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Effective leaders identify and communicate stories to inspire people. Here are three points to consider to enthuse, engage and energize people.

Nate Eisman recently started working for a large consulting firm after many years as an independent consultant. He called me a few days ago for some advice.

Some people are naturally pre-disposed to being highly productive. Each day moves them one day closer to what they intend to accomplish over the year.

Many leaders unknowingly sabotage their careers by wrongly assuming their employees are actively engaged in their work.

We all have a sweet spot where everything seems to flow; where we feel happy, competent, in sync with everything around us, uniquely talented, and predictably successful. It feels like magic, but it’s not: It’s the intersection of our strengths, weaknesses, passions, and differences.

We need to be diligent and disciplined about how we act, because we’re always on stage.

We often spend considerable unconscious effort ignoring what we feel because it can be painful. Who wants to be afraid or jealous or insecure? So we stifle the feelings, argue ourselves out of them, or distract ourselves with busy work or small talk.

How often do meetings consist of one presentation after the next, while the executives listen numbly or answer emails under the table? How often does the conversation involve everything but the big issues that need executive attention?

What makes leadership hard isn’t the theoretical, it’s the practical. It’s not about knowing what to say or do. It’s about whether you’re willing to experience the discomfort, risk, and uncertainty of saying or doing it.

Typically, we choose our leaders for their skill at conveying messages clearly and powerfully. But, in my experience, it’s their ability to receive messages that distinguishes the best leaders from the rest.

We’re so focused on our own challenges that it’s often hard to acknowledge the challenges of others.

Maybe getting the object of our desire isn’t what we really desire. Maybe it’s the desire itself which we desire. In other words, maybe it’s more pleasurable to want things than to have them.

Attunement is being in synch with who's and what's around you. When you're in attunement, you're curious. You ask questions, you listen to the answers, and you empathize.

Identify what’s important to you and acknowledge what’s not. If you don’t know where you want to spend your time, you won’t know where you don’t want to spend your time. 

Living life as a performance is not only a recipe for stress and unhappiness; it also leads to mediocre performance.

Every time I ask a room of executives to list the top five moments their career took a leap forward — not just a step, but a leap — failure is always on the list.

The solution to a motivation problem is the exact opposite of the solution to a follow through problem. The mind is essential to motivation. But with follow through, it’s the mind that gets in the way.

It's not that goals, by their nature, are bad. It's just that they come with a number of side effects that suggest you may be better off without them.

I moved from an outside office to a home office because I wanted to spend more time with my family. But now I’m always in my home office.

Research shows that an ability to resist urges will improve your relationships, increase your dependability, and raise your performance.