Sir Ken Robinson on Multiple Intelligences

I love Sir Ken Robinson and I absolutely love this clip. Make sure you listen all the way to the end and hear the Gillian Lynne story.

Faking It: How Introverts Succeed

I count myself among the approximately 25% of the population who define themselves as an introvert. Author Susan Cain has some interesting thoughts about what the experience is like.



Introversion is not the same thing as shyness or social inhibition. In fact, motivational speaker and sales person extraordinaire Zig Ziglar claimed to be an introvert. I worked for his organization as a marketing representative early in my career. Off stage, Zig was very soft-spoken. On stage he was a terrific actor.

According to career publisher JIST, introverts often display the following traits at work:

Thoughtfulness

Patience & Persistence

Originality in Thinking

High Work Output

Good Writing

Ability to Work Independently

Jack Canfield on Choosing A Career

Inventor Dean Kamen on "Knowing Yourself"

Who Do I Envy & What Do I Lie About?

Who do I envy & what do I lie about? I'm posting a few videos this week from Gretchen Rubin's "Happiness Project" series based on her book by the same title. I've been a collector of questions designed to help people uncover their innate talents and passions for many years. These are two questions I hadn't run across or thought about. But after listening to her explanation, it makes sense.

Most of us were taught that envy is a bad thing. Gretchen says nothing to alter that framework. But she does suggest a positive use of envy. Like Gretchen, I have envied writers all my life. Most all of my free time is either spent in bookstores or writing myself.

Her second question, "What do you lie about?" was a little more uncomfortable. I'm not sure I've exactly lied about my work, but for many years, I was professionally engaged in a career that I tried to avoid sharing. To be truthful, it embarrassed me and I routinely went out of my way to avoid talking about it in a social setting. It should have been a clue.

What Did You Love Doing As A Child?

Gretchen Rubin explores a terrific strength discovery tool in the short video below. She asks the question, What did you love doing when you were 10 years old?" It really is a great question. Don't get hung up on the precise age. Maybe the key clue came at age 14 for you. Maybe it came much younger.

Consider this amazing memory from physicist Freeman Dyson. He writes, "I've never remembered a time when I wasn't in love with calculating. One of the first memories I have was when I was being put down for a nap in the afternoons. I was in the crib and not able to climb out, and I was calculating the infinite series, 1 + 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1 + 1/16...and discovered that it came out to 2... I just loved calculating. It's something your born with...

"Do What You Do" - Gretchen Rubin

"People Do Best What Comes Naturally"

Gretchen Rubin is an author that I have followed on and off for many years. In this short video, she explains the background and context from something John Kennedy once said.

Role Optimization – Good or Great?

Do you recognize this baseball pitcher? Probably not, unless you are among the most dedicated of baseball fans. He was a very good pitcher too. But at one point in his professional career he made the decision to stop pitching so he could focus on a role where he was much better. He was even heavily criticized for the decision. Looking back, it was a pretty good choice. This former pitcher was the legendary Babe Ruth. His decision to set aside the role of pitcher, where he was merely good, in favor of a role where he could become the world’s greatest hitter, was life changing for him and his teammates.

Often the difference between being good and being great is making adjustments that allow you to spend more of your time developing your greatest strengths.

Do you need to use the “Babe Ruth” strategy? Do you need to figure out how to let go of tasks and activities where you don’t have the potential to become the best? Maybe you need to be in another position all together. Or maybe you need to expand or carve from a current role.

Some estimate that as many as 80% of U.S. workers are in a role or position that needs adjustment if they are to maximize their performance and contribution in the workplace. About 1/3 of that 80% are playing the wrong position all together. A second 1/3 would perform much better if they were working in a paired down or more focused version of their current role. And a final 1/3 would actually contribute more if they worked in a more expanded version of their current role.

What about you?

Lessons From The World's Greatest Sushi Chef

Be The Best & Work With The Best!

Jiro is known in Japan a sushi master. He cuts the perfect piece of fish and matches it with the perfect amount of rice. But he doesn't try to be the best at every part of the process, for example, with the purchasing of the ingredients. He outsources that to others who are the best at what they do.

Jiro partners with and purchases supplies for his sushi restaurant from a number of different independent experts. He has an octopus expert, a rice expert, a shrimp expert and a tuna expert. Each, is is the best at what they do. If Jiro settled for mediocre partners, he probably wouldn’t have reached the level of perfection that he did.

Watch for the movie. It comes out in March 2013.

Add Value - It's The Point of Strengths

John Maxwell talks about adding value in the short clip below. Sometimes people join the strengths movement without really understanding the purpose or the mission. At the end of the day, strengths aren't just about you. The strengths message is about understanding the ways that you will add the most value. As Marcus Buckingham says, "Performance is always the point".

The Neuroscience of Personality - UCLA's Dario Nardi

This is a terrific session by professor Nardi speaking at Google. I recommend watching it in 20 minute increments.