Over the years, I’ve met many influential and successful people, and I’ve observed a common trait in nearly all of them: they were all lifelong learners. If you want to win at life, this is non-negotiable. You have to become teachable. And the more teachable you are, the more successful you become. One of the […]
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Lead to Win Podcast, Episode 1
When a high-performer encounters a startling career setback—perhaps getting fired or passed up for a promotion—the culprit is easy to predict. Nine times out of ten, it stems from a lack of self-awareness. Understanding your shortcomings is a prerequisite for correcting them. That’s why your level of self-awareness has the power to either slow your […]
Why You Need to Hit Pause to Keep Moving
After conducting an in-depth study of seventy-two high-performing CEOs, Cornell University researchers reached a surprising conclusion. The key predictor of success for leaders wasn’t grit, focus, education, decision-making skills, a knack for strategic planning, or even IQ. It was self-awareness. Many experts would say self-awareness is simply the ability to monitor and regulate our thoughts, […]
How to Avoid Our Most Common Thought Traps
During the early days of the Vietnam War, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara wanted to know if American military efforts in Vietnam were effective. He charted the numbers of weapons lost, enemies killed, and so on. But there was a hole in his thinking. A critical colleague told McNamara he’d failed to count “the […]
Do You See Yourself Clearly?
When you see a group of friends roar with laughter after taking a selfie, you can bet they used a warp app to capture the moment. Like the funhouse mirrors of yesteryear, the app stretches our bodies and squeezes our faces to hilarious extremes. We have to laugh because the reflection has nothing to do […]
How to Break out of Business as Usual
Whether we know it or not, we all rely on a few basic strategies for moving through the social world. Different people adopt different strategies. Some try to be helpful and friendly; others aim for perfection. Some try to be attractive and productive, while knowledge is the goal for others. The problem is that most […]
Your Power as a Leader
As leaders, we possess more power than we think. But we can only use it for good if we understand it and embrace it.
Are You a Responsive Person?
Unresponsive people drive me crazy. I hate sending an email or Slack message to someone and then waiting days to hear anything back. (Admittedly, I have sometimes been guilty of this myself.) This is particularly maddening when you don’t hear anything at all. One of the questions I always ask when interviewing executive assistants is […]
3 Ways to Go Further, Faster
What is the single most important thing you can do to make your dreams become reality? In this post I share a critically important success principle and three ways to apply it.
Why Keeping Commitments is Critical to Your Influence
When we think of someone with integrity, we think of someone we can count on to come through on what they promise. Unfortunately, that’s not always a safe bet today. Over the last several years I’ve noticed a change in the way we use the word integrity. Having integrity requires staying true to your word—even […]