Peter Vajda considers ‘the hole’—that universal human sense of being lacking in some way. How far you will experience inner peace and happiness is a function of how you choose to fill your own hole. You can choose to reduce and then eliminate it, or dig a deeper one. It’s up to you.

Finding ways to stay true to yourself and make your life civilized, at home and at work, isn’t simply a pleasant idea, like decorating a house to make it look welcoming and an attractive place to live. It’s essential to your well-being. It’s also essential for the long-term health of any organization.

Douglas Ross reports on the genesis of the first ever ‘Hope is Possible’ program for women facing special challenges in a world driven by greed, bureaucracy, fear and political and business leaders that destroy trust through severe lapses in ethical and moral judgment.

Nina Simosko point out that there is no one, single, perfect way to get a difficult job done—quite the contrary. Eliciting the best performance possible demands an environment that rewards innovation and cooperation as a means to results.

Gretchen Morgenson is one of my favorite commentators—at once witty and pertinent. In case you missed her most recent piece about the current business and financial woes, here’s the link (“They’re Shocked, Shocked, About the Mess”).

These short extracts show why I thought the article so relevant. I’ve been saying for months that the root cause [...]

The trick to living through tough times is to focus on the essentials. If you want to make progress, you must be very clear and specific about what that means. In easy times, you can afford to be vague. Not now. To protect what matters most means abandoning the rest. If you don’t, all that useless baggage will drag you down.

Parting words from a successful Hedge Fund manager 
In case you missed this article (“Hedge Fund Manager: Goodbye and F—- You”) on portfolio.com on October 17th, here are the parting words from Andrew Lahde, the manager of a small hedge fund, who grabbed the spotlight last year after his one-year-old fund returned 866 percent betting against [...]

Peter Vajda reflects on how much does the ‘I’m right—you’re wrong’ dynamic plays out in people’s everyday interactions: and what good things might happen if you sometimes let go of that nagging need to be proved right all the time.

When things go wrong like this, we tend either to get mad or become depressed. And because we live in a ‘can do’ society, far more people get mad. The trouble with blaming ‘them’—whoever ‘they’ are—is that you are placing the problem ‘out there’ where you have no direct control and probably little influence. While you dissipate your energy in resentful complaints and self-righteous demands, ‘they’ are untouched.

The personal power of leaders only extends so far. But as the Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu reminds us, great leaders empower their people. Remember this in the the crises of today. Those who nurture their team’s abilities to cope with stress and negativity will be rewarded with people with enhanced confidence who can deliver stronger performance and success.