Focus + Humility + Questions = Momentum©
Let me check something out with you.  Pretend for a moment that your friend, child, spouse, employee, or your boss said to you: “I would like to learn from you.  It would mean a lot to me if you would help me.”  How would you feel?  My bet is […]

Mahatma Ghandi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” What if research were to show that people can effect enormous positive changes in their lives and in the lives of others using a tool they have with them at all times - their smile?

Do strengths translate well to workplaces in China? I run positive leadership workshops in Shanghai and Hong Kong, and recently came across an experience in which the strengths-approach was challenged.

“This assessment doesn’t tell me my weaknesses, it only contains strengths. I don’t get it! What’s the point of an assessment that doesn’t tell you your weaknesses? How can I improve if I don’t know my weaknesses?” Chen shouted from the back of the room.

Movies can be an instrument of positive psychology. In a manner different from other art forms, they teach, guide, and inspire the awareness of and expression of character strengths and virtues. Walt Disney said that movies find a way to touch the “unspoiled spot” within us. Ingmar Bergman expressed a similar idea by noting that movies can reach the dark inner recesses of our souls. What these luminaries were saying is that movies help us, the viewers, to connect with “the sacred” that is within us.

I recall from our MAPP lecture no 5 on emotions that it’s their frequency rather than their intensity which is important to well-being. (Diener, Sandvik, & Pavot, 1990).

[BTW If you want to bypass the more serious bits about emotion, then see Professor Richard Wiseman’s online “Earth Move” calculator . The answer, it seems, is always […]

Dr. Richard J. Davidson said, “I am committed to putting compassion on the scientific map.”

This heightened interest in compassion is also occurring in organizations, where people are paying more attention to how compassion can build thriving workplaces […]

“Who doesn’t need a coach?” is the question I am left pondering after attending this weekend’s conference, Coaching: A New Horizon – Theory, Emerging Evidence, & Practice. The two-day event brought together seminal theorists and practitioners to explore the intellectual and evidenced-based foundation for the emerging field of coaching psychology, an initiative designed to bridge from the ivory-tower of academic positive psychology to the profession of coaching […]

Have you ever noticed that individuals are more innovative, energetic, stimulating, and engaging than most corporations? That is because the systems in place at most companies are not conducive to developing human potential.

Let’s take a closer look at one such system: companies spend considerable amounts of money surveying their employees through some unbiased third-party services to find out about job satisfaction. Yet, this may not be the best measurement to use.

Your brain has a mind of its own – a cartographer. Every action, thought, memory, habit, talent, and trouble is recorded in the firing pattern of neural networks in your brain. Why is a bad habit so hard to break? Why is the electric slide effortless for some and befuddling to others, no matter how hot the disco? Dr. Norman Doidge’s book “The Brain that Changes Itself” chronicles the academic history of neuroplasticity (the brain changing itself) ….