Reminder: My next leadership seminar: This weekend at the New School

  This weekend! LEADERSHIP THROUGH SELF-AWARENESS AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE In a two-day seminar, learn how to develop your personal leadership skills, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence by utilizing the latest advances in cognitive behavioral science, evolutionary psychology, and positive psychology. The course is open to all area leaders, b-school students, alumni, and colleagues. Below are the dates of the courses and a link that you can follow to sign up. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. Schedule: Day One: Saturday, November 5, 2011  noon–5pm Day Two: Sunday, November 6, 2011 noon–5pm Top business schools and corporations…

Continue ReadingReminder: My next leadership seminar: This weekend at the New School

Reminder: My next two leadership seminars: October 23,30 and November 5,6 at the New School

  The next one is this weekend! LEADERSHIP THROUGH SELF-AWARENESS AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE In a two-day seminar, learn how to develop your personal leadership skills, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence by utilizing the latest advances in cognitive behavioral science, evolutionary psychology, and positive psychology. The course is open to all area business school students, alumni, and colleagues. In the past the seminars have sold out quickly, as such we are currently offering two courses.  Below you will find the dates of the courses and a link that you can follow to sign up. If you have any questions feel free to…

Continue ReadingReminder: My next two leadership seminars: October 23,30 and November 5,6 at the New School

Audio interview: sales lessons from a great failure

Spectacular failures teach us our most valuable lessons. In this interview, I talk about my first, and most painful, sales failure growth experience. I wanted to crawl under a rock and die, but the meeting crept on. Afterward I didn't want to continue in business, let alone do any sales. The word I was looking for at 2:38 was condescension, by the way. My business partner's perspective -- that you win some and you lose some; we didn't win this one but the next would be better -- changed my life for the better as one of the major steps…

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My next two leadership seminars: October 23,30 and November 5,6 at the New School

  LEADERSHIP THROUGH SELF-AWARENESS AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE In a two-day seminar, learn how to develop your personal leadership skills, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence by utilizing the latest advances in cognitive behavioral science, evolutionary psychology, and positive psychology. The course is open to all area business school students, alumni, and colleagues. In the past the seminars have sold out quickly, as such we are currently offering two courses.  Below you will find the dates of the courses and a link that you can follow to sign up. If you have any questions feel free to contact me. Schedule: (Note both sessions…

Continue ReadingMy next two leadership seminars: October 23,30 and November 5,6 at the New School

Business school’s first major lesson: how to resolve ethical dilemmas

One of my most important lessons from business school came before the first class began. It's been useful for me since. Columbia emphasizes ethics. Orientation included a class on ethics. The case was an employee who witnesses someone breaking a rule. Reporting it would potentially harm him and certainly someone else for something that may have been minor. Not reporting it would benefit himself, but at the cost of becoming complicit. The first thing I learned in this case (not the main lesson) was to understand the case as an instance of a general class of ethical dilemmas where a…

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Independence Day

It's still July 4th in the States as I'm writing this even though it's July 5th in Shanghai. Of all our national holidays, I value and celebrate Independence Day perhaps the most. By value and celebrate I don't mean I go to the biggest barbeque I can, though a couple years ago I went to an amazing July 4th party only being an alumnus of an ivy league business school or something similar can get you. And this year I had to pass on an invitation to a monster event with some crazy and amazing people for this trip to…

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Emotions, values, children, and school

At my niece's kindergarten graduation Friday the entire graduating class of four-and-five-year-olds sang a song with a chorus "I love America." The song was light-hearted and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. As a thoughtful person, I couldn't help think about what having a whole class sing the song meant. I enjoy playing with ideas and what better time to ponder education than at a graduation? I'll be the first to say the following is a tempest in a teacup. The interaction wasn't that big a deal, but this blog is about values and emotions, with the guiding principle that the…

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Leadership seminar at New York Academy of Sciences posted

The leadership development seminar I led in April at the New York Academy of Sciences has been posted as an e-briefing. Now you can see me speak where Einstein and Darwin did, or at least they were members. You have to be a member to see the video, but the academy has great events. I recommend joining. You do love science, don't you? Here's the overview of the e-briefing: Overview Leadership coach, entrepreneur, and former physicist Joshua Spodek spoke from a scientist's and entrepreneur's perspective on developing personal leadership skills. The two-day, eight-hour interactive seminar took place April 5 and…

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Leadership and personal development and school

In my seminar yesterday I mentioned "plays well with others" may be one of the most valuable skills in adulthood for team-based activities. Yet we treat it as a joke for children, or at best a euphemism implying the student in question doesn't do well academically. Have you ever learned something amazing while developing yourself as a leader or person and wondered why leadership and personal development isn't taught in school? School taught me valuable things like math, science, history, and so on. It vaguely addressed things like physical fitness. What didn't school teach? When I lead seminars on self-awareness,…

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My next leadership seminar: June 4 and 5 at the New School (jointly with Columbia Business School)

(Some details TBD, but mark your calendars. The room is beautiful and centrally located. Please contact me with any questions. I'll update details as they are determined.)   LEADERSHIP THROUGH SELF-AWARENESS AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE At a time when businesses and business schools seek to learn from designers and design schools seek to prepare "students to be leaders in their professions and society", cross-pollination between communities over common interests is as valuable as ever. Personal leadership skills, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence have emerged as common and fundamental to both communities. In a weekend, learn how to develop these skills using recent…

Continue ReadingMy next leadership seminar: June 4 and 5 at the New School (jointly with Columbia Business School)