Communication

This One Leadership Skill Will Send Your Credibility Soaring

My twelve year old son, Alexander, just got braces on his teeth. In case you don’t remember or never had them, braces hurt the first few days. A lot. Alexander is a trooper, and knew that the pain in his mouth would eventually subside.But that first afternoon, he was extremely uncomfortable. Later that evening, around … Read more

Can This Chess Skill Improve Your Leadership?

Chess is not the easiest game to play. Chess also isn’t the easiest game to teach someone else how to play. I’ve spent the past two weeks trying to teach the fundamentals of chess to my nine year old daughter, Miranda. What’s particularly challenging is explaining the idea of long term thinking. Miranda gets how … Read more

The Surprising Skill Successful Coaches Share

On Saturday, I got to be a guinea pig in an experiment on leadership, coaching, and motivation.I didn’t plan for this.  It just worked out that way.The laboratory? My local CrossFit gym. The experiment? A group workout, where were matched up to work in teams of two.  Saturday’s workout was a 5000 meter row on … Read more

The Tragic Cost of Low Trust

It was supposed to go like any other conference call.I dialed in to meet with Meg, Pam, Roger, and Shari – four executives from a biotech organization.  On the back end of a merger, the company had brought me in to help the two legacy marketing departments collaborate more effectively. Our phone meeting was a … Read more

Why Do Leaders Lack Empathy?

Last Wednesday was a sunny, crisp, beautiful Fall New England morning. That’s when it all went terribly wrong.It was already 8:10 am, and I was hurrying to get Miranda, my nine-year old daughter to school on time.Her school’s about a mile from home, and thus far this school year, we’ve been riding our bicycles to … Read more

6 Threats Keeping You From Innovating

Innovation: Creating value by doing something better by doing it a new or different way. That “something better” could be many things: A new product A refined process An improved way to collaborate Innovation doesn’t have to mean a radical change -incremental tweaks are innovative, too.  Given this broad definition of innovation, everyone can be innovative. … Read more

Are You in the Top 3% With This Important Business Skill?

In the course of my consulting engagements, I work with hundreds of mid-level and senior leaders a month. Lately, I’ve asked asked many of them the same question: When you make an offer to be of support to a group of entry-level or junior-level employees, how many of them actually take you up on your offer … Read more

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