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Feature Article #1

TGIM #243: Paul Newman’s Time Management Secret

Geoff Steck’s
THANK GOODNESS IT’S MONDAY
TGIM #243

PAUL NEWMAN’S
TIME MANAGEMENT SECRET
Years and years ago — in the early days of his super-star popularity — the about-to-become legendary actor Paul Newman was having a late lunch in a nearly deserted New York restaurant. His celebrated spouse, actress Joanne Woodward, was with him.
They [...]

Geoff Steck | March 8th, 2010 | Continued

Feature Article #2

TGIM #242: Don’t Let The ‘Halo Effect’ Become A Helluva Problem

The ‘Halo Effect” – When one characteristic of a person, or one aspect of a situation, influences your judgment of other traits or aspects.

It’s thought that Edward L. Thorndike (1874-1949) was the first to support the Halo Effect with empirical research. In a psychology study published in 1920, Thorndike asked commanding officers to rate their soldiers; Thorndike found high cross-correlation between all positive and all negative traits. People seem not to think of other individuals in mixed terms; instead we seem to see each person as roughly good or roughly bad across all categories of measurement.

It can be one helluva problem – especially if you manage other people – because it’s so insidious. What looks good (or bad) keeps us from seeing the more important factors.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Let’s take a look at some typical cases to get a clear picture of what we’re talking about and then review strategies for keeping the tendency to invest others with heavenly attributes in check.

Geoff Steck | March 1st, 2010 | Continued

Feature Article #3

TGIM #241: Instructions for a Happy, Hope-Filled Life

When Nobel Peace Prize winners meet, what do they talk about?

I don’t know. I never had the privilege of being in the room. But I bet I can guess some of what was talked about at a recent get together.

Global political considerations muted the reporting of last week’s exchange between the 1989 Peace Prize winner Tenzin Gyatso (aka His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people) and 2009 Peace Prize recipient Barack Obama (the elected leader of the people of the USA).

But it’s very easy to discover a view they hold in common … have articulated passionately and publicly … and what must have been the basis for any dialogue between such distinguished honorees.

It’s –

HOPE

Geoff Steck | February 22nd, 2010 | Continued

Feature Article #4

TGIM #240: How Do You Punctuate Presidents Day?

Geoff Steck’s
THANK GOODNESS IT’S MONDAY
TGIM #240

HOW DO YOU PUNCTUATE PRESIDENTS DAY?
(AND DOES IT MATTER?)
one of the challenges of the day we observe today is sorting out just what we’re observing. And how the day is punctuated – Presidents’ Day … President’s Day … Presidents Day – doesn’t help much.
Let’s check [...]

Geoff Steck | February 15th, 2010 | Continued

Feature Article #5

FYI #62: If I Persist, If I Continue to Try, If I Continue to Charge Forward, I Will Succeed

FYI#62

“If I persist,
if I continue to try,
if I continue to charge forward,
I will succeed.”

Today’s headline is a quote from Og Mandino, sales guru and author of the bestselling book The Greatest Salesman in the World. That was the first book I read when I began my sales career.

In August of 1982 – Wow! that’s practically 28 years ago – I answered an ad in the local newspaper for a “management training” position with a company called Townecraft. The ad said the position paid up to $12.00 dollars an hour and training would start immediately if you were hired.

Eric Taylor | February 8th, 2010 | Continued

About this Site

Eric Taylor is the Founder and President of Empowerment Group International and the Chief Inspiration Officer of SelfGrowth.com, the number one Self Improvement website on the internet. Eric creates and delivers high-energy, content-rich seminars that motivate, inspire and empower business professionals to take decisive action toward personal and professional growth.

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TGIM #239: 21st Century Life Lessons From The Late Cretaceous Period

WHAT DO YOU CALL A DINOSAUR that smashes everything in its path?

Tyrannosaurus wrecks.

Kids of a certain age love that joke. (Obviously, I like it too.) And I was reminded of it just the other day when a notice from New Jersey’s own Liberty Science Center arrived in my mail.

Its headline–

Look out … for “A T.rex Named Sue!”

And now I’m as excited as a kid of a certain age because one of the most remarkable fossil finds ever – the largest, most complete T.rex skeleton ever unearthed — is putting in an appearance in the Garden State.

An exhibition that took 67 million years to create. After walking the earth those millions of years ago, the most complete (90%) and well-preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil was discovered in a part of the South Dakota Badlands so rich in fossils that “We call it ‘where the rexes roam,’” says field paleontologist Sue Hendrickson.

Oh, yeah. Sue Hendrickson is the discoverer of the namesake T.rex of the exhibit. An incredible 42 feet long and standing 12 feet high at the hip, Sue (the T.rex) has a skull that measures 5 feet long with 58 razor sharp teeth, some up to a foot long.

Feb 1 2010 | Geoff Steck | 0 comments | Continued

TGIM #238: It’s Time For Some Common-Sense Time Management

Geoff Steck’s
THANK GOODNESS IT’S MONDAY
TGIM #238

IT’S TIME FOR SOME
COMMON-SENSE TIME MANAGEMENT
Wasn’t one of your 2010 resolutions to get more value from your time? Good!
So I can save a big hunk of time from the get-go and simply make the observation that, if we would start by applying some of the [...]

Jan 25 2010 | Geoff Steck | 0 comments | Continued

TGIM #237: We are Bound and We Are Bound

Not so long ago I had the honor of delivering the first toast at the wedding of two good friends – Julie and Jerry.

And since each was (and is) fond of both playing games and using words effectively, that gave me the opportunity to stand up at the microphone with the wedding band behind me and recall a bit of verbal sparring that would occasionally take place when friends and family gathered. For example –

The challenge: Think of a word that can mean the opposite of itself; a word with two generally accepted meanings that contradict each other.

One easy-to-think-of one comes from slang usage.

Cool – definition: Frosty. “She was cool to the idea.”

Cool – definition: Hot! “Wow! She was a really, really cool chick.”

Or how about:

Fast – Moving rapidly. “Fast track.” “You got here fast.”

Or the opposite “fast” that is, fixed in position: “Hold fast, help is on the way.”

And one more:

Original – something creative or new. “That’s an original idea.”

Vs. Original in the sense of plain or unchanged, as in “the original flavor.”

Got it? Good. So did the wedding guests although, by this time they were wondering where this all was heading.

You too? To find out – and how it relates to today’s Martin Luther King observance and gives us a TGIM Takeaway

Jan 18 2010 | Geoff Steck | 0 comments | Continued

TGIM #236: It’s All About The Benjamin

Benjamin Franklin that is. Join me in celebrating his birthday this week — January 17.

Although Ben was born in 1706, his thinking and accomplishments are as inspired and inspiring a decade into the 21st Century as they were before the American Revolution was being contemplated.

School daze: Impressive though it is, the Ben-as-a-Founding-Father lessons we were exposed to in the required history classes of our youth are a mere shadow of all he accomplished in his time and the lasting legacy he left.

And in the limited space of this TGIM I couldn’t begin to do them justice.

But that won’t stop me from sharing some highlights and looking for some TGIM Takeaways.

Let’s start with this: We can all recall Franklin was an inventor and improver of existing inventions – bifocals, the lightening rod, a battery, the practical Franklin stove, and an odometer for establishing the most efficient postal routes.

He played the violin, harp and guitar; composed music and, to less acclaim, invented a musical instrument. He also created a phonetic alphabet.

He experimented with electricity, made unprecedented discoveries in the natural world and contributed much more to many sciences.

He organized and inspired others, in the process creating a networking self-improvement group, volunteer fire departments, America’s first subscription library, civic leadership groups, scientific societies and insurance concerns.

But it wasn’t all business with Ben. Not by any means. He’s the first chess player known by name in the American colonies. He championed swimming when few knew how and invented a type of swim fins (for the hands) to make each stroke more efficient.

Jan 11 2010 | Geoff Steck | 0 comments | Continued

TGIM #235: New Year, New Rules?

Geoff Steck’s
THANK GOODNESS IT’S MONDAY
TGIM #235

NEW YEAR,
NEW RULES?
About the middle of last year (2009) we recounted a bundle of “Universal Rules” – remember? (If not, you may want to click back to TGIM #206.)
With New Year 2010 significantly under way, I’m wondering if, as part of your year-end resolution-making and [...]

Jan 4 2010 | Geoff Steck | 0 comments | Continued