Whitepapers

The two keys to success when it comes to running an effective business are money and people. Organizations tend to recognize that money is important to running a successful business, but often times they fail to focus on the people side of the equation. Unfortunately when companies do consider the people side they often get it wrong. They use informal assessment techniques and often focus on the wrong…

If you’ve ever been in awe of someone who can put aside short-term gains in order to out-maneuver a strategic opponent in the long run, you’re not alone. As an ambitious, impulsive, hedonist who also enjoys a good big picture debate, it’s hard for me to imagine how my own insatiable interest in maximizing gains could ever possibly get in the way of my ability to succeed. But then…

Among the various core ingredients of talent and career success, few personal qualities have received more attention in the past decade than emotional intelligence (EQ), the ability to identify and manage your own and others’ emotions. Importantly, unlike most of the competencies that make it into the HR zeitgeist of buzzwords, EQ is no fad. In fact, thousands of academic studies have demonstrated…

Most people think of leadership as a vocation, but it’s really a psychological process—namely, the process of influencing others to put aside their self-serving agendas and cooperate for the common good of a group. Companies are just bigger, more organized groups than those groups where our earliest ancestors first developed the psychological patterns we still live with today. One reason…

Not everyone is going to think and act like you do. This might seem obvious, but you would be surprised how many leaders I see who get frustrated when their team members express differing views. One of the most critical skills of a good leader is empathy. Don’t confuse empathy with sympathy. Sympathy is sharing another’s feelings. Empathy is seeing and understanding where people are coming…