One unavoidable piece of advice today is be positive. We’re supposed to filter out supposed negativity in meetings, reports, and general conversation because we think positivity produces the results we want. Optimism is almost mandatory in some environments. As Dan Lovallo and Daniel Kahneman point out, critical feedback is discouraged and treated like disloyalty. “The […]

Norman Vincent Peale published The Power of Positive Thinking in 1952. But it’s only more recently that we’re learning about the destructive power of negative thinking. A few years ago, an author cornered me at a publishing conference to complain about his agent, gripe about his publicist, and grumble about his publisher. It was beyond […]