How to Improve Your Professional Relationships

How to Improve Your Professional Relationships

Over the years I’ve developed several different keynote presentations on a variety of topics.  And over the years, those presentations have changed and evolved so much that the current versions look very different from the original versions.  But one piece of information that has remained consistent in my “Unleash Your Inner Tyrant” leadership presentation involves…

how to handle difficult changes

How to Handle Difficult Changes

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…

Ask Dumb Questions

Why You Should Ask Dumb Questions

Recently my 8-year-old son came home from school and asked me if I knew how many uses for the peanut George Washington Carver had discovered.  After silently thanking his teachers for encouraging his love of random information, I admitted that all I knew was that it was a lot.  “More than 300,” he told me…

how to use luck to your advantage

How to Think Productively About Luck

In almost everything we accomplish in life, there are three contributing factors to our success – the work we put into achieving the thing, the intelligence and creativity we apply in pursuit of our goal, and the blind fortune of dumb luck.  Most of us spend most of our time thinking about how to improve…

Effective Communication

What Is the Most Effective Type of Communication?

Since the title of this article is slightly ambiguous, let me elaborate.  If your question is, “What’s the best way to win an argument – loud angry shouting, or calm reasoned discourse?” then I can answer that right now.  Do the latter.  Problem solved. But what we’re talking about here is the method by which…

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…

Ethics Begins With Respect

Your Ethical Framework Begins With Respect

You’ve certainly heard people talk about ethics before.  Companies everywhere talk about doing business in an ethical manner, and you probably don’t want to spend a lot of time with wildly unethical people.  Now obviously, what constitutes “ethical” can differ significantly from one person to the next, so finding a solid definition of ethics is…