Climbing equipment BLOG & RESOURCES

RAPPELLING WITH JOE

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Here’s on ongoing list of articles that I hope will not only inspire you, but will give you an understanding of my approach to executive coaching. Don’t hesitate to contact me about any comments you may have about any of these postings.

How to Adjust Your Leadership During the COVID-19 Crisis

Everyone is struggling with the challenges that COVID-19 pandemic has thrown our way. This unprecedented situation presents a tremendous challenge for leaders who are already maxed-out and are now being asked to do more and maintain “business as usual,” adding to their stress and subsequent ability to lead people who are also under stress.

This article provides some insights and ideas to implement to try keep teams healthy, engaged, and productive during this unprecedented time.

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Why Am I Still Talking?  W.A.I.S.T. — The Lost Art of Listening

Over the years I have observed that the best leaders, the most successful sales people, and the most respected and well-liked people, are good listeners. Improving your listening skills can be a game changer. In my last article, I wrote about a handy little acronym H.A.L.T. Today, I want to share with you another acronym that is simple to remember and offers some tips on being a more effective listener.  <continue reading>

H.A.L.T. BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!

One of the lessons I have learned in my adult life is that some lessons need to be taught to us repeatedly and some lessons are timeless. I am re-reading Dale Carnegie’s book How To Win Friends and Influence People. Written in 1934, most of his principles are still relevant today. One that I particularly find relevant is his Principle #4 – “Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.”   <continue reading>

“OH, THOSE &%#@@ MILLENNIALS!”: TIPS FOR WORKING WITH GENERATION Y

Lately I have been hearing a lot about the challenges of working with Millennials (people born between 1981-2001) from many of you Generation Xers (born 1965-1980). I also have some clients who manage Millennials and have expressed their frustration in trying to better understand and motivate this unique age group.  <continue reading>

HOW TO OVERCOME COGNITIVE BIASES AND MAKE BETTER DECISIONS

As humans, we make decisions most of our waking hours. Left or right? Chicken or fish? Tide or Tide with whitening power? Speak up or stay quiet? Take the job or pass on it? New city? New house? Just in this short list, we can see that some of the decisions we make are mundane, while others may be a matter of life and death.  <continue reading>

WHAT KINDS OF REWARDS ARE THE BEST MOTIVATORS?

Spend enough time around us and you’ll hear some form of the phrase “We can’t expect to act differently unless we first embrace having to think differently.” It’s something we practice internally and one of the mantras that guide our engagements with clients. And one of the things we’re on a mission to help people rewire is the way they think about the motivation for their work. And while there are many different dynamics to a concept like motivation, one area I like to focus on is reward.   <continue reading>

ARE YOU GOING TO ENJOY THE FRUIT OF YOUR WORK?

As I was transitioning from the corporate word in 2015  I had the opportunity to take the month of August off to relax and reflect. In addition to spending more time with my family and seeing my first son off to college, I was able to spend some quality time with several of my childhood friends in my home state of Maine.  In this article, I’d like to share a snapshot from that time and what we can all learn about sustainably growing our work. <continue reading>

WINNING AT YOUR OWN INNER GAME

It’s been a great summer for sports. The Euro Soccer championship, Wimbledon, and the British Open. The matches seem to get closer every year, and the athletes always seem to find some new level of athleticism and grit. Serena Williams won her 22nd Grand Slam singles title with her 7th Wimbledon title. And at 34, this is her 9th Grand Slam win since she turned 30. At the British Open, Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson delivered what is being called “the greatest Open ever.” And the Olympics haven’t even started yet.  <continue reading>

DUE TOMORROW, DO TOMORROW: GETTING LEVERAGE ON PROCRASTINATION

To give you a little peek behind the curtain here on, I procrastinated on this article. I did not have a topic in my mind yet and often write based on what I have been reading lately, or dynamics that have come up with clients, or questions that we have been working through.  <continue reading>

PART 1 - OWN YOUR TIME

It seems like a distant memory, but maybe it’s one you have as well: as a teen, I remember regularly proclaiming to my parents, “I am bored!” This was usually met with silence or the retort, “Well, then find something to do!” I can’t recall the last time an adult told me that they were bored. In fact, most clients I work with at NRL have the opposite problem. As simple as it seems, we all struggle with time management.   <continue reading>

PART 2 - OWN YOUR TIME

In 1955, The Economist published an article titled “Parkinson’s Law.”  Cyril Parkinson was a British naval historian and author of more than 60 books. The most famous of these works was his bestseller Parkinson’s Law, a book based on his painstaking research of over 1000 years of British Naval operational data. This work established Parkinson as an important scholar in public administration and management and Parkinson’s Law is still considered ground-breaking, even 60 years later. But what is Parkinson’s Law? <continue reading>

PART 3 - OWN YOUR TIME

Part of the reason that our important work goes undone is that we tend to gravitate to things we deem as urgent. Some even find the thrill of urgency and a crisis simulating. In his book, The Advantage, Patrick Lencioni calls it “The Adrenaline Bias,” sharing that many leaders “suffer from a chronic case of adrenaline addiction, seemingly hooked on the daily rush of activity and firefighting within their organizations.” <continue reading>

PART 4 - OWN YOUR TIME

Have you ever seen those old ads for cigarettes? There’s one that says “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette!” Can you imagine! I feel the same way about multi-tasking. It used to be seen as a professional strength to be able to multi-task. Now that advances in technology bombard us with constant information and opportunities to get interrupted, multi-tasking is what we do all day long now and it’s given us some really bad habits. <continue reading>

PART 5 - OWN YOUR TIME

In my early days at a big consulting firm, taking breaks was a surefire way to get scornful looks from managers and partners. It was seen as a lack of dedication. But, as I discovered, this viewpoint is completely off-base and unhelpful to productivity and time-management best practices. <continue reading>

Leadership, Inside and Out - by Deirdre McCarthy Gallagher and Joseph Shaffner

This article explores leadership, inside and out: a new approach to equip aspiring leaders with the tools to lead creatively, inclusively, and effectively. Leadership, inside and out, transforms emerging leaders into the leaders of the future, positioning them to indelibly impact their own organizations and the state of Maine.

METACOGNITION

Have you ever sent an email out to a large group of colleagues when you are upset and tired and regretted it the next day? Have you ever spent time stewing over something someone said to you in a meeting recently? Have you ever lost your cool with someone? This is your caveman brain at work. <continue reading>

THE Transtheoretical Model OF CHANGE

The Transtheoretical Model is an integrative, biopsychosocial model to conceptualize the process of intentional behavior change. Whereas other models of behavior change focus exclusively on certain dimensions of change. <continue reading>