Ego in Business: There is an “M” and an “E” in Team
The San Francisco Giants’ surprising World Series victory in October led to mass celebration and ticker-tape parades in the City by the Bay. It also produced the usual theorizing about how a team could go from being down 0-3 in the National League Championship Series to sweeping the favored Detroit Tigers to win the Fall Classic. And the success of the Giants caused many to ask if their “secret formula” could be learned by teams in the corporate world. There were the usual clichés about the power of teamwork, players peaking at the right time, plain dumb luck and, of course, divine intervention. But none of these explanations really gets at how the Giants were able to overcome the longest of odds to become the World Series champs. One particularly common conversation has brought up the mythology that winning teams win by having players who have no egos. In fact, the noted business guru Jim Collins argues that the best leaders are “egoless,” that they are humble, unselfish and have little ambition. We’re here to tell you that is simply not true.
Read MoreSki Racing: Threat vs. Challenge
I have found that a simple distinction appears to lie at the heart of whether racers are able to ski their best or crumble under the weight of expectations and tough conditions on race day: Do they view the race as a threat or a challenge. What happens when you are threatened by something (think […]
Read MoreHealthy Values Protect Your Kids from Media’s Unhealthy Messages
So what values will children growing up in the 21st century need to thrive? Perhaps surprisingly, my answer is the same values that have enabled children to thrive in previous generations: respect, responsibility, hard work, integrity, compassion, just to name a few. The increased presence of popular media in no way changes that calculus. To […]
Read MoreCycling: Cycling Confidence
Confidence is the single most important mental factor in cycling. Confidence is also a mental area that is ripe for change and I will not only be offering you insights into how confidence impacts your cycling performance, but, in my next several installments, I will also offer you many practical tools for developing confidence in […]
Read MoreLatest News: Nice Review of Raising Generation Tech
I just wanted to share a very kind review of my latest parenting book, Raising Generation Tech: Preparing Your Children for a Media-fueled World, by Dr. Marilyn Price-Mitchell.
Read MoreParenting: Interesting Article about Raising Prodigies
I found this recent NY Times article,Would You Wish This on Your Child? (interesting title!), about the challenging of raising gifted children, interesting and relevant for raising “normal” children as well. It seems like every parent wants a gifted child (just so they can find a job these days!), but there is often a price […]
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