Leadership is not management. Many use the the words manager and leader synonymously, but a leader is not necessarily a manager and a manager is not always a leader. So what’s the difference? Warren Bennis makes several differentiations in his book “On Becoming a Leader.” – The manager is a copy; … Read more
Many people are thinking about losing weight this time of year. It’s by far the most popular new year’s resolutions. My good friend Tim Nations recently blogged about his mindset shift related to his goal of losing weight every year. His new plan, in 2014, is to focus on gaining, rather than losing. No, … Read more
Motivating employees can be tough. Especially employees who are not in a job role they want. You think that is hard? Now, imagine if your job is to motivate prisoners to be law-abiding and productive members of the community. In the U.S. the prison population is four times higher than it was 30 years ago. … Read more
I am often asked about what books I’d recommend on the topic of motivation and persuasion. So I thought I would write this post to be a resource. I believe each of the authors mentioned below have produced solid, science-based, yet practical books anyone can trust and use. I don’t agree with everything … Read more
Let’s be honest. We all hate sitting through boring presentations and speeches. You know, the ones where the speaker doesn’t seem to know his or her topic well and chooses to read the PowerPoint slides. Or worse, they read their presentation to you from a piece of paper. This is one of the 5 most … Read more
When the opportunity presents itself, I like to ask people what motivates them and what hinders their motivation. I’ve asked this question to a wide variety of people from teenagers to business owners and CEOs. Young and old. Rich and poor. And people from all around the world. I’ve even asked this question to … Read more
We tend to think of motivational communication as something we do verbally, but motivation can be fostered through written means as well. When you think about all of the emails we write, most of us have many more opportunities to motivate people with our written words than our spoken words. With practice, anyone can write … Read more
Let’s face it, there are people who just don’t seem to care about giving their best at work. This is one of the biggest frustrations of managers. It’s easy for us to believe these people lack a work ethic or have a significant character flaw. This kind of thinking often leads to a negative relationship … Read more
We are quickly moving into a new world of work. Review the Fortune 100 Best Place to Work and you will find companies who care deeply about attracting the best talent and engaging them in meaningful work. Many of these companies are on the cutting edge of the trend toward the 3.0 Workplace. Even during … Read more
In this blog post, I’m going to give you a tool to be a better arm-chair psychologist . We all wish we could understand people better. At times we even pull out the psychological knowledge we have gained throughout our life and use it to put a person’s behavior in perspective. Sometimes we do this … Read more