As I listened to a senior leader from a well-respected company review the findings of its latest employee survey, I wondered: Do people do this type of self-confrontation often enough—like, really dig into the brutal facts about themselves? Confronting your own weaknesses requires substantial humility, courage and insight. In the book Good to Great, Jim Collins
The past week brought communication of conflict and crisis. I read news of human violence, learned about friends in difficult circumstances, and I had hard conversations. My mind was on high alert. As situations arose, I was one part anxious, one part awkward, and one part focused. Have you been there? Where I was directly
My favorite partner at Accenture (my brother-in-law) likes to say that “delivery trumps all else.” He’s right, but “delivery” is only your ticket to play. People who do good work and also sell their work have far greater control over their success than those who just do the work. In other words, the winner will
A friend of mine, John March, caught up with me recently to pick my brain about the connection between leadership and values. The topic, which is personal for both of us, led to interesting insights and self-awareness. I’ve captured a bit of our discussion below to share with you in the hopes that his questions
How much of what you urgently respond to is truly important for you to do? How much of what you’re neglecting is really the most important to get done? Your overall success may well hinge on how you answer these two questions. In 1967 Charles Hummel wrote a powerful essay about these two questions called
People like me. OK, not everyone. And it’s not that I’m a “big deal.” But for the most part, I’m seen as a likeable guy. But why? It’s something I’ve been wondering about recently. Throughout my entire life, I’ve always had strong relationships, and I continue to maintain meaningful and helpful relationships with people I’ve met
Most of us have far more courage than we ever dreamed we possessed. – Dale Carnegie One of the hardest things I’ve done at work was firing a customer. Oh, man, it took courage. We’d had a good relationship for many years, but then the company hired a new leader to manage the work with
A few hours after a meeting, I received a call from one of my colleagues. “Hey,” he said. “I was a jerk to you in that meeting. I was feeling insecure and protective. I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. How are you feeling about it?” His courage to have a hard conversation and
This week, an email appeared in my inbox from one of my teammates at work. It was an unsolicited message sent to the entire company explaining the positive impact that another person on our team had on one of our clients. It was one of many emails I received that day. I read it quickly,
Dale Carnegie recently surveyed 500 business leaders from 12 countries about where their organizations are focusing their innovation efforts. Among the top six areas of focus across all respondents was innovation related to the organization’s “culture of learning.” In many ways, this doesn’t come as a surprise. Given the rapid pace of global change, organizations
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