Category: Communication
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I know what I want to do, so why don’t I do it?
These are my notes from reading the short article Strategy and the Fat Smoker by David Maister. As we come up to the season of new year’s resolutions, I took some time to reflect on what it takes to make change happen in our lives, and in our businesses. David Maister is a former Harvard…
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Short term Happy vs Long term Fulfilled
It is a trade off. Charlie Munger said in a recent interview: “if you take lots of heroin, you’ll be very happy over the next 3 weeks… but the long term impact is catastrophic” How to balance short term enjoyment with long term fulfillment? Reflection in this video is on this balance between habits for…
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Beginner’s Mind
Shoshin (初心) is a word from Zen Buddhism meaning “beginner’s mind.” It refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner would. “Sometimes, what you already know gets in the way of what you need to Learn” George Gan…
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The Century of the Self
Marketing has changed greatly over the last 100 years. The ideas of Sigmund Freud about self and our identity have shifted how marketers persuade us to buy. As we watch the rise of populist political movements around the world, I wanted to reflect on how political “marketing” has evolved. In the first half of the…
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I love my Job
Jobs you love are not “found”, they are created… over years of committed, generous, selfless service. It doesn’t mean you have to “do your time”. It doesn’t mean that you wait and assume that it will come. It means you have to have the patience to find a place where you can be of service…
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How to Handle Anxiety (especially when speaking in public)
4 Approaches to handle anxiety as shared with me several years ago by Pep Mari, psychologist to the Spanish Olympic team. (Check out his youtube channel here, full of great tips, in Spanish) How to Handle Anxiety: Avoid – don’t go into the situation that causes you to feel anxiety in the first place Manage…
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4 Mindsets that Build Strong Leaders Around You
This video is about 4 mindsets that we strive for in a Vistage Group Chair, and can also serve to bring out the best in the people around any leader. The 4 Leadership Mindsets for Growing the people around you are: Care-frontation Assertive Vulnerable Exploratory Care-Frontation A bit more on the word “carefrontation”. It is…
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The Most Important Question before you Prepare a Speech
Got a speech to give? What should I say? That is a terrible place to start. What’s the most important question you can ask yourself before preparing a speech? It was fun to make this short “elevator pitch” video with the production team at @iesebschool only 7 floors to make my point!
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11 Reasons Every Leader should have a Blog
I have this blog. It has been going for over 10 years. Above all other benefits, writing blog posts helps me clarify what I think. I published my first post on 25th January 2009. It was a paragraph from a book I was reading that I thought was valuable advice. I have written ideas on…
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4 Ways to Stop Self-Sabotaging Your Success
In 2009, I decided to take writing seriously. Stephen King says “A writer is a producer of words.” If you produce words, you’re a writer. If you don’t produce words, you are not a writer. Every day my coach would ask me “how many words did you produce today?” It was brutal. There is no…