Reduce The Chance Of Choking Under Pressure By Following These Recommendations
Few of us will ever face a public grilling the likes of which Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is dealing with on Capitol Hill, but how he prepared for the big event offers a lesson for anyone who wants to perform their best when the stakes are high. After day...
Famed Golfer Phil Mickelson Has The Mindset Of A Winner
At the age of 47, golf pro Phil Mickelson is playing some of the best golf of his winning career. Entering the 2018 Masters at Augusta National, Mickelson is driving the ball 10 yards farther than he did five years ago, and longer than many of the younger...
Mark Zuckerberg Should Follow Aristotle’s 3-Step Persuasion Formula To Rebuild The Public’s Trust
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faces his toughest task this week—to persuade lawmakers and the public that he takes privacy seriously and will implement the steps necessary to restore the public’s trust after recent privacy issues has shaken confidence in...
Apple’s Latest Product Launch Presentation Was Vintage Steve Jobs
Apple introduced new products today for the education market, and its presentation was vintage Steve Jobs. From the way they told the story behind the new iPad for students to the way the slides were designed, Apple's leaders used the same techniques that...
An American Wine Pioneer Who Leveraged The Remarkable Power Of Emotion To Sell His Product
The California wine industry is rich with characters, mavericks and risk-takers. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy meeting and learning about the pioneers who put California’s wine regions on the map. One of those pioneers passed away recently—Robert Haas....
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s Clear And Consistent Vision Rallies Employees Around A Common Purpose
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella read a book that changed his outlook on leadership and business. The book was Mindset by award-winning Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck. In the 2006 book Dweck explores the habit of having a “growth mindset:” the belief that...
Fix The Primitive Mental Bug That Threatens Your Happiness
I’ve been obsessed with happiness lately because few people seem to have it. It’s an important subject for leaders, entrepreneurs, business professionals and students because our thoughts control our behaviors. Neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists...
Apple And Duke Basketball Find Success By Paying Attention To The Details
A person can learn a lot about success from carrying a clipboard--if you're carrying it for Duke University basketball legend, Mike Krzyzewski, Coach K. In a New York Times article about the team's student managers, it's clear that Coach K's winning record...
How Southwest Airlines Uses Emotional Storytelling To Connect With Its Customers
There are 175 seats on Southwest Airlines’ new Boeing 737 planes. And every seat tells a story. Southwest’s leaders recognize the power of emotional storytelling to connect with employees and customers on a deeper level than the average company. Over the...
Warren Buffett Loves This Ancient Tool Of Persuasion To Enliven His Annual Letters
Analysts and Berkshire Hathaway shareholders look forward to reading Warren Buffett’s annual letter for its wit, wisdom, and insights. I enjoy it because I can always count on Buffett, a life-long student of communication, to use metaphorical references to...
A Brilliant Communicator, Stephen Hawking Used Humor And Simple Words To Capture Our Attention
Physicist Stephen Hawking tried to answer some big, complex questions: Where did we come from? How did the universe come into being? Are we alone out there? The way he answered those questions reveals a brilliant mind who was equally brilliant...
Lift Your Potential By Following These 3 Steps
The people around us matter--a lot, according to happiness researcher Shawn Achor in his new book Big Potential. "The height of your potential is predicted by the people who surround you." Achor spent eleven years at Harvard where he lectured in one of the...
Great Business Leaders Are Unshakable Optimists (A Conversation With Harvard’s Steven Pinker)
Twenty years ago, I read a book called My American Journey by retired four-star general (and later U.S. Secretary of State) Colin Powell. One of his rules for successful leadership sticks with me to his day. Powell said, “Perpetual optimism is a force...
Every Product Has A Back story – Even A Talking Wine Bottle
I was at a dinner party recently where the host had graciously pulled out a $100 Napa Valley cabernet, but a $10 bottle of wine stole the show. It talked to us, literally. Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) is the first to create "talking wine labels" to stand...
Jordan Peele Acceptance Speech Displays A Winner’s Mindset
Jordan Peele made history at the 2018 Oscars when he became the first African-American screenwriter to win an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Peele wrote and directed "Get Out." In his acceptance speech, which is going viral on social media,...
How Warren Buffett Conquered His Fear Of Public Speaking
Warren Buffett recently released his 53rd annual letter to shareholders recently--a financial analysis that investors and financial experts are always eagerly devour for its wit and wisdom. The Oracle of Omaha commands attention, but it wasn't always that...
Why 18-Minutes Is Rule The Perfect Length For A Sales Pitch
Your brain is an energy hog. It takes an enormous amount of energy to listen intently for a long period of time. One secret to keeping your audience glued to your pitch or presentation is to keep your presentation short. But how short? TED Talks have found...
People Don’t Care About What You Are Selling. They Care About This.
I'm looking at an intimidating 800-page binder as I write this article. It contains confidential information about a new product category. When I prepare the company's leaders to launch the product, I'll be thinking about a technique Steve Jobs and Google...
Once You Realize Your Customers Don’t Care About Your Product, Your Sales Will Increase
I'm looking at an intimidating 800-page binder as I write this article. It contains confidential information about a new product category. When I prepare the company's leaders to launch the product, I'll be thinking about a technique Steve Jobs and Google...
Leaders, Own Your Story Or Someone Else Will
Harvard business professor John Kotter once said that leaders “under communicate their visions for change by at least a factor of 10.” A single email, a single presentation, a single tweet is not enough. Changing a narrative requires repetition. I was...
5 YouTube Video Tips To Make You Look And Sound Like A Pro
Business professionals are often surprised to hear a little known fact--YouTube viewers spend ten times the amount of time watching educational content than they do watching pet and animal videos. According to the company's Head of Culture and Trends,...
When Is The Perfect Time For A Meeting? We Asked Bestselling Author Dan Pink
The famous TED speaker and New York Times bestselling author Daniel H. Pink, along with his team of researchers, spent two years analyzing more than 700 studies in fields ranging from economics to psychology to unearth the hidden science of perfect timing....
When Is The Ideal Age to Start a Business? The Answer Might Surprise You
At the age of 35, I walked away from a six-figure job with a prestigious title to start a business. I had one project lined up for $1,200 (and I had to pay my travel expenses out of it). I had a new mortgage in a very expensive California town and a baby...
Abe Lincoln Captivated His Audience Used A Tree Stump Like A TED Stage
President’s Day is a good time to think about the lessons past presidents have taught us, especially those leaders like Abraham Lincoln whose words and actions changed the world we live in today. While researching a new book on individuals who stand out in...
This 5 Year Study Reveals The Communication Secrets Of Great Leaders
In a groundbreaking study of 5,000 successful employees and managers over a five-year period, UC Berkeley management professor Morten T. Hansen found that top performers have an extraordinary ability to persuade other people to buy in to their ideas. I...
This Five Year Study Reveals What Propels Top Performance
A remarkable new study of top performers finds that great leaders are great communicators. And they are great communicators because they’re great at simplifying. I recently sat down with UC Berkeley management professor and former Harvard Business School...
Bill Gates’ Favorite Book Will Change Your Life In The First 6 Pages
If you're pessimistic about the state of world today, Bill Gates and Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker have a message for you: "This bleak assessment of the state of the world is wrong. And not just a little wrong--wrong wrong, flat-earth wrong,...
Richard Branson’s Brain Trick To Reframe A Mindset
Richard Branson has never been reticent to share his personal experience with dyslexia. In the opening sentence to a recent blog post, Branson writes, "I'm often asked how I went from being a dyslexic school dropout to founding many successful businesses."...
Budweiser’s Super Bowl Commercial Taps The Brand’s Best Marketing Tool
UPDATE: The day after Super Bowl LII, USA TODAY ranked the top 5 ads based on feedback from thousands of panelists who voted for their favorite Super Bowl ad. From a list of 65 commercials, Budweiser’s “Stand By You,” came in third, reinforcing the power...
The 86 Best Days Of The Year To Get A Fresh Start And Help You Stick To Your Goals
By the time you read this, chances are you've given up on your New Year's resolution or it's fading fast. By the eighth day in January, 25 percent of people who made resolutions have failed to keep them. By the end of year, fewer than 10 percent of...
Story Is A Powerful Contagion That Can Fight The Flu
Facts and data are not enough to convince people to take action, especially if that action requires getting poked in the arm with a needle to protect themselves from the flu. What does work to change minds is the subject of today’s column. The 2017-2018...
How Ideas Go Viral According To This Nobel Prize-Winning Economist
To study narrative is to examine ourselves. We think in story, process our world through the lens of story, and use storytelling to communicate ideas. One prominent economist believes that stories are the heart of human behavior. He says to understand the...
Turn Good Presentations Into Great Ones By Following This One Rule
Steve Jobs was a master showman. In my opinion, Jobs was the best business storyteller of our time. Every product launch was brilliantly performed. Every move, demo, image and slide was in sync and beautifully choreographed. If I sound like I'm describing...
The One Leadership Skill That Turned The 12 Horse Soldiers Into An Elite Team
In October, 2001, small teams of American soldiers on horseback defeated thousands of Taliban fighters because the soldiers were trained in one critical leadership skill: Persuasion. In a scene from the movie 12 Strong, an Afghan general who linked up with...
The Reason Why Alabama’s Football Coach Only Gave His Players 24 Hours To Celebrate Will Help You Succeed
Alabama football coach Nick Saban gave himself and his Crimson Tide team a well-deserved break after winning the 2018 college playoff national championship in an overtime victory over Georgia. He gave them all of 24 hours. "In 24 hours you probably need to...
HBO Chief Uses The Ancient Tool Of Persuasion To Make His Pitch
A comedian was being courted by both Netflix and HBO. According to this article in The Wall Street Journal, HBO president of programming, Casey Bloys, used a metaphor. Bloys’ pitch to comedian Jerrod Carmichael went like this: “If you have 50 kids, you’re...
The One Personality Trait That Separates Great Leaders From Average Ones
You don't have wait for success to leave clues. Billionaires like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are showing us the way: Successful leaders look at the world differently. They choose to view events through a particular lens. In one word: optimism. For the...
Change Comes When Leaders Master The Power Of Words To Inspire
Since my conversation with Darkest Hour screenwriter Anthony McCarten, the movie continues to build buzz. Actor Gary Oldman, who portrays Winston Churchill as he rallied the English people to fight Nazi Germany, has won both the Golden Globe and Critics’...
Make a true connection with your audience by incorporating elements of ‘The Hero’s Journey’ into your next presentation
In a scene in the new Stars Wars movie, The Last Jedi, a character turns to the hero and says "All is lost." It's scene that you'll see replicated in every Hollywood blockbuster and every great heroic epic throughout the history of literature. It's also a...
Oprah’s Golden Globe Moment Reminds Us That Inspiring Leaders Are Potent Storytellers
Storytelling took center stage at Sunday’s Golden Globes when Oprah Winfrey gave an inspiring speech as she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award. Even if you didn’t watch it live, you’ve probably heard about it because it's become a social media sensation...
How Great Tech Leaders Approach Presentations For Biggest Stage In The Industry – CES
While most employees are enjoying a holiday break, some conference rooms are buzzing with presentation designers, marketing professionals and executives who are preparing to take the stage at the giant International Consumer Electronics Show, CES 2018 in...
Churchill’s Speeches In Darkest Hour Provide A Master Class In Communication
On May 19, 1940, newly-appointed British prime minister, Winston Churchill, was editing his first speech to the public. With minutes to go before the microphone went live, Churchill was dictating edits to his typist and marking up his printed speech. It’s...
Propel Your Career In 2018 With These Books
The most common New Year’s resolution is to “exercise more.” That’s followed by the second most common resolution—to lose weight. Reading more books doesn’t crack the top 10. But for leaders, maybe it should top the list. After reading more than 75...
Attention Leaders: These 5 Books Will Help You Better Communicate In 2018
I've read 75 nonfiction books published this year in a wide range of categories from history to business. Most of the books are bestsellers and offer actionable insights into leadership, entrepreneurship and communication. In this article I've chosen five...
CEO Danny Meyer, Apple and Tesla Look For This Quality In A New Hire And You Should Too
In a recent interview on CNBC, Shake Shack founder and CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, Danny Meyer, revealed his secret to hiring the best service professionals. What matters most is that the job candidate has what Meyer calls "the hospitality...
Some Of The World’s Most Successful Entrepreneurs Say This Is The Secret To Success
In a recent and rare interview, the billionaire inventor James Dyson revealed the secret to his success. Dyson told the Wall Street Journal that his success is due to: "Perseverance, taking risks and having a willingness to fail." Dyson doesn't shy away...
Leaders: Use This Proven Technique To Win People Over
This 1 Key to Human Psychology Will Set You Apart as a Leader People Want to Follow It's well-documented that hanging around chronically negative people can bring you down. The opposite is also true: Spending time with positive people makes you happier. In...
Carmine’s Picks For The Top Ten Books of 2017 For Leaders
From billionaires to CEOs, and from neuroscientists to navy SEALs, the authors of some of the best business books of the year offer plenty of invaluable advice for entrepreneurs, managers, leaders and aspiring change-makers. These 10 insights from 4,000...
Billionaires like Bill Gates Credit Their Success To This 1 Habit
Bill Gates is at it again. He's indulging in one of his favorite habits: reading. Gates recently wrote a blog post titled, "5 amazing books I read this year." The post is in addition to regular book reviews Gates posts all year long. "Reading is my...
Why Joe Biden’s Heartfelt Moment With Meghan McCain Went Viral
A seven-minute therapy session on live television the other day is trending on YouTube and Facebook. It’s featured in The New York Times and the BBC. There’s a scientific reason for it, and there’s an aspirational lesson on how to debate ideas—especially...
Starbucks’ New Digital Brew: Stories Of People Not Product
While many leaders search for the latest marketing strategy to grow their brands, Starbucks wins people over by adding a digital twist to old-fashioned storytelling. The Starbucks storytelling secret—don’t make the story about product; make the story about...
Perhaps The Best Investment Advice From Billionaire Warren Buffett
In an essay celebrating Forbes’ 100-year anniversary, billionaire Warren Buffett says there is one investment that “supersedes” all others: Invest in yourself. “Address whatever you feel your weaknesses are, and do it now,” Buffett writes. Buffett goes on...
The Communication Tip That Opens Hearts, Minds And Wallets
Philanthropist Melinda Gates is a storyteller. “The power of stories open our hearts to a new place, which opens our minds, which leads to action,” she once said. Storytelling is front and center at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates’ wanted...
Astronaut Scott Kelly Teaches Us How To Ignore Naysayers And Fight Back
An admissions officer told Scott Kelly he wouldn't succeed. Here's how Kelly fought back. "I was a terrible student, always staring out windows or looking at the clock, waiting for the class to be over," astronaut Scott Kelley recalls in his new...
Pep Talks Work According To Science
New scientific studies show that pep talks work. From the baseball field to the workplace, great leaders energize teams with their words. The Houston Astros provide the latest example. On November 1st, the Astros beat the Dodgers in game 7 to win the...
The Best Leaders Encourage Fearless Feedback
Recently, I was seated in a room at a U.S. Air Force base as a class of the best and brightest were listening to an instructor. He was making a provocative argument about a foreign adversary. When he concluded his presentation, the instructor didn’t ask...
Based On Brain Scans – This Is The Secret To Persuasion
Thanks to advanced brain scanning techniques, we've learned more about persuasion than we've ever known. Although I've studied persuasion for 25 years, the last ten years has seen an explosion in research, thanks to advanced brain scanning techniques....
The Interview Question That Taught Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Empathy And Made Him A Better Leader
A company that combines passion and purpose gets noticed and gets results. In his new book, Hit RefreshHit Refresh Book, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says his highest priority is renewing the company culture with "a growing sense of empathy." The word...
Most Employees Want To Quit, Here’s How To Keep Them Happy
First, the bad news. Employees are really unhappy. Most of them of can’t wait to jump ship and find another job, according to a new survey of 17,000 employees across 19 industries in the U.S. According to “Mind the Workplace,” a joint study by the Faas...
Learn From da Vinci And Jobs How To Unlock Your Inner Genius
<h3>Walter Isaacson's new book about da Vinci shows readers how to unlock their inner genius.</h3> Apple co-founder Steve Jobs makes several appearances in Walter Isaacson's new biography of Leonardo da Vinci. The two creative geniuses have a lot in...