This week, my son reflected to me, “In kindergarten, we had to take naps and couldn’t wait for them to be done. Now in fourth grade I look back and think it would be awesome to take naps.” I knew just what he meant. “Yes,” I responded, “we often resist what we wish later we
How would you describe your dream client relationship? I’m fortunate to have one right now, so I know exactly what it looks like for me: The client and I genuinely ask how the other is doing—because we care. We open up to each other about work goals and challenges. He invites me into his planning
How often do you make or receive personal introductions? Considering the value that’s created through personal networks, I wonder why people don’t do it more often. For example, this week I received an email from a new client we’d landed because of a personal introduction. “Thank you!” said the subject line, expressing very clearly the
Dan Kersten told me that his rock bottom smartphone moment came when his wife asked his son, Ben, what he loves about his Dad. “He gives me hugs, he makes cool things out of cardboard, and he’s always playing with his phone,” Ben responded. And that, Dan says, is when he realized he was addicted
What’s more important to leadership effectiveness: having low anxiety or high skill? As I realized last week, that question isn’t as simple as it might seem. I was on fire last week. In fact, I actually told a friend that I was “firing on all cylinders.” I was energetic, confident, focused, and relaxed. And I
Five years ago, I took a surprising phone call from one of my peers at another Dale Carnegie office. “Matt,” he said calmly. “We’ve been invited into an RFP by a large local company. We can’t win it by ourselves. Would you be open to collaborating with us on it and we’ll split the revenue?”
Ask someone why they want a particular job, and they might tell you they: Are looking for a new challenge Are passionate about the product/company Want to leverage their skills, abilities, and experience Have a connection to the organization’s culture/values Have practical considerations (e.g., money, hours, location) These are all good reasons. Yet research shows
It was the most upset I’ve ever been at work. Years ago, a part of my job was to negotiate contracts with vendors. One negotiation reached an impasse. The vendor raised his voice slightly and accused me of personally derailing the process. My reaction was intense. I shouted something back at him in my defense,
Psychologists say that anger is a “secondary” emotion. It safeguards you from dealing with harder emotions, like shame, sadness, or fear. It also generates a powerful, self-soothing neurochemical. And it creates a heightened sense of control. As the anger expert Dr. Leon Seltzer says, “If anger helps you feel in control, no wonder you can’t
How might you describe the organizational cultures you’ve worked in? For me, I’ve worked in independent-detached cultures, toxic-politics cultures, unhealthy-anxiety cultures, and high-trust cultures. The one constant across all of these is that the organization’s culture—the way people think, behave, and interact—has influenced my own thinking, behavior, and interactions. You’ve probably experienced something similar. It’s
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