Show me a company (or family, town, or country) in trouble and I’ll show you a company whose leaders failed to heed emotional cues. Long before the trouble started, leaders had clear signs that could have helped them steer toward success. It’s not that they made one bad, fateful decision. They regularly bypassed signals that […]
We’ve grown up thinking that feeling bad means that there is something wrong with us, them, or the situation and that this something wrong needs to be dealt with or avoided. Here’s a common example: We feel tense thinking about a critically important, upcoming meeting. We tell ourselves something like, “Oh, boy. This might not go well.” We […]
In a way, we can say that we are all psychic. We can usually read each other’s emotions quite accurately. We may not believe this. We may ignore what we sense. It’s true nonetheless. When we lead (with or without title), influence, or sell, people react to us based on how we are feeling in […]
To be a Pollyanna is to be irrepressibly positive amidst the realities of life. Those who haven’t figured it out yet use the term pejoratively. They say, “Face the realities of life! Don’t try to pretend everything is great when it clearly is not. Don’t be such a Pollyanna.” And we say, “Of course we […]
People know how you feel about them. Even if you try to hide it. They can feel whether you respect and trust them or are going through the motions. And they will consistently respond to you according to how you judge them. If they sense disrespect or lack of trust, they will get defensive and […]
How do you feel right now? What thoughts are going through your mind that have you feeling that way? What one thought can you think that will feel better without engaging disbelief? In your corner, Mike PS: Yes, it is as simple as that.
How do you decide something? You may take the reasonable approach. You gather data, make lists of pros and cons, get other people’s perspective, or look for precedents. These are all good, even necessary. And they are not enough. You may take the emotional approach. You go with your gut, leave your fate to Chance, […]
“How are you doing?” “How are you feeling?” “How’s it going?” Though these questions are part of our common greetings to each other, they are also an unusually important questions to consider more deeply. That’s because how you feel, how you’re doing, how it’s going–in short, your mood–dramatically affects your success. Your mood is the sum of […]