Why Your Negotiations Are Doomed (And How to Rescue Them)
Negotiators, even professional ones, make surprisingly many wrong decisions that doom negotiations that should have succeeded. Many of these mistakes relate to overestimating how well they can read the feelings and thoughts of other parties in the negotiation, as well as the extent to which the other party can read their feelings and thoughts. For […]
Should Real Leaders Trust Their Gut?
Let’s say you’re interviewing a new applicant for a job, and you feel something is off. You can’t quite put your finger on it, but you’re a bit uncomfortable with this person. She says all the right things, her resume is great, she’d be a perfect hire for this job — except your gut tells […]
Are You Still Falling for the ‘Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail’ Myth?
You’ve probably heard the old advice for entrepreneurs that “failing to plan is planning to fail.” That phrase is a misleading myth at best, and actively dangerous at worst. Making plans is essential, but our gut reaction is to plan for the best-case outcomes, ignoring the high likelihood that things will go wrong. A much […]
How Best to Deal With Colleagues in Denial
When was the last time a colleague said something so ridiculous that it made your jaw drop? A four-year study by LeadershipIQ.com found that 23 percent of CEOs were fired for denying reality — refusing to recognize adverse facts about an organization’s performance. We typically respond to people who deny reality by confronting them with facts and counter […]
Why Promotions Fail: How to Overcome Blind Spots and the Curse of Knowledge
It’s all too common for people in organizations to be promoted up the hierarchy to their “level of incompetence.” In management, the concept is known as the Peter Principle. People are promoted because they did well in their previous job, not because they have the potential or the skills to meet the requirements of their […]
