What’s Good About Leaning In

I have to admit that, despite my passion for the issue of women’s careers, I didn’t rush to read Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In when it was

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The Best Ways to Give

Adam Grant is a professor at Wharton whose research I have been interested in for years. He recently wrote a book, Give and Take, where he summarizes much of what

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How Positivity Leads to Success

There is overwhelming evidence from research in positive psychology that people who are happy are more successful. Positivity is related to higher levels of job performance, supervisory evaluations and perceived

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Use If-Then Planning to Achieve Your Goals

Do you have a goal that you’re trying to achieve? If so, I have good news for you. There is one easy thing that you can do to significantly

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How to Set the Right New Year's Resolution

Beginning a new year with new resolutions calls to mind an interesting aspect of goal setting. Many of our new year’s resolutions are about things we want to accomplish

Goals Personal Growth Success New Year's resolution success

Using Company Culture to Attract, Retain, and Engage Talent

Next week I’m moderating a conference, organized by the Northern Virginia Technology Council and sponsored by Invertix Corporation, entitled “Best practices for recruiting and retaining talent”. The panelists, winners

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Act in Spite of Your Fear

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot

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How You Think About Your Goals Matters

I’m reading Heidi Grant Halvorson’s book Succeed and it is full of fascinating research about setting and reaching goals. One of the things I’ve found most interesting

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Don’t Fantasize, Visualize!

Visualization can be an effective way to help us achieve our goals. It lets us “rehearse” desired outcomes by imagining the future the way we want it to be. Sports

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Realize your Strengths

According to Alex Linley, “realizing our strengths is the smallest thing we can do to make the biggest difference”. Using our strengths makes us happy and is the surest way

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Happy Leaders Have Successful Teams

Research shows that our happiness influences our own success, but what about the impact of a leader’s happiness on the success of his or her followers? Studies have, in

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'Tis the Season for Needing More Energy

Are you getting stressed as the holidays approach? Doesn’t it seem like there is never enough time to get everything done? Having enough time isn’t the real problem,

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Boost Your Positivity with a Mentor

I’m very pleased to have my first guest blogger, Rene Petrin, share his thoughts about the positive benefits of mentoring. You’ve had a challenging day at the office

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Terrific September Tweets

Here are my favorite tweets from September: 1. Loveliest thing I’ve seen in ages — 7 rare Dr. Seuss stories brought to light via eBay scavenger hunt http://j.mp/

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You Get What You Expect

Pygmalion was a sculptor in Greek mythology who fell madly in love with a beautiful female statue he had carved. He named her Galatea and he treated her as if

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Hire People With Positive Attitudes

Positive people are more successful than negative people. Among other things they are more productive, more creative, better team players, and healthier. According to Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness

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We Learn Best From Success not Failure

I think it is important to learn from our mistakes.  And I think it is extremely important for organizations to create climates in which people are not punished for their

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Want to Succeed? Work on Being Happy

Most people believe that success will make them happy.  They work long hours, sacrificing time with family and friends, because they are convinced that they will find happiness when they

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Dare to Step Outside Your Comfort Zone

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. – T.S. Eliot Human beings are creatures of habit.  Change makes us nervous,

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Just Do It!

Today is the one-year anniversary of my blog!  I have enjoyed writing and am proud that I’m still going.  I have to say I was very nervous about starting

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Positive Priming For a Competitive Edge

I just dropped my son off to take a high school entrance exam.  In the car on the way there I told him to think of something that made him

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Use Your Strengths at Work

Are you using your strengths at work every day?  The happiest, most successful people know what their strengths are and use them often.  So once you have identified your strengths,

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"I Think I Can"

One of my favorite books growing up was The Little Engine That Could.  I just loved repeating with my mother when she read it to me, “I-think-I-can, I-think-I-can, I-think-I-can” as

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Positivity Through Partnerships

“Two heads are better than one.”  An old cliché maybe, but so true.  Michael Eisner has written a book called Working Together about successful business partnerships.  He highlights numerous partnerships

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Optimistic versus Pessimistic Thinking

Optimistic people anticipate a bright future, expecting to achieve their goals.  Because of this, they are more willing to take risks and make changes.  Optimism can be self-fulfilling because people

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