What Businesspeople Can Learn From The Kitchen of Anthony Bourdain
Note: We ran this blog post several tears ago. We are rerunning it in memory of Anthony Bourdain on his passing. Anthony Bourdain, legendary chef of Brasserie Les Halles, best-selling author, and famed television personality, is known in the restaurant…
Don’t Believe These Strategic Planning Myths
Strategic thinking often boils down to choosing what not to do. Yet three myths continue to plague it: Myth 1: Productivity is the goal. Productivity is about getting things done. Strategic thinking is about getting the right things done well. And that…
What Causes Poor Decision Making
What causes well-meaning people to make poor decisions? To find out, researchers looked at 360-feedback data from more than 50,000 leaders to find the most common paths that lead to bad decisions. They include: Waiting too long for others’ input. Faili…
Concentrate Better By Starting A Mindfulness Routine
Sometimes it feels impossible to stay focused at work. Mindfulness can help. Studies have shown that people who have a mindfulness routine are less distractible and better at concentrating. You can develop your own routine by scheduling three 10-minute…
Schedule Your Most Important Work for When You’re Most Focused
If you’re like most people, you struggle to maintain focus throughout the day. Maybe you’re distracted by your phone buzzing at your desk, or you can’t seem to stay off email and Facebook during meetings. Instead of beating yourself up, take steps to b…
Block Out Time for Solitude and Thinking
The volume of information and stimuli coming at us every day makes it more difficult to focus than ever. To do the careful thinking that decision making and leadership require, you must step back from the noise of the world. Schedule 15-minute breaks a…
The Tale Of Eeyore and Tigger
In the stories of Winnie The Pooh and his friends there are two diametrically opposed characters: Eeyore and Tigger. We all have Eeyores and Tiggers in our lives. The pessimist and the optimist, the two see every situation through their own perspective…
Know Your Data Source
There has been a lot of talk lately about data. Who is collecting it and how it is used have been discussed quite often. What hasn’t been discussed is if the data is accurate. Beyond showing an ad for something you looked at, how accurate is the …
Make Time for Strategic Thinking Every Day
If you believe that only senior executives need to think strategically, think again. No matter what level you’re at, strategic thinking is a critical skill — one that can always be improved. To hone your capacity to see the big picture, start by making…
Lessons From A Pre-Computer Business
We tend to forget that business existed before computers. Accounting, inventory, sales, etc. were all done with a pen and paper. I grew up in such a business. My grandmother ran a retail store. Not only didn’t she have a computer, she didn’…