Failure can be a powerful teacher—if you process it carefully and wring all the juice out of it. Here are 5 steps for turning failure to your advantage.

Some tasks you don’t enjoy or do well. But that can change with 4 strategies for developing your passion and proficiency for any kind of work.

In early 2002, I was the general manager of Nelson Books, one of Thomas Nelson Publishers’ fourteen divisions. In eighteen months, we had gone from number 14—dead last—to number one in terms of revenue growth and profit margin. I felt great. I was proud of myself and my team for the results we’d achieved. That […]

Many companies are struggling with the question of in-person vs. remote work. Here are the benefits of both, and a third way to consider.

Leaders should only be in the first and last 10% of any project. Here’s how to take back the middle 80%, so you can focus on high-leverage work.

If you’ve fallen behind on a goal you hoped to achieve, you’re in good company. You still have agency in this story. To rescue your goals, start by considering these 4 simple steps.

It really is possible for business owners to build a self-scaling company without their constant involvement. Here’s how.

The Full Focus Planner is a tool that brings transformation. Here’s how business owners can leverage it to make progress toward their vision.

Most leaders are born problem solvers. But if we’re not careful, we misdiagnose most problems. Here are 3 elements that help you solve any business issue.

Follow these 5 steps to develop a clear, compelling view of the future without talking yourself out of it before you start.

Success in a time of disruption is about being proactive rather than reactive. Here is a 4-step process for working through a crisis.

I have worked with authors for more than three decades. Based on my observations, here are 7 characteristics that separate the highly successful ones from the others.

Writing your goals down is one of the most important actions you can take to obtain the life you want. Sadly, most people don’t do it. Here are five why reasons you should.

The Coca-Cola Company’s own website admits that it was probably “a day that will live in marketing infamy.” On April 23, 1985, Coke Chairman and CEO Roberto Goizueta announced to 200 reporters that the company would be changing its formula. It would be still be called Coca-Cola, but this “New Coke” would taste better and […]

The road sign in my home state of Washington read: “Litter and it will hurt.” I didn’t think twice about it, but our guests from nearby Vancouver, British Columbia, mouthed the slogan out loud and could hardly believe their ears. They were traveling with us to a birthday party of a mutual friend. “Of all […]

“Don’t rush me, sonny! You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles,” warned Billy Crystal, costumed up as Miracle Max in the 1987 classic The Princess Bride. In the movie, that was a laugh line, but it’s not a bad way to think about the decisions you make as a leader. For every decision that […]

The Wharton-educated bank executive quits weekend bird-watching excursions after missing a prothonotary warbler (rare orange and yellow-headed songbird) sighting. The tenured physics professor storms out of the kitchen because her batch of gazpacho soup turned out a tad too peppery. First-world problems, to be sure. But they’re also the type of increasingly common complaints hyper-accomplished professionals […]

As a kid who wasn’t allowed to watch television, the focus of my childhood was play. The games are too many to count. There was, for example, a little girl who lived in mirrorland and would possess me if I accidentally touched that shiny, reflective surface at night. She scared the heck out of my […]

Winston Churchill once wrote that “The cultivation of a hobby and new forms of interest is therefore a policy of first importance”. He knew this well. Even as he warned the world about the threat of totalitarian regimes and led Britain during the Second World War, the statesman crafted many of his more than 500 […]

You already know that busywork does nothing more than create the perception that people are working harder than they really are. In fact, 65 percent of your colleagues surveyed by Havas Worldwide felt that people were simply pretending to be busy. Nor does busywork make you or your company more productive. What you get instead […]

Timothy Wiedman was once a top regional manager for a national retail photofinishing company. He worked hard. Thanks to the company’s “use it or lose it” vacation policy, he made sure to play hard as well. Wiedman’s only requirements before jetting off to some faraway locale? Delegate critical tasks to subordinates, make his boss aware […]

The long-running debate on the value of working remotely has been rendered moot, at least for now, by the coronavirus. Pundits and consultants have debated whether it’s good or bad for productivity and morale. Regardless, the need to have teams work from home has been thrust upon many businesses by the current health crisis. The […]

Emily wanted to work in marketing. She was young and had no experience. She’d skipped college and used a portfolio of work and a Praxis apprenticeship to win a spot on the Customer Success team of a growing startup. But her goal was still marketing. She aimed right at it and started asking people in […]

One of the critical differences between military and civilian organizations is that most military organizations can only simulate their wartime missions in peacetime, and must therefore conduct training which seeks to mimic combat conditions as closely as possible. This is not something that most civilian organizations do with their more high-pressure tasks. The thinking behind […]