Get Clear Information from Someone in the Know One of the hardest parts of any job is feeling like you are missing critical data you need. Sometimes that data is product and service-related and other times, it is personnel-related. Lately, it might be economy-related and you might not be sure you will have a job next week….
This Simple Trick Helps Organize Your Contacts As I have been getting to know the Jacksonville, FL, community, I have attended hundreds of networking events, and this community takes its networking seriously. At most events, people pass around their business cards, and often exchange cards while socializing or nibbling on appetizers. That’s where the two…
Fired Up! Employees Make A Huge Difference Moods spread between people faster than most leaders realize. A tense, negative person in the room changes how everyone else in that room thinks and performs, often within minutes. The more significant the relationship, the greater the impact: this is part of why a toxic manager or a…
Use Longer, Meaningful Testimonials for Impact We’ve all seen the phony sounding TV commercials with hackneyed phrases that don’t ring true. That is not good advertising. It turns us off. What is highly effective is the use of authentic customer testimonials which are highly specific about the value received. At Brightwork, my ad agency, we…
Minimize the Stress of Conflict with Better Communication So often when colleagues are disagreeing with each other, they rarely listen to what the other is saying. In today’s world, we are all so busy, it’s rare that people give each other their undivided attention. To help diffuse a potentially volatile situation, do the following for…
Get Fired Up By Handling Incompletions Right now, examine your life. How many projects are you working on simultaneously? How many books have you started and not finished? How about unfinished articles you are reading or writing? All of those are incompletions! Incompletions drain large amounts of energy and actually create stress. Anything from half-read newspaper…
Why Recovery Is a Leadership Responsibility My husband once came down with a severe cold after working long hours under sustained pressure. Like many professionals, he rarely took sick days. But this time, he tried to push through and simply could not. Twice he went to work, came home, and went straight to bed. He…
How you finish a presentation matters as much as how you begin. Whether you are delivering a 30-second introduction or a two-hour sales presentation, your closing moment shapes what people remember, how they feel, and whether your message lands. Presentation Tip: Finish with Energy and Intention I recently watched a speaker deliver a solid presentation….
Pistachios Calm the Body When Under Stress Who knew? A study done by Penn State documents that eating pistachio nuts calms the body while under acute stress. “A ten-year follow-up study of young men showed that those who had larger cardiovascular responses to stress in the lab, were more likely to contract hypertension later in…
One of the fastest ways leaders accumulate stress is by constantly reacting to other people’s timelines. Missed deadlines, last-minute requests, and repeated vendor issues create unnecessary pressure that feels out of your control. In most cases, the problem is not other people. The problem is the absence of a proactive system. Why Proactivity Reduces Leadership…