Self-Management

Why You Should Treat Problems As Challenges

There are real benefits to looking for what you appreciate or are grateful about in bad things as well as good. ‘What is there to be grateful for in bad things?’ you might reasonably ask. Here are some ideas and research findings that might help you to benefit from adversity. Some events that are tough

Video – Andy Smith On How To Use The Experience Cube To Be A More Effective Leader

Introducing Gervase Bushe’s concept of the Experience Cube (part of his Clear Leadership model) and how it can help you to be a more effective leader, develop your self-awareness, and build your ‘non-anxious presence’ Recently I was interviewed by my friend Gavin Ingham (top motivational speaker and sales guru) about the Experience Cube and how

Why Your Brain Is Hardwired For Negativity, And What You Can Do About It

There’s a wealth of research showing that most people give more attention to threats than opportunities, for example: Negative experiences are remembered in more detail than positive ones Our attitudes are influenced more heavily by bad news than good news (research by John Cacioppo) People feel more negative emotion if they lose $100 than positive

Stop Kidding Yourself You Can Multitask – And What To Do Instead

You may think that you can successfully juggle several tasks. In fact you may believe that you have to multitask in order to get your work done in a reasonable time. Bad luck – the weight of research is against you, and shows that trying to multitask means that you will take longer to deal

Authentic Leadership

Leadership And Expressing Emotion

Authenticity In Leaders Is Not Enough For Their Followers Some thoughts inspired by the discussion about ‘Are Leaders Getting Too Emotional?’ between Gautam Mukunda of Harvard Business School and Gianpiero Petriglieri of INSEAD on the always excellent HBR IdeaCast. There is a whole sub-industry of leadership advice telling us that you must be an authentic leader, and

Are Your ‘Autopilot’ Reactions Reducing Your Effectiveness?

A great post by Lee Newman on the Harvard Business Review blog turns the spotlight on our default reactions in challenging interpersonal situations. For example, how would you respond if someone attacks your cherished pet project at work? Some people’s default reaction would be to attack back, some would instinctively cave in or seek compromise, some would

The Best Way To Motivate Yourself With Self-Talk

You also need to know this if you use (or teach) self-hypnosis, or use affirmations. We now know that it makes a difference if you tell yourself “You can do it” or “I can do it”. A recent study by Sanda Dolcos at the Neuroscience Lab at the University of Illinois tested whether motivational self-talk

Stress can be good for you – if you have the right mindset

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

Is your boss insane? And what to do about it

I’ve been sent this infographic from the people at Learnstuff.com which presents some rather alarming findings about bad bosses. I hesitated for a while to post this because it’s so unremittingly gloomy, but in the end I thought that it’s worth posting because it conveys a message that if you’re unhappy or stressed at work,

Compassion, energy drain, and motivation

“How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.” – Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments In other words, however individually

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