A Navy SEAL’s Guide to Thriving in Close Quarters, Part 6: Exercise

by murika Comment Closed
The sixth and final action to the R.E.M.O.T.E. lessons learned while leading SEALs in submarines is Exercise. As simple as it might sound, exercise is the most important action you can take when faced with mountains of uncertainty and isolation. All of the actions I have shared with you over the past few weeks have been about focusing on the few things we can control. In fact, that’s what SEAL training is all about: mastering what I call our “controllables.” In Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training, one of the first tenents we are taught is understanding our weapon’s platform, which is simply our mental, emotional and physical capabilities. I call this our action platform in my most recent book: UNSTOPPABLE TEAMS: The 4 Essential Actions of High-Performance Leadership. How we think, what we believe and our subsequent ability to take action define our direction and represent the single most important pillar of how we lead ourselves. Read more ...
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Is Your Personality Permanent? New Research Says ‘No.’

by murika Comment Closed
I caught up this week with a longtime friend, Dr. Benjamin Hardy, an organizational psychologist whose newest book, “Personality Isn’t Permanent” will be appearing in June.  Hardy is young — a thirty-something husband and the father of five. He and his wife Lauren adopted three children (with great difficulty) from the foster system, and also have year-old twins. He’s very accomplished as a scholar, speaker, organizational psychologist and author, but is surprisingly low-key in conversation. In the five or so years I’ve known him we’ve had fascinating exchanges on a number of topics: habits, self-discipline, communication — and most recently, personality. Unlike traditional experts, Hardy maintains our personalities are not fixed. He maintains and demonstrates through research that our lifestyles, preferences, attitudes and character traits are surprisingly fluid. At every stage, our personalities are the result of the decisions and pivotal experiences along with non-decisions and habits we accumulate on the way.   ...
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5 Ways Smart People Sabotage Their Success

by murika Comment Closed
Mark was always one of the smartest kids in his class. He’s done well in his career, but when he checks Facebook, he sees people he outperformed at school who have now achieved more. Likewise, there are colleagues at his firm who have leapfrogged him. Sometimes he wonders, “What am I doing wrong?” Sound familiar? You might relate to Mark yourself, or have an employee or loved one who struggles with similar feelings. Raw intelligence is undoubtedly a huge asset, but it isn’t everything. And sometimes, when intellectually gifted people don’t achieve as much as they’d like to, it’s because they’re subtly undermining themselves. If you’re in this situation, the good news is that when you understand these foibles you can turn them around. Here are five I’ve seen smart people particularly struggle with: Read More ...
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3 Ways to Grow Your Small Business (Even If You’re Still Closed)

by murika Comment Closed
It's located just four miles from the retail and corporate epicenter of New York City, but the place where I live--Hoboken--gets its color and character from the multitude of small businesses that line our streets and play an active and essential role within our community. Residents and business owners depend heavily upon one another; the goods and services sold here generate revenue that goes right back into our local economy.  And so it wasn't totally a surprise, but still a deep shock to our entire system, when our mayor, Ravi Bhalla, was among the first in America to shut the doors of all of our non-essential businesses, both large and small, to keep us safe from the health crisis that was at our doorstep. Read More ...
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How to Communicate Effectively Once You Return to the Office

by murika Comment Closed
More workplaces continue to reopen, but it's unlikely that the old rhythms of work will stay the same. Teams that have adapted during the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown are starting to realize that certain workplace rituals aren't nearly as sacred or essential as they once thought. As leaders sort through their hopes and plans for a post-pandemic rebound, now is the time to make smart shifts in how we engage the full potential of our teams. From generating new ideas to holding meetings and sharing feedback, leaders can turn the reopening into an opportunity for boosting their team's creativity, productivity, and growth in the weeks ahead. Read more  ...
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4 Tips for Starting a Business in an Economic Downturn

by murika Comment Closed
COVID-19 has forced millions of companies to reassess their business models, but what about the businesses that are still just ideas in the minds of aspiring entrepreneurs? As mass layoffs and desperate bailouts dominate the news, few people are talking about what it's like to launch a business in the current climate.  But like other crises throughout history, the coming recession will create genuine opportunities for founders. As Michael Loeb, founder and CEO of Loeb.nyc, said, "Moments like these are like forest fires. The blaze will cripple some businesses, but they will also provide the heat to release new seeds into the soil. Many amazing companies have been born from the ashes of economic downturns and market crashes." Read More ...
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How to Help Employees Manage Their Feelings on Returning to Work

by murika Comment Closed
"It's been bumpy," one of my coaching clients told me. She wasn't talking about closing down her business because of the pandemic. She was talking about opening back up. As an executive coach who works with startups globally, I've seen this crisis play out while working with my clients around the world. I've been with them through the various phases of shutting down and starting to reopen. Here's some of the advice that I've been sharing with my clients, particularly around handling your employees' emotions about returning to the workplace. Read More ...
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Fear of Returning to Work: When You’re Ready but Your Employees Are Not

by murika Comment Closed
For business owners grappling with how and when to reopen their companies, one thing is apparent: Despite what local and national leaders may say, governments don't open economies--economies reopen when citizens feel safe enough to resume their usual activities. And it's possible many of your employees aren't there yet. Covid cases and deaths are still on the rise in some areas even as states begin to loosen their social distancing restrictions. So it's not entirely surprising that in a recent survey conducted by global human resources consulting firm Mercer of 735 U.S. employers, more than 45 percent said they are already struggling with workers who are reluctant to return to their workplaces because of fear of getting sick. Read More ...
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How to Build a Brand Story That Buyers Emotionally Connect With

by murika Comment Closed
While having a great product or quality service is undeniably important, these aren’t necessarily the things that will win you loyal customers. More often than not, buyers are influenced by a brand’s ability to form emotional connections with them. In fact, Harvard Business School professor emeritus Gerald Zaltman says that 95 percent of our buying decisions occur in the subconscious, where they're fueled by emotions, rather than “logical processes.” The best way to foster an emotional connection that influences buyers is through your brand story, but if you want your that story to have any kind of power, you have to build it up right. Read More ...
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Alexis Ohanian’s Resignation from Reddit is the Type of Leadership the World Needs

by murika Comment Closed
When Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian resigned from the company’s board last week, he generared immediate headlines. But in doing so, he also created a legacy for himself as a leader. In Ohanian’s actual words:  “I believe resignation can actually be an act of leadership from people in power right now.I have resigned as a member of the Reddit board, I have urged them to fill my seat with a black candidate, and I will use future gains on my Reddit stock to serve the black community, chiefly to curb racial hate, and I’m starting with a pledge of $1M to Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp.” Read More ...
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5 Daily Wellness Tips to Improve Your Health Now

by murika Comment Closed
Meditate! Be Grateful! Journal! It’s starting to sound a lot like “Marsha! Marsha! Marsha!” from The Brady Bunch. I now know what Jan must have felt like. Daily, if not hourly, we are bombarded with much of the same information on how to improve our overall health and well-being. While all of those practices certainly work and are valuable, there are a few methods that do not get as much air time. The following tips might sound a bit strange and counterintuitive, but not only are they effective, but they are also cost and time-efficient. 1. Contrast therapy  Being told to take a cold shower and sober up may have more than one meaning after all. Contrast therapy or hydrotherapy is a process in which you take your body from one temperature extreme to the other through... Read More ...
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CDC Provides Tough New Guidelines for Reopening Offices

by murika Comment Closed
Want to reopen your office? When you do, consider temperature checks for employees as they arrive at work, facemasks, and plastic dividers between desks that are closer than six feet apart. Those are just some of the new list of recommendations that the Centers for Disease Control just released for companies that plan to have their employees return to the workplace. The recommendations are just that -- they're not legally binding. But chances are these guidelines would come into play during any potential litigation over workplace safety. Besides, some expert say, most of these measures are very good ideas that you should consider adopting if you want you and your employees to stay healthy.  Here's just some of what the CDC wants you to do. Read more ...
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Prof. Margaret Kamar: How my farm makes tens of millions

by murika Comment Closed
Did you know that Senate Deputy Speaker Prof. Margaret Kamar is a prominent farmer in the Rift Valley? Well, her farm is not just your ordinary farm. It rakes in millions in revenue as this feature shows. This feature was first published in the Seeds of Gold Magazine, a publication of the Nation Media Group. As you drive along the Eldoret-Iten-Chepkanga Road, you cannot stop marvelling at the hundreds of blue gum (eucalyptus) trees lining up one side of the thoroughfare. The trees on the vast farm seemingly stretch to eternity as they make a memorable pattern. Down further, it becomes clear that the expansive farm christened Elfam is not an ordinary one. Read More ...
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How to Hold Remote Workers Accountable Without Micromanaging

by murika Comment Closed
In March, a viral leaked email from a Wall Street Journal manager instructed newly remote workers to keep managers informed if they're "taking a break, conducting an interview, in a meeting, or will otherwise be unavailable for a while."  This is how you ruin remote work.  Managers might as well ask to be informed every time an employee takes a bio break, eats a Snickers bar, ties their shoes, sneezes, scratches their elbow, or tidies their desk. I understand where the impulse comes from. Millions of people are working remotely for the first time, and managers are trying to adjust. Most are used to seeing their direct reports in person throughout the day, and think this gives them an idea of what exactly folks are doing with their time. But here's the thing. Good managers don't actually care what folks do with their time. They care if they get their job done or not. Read More ...
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