Holly's Blogs

Get More Done – Interrupt Your Interruptions

Constant interruptions reduce focus and effectiveness. Learn how the human brain handles interruptions (poorly) and how to work more effectively by stemming their flow.

Read More ›

Sponsored Posts

Smart Classrooms, Smarter Students: AI Avatars Changing Education Dynamics

Image source Hey pals! Let’s have a conversation about how our classrooms are getting super smart with DEEPBRAIN AI avatars. These avatars are like super-smart computer buddies who are making our learning time way better! DEEP BRAIN AI avatars are like magical friends in our class. They help our teachers teach in a super cool…

Key Competencies That Any Business Leader Should Know Inside And Out

Effective leadership is the cornerstone of any thriving business. A leader’s role is multifaceted, requiring a diverse set of skills to navigate the challenges of today’s dynamic business environment. This article delves into five critical competencies that are indispensable for any business leader, shedding light on their importance and offering insights into how they can…

The Competitive Edge: Employee Rights and Talent Attraction

The battlefield for top-tier talent is no place for the faint-hearted. It demands enticing perks and brand prestige and a deep, demonstrable commitment to employee rights. Companies at the forefront know this secret: the brightest candidates seek a workplace where rights aren’t merely respected—they are celebrated. This realisation isn’t a light bulb moment; it’s a strategy…

Most Asked Questions By Small Business Owners

Launching and scaling a small business comes with no shortage of questions and uncertainties. Here we tackle some of the most frequent queries entrepreneurs have relating to legalities, marketing, technology, hiring, accounting and more. How Do I Choose The Right Business Structure? Factors like tax treatment, liability, investment needs and record-keeping determine ideal structures. Most…

Top Tips For Successfully Expanding Your Business’s Product Offering

image source Expanding your business’s product offering is more than adding items to your inventory. It’s a strategic move that requires careful planning, market understanding, and customer-centricity. This comprehensive guide will explore the top tips for successfully expanding your business’s product offering. Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting, these insights will pave the…

How Does A Clean Office Affect Employee Productivity

Image Source Imagine walking into your office first thing in the morning, the sight of stacked papers, overflowing waste bins, and coffee stains on your desk meets your eyes. For most of us, this visual clutter creates an unconscious distraction that sets a negative tone for the day. In contrast, entering an organised, clean workspace…

Leading Cultural Change

  Is your organization currently going through (or recently undergone) a major cultural transformation? If so, you’re like more than half (56.8%) the organizations that participated in a survey by I4CP, a leading human capital research firm. On the one hand, I’m surprised to see the number that high. After all, transformational change is really…

Read More ›

Winning in 2019: Thriving in the Age of Uncertainty

As we look ahead to the coming year, a few words sum up what business leaders can expect in 2019 – more chaos and uncertainty. With the Democrats having won the House of Representatives, the political environment will likely become more contentious and dysfunctional. Tariff wars are driving raw material costs higher. Interest rates and…

Read More ›

Never Trust an Atom (and Sometimes Your Brain)

  While browsing in a bookstore the other day (yes, I prefer real books to digital readers for business reading), I saw a young person wearing a tee shirt that gave me a good laugh. The front of the shirt had a colorful graphic of an atom, with electrons swirling around the nucleus. The caption…

Read More ›

The Simple Approach to Employee Engagement

  News flash! Creating an engaged workforce where employees bring all their skill, talent, passion and energy to work every day isn’t rocket science. It doesn’t involve brain surgery. And you don’t need a Ph.D. in human resources development. Which leads to the question, if employee engagement is so simple, why do so many companies…

Read More ›

Pause, Think, and Focus to Win

  In chaotic and fast changing times, the lack of predictable behaviors in all areas of our life may not serve us well, says University of Maryland psychologist Arie Kruglanski – especially for people with a high need for certainty and closure. Cognitive closure, or the desire to have a firm answer to a question…

Read More ›

Implementing Big Business Leadership In A Small Business

Running a successful business, no matter how big or small, starts and ends with effective leadership. This involves defining a clear destination; getting everyone focused on reaching that destination; informing, inspiring and engaging people to get there; and then measuring results and adjusting as necessary along the way. These leadership principles apply to all types…

Read More ›

8 Traits of Winning Product Managers

Do you wish your product manager could get more done? Chances are they’re missing some or all of the critical winning traits. Product managers play a critical role in many organizations. However, judging from the number of complaints I hear when working with CEOs and company leaders, good ones are hard to find and even…

Read More ›

Work Less, Get More Done

    Are you working longer and harder but accomplishing less? One of the great ironies of our times is that the more we learn about the importance of uninterrupted focus in human performance, the more distractions and interruptions we face on a daily basis. Voice mail. Email. Telemarketing. Spam. Tweets. Snapchats. Texting. Instant messaging….

Read More ›

Integrity as a Competitive Advantage

    Remember when we used to look up to our political and business leaders as role models for honesty, integrity and good character?  Me neither. Actually, I do. But it seems like a long time since leaders displaying integrity was the rule rather than the exception. Instead of working together to effectively govern the…

Read More ›

Get Ready to Win in 2018

One of the deepest instincts for adult humans is to achieve excellence. In other words, to win. Yet, winning in business doesn’t happen by itself. It requires hard work, dedication, focus and, most of all, a desire to win. All organizations will tell you they’re in it to win. But if you look behind the…

Read More ›

Don’t Let Brain Misinformation Lead You Astray

There’s a lot of media coverage, particularly on those morning “news” shows these days about “new” brain research. Unfortunately a lot of it simply isn’t true. Anyone who has read some of my blogs or my, latest book Using Your Brain to Win!  (click to order book) knows that I am a huge fan of using…

Read More ›

Change Your Perspective to Win

As a leader, your perspective on winning may be very different from that of your employees. If someone offered you a trillion dollars for counting to a trillion by ones, would you accept the challenge? If so, you’d better be genetically wired to live a long time, because it’s going to take a while. Assume…

Read More ›

The Future’s So Bright

To prompt your ‘thunking’ today… Remember Kodak, they used to make photograph film? What happened to them will happen in many industries in the next 10 years and most people won’t see it coming. Uber is just a software tool, they don’t own any cars, and are now the biggest taxi company in the world….

Read More ›

Let Your Brain Take the Road Less Traveled

   Do you often find yourself doing the same things over and over and wondering why you get the same results every time? Contrary to the popular adage “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results,” it doesn’t mean you’ve lost your marbles. In fact, you’re probably doing exactly…

Read More ›

Why Happy Employees are Winning Employees

  Many would say that in life, happiness is winning. Quick, name the single most important contributor to happiness in life. Chances are you said things like family, friends, achieving your goals, or having a good job and nice place to live. Or for the hedonists in the audience, perhaps you said fame, money, good…

Read More ›

Work Less, Get More Done

One of the great ironies of our times is that the more we learn about the importance of uninterrupted focus in human performance, the more distractions and interruptions we face on a daily basis. Voice mail. Email. Telemarketing. Spam. Tweets. Snapchats. Texting. Instant messaging. Popup ads wherever we go on the Internet. Mobile applications that…

Read More ›

Achieving Disruptive Innovation

    “Disruptive innovation” seems to be one of the more popular buzzwords in today’s business lexicon. Many companies pursue it. Few actually achieve it. Most end up settling for incremental innovation. What’s the difference between the two? Apple offers a perfect example. When the iPad and iPhone first came out, they revolutionized the mobile…

Read More ›

3 Steps to Creating an Engaged Workforce

    What would you rather have – an organization where people show up just to punch the clock every day? Or an organization where people are enthusiastic about and committed to their work and their workplace? Obviously, this is a no-brainer. Everyone wants an engaged workforce. But most organizations either don’t make it a…

Read More ›