These Are The Skills You Need To Thrive In The Future According To A Global AI Expert
Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, has two daughters. One is a fashion designer. The other is a photographer. Instead of following their father into computer science, they followed their heart, passion and skills. Lee...
According To Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, These 4 U.S. Presidents Shared This Public-Speaking Skill
Abraham Lincoln didn’t have a TED stage to share his ideas; he used a tree stump instead. But his talks went viral. Farmers and townspeople would ride for miles to hear Lincoln speak. What they loved most about Lincoln was the way he used stories to...
This Real Elevator Ride Challenge Can Teach You How To Pitch An Idea In 40 Seconds
Mars Mundy’s car broke down shortly after he graduated from law school. And, like many people, he had a frustrating experience with repair shops. Mundy channeled his frustration into building a startup to transform the auto repair industry. He never did...
In-Class Presentations Teach Students To Enjoy And Excel At Public Speaking
During a visit to the United Arab Emirates, I was invited to speak to college students to learn more about how the country is preparing the next generation for a post-oil future. I met with students who were required to present their final projects in a...
This Skill Makes Great Leaders Irresistible According To Google’s Chairman Of The Board
In the forward to John Hennessy’s book, Leading Matters, author Walter Isaacson writes, “There is one leadership skill in this book that I found a bit unexpected but also profound: storytelling.” Storytelling’s influence on Hennessy’s career is, indeed,...
This Hurricane Animation Video Went Viral Because It Appeals To Our Ancient Brain
“Pictorial superiority is truly Olympian,” writes molecular biologist John Medina in his bestselling book, Brain Rules. Simply put, if information is presented verbally, people remember about 10% of the information. Include a picture and retention soars to...
Starbucks’ Howard Schultz Elevated Corporate Storytelling To A New Art Form
Inspiring leaders are great storytellers. Their conversations transport you to another place that goes well beyond the physical attributes of the products they sell. Few corporate leaders have elevated the art of storytelling as much as Howard Schultz. As...
The Proven Algorithm To Help You Make An Emotional Connection
How can you tell if a person is excited or bored by a movie trailer, a television ad, or a presentation? You can ask them, but their answers might reflect a host of mental biases, or they may simply tell you what they think you want to hear....
Separate From The Competition By Being Your Brand’s Chief Storyteller
Walk into one of Ace Hardware’s 5,000 stores and you can buy grills, power tools, paint supplies or thousands of other home improvement products. Walk into a Lowe’s or a Home Depot and you can find products in the same categories. The average consumer who...
This Is The Most Valuable Career Skill College Students Should Learn
I recently received a call from a student entering a top Ivy League business school in the fall. She wanted to thank me for my books and columns, which she said helped her land a spot in the competitive program. Her grades were good, but not great. Her...
The Soft Skill Is The Best Investment Indra Nooyi And Warren Buffett Have Ever Made
After 12 years, PepsiCo’s chief executive is stepping down. Although Indra Nooyi’s impact on the company is well-known—and widely admired—what’s less known is the impact one class had on Nooyi’s career. When Nooyi was enrolled in a master’s program at Yale...
The One Profound Question Steve Jobs Asked That Helped Take Apple From Near Bankruptcy To $1 Trillion
It’s easy to forget that Apple’s path to its $1 trillion valuation was nearly derailed when the company was running out of cash. Steve Jobs asked one profound question that got it back on track. In my keynotes about inspirational leadership, I often show a...
Starbucks Ditches 1 Billion Plastic Straws After A YouTube Video Went Viral
Big numbers rarely spark action, but a sea turtle with a straw in its nose can trigger a movement. By now you’ve probably heard that Starbucks has announced it will eliminate plastic straws globally by 2020. The straws will be replaced with recyclable lids...
GE’s CEO Takes On The Challenge Of Communicating Big Changes To The Company
When GE announced a major strategic change (spinning off its healthcare unit and selling its stake in Baker Hughes), GE chairman and CEO, John Flannery, had to reassure employees, shareholders, and the financial media that he was doing the right thing by...
The Five Interview Tips You Didn’t Learn In Business School
The tools of communication have changed; the human brain has not. Business school grads who understand this fact of human psychology will find it easier to stand out in job interviews. And they need to find ways to stand apart. In a recent Wall Street...
The Storytelling Surgeon Chosen To Head The Dimon-Bezos-Buffett Healthcare Firm Is An Inspired Choice
Three of the most influential business leaders of our time—Jamie Dimon, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffett—have chosen Dr. Atul Gawande to lead their new healthcare firm. Gawande’s credentials as a surgeon and Harvard Medical School professor give them...
Every Communicator Should Follow The Lead From The Fed’s Plain-English Campaign
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has a bachelor’s degree from Princeton and a law degree from Georgetown, but his first statement after the June FOMC meeting was written in ninth-grade language. It began, “The main takeaway is that the economy is...
How Expert Presenters Mind-Boggling Supercomputer Specs Into Human Terms
The $200 million supercomputer, Summit, can perform mathematical equations at speeds that “boggle the mind,” according to a report in the New York Times. How fast is mind-boggling? Try 200 quadrillion calculations per second. That’s not a typo. But if it...
How Software Giant SAP Looks Back To Drive Forward
NBA fans who spent more than one million hours pouring over basketball stats can thank enterprise software company SAP. As the 2018 NBA Finals get underway between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors, fans will once again be checking...
Howard Schultz’ Letter To Starbucks Customers Reflects A Longtime Mission
The Starbucks announcement to temporarily close 8,000 stores this afternoon for racial bias sensitivity training has been met with a range of opinions on social media—snark, skepticism and support. I see the action as consistency of message—a valuable...
Profits Soared At Carnival After Its CEO Discovered This Communication Tool
Carnival Cruise Line’s newest ship—Horizon—departs from New York City this week with about 4,000 guests. Also on board are 1,450 crew members who are responsible for keeping those passengers safe, happy, and eager to take another cruise. Across all of...
Oprah’s Powerful Words Brought Tears In Her USC Commencement Speech – Here’s How
It was fitting that the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism chose a master communicator--Oprah Winfrey--to deliver the 2018 Annenberg commencement speech. Oprah's speech on Friday to 960 students and their families had the hallmarks of...
Philadelphia’s Bid To Be Amazon’s HQ2 Will Help You Improve Your Communication Skills
According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, some the 20 cities on Amazon’s shortlist of potential sites for its second headquarters are seeing an unintended benefit from the presentations they created to pitch themselves to Amazon. The pitches are...
The Nine Words That Took This CEO From Poverty To The Pinnacle Of Success
Words matter. Words can shape a person’s life and career. They did for Arnold Donald. Nine words took Carnival Corp’s CEO from poverty to the top of a $48 billion company. This summer, Donald celebrates his fifth year as CEO of the world’s largest leisure...
Software Giant SAP Looks Back To Its Roots To Drive The Future
NBA fans who spent more than one million hours pouring over basketball stats can thank enterprise software company SAP. As the 2018 NBA Finals get underway between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors, fans will once again be checking...
Avoid 3 Mental Hurdles That Get In The Way Of Success
Hans Rosling was a famed Swedish statistician and widely admired TED speaker. Rosling passed away before he could see his new book, Factfullness, climb to the top of the New York Times bestseller lists. Bill Gates calls the book one of the most important...
New Grads Should Follow PepsiCo CEO’s 5-Step Success Model
I’ve been speaking recently on the topic of communication skills to advance a person’s career. In my presentations I talk about Indra Nooyi’s “5 C’s” model of leadership. She presented it publicly several years ago, but it’s more relevant today than ever....
Mark Zuckerberg Should Follow Aristotle’s 3-Step Persuasion Formula To Rebuild The Public’s Trust
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faces his toughest task this week—to persuade lawmakers and the public that he takes privacy seriously and will implement the steps necessary to restore the public’s trust after recent privacy issues has shaken confidence in...
An American Wine Pioneer Who Leveraged The Remarkable Power Of Emotion To Sell His Product
The California wine industry is rich with characters, mavericks and risk-takers. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy meeting and learning about the pioneers who put California’s wine regions on the map. One of those pioneers passed away recently—Robert Haas....
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s Clear And Consistent Vision Rallies Employees Around A Common Purpose
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella read a book that changed his outlook on leadership and business. The book was Mindset by award-winning Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck. In the 2006 book Dweck explores the habit of having a “growth mindset:” the belief that...