You lead people, yourself included. You manage situations. Nobody worth their salt likes to be “managed”. Trying to manage people, that is; using threats of punishment, promises of reward, passive aggressive comments, subtle (or not so subtle) hints, and sundry other insincere “techniques” designed to elicit a change in behavior, borders on sociopathic. It’s disrespectful…
Main Squeeze sent me this a few days ago; said it reminded her of me. You see I don’t enjoy organizational politics at all (who does?) and I’ve never been much good at kow-towing. I shared it with my friend and business partner, who wondered if “wolves”, being great at “lone”, might then not be…
Intuitively, the picture resonates. We’ve all had the petty-tyrant boss; the person who loves the sound of their own voice and is oblivious to the resentment and de-motivation they’re engendering. And most of us can relate to the manager who loves to roll up his sleeves and jump in on the line. But don’t…
Research over the last decade is supporting what should be intuitive: the ability to control your self is causally linked to success in most aspects of life – academic achievement, career success, good relationships, happiness. Think of it this way: if you always did what you should, when you should, and if you could always…
The art of letter writing is not forgotten, at least not by Nicolas Di Tempora over at Copywriting in Action. Wouldn’t it be nice if all the emails you receive at work were written like this? Clear, to the point, effective. Give the people you communicate with a break – see below to learn how…
When I get time to read again, one of the first books on my list is “Delivering Happiness”, by Zappos founder, Tony Hsieh. Also on that list will be several of the books in the presentation below. Maybe there’s a few here for you too. I’ve only read some of these, so can’t vouch for…
Successful communication is an essential leadership and life skill. Engaging well with others depends on it. Here’s Julian Treasure with a 10-minute TedX talk on “How to speak so that people want to listen” that’s very worthwhile, with one caveat about his take on “judging” (more on that in a bit). In summary: If you…
This TED talk is worth watching repeatedly, until you get it all the way through to your soul. If that made sense, these might too: I = Choice You Are Your Will
Organizational leadership takes place in one of two contexts. Either… The organization is heading to new heights – it’s a start-up, or an existing organization that’s reached a plateau. It needs a Visionary to take it to new and uncharted territory. Or… The organization is sinking in the depths; in the shit, as it were. …
Something light, but important. How we speak determines how well we communicate, and reflects how well we think – because language, and our command of it, is the tool of thought. Here’s poet Taylor Mali on… like, you know… [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCNIBV87wV4&feature=player_embedded]
