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"There is a mythology that surrounds creativity.
Cultures develop myths when they can't rely on existing knowledge to explain the world around them. They are developed and passed down in an effort to explain why certain mysterious events occur, or to affirm how we should behave and think. Creativity is no different.
These myths were prevalent almost everywhere I looked—everywhere except in the most innovative companies and people.
If we want to be more creative, if we want our organizations to be more innovative, then we have to learn from these companies and individuals, use the wealth of empirical research at hand, and rewrite the myths of creativity."
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"Leaders today are yearning for something more meaningful. The reason is for many of us, the experience of leadership has been mediocre at best. … Whatever the experience, you may end up questioning why you ever became a leader in the first place. You also know deep down that there has to be a better way.
I'm here to tell you that there is."
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"Aristotle said 'We are what we repeatedly do.'
He was right. Our daily choices define us. They show just how far beyond ourselves we're thinking, how broadly we imagine our constituents, and how we see ourselves in the world.
As we navigate the turbulence of today's workplace, there is power in asking ourselves, 'What is it that I repeatedly do?' [...]
We would like to think that we are making the most responsible choices that we can under the circumstances. But then, in a typical challenging, chaotic day, what really determines what we do?"
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"Too often, customer service is viewed as a department, a designated employee's job role, or someone else's responsibility. Because of this limited view of customer service, many employees are content to simply execute a series of mandatory job functions until the end of their shifts—blissfully unaware of the myriad opportunities forfeited to make lasting positive impressions on their customers.
To expand on this narrow definition of customer service, I'd like to submit my own definition for consideration: Customer service is a voluntary act that demonstrates a genuine desire to satisfy, if not delight, a customer."
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"Have you ever been faced with settling family financial squabbles, asking for a raise, offering tough but constructive criticism, rejecting a friend or relative's request for a loan, selling and holding to a price, making budget denials and requests, dealing with customer objections, or negotiating a contract where you feared the other side had all the leverage? And, like me on occasions, you then spoke words to solve the problem and in an instant thought to yourself: 'WOW, why did I say that?' How often do we come out of an important discussion or a negotiation and ponder what we could've done differently to achieve a better result?
Having been involved in all of these situations and an array of other business and personal communications challenges throughout my career, I systematized how I managed them. More recently I decided to articulate for others that system and how it allows us to find and speak the 'words that work' so that we're not left thinking 'Oh I wish I had done/said that differently.'"
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