Behavior
Looking for something specific? The following topics address a wide range of business needs and challenges.
The Art of Teaching People to Recognize Their Best
When I was in college, I worked in a food distribution warehouse loading trucks. It was backbreaking work. We would load five trailers per day—each load weighing about 25,000 pounds!
We loaded the…
Tapping into Employee Behaviors with Exponential Impact
Every business goal is driven by human behavior. It follows then that your employees’ performance—their behavior and results—is the most important output of your role as a leader. Considering that…
The Truth About Building Habits: No You Don't Have to Do This Forever
Many times in the course of working with clients, they hit a point of realization about using a scientific approach to behavior on the job, and it sometimes sounds like this: “You mean I have to…
Economics is Not a Science
And neither is most so-called behavioral economics
Despite being the first American to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Paul Samuelson famously stated, “Economics has never been a…
Resolution Solutions for the New Year
“My New Year’s resolution is to quit procrastinating . . . I’ll start tomorrow.” Unfortunately, that’s the dead-end road that a majority of our resolutions take. Most of us are familiar with Albert…
Creating an Achievement Culture
I have often said, “The best job you will ever have is one where you know at the end of every day how well you have done.” The students at Morningside Academy can wholeheartedly agree that this…
Leadership Behaviors: An Introduction
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, then you are a leader.”
—John Quincy Adams
It has been almost a decade since Measure of a Leader was published yet…
Get Outta My Head
Have you ever had someone perceive you to be a certain way as if they know what you’re thinking? I just received an invitation to a webinar that teaches managers to read people’s minds. What a…
I was going to give you feedback but…
How a leader provides feedback is one of those distinguishing factors between being a leader by title and being a truly effective leader. The delivery of frequent feedback allows for continuous…
Love and Rock Climbing: A Shaping Story
Shaping is a powerful tool for teaching any new skill. Although most shaping of our behavior is done inadvertently, people who use this process purposefully are better coaches and leaders who…
Standing Up for Ethics
In the ABC series, What Would You Do? host John Quiñones places ordinary folks in situations that force them to make tough, ethical decisions. Will they step in when someone is being mistreated? If a…
Too Much Praise? Don’t Believe What You Read
Every day I read, see or hear something that drives me crazy. The latest is the headline on a piece that’s circulating the news outlets, “Too Much Praise Can Turn Your Kids into Narcissistic Jerks,…
Putting an End to Groundhog Day
Like Bill Murray in the 1993 movie Groundhog Day, every day for some people feels like a repeat of the last. Seemingly no matter what they do, nothing changes. Each day greets them with the same…
The Key to Making Resolutions Stick Is Strength in Numbers
Ah, the New Year has arrived—our chance to hit the reset button. This year is sure to be better…we resolve to get fit, be a better parent, heck, even be a better boss. For many managers a…
13 Things that Scare the Devil Out of Me, Revisited
A few years ago I created my own bewitching list of things that scared me. I have dusted off that list and provided an updated view of my top thirteen frightening things. I’m afraid to…
Why Positive Management Training Should be Part of your Company Wellness Program
Most organizations understand the value in promoting employee health and wellness. Investments are made in wellness centers, gym memberships and weight loss programs. Turns out there is…
Deliberate Practice Misunderstood: Will Bad Practice Make You Better?
It shouldn't come as a surprise to me that the topic of deliberate practice continues to find its way into the headlines. As a matter of fact, one of my most-read articles is one questioning Dr.…
The NFL Desperately Needs Skills in Changing Behavior that Matters
Over the last two weeks there have been at least 7 cases making the news about domestic abuse by NFL players. This week, there was an NYT editorial on abuse and its justification by too many men…