241 Posts Found

In his book “A Conflict of Visions,” the economist Thomas Sowell argues that much of the philosophical debate of the last 200 years has been shaped by the struggle between two competing views of the world.

The “Unconstrained View” is based on the premise that man is basically good and has a natural desire to behave in ways that maximize the benefit to society as … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Economics, Personality / Behavior

There is a basic truth about what a human needs in order to survive; our culture seems unable to understand that. Human nature survives and has survived through the ages by being able to hold on tenaciously to two concepts: What is there about my life or world that has remained constant? and What is there about my life or world that has changed or … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Observations, Personality / Behavior

According to Prospect Theory, if you want to drive decision-makers towards a riskier decision, convince them that they are already losing. If you want to drive decision-makers towards a risk-averse decision, convince them that they are ahead and stand to lose quite a bit.

Content: Quotation | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subjects: Economics, Personality / Behavior

There is a form of eminence that does not depend on fate; it is an air that sets us apart and seems to portend great things; it is the value that we unconsciously attach to ourselves; it is the quality that wins us the deference of others; more than birth, position, or ability, it gives us ascendance.

Content: Quotation | Source: Amazon.com | Subjects: Confidence, Personality / Behavior

Two dominant figures of that era (19th-century England) were William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli. Gladstone was a powerful public figure for more than 60 years. It was said that when you had dinner with Gladstone, you thought that you were with the most interesting, brilliant, and provocative conversationalist. And it was said that when you dined with Disraeli — an equally charismatic figure — you … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Leadership, Personality / Behavior

Men and nations may behave wisely once they’ve exhausted all other alternatives.

Content: Quotation | Source: CEO Refresher | Subjects: Perception, Personality / Behavior

The more we have identified our worth (who we are) with our strengths (how we do things), the more likely we are to respond with denial, rationalization, resistance, and distortion when given feedback about the downside of our strengths.

Content: Quotation | Source: CEO Refresher | Subject: Personality / Behavior

People tend to become so engrossed in activity that they lose sight of purpose.

Content: Quotation | Source: TechRepublic | Subjects: Personality / Behavior, Work

C. Northcote Parkinson, an oddball with an odd name, was a British novelist and historian whose output ranged from Napoleonic-era military fiction to a history of sea-borne trade. But his major claim to fame was Parkinson’s Law which began a delightful series of books about how organizations make decisions, particularly bad ones. Here are some of Parkinson’s best-known laws:
1. ‘Expenditure rises to meet income’… … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Reason | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Personality / Behavior

Classic entrepreneurs are likely to score high on achievement and autonomy but low on affiliation. They might rank somewhere in the middle on the need for power. Consequently, many entrepreneurs get bored and frustrated and often leave the confines of corporate life-or are moved aside-when their tiny ventures grow into big, bureaucratic businesses.

Content: Quotation | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Personality / Behavior

Jim Camp’s thinking is that in any conversation, it’s the listener who has the power. “People have a weakness for talking,” he writes, and questions should “invite the adversary to indulge this weakness.”

Content: Quotation | Source: Inc. Magazine | Subjects: Negotiation, Personality / Behavior

No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible until a great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought.

Content: Quotation | Source: Abraham.com | Subjects: Observations, Personality / Behavior

We are practical beings, each of us with limited functions and duties to perform. Each is bound to feel intensely the importance of his own duties and the significance of the situations that call these forth. But this feeling is in each of us a vital secret, for sympathy with which we vainly look to others. The others are too much absorbed in their own … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: MarketingProfs | Subjects: Observations, Personality / Behavior

Our judgments concerning the worth of things, big or little, depend on the feelings the things arouse in us. Where we judge a thing to be precious in consequence of the idea we frame of it, this is only because the idea is itself associated already with a feeling. If we were radically feelingless, and if ideas were the only things our mind could entertain, … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: MarketingProfs | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Personality / Behavior

Managers would rather live with a problem they can’t solve than with a solution they don’t fully understand or control.

Content: Quotation | Source: Darwin Magazine | Subjects: Management, Personality / Behavior

If you are not prepared to exhibit a constant level of energy, those around you will respond in kind.

Content: Quotation | Source: CEO Refresher | Subjects: Leadership, Personality / Behavior

The failure to listen and ask questions could be easily solved by posing three extraordinarily simple questions, yet these frequently go unasked. They are: What do you think? How do you feel? What can I/we do? These must be the three easiest questions in the world, yet only too often managers turn themselves inside out trying to ‘second-guess’ their staff, either ‘telling’ them without consultation … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Emerald Now | Subjects: Personal Development, Personality / Behavior

…everyone has a core drama that leads to their personality style. What makes each of us the person we are is the dominance of some inner wish. The wish to be loved, or to be understood, or noticed. The wish to be free from conflict, or to help, or to be able to hurt others. The wish to achieve or the wish to fail. When … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: CGE&Y Center for Business Innovation (CBI) | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Personality / Behavior

Criticism is driven by the frustration and fears of the giver, not from the needs of the recipient. The underlying assumption is that the recipient somehow “should know better” and needs to be set straight. The implied message is that the recipient’s intentions are questionable, that there is something wrong with the recipient that the giver of criticism knows how to fix. In … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: CEO Refresher | Subject: Personality / Behavior

In avoiding all pain and seeking comfort at all costs we may be left without mercy and compassion. In rejecting change and risk, we often cheat ourselves of the quest. In denying suffering, we may never know our strength and our greatness.

Content: Quotation | Source: CEO Refresher | Subjects: Change Management, Personality / Behavior