There is a war for top talent and not everyone is going to be a winner. According to the 2017 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends report there are "widespread talent and skill shortages" making attracting the best talent a "top concern of business leaders." In this time of talent grab you need to ask:

What makes our organization stand out above the others?

Attitude is the single most important internal tool you have to shape every aspect of your life.

To maximize the power of that tool, it needs to be sharp, you need to know exactly how to use it, and you need to practice with it to bring out its power.

Please begin by taking just a moment to answer this question: What is attitude?

Here's a fact from the high arts of management theory: It's easier to scare the crap out of your team than it is to inspire them with an exciting vision of the future.

Even the best cyclists in the world need a team. A peloton is made up of competing riders who are nevertheless helping each other. Nothing happens in isolation and we can't perform at our best without others.

Last November we performed with Pink on the American Music Awards. Pink is known for performing aerial stunts that are truly inimitable as she sings live, refusing to ever lip sync! On the AMAs, Pink did something unprecedented even for her. She performed 200 feet above the ground on suspended cables pushing off the side of the glass J.W. Marriott building in downtown LA! This created an effect of gravity defiance. It looked magical; it also looked scary as hell! It turns out that it was:

How can you make things different in a positive way in 2018?

The key is to change our habits. We don’t become what we think about… we hardwire behaviours by creating habits that reflect who we want to be.

So how do we create new habits to perform at our best in 2018?

Meaning is very quickly becoming the most powerful driver of engagement, fulfilment and performance in the workplace.

The movement towards meaning has been bubbling away for some time, but it’s still pretty misunderstood. A few years ago a major report from the Career Advisory Board made a couple of eye-opening findings. When asked, managers felt the most important factor for millennials was securing a high-paying job. But when that question was asked to millennials themselves - money was secondary. For millennials, meaningful work was the single most important factor in defining a successful career.

The business world is obsessed with millennials. Who they are, what they want, and how they perceive the world. Dr John Izzo believes that virtually no-one understands what really matters to millennials.

Bored yet?

Shame.

You’re missing out.

I've always found boredom very productive. It can kick start a seized mind. If you are blocked up you take fibre. Believe me, when you get to my age ‘fibre’ is on your bucket list. So, think of boredom as ‘mental fibre’. Gets thing moving ‘upstairs’ again.

The value of a strong workplace culture is no longer debated. It’s no surprise that the biggest brand on planet, Google, has also won Fortunes' Best Companies to Work For 6 years in a row. However, this begs two obvious questions a) what kind of culture should your place have, and b) how do you make it happen. Read on.

Digital disruption, open marketplaces and the rise of entrepreneurship have created a whole new take on the war for talent. Millennial in particular are craving purpose more than just a pay cheque. To engage the best next generation talent and to create high performing teams, smart organizations must tap into the core of human drive for meaning and purpose.

Worldwide we are seeing how Millennials are reshaping the workplace. In many countries across the world millennials are surpassing GenXers as the largest generation in the workforce. One of the countries where we have seen dramatic changes during the last 10 years is Canada. 

With nearly 50% of the world's workforce to be comprised of Millennials in just a few years, they're a demographic your business can't afford to ignore.

The modern office environment seems almost purpose-built to destroy productivity. It’s the co-worker stopping by your desk with a quick question, the endless meetings and memos, the conversation between colleagues within earshot you simply can’t help but tune into.

What are we prepared to give up in order to be successful? When we talk about productivity we often talk in terms of hard work and tick-box 'To Do's' required in order for us to get results. Instead, in this video-clip behavioural research and expert in human motivation Dan Gregory breaks down the practical steps you can start using tomorrow to actively achieve your most important tasks, helping you reach your goals and achieve your purpose.

Having helped some of the world's best known brands maintain vitality and relevance, Michael McQueen has seen first-hand how the best organisations and leaders build, maintain and re-gain momentum. Find out where your 'momentum' mojo is... take Michael's specially formulated quiz!

We know that the future of work is changing, and for the ellusive 'millenials' motivators that worked in the past are quickly losing power. So how do you motivate and satisfy the needs of and get the best from this creative group who are so essential in our workplaces?

After more than 15 years working with some of the best organizations in the world, John Sweeney recognizes that leadership can be both a blessing and a curse: "Your behavior as a leader has tremendous impact and the way you show up every day is always underpinned by your mindset."

The other day I was making my son breakfast. I was carefully assembling his preferred mix of Weet-Bix, Chia seeds, cinnamon, greek yogurt and honey. He said to me 'Daddy you're the Wheet-Bix' professor. It both took me by surprise, and made me laugh.  I guess the point my enlighted 4 year was making is that it's pretty easy to be considered a professor these days, where everyone is an expert in anything.

From Sony to Microsoft, Adidas to Alcoa, and Billabong to Lego, many a brand has lost their mojo at one time or another. Michael McQueen shares key insights on how we can keep the pedal on momentum.From Sony to Microsoft, Adidas to Alcoa, and Billabong to Lego, many a brand has lost their mojo at one time or another.

In this video-clip, bestselling author, behavioral researcher and strategist Dan Gregory weighs up Motivation vs Design - Is achieving success really all about what drives us, or are the design structures we build into our lives more important?

Starting off a new sales cycle? Chances are you are going to fall into the typical traps that come with any long-term goals. High Performance expert Tony Wilson shares THE top three key performance tips - worth thinking about - to help you & your team have one of the best sales years yet.

When you drop a pebble in a pond the effect ripples out to the rest of the water, in the events industry the experiences we create are that pebble. It can be easy to forget, between meetings and briefs, that we are in the business of inspiring people - but we are, and it's a huge priviledge to be able to share the effect of these events with you.

The words we say to ourselves are so much powerful than the words we will ever hear from other people, so why is it so hard for us women to be kind to ourselves?

You work hard, you prioritise your success in business - so why on earth are you not where you want to be yet? So many of the people I speak with believe they are doing everything right, but they don't realise that there are a few, seemingly small things, that they are doing that the real power players do not do. So ask yourself this, are you sabotaging your success?

Selfish is hard to resist

As part of my work as a speaker on human behaviour, I'm constantly teaching those in the HR industry how to use our key human drivers to do better business. One of the key drivers, our biggest motivator as human beings is self interest. Which doesn't seem like a good thing does it? But once we get that, as leaders and professionals in HR, we can actually use this knowledge to do a lot of good.

Are you as productive as you could be?

In today’s uber fast pharmaceutical industry, the ability to define and do a multitude of tasks quickly is more important than ever. Not just to drive sales forward, but also to make it home for dinner with our family or partner.

In business these days, it’s not often that we find ourselves staring at a blank piece of paper feeling stupid and frustrated.  And that’s a problem. We need to do it more.

If you were watching the Winter Olympics closely, you’ll have noticed that many of the medal winners are using special mental rituals to maximize their performance.

In any one day of working in the telco sector you will most likely be faced with a high workload, a multitude of meetings with varying departments and an expectation that you are constantly 'on'. Many of these same techniques from Sochi can be used by those working in this space to improve their results.

Do you know why the vast majority of people leave their jobs? Many of you will be thinking money or perhaps long hours, or perhaps boredom. But none of these valid reasons play as big a part in driving someone from their job as a sense of not being valued.

Ok, we’re one month into the new year, how are you going? Not quite where you were hoping to be? More often than not, one month into the new year our resolutions are long forgotten. So here’s a short business reset to get you back on the straight and narrow and hurtling toward a brighter business future.

The saying goes that mediocrity is the enemy of greatness, that by settling for good enough we never achieve our full potential.

I realize all you young go-getters would work 25/8 if possible.

You know who you are. Full of fire and passion to make your startup a success, allowing the business to consume all your time and feeling invincible enough that nothing so mundane as sickness would ever hold you back.

However, heed this advice from a 20-year business veteran who has learned the hard lessons from helping teams all over the world. 

By now, you've internalized the basics of time management in an effort to maximize your productivity. You know you must be self-disciplined, shut down distractions, eliminate time-wasters, improve information handling, and make every effort to smooth out your workflow.

The problem is, you can do everything right and still end up with poor results if you're not careful.

As new technologies continue to change the pace and nature of the workplace, individuals face the ever-growing challenge of remaining ahead of the curve.

If somebody asked you what is the most crucial aspect of business to focus on to ensure success, what would you say? Some would choose Sales. Some would say Marketing. Many would claim it's Leadership. Others believe it's Systems. More than a few would be adamant that the most important element is financial acumen.

As you probably know, I am constantly studying time saving, organisation and productivity.

The reason is simple. If we can find just one technique that can make us more productive in business, over 5 or 10 years the impact can be extraordinary.

Today I’d like to talk about a ridiculously simple technique that can make a phenomenal improvement to how much you achieve.

Are you are ‘batteries included’ type of person, or not?

In the video, Siimon Reynolds discusses the idea that there are two types of people in the work place, those who harness the power of positive energy, and those that take it. Siimon also provides some great tips on enhancing team productivity and morale through postive feedback, and noticing positive performance in the workplace.

I recently presented at the world congress for Human Resources (Horizon put on by AHRI). The starting keynote was by Steve Wozniack, the co-founder of apple computers. What an impressive guy. Not only did he single handedly design the first personal computer, he was also involved in the design of the calculator and GPS technology. You could say that he has been one of the most influencial people of his generation. However there were two things about him that stood out the most.

“We’re out of carrots.” Normally, this isn’t a dramatic event however when you’re living in Antarctica for a year and the next re-supply of food is 8 months away it’s certainly problematic.

Carrots are big business in Antarctica. We had 2 types of carrots: the garden-variety vegetable type, and the “golden” carrot – the incentives, rewards and motivators I used to keep my team strong and resilient through the tough Antarctic winter.

Chris Helder makes a compelling case for learning to find your path to success by visualising the future that will result from it.

This exclusive Ode clip, “Timeline Mastery”, is part of the Tools of Influence eVideo series and is available for your team or can be delivered as an unbranded email campaign to your own clients.

Chris would ask, if you could phone your future self and they told you that you’d nailed that dream account - how would you have achieved it?

Would you like the next 90 days to be your best so far? What would you be willing to do to make this your reality?

We have an opportunity for a fresh start – a new financial year – and embracing the opportunity to step up to your potential is a choice.  Get inspired by imagining what could be. Build a vision - what would you love to see happen? Put words to the progress you would like to see in the next ninety days – speak it out loud. Write down every benefit that you will enjoy when you accomplish your new goals. Get excited about the possibilities!