I probably haven’t met you, but I’m pretty confident that you’re scared of something. Plenty of somethings, more likely. That’s nothing to be ashamed of, since it’s true of all of us. For example, I am scared of being eaten by sharks (or even just one shark, really the number of sharks is not the…
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“Wait, what? You’re going to tell me that it’s OK to be afraid of things? That’s not what any other business article I’ve ever read has advised me to do. They always talk about overcoming fear, not giving into it.” Well first off, I’ve never wanted to do things exactly like everyone else, and it’s…
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Guest post by Platinum Speaker Maja Kazazic Learn who you are We are constantly bombarded by the vast amount of information. And I don’t mean the most obvious things like, tv, magazines, music, etc. But also things like people around us and subliminal messages we receive regularly from people and things around us. All of…
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You have the best idea ever! It came to you in a flash while you were swerving to avoid a deer in the road, or perhaps it came to you slowly while you waited for a tow truck to come because you failed to swerve in time. But how the idea came doesn’t matter –…
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You’re probably reading this while doing something else. You might be eating, or pretending to listen to a conference call you don’t care very much about – or maybe you’re driving, in which case LOOK OUT!!! Most of us spent a lot of time trying to do multiple things at once, if for no other…
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Oh my gosh, another article about employee engagement! You must be so excited right now!!!! Or you’re not. After all, there are only 12 billion of these things floating around the Internet, so why bother reading this one? Don’t you know everything there is to know? The answer to that is probably yes. You know…
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Congratulations! If you’ve read my other article, then you are now as motivated as ever, ready to make the world into your oyster – which is a terrible thing to want to make the world into, by the way, since oysters are gross, but that’s the phrase. Anyway, you are locked and loaded and ready…
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Allow me to begin by saying that I really don’t want to be writing this. It’s gorgeous outside today – and considering that I live in northern Michigan, which is gray for 13 months a year and a frigid snowy wasteland for the other 11 – I really should be taking advantage of every sunny…
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The following is a guest post by leadership expert Steve Gutzler — Great leaders inspire us. They ignite the best version of ourselves. Most importantly, they motivate us to accomplish our best work and they make us feel important. A leader who is capable of that inspiration and motivation has a high degree of Emotional…
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You know, I like to think of myself as a creative person. I don’t want to brag or anything, but I made quite the impressive collection of pinch pots when I was in elementary school; one of them was so incredible, in fact, that I should really refer to it as a pinch jug. So…
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You’d be forgiven for thinking I chose the title for this article specifically to trick you into reading. People do that all the time now, like “Lose Twenty Pounds With This 2-Minute Exercise Miracle!” or “Six Easy Steps To Make a Million Dollars!” Unfortunately, most of those articles don’t deliver what they’ve promised, although I…
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Warren Buffett. I’m beginning this way because starting this article off with his name will probably help me in web search rankings, and I’m a slave to Internet algorithms. I also did it because he’s crazy rich and yet somehow people don’t hate him for it, which is a pretty impressive feat. And I also…
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Listen more. Be positive. Celebrate success. Give people bacon. You’ve heard all the standard ways to motivate your employees before, and you’re tired of reading the same advice. Luckily for you, I’m tired of writing it, too. Don’t get me wrong. I still want to help you become a better manager. I still want you…
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Recently a good friend of mine (which means I have at least two good friends, or else I would have said ‘recently the good friend I have’) chose not to run for a leadership position in an association she belongs to. She decided not to run because there were two other candidates interested in the…
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So you’re stuck working with a bunch of old people. It was probably too much to hope for that they would hire you and then immediately retire en masse, but having that dream fail to materialize is nevertheless disappointing. It’s not that you have a problem with old people, far from it – you…
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Marketing has always been important. Without it, we wouldn’t know what 15 minutes can save you, or (for my older readers, including myself) where the beef is. (Side note: they never really answered that question, did they? They just said, “Where’s the beef?” and apparently we were all supposed to find it on our own.)…
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So now you’ve read my companion article on the importance of marketing, and you found it revelatory. Or you thought it wasn’t complete garbage – I’m fine with either. The point is, you now appreciate the need to market your company/idea/self more aggressively than you have in the past, and you’re ready to get started.…
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We’ve just released our newest video series on Financial Services Business Skills and as usual we messed up A LOT while filming. We hope you get a laugh at our expense! Make sure you check out our member section to get access to the full 7-episode series along with 10 other video series on various…
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In November 2015, in a bid to make myself seem smart and important, I delivered my very first TED talk. It was filmed in a dark room with theater-style seating (a TED requirement), and I wore the blue-jeans-with-sport-jacket combo that is one of the only two acceptable outfits for a man to wear. (The other,…
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Guest post by Jason Lauritsen We love to blame managers when things go wrong. Employee turnover goes up—it’s because they are leaving their manager. Performance goes down—it’s probably because the manager isn’t providing feedback. The survey says employees are disengaged—we look to the manager as the cause. And while there is some truth in all…
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I’ve been making my living as a keynote speaker for the past eleven years. I like my job. It’s allowed me to visit dozens of cities and countries I might otherwise never have seen. It affords more flexibility than almost any other career I can imagine. (Careers with more flexibility include ‘part-time sock collector,’ which…
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