I was consulting with one of my small business clients last week and she explained to me how some of her new employees “just didn’t get it”. Didn’t get what?, I asked.
She replied, “one of my employees comes to work late on a regular basis”. She added, “just the other day I looked at the clock at it’s eight minutes past 8:30 a.m., and here comes this employee waltzing into the office”. Read More »
This was a question posed by a small business leader recently. Are you wondering the same thing? Everyday all around us there are stimulating spaces and places that we can use to get people out of their rut and come up with creative new ideas.
On an average day, we have about 60,000 thoughts. If these are the same 60,000 thoughts each day, we may need to look to our surroundings for inspiration. For example, while driving over the same bridge I cross daily, I decided to look and think differently about the structure, shape and vibe of the bridge. Read More »
A few weeks ago was the Spring equinox, I got up at 6 o’clock and watched the sun rise over the sea.
The sight was so beautiful that I decided to repeat it the next day. Only to find that the sky was cloud-covered and the sea a forbidding grey. Read More »
When you want to get into shape, you exercise your muscles and change your diet. You work your abs, arms, legs, shoulders, back and start eating healthier. When you do this consistently and often, you gain energy, feel better, and look better. Your life and work flows better. Your confidence increases.
When you want new, fresh and inspiring ideas to help grow your business, bank account or relationships, you must Read More »
This is the story of two shoe shops.
In the first shop, the conversation went something like this.
“Can I replace these joggers with a new pair? Look, there’s a manufacturing fault just under the heel.” Read More »
There has been allot of talk and posts out there over the last 5 years about “only checking your email once or twice a day” to be productive. This may work for you if you are EXTREMENLY HANDS OFF with your business, but it won’t work if you rely on communicating with the people who run it, or the customers who support it.
Now… you not only need to have a finger on the pulse of your inbox, you need to have it on twitter, face book, and the load of other social networks out there – because guess what – your customers are there too. And they are talking about what they need from you. Read More »
Over a cup of tea in Dublin, our client, David confessed to us that he had run out of creative juice, was unable to come up with fresh, new ideas, and was feeling stuck in a rut.
Lacking the passion, energy and zest necessary to help him lead his team toward success, he was feeling zombie-like…going through the motions day-to-day, showing up but not really being there, doing what he had to do but not doing it with joy and passion and getting by but not getting inspired. Read More »
We each have both strengths and weaknesses in every job we do. Our strengths are the things we are naturally good at and the weaknesses are the things we can only ever make limited progress in. For managers and team leaders, the aim of understanding people’s strengths is to help people excel.
Here are 7 ways to use people’s strengths: Read More »
Often when we give a talk or a seminar one or more participants come up to us afterward and say something like this: “Hey, I loved your program and creativity is important, but I don’t have the time to be innovative or creative.” Ever feel like that yourself?
Let’s face it, even when we are not busy completing tasks, attending meetings, responding to emails, taking out the garbage, walking the dog or taking care of the kids, Read More »
The other day I read a newspaper article that challenged everything we’d ever thought about using praise to motivate people.
It came from research done at Stanford University, California, which found that students who are repeatedly praised become risk-averse, make less effort, and are less motivated.
According to Professor Carole Dweck, praising a student too often fails to help them for three reasons. Read More »
