Can You Handle The Pressure Of The First Time?
Have you ever felt pressure to produce, even when you know you’ve got what it takes? I was just talking with a friend of mine—Bruce—who is also, like me, an amateur musician. Don’t get me wrong—we’ve...
View ArticleThis Simple Question Can Help You Conquer Your Pressure
Have you ever felt overwhelmed when you’re under pressure? I know—stupid question, right? Of course you’ve felt overwhelmed under pressure! The two kind of go hand in hand. That’s because when you’re...
View ArticleAre You Making This Hidden Leadership Mistake?
My piano is being tuned as I’m writing this. Don’t get me wrong…it didn’t sound out of tune. But it’s a valuable instrument, and I care about it. So I get it tuned twice a year, without fail. Now, I...
View ArticleWhy You Need To Stretch Yourself As A Leader
I’m currently learning a new piece on the piano (Bumble Boogie by Jack Fina). It’s a challenge for me because, 1) it requires a fair amount of technique, 2) it’s fast, and 3) I’m not very good at the...
View ArticleHow To Conquer The Vicious Cycle Of Impostor Syndrome
I’m going to let you in on a secret. But before I do, I need to give you some facts: Fact One: I’ve won 29 Emmy Awards for my work in television. Fact Two: I led my team to more than 100 Emmy Awards of...
View ArticleHow To Be A Leadership Development Rock Star
Spoiler Alert: We’re all going to die. Not today (hopefully). But sometime. And when that time comes, many of us—many leaders—will have retired from our work. Which begs the question: Where will the...
View ArticleWhy You Need To Be Encouraging Bad Ideas
According to the traditional rules, I could never run for public office. Not that I want to run for public office. I don’t! I’d be terrible at it. But my point is that, according to the traditional...
View ArticleTo Be More Effective, Simplify Your Message
“The confused mind says no.” You’ve heard this before, right? It means that, when faced with too many options, the brain doesn’t make any decision and simply shuts down. This is why you will often see...
View ArticleAre You Ready For Your Emergency Landing?
“Your engine just quit. Where are you going to land?” The voice came from the right-hand seat—the co-pilot’s seat. Sounds dramatic, right? Actually, it was quite routine. The person in the right-hand...
View ArticleThe #1 Question Your Team Is Asking When Under Pressure
“Is it safe?” If you’ve ever seen the movie Marathon Man starring Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier, you know just how scary this question can be. It can be a scary question for your team as well...
View ArticleThe 3 Magic Questions To Unlock Your Creative Thinking
Your business is dying. Okay, that may not technically be true. It was meant to be a “grabber.” That said, it might be true. You see, any business that isn’t continually coming up with creative...
View ArticleWhy Your External Pressure Is Really Internal Pressure
You’ve felt the pressure, haven’t you? There’s the clock. Just hanging up there on the wall, silently mocking you with its impending deadline. There’s your team, watching you, judging you, wondering if...
View ArticleThese Five Traits Will Make You A More Creative Thinker
Quickly now—what do these things all have in common: The iPhone The Taj Mahal Gluten-free bread Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band The Golden Retriever Give up? They are all outcomes of creative...
View ArticleWhy You Need To Let The Blocks Fall Down Go Boom
I think my friend Steve made a mistake. Steve was a high school friend of mine. Unlike me, he chose to breed just a few years after high school. I remember visiting him when his first-born was maybe...
View ArticleThe Joy of Deadlines (for Fun and Profit)
In the early days, I would panic. Friday night. The day before show day. 24 hours from now every seat in the TV studio will be filled, and a million more viewers will be watching the show on...
View ArticleWhy Fixing a Problem Isn’t Always the Best Solution
“Let it go!” That was the sole message of an acclaimed keynote speech that my colleague Joe Calloway delivered at the annual convention of the National Speakers Association some years ago. Let it go....
View ArticleWhat It Really Takes for You to Be in the Hall of Fame
This is going to sound like bragging (because, let’s be honest—it is), but I was recently inducted into the Professional Speaker Hall of Fame. It’s kind of a big deal in my industry, because there are...
View ArticleHow to Win Against Your Competition
I’ve been doing homework for the past week or so. I’ve been doing homework because in a little over a week, I’ll be attending a business development workshop, and the workshop leader gave us the...
View ArticleHow to Be the Idea Person on Your Team
Are all of your dots the same color? I talk about dots a lot. That’s because dots are the key to innovation, creativity, and breakthrough thinking. Most people get this wrong. They think that...
View ArticleYou Don’t Have to Change the World to Be an Innovator
If I were to ask you to name an innovation, what would you say? The iPhone? The Tesla? The Internet? Maybe not any of those three. But the odds are that whatever you name would be a biggie. Something...
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