How to Use “i.e.” Versus “e.g.”

The abbreviations “i.e.” and “e.g.” are commonly misused, because very few people actually know what each means. Here’s a simple guide.

A Man’s Guide to Dry Cleaning

If you’re going to spend good money on clothes, it’s worth your while to take care of them—and to know what happens when you entrust them to someone else. The cleaner’s doesn’t have to be a black box–the place where you drop off valuable items and have them magically reappear the next day, looking like new.

Don’t Let Your Strength Become Your Weakness

Most people readily recognize the importance of moderation for things with well-known pitfalls. But what about GOOD personal qualities? Without recognizing the reality of a “dark side,” even the best character traits can be taken too far.

Manage Your Online Reputation

There once was a time when the best approach for managing your online reputation was to make sure that you didn’t have any sort of footprint at all. These days, that’s all but impossible.

How to Properly Tie a Tie

There aren’t many skills more fundamental (and more common) to dressing with style than being able to properly tie a tie. Unfortunately, it’s not like riding a bike–so if it’s been a while since you’ve had to wear one, it can be surprisingly easy to forget how.

GCS Recommends: Crooner Compilations

Build your collection of tunes for entertaining quickly (and cheaply!) with greatest hits compilations of the classic crooners. Here are a few reasons they’re the right way to go–and a six great compilations to consider.

Eight Simple Conversation Techniques for Drawing People Out

Every gent wants to be able to engage gracefully with other people, but some conversations can be more challenging than others—particularly with strangers and those with whom you don’t have much in common. How can you draw these people out in order to have a pleasant conversation? How can you convey authentic interest without coming across as fake?

Stay Alive With Restroom Etiquette

If you’re rebel at heart, remember that there are plenty of places you can rock the boat and make waves. So if you want to stand out, find a different place–the bathroom is no place for non-conformists. Fight these basic rules if you so desire, but do so at your own peril.

The Habit Change Cheatsheet: How to Successfully Engrain a Behavior

Changing behaviors that are deeply engrained can seem next to impossible at times, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are 29 straightforward tips for breaking out of the rut of a bad habit.

Clothing Alterations and a Good Tailor: Style Essentials

You probably know a reputable mechanic for auto repairs. But who do you call on for help with something much more important–your personal appearance?

Is Your Playlist Undermining Your Effectiveness?

Music has a powerful—and often underappreciated—effect on the human brain and our emotions.  As a result, what we listen to can easily (and inadvertently) have a tremendous impact on our mental state and on the quality of our interactions throughout the day.  So if it has a strong emotional component, what types of [...]

The Slow Secret: How to Make Lasting Changes in Your Life

In today’s hectic world, it often seems that the best way to get ahead is to simply move faster than everyone else. But could it be that it’s actually the exact opposite? Here are some practical benefits that can result from harnessing the power of incremental change.

30 Hand-Picked Songs for a Classic Cocktail Party

Throwing a cocktail party is a nice way to have a good time and enjoy a classy atmosphere that most of us don’t experience every day. Music can be a key aspect of this kind of event, but it’s also something that can be easy to overlook. Here are 30 hand-picked songs (in no particular order) that can help make a classic cocktail party a success.

5 Powerful Reasons to Eat Slower

The way we eat can often be reflective of our general approach to life, but it’s not only a gauge—our pace can also have a direct impact on our personal well being and interactions throughout the day. Slowing down is a great way to keep your cool in general, but here are five additional benefits that can easily come from applying the principle at meals.

The Art of Giving Praise

Four Practical Tips for Giving Praise
We all know that genuine praise can brighten the day of not only the recipient, but the praise-giver as well.  But how can you ensure that your commendations are received in the spirit they’re intended?  Steven DeMaio at The Harvard Business Blog offers four practical tips today in a post [...]

How to Manage Your Ego So You Can Reach Your Full Potential

Most of us want to achieve something in life…but there are time when our aspirations go beyond being a good steward of the opportunities we’ve been given and taken on a life of their own. Here are six signs that the ego has taken over.

Manliness and the Gent

What’s the Connection?

The fine gents at The Art of Manliness (one of our favorite blogs, I might add) have a great post up today titled “The Different Types of Manliness.” In it, they describe six different “types” of men that personify the ideals of manliness in unique ways.  Each type is a caricature [...]

How to Communicate Like Ben Bernanke

Leaders have a natural tendency to take charge, and during meetings this often means that they end up driving the conversation. In many cases this makes sense, especially when the intent is for send-receive (generally one way) communication. However, there are also many times when this isn’t the goal, and the conversation needs [...]

Embrace Awkwardness

Everyone has awkward moments. Yes, everyone. Even the suave and professional people we look up to.  Naturally, we want to limit our awkwardness. Awkwardness is, well, awkward!
So the idea that awkwardness can be a good thing is counter-intuitive.  But here is why it is true: making an effort to not be awkward cannot prevent you [...]

Keep Your Cool by Walking Slowly

We’re in a rat race.  You’ve seen it:  the business men running down the sidewalk to make a meeting, the women speed-walking down the street without even noticing your presence. The human race is in a seemingly endless race to get ahead in life, the point being to advance oneself at a faster rate than [...]