SELF IMPROVEMENT AND MOTIVATION

Millennials. They may not yet be the present, but they’re certainly the future. These young, uninitiated minds will someday soon become our politicians, doctors, scientists, chefs, television producers, fashion designers, manufacturers, and, one would hope, the new proponents of liberty.   But are they ready for it? Time after time, particularly on college campuses, millennials have proven to be little more than entitled, spoiled, anti-intellectual brats who place far too much emphasis on feelings and nowhere near enough emphasis on critical thinking. To the millennial, words are cause for the creation of safe spaces, alternative ideas must be stifled, and anything they perceive to be a microaggression is enough to send them spiraling into a state of mental distress. It’s time millennials understood these 7 harsh realities of life so we don’t end up with a generation of gutless adult babies running the show. 1. Your Feelings Are Largely Irrelevant Seriously, nobody who has alr...

The costs of a bad hire go far beyond finances.  Bad hiring decisions cost you In a Fast Company article,  How Much A Bad Hire Will Actually Cost You , it was reported that:  •41 percent of those surveyed lost worker productivity; •40 percent lost time due to recruiting and training another worker; •37 percent incurred expenses recruiting and training another worker; •36 percent endured negative impact on employee morale; and  •22 percent suffered negative impact on client solutions. In Fred Yager's Dice article,  The Cost of Bad Hiring Decisions Run High ,  the Harvard Business Review points out that as much as 80 percent of employee turnover is due to bad hiring decisions. I don’t think anyone will disagree with the fact that bad hiring comes at a tremendous cost. Yet, how many of us actually invest in ensuring that our hiring processes and plan meet our desired goals? How many of us are ensuring that confirmation bias is not at play - the tendency for us...

Positive psychology is a new and growing field. I have sifted through hundreds of studies to find “The Big 7” ways to  train your brain to be happy . Many of these studies have been discussed in journals, conference keynotes and research reports, but I’ve brought them together for you here. 1. Three Walks Pennsylvania State researchers reported that  the more physically active people are, the greater their general feelings of excitement and enthusiasm . It doesn’t take much: Half an hour of brisk walking three times a week improves happiness. 2. The 20-Minute Replay Writing for 20 minutes about a positive experience dramatically improves happiness. Why? Because you actually  relive  the experience as you’re writing it and then  relive  it every time you read it. 3. Random Acts of Kindness Carrying out five random acts of kindness a week dramatically improves your happiness. Professor Martin Seligman says that, “we scientists have found that doing a kindness...

Last year, I conducted an independent workplace survey on LinkedIn & in Clients Office and received hundreds of responses to the question: "What is the ONE mistake leaders make more frequently than others?" It obviously struck a chord, as the sentiments of employees across the globe came streaming in, many of them feeling distressed and disengaged. I am revealing my top findings from this survey, broken down by the eight most common themes. In essence, these are the eight biggest mistakes leaders make that suck the life out of their teams. 1. MICROMANAGING. Really, no surprise here. Leaders who dominate people, decisions, and processes, lead by fear, and lack vision make this the No.1 mistake. As I have written in the past, micromanaging ultimately derails your team's motivation and creativity. 2. LEADING FROM A POSITION OF POWER OR EGO. As it has always been, hubris is the cause of much conflict and grief. As one respondent su...

"Thank you." These two simple, monosyllabic words mindlessly slip off our tongues every day, almost reflexively. We utter them so much they've all but become meaningless, out and about, at home and especially at the office. If you merely grunt a quick, curt "thank you" to a colleague who just did you a solid, and then say nothing more, you might as well say "thanks for nothing." "This one especially applies to bosses, who often feel, 'I don't have to thank my employees because I'm paying them,'"as I mentioned to somemagazines tells  during a phone interview. "It goes a long way, starting at the top, where leaders can model gratitude, and not with employee-of-the-month programs that can cause animosity. It could be as simple as taking a few seconds to pop your head into someone's office and properly saying 'thank you' to them for expending their life-energy to make your business successful." Notice the ope...