My wife, Sarah Jane, cannot stand awkward silences. She feels compelled to fill them and she does it very well. In a social situation this is a perfect reaction. But in a business, especially a sales context, awkward silences are necessary and can be very helpful. What’s the secret to using silence to your advantage? Embrace it. …
We’ve all heard the first rule of bootstrapping and self-sufficiency: you make your own luck. Other versions of this include “the harder I work, the luckier I get” and “luck is the intersection of preparation and opportunity.” The point is there are opportunities that we can’t seem to explain but truly come out of nowhere …
Our brains are programmed to put things off, to delay – to procrastinate. It’s simply easier for our brains to process the friction of the immediate hassle, versus uncertain future benefits. Behavioral scientists call this present bias.Caroline Webb is the author of “How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to …
As humans we have an innate urge to judge our surroundings and other individuals. It’s a survival instinct that helps us assess safety and risk. While we can never suppress the instinct entirely, there are ways we can control our judgmental communication tendencies. Judgmental communication can shut people down, breed suspicions, and thwart possible solutions. …
Nagging negative thoughts are normal and to be expected. We’re typically way more critical than complimentary of ourselves. Just try to remember the last time you gave yourself a pat on the back, instead of a kick in the pants. Once the cycle of negative thinking begins, it becomes easier to perpetuate and more difficult to …
Nagging negative thoughts are normal and to be expected. We’re typically way more critical than complimentary of ourselves. Just try to remember the last time you gave yourself a pat on the back, instead of a kick in the pants. Once the cycle of negative thinking begins, it becomes easier to perpetuate and more difficult to …
You’ve probably seen it or something like it, but this is one of my favorite quotes: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” We often want to show how smart we are, but what we should be showing is that we can listen, understand, and act with empathy …
When you think about it, all business activity (and personal, too) really comes down to two simple things: Making decisions and executing on decisions. Making those decisions faster can be a big factor in driving successful outcomes. This is the thesis of a recent article by Dave Girouard, CEO of personal finance startup Upstart, and …
Ever been in a meeting or presentation and felt confused about what’s being discussed and why? This bewildering experience is all too common in companies today, and there are some easy ways to avoid it. Great communications start with great questions. And the questions don’t need to be hard ones. In fact, the simplest questions …
There’s plenty of fatherly advice available in all forms of books, articles, poems and speakers. But I still haven’t anything simpler or more endearing than Tim Russert’s words of wisdom to his son. In his 2004 book “Big Russ & Me”, he writes about the hard work, steadiness and modesty of his father, Timothy Joseph “Big Russ” Russert, …
