Pink, in his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, maintains there are three things that truly motivate us:

1. Autonomy – the freedom to choose task, time, technique, and team
2. Mastery – the desire to get better and better at something that matters
3. Purpose – the desire to pursue a cause larger than ourselves

It’s a compelling read full of documented research and interesting stories that support Pink’s thesis. A lot of what is covered in the book challenges conventional wisdom. In fact, some of the ideas would cause many business executives to break out in a cold sweat.

Let me give you an example. One of the stories in the book centers on a company that creates computer software and hardware to help hospitals integrate their information systems. The company, Meddius, is run by Jeff Gunther.

Gunther has turned Meddius into a ROWE, which stands for a results-only work environment. Gunther doesn’t care when people show up for work or where they do their work. He only cares about results. Each person has specific goals they must reach, but how they reach them is totally up to them. And if they need help, Gunther is there to provide it.

Now here’s where it gets really interesting. Gunther, who is in his early thirties, says, “My dad’s generation views human beings as human resources. They’re the two-by-fours you need to build your house. For me, it’s a partnership between me and the employees. They’re not resources. They’re partners.”

Gunther is questioning the organizational structure and management approach of almost every company in America. In its place, he’s advocating for a workplace where people can come and go, where they direct their own activities so long as they are meeting established goals.

Not all that far-fetched, but still it’s enough to drive many managers crazy. I, for one, once worked for a boss who was a slave to the clock. How would she react if the clock just didn’t matter any more? How would she manage without the ability to measure her people’s productivity based on hours in the office?

Gunther freely admits that not everyone embraced his approach. “Some people thought I was crazy. They wondered, ‘How can you know what your employees are doing if they’re not here?’” A couple of the employees who had a difficult time adjusting to this degree of freedom left.

So is Gunther right about American-styled management being an old-fashioned idea that should go the way of the buggy whip? Is it true that most companies treat people like cogs in a wheel? Before you answer, think for a moment. Do we tell people when they need to be at work? Do we give them specific tasks to work on and tell them how and where they are to do them? And do we tell them that if they follow directions by working the expected hours and complete the tasks in the manner that is dictated, then they will get paid and will keep their jobs?

Be honest about your approach. If this is how you manage, you’re clearly in the majority. That’s usually a pretty safe place to be, but is it right? Are you treating people like trusted partners or like they’re part of an assembly line that is managed from above?

The key word in the last sentence is “trusted.” I’m big on trust in the workplace. To be a successful manager, you need to develop trust with the people with whom you work. You need to trust that most people want to do a good job and be successful. Most won’t disappoint.

Much of the way we manage is based on lack of trust. We want to control every detail (time, task, technique, and team) to get the results we’re aiming for. We assume that people will do the very least possible to get by. We take for granted the fact that without us driving them and creating goals and incentives, our employees would cease to work.

But what if Jeff Gunther and Daniel Pink are right? What if you could let go and give people autonomy over their work? Could you create a team of innovative contributors, each finding a way to accomplish the task in a way that works for them? Your job would be to get these people the resources necessary for them to succeed and then measure the results. Doesn’t that sound like fun for everyone?

Maybe we should all give it a try!

Dan Oswald is president of M. Lee Smith Publishers LLC and author of The Oswald Letter. Before coming to MLSP, he was president of Lawrence Ragan Communications, Inc. (1996 to 2003) marketing manager at Aspen Publishers, Inc., and a graduate of Westmar College.

1. Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis. The Vanity Fair writer and author of The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine and Liar’s Poker gives a guided tour through some of the disparate places hard hit by the fiscal tsunami of 2008, like Greece, Iceland and Ireland, tracing how very different people for very different reasons gorged on the cheap credit available in the prelude to that disaster

2. StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths by Tom Rath. Are you unsure where your true talents lie? Do you feel that you are both a person who gets things done and someone who offers penetrating analysis? Well, you can discover whether you are truly an “achiever” or an “analytical” by completing the online quiz. Then, the book will give you “ideas for action” and tips for how best you can work with others. More of a patiencetester than Strengthsfinder, the quiz/book is probably best for those who have lots of time on their hands.

3. The Ultimate Question 2.0 (Revised and Expanded Edition): How Net Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer-Driven World by Fred Reichheld. Shows how practitioners have built Net Promoter into a full-fledged management system that drives extraordinary financial and competitive results.

4. EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches by Dave Ramsey. Step-by-step guidance to grow your business where you want it to go.

5. How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything…in Business (and in Life) by Dov Seidman. Today’s world is growing more transparent and data-driven, which is why yielding to the age-old temptation to cut corners when it comes to ethics is now more dangerous than ever, Seidman says. He lays out a game plan intended to teach companies how to outbehave their competitors—and win.

6. The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity by Jeffrey Sachs. Offers a diagnosis of our country’s economic ills and an urgent call for Americans to restore the virtues of fairness, honesty, and foresight as the foundations of national prosperity.

7. Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Dan Heath and Chip Heath. The Heath brothers (coauthors of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die) address motivating employees, family members, and ourselves in their analysis of why we too often fear change.

8. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni. The author targets group behavior in the final entry of his trilogy of corporate fables. When the instructional tale is over, Lencioni discusses the “five dysfunctions” (absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results) and provides a questionnaire for readers to use in evaluating their own teams and specifics to help them understand and overcome these common shortcomings.

9. The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential by John C. Maxwell. Shows you how to master each level of leadership and rise up to the next to become a more influential, respected, and successful leader.

10.  The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness by Dave Ramsey. Debt reduction and fiscal fitness for families, by the radio talk-show host.

1. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss.  Ferriss isn’t shy about tooting his own horn: He says he “speaks six languages, runs a multinational firm from wireless locations worldwide, and has been a world-record holder in tango, a national champion in kickboxing, and an actor in a hit television series in Hong Kong.” Is this the sort of person you really want to be taking advice from? Anyway, Ferris offers recommendations and resources for everything from eliminating wasted time to outsourcing your job and getting cheap airfare.

2. StandOut: The Groundbreaking New Strengths Assessment from the Leader of the Strengths Revolution by Marcus Buckingham. Introduces the next-generation strengths assessment from the co-author of Now, Discover Your Strengths, the book that launched StrengthsFinder.

3. Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth Blanchard . This story is about adjusting attitudes toward change in life, especially at work. Change occurs whether a person is ready or not, but the author affirms that it can be positive. His principles are to anticipate change, let go of the old, and do what you would do if you were not afraid.

4. Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis. A behind-the-scenes look at a unique and turbulent time in American business. From the frat-boy camaraderie of the forty-first-floor trading room to the killer instinct that made ambitious young men gamble everything on a high-stakes game of bluffing and deception, this is an insider’s account of an unprecedented era of greed, gluttony, and outrageous fortune.

5. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox. Alex Rogo manages a failing manufacturing plant. When his district manager tells him that profits must increase or the plant will be closed, Alex turns to Jonah, a former professor. With the help of the enigmatic Jonah and the plant staff, Alex turns the plant around while at the same time abandoning many management principles he previously thought were ironclad.

6. The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels by by Michael Watkins. Whether challenged with taking on a startup, turning a business around, or inheriting a high-performing unit, a new leader’s success or failure is determined within the first 90 days on the job. This hands-on guide offers proven strategies for moving successfully into a new role at any point in one’s career.

7. Leading Change by John P. Kotter. The methods managers have used in the attempt to transform their companies into stronger competitors — total quality management, reengineering, right sizing, restructuring, cultural change, and turnarounds — routinely fall short, says Kotter, because they fail to alter behavior. This book identifies an eight-step process that every company must go through to achieve its goal, and shows where and how people — good people — often derail.

8. Read This Before Our Next Meeting by Al Pittampalli. Explains what’s wrong with “the meeting,” and meeting culture, but suggests how to make meetings more effective, efficient, and worthy of attending.

9. The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer. Through rigorous analysis of nearly 12,000 diary entries provided by 238 employees in 7 companies, the authors explain how managers can foster progress and enhance inner work life every day.

10. The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t by Robert I. Sutton. Aims to show managers that by hiring mean-spirited employees – regardless of talent – saps energy from everyone who must deal with said new hires.

Previously, I wrote about As We Speak: How to Make Your Point and Have It Stick by Peter Meyers and Shann Nix, but it’s so good, I thought it deserved revisiting. There is a great chapter on conducting conversations with employees, and I wanted to tell you about it. They call it “Bridges to Dialogue.” It’s essentially a step-by-step process on dealing with employee issues. First, the authors advise you to define your outcome. They write that you should tell yourself that by the end of a conversation with an employee, the employee will do “X” or you will be on the road to “X.”

Second ― and this is crucial ― separate the person from the problem. If an employee comes in late to a meeting and you label him “irresponsible,” then you view the employee as bad, and no solution is possible. But by separating the person from the problem, you can focus not on the individual, but on his behavior. In other words, the problem is coming late to meetings. No amount of editorial commentary about the employee is helpful.

Third, start talking, but stop after four sentences. Meyers and Nix point to research indicating that people’s minds wander, and they pay full attention to only the first three or four sentences they hear. After that, their attention drops off dramatically. For that reason, you should give messages in bite-size chunks and use questions to move the conversation along.

For instance, open with a question that the employee must say “yes” to, such as “I’d like to talk to you about our meetings. Is that all right?” What’s the employee going to do — say no? Meyers and Nix use the example of wanting to talk to your boss about a new training program. Instead of asking, “Can we talk about why we don’t have any training here?” (which is just an invitation for an argument), they suggest trying, “I’d like to talk to you about how we could raise the skill level of the team. Is that all right?” Makes sense.

And just like a hostage negotiator, you should reward concessions. The authors suggest oral responses such as “good,” “thank you,” “I understand,” and “that makes sense.” You get the idea. Semi-oral responses work, too (e.g., affirming noises such as “mmmm” during pauses). You can also use nonverbal cues like smiling and nodding. However, exercise caution when doing so. An employee may think you’re nodding because you agree with him.

Finally, Meyers and Nix stress demonstrating your commitment with a comment like “I’m committed to finding a solution to this and doing whatever we need to do. How about you?” If you get stuck, ask the employee:

• “What do you understand my point to be?”
• “Is there a seed of truth to what I am saying?”
• “What is it that you’re committed to doing?”

One reason I like the book is because it’s honest. Meyers and Nix say that in a courageous conversation, you may have to deal with anger. Their recommendation? Listen, ask questions, and paraphrase. By paraphrasing, they don’t mean acting like a parrot. Reformulate in your own words what you think the employee is telling you. If you think you’re going to be able to talk him out of his feelings or explain why his anger is inappropriate, you aren’t going to get anywhere. An employee is going to feel what he feels, and it’s your job to defuse the situation, not pour gasoline on it. By listening, questioning, and paraphrasing, you do just that. The authors suggest, however, that you tie your comments to the level of the employee’s anger. If the person you’re talking to is furious and you say “it sounds like you’re feeling a little annoyed,” you’re just going to make the matter worse.

Is this easy? No. Evolutionary biology teaches us that when we’re confronted, we either fight or flee. Meyers and Nix point out that by implementing the practices discussed in their book, you’re teaching yourself a new skill ― one you didn’t have before. If it were easy, everyone would do it. It’s a good book for lots of reasons, and I strongly recommend it.

Michael Maslanka is a partner in the Dallas, Texas, office of Constangy, Brooks & Smith, LLP. He has 30 years of experience in litigation and trial of employment law cases. He is the editor of Texas Employment Law Letter, and he also authors the “Work Matters” blog for Texas Lawyer.

1. StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths by Tom Rath. Are you unsure where your true talents lie? Do you feel that you are both a person who gets things done and someone who offers penetrating analysis? Well, you can discover whether you are truly an “achiever” or an “analytical” by completing the online quiz. Then, the book will give you “ideas for action” and tips for how best you can work with others. More of a patiencetester than Strengthsfinder, the quiz/book is probably best for those who have lots of time on their hands.

2. The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries. A scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate.

3. StandOut: The Groundbreaking New Strengths Assessment from the Leader of the Strengths Revolution by Marcus Buckingham. Introduces the next-generation strengths assessment from the co-author of Now, Discover Your Strengths, the book that launched StrengthsFinder.

4. Break Your Own Rules: How to Change the Patterns of Thinking that Block Women’s Paths to Power by Jill Flynn, Kathryn Heath, and Mary Davis Holt. Distills the six faulty assumptions (or “rules”) most women follow that get in the way—then delivers the correlating new rules that promise to clear that path.

5. Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius by Sylvia Nasar. The author of the A Beautiful Mind tells the story of the making of modern economics and of how economics rescued mankind from squalor and deprivation by placing its material fate in its own hands rather than in Fate.

6. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni. The author targets group behavior in the final entry of his trilogy of corporate fables. When the instructional tale is over, Lencioni discusses the “five dysfunctions” (absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results) and provides a questionnaire for readers to use in evaluating their own teams and specifics to help them understand and overcome these common shortcomings.

7. Lost and Found: Unexpected Revelations About Food and Money by Geneen Roth. The author of Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything explores how emotional issues with money mirror those with food and dieting.

8. Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie. Presents the six simple keys for creating or transforming your own life and business, from discovering your core story to being resourceful without resources; from overcoming fear and doubt to incorporating giving into every aspect of your life.

9. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t by Jim Collins. The author of Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies examines the question “How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?”

10. The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness by Dave Ramsey. Debt reduction and fiscal fitness for families, by the radio talk-show host.

1. Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul by Howard Schultz. The president and chairman of Starbucks shares the remarkable story of his return and the company’s ongoing transformation under his leadership, revealing how, during one of the most tumultuous economic times in history, Starbucks again achieved profitability and sustainability without sacrificing humanity.

2. Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions by Guy Kawasaki. The author of The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything argues that in business and personal interactions, your goal is not merely to get what you want but to bring about a voluntary, enduring, and delightful change in other people. By enlisting their own goals and desires, by being likable and trustworthy, and by framing a cause that others can embrace, you can change hearts, minds, and actions.

3. Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by David Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright. Shows leaders how to assess, identify, and upgrade their tribes’ cultures, one stage at a time.

4. In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives by Steven Levy. Wired magazine writer Levy recaps Google’s groundbreaking search engine and fabulously profitable online ad–brokering business, and elucidates the cutting-edge research and hard-nosed cost-efficiencies underlying them.

5. Poke the Box by Seth Godin. A manifesto about producing something that’s scarce, and thus valuable.

6. Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity by Josh Linkner. A 5-step process for creating profitable new ideas, empowering all your employees to be creative, and sustaining your competitive advantage over the long term.

7. We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World by Simon Mainwaring. How to make your brand leverage social media to earn consumer goodwill, loyalty and profit, while creating a third pillar of sustainable social change through conscious contributions from customer purchases.

8. The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk. Tips on using social media tools to connect to customers.

9. Beyond Wealth: The Road Map to a Rich Life by Alexander Green. Commentary on the most important aspects of our lives: love, work, honor, trust, freedom, death, fear, truth, beauty and other timeless issues.

10. Endgame: The End of the Debt SuperCycle and How It Changes Everything by John Mauldin and Jonathan Tepper. How the “debt supercycle” is adversely affecting developing countries around the world, including the United States.

1. StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths by Tom Rath. Are you unsure where your true talents lie? Do you feel that you are both a person who gets things done and someone who offers penetrating analysis? Well, you can discover whether you are truly an “achiever” or an “analytical” by completing the online quiz. Then, the book will give you “ideas for action” and tips for how best you can work with others. More of a patiencetester than Strengthsfinder, the quiz/book is probably best for those who have lots of time on their hands.

2. The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness by Dave Ramsey. Debt reduction and fiscal fitness for families, by the radio talk-show host.

3. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni. The author targets group behavior in the final entry of his trilogy of corporate fables. When the instructional tale is over, Lencioni discusses the “five dysfunctions” (absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results) and provides a questionnaire for readers to use in evaluating their own teams and specifics to help them understand and overcome these common shortcomings.

4. Strengths-Based Leadership by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie. Three keys to being a more effective leader.

5. Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth Blanchard. This story is about adjusting attitudes toward change in life, especially at work. Change occurs whether a person is ready or not, but the author affirms that it can be positive. His principles are to anticipate change, let go of the old, and do what you would do if you were not afraid.

6. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t by Jim Collins. The author of Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies examines the question “How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?”

7. Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Dan Heath and Chip Heath. The Heath brothers (coauthors of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die) address motivating employees, family members, and ourselves in their analysis of why we too often fear change.

8. Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future by Robert B. Reich. The author argues that the real problem with our current economic crisis is structural: it lies in the increasing concentration of income and wealth at the top, and in a middle class that has had to go deeply into debt to maintain a decent standard of living.

9.  Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh. The visionary CEO of Zappos explains how an emphasis on corporate culture can lead to unprecedented success.

10.  Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: How I Went from Gang Member to Multimillionaire Entrepreneur by Ryan Blair with Don Yaeger. An inspirational guide for people who are willing to put in the hard work, time, and dedication needed to see their vision through to the end.

If you’re going to be writing something, take a look at Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way (See all Taoism Books) a copy of which you can pick up at any bookstore. No. 81 from the Tao has been translated as “True words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not true. Experts do not argue; the argumentative are not experts. The knowledgeable are not generalists; generalists are not knowledgeable.” In other words, don’t try to sound smart, just write like you talk.

It reminds me of a passage from a great book by Peggy Noonan, Simply Speaking: How to Communicate Your Ideas with Style, Substance, and Clarity (See all Business & Investing Books). She writes that we need to write and speak “straight and plain and direct.” She writes that when a soldier gets shot in battle, he doesn’t say, “I believe I’ve just been struck by a bullet,” he says, “I’m hit.” Unadorned expression is always the most powerful expression.

Michael Maslanka is a partner in the Dallas, Texas, office of Constangy, Brooks & Smith, LLP. He has 30 years of experience in litigation and trial of employment law cases. He is the editor of Texas Employment Law Letter, and he also authors the “Work Matters” blog for Texas Lawyer.

1. Winners Never Cheat: Even in Difficult Times, New and Expanded Edition by Jon M. Huntsman. Think about the kind of person you want to do business with. Then, be that person–and use this book to get you there.

2. Poke the Box by Seth Godin. A manifesto about producing something that’s scarce, and thus valuable.

3. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. A new edition of the author’s principles for solving problems.

4. StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths by Tom Rath. Are you unsure where your true talents lie? Do you feel that you are both a person who gets things done and someone who offers penetrating analysis? Well, you can discover whether you are truly an “achiever” or an “analytical” by completing the online quiz. Then, the book will give you “ideas for action” and tips for how best you can work with others. More of a patiencetester than Strengthsfinder, the quiz/book is probably best for those who have lots of time on their hands.

5. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Inspired by Andrew Carnegie’s magic formula for success, this book will contains “the secrets that will bring you a fortune.”

6. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss.  Ferriss isn’t shy about tooting his own horn: He says he “speaks six languages, runs a multinational firm from wireless locations worldwide, and has been a world-record holder in tango, a national champion in kickboxing, and an actor in a hit television series in Hong Kong.” Is this the sort of person you really want to be taking advice from? Anyway, Ferris offers recommendations and resources for everything from eliminating wasted time to outsourcing your job and getting cheap airfare.

7. Thinking for a Change: 11 Ways Highly Successful People Approach Life andWork by John C. Maxwell. Basing his latest book on the theory that “successful people think differently than unsuccessful people,” Maxwell (author of bestselling There’s No Such Thing As “Business” Ethics: There’s Only One Rule For Making Decisions) guides readers on the journey of mastering “good thinking” to achieve their personal and professional potential.

8. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen. Methods for reducing stress and increasing performance.

9. Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. The authors of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die contend that our minds are ruled by two different systems — the rational mind and the emotional mind — that compete for control. The rational mind wants to change something at work; the emotional mind loves the comfort of the existing routine. This tension can doom a change effort — but if it is overcome, change can come quickly. In Switch, the Heaths show how everyday people — employees and managers, parents and nurses — have united both minds and, as a result, achieved dramatic results.

10.  Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth Blanchard . This story is about adjusting attitudes toward change in life, especially at work. Change occurs whether a person is ready or not, but the author affirms that it can be positive. His principles are to anticipate change, let go of the old, and do what you would do if you were not afraid.

If you’re thinking about a presentation you need to give, take a look at As We Speak: How to Make Your Point and Have It Stick, a new book by Peter Meyers and Shann Nix. Unfortunately, when you’re about to give a presentation, your reptile brain tells you to focus on your fears because that is how you will survive. After all, it worked 30,000 years ago. But Meyers and Nix advise against becoming a hostage to your fears. When we do that, we ask ourselves the wrong questions ― e.g., What is missing from my talk? Will I forget what to say? Will the audience find out I’m not as smart as they think I am?

Instead, the authors toss out this idea: Ask yourself questions that are embedded with positive presumptions ― e.g., What is the best part of this presentation? What am I most passionate about in this material? How can I make a difference? Meyers and Nix note that “positive presumption” questions aren’t positive thinking, which they describe as “trying to hypnotize yourself into a different mindset.” By contrast, positive presumption questions force you to think of new possibilities and shift your thinking from “Will I succeed?” to “How will I succeed?” The final advice is to wire your brain with the right questions well before the event.

Michael Maslanka is a partner in the Dallas, Texas, office of Constangy, Brooks & Smith, LLP. He has 30 years of experience in litigation and trial of employment law cases. He is the editor of Texas Employment Law Letter, and he also authors the “Work Matters” blog for Texas Lawyer.