Need a quick read to get you thinking about topics that most business leaders deal with?
In the blogs below, I dig deeper into specific topics from the book and share about exclusive leadership topics. These posts are meant to generate ideas about how you can evolve as a leader. I keep them short, and several of them ask questions that spur you to take action.
How to Be a Leader at Work
The greatest myth of leadership is that it requires a distinct title, role, or tenure. You can practice and implement leadership skills in any role—even if you don’t oversee a team. How to be a leader at work boils down to how you influence others.
The Value of Feedback
If you dread your annual performance review and hate the idea of criticism, you’re not alone. The anxiety, the pressure, the expectations, not to mention the wasted time—annual reviews at work are largely unproductive and uninspired.
Build Your Executive Presence
Executive presence is frequently mentioned in conversations about leadership, but what does executive presence even mean? Donning a fancy title doesn’t make you a leader, like I explain in my book Leader Is Not a Title, and having the word “executive” in your title doesn’t mean you have executive presence. Like it or not, leadership and executive presence both come down to other people’s opinions.
Leadership in Sports Terms
So many sports analogies, lessons, and philosophies apply to business—and for good reason. To stay on top of your leadership game, I challenge you to approach your work through a sports lens. You may have different departments at your organization, but you’re all on the same team.
Active Listening: Understand Before Being Understood
Most people think of the best communicators as being outspoken and articulate, but one of the most important rules of communication is actually silence—the art of active listening. This invaluable skill is especially beneficial for leaders because it helps you better connect with your team. By exploring what it means to be an active listener, you can assess and improve your own active listening skills and instill this crucial communication tool in your team.
Charge Directly into the Storm: The Best Leaders Know How to Be the Buffalo
It’s 4:00 p.m. on a Friday, and you get a message from a client asking if you have two minutes to talk. Your stomach drops. What do you do? Do you say no and send them a meeting invite for next week? You could easily ignore the message until Monday. What would it feel like to pick up the phone and tackle it head on?
You Can’t Become a Better Leader without This…
The key to all successful leadership is mindset management. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: nothing will change unless you change your mindset. You can invest in executive coaching programs or other leadership development tools, but nothing will change until you have the right mindset.
Technology Alone Won’t Make You a Better Leader: How to Use Executive Coaching Tools
A quick Google search reveals a wealth of online assessments to help you refine your professional skills and practice responsible leadership. There are so many executive coaching tools that it can be difficult to know where to start. Whether you’re examining your own strengths and weaknesses, considering a leadership position, or exploring your team’s potential, executive coaching tools can provide valuable insight and direction.
The Myths of Finding Your Passion
Passion is everywhere today. Find your passion. Follow your passion. Fuel your passion. Whether you’re a new college graduate embarking on your first job or a veteran professional exploring new opportunities, you’re bound to hear about the importance of finding your passion—but what does that even mean?
Understanding Personal Motivation
What makes us do the things we do? Why do we want the things we want? And why do we, from time to time, do things that we know aren’t good for us? The short answer is personal motivation.
Rules of Communication
I’m a big believer that most of the issues that arise in the workplace amount to communication issues—or rather, miscommunication issues.
The Myth of Innovation
Innovation is a word that often scares people. They fear the unknown. They’re comfortable with the status quo. They hesitate to embrace new processes, tools, and techniques, and they avoid new ideas that shake up their organization.
How to Form a High-Performing Board of Directors
Your board of directors is crucial to your organization’s success. In fact, having a high-performing board of directors sets the tone for a high-performing organization. But how? By understanding the role of your board and identifying traits to instill—and those to avoid—you’ll set up your board, and your organization, for success.
Advisory Boards 101
The primary purpose of an advisory board is—surprise—to advise. This handpicked group of individuals serves your organization by offering expertise, experience, and knowledge to support your company and your leadership team in achieving your goals.
Understanding Executive Coaching Programs
Professional athletes at the top of their game don’t get there on their own. They hire experts—such as a strength coach, position coach, sport psychologist, nutritionist, or physical therapist—to help them reach their potential, and it should be no different in business. The goal is the same, to be the best you can be, so why not receive coaching from leadership experts?
Leadership Is Like Being a Chemist
Team meetings in board rooms and science experiments in laboratories are not that different. Both require mixing the right ingredients to create something bigger than the sum of its parts. Leadership is like being a chemist.
What Is the Platinum Rule?
You’ve no doubt heard of the Golden Rule. This mantra encourages you to treat others how you want to be treated—but is this mindset sufficient for the workplace?
What You Can Learn from a Bad Boss (Thank You, Bad Bosses!)
If you work, you’ve probably encountered a bad boss. Many people have not had the opportunity to develop effective leadership skills before getting into positions of power. When a toxic boss is in charge, people and companies alike can suffer.
