ON MY MIND, A 3-PART SERIES- PART 1: Four Mental Hijackers
We live in a world of information overload where it’s easy to lose focus on what matters most. From a 24/7 barrage of social media to fervent multi-tasking,- we’re distracted by micro-urgencies that scream for our attention: right now! But in addition to these glaring external distractions, there’s a secondary, subtle set of distractions that […]
ON MY MIND: Real Success Comes when Job Performance and Values Align
Imagine an employee who is extremely good at her job, who exceeds her performance goals every quarter, and who clients describe as “indispensable.” Imagine that it’s because of her that your company has grown so fast over the past few years. Now picture this: Whenever things don’t go as planned, your “star” employee yells, threatens, […]
FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Courageous Leadership: Leading and Living with Integrity
“What would you do with more courage?” This phrase, in the preface of Shelly Francis’s book, captured me. It immediately brought to mind what I would do: Instead of trying to control a challenging situation I would trust my intuition. I would be willing to make the wrong move. I would draw more frequently on […]
IN MY TOOL BAG: The Meeting Scorecard
More often than not, when I ask leaders, “How’d your meeting go?” they look at me sheepishly and answer with something like, “I’d like to think it went well. Nobody complained.” Despite the fact that meetings are an important business process in most organizations, “nobody complained” or “we made it through the agenda” are not […]
ON MY MIND: The Bulldozer Effect, How Not to Influence Others
Lately, it seems like conversation has become a competitive sport in which the end-game is to “win” or have one’s opinion proven right. In order to win we present our airtight cases and debate to convert others to our way of thinking. There is nothing wrong with these influencing tactics but when they become the […]
IN MY TOOL BAG: The Atlas of Emotions
There was a time in my life when I had very little vocabulary to describe my emotions beyond happy, sad, and… hungry. OK, technically the third one isn’t really an emotion but it’s all I had at the time. Much later in life, I learned to identify and distinguish a wider range of emotions, to […]
IN MY TOOL BAG: Proposal Feedback Poster
One of my specializations is designing and facilitating meetings in which people with diverse interests can tackle complex challenges, like how to aid refugees or how to innovate next-generation solar technology. During these gatherings, people typically generate dozens of ideas. So keeping people curious about each other’s ideas is a key to success for these […]
ON MY MIND: What Google is Learning about Superb Teamwork
What makes teams successful? Google wanted to know the answer, so the company conducted interviews with more than 200 of its employees across more than 180 active teams. The bottom-line conclusion of the research team was surprising. As it turns out, there is no magical algorithm for picking the right mix of team member attributes, […]
FROM MY BOOKSHELF: The Anatomy of Peace by The Arbinger Institute
My least favorite kind of book is the modern-day leadership parable: Too often the characters are simplistic and the narrative stilted. An exception to my distaste is The Anatomy of Peace, a book inspired by real events. The Anatomy of Peace tells a compelling story of people who, despite having every reason to hate one […]
Relationship Repair (Part 3)- Reset the Contract with Your Team Mate(s)
A skillfully expressed apology might be sufficient to repair a relationship. But more often than not, a second kind of conversation is required. It is the conversation about what you and the other person need from one another to work together effectively in the future. I call this the “relationship reset” conversation. A relationship reset […]