Exhaustion is in the air, but you can generate the vitality you need right now. We need first to understand why we’re all feeling depleted. There are two types of depletion: physical and psychological. We all know the signs of physical depletion and its remedy: take a walk, eat healthy food, do yoga, rest. But…
Reading about how tired we are is fatiguing. So let’s try something different. We’re built to want to be part of something that’s meaningful. We’re eager to learn. We love wrestling with a challenge. It’s in our nature and we can’t help it. So instead of focusing on how everyone is depleted, why not appeal…
Dear Madeleine, I am a director in a global manufacturing company. I manage managers and I am responsible for about 300 people around the globe. I was trained as an engineer and I really loved my job— until recently. I am not sure what happened, but about a year ago—long before the COVID crisis—I noticed…
Do you ever wonder why you reach some goals easily and struggle with others? In her latest book, Master Your Motivation, Susan Fowler explains the three scientific truths behind motivation that will help you achieve your goals. Distilling many years of research, Fowler fashioned a condensed description of three basic needs we must create in…
Dear Madeleine, I have been described as a high achiever—and a lone wolf—for much of my career. After more than 20 years as an individual contributor, I finally succumbed to the pressure to become a people manager. Here’s my problem. Most of my people are fewer than five years away from retirement and not very…
Dear Madeleine, I have been managing a team in the insurance industry for the last fifteen years. There has been a lot of change—mostly reductions in staff size and increases in work load—but basically it is pretty much the same stuff, just a different day, and has been for a long time. My last kid…
When was the last time you had discretionary time on your hands, wondering what to do with a gift of time where nothing was planned or expected of you? If it wasn’t yesterday, then read on. A summer morning stands out with vivid clarity in my mind. I was eight years old. My younger sister,…
New research into human motivation is helping managers move beyond carrot-and-stick extrinsic motivators. And while it’s good that we’ve made progress, we still need to keep moving if we truly want to leverage what the new science of motivation is teaching us. In the June issue of Ignite, Susan Fowler, best-selling business author of Why…
I am a runner. It defines me. Up until recently, my Twitter bio’s opening descriptor was Runner. (It’s now, temporarily, a Game of Thrones quote. I’ll change it back soon.) Running is part of my life. It’s what I do. But lately I’ve encountered a problem: I haven’t been running. When I’m training for a…
Are your leadership practices based on outdated assumptions about the true nature of human motivation? Think about how you might approach leadership differently if you took into account some of the latest findings: – Our basic human nature is to thrive. No one wants to be bored and disengaged. People want to contribute. People appreciate meaningful…