Leadership

Webinar: How to Make Meaningful Connections, Sunday 1pm EST

Education / Leadership / Relationships / Tips

Webinar: How to Make Meaningful Connections, Sunday 1pm EST

After teaching, coaching, studying, and practicing leadership for twenty years, I announced my online leadership course, "Introducing the most effective leadership course available anywhere." I'm hosting a series of free webinars on the most actionable, useful, effective, and exciting parts of the course. My webinars will always deliver exclusive, valuable lessons you can use that day and how to build for the long term. Attend my fourth webinar, free, this Sunday, March 6, 1pm Eastern Standard Time! All you need is an internet connection. How to Make Meaningful Connections If you want to lead or influence others in business and to have meaningful relationships everywhere in life, you need to create meaningful connections. If you're like me, you were born shy and awkward. You can…

March 3, 2016

Question to readers: what is your number one question about leadership?

Readers, I write on leadership, generally along my interests. I would love to write along your interests---if only I know them. Would you please share your main question about leadership? Please click here if the poll below doesn't show. It's only one question. (If you don't see the "Done" button, scroll down in the poll) Create your own user feedback survey Thank you, Josh

March 1, 2016

Entrepreneurship / Leadership / SIDCHAs

My bold next stages

Emails to great, long-time friends you don't see that often give you the chance to reflect on longer stages than normal and to put together thoughts more complex than you think daily. I wrote the following to one such friend, capturing the change my change in focus and direction following my increased confidence in my courses as I've seen hundreds of people succeed in them. Some of it feels over the top, but I believe having bold goals helps you achieve them. The email: At long last, I'm switching from developing my material to promoting and selling it. I held back because I felt promoting and selling would distract me from developing more, though I didn't know if that development had an ending point. Now…

February 24, 2016

Webinar: Self-Imposed Daily Challenging Activities, Saturday 1pm EST

Entrepreneurship / Exercises / Fitness / Habits / Leadership / SIDCHAs

Webinar: Self-Imposed Daily Challenging Activities, Saturday 1pm EST

After teaching, coaching, studying, and practicing leadership for twenty years, I announced my online leadership course, "Introducing the most effective leadership course available anywhere." I'm hosting a series of free webinars on the most actionable, useful, effective, and exciting parts of the course. My webinars will always deliver exclusive, valuable lessons you can use that day and how to build for the long term. Attend my third webinar, free, this Saturday, February 27, 1pm Eastern Standard Time! All you need is an internet connection. SIDCHAs: Self-Imposed Daily Challenging Healthy Activities If you read my blog you know about SIDCHAs. Learn more about them in detail and how you can make them work for you. Read more about them here to learn how critically useful they…

February 22, 2016

Video: Integrity means considering the results of your actions on other people

Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making / Leadership / Nature

Video: Integrity means considering the results of your actions on other people

The forecast for the day after tomorrow in New York City, for mid-February, is 58 degrees Fahrenheit (14.5 C)---beyond unseasonably warm, especially after a 72 degree Christmas Eve (!!), followed by the hottest month for the planet recorded relative to normal. You know the signs we're beyond the possibility of climate change. We're in it. My version of leadership means taking responsibility for your actions and their effects on others---all the effects, not just the ones you want. However much you think pollutions happens mostly from others, not you, you contribute to it. Which means you can change your behavior to reduce how much you pollute. Even if you think you're only contributing one part in seven billion, you're responsible for one hundred percent that…

February 18, 2016

How to Decide Without Regret in business and life

Choosing/Decision-Making / Education / Leadership / Models

How to Decide Without Regret in business and life

After teaching, coaching, studying, and practicing leadership for twenty years, I announced my online leadership course, "Introducing the most effective leadership course available anywhere." I'm hosting a series of free webinars on the most actionable, useful, effective, and exciting parts of the course. My webinars will always deliver exclusive, valuable lessons you can use that day and how to build for the long term. Attend my second webinar, free, this Sunday, February 14, 1pm Eastern Standard Time! All you need is an internet connection. How to Decide Without Regret ... in business and life Click to register! From the registration page: What You'll Learn in The Webinar Why deciding is hard, and it's not what you think! How to make deciding easier, even something to…

February 12, 2016

Education / Entrepreneurship / Exercises / Leadership

Another problem with traditional education: Employers are disappointed by traditionally educated students

I've written "Why I avoid lecturing when I lead and teach", asked "Does lecturing turn schools into prisons?", and discussed "How lecturing is the opposite of how we learn". As if those reasons weren't enough, the most-credentialed students that traditional education produces disappoint employers in areas where jobs. This video of the director and producer of a documentary on project-based learning shows what they learned from people who hire at top Silicon Valley companies don't value credentials of traditional education. https://joshuaspodek.com/mlts_interview Compare these outcomes with the student voices from my last course, "This is one of the greatest classes I have ever taken. It was engaging, thought provoking, challenging, and fun." Do they sound like they're waiting for someone to tell them what to do?…

February 11, 2016

Video: Three Leadership Secrets You’ll Never Learn Reading A Book

Awareness / Events / Exercises / Leadership / SIDCHAs / Tips

Video: Three Leadership Secrets You’ll Never Learn Reading A Book

I just finished my first webinar, "Three Leadership Secrets You'll Never Learn Reading A Book". Here is the recording of it for those interested but who couldn't make it. If you like what I write about and want more, contact me about what you want and I can tailor webinars to what people are looking for. I prefer to stick with topics I cover here but I'm flexible too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21a9_ih2Z4c From my first announcement the other day: Three Leadership Secrets You'll Never Learn Reading A Book

February 6, 2016

Inc.com Today: 2 Questions To Ask in Every Interview So They’ll Want You Back (Video)

Inc.com / Leadership / Relationships / Stories / Tips

Inc.com Today: 2 Questions To Ask in Every Interview So They’ll Want You Back (Video)

My post today on Inc.com, "2 Questions To Ask in Every Interview So They'll Want You Back," begins: Instead of trying to show off, making you look like a commodity, use these techniques to make interviews two-way conversations where they'll want you back. Isn't that what you want from an interview? If you want one thing most from an interview, you want the interviewerÂ to want you back. If you want a second thing, you want to know if you want to work there--do you like the people, the culture, and everything else about working there. What not to do in an interview Most people undermine both goals by trying to show off. Telling them about your features feels like itÂ should work, but since everyone doesÂ itÂ you…

February 5, 2016

Awareness / Leadership / Relationships

Convincing people doesn’t influence them how you intend

Either you agree or your lack of agreement illustrates my point. Think about it.

February 4, 2016

Three Leadership Secrets You’ll Never Learn Reading A Book

Education / Entrepreneurship / Events / Exercises / Leadership

Three Leadership Secrets You’ll Never Learn Reading A Book

I've taught, coached, studied, and practiced leadership for twenty years. After announcing my online leadership course on my blog, "Introducing the most effective leadership course available anywhere," I'm hosting a series of webinars on the most actionable, useful, effective, and exciting parts of the course. My webinars will always deliver exclusive, valuable lessons you can use that day and how to build for the long term. Attend my first webinar, free, this Saturday, February 6, 1pm Eastern Standard Time! All you need is an internet connection. Three Leadership Secrets You'll Never Learn Reading A Book Click to register! From the registration page: What You'll Learn in The Webinar The value of behavior and experience beyond reading, no matter how valuable what you read What researchers…

February 3, 2016

Audio / Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making / Creativity / Education / Entrepreneurship / Exercises / Leadership / Models / Nonjudgment / Relationships / Tips

Introducing the most effective leadership course available anywhere

If you read this blog, you know I care about leadership and how to improve yours---in business, personal, family, and every other part of your life. I presume you do too. As much as you've learned from the blog, you can learn more from doing. If you want to improve because you're moving up the corporate ladder, just finished school, starting your own projects, or any other reason that you have to lead people and teams, developing leadership skills from practice will improve you most effectively. Anyone can improve their ability to lead, and the most effective improvement comes from experience, not books, lectures, or case studies. Or even my blog. I created what I believe the most effective course in leadership you can find…

February 2, 2016

Inc.com / Leadership / Relationships / Tips

Inc.com Today: How to Build the Best Relationships With Both Leaders and Superiors

My post today on Inc.com, "How to Build the Best Relationships With Both Leaders and Superiors," begins: Misunderstanding how we like helping others holds many back from building relationships with leaders and superiors. Getting their help can advance you. You get that meeting with that decision-maker/founder/CEO/titan/guru/expert who can make your project happen. You've dreamed of this chance for years. How do you interact with this person? If you're like most people, you treat them deferentially, meaning you show respect. YouÂ don't ask too much of them. After all, they're doing you a favor, right? I suggest avoiding this strategy, however natural it feels. Read the rest at the site: How to Build the Best Relationships With Both Leaders and Superiors.

January 29, 2016

Awareness / Entrepreneurship / Inc.com / Leadership / Perception / Relationships / Stories

Inc.com Today: Why You Should Never Let Anyone Call You ‘Smart’ in Business

My post today on Inc.com, "Why You Should Never Let Anyone Call You 'Smart' in Business" begins: Intelligence is good so entrepreneurs should like being called smart, right? Wrong. People call you smart when you have nothing they care about more. Look at who doesn't care if you're smart in business: Customers value products and services that solve their problems. Employees want to pay their rent and enjoy their jobs. Suppliers want to get paid. But the big concern is investors. Read the rest at the site: Why You Should Never Let Anyone Call You 'Smart' in Business

January 27, 2016

Two types of students?

Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

Two types of students?

I teach, but not how nearly all my teachers taught me. I teach experientially. I try to avoid lecturing. I try to include in the classroom the challenges life will challenge students with, not abstractions. Nearly all my students come from years of lecturing and abstract learning. I find two broad types of students. I don't think they're different types of people. I think they come from different types of backgrounds. The first type wants to learn about leadership or entrepreneurship. The second type wants to learn to do them. I spent most of my life and education in the first type. Obviously, I've moved into the second type and prefer it. Which type are you of the following, if either? The first type often…

January 21, 2016

Speaking authentically, Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali, and Vietnam

Exercises / Freedom / Leadership

Speaking authentically, Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali, and Vietnam

Few prominent Americans spoke as authentically as Martin Luther King. Still, even after winning a Nobel Peace Prize, he struggled to speak out publicly against the Vietnam War after he privately came to oppose it. Today I'm sharing how Muhammad Ali led Martin Luther King, despite not being a statesman or politician. On the contrary, he simply spoke authentically---that is, without the filter many people use to keep from saying things they might regret. Ali had no relevant credentials. He only spoke with conviction. Even then he spoke simply, with nowhere near the depth or breadth that King later did. Anyone can speak so bluntly if they have the experience speaking authentically. We may, today, forget the risks a public figure had to take then…

January 18, 2016

“One of the greatest classes I have ever taken. It was engaging, thought provoking, challenging, and fun.”

Education / Entrepreneurship / Exercises / Leadership / My Favorite Posts

“One of the greatest classes I have ever taken. It was engaging, thought provoking, challenging, and fun.”

I compiled feedback from students in the entrepreneurship class I taught at NYU last semester. Though the students were undergraduates, I taught basically the same exercises as I do with executives and seasoned executives, who get similar results. As much as my vanity would like to take credit for some of these reviews, more credit goes to the style of teaching I use---inquiry-driven project-based learning---and the people who developed it over the past century or so. I'm using what works. As you can tell, though the course was nominally about entrepreneurship, this active, experiential style also made it about responsibility, initiative, hustle, empathy, and other deeper and broader areas than just academic or abstract information. Also, of course, most of the credit goes to the…

January 13, 2016

Leading Colonels, Majors, and other Officers In Charge

Events / Freedom / Leadership / NorthKorea

Leading Colonels, Majors, and other Officers In Charge

I had the chance to lead a leadership workshop at the United States Army Garrison Yongsan in Seoul, South Korea. This was my first chance to work with the military, though I felt particularly motivated after lunch with Frances Hesselbein last summer, who has worked with West Point and the White House for decades and holds many there in the highest regard, and after interacting with an NYU-based project with the New York Mayor's Office of Veterans Affairs to teach entrepreneurship to returning veterans. I was gratified to see the dedication among the troops and to interact directly with the different culture. It's as bureaucratic and stratified as any large company, but different in a way I can't immediately put my finger on. For one…

January 11, 2016

Choosing/Decision-Making / Exercises / Fitness / Freedom / Habits / Leadership / SIDCHAs

Sidchas when you’re tired and exhausted? Especially!

I can't tell you how exhausted I was when I got home yesterday. Traveling meant about five hours of sleep in the forty-eight leading to last evening's sleep. Telling a client about burpees and Sidchas recently, when I mentioned doing them when tired, drunk, or otherwise discouraged, he asked, "wait, you do them then too?", implying that for a long-term activity, you don't have to be a stickler for rules every time. After all, how much does one instance matter out of many? On the contrary, the value of the combination of the activity being self-imposed, challenging, and daily arises when faced with doing them when you don't want to. Anyone can do easy things, even some challenging things. Any one can captain a ship…

January 9, 2016

Freedom / Leadership / Models

Op/Ed Friday: How every politician and nation, now matter how belligerent, justifies its attacks

No politician or nation, no matter how belligerent, considers itself the attacker---not the most authoritarian dictator any more than the most democratically elected leader. One simple statement, used by nearly every one, summarizes the trick: We will not attack first, but if attacked, we will defend ourselves. Every leader says it their own way. Once the population believes it, they can feel justified in attacking, feeling and claiming innocence. Neither population has to believe the other, only their own leader. All both leaders have to do is point out any infraction from the other side, no matter how small, to justify escalating. Once the escalations begin, to the extent each population accepted the original belief, both can keep escalating as much as they want. Populations…

December 31, 2015

Leadership / Relationships

The United States Constitution, leadership, and why I try to minimize my polluting

Did this clause of the Constitution confuse you when you first learned it, in particular that part about treaties: This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the US., shall be the supreme law of the land The part about treaties puzzled me when I first learned it. We're talking some time around junior high, so I'm drawing on distant memories, but I remember thinking that if the Constitution was about how the government worked with the people in the country, why would it value treaties with other countries over internal laws? It didn't take long to realize that no other countries would work…

December 29, 2015

Creativity / Entrepreneurship / Leadership / Models

Technology comes from teams of people

Many people look to technology to solve problems. Technology has solved many problems. It helps us travel around the world, communicate with people anywhere instantly, makes amazing special effects in movies, and all that stuff that dazzles us. I think a lot of people see technology as something that sprouts out of laboratories or the minds of people so unlike them they call them geniuses and consider them superhuman. I see it differently. Technology comes from people. And almost never one person, so teams of people. The more you can manage and lead people, the more you can create technologies to solve problems. If your goal is to get rich with technology, knowing how to work with and lead people can get you rich with…

December 28, 2015

Awareness / Leadership

The opposite of leading

Yesterday I asked readers for their ideas of the opposite of leadership. Christmas is probably not the best time to ask for feedback, but a reader suggested the following Reacting or doing something without awareness, like why one is really doing it and what its effects could be. Looking at one aspect of something and thinking it's the entire picture. Allowing others to confuse or intimidate me into adopting their values or giving up mine. Doing something because it's supposed to be the good or right thing to do. Not expressing oneself, not expecting others to understand what you've got to say. I agree with all of these points: lack of awareness---aka denial and suppression---short-sightedness, giving up one's values, and not expressing yourself. My ideas…

December 26, 2015

Awareness / Leadership

What is the opposite of leading?

What do you think the opposite of leading is? I think most people would reflexively say following, but since both leaders and followers are trying to achieve the same goal, I don't think they're opposites. More like complements. I have an idea or two that I think tell a lot about leadership. I'm curious what my readers might think, so before I share what I'm thinking, I invite readers to think about it and share their thoughts on what you think the opposite of leadership is and why. I bet thinking about it will help you improve your skills or direction to improve them. Either post below or email me directly. Tomorrow I'll summarize your responses and my thoughts.

December 25, 2015

Entrepreneurship / Leadership / Models / Perception / Relationships

When someone says “America is losing ground to China or India,” watch your wallet

Politicians tell you America is "losing ground" to other countries all the time. A search on "America is losing ground to China India" returns tons of results, many fear-mongering. This language comes from a misguided belief that business and trade are zero-sum competitions, that if someone elsewhere gets a deal then you lost it. If you want votes and don't mind sowing fear, anxiety, and xenophobia, great. But people succeeding elsewhere doesn't have to mean you are losing. On the contrary, you could see people succeeding elsewhere as increased opportunity for more business and trade. In other words, people always have problems and I can always help them with them enough for them to pay me for it. Other countries prospering means I can help…

December 19, 2015

End of content

No more pages to load