I just arrived back home after delivering a breakout session on brainpower for Communicatiion ‘10, The District 7 Toastmasters Spring Conference at eh Oregon Convention Center. Because the introductory keynote ran a bit over, I had to cut our session short, so thought it would be helpful to post an outline for you, since we did rather race to [...]

All of us need to improve our decision making abilities in this business environment. 
IQ (Intelligence Quotient) measures your overall general intelligence. EQ (Emotional Quotient) measures your emotional intelligence: your ability to sense, understand, and effectively apply the power and acumen of emotions to facilitate high levels of collaboration and productivity.  This is how effective leaders [...]

You’ve heard it a zillion times: “Leaders are Readers.”  My friend Charlie “Tremendous” Jones said “5 years from today you’ll be the same person you are today except for two things: the people meet and the books you read”. One of my favorite quotes. He passed on a few months ago, and my job is [...]

Sometimes in your Mastermind Group you will want to spend time brainstorming.
A successful Mastermind Group is one that can brainstorm well.  Many groups have problems brainstorming, therefore do not leverage their thinking power to the extent possible.
Brainstorming is the unashamed, prolific sharing of ideas that come to your mind when you are in the group [...]

Yes, I know you already belong to at least one mastermind group.  (If you don’t, join one today)
Just because you already belong to a Mastermind Group or two doesn’t mean you aren’t always on the lookout elsewhere for great ideas and thoughts, right??
You have a perfect opportunity starting right now to leverage your time spent [...]

How to have “Tremendous” MasterMind Group Meetings
 
My dear, inspirational friend Charlie “Tremendous” Jones just passed away.  His memorial service is November 7th.  His most famous quote is “Five years from today you will be the same person you are today, except for the people you meet and the books you read”.  I carry his torch, [...]

Diversity in the world of MasterMind Groups vs Industry-Specific Groups
For the last 4 months, I have been using one of my fee-based Mastermind Groups as a “test case”,(with their permission, of course) to attempt to prove that diverse groups (not industry-specific) are more effective than industry-specific groups.  So far, my theory is still simply that: [...]

You’re thinking about joining a Mastermind Group.
Let’s address two errors in thinking that affect your personal success in Masterminding:
Error Number One: Underestimating what you can learn from other members.
Error Number Two: Underestimating the value of your contribution
Both mistakes tend to occur in industry-specific groups.
Error Number One:
Somewhere along the line, someone taught you to seek out [...]

I was facilitating a MasterMind Group this morning and likened our experience together to a workout in the gym.  That is the whole concept behind the name of my tag line since the beginning, as most of you know. 
Whenever I go somewhere with a name tag on and people don’t know me yet, they say [...]