The Siren's Seductive Call of Self-Sabotage If you know anything about copywriting, you know there is one golden rule. Never, ever, make the customer feel like the problem is their fault. This article is going to break the rules. I'm going to agitate you. Get under your skin. I expect some of you will rage quit smashing that 'X' and putting down your phone. Some ideas need to be shared. Some need to be challenged (hard) if we want to achieve our goals. Rationalization is running rampant. People have never been happier to let themselves off the hook than they are today. It's not all your fault.  The self-help industry is estimated to be worth $11.3B dollars a year. There are two key sales strategies to sell at scale. Take away someone's pain, or help them get what they desire. Self-improvement hits people on both fronts, you barely have a chance against the psychological warfare. What's their number one seller? It's not your fault, you tried your best. Wh...

  People hate to fail. We drive ourselves crazy trying to avoid it. The irony however, is that we are natural experimenters. Our ancestors started roaming the planet about 6 million years ago, modern form humans back 300,000 or so, with civilization starting about 6,000 years ago. The constant through all of that has been trying out new ideas, methods or activities. Do you know what happens when we experiment? We get things wrong. If We’re Built for Experimentation, Why Do We Hate It? While failure comes with experimentation, it has an unfortunate connection to our fundamental needs. Originally developed in the 1940s, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs helps us identify and rank core human requirements. Level one being were most of our trouble resides when thinking of failure. Biological and physiological needs — air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc. Our earliest memories set the stage for our future. We go to pre-school to succeed in kindergarten. From there we move through...

Dealing With the Discomfort of Decisions  T he inability to make a decision in the face of uncertainty is the greatest barrier that holds people back. We have created a world of judgement. We are afraid of how others will react and how they will view us. So we abstain. There’s nothing to judge if you follow with everyone else. I have been leading teams for over 15 years now. The most common developmental area that I have worked on with my teams is decision making. It’s easy to come up with reasons why you can’t make the call. Not enough information. Don’t have enough experience. Don’t have the authority. Do you know what the real reason is? Fear. It’s almost always fear. They just don’t want to make a mistake. That’s normal. We reward success and discipline mistakes. I have never chastised anyone on my team for making a decision, even if it was “wrong”. Making the decision is more important than them making the same choice I might have, or what the expectation would be. As long as ...

There was a point in my life when I prided myself on how much stress I could take. No matter what I was dealing with, I would take on more. It destroyed me. I have never been able to tolerate the same stress level since. I’m extremely thankful for that. Feedback is as gift that most people undervalue . No matter what you are doing, there is always a way to assess what is happening. Focusing on those cues, and developing my self-awareness has been vital to dealing everything in front of me. Cues These are personal. The patterns that I fall into are mine. We may share some, maybe even all of them, the point however is to identify the behaviours that are your response. These are some of my reactions to overload: Binge Eating This might seem obvious for you, it is for me as well. It is perhaps “more serious” for me. I used to be a lot bigger. Six years ago I lost a lot of weight and have been able to maintain my form.  I was successful because it came with a lot of understanding, a shi...

 Unlock the Benefit of Genuine Collaboration Technical capability is rarely why a team doesn’t succeed. Yet, technical capability is what a lot of managers focus on. The team isn’t performing well, so we look at the people. We review their skill-sets and compare them to one another. “If only I had another Bob — all of my problems would be solved.” Sometimes another Bob is the answer. Most of the time it’s not. Technical capability is easy enough to teach. You identify gaps in someone’s understanding, you work with them or use a training mechanism to get them more exposure and experience. Most things aren’t that complicated, and the internet is amazing for someone who wants to learn. Even with all the talent the Miami Heat had with the famous “big three”, they lost 50% of the time (4 consecutive finals — won 2, lost 2). Why Does Team Development Matter Teams are everywhere. It’s estimated that 90 percent of what we do at work happens through the collaboration of teams. The scary par...

 The Opportunity That Almost Everyone is Missing For the majority of the population, the 40 hour workweek is here to stay. I sit in the contribution/results camp vs clocking time. Forcing anyone to live by the ticker is a remnant of the past. Unfortunately my opinion won’t change the world. Have you ever thought about how much time you spend working?  How about you work 7.5h a day, meaning 37.5h per week. You are a little ahead of the filthy forty. Good for you. Before you start smiling, did you know that a 7.5h workday is 31% of your ENTIRE day. I’m being generous unfortunately. Remember you sleep 7h a night (you do sleep 7 hours a night right?) leaving you with 17 waking hours. With that new base, work now takes up a whopping 44% of your day. Gross. But wait, there’s more! It’s the roaring 2020s baby, let’s not pretend your nine to five is really all the work you do. Side hustle? A start-up? Gigwork?  Even sitting here now, writing this for you, do you classify th...

 How Measuring Differently Helps You Stand Out In a digital world, information is everywhere. At work, at home or at play, you have more access to information than ever. Use it. Below you will find some things I have learned leveraging data to keep making improvements in anything I do. Data is not something only for the office. When you realize how much information is out there, your world starts to change. Feedback is the secret to success. Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Tik Tok - they all provide services. The platforms and devices aren't the only reason their are winning. Data is their real advantage. It should be yours as well. Measure What Matters Whatever it is that you are about to do, if there is a path in front of that needs to grow or get better you HAVE to think about what to measure. Some of what you need to measure is easy to understand. These are the things that everyone else is doing. Those core key performance indicators that start the journey. Here are some examp...