This post was originally published on Nov. 5th, 2014. It was modified and reposted on Aug. 26th, 2019. The leader of a business association once took me out to lunch to recruit me for membership. He had his work cut out for him. I had two legitimate hesitations in joining: First, I’m uncomfortable adding another
Browsing category Influence
This post was originally published on May 17, 2016. It has been modified and was republished on August 12, 2019. When I rowed crew in college, the races (and practices) were punishing. From the moment we touched the boat on land to the moment we put it back into the rack, the one thing we
The decision to do or not do something, to support or not support something, to spend money or not spend money on something…despite what you might think, these aren’t logical choices. Decisions are made in the emotional/intuitive part of the brain. So how do you get people to change their mind? Emotions Over Logic Research
When a person is guarded, it is almost impossible to have an influence on them. Perhaps you can coerce, control, or manipulate them, but persuade, influence, or gain their cooperation? Not so much. Ask a trained hostage negotiator. Former lead international kidnapping negotiator for the FBI, Chris Voss, says: Though the intensity may differ from
*Spoiler alert: this post contains part of the plot to the “Avengers: Endgame” movie. It came as a surprise when I received one of the best leadership insights of the week from Thor, the Asgardian god of thunder. Actually, it was from his mother Frigga. During a time-travel back to Asgard in the latest Marvel
A good friend of mine recently offered an interesting perspective from the top of the organization he leads. He remarked that leaders (of any organization, team, community, or family) should expect to continuously have to make complex and ambiguous decisions. After all, if they weren’t complex or ambiguous, they would have been decided at lower
Last week I was one of several presenters at a client’s annual conference. From the novices to the experienced, we’d all worked hard before the conference to make the keynotes and breakouts impactful. Collectively, we implemented seven key ideas for making keynotes, breakouts, and just about any type of presentation, more powerful. As a result
Imagine working with your closest friends. Think about how it would feel to always love your work. Consider how energized you’d be if you could be your authentic self all the time — at work, home, or in the community. All of that describes my good friend Paul Batz. He doesn’t believe in work-life balance.
The stakes were high for everyone. The selection of the executive search firm, not to mention the CEO the firm would be tasked with finding, was going to be critically important, expensive, and have long-term impact. So you’d think these three finalists among the search firms vying to run the CEO search would have strategized,
Parenting feels heavy for school-aged children in the weeks leading up to a new school year. What little structure afforded by camps and summer activities is mostly over. Open-ended, self-directed “together” time increases amid the looming change of a new school year. Bickering increases. Demands get louder. Complaining is at its peak. This angst that