What you pay attention to is important. At least that’s what your team members think, and it gives them clues about how to act. If you reward performance, they will strive to perform better. If you praise effort, they will work harder. If you brush off their ideas so you can talk about office politics, they will » Read More
Book recommendations for business leaders: 6/8/23
Leaders are readers. Reading helps you discover ideas to try and expand your mental models. In this post, I point you to reviews of recent business books. You’ll find pointers to reviews of Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being, The Well-Lived Life: A 102-Year-Old Doctor’s » Read More
Boss’s Tip of the Week: Take Breaks
Breaks help you stay fresh and deliver more of your highest quality work. They help you keep your mental balance. Dr. Ernest Lawrence Rossi, who studies what are called “ultradian rhythms”, found that human beings naturally fall into a pattern of needing a break after 90 to 120 minutes of work. Rossi » Read More
Book Review: The Practice of Groundedness
I bought The Practice of Groundedness: A Transformative Path to Success That Feeds–Not Crushes–Your Soul by Brad Stulberg because I loved a book he wrote with Steve Magness, Peak Performance. I gave that book a top review and named it one of the top five books I read in 2018. I expected a lot from The » Read More
Boss’s Tip of the Week: Get a Leadership Development Buddy
Many people who exercise have a workout buddy they go to the gym and work out with. Runners have running buddies. Those buddies increase the likelihood that you’ll exercise or run on days when you’d rather sit on the couch and eat pizza. They develop along with you so you’re sharing similar problems and » Read More
Time to Make Your Summer Reading List for 2023
This year, summer officially starts on June 21. Maybe you think it “really” starts earlier, on Memorial Day. That’s the start of “psychological summer” for me. Either way, summer will be here soon. It’s time to make up your summer reading list. Here’s how I do it and the story behind the method. My father » Read More
Boss’s Tip of the Week: Keep a Growth Journal
Your Growth Journal is the place where you can collect your observations, ideas, hopes, and plans for how you want to do things. Here are some ways to make it as useful as possible. “Journal” means every day. Take a few moments every day to write things in your journal. Make your journal time a time of » Read More
Boss’s Tip of the Week: Read Fiction
Sure, it’s important to keep up with your business reading, but you should read some fiction, too. It’s fun and it engages you. You get lost in fiction in a way you usually won’t with factual material. The good news is that reading fiction will help you become a better leader, too. Researchers from » Read More
Leadership: A Caring Community
1941 was a momentous year for my parents. My father graduated from the Lutheran Seminary at Philadelphia and was ordained a Lutheran pastor My parents got married. They moved to rural upstate New York for their first parish. My father threw himself into the work of being a pastor. He called on all the people in the » Read More
Boss’s Tip of the Week: Read outside your field
Some of the most powerful, breakthrough ideas happen when you adopt practices that are common in other fields. The easiest way to find those practices is to spend a little time every week reading blogs and websites from other fields. Ten to fifteen minutes will get the job done if you do it regularly. This is only one » Read More