Channel Your Inner Idiot

An under-appreciated aspect of strong leadership is getting over stage-fright, acting silly, and creating laughter.

I’m an introvert. When I was growing up, among my two brothers and me, I was known as the serious one and the good student that didn’t get in a lot of trouble. I know—pretty boring. If I took one of those Myers Briggs tests I know how I’d score.

And for the most part, I haven’t changed much. But I’ve found part of leadership is getting out of my comfort zone.

14 Lessons From Benjamin Franklin on How To Get Things Done

Benjamin Franklin was a man of action. Over his lifetime, his curiosity and passion fueled a diverse range of interests. He was a writer (often using a pseudonym), publisher, diplomat, inventor and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

His inventions included the lightning rod, bifocals and the Franklin stove. Franklin was responsible for establishing the first public library, organizing fire fighters in Philadelphia, was one of the early supporters of mutual insurance and crossed the Atlantic eight times. Self-development was a constant endeavor throughout his incredible life.

Benjamin Franklin was clearly a man who knew how to get things done.

Mobile Business Statistics For 2012

There are some highly revealing infographics that have come out recently that underscore the massive shift to mobile technologies.The quick adoption of mobile devices is really unprecedented. Take Apple for example. Incredibly, in Q1 2012 alone, they shipped 15 million iPad devices. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook summed up the tablet adoption phenomenon best:

“through the last quarter , I should say, which is just 2 years after we shipped the initial iPad, we’ve sold 67 million. And to put that in some context, it took us 24 years to sell that many Macs and 5 years for that many iPods and over 3 years for that many iPhones.”

5 Top Tips to Own Your Next Negotiation

One of my favorite lines of all time comes from the movie Boiler Room. When Jim Young, a young, rich, and cocky senior stock broker, played by Ben Affleck tells a group of upcoming stock brokers : “And there is no such thing as a no sale call. A sale is made on every call you make. Either you sell the client some stock or he sells you a reason he can’t. Either way a sale is made, the only question is who is gonna close? You or him?”

Pick Your Best 2 Hours

If you aren’t getting enough done in your day-and who is?-try this time management technique.

Sports by the Numbers: Predicting Winners and Losers

Over a period of 6 weeks, a few Wharton professors studied data provided by ESPN to determine whether the amount of money that sports teams pay for their players can predict how well the team will perform.

Which sport do you think was highly predictable, which were not? The results will surprise you.

Intelligence Is Overrated: What You Really Need To Succeed

Albert Einstein’s was estimated at 160, Madonna’s is 140, and John F. Kennedy’s was only 119, but as it turns out, your IQ score pales in comparison with your EQ, MQ, and BQ scores when it comes to predicting your success and professional achievement. IQ tests are used as an indicator of logical reasoning ability and technical intelligence. A high IQ is often a prerequisite for rising to the top ranks of business today. It is necessary, but it is not [...]

8 Beliefs of Extraordinary Bosses

A few years back, I interviewed some of the most successful CEOs in the world in order to discover their management secrets. I learned that the “best of the best” tend to share the following eight core beliefs.