Stories that Inspire
Enlightened Leadership: Putting Character Back into Competition
The original meaning of the verb "to compete" is "competere," which means "to strive together." Today, however, many of us think of competition in terms of rivals and contention. Photographer Kevin Garrett suffered a brain injury when his car was struck from the rear...
Move from What’s Wrong to What’s Strong
To fully understand why strengths are so important, we need to first recognize what human beings want. Human beingshave some fundamental needs that include expressing who we are, being recognized/valued/accepted by others, and feeling like we're part of something...
Ride the Wave to Strong Performance
Most everyone can relate to a time when they rode a “big wave” and accomplished something really challenging. Using your strengths effectively to ride the waves in life will carry you safely to the shore. The big waves might come from outside of you, but the ability...
Flow with Strengths
When we commit to using our character strengths continuously and in new ways, we engage those strengths in a more authentic and natural expression, which literally increases our capacity to do. This upward spiral produces what is commonly known as “flow”. When things...
The Smart Swarm
Many people feel like they are mismatched in their jobs and with their coworkers—finding themselves in a “crisis of disengagement.” We certainly can’t expect our organizations to run well if we don’t achieve a good fit between the employees and their work...
Mindful Emotions
The key to managing negative emotions is to first connect to the emotion. Without judging, shaming, hiding from, lashing out at, or resisting the uncomfortable moment that has presented itself. A simple way to describe mindfulness is to become an “objective observer”...
Reframe Failure
When things don't go our way, it is seductive to blame people, circumstances and events –to get stuck in the regrets and disappointments. Most of us could benefit from looking back on hard times and asking ourselves how we can best reframe those experiences through a...
Comparanoia
Every culture has its own version of social envy, the "green-eyed monster" that keeps people striving for things they don't really need because those things are perceived as status symbols. There's nothing wrong with healthy competition in sports or the marketplace,...
Authentic Motivation
We are born with everything we need to lead fulfilling lives. All twenty-four character strengths can be found in all human beings across the globe. Some of us are born into environments that cloud our access to that inner wisdom, but even in the worst of...
Coaching the Whole Person
Stopping to get gas at a convenience store, I realized many of us are killing ourselves with our choices. The manager of the store, a friend of mine, was sitting on a bench outside taking a break. He was smoking and drinking a gigantic soda. In his early thirties, he...