The recognition of failure is a moment of success. What failures-in-progress are we engaged in? Democracy is failing because it’s based on the false assumption that the majority of the electorate is aware and informed, whereas the truth is that the most aware and intelligent people are always a minority. Plato and Aristotle knew this…
First, my next live course, Light and Shadow Themes begins this Thursday June 23 and runs an hour per week for eleven weeks. I’d love to have you join us. Also, recently released on my podcast is a series on the root of responsibility issues that pairs nicely with this article. After coaching for twenty years, I am struck…
The Art of Asking Questions: Curiosity, Listening, and Intuition course begins live on Zoom this Thursday, March 31 2022 at 11:15 am PT. Most people think they are curious, but as I say so often, it’s not useful to make conclusions about oneself. Instead, be curious about where you’re incurious. The result of incuriousness is stagnation,…
The governing dynamic of change, I assert, is reaching a dead-end. We are all familiar with the concept of “hitting bottom,” but only those who’ve been there truly appreciate its power. Hitting bottom isn’t just for alcoholics, where the term is used widely in AA. It’s for all of us. The reason all of us…
Why should people want to work for you? At one time in the company’s history, Zappos had a wild feature they used to ensure engagement of new recruits. They called it, “The Offer.” Following the four-week training period, they offered new employees a $2,000 check to quit. You read that right. The late Tony Hsieh,…
The mess the United States is in right now began over 500 years ago, with the invention of the printing press. If you let me explain (this is a long one!), you’ll gain a profound metaperspective that makes sense of what appears crazy, but isn’t. I find great peace in that and perhaps you will,…
Happy New Year! I hope your holidays were joyous. I’ve got an article today that will help you level up your power. Related, I want to first announce the upcoming live course, Claiming Self-Authority: Access to Authentic Power, which begins January 7, 2021. If you’ve considered becoming a member and want to start 2021 powerfully, this is an opportunity.…
A while back I wrote about the Backfire Effect. The effect, in short, is that when we receive information that doesn’t support what we want to believe, we tend to double down on the false belief. Recently about 70 million people in the U.S. voted for Donald Trump and many suffer from the Backfire Effect. It’s…
I was bullied a lot as a kid, and I want to tell you a story about power. Seventh grade had just ended. Even more than the summer sun, freedom and excitement filled the air, but not for me. I quietly sat on the bus home, harassed yet again by who we’ll call Z. Z…
This article is about management, racism, and change. I once had a client who complained that his people couldn’t be trusted to perform. “What happens when they make mistakes?” I asked. “We retrain them,” he answered. “What does that mean?” I persisted. “Their manager goes over the process with them,” he said. “But don’t they already…