Why She Lost

My Inc.com post today, "Why She Lost," begins Why She Lost A two-part lesson in leadership we can all learn from Two glaring reasons explain Hillary Clinton's loss. We can all learn from them. First: Emotional Skills What makes someone a leader? More than anything else, they must motivate others to achieve a goal. Motivation means emotions. As carpenters work with saws and tools on wood, surgeons work with scalpels and their tools on the body, and plumbers work with wrenches on pipes, and leaders work with emotions on people. Read the rest at Why She Lost.

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Marshall Goldsmith: How to Become More Than Just No. 1

My second Inc.com piece from last Monday, "Marshall Goldsmith: How to Become More Than Just No. 1," began Marshall Goldsmith: How to Become More Than Just No. 1 Faced with the challenge of nowhere to go but down, Marshall Goldsmith offers the world his wisdom, and keeps going up Successful leaders know how to keep leading. We can learn from them. Inc. has written about Marshall Goldsmith many times. He writes here. With good reason: he's written #1 bestselling books, been named #1 leadership thinker, coached clients named #1 CEO, learned from other #1 leaders, and so on. That's a…

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How leaders get followers

My post on Inc.com today, "How Leaders Get Followers" begins How Leaders Get Followers Getting promoted or starting a venture so people get paid to do what you say doesn't make them followers. Here's what does. Most people think to become a leader, you just get promoted or start a venture until you have a team below you: the bigger the team, the more people reporting to you, the more of a leader you are. That's not leading, that's authority. They aren't necessarily following, they might just need the money your authority controls. Read the rest at How Leaders Get…

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Why This Ivy-League Physics PhD Teaches Leadership, Not Science

My Inc.com article today, "Why This Ivy-League Physics PhD Teaches Leadership, Not Science," begins Why This Ivy-League Physics PhD Teaches Leadership, Not Science The world's big problems come from our behavior. Science doesn't change behavior. Leadership does. Another week of hot, humid summer weather (sorry Australia) means more freezing offices where I have to bundle up. Might as well learn a lesson from it in the differences between science, engineering, and leadership. I got my PhD in physics from Columbia. But I teach leadership now. Here's why I moved away from teaching science. Read the rest at Why This Ivy-League…

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A Leadership Lesson From Nelson Mandela (Happy Birthday)

My Inc.com post yesterday, "A Leadership Lesson From Nelson Mandela (Happy Birthday)" began A Leadership Lesson From Nelson Mandela (Happy Birthday) Nelson Mandela, perhaps the greatest leader of our time, would have turned 98 last week. Here is an example of him leading his jailers on his way to becoming President. Happy birthday Nelson Mandela, arguably the greatest leader of our time. He would have turned 98 last week. He led as a human, through empathy, compassion, and understanding, not authority. In fact, his political opponents had far more authority, resources, weapons, money, and everything. Yet he led them. Don't…

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There Are 2 Kinds of Inspiration. If You Want to Inspire, Better Know Both.

My Inc.com post yesterday, "There Are 2 Kinds of Inspiration. If You Want to Inspire, Better Know Both." begins: There Are 2 Kinds of Inspiration. If You Want to Inspire, Better Know Both. Some leaders inspire a nation to sacrifice to get to the moon. Others to buy steak knives. Both work, as long as you don't confuse them. Everyone feels inspired in late December to get fit. Then, come Valentines Day, the gyms are empty. Yet Martin Luther King inspired people to march, boycott, and go to jail for years. At some point, everyone has felt inspired to set…

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Habits Are Contagious. How to Make The Science Work for You.

My Inc.com article today, "Habits Are Contagious. How to Make The Science Work for You." began Habits Are Contagious. How to Make The Science Work for You. Research finds that we transmit habits like diseases, or like cures. How to use that insight to make the habits you want stick. Studies show that quitting smoking and losing weight spread through networks like diseases do. Many other behavioral changes work similarly. If you lead, you change behavior in yourself and others. You may find changing teams may change someone's behavior more than trying to change them directly. Here's relevant research: From…

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Breakthrough Science on Leadership and Why You Shouldn’t Read This Article

My Inc.com article yesterday, "Breakthrough Science on Leadership and Why You Shouldn't Read This Article" began Breakthrough Science on Leadership and Why You Shouldn't Read This Article How great leaders who never learned leadership from science, books, or classes became great. As a leader, entrepreneur, and professor, I used to enjoy TED talks and learning about frontier science. Do you feel, watching them, like I felt: "This is forefront stuff. Since most people don't know it, I can use it to get ahead!"? Same with Malcolm Gladwell books: "He knows breaking research. When I know it too, I'll have an insight to get ahead."…

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Despite What Harvard Says, You Don’t Need a Crucible

My Inc.com post, "Despite What Harvard Says, You Don't Need a Crucible" begins Despite What Harvard Says, You Don't Need a Crucible While some have become leaders by overcoming great challenges, don't believe the myth that you need to. In September 2002, Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas wrote in Harvard Business Review's, Crucibles of Leadership, In interviewing more than 40 top leaders in business and the public sector over the past three years, we were surprised to find that all of them--young and old--were able to point to intense, often traumatic, always unplanned experiences that had transformed them and had become the sources of their distinctive leadership abilities. We…

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One Way Science and Business Don’t Match

My Inc.com post today, "One Way Science and Business Don't Match" begins One Way Science and Business Don't Match Learning facts about leading doesn't teach you to lead. Practice does. I stopped reading Daniel Pink's bestseller Drive before chapter 1. I bet it's entertaining, but if you read it to improve yourself and your career, it helps less than you think. Not to single-out Drive. I'm only using it to illustrate what a big category of books, TED talks, and others do, that people think help more than they probably do. Read the rest at One Way Science and Business…

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What You Can Learn from the Best Leader in America’s Bold Job Interview Strategy

My Inc.com article today, "What You Can Learn from the Best Leader in America's Bold Job Interview Strategy" begins What You Can Learn from the Best Leader in America's Bold Job Interview Strategy Interviewing for the job that brought her national prominence, she prepared and behaved differed from most standard advice, but was incredibly effective. Of those responsible the Girl Scouts camping out on the White House lawn, Frances Hesselbein may have been the most important. As the CEO of the Girls Scouts from 1976 to 1990, she helped turn the organization around, tripling minority enrollment, and increasing their focus…

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Have a Great Plan? Without Answering These 2 Questions You Don’t.

My Inc.com article today, "Have a Great Plan? Without Answering These 2 Questions You Don't." begins Have a Great Plan? Without Answering These 2 Questions You Don't. Plans are easy. Executing them is harder and takes a lot longer--and not for what you can plan for. Here's how to prepare for the unexpected. A client showed me his ambitious plan for professional development. It showed he had developed a lot, learned his values, learned what he was capable of, set high standards, and listed many SMART goals. He also said it would entail more than an hour a day every day for…

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Six Lessons I Learned at Lunch With the Best Leader in America

My post on Inc.com today, "Six Lessons I Learned at Lunch With the Best Leader in America," begins Six Lessons I Learned at Lunch With the Best Leader in America Experience trumps everything in leadership and she has more than you do. From the Girl Scouts to the White House. Is Alan Mulally, former CEO of Ford, whose stock price went up 18 times under his watch, a fair judge of good leadership? How about Peter Drucker, the "founder of modern management"? How about Marshall Goldsmith, named the #1 leadership thinker in the world in 2015? If we can accept them as reasonable judges, they all named…

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America’s Best Leader Doesn’t Waste Time in Airports. Why Are You?

My Inc.com article yesterday, "America's Best Leader Doesn't Waste Time in Airports. Why Are You?" began America's Best Leader Doesn't Waste Time in Airports. Why Are You? Business class and travel apps exist for a reason: because traveling is awful. If the most effective leaders can do more while traveling less then so can you. Ask someone at home about travel and they may think of the Eiffel Tower, but traveling is more like long lines at dirty, intrusive airports, traffic congestion, and wasted time. Plus your flying causes more pollution than nearly any other activity. Why do you think…

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Hope Is For Losers. Here’s What Winners Have Instead.

My Inc.com story yesterday, "Hope Is For Losers. Here's What Winners Have Instead." begins Hope Is For Losers. Here's What Winners Have Instead Mainstream society values hope. If you're in business, relying on hope means you've nearly failed and you should know why. In a scene in the great TV show Cheers where Sam is down on his luck, Diane says in a chipper tone to cheer him up, "At least you still have your health." Everyone at the bar -- Norm, Cliff, Woody, etc -- suddenly groans, like they just saw a puppy die. "What? What did I say?"…

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“How to Break Rules and Succeed Like Kobe Bryant”

My Inc.com piece today, "How to Break Rules and Succeed Like Kobe Bryant," begins How to Break Rules and Succeed Like Kobe Bryant Kobe Bryant polarized and broke rules most of us can't, yet earned admiration and support. Why can some people break rules, yet get support? The LA Times called Kobe Bryant "the most polarizing figure in the history of L.A. sports." He spoke out against his team. He publicly quarreled with his teammate. These are transgressions that could end many people's career's, no matter how talented. Yet Kobe leaves the game admired and supported. Why can he break…

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“Resilience: What The New York Times, New Yorker and Most of Academia Got Wrong” (My Inc. story)

My latest Inc.com story "Resilience: What The New York Times, New Yorker and Most of Academia Got Wrong" begins Resilience: What The New York Times, New Yorker, and Most of Academia Got Wrong If you want to be resilient, not just know about resilience, research and the media won't help you. [the story starts with a picture of an athlete covered in mud, struggling to make it] You're covered in mud, exhausted, bruised, and have a long way to go. Disaster or glory? Any leader or entrepreneur knows it's how you look at it. The active among us find ways…

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My Inc. post: Trump: Why Voters Love Him and What You Can Learn From Him (Even If You Hate Him)

My Inc. post today, "Trump: Why Voters Love Him and What You Can Learn From Him (Even If You Hate Him)," begins Trump: Why Voters Love Him and What You Can Learn From Him (Even If You Hate Him) Love him or hate him, he's effective at something and you can learn what works from his technique. An example confusing people trying to understand Donald Trump: the picture above shows him speaking on Pearl Harbor Day, yet he "dodged Vietnam War through medical deferment, not high draft number as he claimed." He's belligerent and hawkish yet has a "history as dove." Still he…

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Inc.com Today: 2 Questions To Ask in Every Interview So They’ll Want You Back (Video)

My post today on Inc.com, “2 Questions To Ask in Every Interview So They'll Want You Back,” begins: Instead of trying to show off, making you look like a commodity, use these techniques to make interviews two-way conversations where they'll want you back. Isn't that what you want from an interview? If you want one thing most from an interview, you want the interviewer to want you back. If you want a second thing, you want to know if you want to work there--do you like the people, the culture, and everything else about working there. What not to do in…

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Inc.com Today: How to Build the Best Relationships With Both Leaders and Superiors

My post today on Inc.com, “How to Build the Best Relationships With Both Leaders and Superiors,” begins: Misunderstanding how we like helping others holds many back from building relationships with leaders and superiors. Getting their help can advance you. You get that meeting with that decision-maker/founder/CEO/titan/guru/expert who can make your project happen. You've dreamed of this chance for years. How do you interact with this person? If you're like most people, you treat them deferentially, meaning you show respect. You don't ask too much of them. After all, they're doing you a favor, right? I suggest avoiding this strategy, however natural…

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Inc.com Today: Why You Should Never Let Anyone Call You ‘Smart’ in Business

My post today on Inc.com, "Why You Should Never Let Anyone Call You 'Smart' in Business" begins: Intelligence is good so entrepreneurs should like being called smart, right? Wrong. People call you smart when you have nothing they care about more. Look at who doesn't care if you're smart in business: Customers value products and services that solve their problems. Employees want to pay their rent and enjoy their jobs. Suppliers want to get paid. But the big concern is investors. Read the rest at the site: Why You Should Never Let Anyone Call You 'Smart' in Business

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