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What is Humor?

July 22, 2009

You hear the word humor a lot. People talk about office humor, sense of humor, a guy named Hugh Moore–but what does it really mean? Before reading on, see if you can think of the definition. Got a guess? No seriously, think of something, I’ll wait. … Ok, so the word humor, as defined by [...]

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Telehumoring: How to Apply Humor in a Remote Office

July 16, 2009

As more and more companies expand globally and more employees choose to work from home, telecommuting at home will continue to increase. But how do you take advantage of all of the benefits of humor when your team or organization is spread out over multiple timezones, countries, and first languages? The goal of any team [...]

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Make Presentations Not PowerPoint Demonstrations

July 7, 2009

If you actually want to be effective in the corporate world, it’s important to learn to make presentations, not Power Point demonstrations. What’s the difference? Good question. Presentations versus Power Point If you were to go by what you see most often in the workplace, you would think presentations and Power Point were synonyms. But [...]

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12 Effectiveness Lessons from The Effective Executive

July 1, 2009

Peter F. Drucker’s The Effective Executive is one of the best-known, oft-cited books on management ever written.  Since it’s publication in 1967, it has transformed regular managers into effective executives by answering the question, “What makes an effective executive?” The book is filled with insights and perspective and is still just as applicable today, 40 [...]

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Selecting a Metaphor for Better Presentations

June 29, 2009

Last week I talked about the simple presentation tip of using metaphors to improve understanding and retention of your material.  But how do you find a good metaphor? What Makes a Good Metaphor Not all metaphors are created equal.  Some can help you explain every detail of your presentation topic, while others barely provide any [...]

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Team-Building Through 3 Pictures

June 26, 2009

Of the countless team-building exercises that can help improve the dynamics of your team, one of my favorites involves each team member sharing personal pictures with the group.  The exercise is great in almost any setting, but is especially well-suited for teams who only meet virtually or are just starting out. The set-up of the [...]

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Simple Presentation Tip: The Metaphor

June 22, 2009

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.” – Charles Mingus One of the hardest things to do is to take a complicated idea and explain it in a simple way.  But that is in fact what many of us have to do, and those who do it well [...]

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Life Lessons from Confessions of a Shopaholic

June 16, 2009

I recently flew from Dallas to NYC after a long day of training. I didn’t really feel like being productive and couldn’t find a comfortable sleeping position, which left only one option to pass the time–watch the in-flight movie, Confessions of a Shopaholic. Much to my surprise, the movie wasn’t as bad as I thought [...]

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Why Stress Isn’t a Bad Thing

May 5, 2009

I recently posted an article called Creating a Sense of Urgency that talked about how to be more productive by creating a sense of urgency for yourself to get things done. In the comments, someone asked why I was encouraging more stress, and what I meant by saying “stress isn’t always a bad thing.”  This [...]

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Creating a Sense of Urgency

April 28, 2009

One of the best tips I’ve learned for getting things done is creating a sense of urgency for my work.  If I feel like I have all day to do something, I’ll take all day to do it – it’s Parkinson’s Law (“Work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion”). But if something [...]

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