Ever feel like you’re in the middle of a task, project or career that you can’t win, quit or fix? Of course you do. We all feel like that once in a while. But self-motivation is what truly separates high-performing professionals from everyone else. Ayelet Fishbach is a behavioral science professor at the University of …
Author: John Stevenson
Cultivating creativity on demand
Steve Jobs said “creativity is just connecting things.” That can mean connecting people, problems, solutions, facts, hunches, tastes, preferences, and of course – ideas. And the more things you have to connect, the better your chance of cultivating creativity. Once you know the formula, you can summon creativity anytime you need it. Here’s a model …
Getting good at tough conversations
Joseph Grenny has spent 30 years studying best practices for dealing with conversations fraught with emotional or political risk. It’s important to get these moments right, Grenny maintains, because how we deal with these kinds of crucial conversations predicts the magnitude of our influence, the health of our teams, and even the durability of marriages …
Leadership in turbulent times
Pulitzer-prize winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin knows something about leadership. In studying presidents Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson for her latest book “Leadership In Turbulent Times”, she has sought to make the concept of leadership less abstract and more practical. All four of Goodwin’s favorite presidents were guided by morality and purpose. In times of trouble they sought …
When things go wrong
Things go wrong every day. And none of us can escape them, no matter how good we are at risk management, strategic planning or self-discipline. People quit. Clients leave. Presentations bomb. Most are simple jabs that just hurt a little. While others are major body blows that can bring you to your knees. Here are …
Five words to live by
In general, too much of anything is bad for you. Food, alcohol, screens, sitting, etc., are just some of the more common activities that have a diminishing – or negative – return the more you engage in them. But how do you moderate them? How do you fix those bad habits? As Tara Parker-Pope points …
When to quit or keep going
“In the middle, everything looks like a failure.” That’s Kanter’s Law, as stated by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, professor at Harvard Business School. In every new venture, change project, or turnaround – no matter how high our hopes are at the beginning, or how much success we enjoy early on – there is almost always a …
Instead of New Year’s resolutions, try this
It’s that time of year where we pause, ponder, and promise ourselves to improve. But instead of making New Year’s resolutions, try this: Past Year Reviews. Got this idea from Tim Ferriss of “Four-Hour Workweek” fame. I tried this last year and I found this process to be more valuable and actionable than trying to …
Super-simplified sales and marketing
Designing a sales and marketing plan for 2019 doesn’t have to be hard and complicated. Yet, I see clients and colleagues get wrapped around the axle on this all the time. Meetings are convened, spreadsheets are built, and grand plans for conquering the world are developed. Sounds good, right? But there’s usually one key question that …
Embracing a reality-based management style
Drama – gossiping, withholding buy-in, resisting change and avoiding accountability – is emotional waste. And it’s unproductive, uncomfortable and exhausting. That’s the thesis for Cy Wakeman’s leadership writing and consulting practice. She’s also the author of “Reality-Based Leadership: Ditch the Drama, Restore Sanity to the Workplace, and Turn Excuses Into Results.” I like Wakeman’s radical …