Harvard social psychologist, Amy Cuddy with her acclaimed TED talk on “How Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are.”

A thoughtful, insightful, instructive and, at times, moving 20 minutes introduction to the proven benefits of “Power Posing”.

You’ll learn that, “Non verbals actually govern how we think and feel about ourselves”. Now that is a critical learning. It means you can ‘act’ and ‘be’ your way to performance and achieving better results than today, even future greatness.

You see, according to Cuddy et al, feelings and behaviour go both ways. So you can pretend and feel it. We know that our minds change our bodies. But it’s also true that our bodies can change our minds. It works with smiling and happiness. It can also work with power posing and power.

Find out the full detail in the academic paper from Cuddy et al here.

Dr. Stephen Covey - Author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People 1932 - 2012.

This week, while travelling in Asia, I learned of the death of one of my favourite authors. It was with great sadness that I learned of the passing of Dr. Stephen R. Covey, most famous for his work, ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.’The man who reminded us of the wisdom of “always keeping the main thing, the main thing” – and with his metaphor of the compass above the clock, “never letting the urgent get in the way of the truly important.”

Somehow, to me, Dr. Covey was more than an author. Because he personally narrated many of his audiobooks – titles I’ve listened to repeatedly over the years since I was first introduced to his work back in 1995 – he has always felt closer, more like a personal [..]

Rule Britannia. Can we have more from you please Mary? Loving your work!

Can we have more from you Mary, please?

Here in the UK, Mary has long been our ‘Queen of Shops‘ consumer champion and as the nation’s number one Retail Consultant she’s a familiar face across the media. But did you see her recent series “Mary’s Bottom Line” on Channel 4? The series follows Mary’s audacious attempt to bring clothing manufacturing back to Britain.

I get that this was edited for TV, but it was a moving account of selecting the right people – and giving a chance to some who may not have been the ideal employee on paper – and trying to revitalise the once bustling and productive British Rag Trade.

You can watch the show now on 4oD. [..]

I love this! Starbucks doing what they do best: Coffee Passion. I just saw this on the Starbucks site and they’re telling the same story I learned when I was in the coffee business at Kraft Foods.

Months and months of effort, careful systems and care go into growing, selecting, harvesting, buying, transporting, roasting and preserving the perfect roasted coffee. Yet all that effort, all that investment, all that care, can be destroyed in the Last 10 Feet. Spill it. Fail to put the lid on properly. Forget to smile and thank the Customer for their business. So many ways the brand impression can be destroyed in the Last 10 Feet. How can your brand learn from this brilliant Starbucks mantra?

Here’s Jack to explain exactly what I mean. When you listen he’s owning the brand experience – practically Romancing The Bean… Amen Jack!

See more from Starbucks

How to ‘climb outta Hell’ … one inch at a time.

Apply this to your brand challenge. Or to your life challenge. We’ve all got them.
We can stay in hell or fight our way back into the light.

If you can watch this without feeling chills, check your pulse. You may need help. We can all take something from this.

Remember: “The inches are all around us” – so look for them, find them, take them. And step up.

This video is embedded from YouTube where it is hosted. I claim no rights to this video content. I just happen to think it’s fabulous!