Transient Leaders: Invigorating or Toxic?
by Sandy Arpino
All too often business leaders move on long before the changes that they were employed to design and implement are complete. As a result the workforce can feel deserted and de-motivated - confused by an array of initiatives that appear disconnected and half-baked in the absence of their inventor. Can a company nowadays avoid the potential damage left behind, following the departure of the creator and champion of a partially executed new strategy?

This Kind of Moose Hunting is Never out of Season
by Jim Clemmer
I started using the Moose-on-the-Table metaphor in the mid to late nineties in my work helping management teams identify and address the issues that were getting in the way of higher performance. Just like dysfunctional families, many teams find it easier to avoid tough conversations. But rarely do problems get better when left unaddressed. Rather, the moose grow larger, breed, and increase the size of the herd.

Pygmalion Effect
by Kausar Fahim
The way managers treat their subordinates is subtly influenced by what they expect of them. If managers’ expectations are high, productivity is likely to be excellent. If their expectations are low, productivity is likely to be poor. It is as though there were a law that caused subordinates’ performance to rise or fall to meet managers’ expectations.

Become a Better Communicator by Keeping Your Mouth Shut
by Kenny Moore
In corporate life we are in serious danger of believing that those who talk the loudest win the day. My twenty years in business have taught me that leaders who can actually keep their mouths shut and ears open have a better chance of being heard, believed and followed.

Six Steps to Becoming a Market-Focused, Profit Generator That Delivers Customer Value
by Sean M. Gallagher, Linden Brown, and Christopher Brown
What we have learned from working with scores of clients and through a comprehensive review of 60 studies covering more than 7,600 companies and business units in 26 countries, is that organizational culture is more of a driver of successful business performance than the level of leadership skills displayed by the CEO. And the corporate culture that beats all other corporate cultures is called "market culture." Or, more precisely, "strong market culture."

It’s Not What We Know, But What We Do That Matters
by Mike Robbins
There are very few people I meet who don’t see the importance of bringing more appreciation into their lives, their relationships, their families, their work groups, and more. However, many admit that while they may know that appreciation is essential, they aren’t always sure when and how to put it into action. Here are a few simple things you can do to bring more appreciation into your life.

Leadership Traits
by Liz Weber
A client recently asked me to help him identify leadership skills his son would need to develop to help him successfully takeover and lead the family business in a few years. He also wants to be able to evaluate all his managers on these skills on a scale of 1 (none/low) to 5 (exceptional). From my 20 plus years of experience working with really good and not-so-good "leaders," several skills stand out, but I'll focus on just seven for now.

Empower Your People
by Paul B. Thornton
If managers really did "empower their people," they would be able to make "on-the-spot decisions" to satisfy customers. Should managers give their employees unlimited power and authority? No, of course not. Should mangers give employees the power to make small exceptions like the ones I have discussed? Yes, absolutely.

What Leaders Need To Know About Failure: When Jack Welch Blew Up The Plant
by Phil Dourado
You probably don't think of yourself as a failure. But, you or so-called 'leaders' in your organization may find it a useful label to hang on others. Allocating blame when things go wrong is a longstanding convention for maintaining the myth of leader infallibility. The best leaders adopt a different perspective on failure, encouraging a forgive and remember culture.

Love And Leadership: The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name
by Phil Dourado
Fear constrains behaviour. Love liberates it. So, if all you need is compliance, fear will probably do. But fear freezes initiative, stifles creativity, and provides no incentive to stretch and grow. Love is about wanting and allowing people to be at their best, and engaging with them to help them achieve that.

The 11 Simple Secrets
by Robert W. MacDonald
In his new book Beat the System: 11 Secrets to Building an Entrepreneurial Culture in a Bureaucratic World Robert MacDonald shows professionals, business leaders, and entrepreneurs how to smash the bureaucracy that smothers the innovative, entrepreneurial spirit essential to long-term business success. Beat the System provides proven, real-world advice for building an entrepreneurial culture in your entire organization, your department, or even in your individual position.

The Place for Passion in Leadership
by Sandy Arpino
Business success requires a loyal workforce, committed to achieving organisational goals.  Leaders who exhibit passion – “devotion to a cause and tireless diligence to its furtherance – releasing energy boundlessly” – inspire those around them;  employees and clients alike become partners, with the leader, enthused and energised to realise a shared dream.

Reaching the Summit: 8 Keys to Running a Successful Business
by John McQuaig
After years of dreaming, four seasons of training, months of planning, and five days of climbing, I found myself at the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, all of Africa below my feet. The feeling was exhilarating, overwhelming…and exhausting. But oddly, what I thought about  more and more during those thrilling moments was…business! It began to dawn on me how climbing to the top of the world closely paralleled what it takes to run a successful business.

Productive Relationships Rule
by Estienne de Beer
The surest way to a successful workplace and effective teamwork is to build trust. But unfortunately trust is the most endangered sentiment that barely exists in the business world. Processes and systems can easily be programmed and don’t operate on trust. People do!

Developing Your Psychological Hardiness
by Rosemary Rein, Ph.D.
There is no doubt that our troops encounter an almost unimaginable stress level. Accordingly, developing psychological hardiness in troops remains a core component of today’s military training. The following 7 point formula for psychological survival have stress survival lessons for civilians as well.  Are you in psychological shape for handling life’s sometimes stressful situations?

Discovering Everyday Gratitude at Work
by Mike Robbins
We don’t have to wait until everything is handled. We don’t have to wait until we get it all perfect. And, we don’t have to wait for people to do things exactly as we want them to.  We can start appreciating life, others, and ourselves exactly as we are, right now.

Looking to Thrive? Five Ways to Keep Your Relationships on T.R.A.C.K
by JoAnna Brandi
By evaluating and improving even five relationship qualities an organization can make great strides towards good health. And, as luck would have it have, they form an acronym my clients are familiar with – T.R.A.C.K. It stands for Trust, Respect, Appreciation, Communication and Kindness. When all these qualities are practiced well, relationships thrive and prosper.

How Do Successful Leaders Spell Survival
by Rosemary Rein
Did you know that the same skills used in Survival Situations are the same skills needed for effective Leadership? The U.S. military uses the word SURVIVAL as a pneumonic device to help its troops and leaders remember right actions under fire. Today's successful leaders and managers can follow the same principles.

Leadership - Off the Wall
by Paul B. Thornton
The sayings and quotes leaders post on their desks or office walls often represent guiding principles they have followed to achieve success. What are your guiding principles? What do you have posted in your office?

A Vision for Business
by Daniel Yankelovich
Companies will come to realize that it is necessary to focus their long-term profitability goals on projects that make enhancing the public good an explicit objective, rather than taking it for granted as an automatic byproduct of their search for profits.

Doing Business in the Garden of Forking Paths: Synthetic History as a Leadership Tool
by Adrian J. Slywotzky
One of the most essential skills, and one of the least-discussed, is foresight--the ability to see around corners into a tomorrow most other people haven't begun to imagine. An effective business leader sees his or her company’s best potential future, understands what is needed to realize that potential, and takes the steps necessary to transform vision into reality.

Transforming Vision Into Value
by Renate Rooney
How do you take your vision and transform it into a tangible reality that delivers true value to all stakeholders? Integrate your people, processes and technology so that everyone and everything is moving the company toward its vision. Companies that make the commitment will find it worth the effort when their business reaps the rewards of successful strategic execution.

Cloning the C-Suite
by Dr. Lucille Maddalena
How can we effectively "pick the brains" of today's business leaders short of medically cloning our senior managers? How do we tap, retain and deploy the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of those who currently lead our organization?

Where Are Your Executive Offices?
by Ed Horrell
Customers are saying everything else being equal, I want to do business with a company who treats their employees with respect, has fun at work, and provides great service. Oden is an outstanding example of a company that places employees and values above just being "good" and is a true leader in the Kindess Revolution.

How to Get Employees to Behave Like a Bunch of 6th Graders
by Kenny Moore
It seems that kids don't yet know they can't do a lot of things - so they just move forward and improvise - something we in business lost sight of a long time ago. If all the world's a stage, then we have a sacred responsibility to perform.

The Heart of It All
by Steven C. Coats
What do you believe is the most important aspect of leadership? I have given this question a good deal of thought and my reflections keep pointing me toward the same conclusion. There is nothing more important for leaders than the relationships they develop with those they are aspiring to lead.

Are You a Leader?
by Mitch McCrimmon, Ph.D.
The power to lead has shifted forever from personal power to the ability to generate new ideas, the next great thing that captures everyone's imagination.

The Three Types of Leadership
by Jamie S. Walters
Drawing from each of the three types of leadership will add to the fires of inspiration, and your effectiveness and satisfaction as a leader, and come closer to the expression of your own highest purpose through the privilege of leadership.

Leading from the Core: How to "Be" Versus "Do" Leadership
by Nick Craig
True leadership is that invisible, unmistakable something. My experience suggests that, as elusive as it might seem, each of us has the gift of being a powerful leader.

From Phase of Life to Way of Life
by Jim Clemmer
Learning is a habit that accumulates little by little each day. How much we invest in that fund and where we invest it will determine how wealthy we eventually become.

The Case for Positive Energy
by Jon Gordon
Positive energy is more than just a term. It is a power source that will fuel your business and profits if you cultivate it within your people and engrain it into your process, systems and culture.

Thinking as an Art Form
by Rosemary Rein
Five ways to improve the quality of strategic and creative thinking.

Team Spirit Built from the Top
by Jim Clemmer
Team spirit is the catalyst every organization needs to achieve outstanding performance. The emotional commitment of the people using the tools and executing the plans is what determines whether companies sink or soar.

Judgment and Strength of a Leader
by Ram Charan
You have to do the analytic work to separate out the facts and assess the opportunities and risks, but you also need to call upon your inner strength and judgment as John did as CEO of his company.

Four Ways to Energize Your 2007 Business Growth
by Lisa Nirell
As a business leader, what would your life look like if your growth strategy were clear, focused, and exciting?

Visioning - Personal and Powerful
by Jim Clemmer
Discover Personal Visioning approaches that can help you to avoid the pitfalls and pave your organization's pathway to success.

On Walking the Talk
by Liz Tahir
If you want your staff to instinctively do things without being told, you need to let them see that you yourself instinctively do these things.

Cultivating Character and Excellence
by Jamie S. Walters
By practicing virtues — or the ways of excellence, skillfulness, and good character — you increase not only your own sense of meaning and confidence, but also distinguish yourself within your organization, and as a leader and business.

Bhagavad Gita and Management
by M.P. Bhattathiri
What makes the Holy Gita a practical psychology of transformation is that it offers us the tools to connect with our deepest intangible essence and we must learn to participate in the battle of life with right knowledge.

Chili and Your Intuition: Eight Ingredients for Making Better Strategic Decisions
by Jeff Mowatt
Effective leaders hone their intuition the way a chef cooks a pot of chili. Like chili, intuition needs to include the right ingredients and then be allowed to simmer a while. Here are eight ingredients for you to stew on.

How Top Leaders Create Accountability
by Bob Prosen
Here is the seven-step formula you can use to create accountability and achieve extraordinary results in any organization.

The Jack Bauer Guide to Leadership - Ten Lessons for Leaders from "24"
by Rosemary Rein, Ph.D.
As the 24 seasons have unfolded I have thought more than once about the lessons that 24 has for today's business leaders running their own Competitive Tactical Units.

Be Your Own CEO!
by Angela Mondou
Five tips to seize your leadership potential and own your career!
(From Hit the Ground Leading!)

Making Your Company Human
by Le Herron
By helping to unlock people's potential, the process of making a company human can create an alternate and more desirable reality.

Corporate Renewal as a Business Growth Strategy
by Dean Robb, Ph.D.
Creating companies that are hard-wired for ongoing renewal, innovation and reinvention is a major transformation, requiring new leadership and management approaches, as well as new organizational structures, processes and performance management systems.

The Power of Sacred Wisdom
by Jamie S. Walters
By tapping into the wisdom and practices that our elders and ancestors have left for us, we can renew them, and become renewed by them.

Leadership Development: A Whole Lot of Hooey
by Kenny Moore
Where does Talent come from? How does Destiny get played out? The next time someone offers to send you away for some Leadership Development, tell 'em to buzz off: you've got more important things to do with your time.

The Dance of Mastery and Adaptation: Continuous Growth Through Cycles of Renewal
by Dr. Dean Robb
Business growth in today's complex, turbulent world is more akin to a continuous adaptive dance between "winning" and "losing," that is, being on top of your game and needing to create or learn a whole new game.

The Holographic Enterprise of the New Era
by Jamie S. Walters
There is much talk of 'conscious capitalism' and 'conscious business', and since I'm not a complete pessimist or cynic, I believe that there is potential for business to be a force for good.

Cultivating Leadership
by Jim Clemmer
Managers often use a "one size fits all" approach and try to "mass grow" people. Leaders work with people to discover where they are best able to thrive and succeed.

The Right Time to Think About Your Legacy
by Robert M. Galford and Regina Fazio Maruca
Do you think that you are too young to start thinking about the legacy you're going to leave? Or that you're too old? The answer to both of these questions should be "no." The right time to start thinking about your legacy is now.

Annual Business Planning Meeting? Forget the "Bored" Room - Go Wild!
by Rosemary Rein, Ph.D.
Here are ten "Wild Ideas" for sparking fire and creative thought in corporate leadership retreats while staying within your budget.

Storytelling and Storymaps: How to Use Them for Organizational Change
by Laurie Durnell and Robert Pardini
In a business setting, storytelling can express the passion a leader has for a vision and, at the same time, build everyone's commitment to the vision's goals. Yet few organizational leaders fully use it to full advantage.

The Leadership Strategy: An Unmined Comstock Lode of Results
by Brent Filson
Most business leaders can develop a business strategy, but they usually neglect what is equally important - a Leadership Strategy - having the people take ardent action for the strategy's success.

Do You Need to be a Hero?
by Mitch McCrimmon, Ph.D.
If you are less successful at work than you could be, you might be your own worst enemy for being too individualistic.

Finding and Liberating Your Authentic Voice
by Jamie S. Walters
Whether you view the reclamation of your Authentic Voice as a spiritual practice, or simply one designed to keep you sane or infuse your life with more meaning, there are several things you can do to begin your journey.

Taking Care of Business
by Rosie Steeves
Many of the current workplace challenges are termed 'adaptive challenges,' problems for which there are no easy answers and which defy resolution through traditional means.

The Problem with Answers
by Dean Robb, Ph.D.
To create organizational fluidity and space for deep inquiry that can effect profound organizational change, we must build a system that supports the development of intrinsic, self-determined personal identity and self-esteem.

Three Questions for New-Era Leaders
by Jamie S. Walters
Given the deep loss of trust and respect for leaders in our contemporary era, new era leaders must find within themselves the capacity to carry themselves in a way that restores and earns trust.

Looking in the Mirror
by Abhay Padgaonkar
If you are the top dog in your organization, what is your main job? John P. Kotter says that "leaders prepare organizations for change and help them cope as they struggle through it." That is their main job. But how do they go about doing it?

Post-Heroic Leadership
by Rosie Steeves
Leadership in today's whitewater environment demands a shift from authoritative to collective, from command-and-control to organizational learning, from individualistic to relational and from power over to power with.

Leading Knowledge Workers: Avoid These Five Deadly Leadership Sins
by Faith Ralston
To ensure high performance -- you must manage these talented individuals differently than employees of the past. Their talents can help you take your business to the top. But like a spirited racehorse, they must be handled with care.

Mastering the Entrepreneurial Art
by Tom Nies
Entrepreneurial success, like success in any pursuit, is about the consummate understanding and mastery of key principles and not about following rules.

The Seven Essential Skills to Become a Great Leader
by Dr. Peter J. Dean
Using these seven essential skills, leadership is not restricted to positions of authority or stature and can, in fact, be practiced by individuals acting within their sphere of influence without being labeled as leaders.

Rebuilding Organizational Trust
by Robert M. Galford
Broken trust can be controlled, tamed, and banished. How it's done ultimately depends on the circumstances in which the trust was lost, but in most cases the principles of the REPAIR model apply.

Navigating Change and Adversity
by Jim Clemmer
We often don't choose the difficulties or negative changes that spring upon us. But we always choose how we respond. To choose our response is to choose our reality.

How NOT to Lead Geeks
by Alexander Kjerulf
The fact is that IT people hate bad management and have even less tolerance for it than most other kinds of employees. Here are the top 10 mistakes I’ve seen managers make.

Can You Follow a Dead Leader Without Believing in Ghosts?
by Mitch McCrimmon, Ph.D.
Leadership in a postmodern world can come from outside one's immediate group, bottom-up or outside the organization altogether. There are no enduring authorities; anyone with a better idea and the courage to promote it can show leadership.

The Powerful Attractors for a New Era of Leadership Mastery
by Jamie S. Walters
New-era leaders are catalyzed and fueled by several inner-attractors that organize and mobilize the leaders' priorities and activities — vision, intention, courage and mastery.

"Inside-Out" Alignment: Maximum Engagement for Superior Performance
by Dean Robb, Ph.D.
Workplace engagement and commitment are at an all-time low. This represents a crisis as the accelerating pace of global competition is forcing businesses to elicit maximum workforce performance, creativity and innovation.

Fostering a Culture of Deep Inquiry and Listening
by Jamie S. Walters
Most of the issues and challenges facing leaders and organizations point to the need for a culture of integrity, leadership, adaptability, creativity, engagement, respect, and camaraderie. Each of these, in turn, relies upon a foundation of skillful communication.

Strategic Roles for Model Leaders
by Donald W. Mitchell
CEOs in the companies whose stocks grew fastest repeatedly upgraded their business models to more profitable and appealing ones for stakeholders. The most successful companies turned this focus into an on-going process to perpetuate business model innovation.

Leadership, Business and Politics: Three for the Money
by Herb Rubenstein
Solid leadership and entrepreneurship is required to design, plan, execute, evaluate, and improve every part of your business. In this article we discuss an area given far too little attention among small businesses, "external politics."

Mentoring Experienced Leaders When Experienced Leaders Fail
by Jeffrey D. Yergler
The crashing and the resulting wreckage that happens in life is never the final word but rather the seedbed of the new, that is, if one can see through the wreckage of the old to the possibility of the new ... of what could be.

Best Thinking: A Catalyst that Creates Competitive Advantage
by Tom Northup
Properly implemented best thinking is the catalyst that generates high level focus. Focus drives performance and performance drives results. Best thinking is genius work - the highest and best use of the CEO's time.

How Can Chaos Be a Benefit for You and Your Enterprise?
by Jamie S. Walters
The next time you think you’re being pulled by an undertow of chaos, remember what civil rights leader Septima Poinsette Clark said, "I have a great belief in the fact that whenever there is chaos, it creates wonderful thinking. I consider chaos a gift."

The Cultivation of Transcendent Leadership
by Jamie S. Walters
Transcendent leadership requires more substantial characteristics, the traits and abilities that are honed through means perhaps more in keeping with modern-day peak performers and Tibetan monks than your average CEO.

Challenging the Gospel of Growth
by John Abrams
I've come to believe that there are optimal scales for different businesses and organizations, that we need to think more broadly about the meaning of growth, and that the concept of "enough" has a place in our internal debates.

Building Strength from the Weakest Link
by S. K. Gupta
When charting new paths, we need to evaluate our strengths, admit our weaknesses and hire someone whose biggest strength is our weakest skill.

How Companies Thrive When Their Core Values Sing
by Joe DiSabatino
One small compromise with a core value becomes the basis for the next small one, and so on. A company must commit to making its core values sing as clearly as possible in every phase of its business.

Performance Management, Appraisals and a Little Math
by Byron Kalies
If it were your own business would you give yourself a Performance Agreement? Of course not. So why impose this on others. There is more time spent chasing people to follow the correct procedures than can be justified by any benefit.

Management is Just Not Enough
by Steven C. Coats
Growth is hard, hard work. The challenge to "leaders" is to examine what you are doing differently - everyday - to attempt to grow your business.

Shining a Light on the Shadowside of Organisations
by Byron Kalies
A great deal of the shadow side can be negative and time consuming. These models (the Shadowside and Cultural Web) force managers to look at their Organisations, find the shadow side practices and deal with them.

Sharing the Reins
by John Abrams
In 1987 I sold my business to my employees.
It's clear to me that due to employee ownership, we've become, at once, better problem solvers and better dreamers. There's a lot to be said for ownership and the responsibility it encourages.

Ten Self-Defeating Behaviors to Avoid
by Mark Goulston
Want to succeed at work?
First step: Get out of your own way!

Three Underrated Aspects of Leadership
by Byron Kalies
I feel there are three seriously underrated aspects of leadership: myths and stories, genuine empathy and understanding for people, and not making people wrong.

Growing Old in H.R. - One Alternative
by Kenny Moore
I'd like to believe that a select number of us might deviate from the purely quantifiable work and seek to rekindle the human spirit. It is, after all, what's at the heart of our work - and the foundation for business success.

Effortless High Performance
by Veronica Lim
In this new age of the 21st century, do you dare to find the new way of leading, by aligning and harnessing the gifts of all three elements of mind, so that your results have no choice but to spiral upwards beyond your current realm of possibility?

Fuzzy Direction Kills Business
by Gary Sutton
After three decades as a turnaround CEO - my old grandpa, a coal miner, began to look smarter and smarter.

The Vocabulary of Leadership: How Mere Words Shape Organizational Realities
by Dr. Jeffrey D. Yergler
There are two sets of vocabularies that are available to leaders: deficit vocabularies (negative talk) and appreciative vocabularies (positive talk). Both have tremendous power to build and construct realities. What you choose makes all the difference!

Six Key Principles of Corporate Accountability
by Shaun Murphy, Ph.D. and Bruce Klatt, M.A.
The following six principles form the foundation for negotiating and understanding accountability. Together they form a practical theory of accountability, the transforming effect it can have on an organization, and its essential role in creating significant business results.

The Laddered Approach to Organizational Improvement
by Dave Ross
Every successful organizational improvement initiative begins with a thoughtful analysis of the business landscape. The challenge now is to make certain that leaders at every level in the organization are aligned with this vision and have the competencies they need.

Separation Anxiety - Business Owners Who Smother Their Company’s Success by Not Being Able to Let Go
by Osman Baig
The anxiety that small business owners feel is understandable, since they have had to play many roles to compensate for a lack of resources and to ensure consistency in the deployment of the vision and direction. Knowing when to start letting go is the challenge.

Related Topics: Creative Leadership I | Creative Leadership II

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