If you want to boost employee engagement, consider going back to the basics. Begin by answering this question: What promises should I make to the people I am responsible for leading?
Promises Leaders Make
Category Archives: Leadership
How Great Leaders Create Engaging Cultures That Maximize Results
Podcast Appearance on the LEADx Leadership Podcast with Kevin Kruse
Recently, Kevin Kruse, host of the LEADx Leadership show podcast, featured a webinar I created with the LEADx team in one of the show’s episodes. Kevin is a New York Times bestselling author and Inc. 500 entrepreneur who providers listeners with advice from top leadership experts in a format suited for a busy professional’s daily commute.
Listen to the episode to learn more about why loneliness and connection matter to your career and how you can use connection to create an engaging culture that maximizes results.
Addicted to Your Smartphone, To-do List or Busyness?
Are you addicted to your smartphone? Do you feel the pull to constantly check your messages and news feeds?
Are you addicted to busyness? As soon as you accomplish something, do you immediately focus on the next task or problem to solve? Are you always thinking about what you have coming up and so it’s difficult to be present with and focused on interacting with others?
How to Improve Your Organization’s Culture Through Employee Connections
Article Published by Forbes
I believe it’s wise for leaders to develop their organizational culture by being intentional about strengthening the bonds of connection and trust among leaders and employees. As the president of a company that helps coach leaders on improving connections within their businesses, I have seen the importance of strengthening bonds and trust among team members.
There are three steps I’ve developed throughout my coaching practice that can help build strong connections within your organization.
How Cancer Helped Me See the Key to Successful Organizational Change
Article Published by SmartBrief
Sometimes life lessons come from surprising places. In early 2004, just nine months after completing treatment for breast cancer, my wife, Katie, was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer. During the months that followed, I learned an important lesson about connection that influenced my perspective on how to approach organizational change.
I wrote about this lesson in an article published by SmartBrief. If you are navigating change in your organization or personal life, I hope this piece is an encouragement to you.
New Forbes Article on How Loneliness And Longing For Connection Are Affecting Today’s Leaders
Loneliness isn’t something that people like to acknowledge, but it’s a real issue for many people today. Many leaders are so busy that they don’t even realize that they are in fact lonely. That’s a problem because loneliness is a “super stressor” that makes it difficult to perform at your best.
In a new article that I wrote for Forbes, I describe how loneliness is affecting today’s leaders and why we all need to take steps to address the issue in our lives and organizations. I hope you’ll read the article and consider ways you can boost connection in your workplace.
Why Women Leaders Are Outperforming Men
New Article Published in Forbes
Attitudes toward leadership styles have changed. Characteristics that are common in female leaders are now recognized as essential to the success of any leader – regardless of gender. In fact, studies show that women leaders are outperforming men in many key areas.
So what’s the secret to this success? The answer may lie in many women’s dual focus on both task and relationship excellence. Learn more about this effective leadership approach in an article I wrote for Forbes.
I’m Optimistic About the Future of Leadership
I highly recommend reading Stanford Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer’s recent books, Leadership B.S. and Dying for a Paycheck. In them he makes a compelling case that most leadership training has failed to produce effective leaders and that the poor state of the vast majority of workplace cultures today is harming the health of people. He provides an abundance of evidence to support these conclusions. Professor Pfeffer recommends boosting connection in workplace cultures (which, as most of you know, is the focus of our work). You could read Professor Pfeffer’s books and become depressed, but I’m not. Below I explain why.
ATD Webinar: Why Guys Should Lead “Like a Girl”
Some guys may get instinctively defensive when the phrase “like a girl” is tossed at them, but it’s time for them to embrace it, and actually welcome it, if they want to be an effective leader.
To learn why, join me and my wife Katie Stallard for a unique webinar hosted by ATD on Thursday, September 20, 2018. Inspired by the #LikeAGirl campaign, we’ll share recent research and a fresh perspective on why women have superior leadership skills, what men can do to improve, and humorous and heartwarming examples from our own experiences. Learn more and register for the webinar.
Realign Your Team to Finish 2018 Strong
September has arrived and if you’re with an organization that plans by the calendar year, you’re less than a month away from the start of the final quarter. I’ve always felt September is the ideal time to gather the team together and check our alignment. By that I mean, are we focused on what needs to be completed before year-end? Are we set as a team, and individually, to finish strong? Are there things, like a car wheel out of alignment, that are pulling us off course, causing unnecessary wear and tear, making us function less efficiently?