Food for Thought
Welcome to the HardTalk Biz Coaching Blog.
When you nurture your intellectual curiosity through reading, when you seriously entertain someone else’s perspective, and when you seek out professional opinions, thought-provoking articles, and contrarian views, I believe it leaves you enriched and wiser. I wish you inspired reading and reflecting and I welcome your comments on my posts.
Additional Reading: Some of My Many Favorite Books
A good book for me is one that provides me with multiple perspectives, one that confronts me with thought-provoking questions, and one that offers contrarian narratives so I can reflect in new ways and multiply my options. Let me offer you ten of the many books I think are excellent vehicles to expand your mind:
- The Business of Belief, Tom Asacker
- Moments of Impact, Chris Ertel and Lisa Kay Solomon
- Transparency – How Leaders Create a Culture of Candor, Warren Bennis, Daniel Goleman, and James O’Toole
- The Leadership Challenge and The Truth about Leadership, James Kouzes and Barry Posner
- Managing Transitions, William Bridges
- How to Keep People from Pushing Your Buttons, Albert Ellis and Arthur Lange
- The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle
- Humble Inquiry, Edgar H. Schein
- Beyond Blame – Learning from Failure and Success, Dave Zwieback
- Just Culture – Restoring Trust and Accountability in Your Organization, Sidney Dekker
That Darn Difficult Word Called ‘Sorry’
Early June I was honored to provide a webinar for Xcel Energy on delivering an effective apology. I will restrain myself and not go into the timeliness of this topic, yet you have to admit, we know too many people in politics, business, or at home who could do a much...
read moreAdvising Clients in Uncertain Times
In June 2017 I had the pleasure to return to one of the many conferences for lawyers in the Twin Cities. Grateful for being invited as the closing keynote speaker at the Health Law Institute, I'll share a few practical suggestions from my talk “Advising clients in...
read moreAnswer 8 Questions Before Accepting a (New) Leadership Position
In "The Art of War for Women - Sun Tzu's ultimate guide to winning without confrontation" by Chin-Ning Chu, a case is made for the importance of mental strength. As I assume we can all agree, mental strength is vital to your success at any level in any industry and in...
read moreThe Psychology Behind Organization Development Work
This post is inspired by two days at the University of Minnesota – College of Continuing and Professional Studies, packed with curious people who brought a rich diversity of work and life experiences to our Organization Development Course. Stephanie and I greatly...
read moreThe Power of Your Beliefs and Thoughts – Talk at St. Catherine’s University
This post is based on a talk at St. Catherine’s University at the Leadership Imperative Conference for women leaders. Honored, humbled, and enriched I left this day having enjoyed so much wisdom from and for women leaders! Cindy Kent, general manager of Infection...
read moreSimplifying Leadership
If you don’t know what you stand for, please don’t expect others to follow you. If you don’t believe in it, please don’t expect your people to put their heart and soul into it. If you don’t own your mistakes and misjudgments and act accountable, please expect...
read morePositive Psychology Practices
Positive psychology, founded by dr. Martin Seligman, is the scientific study of what makes people flourish - of the strengths and virtues that enable you to thrive. Positive Psychology urges you to focus on what is working, on what can be done or controlled, on what...
read moreHow to Argue Effectively
Sure, numerous conversations and meetings benefit from subtlety and agreement. Yet at least as many conversations and meetings require all involved to be able to argue effectively, to candidly speak out, to respectfully tell it as they see it, to challenge...
read moreThe Beauty and the Danger of Patterns
Stuck in a rut. Blindsided. Tunnel vision. Blind spots. I call them ‘siblings’ from the family of cognitive errors. If I say that you are stuck in a rut I mean that you are fixed in your thinking and in the way you do things. It could be that you've been doing...
read moreQuestions to Ask When Faced with Change
Change management is popular and there are countless books, talks, blog posts, and what not dedicated to this topic. In this post I'll alert you to questions, that, when considered thoughtfully, will help you lead and manage change more successfully. Some of the...
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