Answering the front door one day, my immediate thought was, “What is he going to try to sell me today?” The salesman used his influence as he held out a small plastic vial and said, “I will only ask for two minutes and two ounces… of your tap water, please.” Well, he was courteous and …
3 Ingredients to Communicate Change
We All Handle Change Differently Some of us deal with change better than others, but the key to remember is that change doesn’t just happen. We all deal with it. As the leader, you need a simple method for helping your team deal with changes they need to address. What you say to them will …
4 Messaging Approaches for Data Analysts
“Why are my leaders always questioning my data results?” This was the question from my data analytics student and he was frustrated. So, I asked him, “What do you mean? Can you give me an example?” “Sure. Every time I give them the test results and I tell them what the results mean, they start …
Want to be More Creative? Try this…
I was holding the marker, standing at the whiteboard and waiting for someone to give me an idea to write down… but they didn’t. They were tapped out. My students had just come up with about 20 ideas and were fresh out of material at this point. Have you been there? When you’re at this …
Three Tools to Make Better Decisions
We make decisions all day long. Some are simple (froot loops or cheerios?) while others can be quite complex (quit my job or stay?) Some internet sources say it could be as many as 35,000 per day, which obviously includes all the simple decisions. How can we get better at making the tough decisions without …
How to use the David-and-Goliath Story Template
Whether you’re Jewish, Christian or neither, you’ve probably heard the Biblical story of the shepherd boy destined to become a king. David was the shepherd boy who courageously accepted the fight-to-the-death challenge from the Philistine warrior Goliath, a man twice his size. It’s a classic tale of the underdog facing the champion. If you’ve heard …
How do you Influence Without Authority?
When I was young we used to find adventure on the new home sites at the end of our street. A big pile of dirt would quickly become a trophy centerpiece to do battle for the reigning title of “King of the Mountain.” If you’ve never played it before, every person tries their best to …
21 Inspiring Quotes for Leaders
I’ve always loved the wisdom found in a short statement. In keynote speaker terms, we call these “sticky statements.” If you’re speaking to an audience and you make a statement that causes everyone to write it down, you just gave them a sticky statement. As we’ve brought the first quarter of 2018 to a close …