Elite performers, in any field, are not born but made. Running faster and thinking faster can certainly help but the real key to excellence, in sports and business, is mental toughness. Graham Jones is a former professor of elite performance psychology at the University of Wales and has consulted to top performers in business, athletics, …
The workplace can be tough, tougher than it should be sometimes. Long hours, high stakes and continuous pressure can easily harden hearts and turn colleagues bitter towards one another. We know too well the popular aphorisms about competition: It’s dog eat dog. It’s survival of the fittest. It’s either me or him. Healthy competition is good, …
Number-crunchers, engineers, and computer programmers continue to be some of the most sought after professionals in business today. We need them to calculate possibilities and prove potential, we need them to build new structures and technologies, and we need them to write the code that makes it all shareable on our laptops and smartphones. But …
CNBC’s small-business TV program, The Profit, features Marcus Lemonis as he uses his own money, and tough love, to fix struggling small businesses. Lemonis, 42, knows what he’s doing. He’s the CEO of Camping World/Good Sam, a $3 billion national retailer of recreational vehicles and camping supplies that employs over 6,000 people. The show is fun …
It’s been drilled into all of us since the beginning of our careers – you need a great elevator pitch – that succinct little summary of your business that can be shared in the time span of an elevator ride. First, if you’re pitching your business in an elevator you’re probably trying too hard. Get …
These are probably some of the most annoying phrases in business. You’ve seen them in email, you’ve heard them on the phone, and you’ve probably even used them yourself. I know I have. “I just wanted to check in.” “I thought I’d touch base.” “I’m following up.” I had the chance recently to watch a slightly comical, …
Having earned my bachelor of arts degree almost 25 years ago, I’ve been able to watch the degree go through many cycles of celebration and rejection. It seems that every five years or so a flurry of articles and opinions are published that either refute or validate the good old B.A. Well, it’s in favor …
Most successful leaders and managers will tell you the most difficult, yet highest pay-off task, is getting people to work together positively and productively. Our favorite expert on organizational health and teamwork, Patrick Lencioni, has spent years studying how a company’s employees, especially its managers, work together. According to Lencioni, one fundamental tenet for cultivating …
There’s no amount of skill and talent that can justify the negative emotional – and financial – impact of a toxic employee. Rude workers cost more, produce less, and the resulting ripple effect in an organization is impossible to abate. This is why weeding out toxic people is especially important and should be your number …
Brilliant Book Series Returns With Focus on ‘The Productivity Project’ Being able to match urgency with importance is half the battle in designing a productive day and week. It’s far too easy to forget about what’s important to work on when more urgent, but far less important tasks come your way. That is the problem …
