Nathan S. Collier
I find myself asking myself this question often these days and usually in a role specific context. Personally? As good a dad to my son as my father was to me. As a human? Kind and patient with the latter being an ongoing challenge. Be grateful and appreciative of the blessings and good, supportive people in my...
Inherent in the phrase work life balance is the implication that they are somehow at odds, that one comes at the cost of another, that one consumes energy while the other creates and restores energy. This is a mis-framing. Work has the potential to enrich lives by adding meaning, purpose, and structure as well as providing a...
One of my favorite mantras is ‘My Resting Face is a Smiling Face’. I find that keeping a smile on my countenance brightens my mood and helps keep my energy level up. We tend to think actions follow emotions yet there is much evidence that the causation goes both ways; actions can create and powerfully...
While possessing some baseline minimum of talent in one chosen field is in order (I sincerely doubt I would ever be able to make a living singing and I do not intend to try), beyond that talent is overrated. Talent may be fast out of the starting gate however over the long haul, less glamorous attributes...
The English word ‘spell’ comes from the Proto-Germanic *spellą, which simply meant ‘to speak’, ‘a story’, or ‘a narrative’. To spell a word with letters and to cast a spell over an audience come from the exact same root. ChatGPT Because we are surrounded by words and constantly bombarded by a barrage of terms, phrases, and various expressions,...
(This blog draws HEAVILY from a June 26, 2026 Harvard Business Review article by Irina Wolpert, including all quotes) Every organization is really two: the one on paper, the org chart and the real one: The Reported Organization: The polished version that exists in dashboards and reports It is the version leaders see, govern, and explain to the world. ...
Every now and then it is good to do an internal 360-degree survey, conducting a status check with the variety of emotions, goals, priorities, responsibilities (direct or indirect), dominant thoughts, passions, fears and joys that make up that entity you know as you. What should I find the courage to be moving toward and why?...
Disappointment is basically your emotional response to a ‘prediction error’: Reality did not match your expectations and the bigger the gap, the larger the emotional response. First, expect prediction error. Humans across the board are lousy predictors of future emotional states. Research has repeatedly shown that we consistently overestimate both how happy success will make us...
I frequently ask folks what their preferred learning style is and the answer I most frequently get by far is ‘I like to learn by doing, I like to learn from those around me.’ Well, I like to learn those ways too, however they have huge inherent limitations: 1) the skill set of those around you and 2) what is available for you...
Once a skill becomes instinctive, performance improvement also tends to level off. Without intelligent intervention, we slip into autopilot mode, believing we are gathering in experience when in reality we are merely locking in rote routine. Familiarity is not synonymous with competence, and neither is self-reported comfort levels nor exhibited confidence. Once labeled ‘expert’, we humans...
