Confession: I’ve abandoned the use of Microsoft PowerPoint for presentations. Mostly. Here’s the caveat … some of the courses I deliver are for government clients that require a government-approved curriculum, including a government-approved PowerPoint presentation full of government-approved acronyms. Ugh.Why PowerPoint to Begin With?The idea behind “Death by PowerPoint” is reasonable.For “John” on the East coast to
We’ve all been taxed with choices and opportunities beyond our ability to tackle them all: Holiday party invites, an extra piece of birthday cake, etc. The easy answer is to decline by saying “I can’t.” However, study’s show that people that say “can’t” tend to revert back to the undesired behavior (like being overscheduled, overfed, etc.) a
Quick—can you name a resilient organization? How about the local dry cleaner that trims its hours because they can’t find new staff? Nope. How about the plumber that loses approved vendor status because their jobs keep running late due to an unreliable truck constantly breaking down? Definitely not. Or the company that shuts down after the founder dies?
“Sifting Folly” What a glorious phrase, eh? I was reading one of my favorite blogs (FarnamStreetBlog.com) and this phrase really got my attention. Partly for its eloquence but mostly for what it stands for. The topic was Albert Einstein and why he was so freaking smart. One reason, widely accepted, was his ability to quickly and effectively reduce complex
Criticize with CareEver notice that criticism gets a bad rap, generally speaking? Not the “you’re ugly and your mother dresses you funny” kind, but the constructive kind that portends to improve performance. The problem is that when the criticism isn’t received as constructive, there’s no incentive for the desired improvement to occur. And the whole concept
Ever experience this? Question:”Hi, Honey, welcome home. Please tell me about your day?”Reply:”It was fine. The boss was in a grumpy mood. Had lunch with the team at work. Closed the Penske sale. Planned a big conference call for tomorrow. How about your day?”Sounds like a 1950’s sitcom, right? Perhaps. But it also illustrates the ingredients of
Once upon a time I failed as a leader…Okay, so it happens regularly, but let’s just focus on one of them for now, okay? Here’s a story of a leadership failure, what I learned, and how you can avoid the same mistake.My business, TEAM Solutions, has 3 full-time employees: me, myself, and I. When I have a