Optimism vs. Pessimism: Know where you and your team members sit along the optimism/pessimism spectrum. Use that information to be accurate and to win.
Creating a culture of appreciation will dramatically lift employee engagement within your organization. In this article you will learn how to use HAPPS to effectively elevate your team and organization to new levels of performance.
The 5-15 reports is a simple concept. The report should take no more than 5 minutes to read and no more than 15 minutes to write.
As a leader, do you read and respond to e-mail as much as you used to? Or are you starting to tune out? Over a year ago, Aditya Kothadiya posited that personal e-mail has become more of a notification medium and less of a communication medium. His argument looks even stronger today. While Twitter and Facebook [...]
But no one captures the profound and paradoxical nature of silence better than silent Buddhist retreat leader Gene Lushtak. Prochnik recounts a story Lushtak told him about Ajahn Chah, the most prominent leader of 20th-century Buddhism: “A young monk came to live in the monastery where Ajahn Chah was practicing. The people who lived in [...]
“The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being.”–Socrates Unlike a computer that makes no meaning or connections between the information it retains, your brain relies upon connections. It stores related sensory data together, which enables you to recognize patterns and make predictions. For example, you may not think you are always finishing [...]
When leaders get a new vision or goal, they usually want to get there as quickly as possible. They start envisioning the steps they need to take. These steps are big and bold and, for them, doable. But the steps aren’t always doable for their team. Take time to learn your team’s execution style and [...]
Leaders and subordinates telegraph their position of authority based on the e-mail language they use, according to Eric Gilbert, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech. He analyzed more than 500,000 e-mails from Enron employees and made some interesting discoveries. First, Gilbert weeded out e-mails that might be tainted by Enron’s collapse/SEC investigation and other e-mails [...]
As a leader, you know the importance of hiring good people (as well as the cost of making poor hires), so you lay out role and responsibilities for each position, using very specific and explicit expectations. You modify job descriptions to address past oversights or new circumstances. And yet, six months or a year after [...]
If you’re like the average American, you likely see 16,000 brands in any given day. That’s a lot of competing images. No wonder so much attention is given to make logos eye-catching. Want to know what got eyes to stop or pause in 2011? Bill Gardner of LogosLounge discovered the following trends: circles, brown, dandruff [...]
Asking questions is critical to great leadership. Remembering to ask questions can be difficult for new leaders. If you are struggling with asking questions, try this acronym, APPLE! Ask the right question. Right questions are open-ended and encouraging. They help others imagine new solutions. Pause after you ask the question. Accept silence, even if it’s [...]
Executive Coaching clients seek wisdom that is memorable and easy to implement. Sometimes that wisdom is geared toward actions they, as leaders, can and should take; other times it’s toward actions they shouldn’t take. HALT falls in the latter category. I learned it from Dr. Faron Hollinger, a former School Superintendent from Alabama and now [...]
Longtime friend, Colleague, and former client is one of the most sought after translation guys in the country. He has created this great engine that you have to try! The following is taken from Ken Clark’s Blog. Translation should be free! Or at least that’s what everyone not in the translation business seems to believe. But [...]
Asking Questions: Two Footed Questions Integrate Arts and Science Two footed questions drive curiosity and they can convert even ordinary minds, into expert problem solvers. The idea is to engage both sides of the brain, to increase innovation. Would you agree that most people tend to ask questions with predictable answers? Boring to boot! Add a [...]
Think of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as you read the following story: A client recently told me of her excitement at inheriting a VP’s office. In her organization, like many others, the CEO gets a couch, two sitting chairs, small conference table, and large desk; VPs get a smaller desk, credenza coat closet, and two [...]
