The 86 Best Days Of The Year To Get A Fresh Start And Help You Stick To Your Goals
By the time you read this, chances are you've given up on your New Year's resolution or it's fading fast. By the eighth day in January, 25 percent of people who made resolutions have failed to keep them. By the end of year, fewer than 10 percent of...
Story Is A Powerful Contagion That Can Fight The Flu
Facts and data are not enough to convince people to take action, especially if that action requires getting poked in the arm with a needle to protect themselves from the flu. What does work to change minds is the subject of today’s column. The 2017-2018...
How Ideas Go Viral According To This Nobel Prize-Winning Economist
To study narrative is to examine ourselves. We think in story, process our world through the lens of story, and use storytelling to communicate ideas. One prominent economist believes that stories are the heart of human behavior. He says to understand the...
Turn Good Presentations Into Great Ones By Following This One Rule
Steve Jobs was a master showman. In my opinion, Jobs was the best business storyteller of our time. Every product launch was brilliantly performed. Every move, demo, image and slide was in sync and beautifully choreographed. If I sound like I'm describing...
The One Leadership Skill That Turned The 12 Horse Soldiers Into An Elite Team
In October, 2001, small teams of American soldiers on horseback defeated thousands of Taliban fighters because the soldiers were trained in one critical leadership skill: Persuasion. In a scene from the movie 12 Strong, an Afghan general who linked up with...
The Reason Why Alabama’s Football Coach Only Gave His Players 24 Hours To Celebrate Will Help You Succeed
Alabama football coach Nick Saban gave himself and his Crimson Tide team a well-deserved break after winning the 2018 college playoff national championship in an overtime victory over Georgia. He gave them all of 24 hours. "In 24 hours you probably need to...
HBO Chief Uses The Ancient Tool Of Persuasion To Make His Pitch
A comedian was being courted by both Netflix and HBO. According to this article in The Wall Street Journal, HBO president of programming, Casey Bloys, used a metaphor. Bloys’ pitch to comedian Jerrod Carmichael went like this: “If you have 50 kids, you’re...
The One Personality Trait That Separates Great Leaders From Average Ones
You don't have wait for success to leave clues. Billionaires like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are showing us the way: Successful leaders look at the world differently. They choose to view events through a particular lens. In one word: optimism. For the...
Change Comes When Leaders Master The Power Of Words To Inspire
Since my conversation with Darkest Hour screenwriter Anthony McCarten, the movie continues to build buzz. Actor Gary Oldman, who portrays Winston Churchill as he rallied the English people to fight Nazi Germany, has won both the Golden Globe and Critics’...
Make a true connection with your audience by incorporating elements of ‘The Hero’s Journey’ into your next presentation
In a scene in the new Stars Wars movie, The Last Jedi, a character turns to the hero and says "All is lost." It's scene that you'll see replicated in every Hollywood blockbuster and every great heroic epic throughout the history of literature. It's also a...
Oprah’s Golden Globe Moment Reminds Us That Inspiring Leaders Are Potent Storytellers
Storytelling took center stage at Sunday’s Golden Globes when Oprah Winfrey gave an inspiring speech as she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award. Even if you didn’t watch it live, you’ve probably heard about it because it's become a social media sensation...
How Great Tech Leaders Approach Presentations For Biggest Stage In The Industry – CES
While most employees are enjoying a holiday break, some conference rooms are buzzing with presentation designers, marketing professionals and executives who are preparing to take the stage at the giant International Consumer Electronics Show, CES 2018 in...
Churchill’s Speeches In Darkest Hour Provide A Master Class In Communication
On May 19, 1940, newly-appointed British prime minister, Winston Churchill, was editing his first speech to the public. With minutes to go before the microphone went live, Churchill was dictating edits to his typist and marking up his printed speech. It’s...
Propel Your Career In 2018 With These Books
The most common New Year’s resolution is to “exercise more.” That’s followed by the second most common resolution—to lose weight. Reading more books doesn’t crack the top 10. But for leaders, maybe it should top the list. After reading more than 75...
Attention Leaders: These 5 Books Will Help You Better Communicate In 2018
I've read 75 nonfiction books published this year in a wide range of categories from history to business. Most of the books are bestsellers and offer actionable insights into leadership, entrepreneurship and communication. In this article I've chosen five...
CEO Danny Meyer, Apple and Tesla Look For This Quality In A New Hire And You Should Too
In a recent interview on CNBC, Shake Shack founder and CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, Danny Meyer, revealed his secret to hiring the best service professionals. What matters most is that the job candidate has what Meyer calls "the hospitality...
Some Of The World’s Most Successful Entrepreneurs Say This Is The Secret To Success
In a recent and rare interview, the billionaire inventor James Dyson revealed the secret to his success. Dyson told the Wall Street Journal that his success is due to: "Perseverance, taking risks and having a willingness to fail." Dyson doesn't shy away...
Leaders: Use This Proven Technique To Win People Over
This 1 Key to Human Psychology Will Set You Apart as a Leader People Want to Follow It's well-documented that hanging around chronically negative people can bring you down. The opposite is also true: Spending time with positive people makes you happier. In...
Carmine’s Picks For The Top Ten Books of 2017 For Leaders
From billionaires to CEOs, and from neuroscientists to navy SEALs, the authors of some of the best business books of the year offer plenty of invaluable advice for entrepreneurs, managers, leaders and aspiring change-makers. These 10 insights from 4,000...
Billionaires like Bill Gates Credit Their Success To This 1 Habit
Bill Gates is at it again. He's indulging in one of his favorite habits: reading. Gates recently wrote a blog post titled, "5 amazing books I read this year." The post is in addition to regular book reviews Gates posts all year long. "Reading is my...
Why Joe Biden’s Heartfelt Moment With Meghan McCain Went Viral
A seven-minute therapy session on live television the other day is trending on YouTube and Facebook. It’s featured in The New York Times and the BBC. There’s a scientific reason for it, and there’s an aspirational lesson on how to debate ideas—especially...
Starbucks’ New Digital Brew: Stories Of People Not Product
While many leaders search for the latest marketing strategy to grow their brands, Starbucks wins people over by adding a digital twist to old-fashioned storytelling. The Starbucks storytelling secret—don’t make the story about product; make the story about...
Perhaps The Best Investment Advice From Billionaire Warren Buffett
In an essay celebrating Forbes’ 100-year anniversary, billionaire Warren Buffett says there is one investment that “supersedes” all others: Invest in yourself. “Address whatever you feel your weaknesses are, and do it now,” Buffett writes. Buffett goes on...
The Communication Tip That Opens Hearts, Minds And Wallets
Philanthropist Melinda Gates is a storyteller. “The power of stories open our hearts to a new place, which opens our minds, which leads to action,” she once said. Storytelling is front and center at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates’ wanted...
Astronaut Scott Kelly Teaches Us How To Ignore Naysayers And Fight Back
An admissions officer told Scott Kelly he wouldn't succeed. Here's how Kelly fought back. "I was a terrible student, always staring out windows or looking at the clock, waiting for the class to be over," astronaut Scott Kelley recalls in his new...
Pep Talks Work According To Science
New scientific studies show that pep talks work. From the baseball field to the workplace, great leaders energize teams with their words. The Houston Astros provide the latest example. On November 1st, the Astros beat the Dodgers in game 7 to win the...
The Best Leaders Encourage Fearless Feedback
Recently, I was seated in a room at a U.S. Air Force base as a class of the best and brightest were listening to an instructor. He was making a provocative argument about a foreign adversary. When he concluded his presentation, the instructor didn’t ask...
Based On Brain Scans – This Is The Secret To Persuasion
Thanks to advanced brain scanning techniques, we've learned more about persuasion than we've ever known. Although I've studied persuasion for 25 years, the last ten years has seen an explosion in research, thanks to advanced brain scanning techniques....
The Interview Question That Taught Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Empathy And Made Him A Better Leader
A company that combines passion and purpose gets noticed and gets results. In his new book, Hit RefreshHit Refresh Book, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says his highest priority is renewing the company culture with "a growing sense of empathy." The word...
Most Employees Want To Quit, Here’s How To Keep Them Happy
First, the bad news. Employees are really unhappy. Most of them of can’t wait to jump ship and find another job, according to a new survey of 17,000 employees across 19 industries in the U.S. According to “Mind the Workplace,” a joint study by the Faas...