A colleague of mine, Gwen Kinsey, led a crisp, interactive presentation at a recent leadership breakfast event. The topic was about how mission statements engage (or not) your employees. Gwen’s session drove home a point for me and I’d like to share it here. She put us in small groups and handed out two mission…
DetailsThis question has been studied for decades and no direct relationship has been established. Despite what would seem to be a slam-dunk connection, happier workers don’t necessarily result in a bumped up bottom line. A recent study by researchers at Cornell, however, has mapped a path between the two. It is not a direct route.…
DetailsA corporate leader’s job is hardly easy. He or she must efficiently manage employees, account for outside competition, note any changes in the industry landscape and if necessary, profoundly modify the operational model a business should employ. Ironically, most leaders shrug in defiance at such duties due to their seemingly complex nature. However, there are…
DetailsI ran across a recent posting from the Gallup Management Journal that made a point have I never thought about before: “Raised through a childhood in which each new year brought novel opportunities, playing at ever more difficult levels of sports, growing physically, educated in a system of cleanly delineated grades — freshman, sophomore, junior,…
DetailsWhat leadership competencies do newly minted Millenial employees need to develop, from the get go? And what strengths do they, as a cohort, bring to the workplace? We hear so much “gen Y bashing” these days. We hear the stereotypes: unfocused, texting obsessed, ADHD prone, the world owes me recognition and, BTW, I’m pretty well…
DetailsNearly every company revolves around the central idea of team performance. The synergy created by having multiple personalities and motivations can help any project be completed with efficiency and with quality results. Naturally, there are some times when things may not go as smoothly as planned. Indeed, if every effort always resulted in superior results,…
DetailsIt’s been a dozen years since I wrote the first draft of my book, Love Is the Killer App: How To Win Business and Influence Friends. Since then, the world has changed significantly, and so has my perspective. In the digital future, it will be easy to make corrections to a book, to keep it…
DetailsLife is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it – Charles R. Swindoll A story is told of two men who lived in a small village who got into a terrible dispute that they could not resolve. So they went to the town sage. The first man went to the…
DetailsRecently, consulting firm Emergent partnered with a Fortune 500 apparel company to undertake the biggest business transformation in the company’s history. Below is a mini case study that provides insights from that project. Building upon its solid performance in 2012, the company chose to implement a new global structure designed to fuel its long-term, international growth. The project…
DetailsGotye’s smash hit, “Somebody That I Used To Know” is everywhere I go. Jacqueline introduced it to me months ago, when its stunning video made it’s way around the web, and I knew it was going to be the song-of-the-year. At this point, you might be getting tired of it, like you did with James…
DetailsWhile most people think of organizational culture in broad, sociological terms, field experience has shown that one of the fundamental building blocks of organizational culture is patterns-of-interaction between small-groups of 2s, 3s, and 4s. Most managers in an organization know that effectively leading a work-group takes an enormous amount of time and energy because they…
DetailsTwo-thirds of all large-scale change initiatives fail to achieve their expected business benefits. This failure rate represents billions of dollars in lost productivity, wasted resources, opportunity costs and rework—not to mention the cost of lost jobs and workforce disengagement. Companies that learn to manage change effectively and consistently deliver expected returns from their large-scale change…
DetailsBy Derek Murphy If there is one thing movies about the workplace tells us is that Hollywood believes bosses come in all shapes and sizes, and they are all pretty terrible people. Why the bad rep for leaders? Well, it’s no secret most employees have been disappointed and let down at some point in their…
DetailsReality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it. – Lily Tomlin According to a Greek legend, in ancient Athens, a man noticed the great storyteller Aesop playing childish games with some little boys. He laughed and jeered at Aesop, asking him why he wasted his time in such frivolous activity.…
DetailsAs an entrepreneur, author and professional speaker, time mangement is my most important practice. I’ve spent a great deal of effort acquiring tools that make my work faster without sacraficing quality. From software to little life hacks, I’ve found ways to harness faster-better-cheaper in my worklife. At some point, though, the only way to become…
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