Steve on Leadership

Photo by Elly Johnson on Unsplash

It wasn’t until last week when I started writing this article that I really understood why I bought extra toilet paper two years ago. More on that in a minute.

Do you think you are an “effective” leader? If you do, then you know how to influence people. After all that’s what Stephen Covey teaches us in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and Dale Carnegie, too.

When anyone says “yes” to a purchase or job assignment or volunteer opportunity or vote decision, they likely have been “influenced” in one of seven ways.

One of the most interesting, modern experts on influence is Robert Cialdini. In his updated book Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion, he describes how we humans take seven...

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Will the judge drop the hammer?

I suspect you missed this crime that happened a few years ago in a small New Hampshire town. There on a bright and sunny day two young thieves stole a canoe from inside a Walmart. Though hardly as valuable as an Ocean’s Eleven heist, it was just as clever.

The mastermind of this felony was a 15-year-old boy I’ll call Jake. He and his friend wanted to go out on the river fishing, but they had no canoe. He and his friend noticed a brand-new canoe on display in Walmart and it was perfect. The only problem was it cost $550, money they did not have.

Photo by Andrew Montgomery

“No problem,” said Jake to his friend, I have a plan.

Jake bought a Coke and made sure he got a receipt. He and his buddy then...

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Many people dream of becoming an entrepreneur and never succeed. Why? Because successful entrepreneurs are very rare, and they are just “wired” differently.

This week on April Fool’s Day in 1982, Joe Leddy, a New Hampshire native, left a comfortable, salaried position in government and created Work Opportunities Unlimited. Forty years later his creation has helped over 70,000 people find successful employment and this number grows daily.

In this article I will use Joe’s launch of Work Opportunities Unlimited to explore five common ways entrepreneurs are just “wired” differently.  To give you context I will often share Joe’s direct quotes from a four-part, 2007 podcast series Sounds of Success  hosted by Roger Wood.

1 –...

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Photo by Thomas Park

Most of us are looking for anything to feel good about these days. One thing I do to feel good is to look for and appreciate high quality. Here are three “quality” observations this week involving planes, parachutes, and Jerry Seinfeld that all make me smile.

A Tip of My Hat to American Airlines. On Saturday my wife, Patti, returned home from New Orleans where she had gone with a few high school friends. Even though the weather on this end was a little rough, all went well on her non-stop return flight to Boston on JetBlue.

One high school friend from Maine, however, had to fly home on American Airlines with a stop in Washington, DC. After arriving in DC she learned the flight from DC to Maine got...

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I’m slow to notice things sometimes. Like how frequently almost all media companies now move right to the next show in a series without a break. I noticed it when I was watching a rerun of the Big Bang Theory on cable and then again when we were watching Longmire on Netflix.

When I stopped and thought about why they do this, of course, it makes sense. If I’m on a cable channel, it likely holds me on that channel and I might see more commercials. If I’m on Netflix, it creates more binge watching and hooks me to Netflix.

What I didn’t know until now, was how understanding “friction” had something to do with the invention of this technique.

Fuel and Friction – The Human Element. In business we spend a great deal of time trying...

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