Tag: Self-Development

Research: Anger is a blessing. (About time)

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Yes!  More new research moving in my direction.  If I live long enough, all my flaws are sure to be corrected.  I’m cursed with a short-fuse genetic construct.  It has created any number of personal and professional “situations.”  So, when I came across this recent post from PSYBLOG: The Upside of Anger – Six Psychological Benefits of Getting Mad – I decided to cut myself just a bit of slack as this may just be a blessing (when used in appropriate situations and in moderation).  I was particularly surprised at Benefit #2 (Research finds that Angry people more optimistic).  Here’s are few excerpts from the post:

Continue reading “Research: Anger is a blessing. (About time)” →

One day at a time, one person at a time, one action at a time…

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Thank you Nicholas Bate…when I come across your work.  I stop, I pause, I focus, I read. I think.  I think.  I think.  I think…

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40 Years of Nudity…

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man with barrelLen Waldron is a colleague and friend.  I had come to know Len during some dark days for our industry.  And we’ve all heard the line – you get to know someone when the going gets tough.  Len is a good man.

Len is an avid outdoors enthusiast and a writer on the subject. Check out his website at www.waldronpond.com.  (No worries…I don’t get any royalties of any type for producing this blog or referring Len’s site.  I just think it’s cool…and his writing is exceptional.)

Given that one leg of my Lead.Learn.Live blog is LEARN, I’ve asked Len to share his thoughts on the subject.

Here are Len’s 10 “naked lessons re-learned by a repetitively-flawed human who should have done better…”

Enjoy!

40 Years of Nudity…

Confessions from the Cusp of Middle Age

By Len Waldron

I don’t turn forty until October, but as my mother bore me in a normal way, I have been at least a zygote or better, for forty years. Many women in my life (my wife and mother included), and a few men, have characterized me as ‘stubborn.’ I fear they are correct. I have white-knuckled notions that I should have discarded and hard-headed my way down paths that were less-than-productive. Why nudity? Because naked is how I feel when I make mistakes that I have been advised against. Mistakes of ignorance are simply life, and if in your soul you know that you didn’t know better, it’s easier to mark-up a mistake as a lesson. The naked mistakes are those where someone, likely older or at least wiser, passed on some bit of advice that got ignored. In those moments, I feel naked. A repetitively-flawed human who should have done it better…and the whole world is watching. I’ll spare you the actual disrobings, but the following is a testimonial of ten naked lessons I had to re-learn (often more than once) over forty years, and dedicated to those who tried to warn me.

Continue reading “40 Years of Nudity…” →

Strive For Results, Not The Accolades…

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Source: NY Times – An Interview with John Donovan, Chief Technology Officer of AT&T

Great interview.  John Donovan certainly exemplifies the 7 mindsets of the most trusted professionals in this interview (See prior post: “Are You A Professional?”).  The article also did grab my attention early when he mentioned he was a former hockey player.  🙂  A few of my favorite excerpts below.

Q. What were some early leadership lessons for you?
A. “…if there’s a situation where someone else needs to lead, and it’s working, that is A-O.K. I don’t feel a burning need to be in charge, and I don’t feel that it’s a bad thing to follow when the right things are getting done. So in some respects, I don’t have the innate drive that certain people have about control and ownership and leadership.”

“…The first thing I noticed very quickly early on was that hard work is central to what you do, and that’s not any magic or science. I said, “Well, if I start today, and I outwork everybody, then the only question is the starting point.” So I figured that if I work really hard I can be in the top 5 percent in any field. It just gave me some comfort to say, O.K., I’m going to do fine financially, so I shouldn’t make decisions based on money. My objective should be to gain the broadest set of experiences I can, and just try to drill deep everywhere I can. And so I played the game for breadth. Early in my career, I bought businesses, fixed them and sold them. Some went well; some didn’t. I did some home development. I was in sales. I went back to business school. A lot of people work hard to get ahead, and I recognized early on that it’s a differentiator. I just figured that there was a certain amount of this that’s just raw tonnage.” Continue reading “Strive For Results, Not The Accolades…” →

Book Review: Leadership & Self-Deception. Highest Rating: 5*. Game/Life Changer.

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I highly recommend this powerful little book to leaders and non-leaders in all walks of life.  I’ve given it the highest 5* Amazon rating for reasons outlined below.

Leadership and Self Deception was originally published in 2000 and has become an international bestseller with over 750,000 copies sold & translated into 22 languages.  This book was the #1 reading list recommendation of a new blogger that I am following regularly: Manage Better Now – A Common Sense Guide To Becoming a Better Manager.  The publisher describes the book as an “international word-of-mouth phenomenon selling more copies each year than were sold in the first four years after publication.”  I had never heard of this book previously but now I understand why Manage Better Now recommends it highly and why this book is a word-of-mouth phenomenon.

In the spirit of “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” Manage Better Now has also inspired me to add Suggested Reading lists to my blog as a number of followers have asked about my favorite books.  (See right hand side of my Blog’s Home Page below Blog Roll and Reading Now).  I’ve added this book to my top recommendations in the Personal Development and Leadership/Management categories.

Here’s my overview of the book: Continue reading “Book Review: Leadership & Self-Deception. Highest Rating: 5*. Game/Life Changer.” →