Joe Contrera is the Founder and President of ALIVE @ WORK LLC, a leadership development company dedicated to helping Extraordinary Leaders Achieve Extraordinary Results. He is the author of three books. His latest, Extraordinary Results: Mastering the Art of Leading, Coaching, & Influencing Others, is quickly becoming a must-have resource for leaders in organizations across the country. It will not only change what you believe about leading, it will help you build your leadership skills so that you can successfully influence others.
“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” ~Lao Tzu These words spoken by the 6th Century Chinese Philosopher Lao Tzu, really captures the heart of leadership for me. Unlike many of the current leaders of today…
“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern.” ― William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell *****Warning******* I have never shied away from topics that can be viewed as…
“Action is the foundational key to all success.” ~Pablo Picasso This week we’re talking about success! After pondering the topic I had this realization, ideas are simply thoughts that when acted upon, materialize in the physical world and push us closer to success. For example, every building that was ever built began as a thought,…
“Life is like the monkey bars: you have to let go to move forward. Once you make the decision to leap into entrepreneurship, be sure to loosen your grasp on old concepts so you can swing your way to new ones.” ~Leah Busque (American entrepreneur) Entrepreneurs are a special breed. It takes a great sense of…
“Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.” ~Willie Nelson It has been scientifically proven that humans have a predisposition to focus on the negative. It seems to be inherent in our programming and reinforced by our upbringing. Just think about the time as a child when you came home…
“It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” ~J.K. Rowling One way to more powerfully influence others is to leverage your failures. People don’t realize the power of failure and…
“When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion.” ~ Dale Carnegie There is plenty of research on the role that emotions play in the decision-making process. Some folks believe that people make decisions based on rational analysis. And yet, research shows that emotions play a…
“We all have needs, and we will find a way to get those needs met in either a healthy or an unhealthy way” ~ Joe Contrera Studies have shown that you can boil human behavior down into 4 basic categories. People are either driven by a need to be right, to be liked, to…
“Anyone can hide. Facing up to things, working through them, that’s what makes you strong.” ~ Sarah Dessen Many years ago, Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company sponsored a show called The Wild Kingdom. It was a show hosted by Marlin Perkins along with his co-host, Jim Fowler. Each an every Sunday night they took…
“Training is something you do to animals, education is something you do for people.” ~ Joe Contrera Transactions & Exchanges When you go through the drive thru at McDonald’s, there’s a good chance you’re not going for a culinary experience. Going through the drive-thru there is a process that happens about 35 million times…