Motivation
The Building Blocks of Purpose, Vision, & Values
When an organization’s purpose, vision, and values live only on its office walls, it’s impossible for that organization to be any better than mediocre. The companies that stand out, and that are rockin’ their industry, have their purpose, vision and values tattooed on the hearts of their employees (not forcibly, of course 😊). In other…
Read MoreGreatness Lies In The Answers To These 3 Questions
What is greatness? Most of us want to be great in some way, but we all know that it’s a pretty exclusive club to get in to. So most people don’t go for it. Some because they don’t feel they could ever attain greatness. Others might want to attain greatness but do not know how.…
Read More5 Parenting Practices Every Leader Should Adopt
Have you ever contemplated the parallels between leadership and parenting? Some of my clients have. After a thoughtful and reflective discussion with clients about leadership, I have occasionally observed them come to the conclusion that leading is like parenting. Although I’ve thoroughly enjoyed those conversations, I’ve rarely seen them devolve into any actionable take-aways or…
Read MoreAre You a Decision-Making Bottleneck?
When I was the director of human resources for a mid-sized construction company I reported to the Executive Vice President. He was the type of manager who insisted on making nearly every single decision in the company. He didn’t come right out and say “I need to have the final say on everything.” What he’d…
Read MoreFocus on Strengths and Watch Performance Skyrocket
I want to share with you one of the greatest “Aha moments” I’ve had in my life – something I read and internalized that has dramatically improved my leadership style, and elevated virtually every relationship in my life. A Groundbreaking Study In the 1950’s the State of Nebraska sponsored a study to determine the best…
Read MoreThe Best Leaders Use These 5 Supercharged Performance Enhancers
The Denver Broncos are a championship team for a lot of reasons. Over the last several decades, they have made numerous trips to the Super Bowl led by great quarterbacks (John Elway and Peyton Manning, for instance). But any championship team will tell you that they couldn’t have done it without their coach. Championship coaches,…
Read MoreThe First Rule of Management
If you could choose only one quality that your boss could have which would help you to perform better, what would it be? – to be a good coach and mentor? – to give you regular feedback in a constructive manner? – to support your initiatives? All of these are qualities that anyone would love…
Read MoreThe True Test of Whether You Empower Your Staff
Possibly one of the least effective questions you can ask a candidate who is interviewing for a management position is “Tell me about your leadership style.” It’s just inviting the candidate to pluck the answer from the fantasy land of his/her mind. And inevitably the candidate will say something like “I believe in empowering my…
Read MoreThe Single Most Important Leadership Attribute
Generally speaking, focusing on leadership attributes is waste of time. Contrary to what many leadership authors will tell you, most attributes are personal characteristics and can’t easily be learned. We have learned from Malcolm Gladwell and others that it takes around 10,000 hours of practice (approximately 10 hours of practice a week for 20 years)…
Read MoreThe 5 Golden Rules of Paying People
Over the last hundred years or so, companies have dreamed up increasingly complicated ways to pay people. As compensation practices became more sophisticated, they also became less humane and consequently, less effective. I prepared the following list to help my friends, clients and colleagues get better results from their employees by compensating them the way…
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