Corporate hallways and lunchrooms are often festooned with “motivational” wall posters. The idea seems to be that clichés enhance comradeship and performance. Military drill instructors scream at recruits, apparently assuming that insults and humiliation are inspiring. Motivation can come from many sources. A tyrannical manager may “motivate” people to work killer hours that ruin health…
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Occasionally we run across someone whose example helps guide us for the rest of our lives. For me, one such person was Jim Lehrer. To millions of people, Jim was the face of the PBS NewsHour where he was anchor for more than three decades. Others will remember him as the moderator of a dozen…
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If you’re like most people, you occasionally (often?) wish you had more time. Meanwhile, you’re stuck with the same clock and calendar as everyone else. Personal productivity is among the most perplexing challenges facing people everywhere. It needn’t be. In fact, our personal productivity can become one of the most satisfying ingredients of our lives.…
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Paula Rizzo was sitting at her desk at Fox News Channel in New York City when she felt a dull pain below her belly button. Like many hard-charging people might do, she ignored it. After all, she was busy. She had a demanding job as a senior TV producer. She had obligations as a wife,…
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Are you a first-level leader? Do you manage a team of individual contributors who don’t have direct reports of their own? Then you know some of the challenges of making the leap to management. You really want to be a good manager, but your training for that role may be light or even non-existent. You…
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We live in the age of disruptors. We have one in the White House, and we have multiple examples throughout the business world. Illustrations of the latter were scrawled on a whiteboard a while back by Alberto Brea, chief growth strategist at a New York marketing firm. Here’s what Brea wrote— Amazon did not kill…
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Achieving personal goals can be as frustrating as trying to nail Jello to a wall. Lose weight? Get more sleep? Exercise daily? Take a dream vacation? Improve a relationship? Earn a promotion? Read more books? Watch less TV? Cut back on social media? Save more money? Spend less? The list can go on. Set a…
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Accountability is all about performance, and performance is all about behaviors. In fact, the overall performance in your organization—in every conversation, in every meeting, in every project, in every activity of every kind—is the result of behaviors. So doesn’t it make sense to focus on behaviors? In organizations where personal accountability for performance is highest,…
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In many situations, the smartest questions you can ask will begin with the word “why.” Think about that. Have you noticed the inquisitiveness of young children? As long as they’re encouraged to do so, they seem to ask questions endlessly. They want to know how things work. They want to know the purpose of things.…
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