Steve Smith is a Scotland-born, Canada-raised hockey defenseman whose NHL career spanned 15 seasons. He is less well known for winning three Stanley Cup championships than for a single mistake. In 1986, while a rookie skating for the 2-time defending Stanley Cup champion Edmonton Oilers, Smith took the puck behind his own net and looked […]
Archive for Leadership
You Say You Want a Resolution
The Science of New Beginnings
For all of the champagne, new diets, and gym memberships folks are about to experience, only about eight percent of resolution-takers succeed in attaining their goals. What goes wrong? Any number of answers might hold a kernel of truth, but I’d offer the following: New Year’s Day is not a real new beginning. Much as […]
How to Fix New Year’s Resolutions
A Tool Kit for Goal Achievement
All of us, especially leaders, want to make positive change in our lives. But we’ve tried and failed many times. We’ll show you why New Year’s resolutions are a flawed system, and how to set achievable personal goals instead. You can avoid that sick feeling every January, and create a new habit or achievement that […]
When Life Throws You a Curveball
Sometimes You Need to Change Your Goals
With the holiday season upon us and the New Year just around the corner, especially driven people are in introspection mode as we analyze the year that was and make intentions for the year to come. Goal setting is extremely important and valuable, and I am going encourage you to do the necessary soul-work for […]
The Peter Principle and How to Avoid It
Don't Go From Good to Stuck
“In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.” Laurence J. Peter wrote those words as satire in 1968. But as with most effective satire, it points to an underlying truth. The Peter Principle describes what can happen when an employee does well in one job and is subsequently promoted. She […]
The Science of Record-Breaking
Discover Your Own Path to Excellence
May 6, 1954 was a cold and windy day in Oxford, England. It was far from ideal conditions for a race, but it was also the day Roger Banister broke a record. He wasn’t a professional athlete, but a medical student with a knack for running. He set out on a wet race track and […]