Once upon a time…in a galaxy far, far away…the best stories begin somewhere, in a time and a place. That time and place present tension. The story explains how the tension gets resolved. But the events of the story are much less compelling than the inner change that people experience as the story resolves. Good
In the US during the 1960s, soldiers returned from war with government financial support to complete their schooling. The problem, though, was that schools weren’t prepared for it. Control Data Corporation and the University of Illinois began researching how technology could solve the problem by extending the capacity and reach of learning. Those researchers could
The Science Museum of Minnesota impacts over a million people from around the world every year through trips to the museum, school visits, traveling exhibitions and Omnitheater films. It exists, in its own words, to “turn on the science: Inspire learning. Inform policy. Improve lives.” Spearheading that charge is its humble leader, Alison Brown, the
You can treat everyone well. But you can’t invest equal time in every relationship. The reality is that time and energy are limited. And that can lead you to have surface relationships with everyone. But your limits can also become the impetus for you to get really clear about who and what you’ll focus on.
What makes a humble leader? It’s the question I’ve been exploring recently to help us get a better understanding of the essential qualities and impact of a humble, self-effacing leader. It becomes clearer every day that the world could benefit from more of these kinds of leaders, and the next leader in the series certainly
I’ll never forget feeling like an utter failure in my second real job. Since I had excelled in technology and process in my first real job, I thought this new role — which involved managing the development of a customer-facing website — would play to my strengths. But the job turned out to be much
Two months ago, I started a daily exercise of focusing on one word in silence each morning. When I wrote about this ritual, some friends asked me what the word was, but I’ve been reluctant to reveal it because it’s often misunderstood and not celebrated in society. The word is meek. The Actual Meaning of
It seems hard to believe now, considering more than 367,000 people work for his company and its subsidiaries, but for years, this man had arranged his life around his fear. Fear had limited him in his leadership and in his ability to connect with others. But he had the courage to overcome that fear. In
With the subject line, “Worth Reading,” I dropped everything to read the email my wife sent me last week. She had linked to an article that spoke to the challenges parents have in balancing work and raising kids. My first thought after reading the article: “I’ve really grown in how I appreciate and collaborate with
It was during my second job when I realized I didn’t communicate as well as my dad. Unlike my dad and his dad, who were both successful in sales, I was a software developer. I could sit for hours in front of a computer wearing headphones, intently creating something with my mind and fingers on
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