Blog

Despite an ongoing workload, summer is a good time for reflection and rejuvenation. The following are among the musings traveling along my neural pathways as I toiled in my gardens and plantations these past few months (others to be shared in due course): Disinformation.  Misinformation is getting the facts wrong. Disinformation is deliberately misstating them. […]

Where does an understanding of personality fit in a manager’s toolbox of skills in the post-pandemic era? I will debut two new offerings later this year that explain how “where” and “when” we were born influences workplace behaviours. Although both, to varying degrees, determine the manner in which we act under changing circumstances, neither deals […]

Every epoch is influenced by advances in technology that impact and accentuate different aspects of our character. The year 2009 is generally regarded as the time when a huge influx of bloggers, YouTubers and Twitter fanatics kickstarted the social media phenomenon. In 2010, there were 50 million tweets per day; now there are over 500 […]

In life, and therefore in business, mistakes and unexpected events inevitably occur. How we respond to them as individuals defines who we are. How an organization deals with them determines its culture, for better or for worse. Blaming or finger-pointing leads to distrust, disengagement, resentment and unproductive behaviors. Because employees feel a loss of connection […]

Reading.  Harry Truman once said “Not all readers are leaders but all leaders are readers.” They read for knowledge more so than pleasure. They read to learn how things work so they can figure out how to do them better. Or how not to do them. They read to acquire new databases and better lenses […]

Problem solving.  Without problems, we can’t learn, find happiness or acquire wisdom. The very process of solving our problems gives life its meaning. Yet far too many prefer to live a problem-free existence by pretending they don’t exist or hoping they’ll eventually disappear. Some do but most get bigger. And some aren’t really ours to […]

Benjamin Franklin once wrote: “There are three things extremely hard: steel, diamonds and the ability to know one’s self.” We have a pathological need to think highly of ourselves. Yet we’re not as clever, skilled or self-assured as we might imagine or hope. This neurological glitch in our self-concept – what some call their identity […]

It’s about that time when some contemplate their resolutions for the coming year. Typically, these include promises to lose weight, eat healthier, enjoy life more, get fit, manage one’s finances better, travel more or take up a new hobby. All good ideas. And that’s the problem – they’re little more than intentions or vague goals […]

Time is money. And most of the money squandered in organizations today is a consequence of too many unproductive and unnecessary meetings. Of the 23 hours, on average, that executives spend in meetings each week, minimally a third they suggest deserve that criticism. Attendees agree – not surprisingly, 90% of them say they daydream in […]

Conspiracies.  Why do some believe in conspiracies and how do you deal with them if you desire the relationship? We all have a need to know the truth, feel safe and seek a degree of certainty and control in our lives. And we have a profound desire to maintain our self-esteem and feel positive about […]

There’s no such thing as a “win-win” compromise. Trading something you really want just to reach an amicable agreement often ends up over time with regret or remorse, particularly when you reflect on what you had initially hoped to accomplish. My definition of an optimal outcome is getting all that you had wanted and more. […]

About fifty years ago, I designed my first professional development offering called The Creative Genius Within. Its premise, simply stated, was that we are born with the potential for genius and that capability remains in us throughout our lives. For some, it’s still waiting to be liberated from the early constraints foisted upon our impressionable […]

Hiring.  Most employers either believe or hope their recruiters can accurately predict a candidate’s future job performance from an interview. While that conversation may help them figure out whether they like the person (which has some value), it can’t definitively tell them how effective she will be as an employee. We have a inbred but […]

What is yet to happen cannot be predicted with accuracy but it can be forecast in varying degrees of probability. Prediction is a subjective judgment of what someone believes will or might happen. It’s either optimistic or fatalistic in nature depending largely on their prevailing knowledge and the human proclivity to predispose unknown events. Since […]

I’ve been asked by some clients, as well as others who seek my perspective on such things, what Covid has wrought in today’s workplace and how we can adapt to “the new normal.” While my counsel is invariably a response to specific problems arising from largely unforeseen circumstances, what follows is my current thinking on […]

This is about executives not leaders, at least as I define them. Executives occupy elevated positions in organizations and hold impressive titles that signify their level of responsibility. One might hope or assume executives are leaders. Many are but a surprising number are not. How do I know this? Among other callings, I’m an executive […]

We are witnessing a generational realignment of the employer-employee relationship and one of the critical leadership decisions in this seismic shift is defining the organization’s purpose. Although fundamentally different, the idea of purpose seems to have replaced (or, in some cases, combined) two longstanding words in the strategic playbook: vision and mission. It’s a confusing […]

The objective of every smart leader is to surround herself with a team of really bright, energetic and talented people. These men and women are the most valuable assets your organization will ever possess. They’re capable of accomplishing great things if and when they’re encouraged and enabled to realize their full potential. The relationship is […]

Persuasion.  Many believe persuasion is the art of convincing others to see things their way. They’re partially correct. But what if we rethink it as a process of learning rather than influencing? This counter-intuitive notion requires us to listen rather than preach and to seek different conclusions rather than proselytize. In this paradigm, persuasion has […]

How we think is who we are. It shapes our identity – our distinctive way of discerning among competing claims and contradictory evidence to deal with the problems we face. And that is what determines our destiny. How we think triggers our emotional and rational responses to perceived threats or opportunities. It enables us to […]

Who you associate with is crucial to what you become. Those who ascend to positions of power and influence build and maintain reliable and robust networks which they count on for timely advice, insights and support as needed. They understand that no one has all the answers, can be completely objective or could ever know […]

We converse with ourselves all the time. This self-talk enables us to make sense of our experiences, activate our responses to them and run different simulations on options for the future. This silent internal monologue has a powerful impact on who we believe we are and on how we choose to live our lives. Allowing […]

2021 will soon be in the rearview mirror and I’m thinking the world would be a better place with a little more humility. Especially among our leaders. This quality of mind recognizes that we can’t know everything we think we do, that we’re often wrong and rarely better than most. While it’s a fairly simple […]

Fifteen months ago, I posted a blog entitled How to Say No. Feedback from a few valued subscribers posed the subsequent question: When should I be saying no? Here’s my response. For some, saying no isn’t easy. Especially to those we sense an obligation of some kind. It’s also difficult after we’ve already said yes. […]

We like to believe we’re good listeners. We also assume we listen with our ears. We don’t – we hear with our ears. Listening is a quite different matter. Most hear; few listen. Hearing is a natural act; listening is not. Just as the eyes don’t see – they convert light into electrical impulses that […]

This ebook is now available on this site and is no longer on Amazon. If interested, you can find it here along with some excerpts and reviews. Instructions on how to download are noted – it comes as an EPUB in a zip file. We recommend Calibre as an ebook reader but you may have […]

Personality.  For decades, psychologists claimed our personalities are fundamentally unchangeable after about the age of 30 but that our behaviours are malleable. I find that distinction troublesome, largely because my mission is to liberate potential and change lives. If our behaviours are adaptive, surely they must also influence our disposition and character. Psychosomatic medicine has […]

Resilience is one of the great puzzles of human nature. Whether in the cancer ward, the battlefield or the boardroom, it determines who succeeds and who fails. During my recent hiatus from blog writing, it struck me that the ugly events of the past two years – the pandemic, humanitarian crises, increasing division, anger, violence […]

Bias is the crutch our brains use to simplify our lives and keep us happy. We like to believe we’re in control of our brains and that we act rationally based on our self-interests. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our brain has a mind of its own and the focus of neuroscience is […]

What is wisdom? We often use the word but are hard pressed to define it. Like understanding the true meaning of quality or excellence, it’s a mystery for many – one that inspires both awe and trepidation. Perhaps the confusion arises from seemingly conflicting connotations. It’s certainly a lot more than possessing knowledge. Indeed, most […]

Smart leaders solicit and accept good advice from those they trust to provide it. They understand no one is bright enough, objective enough or experienced enough to consistently know what to do or how best to do it. (Intellectual humility is a sine qua non of leadership.) While many sources of counsel are readily available, […]