Last week I was utterly spent. If you and I interacted and I seemed distant, discouraged, or just a bit off, I’m sorry. At times I felt myself slipping into darker mental places. Places I’ve been in my life where I don’t want to return. When I’ve confided in a few others, some have admitted
Years ago, I worked with a leader whose behavior would completely change during the final three days of every quarter. He would transform from a magnanimous, caring leader with a natural, relaxed demeaner into an anxious, ruthless man. Everyone knew that, for those three days, he was to be feared…unless we were comfortably ahead of
It’s not easy to lead or influence when you’re struggling to cope with the stress or frustrations of the moment or with anxieties about what might happen in the future. This is why self-regulation is such an important quality for leaders. According to Verywell Mind, self-regulation is the ability to act in a way that
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
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