A couple weeks ago I was on a plane – shocking, I know – and got into a conversation with a woman returning from a public health conference. The main concern of the attendees was how to combat the proliferation of high-sugar, high-calorie, low-nutrition foods in our schools, primarily (shout-out to my fellow Midwesterners coming)…
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First off, I promise this will have some business relevance. I generally don’t write a lot of articles that deal with parenthood, mostly because there are a trillion blogs that do exclusively that and I have no intention of turning into one of them. However, I’ve realized something recently that I think might help all…
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So I stumbled across this study about six weeks ago, and ever since I’ve been mentioning it in my keynote presentations. I included then link so that you’d know I wasn’t making this up, but I also don’t expect you to go and read the BBC article I’ve linked to, so here’s the summary: A…
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Forgive me for using a title that sounds like a get-rich-quick pitch. “And if you act now I’ll throw in TWO copies of my book for the same price as THREE!” Which would be a terrible deal for you, by the way, but that’s not the point. You’ve probably read a thousand business articles by…
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This video is a quick intro to each of my four most requested keynotes.
My grandmother died last month. It was not an unexpected thing – she was 95 years old, and her health had been failing very gradually for the past few years. By itself, the knowledge that a loved one has lived a long life and that “it’s their time” doesn’t do much to help us deal…
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I am generally of the opinion that the only good reason for running anywhere is to escape danger. I sincerely hope to die without ever having run a marathon. However, since my working day consists of sitting at my desk and/or in plane seats for hours at a time, I do occasionally go to the…
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We recently released our 9-part video series, Employee Engagement Essentials, to our members at JeffHavens.com. Of course we messed up a few times (or several… or a lot) and we thought you’d like to see it. Hope you get a laugh and make sure you check out our membership options or contact us to see…
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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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