The research firm Universum recently queried over 2,000 business leaders and professionals, asking: What’s the most important quality that you expect future leaders to possess? The #1 response (41%): They empower their employees. Empowerment. It became a business buzzword twenty years ago, and has been in and out of vogue ever since.At it’s core, it’s about … Read more
Working with others means that you’ll eventually face conflict and disagreement. Conflict isn’t bad: we need work cultures that support differing perspectives, multiple opinions, and divergent thinking. However, how we communicate our disagreements can either help or hinder our workplace relationships and results.A new paper in the Academy of Management Review identifies four distinct categories of conflict expression: how … Read more
If leadership was easy, more people would be great leaders. Leading is smooth sailing when things are going smoothly. The real question is: How do you fare under pressure? I was flying from Hartford to Charlotte last week, on the first leg of a multi-day business trip. The flight was proceeding smoothly. As our … Read more
In many workplaces, workaholics rule the roost. Just yesterday, the most emailed article from the NY Times was “How Some Men Fake an 80-Hour Workweek, and Why It Matters”. The article cites research that shows that some employees (particularly men) have learned how to “pass” as workaholics to receive higher ratings on performance reviews. The … Read more
Has this happened to you? Growing up, you came home from school having received a 98 on a test. You tell your Mom or Dad. They reply, “What happened to the other 2 points?” You bring your report card home. You’ve got all A’s except for one B+. What does the conversation focus on? The … Read more
Last week, I was consulting with an executive team. We were discussing a leader’s competence. As a leader, the measure of your competence isn’t set by you: it’s set by the people you lead. Tom, a VP of Operations, shared a story from a professor when he was in business school that relates to a … Read more
Appreciation matters. But you knew that already. Because it matters to you. We all want to feel valued and recognized for our contributions. Appreciation is one of the most powerful accelerators of employee engagement. For example, research conducted by the O.C. Tanner Company shows that adding appreciation boosts scores at low-trust companies from 35% engaged to … Read more
You may never lead an auction in your life. But you probably do (or will) lead meetings. Last Friday night, I took my first turn as an auctioneer (and emcee) at the annual spring fundraiser for my kids’ elementary school. Now that I’ve run my first auction, it’s became obvious that there are massive parallels between auctions … Read more
Some months back, I shared a post about how we’re no longer in the information age–we now live in the interruption age. Do you feel more overwhelmed and distracted than you used to? If your experience is anything like many of the leaders I work with, you probably answered yes. Part of the reason we’re so … Read more
Meetings.(Cue the groans and eye rolls.) Nobody loves them. Let’s face it, most people would rather be anywhere else than in a business meeting. Are meetings doomed to be inherently horrible? Or have we just settled for mediocrity because we know no better way? This subject of “meeting madness” came with two groups I worked with … Read more
