I’ve always been cautious about mixing social morality and business morality. This is in part because I’m cautious about the ways powerful entities like commercially successful enterprises can too-easily force the leaders’ narrow personal values on their employees, community and customers. But this presidential election has me rethinking my caution…. Read More»
During my corporate career I’ve sat in some meetings thinking, “Those leadership gurus are full of bunk.” Most leadership literature says you should be a strategic thinker, consider risk carefully and understand your business and its interlocking parts deeply. But the leaders in my meetings seemed to get ahead by shooting from the hip and ignoring a lot of realities about the ways their businesses worked…. Read More»
It often surprises my executive coaching clients how important their emotions are to their workplace success. Most of us have been trained to keep our emotions out of the office, so we let lag an ongoing investment in our Emotional Intelligence (EQ). Part of the problem is that investing in developing EQ is work that doesn’t always have an immediate payoff, and most of us are focused on results now! But part of the problem is a fundamental misunderstanding about what EQ is. … Read More»
When I was taking business school courses a billion years ago, we used to laugh at the Peter Principle*, “managers are promoted to their level of incompetence,” to explain stupidity in organizations. Sadly, current evidence seems to point to the fact that the Peter Principle may still be alive and well today, wouldn’t you agree? … Read More»
Many career gurus will say leadership presence is essential to becoming a good, and ladder-climbing leader. In my experience, however, many good leaders get ahead with only a mild ability to be noticed when they enter the room, depending on the company’s leadership culture…. Read More»
The common management lingo, “how to delegate” has always bugged me. Why? Because we usually talk about delegation as though it’s something you do TO other people, not FOR them. When reframed correctly, delegation isn’t just a productivity skill you gain personally (which it is), it’s also a development skill you deploy to help others achieve greater value to the organization…. Read More»
As a victim of office politics, it’s very easy to start to feel powerless and to act powerlessly. It feels terrible and causes you to question who you are, whether you’re in the right career path and what your value is.
Even successful people fall into the office politics trap and begin to feel persecuted by both their colleagues and the Universe. Why?… Read More»
As a species, humans love to complain, and we seem to really love to complain about the younger generations. However, it’s time to give the kid-bashing a rest and look at the ways that working with the Millennial generation (18-30 years old) helps us be better leaders and build better companies…. Read More»
How will you lead in the rapidly changing future of work? Start by understanding that the workplace is changing and becoming more fluid. Organizations are beginning to resemble organic systems more than mechanical ones. People are the dominant value and system in the work-world and to succeed you must master human systems. Develop your emotional intelligence and soft-skills, and you’ll be the kind of leader the world needs in the future of work. Start with yourself. … Read More»
It’s a fact that to advance our careers, lead with confidence and inspire others we have to be “on” – showing our best side, putting our best foot forward, leading from the heart etc. This is how we show others the best of what we’re capable of, but it sounds exhausting, doesn’t it?… Read More»
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