In a world that seems more and more superficial, the idea of "Deep Work" is very attractive. I often have this nagging feeling that many of us are struggling to get to the heart of our work. Our focus is constantly being pulled away by a world that that is moving faster and bursting at the seams with information. How then can we slow down and put our attention on the important activities that will help drive the success? This is exactly the question that Cal Newport explores in Deep Work. Big Thought The Deep Work Hypothesis: The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming … [Read more...]
Social Selling Mastery – Jamie Shanks
I've been coaching and training professionals on social selling since before it even had a name. Back when LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook first came out, there was a segment of the sales world that jumped on board and saw these as powerful communication tools. As is usually the case, there was another group that saw them as glitzy trends that the marketing people would talk about...which meant that they could be safely ignored. That's not the state of the world anymore. Digital communication has become fully integrated with how we live our lives, and by extension, how we buy. That means that those of us who sell have to engage with … [Read more...]
5 Secrets for Creating Lasting Personal Growth
updated December 2020 I want to learn to speak Spanish fluently. And after 3 years of almost daily Duolingo lessons, I'm getting there. I'd had it on my list of New Year’s Resolutions for almost a decade. Have you realized that New Year’s Resolution is a short-hand way of saying this part of my life that I’ve been trying to change for the last ten years? But when I think about it, I realize that my Spanish, while not fluent, is actually not horrible. I can read esta bien, but my conversational skills need some work still. That’s not great, but considering I took 4 years of Latin in high school, it isn’t bad either. So maybe I … [Read more...]
Mindful Tech – David M. Levy
If you climbed a mountain to ask an ancient Zen master about the right approach to Facebook, what would he say? I don't think that David would make a claim to mastery, but Mindful Tech is the closest thing I've seen for a Zen response to technology. It's both fascinating and filled with common sense. Instead of directives on how to respond to email and social media requests, he examines how we relate to it on a daily basis. It was interesting to read this on the heels of Sherry Turkle's Reclaiming Conversation. In many ways, I think he picks up where she leaves off. There weren't many prescriptions for how to deal with the … [Read more...]
Reclaiming Conversation – Sherry Turkle
Is the explosion of digital technology a good thing for us as individuals and as societies? The knee jerk reaction has been to say, "Of course!" But there's a real cost, and Sherry shares what we are losing and what we aren't even aware we're losing. Until we wrap our heads around how to use technology instead of letting it use us, we're going to struggle with finding healthy ways to incorporate it into our lives. This is especially true for a generation of digital natives that has always known technology and is maturing into a key part of our society and workforce. Big Thought Even though there's a plethora of new technological tools … [Read more...]
The Human Side of Enterprise – Douglas McGregor
"There's nothing new under the sun." You might have heard that aphorism before. I think about it every time I see another new leadership book that promises to uncover the true secrets of organizational success. At fifty years old, you won't find anything new in The Human Side of Enterprise. You will find some solid thinking about some of the timeless principles that guide organizational success. Way before getting an MBA was trendy, Douglas McGregor was approaching business as a science. Big Thought "All managerial decisions and actions rest on assumptions about behavior." If you assume that people are lazy and unmotivated, you will … [Read more...]
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living – Dale Carnegie
I was recently trying to cull my slightly out-of-control book collection and pulled this book off the shelf. It had been years since I'd read it and thought I might give it a quick reread just to see what would stand out. I'm glad that I did. Right now, most self-help books are either reports on the latest neuroscience findings or the meandering thoughts of the latest guru. It would be easy to dismiss How to Step Worrying and Start Living as a dated relic of the last century, but then you'd miss out an a valuable read. How to Stop Worrying and Start Living is a little different. Dale was a great storyteller, and he was fanatical … [Read more...]
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