My son is a competitive tennis player and often wins matches because of his speed and strong backhand shots. The trouble is, opponents now do their best to hit to his forehand, to exploit his relative weakness. Recently, I spoke with his tennis coach about the need to improve his forehand shots. The coach reassured
Forget titles, authority, or experience. Think of leadership as helping others be and do their best as they work toward a shared objective. With that definition in mind, let’s consider what gets in the way. Everyone reacts differently. I have twin teenage boys who I try to motivate every day to be and do their
After a year of doing all meetings virtually, I have discovered many essentials to making virtual meetings more productive and engaging. Beyond my own meetings, I’ve trained hundreds of leaders in the past year on how to reduce boredom, multi-tasking and burnout in virtual meetings. Of course, some virtual meeting fatigue and frustration is inevitable.
The brain’s natural response to a perceived threat is fight, flight, or freeze. We perceive threats daily from people we live and work with—slights, rude remarks, inconsiderate actions, failure to be appreciated. Enter the human brain’s amygdala response: When the threat is perceived, we conclude that the other person, at the moment, is a “foe”
Eugene Peterson wrote in his memoir that he was hurt when his son said to him, “You only preach one sermon!” As an experienced and well-regarded minister who preached on many different texts and applications, the elder Peterson couldn’t believe his son would say such a thing. Then one day, the comment made more sense.
A memory from the 11th grade still stands out to me today. I’m sitting at my bedroom desk, wringing my hands and finding every possible distraction from the assignment in front of me: Write an essay explaining who you are. What does that mean? Where would I begin to explain who I am? And why
Several people have told me in the past week that they feel afraid of failing in 2021. Afraid they’ll fail at work, that their marriage is failing, that they’ll fail as a parent/teacher/healthcare provider, that they’ll fail in selling, leading, or delivering. Afraid that they’ll fail in their goals for the year, fail to speak
One of my favorite “hacks” is re-typing highlighted portions of non-fiction I’ve read. The process of highlighting once then re-reading and re-typing later tends to lock concepts into memory for later retrieval when it’s most useful. Below are my re-typed notes from David Epstein’s recent book Range, which I found to be extremely interesting and
Two recent days were very different for me… despite my calendar and all external factors looking the same. On one day, I was tense, overwhelmed, and second-guessing myself. The other day, I was calm, trusting, and secure. The first day drained me; the second brought me great joy. What was the difference between the two
Brene Brown calls the ego “The Hustler.” It tells you that you’re never enough. And it thrives in our scarcity culture. Never good enough Never have enough Never done enough Never safe enough Never loved enough This pattern of thinking leads to anxiety, distraction, and resentment. For example, the day I published my recent book,
Matt Norman is president of Norman & Associates, which offers Dale Carnegie Training in the North Central US. Dale Carnegie Training is a global organization ...READ MORE