From the Author

Life is a journey. Actually, it’s many journeys. And one of the most important of those journeys is from wherever you are now to the land of increased capabilities. This is an important journey because the more you stretch your capabilities, the more easily you can dial in the life you want: doing the activities, […]

There are many characteristics that are important in building a productive, successful career and life. But none of them is more important than gaining and keeping other people’s trust. Why? Because when other people trust you, they are more willing to help you, to listen to your ideas, to accept your opinions, to respect your

You can sometimes cajole, nag, or even force people to help you accomplish your tasks, projects, and goals. But none of that will get you anywhere near as much cooperation, effort, and enthusiasm as you’ll receive when you earn their “buy-in.” In certain situations, people will be ready, willing, and even eager to join you

As a person who’s interested in productivity and success, you’re probably already working at or near your maximum capacity. Even so, you probably find that people sometimes ask you to do something more. Why? Because they recognize the truth of the aphorism: “If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it.” But

As I wrote a while ago, here and here, resilience is the capacity to recover quickly and well from difficulties and demanding experiences. Resilience is an important and powerful capability because it leads you to come back quickly to full strength after the inevitable setbacks and problems we all experience, from time to time. In

Whether you’re working for a large company, a small company, or your own company, your career is a living project that deserves your focused attention and best energies. Here are some suggestions to help you advance your career to the maximum: 1. Investigate and Understand Your Career Motivations, Strengths, and Goals Your motivation to succeed

Whether you’re currently a leader or aspiring to leadership, mentoring is a valuable technique you’ll want to add to your repertoire. If you are a leader, you’ll benefit from offering mentorship to capable young people you’d like to see enjoy greater success. If you are an aspiring leader, you’ll benefit from finding a mentor to

As the world gets more complicated, soft skills – the general people-oriented and behavioral ones that are important in every job, as opposed to the specific ones required to do well at a specific job – become more and more crucial to productivity and success. I’ve previously offered some advice and suggestions on these soft

It’s amazing how many people think they know themselves quite well, but have only scratched the surface of self-awareness. This is a terrible shame, because knowing yourself in-depth opens the door to a great deal of extra productivity and success. One reason is that knowing yourself allows you to take the fullest advantage of opportunities

There’s a lot of talk about the power of networking, and some of it is even true. But the usual kind of networking that happens at large events has a couple of big drawbacks: First, events that are suitable for you to network don’t happen all that often, and second, large events can be intimidating