the only places to learn it. I value university for many things. They do a lot of valuable things better than any other institution or alternatives---the hard sciences, for example. It's not right for everyone and it does some things terribly. Places other than universities do some non-academic activities so much better than school. Experiential learning---how I teach leadership, entrepreneurship, sales, and hustling---is so much more effective at teaching leadership, entrepreneurship, sales, and hustling, than traditional, lecture-based education, that you could consider the latter counterproductive. Moreover, experiential courses where students create major projects can sometimes lead them to their life's great passion. I spoke with such a guy the other day. The first experiential class he took…

March 30, 2016

Inc.com / Leadership / Nonjudgment / Perception

My Inc. post: Trump: Why Voters Love Him and What You Can Learn From Him (Even If You Hate Him)

My Inc. post today, "Trump: Why Voters Love Him and What You Can Learn From Him (Even If You Hate Him)," begins Trump: Why Voters Love Him and What You Can Learn From Him (Even If You Hate Him) Love him or hate him, he's effective at something and you can learn what works from his technique. An example confusing people trying to understand Donald Trump: the picture above shows himÂ speaking on Pearl Harbor Day, yet he "dodged Vietnam War through medical deferment, not high draft number as he claimed." He's belligerent andÂ hawkishÂ yet has a "history as dove." Still he gains support, defeating another opponent, MarcoÂ Rubio,Â for good in his home state. Mainstream media and political analysts have trouble understanding his popularity. Listening to what he…

March 18, 2016

Want to run leaner? Waste less. Literally: produce less waste.

Awareness / Freedom / Habits / Leadership / Nature

Want to run leaner? Waste less. Literally: produce less waste.

The videos below aren't glamorous. They're about trash---regular household trash. Our world is swimming in garbage. The business world is obsessed with reducing waste and improving efficiency, but only for what it accounts for, which rarely includes actual physical waste, which taxpayers pay for carting away to landfills, where it slowly seeps out to the ecosphere. Most of us wish businesses were held accountable for other forms of waste, like pollution. How about you and your personal waste? Do you hold yourself accountable for your waste? Most people, when asked to account for their waste---how much they pollute---point out how others pollute more or something to deflect exposing how much they pollute. People also confuse caring about pollution with caring about trees or abstract ideals.…

March 17, 2016

Awareness / Entrepreneurship / Leadership / Perception

Know the problem to solve it

Entrepreneurs solve problems. So do leaders. If you don't understand the problem, you won't know how to solve it. If you want help from others, if you don't understand the problem, you'll lead people to give you useless advice. People feel like solutions make them heroes, so they focus on what they consider solutions, but if you don't understand the problem from the perspective of people feeling it---that is, your potential customers---you can only solve it accidentally. Understanding the problem enables you to solve it. Einstein said if you gave him an hour to solve a problem he'd spend fifty-five minutes understanding the problem and five minutes working on the solution. He solved a few hard problems so might be someone worth emulating in that…

March 16, 2016

Awareness / Entrepreneurship / Leadership / Nonjudgment

Why people fear failure. It’s not what you think.

I hear people talk about how much people fear failure, but also that you have to learn to handle failure. They talk about it like it's abstract---just not achieving a goal you want to. Like if you want to start a business and you end up not making money. Or you want to achieve some other goal and don't. We don't like not achieving goals, but we don't fear such abstraction. Humans have no inborn fear of not making money that we wanted to. We fear how not achieving our goals makes us feel. We've been made fun of, laughed at, scorned, questioned, judged, and so on for what we call failure. These outcomes led us to feel ashamed, humiliated, insecure, anxious, depressed, and so…

March 13, 2016

Learn Feedforward with me in London, Monday March 14!

Education / Events / Exercises / Leadership / Nonjudgment

Learn Feedforward with me in London, Monday March 14!

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 welcomeÂ Joshua Spodek. Joshua is professor at New York University and is visiting London. We are lucky enough to have him speak at our group. This will set out FAST! We are truly honoured to have a speaker of this stature visit our group. Feedforward by Professor Joshua SpodekÂ What if you could remove the conflict and fear from performance reviews, instead making them positive and mutually productive? Some 30 years ago, the renowned executive coach Marshall Goldsmith…

March 11, 2016

Awareness / Entrepreneurship / Exercises / Leadership / Relationships / Stories / Tips

Video: How to Make Meaningful Connections

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. Scratch that. Every successful person, not just leaders. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9h3gNZ3rl4 If you want your questions answered, attend the webinars or contact me. By the way, I'm still getting to the questions people responded to in my poll on what your most important question about leadership is. If you haven't responded to it, please do, at this…

March 8, 2016

Video: The Worst Problem in the World

Awareness / Leadership / Models / Nonjudgment / Perception / Relationships / Visualization

Video: The Worst Problem in the World

I've shown this representation of what I call The Worst Problem in the World at many seminars. I wrote about it about five years ago. Now you can see the video. Watch all the way through to see some solutions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUycXlo4OX8 Take my course if you want to get beyond it and resolve it in your life, mainly by doing the exercises in it to develop compassion and empathy.

March 7, 2016

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