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
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...
Inspiration
4 senses of character-based leadership
Too often, I read blog posts or engage in discussions where different definitions of leadership are present. One definition of leadership implies position. It...
Inspiration
Going live: Tips for first-time corporate speakers
Credit: iStockphoto You’ve been asked to speak at an upcoming business meeting and have learned that some important people will be in the audience....
Inspiration
How do you know if your team is really ready for a growth spurt?
The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council, an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. The YEC recently launched #StartupLab,...
Inspiration
Developing leaders: It’s your job
It’s not part of your job description. Nobody has told you that you need to spend time and effort developing others in your organization....
Inspiration
Take teams from to low to high trust
When something goes seriously wrong, it’s often first announced by subtle signals. The two of us are living proof of how important it is...
Inspiration
Let your stars shine: Why your team needs a coach, not a manager
Managing and coaching are both necessary functions in the corporate world, but they have different purposes and outcomes. Managing is largely task-oriented and focuses...
Inspiration
Measure the right things to boost team effectiveness
The start of the new year is a great time to examine your team’s key metrics. What key performance indicators do you watch? Are...
Inspiration
Zappos and great culture: It’s not about happiness
This post is an excerpt from the Snippet e-book “Culture that Works: How Getting Serious About Culture Unlocks New Performance” (November 2013) by Jamie...
Inspiration
Expect excellence
There are some leaders who expect perfection. With their personal ideal of what perfect means, they drive others to do things in exactly the...
Inspiration
Are you overlooking your secret workforce?
You know those things that get done, and you really don’t know how they happen, until they don’t? Or those employees you see only...
Inspiration
How to behave like a leader
Many organizations espouse a set of “leadership competencies”; lists of abilities or traits that their leaders and leaders-in-training need to get proficient at. These...
Inspiration
Break unintentional management patterns and earn discretionary effort
It’s a term all too commonly used — discretionary effort. Some may even call it discretionary performance. Generally speaking, we understand enough to know...
Inspiration
The sound of your leadership speech
Think of a speech as a piece of music. Like a piece of music, it has melody, harmony and rhythm. Melody rises and lowers...
Inspiration
Put up your Dukes: A story about mentors and inspiring others
I am a damn good writer. You may not think so, but I do. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I am the...
Inspiration
Leading “wealthy volunteers”
There is an adage that goes, “Authority is the last resort of the inept and frustrated.” Parents who have found themselves relying on “…because...
Inspiration
Tips from the safety industry on improving employee attitudes
Workplace safety is like a field goal kicker: often overlooked on a football team’s roster but utterly crucial to its success. The all-star running...
Inspiration
Present as a leader
Have you ever seen an executive scurry across the stage, head down, clutching a copy of his presentation, and on reaching the podium, immediately...
Inspiration
Employee recognition: The KISS… method
Recognition may be among today’s most heavily researched leadership and supervision topics. And the results are consistently disturbing: According to studies by Badgeville research,...
Inspiration
How a grandmaster became a franchise master
One of the reasons I went into the martial arts business was to help children. It’s no secret that I was bullied as a...
Inspiration
The top 10 trust terminators
Trust is nearly synonymous with leadership. And it’s big business. We buy books (from the selection of more than 80,000 about trust on Amazon....
Inspiration
Trademarks of a great boss: Provide growth opportunities
Of course you’re already a good boss, or you wouldn’t be reading this article. You may even be a great boss. But how do...
Inspiration
Business IS behavior
The following is an excerpt from “Performance Management: Changing Behavior That Drives Organizational Effectiveness,” Fifth Edition, revised, by Aubrey C. Daniels, PhD., and Jon...
Inspiration
3 dimensions of purpose
Being a purpose-driven organization requires purpose-driven leadership. It’s your responsibility as a leader to be certain that those you lead are equipped and empowered to...
Inspiration
What business owners can learn from the Carlyle Group’s “One Carlyle”
This post is part of the series “Workplace Morale,” a weeklong effort co-hosted by SmartBrief’s SmartBlog on Leadership and the folks at Switch & Shift. Keep...
Inspiration
Craft workplace inspiration with an organizational constitution
This post is part of the series “Workplace Morale,” a weeklong effort co-hosted by SmartBrief’s SmartBlog on Leadership and the folks at Switch & Shift. Keep...
Inspiration
Do you want power or influence?
Adapted from Organizational Behavior, Schermerhorn, Hunt, & Osborn, John Wiley & Sons, 2000, pgs. 311-15 Power or Influence? This is an important question as...
Inspiration
What is your organization’s social impact?
All organizations have social impact — good or bad, intended or not. Social impact is the logical consequence of an organization’s plans, decisions, and...
Inspiration
To maximize engagement, get them started right
A new employee’s first day(s) at the office can 1) confirm their feeling that they’ve made the right choice coming to work for you,...
Inspiration
Preparing millennials for leadership success
#484429103 / gettyimages.com It hardly seems possible, but the time has come when high-potential millennials are assuming leadership roles. If you take the...
Inspiration
How to increase your team’s productivity in minutes each month
Sweet 16? When I was 16, I told my father I wanted to be a vegetarian. “That’s great!” he said. He jumped up from...
Inspiration
Letting employees determine employee recognition
Employee recognition used to be solely handled by the manager or by executives. This top-down approach had its flaws but worked well enough to...
Inspiration
10 ways to engage your best millennial talent
Chances are you’re over-thinking your millennial engagement strategy. What’s really changed I have this vivid memory of being the youngest and lowest-ranking person in...
Inspiration
Shifting the leader’s mindset from “me” to “we”
#494329285 / gettyimages.com “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about...
Inspiration
Followership: The other side of leadership
More than 50,000 books are published per year on leadership — how to be an effective leader, how to grow into being a leader...
Inspiration
2U’s Chip Paucek and the power of focus
Focus is a difficult state to achieve and even more difficult to sustain over time, even for longtime entrepreneurs like Chip Paucek, CEO and...