Imagine for a moment you are an NBA coach. 

Playing on your home court, your team has just won game five of the NBA championship.  You now lead the series 3-2.

You realize you will play the remainder of the series in the other team’s arena.  In front of the other team’s home fans.

Statistically, you know the team with home court advantage wins more than 75% of game sevens.… continue reading

“I don’t do companies that don’t have a story because if they don’t have a story, they don’t have a business,” says Lynda Resnick who along with her husband Stewart runs The Wonderful Company, a $2 Billion corporation with more than 4,000 associates and a diverse product line, including  Teleflora, FIJI Water, and POM Wonderful.

This week we are looking at some of the key lessons from Peter Guber’s … continue reading

What is the #1 reason executive candidates fail to win over prospective employers during job interviews?

Lack of preparation.

What?!?  That came as surprise to me.  

But it’s true, according to Korn Ferry Managing Director Bill Simon as shared by Peter Guber in Tell to Win.  This week we are continuing our exploration of the power of storytelling to achieve our personal and professional goals.

Perhaps it’s arrogance … continue reading

Creating masterpiece days is how we operationalize our highest goal of flourishing, Brian Johnson shares in his year-long Optimize Mastery course.  In future posts we will do a deeper exploration into this powerful idea, but today we start at the beginning.  The beginning of our day.  

Before we start our day, Brian recommends we create a “Carpe Diem journal.”  This practice takes less than five minutes and includes as few as nine … continue reading

This week we are exploring what it means to be heroic.  

This is the key learning from Brian Johnson’s year-long Optimize Mastery class.  Brian tells us our highest goal as human beings is to flourish.

How do we do that?

By living virtuously.  By expressing the best version of ourselves moment by moment.

Specifically, Brian recommends we focus on three areas of our lives: love, work, and energy.  

According to … continue reading

What is the one question to ask to help us to turn things around?

According to Brian Johnson, this question is our secret weapon.  He calls it the hero’s wand because it has the power to transform bad situations into something good.

What do I want?

Asking this question moves us from victim to creator.  We ask: If I could wave a wand at this challenge, what would I … continue reading

Yesterday we looked at heroic stamina: Instead of giving in, we get more committed.

We embody heroic presence: We show up with intensity. 

We practice the heroic mantra: Obstacles make me stronger.

We ask the heroic question: What’s the best possible response right now?

And…  Sometimes we don’t.

Sometimes we don’t do any of that.  We fall short.  

Now what?  Do we beat ourselves up?  Is something wrong with us?  

No.

Instead, … continue reading

When we feel our worst…

When things are not going our way…  

When life seems too much…

Instead of giving in…, 

We get more committed.

That’s called heroic stamina, Brian Johnson tell us.

The worse we feel, the more committed we are to flourishing, to expressing the best version of ourselves.

Brian calls this lesson the most important part of the work to be done in his year-long Optimize Mastery … continue reading

Think about last five people you interviewed for a job, Laszlo Bock suggests in his terrific book Work Rules!, about his time as Chief of People Operations at Google.

Did you give them similar questions or did each person get different questions?

Did you write up detailed notes so that other interviewers could benefit from your insights?

Did you hold them to exactly the same standard?

Did you cover … continue reading

The first 10 seconds of a job interview predict the outcome.

What?!?

In his book Work Rules!, longtime Google executive Laszlo Bock shares the results from a year 2000 study which showed initial impressions of a candidate based on a handshake and brief introduction correlated strongly to whom was recommended for hire and who wasn’t.

In the study, researchers videotaped real interviews.  “Slices were extracted from each interview, beginning … continue reading