New Year’s resolutions are often hard to keep. The majority of the time, people aren’t able to stick to the resolutions they make – maybe because they aren’t sure what they need to do to achieve them, or because they set their expectations too high. It can be difficult and stressful. 2021 was a hard(…)
Curiosity is a great quality to have in the workplace. People who are curious are more likely to examine problems from different perspectives and come up with innovative solutions. They’re more likely to be lifelong learners who are constantly developing and enhancing their skills and abilities. Curious employees tend to be creative employees. And they’re(…)
I’ve written a few articles about stress management in the past. Researchers have found that you can ease the pain of a stressful day in a variety of ways, including watching a cat video, striking a power pose, or looking at trees. But if cats, power poses, and trees aren’t you’re thing, now you have(…)
I’m not a good cook. But last night, I attempted to make Chicken Tikka Masala because I think it’s delicious, and I loved the idea of being able to make it at home. Unfortunately, things did not go well. It turned out so terribly, in fact, that I’m not even going to eat the leftovers.(…)
Those of you who are involved in teaching know that there are a lot of different techniques that you can use to help people retain information. For instance, you can provide clear learning objectives, speak conversationally, and repeatedly reinforce the most critical points. But now there’s something new that you can try! You can shock(…)
Probably every professional has been at the receiving end of a poor presentation. Think of the conversations we have afterwards around the water cooler. “Wasn’t that just awful” we whine, often talking about all the mistakes the presenter made. The most common mistake of all is when the presenters yield to the temptation to tell the(…)
On May 21, 2014, I was officially installed as the President of a Toastmasters Club. I was charged to lead a board of three other officers and a club of 20 total members. Prior to this, I had never been president of anything. I had no formal leadership experience. For the first time, people were(…)
Perhaps the biggest difficulty of working at Hopkins is managing all of the different priorities that make demands on our time, attention, and emotional energy. We are stressed because it often seems as if we can’t give attention to all the things that have to be done. Deadlines have to be met; accounts need to(…)
I often wonder why people won’t take the time to learn new things. The most frequent response is that people are too busy. This often reminds me of the stories about people who are too busy chopping wood to sharpen the ax. An even better story is the person who is too busy chopping down trees(…)
Harry S. Truman famously remarked that “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” It is sad, though, that there really does seem to be a decline in how much we read. Some people lament that they simply don’t have enough time to read. The time excuse really isn’t very credible. We all have(…)