Here’s my personal selection of some podcasts in the general area of understanding how people tick – ranging from neuroscience to management tips. The common denominator is that they all feature interviews, talks or contributions from leading researchers and practitioners – people who know what they are talking about. If you haven’t tried podcasts before,
This is a quick introduction to the idea of Emotional Intelligence, and why it’s important in a work and business context, as well as the wider context of everyday life. The culture where you work may encourage the belief that emotions just get in the way of rational decision-making, and that they have no value
The ‘Golden Rule’ or ‘ethic of reciprocity’ – essentially, ‘treat others as you would like others to treat you’ – is one of the foundation stones of morality, not just in Western thought but in religions and cultures worldwide. It’s currently undergoing something of a revival among business thought leaders – as in this article
I came across a useful short article in the New York Times by Alina Tugend summarising research into the effects of ‘bad’ events (setbacks, losses, criticism) versus ‘good’ events (progress, gains, praise): Praise Is Fleeting, but Brickbats We Recall. This is a quick summary of the main points that emerged, plus some thoughts about the implications
While thinking about the challenges of managing ‘Generation Y’ or ‘Millennials’, I came across this excellent article on the HBR blog by Chris Resto, author of ‘Recruit or Die: How Any Business Can Beat the Big Guys in the War for Young Talent‘. In the article Resto discusses acouple of tips for managing expectations of
Stress is generally thought of as bad for you. But there’s some research by Alia Crum, Peter Salovey, and Shawn Achor that suggests that in some cases it can actually do you good. What makes the difference is not the amount of stress, as previously thought (psychologists used to believe some level of stress is good
“There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking.” – Alfred Korzybski Polish-American philosopher and scientist, creator of the theory of ‘General Semantics’, big influence on NLP, and author of Science and Sanity Image of Alfred Korzybski from Wikipedia, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share
Here’s a way to feel better, and make the people you admire or love feel a *whole* lot better, that is really easy to do – in fact it may take less effort than not doing it. Where the idea came from Recently one of my favourite writers, Iain Banks, revealed that he had been
Mrs Thatcher inspired affection and loyalty from her own supporters like no other British leader since Churchill. This article examines why. Whatever you thought of her policies, there are leadership lessons we can learn. As I disagreed with nearly all her policies when she was in power, my younger self would be amazed to find
This is a simple 5-step process to for influencing people to change their minds. It’s not the only way to do it, but it does give a step-by-step process that I trust you will find useful. The process is derived from NLP, but if you’re not familiar with that area you can slot in whatever
Specifically, these insights come from the book Primal Leadership (UK title The New Leaders) by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee. For my money, this is still the best book on Emotional Intelligence as it applies to leadership. 1. The emotional climate affects results When people feel good, they think and work better, with
We know what it feels like when we are performing at our peak – when we’re fully employing our core strengths to overcome challenges, time flies by, and we lose ourselves in what we are doing. Not only does this ‘flow‘ state or being ‘in the zone’ feel great, we are enormously productive, motivated and
