(#10 in The Energy Bar series) Jim Blasingame (the Small Business Advocate) told me a great story about energy. At age 27, he landed a job in sales with Xerox. He met with the local head of a manufacturing … Read More..
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Why Don’t People Tell Their Bosses the Truth?
Thursday, May 7th, 2015(#9 in The Energy Bar series) There is one major reason why people don’t tell you the truth: they aren’t idiots. (You might want to write that down.) A senior manager in a small privately-owned company told me they would … Read More..
Adding Life to Conference Calls
Tuesday, April 28th, 2015(#8 in The Energy Bar series) Conference calls can be deadly, although they do provide great opportunities to increase your skills at Candy Crush and Spider Solitaire. People tune out when they don’t think they need to be tuned in. … Read More..
How Can I Tell if People Are Going to Support or Resist Me?
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2015(#7 in The Energy Bar series) Although The Energy Bar is a simple and practical tool — some people watch the three-minute video and put it to use immediately — others get stuck because they don’t know how to use … Read More..
How Gorillas and Parasols Mess Up Meetings
Monday, April 13th, 2015(#6 in The Energy Bar series) You may know this story: researchers asked groups to count how often a team passed the ball to other members of their own basketball team. Pretty simple. They knew how to count, so they … Read More..
How to Keep People Awake and Focused During Webinars
Wednesday, April 1st, 2015#5 in The Enregy Bar series As I write this, I am attending a webinar on how to conduct effective webinars! (Really, I am not making this up!). You can see that I am multi-tasking, which means that I am … Read More..
Stop Me Before I Talk Again
Tuesday, March 24th, 2015(#4 in The Energy Bar posts) Here’s a question for you. What’s the biggest thing that blocks your ability to influence others? The answer: your mouth. Years ago, as part of a planning group, I was talking passionately about the … Read More..
The Folly of Single-Minded Thinking
Monday, March 23rd, 2015My friend, Mary Lippitt, just published The Cost of Single-Mindedness in The Huffington Post. Building on the work of Daniel Kahneman (Thing Fast anf Slow), she explains why a single-minded approach is dangerous for leaders. She uses the letter from … Read More..
3 Questions You Might Be Afraid to Ask (and Why It’ll Cost You)
Friday, March 20th, 2015#3 in an occasional series on The Energy Bar (to see a short animated video, click here) An organization was facing a huge threat. They needed to make massive changes in order to survive. (Sound familiar?) I was asked to … Read More..
