Since writing the article below a year ago, virtual meetings have become exponentially more common – especially with global health concerns restricting travel and group gatherings. It’s more important than ever to ensure virtual meetings are productive, engaging, and relevant. Each person responds differently to a virtual environment: some struggle mightily to resist multi-tasking; others
Most managers of people think their job is to direct work and drive results. Not my colleague Scotty. Does work get done well under his leadership? Definitely. Does his area of responsibility achieve results? Yes! So, doesn’t that mean he’s doing his job as a manager? He would say no. He says that his job
Every day, retired U.S. Army general Stanley McChrystal wakes up at 4 a.m., shaves, exercises for 90 minutes, takes a five-minute shower and then goes to the office. He doesn’t eat anything until dinner because, “It just makes me feel better,” he says. “My body has gotten used to it, and so if I eat
This winter my son and one of his friends entered the school Imagination Fair. It’s an annual opportunity for students to display their STEM creativity. My son picked a committed partner with strong technical skills, and they had a compelling idea: create a machine that dispenses gumballs if you choose the correct track to roll
I recently participated in a virtual meeting that engaged everyone and wasted no one’s time. People joining from their home or office felt heard and seen. No one seemed to multi-task. And the goals of the meeting were accomplished. Can you believe it? In fact, I haven’t just experienced it once. I’m starting to see
It was startling to find out Linda doesn’t use email. Not only that, her office assistants are instructed not to take messages but to send callers to voicemail. When they get there, they’ll hear this message: “Thank you for your call. I only check and return messages on Mondays. If your call is urgent, please
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
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
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