Inside and outside of work, these are fearful times. Over the last few years, the world has suffered through an unusual amount of anxiety-provoking situations, including the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous wars, the toppling of governments, multiple natural disasters, and...
Henry David Thoreau, who after spending a year and a half in quiet solitude at Walden Pond certainly earned the right to expound on silence, talks about the necessity to shake off the village as a means of connecting to your inner wisdom. Thoreau also underscored the...
Risk-taking is critical to business success. But the starting point for taking smart risks should be in action, not action. Come on, you might be thinking, let’s fast‐forward to where the action is. Risk‐taking is James Bond throttling a motorcycle off a cliff and...
In the same way you learn leadership from leaders, law from lawyers, and art from artists, you learn most about risk-taking from risk-takers. Emerson once wrote, “The great distinction between teachers sacred or literary is that one class speaks from within, or from...
In early 1960, Dr. Frances Kelsey was given her first assignment as a new employee with the FDA. After being on the job for only one month, she was asked to evaluate an application for a new drug by the pharmaceutical company Richardson-Merrell. The drug, being...
Reward Courageous Behavior, Not Just Successful Outcomes It is important to differentiate between a successful outcome and a courageous act. Being courageous, by definition, means to take on challenges despite the potential for failure. Courageous workers do, in fact,...
One challenge most leaders face is how to inspire more workplace creativity. Elevating people to higher standards of performance and inspiring useful ideas requires igniting their imaginations. Open-door leaders are keen to prevent complacency and lethargy. They know...
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