Epiphanies

What Makes a Good Leader

Jim Wylie — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:41:23 +0000

What Makes a Good Leader

Having worked for a large corporation for over 30 years, if there is one truism that is firmly established, it is that you will experience many types of training programs. Corporate training is a big expense for companies and obviously is done with the hope that it will improve employee performance or having them be compliant with corporate governance. Programs such as improving negotiating skills, improving writing skills, computer training, understanding cultural diversity, improving your influencing skills or presentation skills are a few of the thousands of different programs offered. Some programs are very good while others tend to fade in memory quickly once you complete the program. One program that I attended was on the topic of leadership and it was an excellent two day program.

Life Coaching Tools

Jim Wylie — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:41:00 +0000

Life Coaching Tools: Emotional Intelligence and Neuro-Linguistic Programming

Life coaching is about examining a person’s current state, determining where they want to go and how they can get there. Life coaches employ various techniques in working with clients. The two most popular are emotional intelligence (sometime also referred to as emotional quotient or EQ) and Neurolinguistic programming (shortened to NLP). Some coaches go with one or other methods, while others will use a combination of both. Let me explain the basic premise of both systems.

Attitudes

Jim Wylie — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:02:41 +0000

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing. ---- Abraham Lincoln

The greatest discovery of our generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. As you think, so shall you be. ----William James

If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right. ----Henry Ford

The greatest part of our happiness depends on our dispositions, not our circumstances. ----Martha Washington

These quotes are four of the many out there keying on an individual’s attitude. Webster defines attitude as “a complex mental state involving beliefs and feelings and values and dispositions to act in certain ways.”

Survival Secrets of a Working Person

Jim Wylie — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 19:56:06 +0000

In the movie “Heartbreak Ridge”, Clint Eastwood plays a marine corps gunnery sergeant that is finding out that he is fast becoming an anomaly in today’s military. Being a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars, he is placed in the role of training a group of contemporary misfits who looks at serving as a means to earn money not to really become trained soldiers. The big philosophy that he imparts on his men is that successful fighting units learn to improvise, adapt and overcome any situation they face. This philosophy paid dividends when they had to go into actual combat.

Active or Action type of Person?

Jim Wylie — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 19:53:17 +0000

You sit at your workstation and realize that you have a presentation to put together for an upcoming meeting. It requires a lot of data collection, data collation, chart construction and power point layout. You know that you have to start on it but the mountain of data to plow through makes this task monumentally difficult. You hate crunching numbers and uncomfortable with getting up in front of a group to make a presentation. You get a phone call on an emergency situation and feel relief that this will prevent you from starting this task.

Crisis: Danger or Opportunity

Jim Wylie — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:23:32 +0000

Crisis in the Chinese language is actually made up of 2 symbols. The first one is pronounced wei, which means danger. The second symbol means jei, which means opportunity. When combined together, it has the meaning of crisis.

It is interesting that the Chinese word for crisis requires two symbols. Obviously the symbol denotes a message of distress but combines it with a symbol for opportunity.