T.S. Eliot wrote what is widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century, “The Waste Land.” Even so, Eliot himself attributed much of its success to the support of his editor, Ezra Pound. Pound never held back when confronting Eliot with feedback on his writing, and Eliot appreciated that. In
A colleague recently made an important decision that affected me without asking for my input. It wasn’t the first time this happened and probably won’t be the last. It seems to be a pattern, to make decisions without involving others when the decisions impact others in meaningful ways. The question I’m wrestling with is: Should
Recently I worked with a group of struggling managers who have been under pressure to boost results within their teams. These managers care about their work, and they have several opportunities to influence the people they lead — meetings, leading by example, email/text correspondence. But none of these opportunities has the focus and depth of a
Last week I sat in an audience judging seven new business pitches from local entrepreneurs. With some combination of anxiety and excitement, each entrepreneur made their case in less than five minutes, hoping to get the audience to understand and buy in to a concept they’ve spent substantial time developing. Which entrepreneur got the most
My last article presented 10 forms of personal reactivity that everyone should carefully manage. Whether it’s anger, anxiety, worry, blame, insecurity or lack of boundaries, emotional triggers disrupt relationship health. While those reactions might be our default responses, awareness helps us interrupt the patterns and make different choices about how we behave, especially in challenging
I didn’t use ChatGPT to write this article, unlike my last one. However, I’ve been thinking about ChatGPT “prompt engineers” who make close to $350,000 without any previous professional experience. Essentially, a prompt engineer asks ChatGPT really good questions in order to get really good responses. Call them AI Whisperers. It makes me wonder, do
After my article last week about the five keys to “being heard,” a friend challenged me to write a follow-up on writing an email you want someone to read. Since many people are turning to ChatGPT for marketing and writing support, I thought I’d ask it some questions on the topic. Hope you enjoy this
In September, 1928, a Scottish physician discovered the world’s first antibiotic: penicillin. This groundbreaking advancement earned Sir Alexander Fleming knighthood and the Nobel Prize. Yet, soon after this achievement, he began publicly warning that bacteria could become immune or resistant to antibiotics if exposed to non-lethal quantities. Few listened to him. Despite his warnings, the
Recently, after stopping in a hardware store with my sons, one of them pointed out that my accent had shifted. Apparently, without realizing it, I spoke to the man working in the hardware store with a very strong “Minnesota accent.” It was surprising to have this pointed out since I didn’t notice the shift. According
Animals in the wild tune their senses to any threats or environmental changes. Likewise, human beings process many signals from others, and the brain’s amygdala activates what it deems to be appropriate fear or avoidance responses. For instance, if I notice what appears to be someone multi-tasking in a meeting while I’m presenting, my amygdala
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