replace it with a habit. If you’re afraid to write, write a little, every day. Start with an anonymous blog, start with a sentence. Every day, drip, drip, drip, a habit. If you’re afraid to speak up, speak up a little, every day. Not to the board of directors, but to someone. A little […]
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Author: Angela Muli
What is the difference between commitmen...
We spend way too much time teaching people technique. Teaching people to be good at flute, or C++ or soccer. It’s a waste because the fact is, most people can learn to be good at something, if they only choose to be, if they choose to make the leap and put in the effort and […]
Goals, strategy and tactics for change…
The Goal: Who are you trying to change? What observable actions will let you know you’ve succeeded? The Strategy: What are the emotions you can amplify, the connections you can make that will cause someone to do something they’ve hesitated to do in the past (change)? The strategy isn’t the point, it’s the lever that […]
Do you have any good ideas..??
“I don’t have any good ideas” That’s a common mantra among those that say that they want to leap, but haven’t, and aren’t, and won’t. What they’re actually saying is, “I don’t have any ideas that are guaranteed to work, and not only that, are guaranteed to cause no criticism or moments when I’m sure […]
Here is how to Get rich (quick)….
Here is how to Get rich (really quick) Enrich your world by creating value for others. Enrich your health by walking twenty minutes a day. Enrich your community by contributing to someone, without keeping score. Enrich your relationships by saying what needs to be said. Enrich your standing by trusting someone else. Enrich your […]
Imagine, No more kids…??
What if, in some sort of sci-fi solar flare cataclysm, it was impossible for humans to have more kids? No more babies. How would we treat the last generation? Would we say to the youngest student on Earth, “sorry the school is really run-down and crowded and poorly staffed, but we don’t want to […]
Is money currently a story..?
Money’s pretty new. Before that, we traded. My corn for your milk. The trade enriches both of us, and it’s simple. Money, of course, makes a whole bunch of other transactions possible. Maybe I don’t need your milk, but I can take your money and use it to buy something I do need, from someone […]
Is your performance management and KPIs ...
Managers talk a lot about employee performance. There’s constant pressure to achieve performance targets, to reach higher performance levels, and to ensure that people’s work supports and furthers the organization’s goals. Performance management is the process used to manage this performance. The key question asked is, “How well is an employee applying his or her […]
Produce Something…
Words carry energy. Each word you say out loud or internally to yourself catalyzes a different response in your brain and therefore throughout your whole body.I always enjoy what happens when I increase the use of the word “Produce” If I want to move closer toward achieving my life’s goals today,I might start my morning […]
Is it a gift…??
Here are attributes many of us value in co-workers, bosses, employees, friends and vendors: Honest Punctual Curious Proactive Flexible Thoughtful Generous Fun Committed Respectful Organized Interested Creative Likable Positive you get the idea. These are things that turn someone from ordinary into a star. They are even attributes we now assign to our favorite brands, […]
Are you an insider…?
Are you an insider…? Business leaders are finally realizing that their most powerful assets are not their buildings, bank accounts, or even their technologies. It’s their relationships with their audiences. Relationships are about intention and attitude; shared interests, experimentation and growth. But conventional wisdom resists attempts to develop a business concept, a “brand,” around an […]
What if surfing was your daily job…?
Same waves,same beach(s), different day. The risk of skin cancer. The falling. Sand in your socks. The people hassling you for your spot on the wave. The pressure to do more sets. The other guys at the beach who don’t appreciate your style. The drudgery of doing it again tomorrow, when the weather sucks. And […]
What if ocean front was your daily job…?
Surfing, Same waves, different day. The risk of skin cancer. The falling. Sand in your socks. The people hassling you for your spot on the wave. The pressure to do more sets. The other guys at the beach who don’t appreciate your style. The drudgery of doing it again tomorrow, when the weather sucks. And […]
Looking for Something to React or Respon...
In the old-school factory,the twin taskmasters are the manual and the assembly line. The manual tells you what to do,and the assembly line keeps the work coming.Its not your job to decide. When we move away from assembly and manual labor,it was easy to pretend that we were no longer working in a factory.It turns […]
Feeding the fire of the spirit in you…
The human spirit,like a campfire,must be lit again each day. Unlike the spirit,a campfire is easy to observe and understand,because we can step back from it and observe it.After a night of camping,we can emerge from our tents the next morning and notice with satisfaction that the campfire has gone out.We don’t curse the campfire […]
Discover active relaxation…
There is a huge difference between active relaxation and passive relaxation. When we play games,sports,go to the gym,swim,work in a garden,walk the dog,or play chess,we are interacting with unexpected,and our mind are responding. All of these activities increase personal creativity and intellectual motivation.The are all active pursuits. Active relaxation refreshes and restores the mind.It keeps […]
How to reprogram your mind for yourself…
If you are a regular consumer of the major news program,you belong to a very persuasive and hype cult. You need to be deprogrammed. Start by altering how you listen to electronic radio gossip,the news,and shock and schlock TV shows.Program all the negative cynical,skeptical thoughts that you allow to flow into your mind unchecked when […]
Newness as a form of hiding…
Every once in a while someone will say to me, “yeah, sure, I’ve heard that before… what do you have that’s new?” In contemporary art or movies, it makes perfect sense to be focused on the bleeding edge, on the new idea that’s never been previously contemplated. But when we’re discussing our goals, our passion […]
Its Never Enough..
There’s never enough time to be as patient as we need to be. Not enough slack to focus on the long-term, too much urgency in the now to take the time and to plan ahead. That urgent sign post just ahead demands all of our intention (and attention), and we decide to invest in, “down […]
Fearless,Reckless,and Feckless….
Organizations seek out people who are fearless,but go out their way to weed out reckless.what is the difference? Fearless doesn’t mean “without fear.” what it means in practice is “unafraid of things that one should not be afraid of.”Being fearless means giving a presentation to an important customer without losing a nights sleep.It means being […]
The danger of starting at the very top…
When making a b2b sale, the instinct is always to get into the CEO’s office. If you can just get her to hear your pitch, to understand the value, to see why she should buy from or lease from or partner with or even buy you… that’s the holy grail. What do you think happens […]
Thank you, Zig…
One of our great teacher Zig Ziglar died last week. He was 86. Thanks for teaching me how to sell and why it mattered. Thanks for reminding me how much it mattered to care. Thanks for telling us a fifteen-minute story about Johnny the Shoe Shine Genius, so compelling that I flew to the airport […]
The best way to get unstuck…
Don’t wait for the right answer and the golden path to present themselves. This is precisely why you’re stuck. Starting without seeing the end is difficult, so we often wait until we see the end, scanning relentlessly for the right way, the best way and the perfect way. The way to get unstuck is to […]
Thinking about supermodels…
Models are fairly generic placeholders, attractive men and women who anonymously walk down the runway at a fashion show or stand up for a photo shoot. It’s surprisingly unglamorous and isn’t particularly steady or financially rewarding. Supermodels, on the other hand, are a relatively recent innovation, and they are in a totally different (financial) category. […]
Strategy matters more than ever…
When everyone is playing the same game, your execution is critical. Your store is like their store, your bread is like their bread, so we care very much about the care and skill you put into your product or service. Of course, that still matters, but the revolution of the web means that the way […]
The unforgiving arithmetic of the funnel...
One percent. That’s how many you get if you’re lucky. One percent of the subscribers to the Times read an article and take action. One percent of the visitors to a website click a button to find out more. One percent of the people in a classroom are sparked by an idea and go do […]
You will be judged (or you will be ignor...
Those are pretty much the only two choices. Being judged is uncomfortable. Snap judgments, prejudices, misinformation… all of these, combined with not enough time (how could there be) to truly know you, means that you will inevitably be misjudged, underestimated (or overestimated) and unfairly rejected. The alternative, of course, is much safer. To be ignored. […]
When smart people work for big companies...
A good employee says, “I know that this is a serious problem, it’s hurting our customers and we can do better, but I can’t do a thing about it because it’s run by a different department.” A version of this might conclude with, “And I don’t even know the name of the person who’s responsible.” […]
Time doesn’t scale…
But bravery does. The challenge of work-life balance is a relatively new one, and it is an artifact of a world where you get paid for showing up, paid for hours spent, paid for working. In that world, it’s clearly an advantage to have a team that spends more time than the competition. One way […]
A great way to give thanks…
for the privileges we’ve got is to do important work. Your job, your internet access, your education, your role in a civilized society… all of them are a platform, a chance to do art, a way for you to give back and to honor those that enabled you to get to this point. For every […]
Set the alarm clock the night before..
Situational goal adjustment is a real problem. Don’t set the clock when you’re tired, set it when you are planning your day. Don’t whittle away at your sales goals right after a serious rejection, set them when you’re on a roll. The discipline is in obeying the rule you set when you were in a […]
Easy vs. do-able vs. impossible…
Often we consider an opportunity based on how easy it is. The problem with this analysis is that if it’s easy, it’s often not worth doing. It’s easy to start a blog, but of course, starting a blog doesn’t really deliver a lot of value. Posting 4,100 blog posts in a row, though, isn’t […]
The overwhelming fear of being wrong…
She didn’t vote because she was afraid her candidate would lose. He complains that the blog is being published too often and doesn’t want to read some of the posts if he’s not going to be able to keep up with all of them. They don’t want to buy insurance for their business because the […]