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.
“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…
“What others say and do is a projection of their own reality” ~ Miguel Angel Ruiz Projection is a defense mechanism where we take a part of us that we don’t like (i.e. our arrogant-self, selfish-self, or our untrusting-self, etc.) and project it onto someone else. For example, if we look at someone and…
“There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.” ~ Napoleon Hill The other day I was having a conversation with a colleague, fellow coach, and an incredibly good friend, Barry Zweibel. We’ve been…
“The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem” ~Theodore Isaac Rubin At any given time in life, all of us are faced with problems or challenges that at some point may feel insurmountable. Problems come in varying shapes and sizes. It’s…
“Sometimes you need to experience what you don’t want, before you can get clarity on what you do” ~Joe Contrera The gift of misalignment (experiencing what you don’t want) can be what leads you to gain clarity on what you do and help you achieve your goals. . Sometimes, we need to experience the…
“Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing.” ~ Mark Twain As we find ourselves embedded in the Holiday Season, rolling into the final 11 days of this year, I thought we needed to take a break from all the craziness this world wants to offer us. For many folks, the holidays can be a time of…
”Man is like a pool of water that is disturbed by every wind that blows. The winds are the false beliefs and opinions of the (race) world. Suggestions of sickness, failure, and evil of all kinds are continually impinging upon his mind.” These words were spoken by Ervin Seale in 1946 and stand truer today…
“We all have blind-spots, but if we are willing to open our ears to feedback and our eyes to how others react to us, we can improve our impact as leaders ten-fold” ~Joe Contrera People always ask me, “What can I do to increase my impact as a leader?” That said, everyone has a…
“A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi Have you ever taken a moment to reflect on a problem you were having and thought…I wonder if I might be the cause of the issue? The truth: Most people don’t! In fact, the majority of folks…