The Color of Success

I learned the color of success on my first trip to Bali, Indonesia. The magical color of success is gray. My wife and I landed in Bali after speaking at conference in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. I had just given a keynote titled, “Flexible Authenticity”. When we arrived in Bali, we noticed the three colors of black, […]

Finding Strength in Your Weakness

I would like to argue against the theory that leaders benefit when they only utilize their strengths and surround themselves with people who have different strengths. Here are examples of that theory: “Employees are happiest when they can utilize their strengths every day at work.” Authors Tom Rath and Barry Conchie argue, “If you spend […]

Pause…Enjoy Magic!

Have you noticed people often seem frustrated, anxious, and quick to anger these days? Maybe you have been on the receiving end of bad behavior, or maybe you have been the one sharing your frustration? With worldwide pandemics, economic uncertainty, political and ideological battles, and worse, warfare, it is no wonder so many are on […]

Increase Your Effectiveness As A Leader With Perception Science

4 Tips To Understanding and Using Perception Science To Be A More Effective Leader Anyone who has been in leadership knows that people seem to interpret things differently. Even though we all may be looking at a set of facts, have the same knowledge in a situation, they come to different conclusions about how to solve […]

How To Improve Your Leadership Under Pressure

Have you ever lost your cool in way that had negative consequences? Have you ever read/misread a comment from a subordinate and completely over-reacted in your immediate response? Have you ever sent and email meticulously expressing your indignation in response to a co-workers email or actions only to regret it later? I have. In most […]

What Is Innattentional Blindness Costing You?

Have you ever gone to a movie when the theater was packed and you scanned the theater for open seats? You finally find them and take your seats. After the movie, you run into some friends who happened to be at the same show. They said they had two seats next to them and were […]

How To Make A Stronger Impression

One thing you are doing is hurting your efforts to make a strong impression in sales, networking, or job hunting. This one simple change will improve your approach. Have you ever wanted to make a stronger impression? Either during a job interview, landing a new account, on a first date, making a speech or presentation […]

When Being Too Smart Hurts You

Is being too smart getting in your way of being more effective as a leader? In his article “Leadership that Gets Results” (Harvard Business Review, March-April, 2000), Daniel Goleman reported on studies, which rated emotional intelligence as a predictor of success in business as more significant than intelligence and technical skill. He states, “New research suggests […]

What Sets You Off?

My Emotional Intelligence Experiment So what is it that sets you off? Becoming aware of what your triggers are, or what pushes your buttons is a great way to increase your emotional intelligence. We all have something or someone who drives us crazy. One of my triggers is, when someone tells me to “calm down”. […]

Sharpen Emotional Intelligence By Observing Others

My Emotional Intelligence Experiment One strategy to increase emotional intelligence is to observe behavior in other people. I have found two places that I enjoy watching behaviors in people. One is in films and the other is at airports. Movies and television are a good place for me to identify behaviors that I recognize in […]