My younger daughter came home from school today with the results of some exams. While we were sitting in traffic, she told me that she didn’t get a ten (A+) on her math test because of some stupid mistakes. She did it almost perfectly, but can only look at the mistakes and repeat that she …
The days around Halloween are a good time to talk about fear and how it affects our behavior. Fear always limits our responses and shapes our risk aversion. Fear management is, and always has been, a matter of survival. 30,000 years ago, humans were surrounded by many dangers. Risk-takers were less likely to survive. Cowards …
In working with my clients, I’ve realized more than ever that there are three main pillars to developing successful leadership behavior: consciousness, compassion, and consistency. Every other leadership skill we can think of can be built on these three pillars. Consciousness: the power of self-awareness At the heart of Consciousness is self-awareness, the foundation upon …
How do you know you’re right? Do you ever question your thinking on an issue? How often do you stick to thoughts that were formed in a different context, with the information you had at the time? Understanding our mental models is a way of clearing the cobwebs in our mental storeroom and also a …
Empathy is defined as “the ability to recognize, understand and share the thoughts and feelings of another person”. It helps us work with others, build relationships and, as it shapes our morality, plays an important role in the decision-making process. In general, empathy is necessary to develop positive behaviors that benefit society, individuals, and relationships. …
How do you make decisions in this team? A few days ago, I asked this question to a team of students working on a not-so-simple project for one of my classes. By majority vote – they said. We talk about the problem and then we vote. And what happens if you are not all there …
Making decisions is the main job of managers. Often they are not experts on the subject, yet they have to make decisions. Precision questioning is a method to help people make decisions, and it can be considered a tool for critical thinking and problem-solving. When the right questions are asked, the decision becomes clear in …
Creativity is one of the evolutionary forces. Without it, humanity wouldn’t be able to solve problems or come up with new ideas. Robert Fritz, in his book The Path of least resistance, says, “much of what you learned growing up was what not to do and what to avoid”. That is, people are trained to …
Does intuition play a part in a decision-making process? Making decisions is generally hard due to the inherent uncertainty and the complexity of the problem and the pressure of time. Nevertheless, we shouldn’t underestimate the power of our intuition to make sound decisions. Intuition is when we instinctively know that something is right or wrong. In …
Deciding is often a tension between a long-term want and a short-term need, thus most times is a difficult process where a second order thinking is needed to unravel hidden implications of our decision in the future, preventing unintentional outcomes to occur. The question is now how we can identify second order impacts. The straightest …
