I spend a lot of time observing the effect that morale – high, low, or indifferent – has on a business’s success. Why the near-obsession? When people love their organization, they go to extraordinary lengths to ensure its continued success. When things are already going well, they push that success to new heights; when the […] Read more… Read More»
Over the past month, Shawn and I have hosted quite a gathering of extraordinary minds, all focused on different aspects of the future of leadership: how do they see the craft of leadership changing in the future? Or, in many cases, why will it not change at all? What are the best qualities of a […] Read more… Read More»
All leaders can be guilty of the same mistake: preaching to the choir. To be an effective leader, and an effective agent of change for your organization, it is essential that you move beyond your confederates and focus your message on those who are not presently on board with your message. Want to be more […] Read more… Read More»
The You: Reinvented series is meant to bring you successfully through the intersection of personally development and leadership success. I have a friend – we’ll call her Jen – who’s on a fast-track to a highly successful career. She’s smart, hard-working, and quite talented at finding new ways to delight her clients. She is also a […] Read more… Read More»
People don’t change just for kicks. Change is always fraught with risk. Often this risk is life-changing, possibly even career-ending, and in some cases it can spell the end of an organization. Most leaders bring change to their organizations late, only under extreme duress from a transformed market. For the past month, we’ve hosted fascinating, compelling […] Read more… Read More»
Weekends are all about wandering off topic, which is why I’m introducing this new weekend thread on ExchangeGain, “Social You.” And let me preface by saying that social is not currently what I do for a living, so no matter what Forbes or anyone else says, my free advice should be considered worth […] Read more… Read More»
Are you as addicted to the instant reward as I am? Chances are, if you tweet as ardently as I, that’s a sign right there. Twitter is the ultimate immediate-feedback machine. You say something, someone retweets or replies, and voila: you’ve been validated. Blogging is another one, only a bit less immediate. You write your […] Read more… Read More»
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I am the crash-test dummy of careers. Waiter, CEO, nonprofit leader, salesman; teacher… My adult life has been rife not just with different jobs, but different careers. As long as I’m getting “my Three Things,” though, these various careers make sense – at least to me. […] Read more… Read More»
“Culture trumps strategy.” Ever hear that one? It’s a notion that has been percolating in some business circles for a while now. As a proponent of the power of culture, I buy this claim implicitly, but it’s controversial as all hell – indeed, you may find yourself jeering at the soft-headedness of the idea even […] Read more… Read More»
Is the large corporation a relic of the 20th Century, destined for extinction? From the term popularized by science and, indeed, thrust into the mainstream by one line of Apple iPods, “nano” is a futuristic word for tiny. In science fiction, for instance, a “nano-bot” is a robot only several molecules large that can be […] Read more… Read More»
→