Inspiration
Management lessons from the dugout
Batboys are a small part of a baseball team, but how they're incorporated into a team's culture and camaraderie says a lot about management and leadership.
Leadership
Careers
Rethinking career paths, promotions and landmarks
Employees want growth, opportunity and development, and even if you can't give promotions, you need to meet their needs. Start by rethinking the importance of landmarks in careers.
Productivity
How to productively knock out those 2-minute tasks
Part of the Getting Things Done mantra is 2-minute tasks. But what does that mean, how do you practice it, and how does it help productivity?
Leadership
How do you handle making decisions during times of uncertainty?
The most recent SmartBrief on Leadership poll question: How do you handle making decisions during times of uncertainty?
Management
What employees want from employers
Learn the 5 things employees want if they're to feel engaged and motivated -- and not leave your organization. Retention in the Great Resignation is more important than ever.
Leadership
How lessons from an adventure race apply to government leaders
Yvonne Camus, Eco-challenge 2000 Borneo finisher, discusses principles of surviving an adventure race that apply to government leaders
Management
3 things your top talent always confide in me
Too many high-potential talent feel unheard, unsupported and unappreciated. You can wait for HR to tell you this after the employee leaves, or you can do something about it.
Inspiration
The simple truths of leadership turn common sense into common practice
The truths about common sense are easier than putting those principles into practice as leaders and employers. Here's some guidance from Ken Blanchard and Randy Conley on doing just that.
Strategy
“Day one” of succession planning
Founders and CEOs alike need to plan their succession -- and they likely need more time than they're alloting. Learn from a business owner who's done succession.
Leadership
How government leaders can find priorities amid the chaos
The pandemic has created chaos, confusion and disorientation. Learn from a pilot how leaders can handle all that while still navigating through.
Leadership
What is your biggest obstacle to delegating more of what you do?
The most recent SmartBrief on Leadership poll question: What is your biggest obstacle to delegating more of what you do?
Management
Why executive sponsorship is critical for achieving D&I goals
DEI success requires everyone's involvement, and if you're an executive or CEO, that includes you, too. Learn how from the latest data on diversity hiring.
Management
Leadership behaviors that diminish trust
Trust is hard to built and easy to lose -- and a business imperative for managers and leaders in any organization. Learn what common ways trust is won or lost, and what you can do about it.
Careers
In praise of doing something completely different with your career
Burnout is rampant, and some people will need a new career path, while others need a full pause. It's time to discover what career shift you need.
Strategy
Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow (with strategy)
Strategic planning is increasingly complex and fluid. Here are 5 tips for smarter strategic planning at your annual event and on an ongoing basis.
Communication
Engage your audience: The Q&A
Q&A sessions are powerful opportunities to clarify your points, engage your audience and empower them to act. Don't throw away this influencer opportunity.
Leadership
How do you handle things when someone refuses to compromise and they harden their stance?
The most recent SmartBrief on Leadership poll question: How do you handle things when someone refuses to compromise and they harden their stance?
Management
Emotional exhaustion is rampant, and returning people to the “old normal” will not help
The pandemic continues to be a drain on people, and if the workplace is also disrespectful and draining, you'll lose employees' hearts, minds and presence.
Management
Reversing the Great Resignation: Psychological factors that foster engagement
With so many employees quitting, leaders must do more to understand and support their staff's goals for self-expansion. Learn more and take the assessment within!
Management
Hoping to succeed as a leader? It’s time we had a talk
Leaders need a new perspective on risk. You can't wish away risk or solve it. Rather, risk is "an essential part of the mindset of leading."
Management
Rethinking new-manager development: An operating system to support success
New managers and leaders get little, if any, training. They need a better guide. Here's the 5-step New Manager's Operating System.
Sponsored
The importance of purpose to company success
Here's how purpose can push a business to greater success.
Communication
When the moment is right, are you ready for a motivation conversation?
Having the courage and patience to understand people's motivation can help them -- and you as a leader -- move forward.
Inspiration
Are you a riser or a sinker?
Are you a riser or a sinker? Take this quiz, and then learn more about what it means for your leadership.
Management
Getting workplace overwhelm under control
For many new leaders, it’s overwhelming to go from peer to boss or from independent contributor to team leader. Imagine taking on a new leadership role during the pandemic -- and joining a chaotic workplace?
Communication
There’s a secret to mastering executive communication
When you present to executives, you want to be confident, concise, factual -- and prepared. Learn more about these key executive communication tips.
Careers
Getting unstuck in a time of flux
Feeling stuck or restless in your career? Now's a good time to explore new horizons, but make sure you know your options for career change.
Management
3 reasons why your business needs real-time leadership
Employees are unhappy for legitimate reasons and will leave -- maybe for your competitor -- if you won't do more to meet their needs and provide equitable treatment and opportunity.
Careers
How well-being can help people get through hard times
We all know positive well-being can help us at work and in life. But how does well-being manifest, and how exactly does it help us through difficult times.
Communication
How to give a powerful presentation
Good presentations persuade, combine stoytelling and logic, and offer a clear path forward. Learn more about public presentation best practices in this article and video.
Inspiration
How to change people without forcing them to change
Managers have a responsibility to develop their employees, which means changing them. Peter Bregman and Howie Jacobson have a guide to making that change more successful and getting employees to buy in to change.
Careers
How to safeguard your career against proximity bias in remote and hybrid work
Remote and hybrid employees have some control over how they interact, manage up and build their careers. Here's some advice for overcoming the "proximity bias" many leaders and organizations have.
Management
Instead of multitasking, go all in on your tasks
Multitasking doesn't work. Here's what does work for productivity, getting things done and being better at work.
Management
What’s the opportunity in the problem?
What we don't like in other people is often what we're guilty of, too. How can we find the opportunity in the problem of human fallability?
Management
Why leaders make bad decisions and how to make better ones
Leaders who understand how to make good decisions and good choices -- and the differences between them -- will do better with conflict and create better situations for employees and employers.
Careers
5 authentic actions to guide the significance of your life and career
Where and when people work is part of their journey to "success, happiness and authenticity." Read more from Mike Horne on the five career traits you want to possess.
Careers
Understanding how to fix things when they go wrong
Things will go wrong. What you can control as a leader is how you react, respond and internalize setbacks.
Strategy
The beauty of contrast
Contrast is how we discover new ideas and move forward. Embrace the contrast between you and other people in your work and life.
Management
What 30 years of flexibility has taught me about successful hybrid workplaces
Flexible scheduling already exists, and here's one CEO's lessons from 30 years of workplace scheduling that benefits the business and employees while setting boundaries with clients.
Communication
Express your best self: Go for connection, not perfection
Here are some ways to be prepared for your next presentation so that you can focus on connecting with the audience and not worrying about being perfect.
Management
The return to the office is a reckoning for leaders locked in the past
Workers and executives have different views of returning to offices, returning to normalcy and ending this current uncertainty -- and it might be the rank and file who have the clearer vision.