You come back from vacation and start your game of catch-up. This is an especially challenging game if you’re a senior leader. You have hundreds, maybe thousands of emails, a backlog of voicemails, and a to-do list that doubled or tripled in length while you were away. You need…
How many of you remember seeing the movie “The Graduate” starring Dustin Hoffman? It not only made him a huge star, playing Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate who wasn’t sure what to do with his future, but it introduced a few memorable lines, including: “One word: plastics. The…
The best salespeople are also marketers, constantly connecting, learning and sharing. If you’re in sales , you might read that and pause. You don’t influence your company website, write white papers or contribute to the company Twitter feed. You deliver the sales plan. So why do people like me…
Imagine you are applying for the dream job of your life. You’ve got five minutes to explain to two interviewers why they should pick you over 100 other smartly dressed candidates. As you make your presentation, the interviewers stare at you unblinkingly like a bank teller with a lobotomy.
Managers can be consumed by the mid-level performer; possibly minimizing the time they should be spending with a top performer or the new hire with the prospect of vast potential. To assist the mid-level performer to become better managers need to: be more effective with balancing their…
While workers are becoming more and more mobile and entrepreneurial, traditional organizations are becoming less appealing. Here are seven powerful models for work that aim to redefine the traditional organization. There is a lingering notion in the world of business and beyond that organizations are things with four…
No matter how sound or well-intentioned your ideas, there will always be people inside — and outside — your organization who are going to oppose you. Getting things done often means that you’re going to go head to head with people who have competing agendas. In my career studying…
Opinion: Innovation and motivation hinge on clear communication It has become fashionable to exhort leaders to tell stories, but why? What’s really at stake? Is it just a matter of making yourself a slightly more interesting leader? No. Stories have enormous power to change our perception of reality. Before…
Great leaders don’t need just one plan – they need three! A strategic plan A professional plan A personal plan The strategic plan is the core to any successful organization. Created through a process of evaluation of the current state, recognition and agreement of where we want to be at…
Are your employees owners or renters? Studies have shown that employees who take an ownership in their jobs are more accountable for their performance, helping lead the company to greater success. A leader’s first step in building accountability in a company’s culture is making sure everyone owns something. Everyone needs…
