Management
Foster a growth mindset
As a coach and professional development provider, I often find myself having some variation of the following conversation with an organization’s chief executive, HR...
Leadership
HR
10 challenges HR faces in a global company
This post is adapted from “High-Impact Human Capital Strategy: Addressing the 12 Major Challenges Today’s Organizations Face,” (AMACOM, August 2015) by Jack Phillips and...
Productivity
Productivity tip: Make your phone meetings more effective
“I know the people on the phone can’t see this, but …” By the third time our meeting facilitator offered the same apology, I...
Leadership
Tips for Standing Out From the Crowd(Funding)
This post is sponsored by PayPal. Bank loans and venture capital continue to be popular funding sources, but they do not work for every...
Management
10 ways to keep cool and not lose composure
When leaders blow up, lose their tempers or let their emotions get the better of them, they can quickly develop a reputation as volatile,...
Management
What is your favorite way to determine employee happiness and engagement?
The Young Entrepreneur Council is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship...
Leadership
Common sense is not common
What do your leaders celebrate in your workplace? Take a moment and write down the five to 10 things that leaders measure, praise, encourage,...
Leadership
How to start a business in 30 days
One of the hardest parts about starting a business is taking those first steps. You might have your idea, and a few vague plans,...
Management
The 4 leadership principles that could undermine Amazon
Recent reports and an examination of Amazon's leadership principles suggest that Amazon should obsess as much about its culture as it does about its customers.
Leadership
CEOs: Manage the future, not the past
If the company is the bus and its leader is the driver, as Jim Collins’ famous analogy states, then it stands to reason that...
Leadership
3 tips to help ease your inventory management woes
This post is sponsored by PayPal. Inventory management is a thorny problem for many entrepreneurs. Stocking too much inventory is a waste of resources,...
Strategy
Get with the times and learn to lead globally
Business gone global means that the ability of employees to work effectively together across borders and time zones has become critical. Cultivating global mindset...
Strategy
Project phases 101: A 3-minute design lesson from “The Simplicity Cycle”
“The Simplicity Cycle” provides a roadmap to help people make good decisions about complexity in the things we design and use. One of the...
Management
Own your board
At the end of my first year as school leader, I met up for breakfast with someone who was very instrumental in developing school...
Management
Your checklist for more effective meetings
Keeping meetings, tight, effective and on-track takes discipline. And meetings that waste time also squander energy, productivity, and money. When you follow these 15...
Management
The 3-step process for creating better habits across your team
As a leader, it’s your job to ensure you’re always pushing your employees to form positive workplace habits. But like any ingrained routine, it...
Inspiration
What’s your story? Leadership and storytelling
Storytelling — once the stuff of childhood nighttime rituals — has grown up and is quickly becoming a go-to tool in the very adult...
Management
What do you ask every employee before they leave your company?
The Young Entrepreneur Council is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that...
Inspiration
3 tips for doing good with your business
This post is sponsored by PayPal. Many entrepreneurs want to improve the world around them while expanding their companies. Having a social mission can...
Management
3 tips for developing your high-potential leaders
Are the “rising stars” in your company’s leadership ranks getting the development they need? These talented young leaders in your organization — often called...
Management
4 actions that can make you a wellspring of confidence
You will never read a single line from some of today’s best writers. Instead, you will hear them in a TV program or movie....
Leadership
5 tips for protecting your company’s identity when working with a consultant
Historically, consulting companies have gotten a bad rap for swooping in with presentations full of industry trends or spewing out jargon-laden recommendations. Or, even...
Communication
Introverted and extroverted leaders: Bring on the battles
Liz and Ricky are two best work buddies at an industrial supply company in the Midwest. But it wasn’t always like that. Early on...
Management
How managers become leaders: Resilience
Have you ever known someone who was a manager, but not a “leader?” Have you ever known someone, or even worked for someone, who...
Management
8 tips for first-time leaders to get results from the team
This post is adapted from “Your First Leadership: How Catalyst Leaders Bring Out the Best in Others,” by Tacy M. Byham and Richard S....
Leadership
Build a team of workplace teachers
“ou must know what you want to achieve, be certain of your aims, and have these goals constantly in mind… You must educate your...
Management
Who and what to ask before hatching your plan to lead
This post is adapted from “All Hands on Deck: Navigating Your Team Through Crises, Getting Your Organization Unstuck and Emerging Victorious” (Career Press, 2015)...
Communication
Only the sharks survive? The risks of confrontation
The show “Shark Tank,” like much of the media, perpetuates the myth that you have to be aggressive, assertive, even confrontational to advance your...
Leadership
What makes a smart employee goal?
Goals drive us as a whole (company, that is) and as individuals. They define what we need to do and how we need to...
Communication
Enhancing your executive edge
Why do some people get ahead and others do not? That’s the thought-provoking question addressed by authors Kim Zoller and Kerry Preston in the...
Management
Why performance appraisals fail: A root-cause analysis and alternative
As an HR professional, I know the value of the performance appraisal. However, I also know that, if done poorly, they can have the...
Careers
4 questions every leader should be able to answer
There is nothing quite like the adrenaline rush of that moment when you’re first awarded an important leadership role. Having “finally arrived” you imagine...
Inspiration
3 little words
What are the most important three words for any relationship between a manager and employee? No, it’s not “I love you.” Now that would...
Management
What unique perk does your company offer?
The Young Entrepreneur Council is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that...
Inspiration
Deepening the workplace bond
“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” ~ Henry Ford One way for leaders to develop a strong...
Leadership
How stories can reinforce the culture you want
What stories are told in your organization today? Are you aware of them? Do they reinforce your desired culture or do they inspire undesired...
Leadership
How do you handle someone who’s a “squeaky wheel”?
SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 190,000 business leaders. We run the poll...
Careers
Be more productive with these tech tips
It seems every day brings more e-mails, more data, more information to sort through. Your workload increases but you can’t add more hours to...
Strategy
Quit the “disrupting” and start “disturbing”
Disrupting. Everyone’s claiming to do it and oh how it’s grabbed our attention lately. In fact, at the moment, it is one of the...
Management
How you can spend less time and be a more effective leader
Do leaders work or do they sit back and supervise others? Where you stand on that issue depends upon where you sit in the...
Careers
Agility is today’s most critical leadership competency
A friend who coaches a girls soccer team recently shared, that after a tough loss, one of her 13-year-old players said, “Well, you know...
Management
We all are leaders
Consider this situation: two women are losing their father to cancer. For Eloise, the journey is terrifying and overwhelming. Her life is so busy,...