I wrote, to follow Ryan Holiday’s Here’s The Technique That Ambitious People Use To Get What They Want, I teach and coach people to get jobs through performance and it works. Schools teach people to react, take tests, and show how great they are. For a posted opening, you’re presenting yourself as a commodity — a slightly shinier one, you hope. It’s based on compliance. Most analytical, geeky types got[…] Keep reading →

I’ve quoted Martha Graham many times. At last I got the video of her saying the words. She describes how a performer achieves freedom through conforming and discipline better than anyone, in my opinion. I believe what she says holds for any active, emotional, expressive, social, performance-based field, including leadership and entrepreneurship. The dancer is realistic. His craft teaches him to be. Either the foot is pointed or it is[…] Keep reading →

People widely expect technology to solve our environmental problems. What technology? They don’t know. Something someone will invent in the future. What about the pattern that technology has driven consumption of fossil fuels and plastic, accelerated using up resources, and created pollution such as plastic, carcinogens, and so on? But but but they make things more efficient. They do for a while, but the trend is toward accelerating the system[…] Keep reading →

David has helped me many times. I felt honored to host him and, I hope, help start his environmental legacy. We covered two main things. First, his new book, Friend of a Friend, on networking. His background as a professor and practitioner means he approaches networking systematically and practically, so beyond learning to network more effectively, you understand networking as a process. Second, his environmental commitment. I loved his choice[…] Keep reading →

Leading Through Emotions Is the Opposite of Manipulation Leading means helping people do what they want, not what they don’t want. Thinking otherwise undermines your ability to lead. As a leadership professor, trainer, and author, I have occasion to see people develop leadership skills at all levels. When I describe the difference between leadership and management, they tend to accept that management generally involves behavior and things you can see[…] Keep reading →

You’d Fire an Employee Whose Goal was Awareness. Why Accept it for the Environment? If you don’t act on your values, are you able to lead? What can you learn? Ridiculous in business Imagine you needed surgery and asked the surgeon who was going to operate on you, “Have you ever done this surgery before?” and he or she said, I haven’t done it before, by I’m aware of the procedure. Imagine you were[…] Keep reading →

People seem unable to understand groups they disagree with these days. If you disagree with someone enough to argue with them, you probably want to influence them to stop acting in ways you disagree with—that is, you want to lead them. To lead someone you don’t have authority over, you have to understand them and, ideally, make them feel understood. If you behave and communicate in ways that people feel[…] Keep reading →

“We’re doomed’: Mayer Hillman on the climate reality no one else will dare mention” threatens the headline of an article about a social scientist. There are plenty of similar articles about plenty of similar people. The article recounts Hillman predicting many problems and suggesting solutions, but not getting them implemented. If we want to solve environmental problems we have to separate science and engineering from leadership. Scientists’ and engineers’ training[…] Keep reading →

Cold Showers Aren’t Hard Showers. They’re Easy Workouts. Confusion about their purpose scare people from realizing their value as one of the easiest, cheapest, and effective improvement practices. I’ve written here many times on the benefits of cold showers. I’ve blogged more about them. You wouldn’t have clicked on the headline if you weren’t curious about them or already doing them. Inc. is a community of achievers and has covered[…] Keep reading →