Certainly success is a good thing. But that’s not to say that it doesn’t have negative consequences. (Is that a triple negative?) Anyways. In the real world, success is not always clear cut. Could we have been more successful? How might our current success impact future success? What tradeoffs did we make? In the academic world, success can easily be evaluated based on grades. I sometimes teach university classes and when I do I am always fascinated by how students evaluate their success and respond to feedback about their performance. As you can imagine, when someone gets a 100% on an assignment, ...

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Even if you’re not a professional speaker, you may have to make a presentation from time to time. Whether to your company’s Board, your boss, or even your customer. A lot of times we get so caught up in what we want to say that we overlook the most important part: the audience. Think about it. Someone crosses their arms and leans back during your presentation. Does this mean that they don’t like what you just said, don’t like you personally or that they’re just cold? The truth is, you don’t know unless you ask the person. Any assumptions you make are ...

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Growing up, I was always a fan of options…choices. Clearly having more choices gives you more options and more chances of accomplishing your goal. But it has become clear that not everyone views options in the same way. I was recently speaking with a friend of mine who’s trying to start a family with the help of modern medicine. Fortunately, they’re both in good health and have several options from which to choose. They started pursuing their first option last month and blood work revealed that it wasn’t working so they stopped. My friend was upset because he felt this was a major ...

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“Either you made a mistake or you don’t know what you’re doing. Which one is it?” One of my friends found himself on the receiving end of this question during a monthly financial meeting with the CEO, his boss, his colleagues and some of his direct reports. How do you think he felt after this incident? As you know, by now, properly delivered feedback is a great way to help keep your workforce motivated. In addition to what you say while giving feedback, how you choose to deliver feedback is also important. Constructive Feedback If it’s constructive feedback, where you ...

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“Will I?” or “I will.”  Which one seems stronger. At first glance, the “I will” has a much stronger stance. It is solid. Stronger or not, the real question is, “Which statement produces better results?” Now it is not often that new ways to approach goal setting make their way onto the scene, but psychologist Ibrahim Senay has done just that.  In his research, Senay studied the impact of self-talk on goal attainment in a variety of contexts. One of his goals was to compare the difference between the impact of “Will I?” vs. “I will.” Interestingly enough, he found that ...

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