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.
“Sometimes, the best way to recharge is to unplug.” ~ Chris Butler A short time ago, I took a 2 week period and simply unplugged from my business. As difficult as it was to walk away for 2 weeks, I was reminded of the importance of taking time to unplug in order to recharge…
A few years ago, a friend of mine was telling me about her experience visiting a series of TV talk shows. I was curious about her experience, so I asked her a series of questions regarding the various hosts. What was most astonishing to me was the various hosts’ use of the audience. And while…
“When you don’t know your why, you don’t have purpose, when you don’t have purpose, you don’t have clarity, when you don’t have clarity you don’t have focus, and without focus you can’t accomplish a damn thing!” ~ Joe Contrera A lack of focus will make you highly ineffective as a leader. Sometimes a lack…
“It’s not denial. I’m just selective about the reality I accept.” ~ Bill Watterson Are you turning a blind eye to an issue in your business? What a leader chooses to see or more importantly, what not to see, can have a devastating impact on their business. Being aware of an issue and not taking…
“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.” ~ Isaac Asimov We all see the world through our lenses of perception. Every one of us experiences the world differently because our lenses are shaped by a number of variables: the beliefs…
“Being fake is so common now that being real is seen as offensive.” ~ Chris Ruden Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last decade, you are increasingly being bombarded by faux people, making faux claims, in an attempt to come across as faux real! Whether it is a politician in Washington flat…
Are You Taking Things Personally? In his ground-breaking book, The Four Agreements, author Don Miguel Ruiz wrote that taking things personally along with making assumptions was the equivalent of “a personal hell on earth!” As a leader taking things personally is a path to creating a personal hell for everyone in the office…including yourself! Why?…
“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.” ~ Margaret J. Wheatley The Law of Unintended Consequences A short time ago I was working with a team of senior leaders. We were discussing the overall purpose of the organization and the bottom-line goal that was driving…
The cost of continuing to engage a disengaged leader is staggering! Over the course of the last 20 years so much emphasis has been placed on the impact that disengaged employees have on the bottom line. And while technically, a leader is an employee, the cost of disengaged leader can be ten times the cost…
“This indecision’s buggin’ me, exactly whom I’m supposed to be, so you got to let me know, should I stay or should I go?” The Clash When it comes to making decisions, sometimes we can get bogged down in the in-decision. And the bigger the decision, the greater the in-decision can be! Maybe you’re…