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Category Archives: Personal Success
Hold Opinions Lightly (While Holding Convictions Tightly)
“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” John Maynard Keynes In a leadership position, we need to hold our opinions lightly. We need to be able to change our opinion or viewpoint when new … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Communication, Personal Success
Tagged Confirmation Bias, Decision Making
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14 Basics to Master
Leadership training focuses intently on high level leadership skills – strategic planning, negotiation, managing stakeholders, projecting charisma, developing and communicating a vision. These are certainly vital skills. But, to be an effective leader first requires that we master basic productivity … Continue reading
The Four Stupidities of the Smart Leader
To be a good leader, we have to be intelligent: intellectually, socially and emotionally intelligent. In a previous blog post, I even gave some advice on 8 Ways to Be As Smart As We Can Be. Being smart, however, does … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Leadership, Personal Success
Tagged Business Leadership, Communication
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Patience
The regular readers of my blog are aware of my focus on Decisiveness and Getting Things Done. But, as in all things in leadership, balance is required. Good leaders balance this decisiveness with a healthy dose of patience. There are … Continue reading
Don’t Get Angry
The Ancients knew a thing or two about anger: “Whom the Gods want to destroy, they first make angry.” Ancient Greek Proverb “Great anger is more destructive than the sword.” Indian Proverb “The angry man will defeat himself in battle … Continue reading
Apology Accepted
As a leader, we will make mistakes or behave (in a moment of anger or frustration) inappropriately. The usual response is to blame someone else, ignore the mistake or minimize the bad behavior, and then just move on. “I have … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Personal Success, Team / People
Tagged Apology, Humility, Leadership
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Humor – A Vital Leadership Skill
“A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.” Dwight D. Eisenhower (34th President of the United States) Having humor in the workplace is crucial to leadership success and … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Personal Success, Team / People
Tagged Business Leadership, Humor, Winning Teamwork
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When Negotiating, Selling or Just Persuading, Quality Over Quantity
Niro Sivanathan is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at London Business School, who teaches Negotiations, Influence and Decision-Making. His psychological insights can help all of us be better negotiators, influencers and decision makers. In this blog, I let Niro’s … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Communication, Personal Success
Tagged Communication, Negotiation, Niro Sivanathan, Persuasion
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A Time For Everything
“We all have times when we think more effectively, and times when we should not be thinking at all.” Daniel Cohen To be effective as leaders, we must do our good work in its proper time. We need to be … Continue reading
Posted in Perform / Execution, Personal Success, Sales and Marketing
Tagged Effectiveness, Golden Hour, Power Hour
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Best Version of Ourselves
The Australian Motivational Speaker and Catholic Author, Matthew Kelly, focus his message on people becoming the best version of themselves. This message should resonate with all of us as leaders. As leaders, we have strengths, and we have weaknesses. We … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Personal Success, Team / People
Tagged Leadership Characteristics
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Four Ways to Overcome Confirmation Bias
The biggest decision-making bias for all of us is the confirmation bias. Wikipedia explains it well: Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs or … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Leadership, Personal Success
Tagged Confirmation Bias, Decision Making
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Use the ‘Base Rate’ for Better Decisions
The IT project took twice as long as planned. The construction project to expand the plant went over budget. Why does this always happen? Too many decisions are made with too much self-confidence and too much optimism. As a result, … Continue reading
Posted in Improve / Turnaround, Leadership, Personal Success
Tagged Base Rate, Decision Making, Richard Thaler
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Be Opportunistic
“There are smart decisions and wise decisions. And one form of wisdom is the ability to judge when to let luck disrupt our plans. Not all time in life is equal. The question is, when the unequal moment comes, do … Continue reading
11 Keys to Better Decision-Making
Successful leaders make good decisions… consistently. Good decision-making is dependent on a number of factors: understanding, experience, intelligence, foresight, and just plain luck. There is no guide that will tell you how to make the perfect decision. But, there are … Continue reading
Don’t Believe the Hype
“The world is changing faster than ever before.” “We need to adapt to the change or we will get run over by it.” “The paradigm has shifted and the world will never be the same.” “Robotics and AI (Artificial Intelligence) will … Continue reading
Diversity, Inclusion and Respect
Today’s workplaces are more diverse than ever with more work being done in teams. To ensure that everyone is working together well, companies need to be inclusive and embrace diversity and individual differences. The core element behind a diverse and … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Personal Success, Team / People
Tagged Communication, Diversity, Inclusion, Justice, Relationships, Respect
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The Do’s and Don’ts of Public Speaking
The ability to speak well in public – whether giving a sales pitch to a customer, presenting at a Board Meeting, or speaking to a large group of employees – is an essential leadership skill. Public speaking is fundamental for … Continue reading
Posted in Communication, Leadership, Personal Success
Tagged Communication, Learning, Marketing, Meetings, Public Speaking
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10 Ideas for Improved Organization and Effectiveness
Pre-planning “For every 10 minutes of pre-planning you do, we get four to five hours of productivity improvements.” On a weekly basis, schedule the most important tasks and activities first and build our week around them “The best day begins … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution, Personal Success
Tagged Communication, Meetings, Productivity, Project Management, Training
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Write It Down
I have previously written about the fundamentals of communication: The Three Keys of Communication. The focus of that blog was about how we can better communicate with our teams and others by: Keeping the message simple Repeating repeating repeating the … Continue reading
Posted in Communication, Personal Success, Team / People
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8 Ways To Be As Smart As We Can Be
To do our best in business, we need to be as smart as we can be. Alas, I do not have any tremendous insight or magic elixir to make myself or anyone else be smarter. Sorry. What I do have … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Improve / Turnaround, Personal Success
Tagged Focus, Innovation, Management, Productivity, Success, Teaching
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David M. Shedd - Move Your Company Forward 