Brain Power

Apparently that important organ located in our skull between our eyes is quite a powerful thing and yet we humans only use a small percentage of its power and ability.

Tom Wujec is an information designer who explains three areas of our brain that help us understand words, images, feelings, and connections and how to better help us understand bigger ideas and possibilities.


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Motivation

They say we have to do what we're passionate about and what will motivate us. Is that a job? A salary? A promotion? A career change? A new relationship? A new city?

To say we have to follow our passion isn't the entire task. Dan Pink looks at 50 behavioral triggers that motivate us.


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Our Brain 1-2-3

It’s often said that we use a small percentage of the potential of our brain. There are things we can overcome, do, create, and accomplish, if we access additional information and abilities within it and ourselves. Teamwork, trust, and collaboration are becoming even more important in the workplace. Competencies are important, abilities are critical, but where companies find success is when the connections between us strengthen.

Tom Wujec is an information designer who explains in his TEDTalk three areas of our brain that help us understand words, images, feelings, and connections and how to better help us understand bigger ideas and possibilities.


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Less Than 10%

It’s often said that we use a small percentage of the potential of our brain. There are things we can overcome, do, create, and accomplish, if we access additional information and abilities within it and ourselves. Teamwork, trust, and collaboration are becoming even more important with a global pandemic that will be in our lives for a year or two.

Competencies are important, abilities are critical, but where companies find success is when the connections between us strengthen.

Tom Wujec is an information designer who explains in his TEDTalk three areas of our brain that help us understand words, images, feelings, and connections and how to better help us understand bigger ideas and possibilities.


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Remote Leaders

I've been reading about this and thinking about this for years. I have been fortunate to work with amazing collaborative insightful and giving leaders; I have also had some bosses. I think there is a definitive list somewhere but the way I view leadership is from the inside. Each of us has a different interpretation of what they need in their leader or how they want to lead.

In a time when we have 3-4 generations in a workplace, the one size fits all model won't work. Sales managers yelling at reps to make more calls, Marketing directors steadfast on their design over others, CEO's accountable to shareholders without focus on their employees to make those financial successes a reality.

Read The Room

And that room can be as granular as every single person in the organization. For some, they need a coach akin to the defensive coordinator who yells at their guys for missing the tackle. For others, they require a more personable calm approach.

The key to being a great leader, in my opinion, is twofold. First, you don't decide you're the leader; your team or company does. Second, your only focus is your team or company. Customers will show up if you create a culture of collaboration, respect, and strong internal customer service. Since most are working remotely, this makes the challenge of leadership even more important to master.

A great leader never has to remind people they are the leader.
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Advice for Leaders

Flexibility will garner better results. You don’t need to make every decision.
Show grace under pressure. If people call you sensitive, thank them.

It's better than being insensitive.

Turn your wounds into wisdom.
Oprah Winfrey

Don't let job titles get in your way. Trust your gut.
Don't play favorites.

Resist the temptation to take all the credit.
Fall seven times, stand up eight. (Proverb)

A short no is often preferred over a long maybe.
Bury the past. Laugh at least once a day.

We acquire the strength we have overcome.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Don’t hesitate this time. Be honest about your efforts.
No is a perfectly acceptable response.

Respect is how to treat everyone, not just those you want to impress.
Richard Branson

Balance confidence with competence.
Self-doubt serves no one. Own your decisions.

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.
Dalai Lama

Imagine. Create. Share. Lead.
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What Motives You?

They say we have to do what we're passionate about and what will motivate us. Is that a job? A salary? A promotion? A career change? A new relationship? A new city?

To say we have to follow our passion isn't the entire task. Dan Pink looks at 50 behavioral triggers that motivate us.


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Your Big Brain

It’s often said that we use a small percentage of the potential of our brain. There are things we can overcome, do, create, and accomplish, if we access additional information and abilities within it and ourselves. Teamwork, trust, and collaboration are becoming even more important in the workplace. Competencies are important, abilities are critical, but where companies find success is when the connections between us strengthen.

Tom Wujec is an information designer who explains in his TEDTalk three areas of our brain that help us understand words, images, feelings, and connections and how to better help us understand bigger ideas and possibilities.


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What Makes a Great Leader?

I've been reading about this and thinking about this for years. I have been fortunate to work with amazing collaborative insightful and giving leaders; I have also had some bosses. I think there is a definitive list somewhere but the way I view leadership is from the inside. Each of us has a different interpretation of what they need in their leader or how they want to lead.

In a time when we have 3-4 generations in a workplace, the one size fits all model won't work. Sales managers yelling at reps to make more calls, Marketing directors steadfast on their design over others, CEO's accountable to shareholders without focus on their employees to make those financial successes a reality.

Read The Room

And that room can be as granular as every single person in the organization. For some, they need a coach akin to the defensive coordinator who yells at their guys for missing the tackle. For others, they require a more personable calm approach.

The key to being a great leader, in my opinion, is twofold. First, you don't decide you're the leader; your team or company does. Second, your only focus is your team or company. Customers will show up if you create a culture of collaboration, respect, and strong internal customer service.

A great leader never has to remind people they are the leader.
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Let's Make Some Trouble

Mignon McLaughlin was an American journalist and author. In the 1950s she began publishing aphorisms - a pithy observation that contains a general truth.

My favorite was; "Society honors its living conformists and its dead troublemakers."

We do look at those who blazed a path before us with admiration but how often do we grasp the uphill climb each had to endure? It's not easy to share a new idea until it’s adopted by others. But without the bravery to share it, the idea goes nowhere.

Lead first

Leonardo da Vinci, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Benjamin Franklin, Marie Curie, Elon Musk, Susan B. Anthony, Les Paul, Sally Ride, Louis Pasteur, Kathryn Bigelow, Thomas Edison, Margaret Thatcher, Johannes Gutenberg, Florence Nightingale, Alfred Nobel, Steve Jobs, the list goes on and on. These people didn't play it safe but they certainly didn't succeed without struggles.

Doing what is safe and what others may agree with is adhering to a matrix each of us hold as a manufactured line that’s not to be crossed. We've all done it.

Are You Ready?

You're sitting on an idea right now that you keep trying to find the guts to share. It's not easy, we all know. But it's necessary to fight those fears and doubts or you might end up being - to paraphrase McLaughlin's quote - a dead conformist.

Let's take one small step toward sharing our ideas, pushing ourselves past our fears, and seeing what happens. Regret is a horrible emotion we have all experienced.

It's even worse than failure.
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Motivation

They say we have to do what we're passionate about and what will motivate us. Is that a job? A salary? A promotion? A career change? A new relationship? A new city?

To say we have to follow our passion isn't the entire task. Dan Pink looks at 50 behavioral triggers that motivate us.


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Beyond Our Grey Matter

It’s often said that we use a small percentage of the potential of our brain. There are things we can overcome, do, create, and accomplish, if we access additional information and abilities within it and ourselves. Teamwork, trust, and collaboration are becoming even more important in the workplace. Competencies are important, abilities are critical, but where companies find success is when the connections between us strengthen.

Tom Wujec is an information designer who explains in his TEDTalk three areas of our brain that help us understand words, images, feelings, and connections and how to better help us understand bigger ideas and possibilities.


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What Drives You?

They say we have to do what we're passionate about and what will motivate us. But is that a job? A salary? A promotion? A career change? A location switch? A new relationship? What?

To say we have to follow our passion isn't the entire task. Dan Pink looks at 50 behavioral triggers that motivate us.


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Wanna Create Some Trouble?

Mignon McLaughlin was an American journalist and author. In the 1950s she began publishing aphorisms - a pithy observation that contains a general truth. My favorite was; "Society honors its living conformists and its dead troublemakers."

We do look at those who blazed a path before us with admiration but how often do we grasp the uphill climb each had to endure? It's not easy to share a new idea until it’s adopted by others. But without the bravery to share it, the idea goes nowhere.

Lead first

Leonardo da Vinci, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Benjamin Franklin, Marie Curie, Elon Musk, Susan B. Anthony, Les Paul, Sally Ride, Louis Pasteur, Kathryn Bigelow, Thomas Edison, Margaret Thatcher, Johannes Gutenberg, Florence Nightingale, Alfred Nobel, Steve Jobs, the list goes on and on. These people didn't play it safe but they certainly didn't succeed without struggles.

Doing what is safe and what others may agree with is adhering to a matrix each of us hold as a manufactured line that’s not to be crossed. We've all done it.

Are You Ready?

You're sitting on an idea right now that you keep trying to find the guts to share. It's not easy, we all know. But it's necessary to fight those fears and doubts or you might end up being - to paraphrase McLaughlin's quote - a dead conformist.

Let's take one small step this week toward sharing our ideas, pushing ourselves past our fears, and seeing what happens. Regret is a horrible emotion we have all experienced.

It's even worse than failure.
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One Question

We work thousands of hours each year. Life gets busy. There are deadlines and meetings, commitments and activities. Someday becomes part of our daily routine. We plan for the future, we look forward to a time when we'll have more time or money.

Then suddenly another decade is gone. And no matter how much time or money we spend, we cannot change the past. That is what is going on in each of us, in each of the people in our organization, in each of our clients. That is what is happening with everyone you meet on social channels, in the grocery store, at that business function, in your company. None of us escapes it.

Filmmaker Kamil Krolak asked the same question to fifty people. What's your answer?


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Your Driving Force

They say we have to do what we're passionate about and what will motivate us. But is that a job? A salary? A promotion? A career change? A location switch? A new relationship? What?

To say we have to follow our passion isn't the entire task. Dan Pink looks at 50 behavioral triggers that motivate us.


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Pray. Don't Eat. Fail.Try Again.

We've heard it, read it, thought it, shared it, and known it for most of our lives. It takes time to be successful at anything. A lot of time. And work. No one gets to be successful without scars to prove their journey. We all get smacked on the side of the head when we least expect it and life isn't always chocolates and rainbows.

It took you a while to get good at what you do now. But are you doing what you truly love? Are you doing something that you love more than you love yourself? Have you found your purpose? How do you define what success means to you?

Imagine your work becomes world renowned

You could become Barton Fink – the fictional character who suffers debilitating writer’s block trying to recreate your success – or you could be Elizabeth Gilbert.

In 2006, Gilbert wrote Eat Pray Love that spent 199 weeks on the New York Times best seller list, became a movie in 2010, and made her a success beyond the dreams of most writers. Then she had two choices and explains how failure can mean success.


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Creating Urgency

We clever humans have tried to fool, cajole, and urge each other to buy things since we showed up on this dust bowl called Earth. Limited time offer, we only have three left on the lot, the sale ends Thursday, one-time exclusive, once in a lifetime opportunity, the list goes on. We try to get each other's attention through the tactic of scarcity.

Our collective busy never seems to subside. We're constantly checking our mobile devices, refreshing the page, ensuring there are no new emails, and all the while our lives are flying by at the speed of that new mobile device that can send presentations to Japan in three seconds.

Slow down

Perhaps it's age; maybe perspective, but I feel myself slowing down. My work ethic hasn't waned; my desire to learn new things hasn't subsided; but a quiet Saturday morning with coffee and music is now just as - if not more - important than answering another email.

To say the world is a busier place today than it was even few years ago in some ways may be a safe assessment. All you need to do is walk through an major airport around 7 on any Monday morning and you can see the mayhem that is business travel. But the lingering question remains as we check our mobile devices at traffic lights and push our way to the connecting flight...

Are we actually getting any more done?
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Measuring Your LIfe

How do you measure your worth? What metrics do you apply to your experience? Where do you see your value? David Brooks poses an important question. Do we measure ourselves by what we do or who we are?

Watch this.

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Dylan Mahalingam Changed the World

I can't do him justice. He will blow you away. Here's the blurb they wrote about him on the website Mother Nature Network.

At the ripe age of 9, Dylan Mahalingam co-founded Lil' MDGs, a nonprofit international development and youth empowerment organization and an initiative of Jayme's Fund. Lil' MDGs mission is to leverage the power of the digital media to engage children in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

His organization has mobilized more than 3 million children around the globe to work on a variety of issues, with more than 24,000 regular volunteers hailing from 41 countries. Dylan is a youth speaker for the United Nations as well as a chief strategist and project ambassador for Under the Acacia. The recipient of numerous international and national honors.

Dylan is now 15 years old and a sophomore at Pinkerton Academy in New Hampshire. Here is his 2010 TEDTalk.

Watch, get inspired, then let's get to work.


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Kneale Mann | People + Priority = Profit
New Book out in 2016 – Details soon!