Last week I wrote about how we are naturally drawn towards positive people because they inspire us. In nature, that’s called the “heliotropic effect,” which describes how plants grow or move towards sunlight. This week, I penned a similar piece, but this time from a leadership angle. I bet you can easily think of managers…
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In Support of Amy Cuddy and Power Posing
Wonder Woman kicks butt. She’s strong, principled, and makes people tell the truth with her golden lasso. When I was a kid, I watched the Linda Carter version on TV. She’s my favorite heroine, as evidenced by the many WW items adorning my home. When Harvard professor Amy Cuddy made news with her 2012 “power…
Finding Your Sunshine At Work
Every summer, I plant a small veggie garden in my Michigan backyard. Even though the location is too shady for some of the sun-loving plants, it’s the only place that works in our yard, so we (and by “we”, I mean both the plants and I) make do. This summer I experimented with the placement…
Are Unspoken Issues Creating Mischief on Your Team?
When the results of Google’s research on team effectiveness (called “Project Aristotle”) were revealed earlier this year, the conclusion was surprising: the best teams have just one thing in common. Factors such as clear goal-setting and team member dependability are certainly important, but they’re not what definitively sets great teams apart from their average counterparts….
Why Leaders Need to Understand the Difference between Influence and Manipulation
If you enact a leadership role, you have some measure of influence. And you also likely don’t see yourself as a manipulator. Do you know where influence stops and manipulation begins? Read on to learn what two prominent authors who’ve conducted extensive research on leadership and change management have to say about this important distinction….