As a leader, do you lead a purposeful life? What do you believe is your highest purpose? And what habits or qualities (i.e. virtues) allow you to succeed?
JAMSHED BHARUCHA, Professor of Psychology, Provost, Senior Vice President, Tufts University explains how to stretch your mind in education. He used to believe that a paramount purpose of a liberal education was threefold:
1) Stretch your mind, reach beyond your preconceptions; learn to think of things in ways you have never thought before.
2) Acquire tools with which to critically examine and evaluate new ideas, including your own cherished ones.
3)Settle eventually on a framework or set of frameworks that organize what you know and believe and that guide your life as an individual and a leader.
But he changed his mind find out to what…
As a leader, you’re responsible for important decisions and, in many respects, the well being and growth of your team members. You are faced with many choices, and the more choices you have, the more opportunities there are for regret. Regrettable leadership, however, may not be such a bad thing. According to the researchers at [...]
Leaders don’t always operate democratically, but most will solicit views from team members before making decisions. They may ask for a show of hands or “aye” votes. These votes often come after the group has gotten a sense of the leader’s and/or majority opinion. As a result, dissenters may not voice their opinions (if they’re [...]
Leaders in all spheres–education, business, politics, sports–feel compelled to address short-term concerns, now more than ever. The pressure to show results quickly is so very strong. If positive results don’t come soon enough, leaders are sent packing and roundly criticized. And yet we also want leaders to be mindful of long-term stewardship and to act [...]
The more you lead, the more you may be accustomed to hearing and believing your own voice. And the more you may tune out other voices. Successful leaders, in particular, have the propensity to believe in themselves and their opinions to a great and perhaps dangerous degree. They turn the contrast dial up and up–toward [...]
Most leaders believe it is better to give than it is to receive, but they may not pay attention to giving and receiving patterns, as well as psychological motivations behind these patterns. Ben Franklin said, “He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another than he whom you [...]
By Jonathan Bennett In this paper I shall present not just the conscience of Huckleberry Finn but two others as well. One of them is the conscience of Heinrich Himmler. He became a Nazi in 1923; he served drably and quietly, but well, and was rewarded with increasing responsibility and power. At the peak of his career he held [...]
David Whyte asks the question, would you rather fail at your life or succeed at someone else’s? So, whose path are you on? Our lives have porous boundaries. Often, it’s unclear if what we do and value are chosen, suggested, or implanted. Maybe your dad, mom, sibling, or friend played hockey or danced or debated [...]
Asking questions in business often brings to mind the Socratic Method. This is great for teaching but it may get you in hot water as a leader.
Executive Coaches help clients discover the gap between their expected and actual outcomes. The easiest way to bridge the outcome gap is by eliminating unproductive or counterproductive behaviors. These behaviors aren’t hard to identify because they’re usually wrapped around a particular fear. Once the fear, behaviors, and consequences are brought to light, clients are usually [...]
In cartoons, when a character is faced with a tough decision, an angel appears on one shoulder and a devil on the other. Each gets an ear. In real life, we don’t just hear two voices when faced with a tough decision. We hear many voices. You might have the voice of a teacher, parent, [...]
Dr. Glenn Wilson, a psychiatrist at King’s College London University, found the IQ of those trying to respond to messages and fulfill work obligations fell by 10 points. That IQ drop is equivalent to losing a night’s sleep or twice the drop seen by those who just smoked marijuana! If you don’t want to appear sleep-deprived [...]
My daughter and I recently finished a two-month “24″ marathon, watching Jack Bauer rescue the world. This led to our conversation while hiking in Colorado State Park about how often terrorist attacks are thwarted without our knowledge–for security reasons or simply to keep the public from being any more stressed out than we already are. I [...]
A perfectionist rejects: failure, painful emotions, success, and reality. According to Tal Ben-Shahar in his new book The Pursuit of Perfect: How to Stop Chasing Perfection and Start Living a Richer, Happier Life, “perfectionists reject everything that deviates from their flawless, faultless ideal vision and as a result suffer whenever they don’t meet their own [...]
