1: “Imagine we’re floating in a clear blue ocean—somewhere warm like Hawaii or Mexico,” Ron Shaich writes in his terrific book Know What Matters: Lessons from a Lifetime of Transformations.
“Waves are breaking and rolling toward the white, sandy beach,” Ron notes. “We know that’s where we are headed, so our ultimate destination is clear. And we know that any wave will take you to shore.
“But not just … continue reading
It was September 2022. Eliud Kipchoge set a new all-time world record for the marathon in Berlin.
“What many people do not know about one of the fastest marathoners in history is his habit of keeping a detailed diary,” Anne-Laure Le Cunff writes in Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World.
“This diary is not just a log of his physical training,” Anne-Laure notes, “it also … continue reading
1: Psychologist John Gottman can predict who will eventually get divorced a stunning 94 percent of the time.
In a pioneering 1992 study, John and his team interviewed fifty-two married couples.
They asked each couple “a variety of questions about how they met, why they decided to get married, and what changes their relationships had been through and observed them as they took part in a fifteen-minute discussion about a … continue reading
1: It was the early 1970s, and cognitive psychologist Virginia Valian was stuck.
She “found herself so paralyzed by work anxiety that she couldn’t write a word of her PhD thesis,” Oliver Burkeman writes in Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts.
Our lives can be shaped by what it is we are trying to avoid, Oliver observes. “We talk about … continue reading
1: Gay Hendricks had just delivered his first speech to a professional audience.
A man approached the podium and said, “I really enjoyed your talk. It wasn’t so much what you said but the way you said it,” Gay writes in his book The Genius Zone.
Gay had always been nervous about public speaking, so the compliment lit him up. “What did you like about the way I spoke?” … continue reading
1: “When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters – one represents danger and one represents opportunity,” John F. Kennedy once said.
Yesterday, we explored how the best CEOs create a small team of senior leaders to deal directly with the crisis. This prevents the CEO from becoming all-consumed by the situation and enables the rest of the organization to continue to get work done. … continue reading
1: Imagine being the captain of a battleship. A torpedo has hit the ship.
Now what?
“Send a portion of their crew to contain the hull breach,” Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra write in their book CEO Excellence.
The captain, however, “stays on the bridge, increases speed to full, and deploys the rest of the crew to keep fighting the war.”
The best CEOs take … continue reading
1: “To know a person well,” David Brooks writes in his book How to Know a Person, we “have to know who they were before they suffered their losses and how they remade their whole outlook after them. . .
“To know someone who has grieved, we have to know how they have processed their loss—did they emerge wiser, kinder, and stronger, or broken, stuck, and scared?”
Knowing how … continue reading
1: “Managers are thermometers, and leaders are thermostats,” Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra write in their book CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest.
Managers react to what happens. They solve problems and deal with the here and now. They measure things and report out results.
“Leaders influence their environment,” Carolyn, Scott, and Vikram write. ” They alter people’s … continue reading
1: The team is known as the “Dream Team.” The original version.
The 1992 US Men’s Olympic basketball squad had a roster for the ages, including Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Scottie Pippen, and Karl Malone.
“All were consummate professionals with a track record of not only being all-star players but also playing on all-star teams,” Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra… continue reading
