In his book A First-Rate Madness, Nassir Ghaemi, M.D., a professor of psychiatry and director of the Mood Disorders Program at Tufts Medical Center, argues that there is a connection between mental illness and great leadership. “During times of crisis, some of our best leaders had mental illnesses like depression and bipolar disorder,” says Ghaemi. “Some of our worst leaders were healthy and normal.” After analyzing evidence of symptoms, family history, the course of the illness...
I’m a geek and given the choice I will always choose to hangout with my own “kind”. Having launched a product and started a service business I quickly realised that I had to break out of my habits and start going to where my customers really are. That’s why, when I was given the opportunity to speak to an entrepreneur and startup founder about this subject, I immediately jumped on board. Jeremy Kagan is the founder & CEO of Pricing Engine. A web service that helps the “little guy”...
As the leader of your team, you must clearly understand and be able to pass on the purpose of your organization and your team’s role within that organization. If you don’t know the purpose of your efforts, you certainly won’t be able to inspire your team to success. Communicating purpose will take more than requiring your team to memorize the company mission statement, however. It must become part of the culture of what everyone in your organization thinks about, says, and does each day. It...
I tend to believe that the reason people lack confidence comes down to 2 things. One, they’ve been beaten up emotionally over the course of their lifetime and thus don’t know how to find confidence on their own. Two, their lack of confidence stems from the unknown. In a strange way, those tips and most of the other posts I write on this blog are geared towards education of what good leadership principles are and how they can be used. I also hope I talk enough about the types of outcomes one can...
When anyone working with you starts to talk about your business, your products or services or you, it’s either because they’re really happy about the experience, or they are unhappy with it. Sometimes the disconnect happens when they feel that interacting with you or your business should “flow” a certain way. There is an expectation of the connection that is not met. All of your interactions with your connections, regardless of whether they are carried out physically or online, need to...