Inspiration
Create sacred space as a way of honoring yourself and others
Sacred: devoted exclusively to one service or use (as of a person or purpose); entitled to reverence and respect (excerpted from Merriam-Webster dictionary). As...
Inspiration
Inspiration
Q-and-A with Marta Wilson, author of “Everybody’s Business”
Marta Wilson, CEO of Transformation Systems, is the author of “Everybody’s Business: Engaging Your Total Enterprise to Boost Quality, Speed, Savings and Innovation,” her...
Inspiration
When work passion goes awry
It seems everyone is talking about having passion about the work they do these days. Having (or finding) passion seems especially important for leaders...
Inspiration
Why volunteering makes you a better leader
You know volunteering is good for the community. But can volunteering make you a better leader? Lots of leaders volunteer. According to the Department of...
Inspiration
Your organizational culture probably needs tending
What is it like to live in your organization’s culture? Is it a safe, inspiring work environment that demonstrates trust and respect for employees...
Inspiration
What Yahoo and Marissa Mayer did right (and wrong)
If you somehow missed it, a media frenzy erupted after Yahoo announced that it will bring telecommuters home to the office. Much of the...
Inspiration
Closing the “discretionary effort” gap
Be honest. If you had a gas or water leak, you’d fix it. If an investment was draining your portfolio, you’d sell. So, why...
Inspiration
Give better feedback: How leaders can improve their coaching
As a manager or business owner, it’s easy to become mired in day-to-day minutiae, but don’t forget about your employees! To ensure your staff...
Inspiration
How leaders spend their time tells staff what they value
When I ask senior leaders how they spend their time in their work environment, they report three things more frequently than any other activities....
Inspiration
Building a culture of trust
Is your organization built on a culture of trust? Look around you; there are plenty of clues as to whether trust abounds. How quickly...
Inspiration
Listening 2.0: Making a splash with employees
I’ve opened a few recent workshops using electronic polling applications. (If you’re not familiar with the technology, it might be worth a look.) I...
Inspiration
Where you place the “a” matters: Are you just a leader or a just leader?
It’s just a trivial part of speech, just an “a,” no big deal. But it is! How often do we combine the words “justice”...
Inspiration
How men can help high-potential women stay in the workforce
If you’re a man leading people in your company, chances are that you feel somewhat stymied in how to address one of the biggest...
Inspiration
Finding the “motive” in motivation
For decades, management science has concerned itself with researching and developing sophisticated systems for understanding and unleashing employee motivation. In organizations, we’ve experimented with...
Inspiration
The etiquette of career development
“Nothing is less important than which fork you use. Etiquette is the science of living. It embraces everything. It is ethics. It is honor.”...
Inspiration
Tips from Mentor Scout’s mentors of the year
Mentoring can be a difficult relationship to navigate for both mentors and mentees, but there are several steps that participants can take to ensure...
Inspiration
A.G. Lafley and 3 questions every leader must answer
A.G. Lafley will be taking the helm once again as CEO of consumer-products giant Procter & Gamble. He retired from the company four years...
Inspiration
Ryan Estis, on company culture and how to do it right
Today’s working environment is global in scope, rife with uncertainty and lacking in long-term guarantees. In such a setting, company culture has been emphasized,...
Inspiration
Creating the right conditions for others to flourish and grow
I’m a pushover for flowers, filling the house with plenty of them as long as the things we’ve planted around our yard keep blooming....
Inspiration
Why mentorship is the gift that keeps on giving
The human capital development strategy of mentorship is getting a lot of attention these days. From books to boardrooms, everyone is trying to crack...
Inspiration
What parenthood taught me about being an empowering leader
My second son just graduated high school and heads off to Virginia Tech next fall. He’s the last one out of the nest, and...
Inspiration
Beyond authentic leadership: A question of vision
What are leaders for anyway? Half the time we’re disappointed in them, dismayed by their character flaws, disturbed by the mistakes they make and...
Inspiration
Stop solving your employees’ problems
A senior business development manager who worked for Cisco Systems for 11 years contacted me for coaching. On the first coaching session, the client...
Inspiration
Developing employees who aren’t “born leaders”
We all can recognize “born leaders” when we meet them, but most leaders are made. If you have employees who have the potential to...
Inspiration
The basics of influencing people
The ability to influence others may be the most important thing leaders do. An organization I work with lists influence as one of its...
Inspiration
Public speaking in the 21st century
Speakers who stand behind a podium glued to the floor, reading from slides and addressing a less than enthusiastic audience are so last century....
Inspiration
5 opportunities for boosting employee engagement
How engaged are people where you work? According to business owner Kevin Kruse, author of Employee Engagement for Everyone, the essence of employee engagement...
Inspiration
3 ways to retain and engage your valuable employees
Valuable in-demand leaders are what turn a company from good to great. An organization’s most important asset is its talented, high-performing employees. Companies that...
Inspiration
Will people follow you? 5 questions to ask
One question I hear from executives is this: How can I tell if people want to follow me? The answer to that question lies...
Inspiration
Leadership lessons from parenthood, part 2
When my youngest son graduated high school this year, I celebrated with a blog post about what I’ve learned about leadership by being a...
Inspiration
Surprising “woo-woo” solutions for becoming a better leader
For years, I laughed in the face of “woo-woo” stuff that the gurus of self-improvement have touted. Like many leaders, I tend to be...
Inspiration
How biased is your presentation?
Oh, what tangled webs we weave when we practice to deceive. How much more tangled when the people we deceive are ourselves? In the...
Inspiration
5 things you need to do to sell your ideas
I was a bit of a renegade in my years in the corporate world. I saw things that needed to change, and I felt...
Inspiration
Why leaders shouldn’t try to be something they’re not
After Apple’s most recent highly publicized product unveiling, where two new models of the iPhone were announced, CEO Tim Cook was widely criticized in...
Inspiration
Symbolic leadership: What do you stand for … or where do you sit?
“Symbols can be so beautiful, sometimes.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut, “Breakfast of Champions” Sandra described the past week of headaches associated with a systems conversion...
Inspiration
Communicating change: “Me” before “we,” then “us”
I can’t believe I’m going to do this. I’m about to share my secret weapon for change communications. When I tell you my methods...
Inspiration
Why and how leaders are different
Mark Miller is vice president of organizational effectiveness for Chick-fil-A and the author of “The Heart of Leadership: Becoming a Leader People Want to...
Inspiration
The power of heart-led introspection
It’s easy to be drawn into the rhythm of living and working day to day, doing what we need to do without giving it...
Inspiration
Management by talking around
In the 1980s, MBWA was the rage. It involved the radical notion that leaders could drive better results by stepping out of their offices...
Inspiration
Who’s the boss? It could be your team
Let’s face it — it’s great to be the boss. You’re the one calling the shots, making sure everything stays on course; in the...
Inspiration
The great boss as a visionary leader
Vision! Steve Jobs had it. Walt Disney had it. George Washington — although less educated than either Thomas Jefferson or Ben Franklin — saw...
Inspiration
Keep everyone “in the loop”
The end of the year typically brings holiday cheer with celebrations alongside family, friends and, often, colleagues. We humans connect with people we enjoy...