Hyper-Responsiveness Isn’t Worthiness

In my last blog post, I discussed how discovering our unconscious drivers was key to getting rid of unwanted behaviors. In this post, I want to pick up where we left off and discuss another aspect of this, which is the degree to which ...

What’s Really Underneath Your Unwanted Behavior?

One of my clients is your typical type A, fast-paced, multi-tasking Vice President. He can’t sit still, and his electronic devices are constantly invading his work and home life — and he knows it. He prides himself on being organized ...

Who Defines Strategic?

When asked to step up to the next level and be more strategic, many managers worry because they often don’t know what that means, how to do it or what it looks like. They’re intimidated by an image in their minds of visionaries like ...

Ego Hijacking!

Late one night last week, an executive whom I coach sent out an irate email. The following morning as he logged on to find a flurry of “reply all’s” flying around the corporate space in response, he came to regret his ...

Don’t Let Your Ego Manage Your Time

Typically when we think about time management we focus on the structural aspect of time - the practical and organizational implementation of how we manage our paperwork, files and to-dos. What we don’t often recognize is the impact of our unconscious behaviors and beliefs on our ability to be productive.  Here are three behavioral aspects of time management that undermine even the best-intentioned time management structures.

Procrastinating on Uncomfortable Conversations

Note: This post is the final in a four part series. In this final post of the series on emotional clarity as a pathway to self-discipline, we’ll examine how these tools can help leaders breakthrough the most common form of ...

Learning Leads to Self-Discipline

In last week’s post, we examined the power of using the emotional clarity of contribution to move beyond our fears and find a higher purpose for taking action.  This week, we explore the other tool for emotional clarity: learning goals. In previous posts, I’ve been discussing my resistance to writing a book as an example of how emotional clarity can lead to discipline. This week, I’d like to offer up a different example to highlight the importance of learning goals: My role as CEO of LaL.

The Emotional Clarity Of Contribution Unleashes our True Potential

Note: This post is the second in a series. In last week’s post, we looked at the role fear plays in preventing us from getting things done and its impact on self-discipline. This week, we continue with the topic by moving beyond the exploration of our fears to finding a more powerful place of emotional clarity. Once you’ve answered the question “What are my fears about this (project, task, conversation)?” you have achieved a certain degree of emotional clarity about why you are not disciplined.

Clarity, Not Willpower, Generates Self-Discipline

Procrastinate? Can’t get yourself to exercise regularly? Or not eat that greasy food that is so bad it’s good? You know that you need to have a difficult conversation about performance with your direct report, but keep putting it off? Many of our clients, even those who are highly accomplished and productive, complain that they lack discipline in key areas of their life. Contrary to conventional wisdom, I find that ‘willpower’ (“I just need to do it”) is a largely useless strategy to overcoming internal resistance. Over the next four posts, I’ll explore the role that emotional clarity has in creating discipline and offer some practical ways you can get unstuck from any project, goal or to-do you have been blocked from taking action on. When I first