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The People Have Spoken: It’s Time To Start Trusting Your Employees More – Employee Engagement
THERE ARE STEPS YOU CAN TAKE TO STEER EMPLOYEES BACK FROM DISENGAGEMENT, BUT IT TAKES A GENUINE COMMITMENT FROM THE TOP. How far are you willing to go to create employee engagement? Most companies will offer praise or occasional rewards, but given the much-quoted...
Why The Way We Talk About Leadership Is Killing Today’s Businesses
IF ALL YOU'RE CONCERNED ABOUT IS CARVING A STRAIGHT LINE TO THE TOP, YOU'RE PERPETUATING TODAY'S ISSUE WITH HOW WE PERCEIVE REAL LEADERSHIP. We’ve created a trap for ourselves in the way that we talk about leadership. It’s a trap that can warp our behavior, worsen our...
Why Your Company’s Huge, Sweeping Overhaul Might Fail
The project manager strides aggressively through the workplace. He has a plan to overhaul this business, a radical transformation that will see everything improve. There will disruption, there will be resentment, there will be uncertainty. But ultimately a better way...
What Causes Uncomfortable Work Conversations And How To Avoid Them
The foundation of good communication isn't the words but the feelings underlying them. As leaders, we set the tone for communication in our businesses. We know that we set an example, and that the way we communicate will set the tone for the organization. But why is...
Guidance with Kindness
As our understanding of leadership evolves, we must constantly reflect back on yesterday. There was a time when being kind was a sign of weakness. Our current societal environment is filled with discontent, arguments, finger-pointing and people being rude. Imagine how...
The Probability is, it’s Probably Not Ability
The current workplace is increasingly disparate from the workplace of 20 years ago. Today, employers must ask themselves what, outside of a paycheck, is motivating employees. Compensation packages are important and need to be reasonable for the education level, time...
Footprints Not Pedestals: Leadership as an Activity Not a Destination
Why do you want to be a leader? For the money, the control and the swanky office? Or for the difference you can make to the world along the way? If it’s the former then you’re setting yourself up for disappointment, because real leadership isn’t about the destination...
Unpacking Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
Unpacking Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace “Emotional Intelligence will be one of the “top ten must have skills” to remain competitive in the Industrial Revolution 4.0 realm by the year 2020.” This previsionary claim was highlighted in a...
Flexible Working – the Key to Social Business
For a socially responsible business, flexible working isn’t just nice to have – it’s a vital part of using work to make the world a better place. Social responsibility starts at home, and unless you treat your employees right then everything else is just an add-on....
Demanding the impossible
Demanding the impossible “Be a realist, demand the impossible.” Protest graffiti, Paris, May 1968 It is all too easy to accept...
How You Justify Sticking With Bad Work Habits (And How To Stop) – Avoiding the Destructive Effect of Cognitive Dissonance
Avoiding the Destructive Effect of Cognitive Dissonance in Your Business Psychological health isn’t just the concern of psychiatrists. A good leader is aware of the psychological health of the business she runs and the way that affects behavior within the business....
The Neuroscience of Leadership
Gaining a head start in understanding this new and exciting field of research could be key to becoming one of the great leaders of tomorrow. Change will come, and as Henry Kissinger said “The job of a leader is to get his/her people from where they are to where they have not yet been”.
The Power To Lead Organizational Change
We all have the power within us to create real and lasting change. To transform the place we work into something finer and more efficient, no matter how good a position it started from. Change gives us the potential to be not just good but great, to continually aspire...
The Hidden Leadership Skill Every Good Parent Eventually Masters
Like military commanders, effective parents know how to create guidelines, set expectations, and get out of the way.- Mark The fact that saying “parenting is a full-time job” is cliche doesn’t make it any less true. But we seldom see parents–with all the hard work and...
Showing People Your Purpose
A sense of purpose is vital to the success of any business. It allows you to stand out from the pack. It gives you direction through even the stormiest of weather. It creates a consistent culture for people to work in. But to see these benefits you have to...
Finding Your Own Motivation
If you’re just starting out in your career, or you’re in the middle of changing careers, then one of the most important things you can do is to understand your own motivation. Not just to accept the things that you’re told you...
Master the Most Powerful Leadership Habit You Didn’t Know You Had
Master the Most Powerful Leadership Habit You Didn’t Know You Had What was the latest habit you adopted? Was it reading every day for at least one hour? Quitting coffee forever? It’s simple to keep track of these types of routines. Let’s call them action habits. You...
Demanding the Impossible – Define Your Own Success
Demanding the impossible “Be a realist, demand the impossible.” Protest graffiti, Paris, May 1968 It is all too easy to accept others’ definitions of achievement. To get caught up in other people’s aims and ambitions. To take...
Making your business more human
Making your business more human The human side of business is perhaps its most fragile element. That glimmer of personality and real consideration that makes us stand out as more than just products and processes is far too easily lost in the rush to make those...
Successful Leadership – How to Make Leadership Positive
Make Leadership Positive There are a lot of negatives to working near the top of the pyramid. You have to deal with the morale problems, the disciplinary issues, the complaints and dips in performance that can set a business back and prove dispiriting for all...
SHRM HR Magazine Article: Getting Engagement from the Get-Go
In Newsstands Now – Read our article in the February 2014 Edition of SHRM’s flagship publication, HR Magazine: ”Getting Employee Engagement from the Get-Go” Employee engagement Employee engagement—the act of getting employees to feel connected to, and enthusiastic...
The Productive Manager’s Guide To The Holiday Season Slump
The holiday season provides both opportunities and dangers for employee engagement. Excitement and distraction can get in the way of work, but festive fun can be a great way to bond people together. Here are some tips for achieving the best employee engagement this...
6 Things Strong Leaders Don’t Do
6 Things Strong Leaders Don’t Do A lot of the time, we picture strong leadership in the wrong way. We think of it as macho posturing, using an assertive voice, or making commands and refusing to be moved from them. In reality, strong leaders are like trees buffeted by...
Engaging with data, engaging with people – the power of analytics in HR
Analytics programs are one of the most powerful tools available to modern managers and HR professionals. Analysis shows that companies making good use of analytics and the big data pools now available to them can make improvements in productivity of five to six...
Not just hiring – How to get the right people into your organization the right way
If we’re to properly get to grips with recruitment, to make sure that we’re introduced the right people to our organizations in the right way, then we need to think deeply about how recruitment works and what it does. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut of job specs and...
How To Find Employees With The Right Attitude
Attitude over aptitude is the rallying cry for many in modern recruitment. All our fancy personality tests and scouring of resumes has given us a fair imitation of the recruits that we wanted in the past, but it’s never provider a reliable indicator that they would...
10 Ways to Make an Emotionally Positive Workplace
An Emotionally Positive Workplace Emotions are great for work. If people are allowed to bring their feelings into the workplace then their passion will show, engagement will rise, and you’ll free up the energy that might otherwise be spent on repressing those...
5 Steps to Build a Better Leadership Career Today
Build a Better Leadership Career Starting Today Building a career in leadership isn’t easy. Building a career in leadership that suits you, that plays to your strengths and interests, that keeps you constantly interested and lets you progress to the best of your...
Working With Joy/Happiness: 7 Steps to a Happier Workplace
Why should we care about happiness? It’s the sort of question that could only come up in business. If you were at home, on holiday or out on the town socializing then the answer would be obvious. To a child, the desire to be happy is so obvious they probably couldn’t...
Letting Go of Control – Being better leaders
What do wartime generals and effective parents have in common? They can both help us to become better leaders by letting go of control and instead setting expectations. The Family Business As we try to tackle issues of income inequality, it’s increasingly recognized...
Gen X, Y, Z – What We Know and What We Do
Ever since the arrival of Generation X (Gen X), there’s been a wealth of analysis on what each new generation of employees wants. The information is there for us to use, the strategies are simple, and we all nod our heads sagely whenever we hear that Gen X want...
The Whole Employee
Even the most useful ideas sometimes cause problems. Work life balance, which has been crucial in re-evaluating our attitudes towards work, is one of those ideas. By drawing a line between the parts of our lives that are work and those that exist outside it, “balance”...
Managing Your Mind
Understanding ourselves can be a humbling experience. Whether it’s recognizing a small mistake or understanding what microscopic specs of stardust we are in the context of the universe, these are moments when truth intrudes upon our sense of self. One of the most...
Should We Cap Executive Salaries? Pay in the Age of the Social Business
Social business isn’t just about creating more ethical products. It isn’t about small tweaks that make a business less ugly. It’s about addressing the fundamentals of society and of a business within society. And nothing is more fundamental to business than pay. After...
Why Leaders Should Seek Out Immigrant Employees
Migration is one of the greatest challenges facing modern society. The OECD estimates there are currently 232 million migrants globally, while Migration Policy Institute data shows the United States is the most common destination. Reactionaries see this as a threat....
Revolution or Evolution – Which Will You Lead?
Transformation is a big deal in business leadership. Since the Second World War and the Japanese economic resurgence that followed, we’ve seen a steady growth in the tools and techniques of transformation. We’ve analyzed how to transform a business, types of...
Zuckerberg’s LLC and the Future of Social Business
“By using an LLC instead of a traditional foundation… we gain flexibility to execute our mission more effectively.” – Mark Zuckerberg The foundation of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s new philanthropic venture, has drawn attention...
Are You Taking Social Marketing Seriously?
Are You Taking Social Marketing Seriously? We all talk the social marketing talk. Whether it’s in blog posts, books or dinner party conversations, the air of business is heady with the jargon of social media as a marketing tool - demographic slices, viral videos,...
Applying Analytics in a Human Way
Applying Analytics in a Human Way Big data has been one of the big trends of the past year. But by its very nature it can be dehumanizing, distancing us from the reality of people’s lived experience. The challenge we must face this year, and going forward from it, is...
Communicating in depth
Communicating in depth How authentic is your approach to communication? It can be a difficult question to ask ourselves. In the age of Twitter and corporate spin, a lot of the communication around us can seem shallow and devoid of meaning. A lot of it is. It’s easy to...
How to Tap into Employees’ Social Skills
Are you ready to tap into Employees’ Social Skills? Social skills have always been important to work, though their vital role is not always well recognized. With the growing sophistication of management techniques and the meteoric rise of social media, they have leapt...
Why Businesses Need to Act Openly, Inside as Well as Out
Why Businesses Need to Act Openly, Inside as Well as Out “Word spread because word will spread. Stories and secrets fight, stories win, shed new secrets, which new stories fight, and on.” ― China Miéville, Embassytown If ever a case needed to be made for greater...
Unleashing the Power of Organic Change
Unleashing the Power of Organic Change Any business has to change to succeed. That’s why Six Sigma, Lean and a host of other change management approaches have become so popular. The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the...
The 3 “P”s of Great Recruitment
The fundamentals of running a business are the most important parts, and often the most neglected by leaders looking to improve. So much is taken for granted that we forget to consider why we do what we do. One of those fundamentals is recruitment, and you can improve...
Leading from the Heart
Leading from the Heart...Emotions have incredible power. They motivate and shape behavior. To lead successfully we have to tap into our emotions, and learn how best to use them. A Culture of Suppression Protestantism may be in decline in many parts of the world, but...
Aligning employee development
Aligning employee development The world is full of opinions on what skills and qualities are vital for the modern workforce. This is great for giving you ideas and pointing you towards important talents you might not have consider. But how can you make sure that...
Never stop learning to learn
It has been said that you should never stop learning, and that’s good advice. But if there was ever a case for applying the lesson to the lesson then this is it, because not only should you never stop learning, but you should never stop learning new approaches to the...
Is Certainty Destroying Your Leadership?
A sense of direction is important in leadership. Waver too often and you’ll find your efforts going in a hundred different directions, to little real benefit. But a sense of direction and a sense of certainty aren’t the same thing. An over-whelming certainty can...
Defining your own achievements – a lesson from the Founding Fathers
It’s easy to accept other people’s definitions of how you should live your life, what you should aim for, what you consider to be a worthwhile achievement. Perhaps it’s the house in the suburbs like your parents have. Perhaps it’s the promotion that your boss says...
Why You Shouldn’t Choose Between Top-down and Bottom-up Leadership
Top-down and bottom-up leadership are often presented as incompatible choices. Advocates of each will tell you why their way works well and the other is a disaster. But when we stop to think, all good leaders know that life is never a simple choice between two...
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