Decision Making Archives - Jeff Havens | Keynote Speaker | Leadership Keynote Speaker

The Power of Negative Thinking

Jeff Havens — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 19:06:36 +0000

We’ve all heard about the power of positive thinking. And I’m pretty certain that somebody has encouraged you to “look on the bright side” when something isn’t going the way you’d like. But have you ever considered the power of negative thinking? By which I do not mean being hopelessly pessimistic. Maybe there’s some value…

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How to Handle Difficult Changes

Jeff Havens — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 18:00:33 +0000

Sometimes life doesn’t turn out the way we expect it to. At least, that’s the phrase we use, which is at least a little dramatic. Life? Like, all of it, the entirety of our existence, just somehow went entirely the opposite direction from what we wanted? That’s probably not the case. What’s actually happening is…

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How Using Both/And Can Change Your Life

Jeff Havens — Tue, 06 May 2025 13:36:43 +0000

The April 2025 issue of National Geographic featured an awards show of sorts – 33 individuals around the world whose work (at least according to National Geographic) is improving the world in some way. Many of them, as you might imagine, are doing things related to the environment. Several, however, were businesspeople, and two in…

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How To Take Initiative

Jeff Havens — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 18:49:52 +0000

Making important decisions, acting like a leader, being a person your colleagues can count on to get the job done – all of these are qualities associated with “taking initiative.” So if there’s a lot of extra initiative lying around, odds are you’d like to take some of it for yourself. Doing so, however, can…

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Is Striving For Consensus Keeping You From Moving Forward?

Jeff Havens — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 13:46:27 +0000

Recently my wife and I were in Barcelona, visiting her family and 87 of their closest friends. (Not quite, but there were a lot of people.) We were outside, it was a beautiful day, and it was time to decide where to have dinner. The only thing everyone agreed on was that we wanted to…

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Why We Sometimes Give Up On Our Goals (And Why That’s OK)

Jeff Havens — Wed, 04 May 2022 15:00:13 +0000

When I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. I also wanted to be a builder (which was my Lego-inspired term for ‘construction worker’), and I also wanted to dig up dinosaurs. I have done none of those things, and it’s perfectly OK. I chose a different path, and I’m happy with it. …

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How Much Do We Actually Control?

Jeff Havens — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 15:52:10 +0000

(Hint – It’s More Than You Think) For most of us, the issue of control is a pretty big one. We like the idea of being in control at all times – of our diets, our schedules, our financial future, our children. There are times, of course, when we relinquish control and do wild and…

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Overcome the Paralysis of Making Small Decisions

Jeff Havens — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 18:23:23 +0000

Sometimes I spend ten minutes trying to decide which pair of pants I should wear. My wife has been known to agonize for weeks about what theme to choose for our children’s birthday parties. And my brother once spent two years debating which couch to buy for his living room. None of these are life-altering…

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How Should You Respond To A Crisis?

Jeff Havens — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 16:49:19 +0000

Ah, crisis. It’s a fun word to say, but that’s the only fun thing about it. Crisis brings massive uncertainty, and we generally don’t deal well with that. Besides, crises often bring the potential for something significantly negative without offering the potential for something positive. We call it risk when things might end well but…

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The Benefit of Doing Something Drastic

Jeff Havens — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 17:31:52 +0000

A couple weeks ago I delivering the opening keynote at an agricultural conference. For those of who don’t know, theirs is an industry currently facing significant challenges. A combination of unusually uncooperative weather and unprecedented policy decisions have simultaneously depressed crop supply and prices. Farming is a difficult business, and farmers today are having a…

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