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Don’t Let Causes Outweigh Your Data
It’s great for your company to support a cause, but you shouldn’t let that determine your products. Your products need to be driven by customer demand, not causes. Case in point: female empowerment. For many years women complained that there weren’t e…
Zen And The Art Of Cab Driving
In an episode of the classic sitcom “Taxi” titled “Zen and the Art of Cab Driving,” Reverend Jim transforms himself from the worst to the best cab driver in New York by practicing the “dynamic perfectionism” methods he overheard. Jim, typically in a h…
The Problem With Surveys
Surveys are a valuable tool for getting feedback. There are some big drawbacks, however, for you to consider before acting on the results of a survey. Survey respondents may not be giving you the whole truth. This was illustrated recently when a survey…
How Companies Can Profit From A “Growth Mindset”
Carol Dweck is a Stanford psychology professor,well known for her work on the power of mindsets to promote or discourage academic achievement and innovation. She’s famously seen an important distinction between people who view success as an outgrowth o…
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…