Innovation Article by Jeff Havens

How Our Best Ideas Come To Us

Everyone everywhere is interested in innovation.  Of the various keynote addresses that I’ve created over the years, my Uncrapify Your Future! keynote on innovation is easily the most popular.  And I understand why.  Coming up with solutions to problems, or taking advantage of possible opportunities, is one of the key drivers of success, both professionally…

overcoming impostor syndrome

Overcoming Impostor Syndrome

Impostor syndrome is one of the most insidious challenges to our mental well-being.  In case you aren’t familiar with the phrase (although I’m guessing you are), impostor syndrome is a fairly common phenomenon in which individuals doubt their abilities and/or feel like they don’t deserve their accomplishments.  Put another way, you think you’re in over…

Improve Your Work Life Balance

The Most Important Word For Finding Work-Life Balance

This year, you probably asked Santa for a pony. Or a laser cannon, or socks – I don’t really know, but you probably didn’t ask for better work-life balance, even though it’s something you probably want. Most of us do. So, operating under the assumption that Santa didn’t put that one under the tree, I’m…

How To Take Initiative

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…

The Single Best Technique to Prepare for a Presentation

In the past two decades I’ve delivered well over a thousand presentations, mostly live but also increasingly virtual as well (thanks, pandemic!). I’ve spoken to six people and to six thousand, and I’ve been everywhere from theaters to factory floors. No matter where I am, it’s fairly common for someone to ask me when I…

lazy young people

Destroying the Myth of the Disloyal Young Worker

As 2022 draws to a close, there are two issues that seem to have completely dominated the year – supply chain, and labor shortage.  Those have been the two key drivers at pretty much every conference I have attended this year.  Fixing the supply chain is beyond my ability.  But dealing with our persistent labor…

the most important sentence in leadership

The Most Important Sentence in Leadership

At its most basic, effective leadership consists of two key components.  One of them is the human element – that’s the part where you’re showing and telling the people who work for you that you’re glad they’re there.  This is the piece of leadership that gets the most attention, because there are an endless number…

What You Can Learn From a Pig Farmer

What You Can Learn from Pig Farmers and Pharmacies

One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about my job is the opportunity to meet people living in places I would otherwise probably never go, doing things I know almost nothing about.  It’s given me a chance to see a much broader cross-section of the world than I think most jobs allow for, and my…