There is a ‘leadership’ mindset out there which always leaves me flummoxed. I cannot understand why anybody, much less a leader of an organization hoping to be successful, would adhere to it. And yet, it is a mindset nearly as ubiquitous as any other: the...

Since we’re on a streak with posts on “negotiation,” I thought it essential to point out a lesson I learned in one of the titular books on the subject, “Getting To Yes,” written in the 80’s by two Harvard professors. This is the most powerful lesson I took away from...

Like we saw a few weeks ago, there inevitably will come a time in your career when you’ll have to convince someone else -- to change their mind. This is sales; this is, essentially, negotiation. When my client wanted to convince her boss to hire a co-leader team,...

If you see sales as manipulation, the title of this article may make you bristle.However, if you see sales as service, it will make perfect sense. Rather than the art of convincing people to do things they don’t want to do, real sales is the art of matching product...

What do you do when you feel a need to change someone’s mind and they’re resistant?  After all, people don’t change -- right?  Meghan was in just this predicament.  Real and significant change was needed and no one was willing to see it. As an interim director she was...

Last week, we talked about how to avoid misinterpretation. This week, I want to share with you an exercise that can really drive that point home -- and help you and your team understand this cognitive dissonance. Have your whole team (yourself included) write down the...

Here’s a sentence you don’t hear very often: Turns out Nixon was right! Not about all things, of course -- but when he said “I know you think you know exactly what you thought I meant to say. But what you fail to realize is what you heard was not what I meant at...

Let’s face it: you can’t control the world, no matter how badly you want to. You often can’t even control your circumstances. But you can control your perspective. Well, in theory. Unfortunately, far too many of us fall into insanity doing the same thing from the same...

When was the last time you truly looked at yourself in the mirror, both literally and metaphorically? The last time you took a long hard look at yourself, and acknowledged your truths? All of them: The good. The bad. The happy. The sad. The weird and the magnificent....

So, you’ve been forced into “early retirement,” eh? Well, my first piece of advice comes from the immortal words of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy”: Don’t Panic! It is distinctly likely that you are raging with one or more emotions: anger, frustration, sadness,...