The Power of People Skills | John Maxwell on Leadership

The Power of People Skills | John Maxwell on Leadership:

'via Blog this'

The Power of People Skills

By John C Maxwell

By far the greatest obstacle to success that I see in others is a poor understanding of people. A while back the Wall Street Journal published an article on the reasons that executives fail. At the top of the list was a person’s inability to effectively relate to others.

One day I was talking to someone who was complaining about not winning a business contract that he had bid on. “It wasn't fair,” he told me. “All the people involved knew each other, and we didn't have a chance. It’s all politics.” But then what he went on to describe wasn't politics. It was relationships.

Authors Carole Hyatt and Linda Gottlieb indicate that people who fail on the job commonly cite “office politics” as the reason for their failures, but the reality is that what they call politics is often nothing more than regular interaction with other people.

If you haven’t learned how to get along with people, you will always be fighting a battle to succeed. On the other hand, making people skills a strength will take you farther than any other skill you develop. People like to do business with people they like. Or to put it the way President Theodore Roosevelt did: “The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.”

Amy Cuddy: Your body language shapes who you are

The Get Off Your Ass Manifesto: How to Motivate Yourself to Actually Achieve Your Goals

The Get Off Your Ass Manifesto: How to Motivate Yourself to Actually Achieve Your Goals

By Thorin Klosowski

Starting something new is hard. It can even be a little terrifying. Maybe you don’t know where to start, or maybe you’re scared of failure. But the only way you’ll ever get anything done is if you just get up and do it. Here’s how to conquer those fears, get off your ass, and actually achieve those goals.

We all have unfinished projects, and a lack of motivation is one of the biggest reasons we don’t accomplish them. Maybe it’s that book you’ve been planning on starting for National Novel Writing Month, maybe it’s the new job you always find excuses not to search for, or maybe it’s the abundance of artistic talent you waste sitting on the couch watching a Netflix marathon. These things are all daunting at first, and they’re easy to continually put off in favor of keeping the status quo. But as Mythbusters host Adam Savage points out, when we set our minds to something, we all go through the same process:

(1) I don’t know how, (2) I can’t afford to pay someone else to do it, (3) I have to do it, (4) hey, that wasn’t so hard!

Getting off your ass and getting things done is not easy—nor will it ever be—but it doesn’t have to be hard. If you have the right plan and attitude, you’ll be a lot more likely to succeed. In fact, getting off your ass and doing something is incredibly easy and only requires a few steps: