Ski Racing: Staying Healthy, Rested, and Motivated All Season Long
One of the most important ideas I emphasize in my work with racers is consistency. In fact, it’s consistency that makes the great racers, like Tina Maze and Ted Ligety, so great. Day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out, and year in and year out, they are […]
Read MoreBusiness: Six Steps of Leadership
A nice article in the Corner Office column of the NY Times in which G.J. Hart, the CEO of California Pizza Kitchen, describes his six steps of leadership (plus one): 1) Be the very best you can be; 2) dream big; 3) lead with your heart; 4) trust the people you lead; 5) do the […]
Read MoreIs Technology Creating a Generation of Bad Decision Makers
Decision making is another aspect of children’s thinking that seems to be suffering as a result of the latest technology. This poor decision making is illustrated by events over the last few years involving young people making egregiously bad decisions that involve technology (not to mention the frequent examples occurring in the adult world!). For example, teenagers whose “sexting” to a friend is released in cyberspace, embarrassing or illegal behavior that’s recorded on mobile phones and uploaded onto the Web, and the tragic consequences of cyberbullying. In looking at decision making among children, let me begin with a brief lesson in brain anatomy and functioning. Children start off at a severe disadvantage when it comes to decision making because the prefrontal cortex doesn’t fully develop until well past adolescence. The prefrontal cortex is instrumental to so-called executive functioning, namely, determining good from bad, planning, recognizing future consequences, predicting outcomes, and the ability to suppress socially inappropriate behavior. This means that children begin their lives “behind the curve” when it comes to decision making; their default is to make poor decisions. So, anything that makes bad decision making easier for children to act on just adds insult to injury.
Read MoreSki Racing: Four Things That Will Improve Your Training
Over the past six weeks I’ve worked on- and off-snow with a handful of top juniors individually and four of the leading junior programs in the U.S. As usual, I learned things in my work with the athletes and coaches that always remind me of what I would call the “little big things” in ski […]
Read MoreLatest News: Dr. Jim Taylor Joins The Trium Group
I’m pleased to announce that I am now a partner at The Trium Group, a boutique corporate consulting firm based in San Francisco that specializes in strategic, human, and organizational transformation. The firm offers a range of services from traditional strategic consulting to individual and organizational performance, leadership training, and team building. Trium clients include Cisco, […]
Read MoreTeach Your Children to Single Task, not Multitask
After reading my last post, I hope you’re convinced now that so-called multitasking isn’t what it purports to be and definitely doesn’t do your children any favors in school or anywhere else. So, the next thing to do is to show them (and perhaps yourself) that “single tasking” is a much better way to go. Single tasking is definitely not rocket science, but it may require that your children break some deeply ingrained habits around their use of technology and learn new habits that will enable them to be more productive and efficient. The good news is that, with some commitment and discipline, your children can retrain those habits and, in a relatively short time and with the benefits clear, become comfortable and adept single taskers. Given that single tasking may involve some pretty big changes in your children’s use of technology, I would encourage you to collaborate with them so they have buy into whatever changes you want to implement. The reality is that if they don’t see the value in changing the way they focus, they will resist any efforts you make with them and those efforts will be doomed to fail. Educate your children about what multitasking really is and why it doesn’t work well, especially in their studies. Then, introduce them to single tasking and show them how it can help them in so many ways.
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