How The Pressure Of The Holidays Can Make You Better Under Pressure

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As I’m writing this, the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend is just ending, and we’re all well into the throes of the holiday season.

There’s nothing quite like the pressure of preparing a Thanksgiving dinner for roughly 30 people. It’s an exercise in cooking, kitchen resource allocation, family dynamics, political diplomacy, alcohol distribution, and traffic flow, just to name a few.

And there’s only one chance to get it right.

Whether you celebrate Thanksgiving or not, this probably sounds familiar. If you’re a leader, you’ve ...

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Why Talking To Experts Will Make You A Better Leader

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In a few hours, I’m going to be delivering a keynote for about 800 college and university professors. These professors come from a wide variety of disciplines. I arrived at the conference just yesterday, and already I’ve had fascinating conversations about the effect of driverless vehicles on supply chain delivery, big data’s impact on healthcare, and Chinese political history.

As I said, it’s been fascinating.

Now here’s the thing. I’m not an expert on any of these topics. But the people I ...

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What To Do When You Feel Like A Fraud

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Do you feel like an impostor?

It’s okay. Really. Most high-achievers do, at least occasionally. (My research indicates that the percentage may be as high as 80%!) There’s even an official name for it: Impostor Syndrome.

Impostor Syndrome. It’s that feeling that maybe you’re not quite as good at your job as others think you are. The feeling of being in a little over your head. And the feeling that, at some point (probably on the same day), everyone is going to ...

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How To Be Your Best When It Matters Most

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I emceed a local TEDx event yesterday. It’s an interesting experience, watching eleven incredibly diverse people share a singular moment. A moment when they stand on stage, alone, in front of several hundred people (plus who-knows-how-many watching the live stream), and deliver 10-18 minutes of brilliance.

At least, that’s the plan. And, for the most part, they each pulled it off. In fact, most of them rose to the occasion and delivered a talk that was better than any of their ...

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Unlock Your Creative Ideas With This Magic Question

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It happens virtually every morning.

You wake up, and there in the paper, or online, or on TV, is a success story. (Yes, they’re there. Sometimes you have to wade through the garbage.) Some entrepreneur, some company, some industry has come up with a game-changer. It might be Elon Musk, or the folks at Apple, or some person you’ve never heard of from some small town you’ve never heard of. But they’ve done it. They’ve come up with something brilliant—a breakthrough.

And ...

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Is A Lack Of Trust Killing Your Team?

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Does your team trust you?

Do they trust that you will:

  • share the credit when things go well?
  • have their backs when things go wrong?
  • be honest with them about what’s going on in the company?
  • make the right decision at crunch time?
  • deal with problems quickly, fairly, and appropriately?

As my colleague, Hall of Fame speaker David Horsager, author of The Trust Edge: How Top Leaders Gain Faster Results, Deeper Relationships, and a Stronger Bottom Line, says,“Everything of value is built on trust.”

How ...

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This Simple Technique Can Reduce Your Pressure Immediately

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What do you do when you’re under pressure? How can you be at your best when it matters most? If only there were something that could reduce that pressure—immediately.

Well, I’ve got good news for you. There is something that can immediately reduce your pressure, and it’s not tequila. First of all, tequila can be expensive. And second, tequila is not always around. The technique I’m going to tell you about is absolutely free, and it’s something that is always available ...

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How To Keep From Crashing When The Engine Stops

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The single-engine Cessna 172 was about 1,500 feet above the Pacific Ocean when that engine stopped.

I still don’t know why it stopped. All I know is that I was the pilot and the sole occupant of the plane. I had just taken off from a small airport in Western Washington. The pre-check had been routine. The takeoff had been uneventful. The sky was blue, the wind was calm. It was a beautiful day for flying.

And then the engine stopped.

What would ...

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Is Lack Of Preparation Adding To Your Pressure?

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Twenty-seven minutes and fifty-five seconds.

That’s the time I had to hit—exactly—every week for fifteen years.

27:55. Not a second more. Not a second less. 27:55.

Welcome to the world of television production, where the clock is your master. You’re always aware of it. You go on the air at 11:30pm, every Saturday, whether you’re ready or not. Whether you feel like it or not. And, exactly twenty-seven minutes and fifty-five seconds later, you fade to black. Every week.

You’ve felt the pressure of ...

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How To Be Better At Leading Change

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70% of all change initiatives fail.

That’s a pretty startling statistic. Especially when you consider how important change is. I mean, we all acknowledge this, right? There aren’t many organizations out there saying, “You know what we need to do? We need to maintain the status quo, and we need to do it now!”

Every breakthrough involves change. Every innovation involves change. Every new product, policy, or service that moves you ahead of the competition involves change.

So change is vitally important—and yet ...

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