Articles

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.

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.

Executive Coaching

Knowing where to turn for help to maintain a high-performing team is difficult. Executive coaching describes the work performed by a manager and consultant to achieve goals. This work is futile without a strong team.

Leadership Mindset

What makes a successful leader? Technical skill and diligence are important assets to have, but at its core leadership is driven by mindset. Whether you’re actively leading a team or working with an executive coach to develop your leadership skills, your mindset dictates your success.

Top Down Leadership Is Out of Style, and Here’s Why

Despite its widespread use, the top down leadership approach is not an effective management style. Employees don’t want a boss who only tells them what to do, but rather a commander who prepares them for battle and leads them through it.

Responsible Leadership Qualities

Yesterday’s organizational leaders favored a top-down mentality in their leadership approach. Driven by a focus on metrics and the bottom line, they sought to have as much control over decision-making as they could get, paying little to no attention to the capacity of their employees for strategic thinking.

From Gold to Platinum: A Better Rule to Manage By

The Golden Rule tells us to treat others in the way you would like to be treated. Though the advice can lead children to act with more generosity and kindness, the Golden Rule does not serve modern business leaders well. Instead, manage by the Platinum Rule: treat others how they want to be treated

Follow the 10/10/10 Rule to a Successful Day

In my decades of entrepreneurial experience, successful days do not just happen. They require a certain perspective, a degree of preparation and some planning. To achieve a positive outlook, I abide by the 10/10/10 rule, every morning devoting 10 minutes each to these three things…

Moving Forward: Teams Need Leaders with These Skills

Leadership is many things. Leadership is layered. Leadership requires certain skillsets, mindsets and matters of perspective. Leadership is not one single attribute, but rather a combination of traits and skills. The one thing everyone can agree on about leadership is that it’s critical to the success of all organizations…

3 Lessons to Learn From Failure

As businesses reinvent themselves in a post-COVID-19 world, how do we deal with the failures we will all encounter? Failure is a normal part of growth. It’s a step along the path to success if you learn to view failures and setbacks as learning opportunities rather than fatal flaws…

Traits That Make (and Break) Great Teams in These Uncertain Times

We’re living in crazy and uncertain times. During times like these, the importance of having a great team is more important to our organizations than ever. Your survival truly depends on it. If you don’t have the makeup of a great team, it’s time to make the changes needed to ensure your survival…

Leading by Example

If you’re a sports fan, you’ve probably heard at least one sports announcer say, after a huge loss, that the losing team just “didn’t show up” that day. This rather insightful phrase doesn’t refer just to team members; it also refers to coaches. The best coaches are the ones who are out on the field and involved in every play — from the first pitch or kickoff until the clock runs out…

Encouraging Passion

It’s an often-repeated phrase, but it’s still a good one: There is no “I” in team. Of course, any good manager knows that teamwork is the key to a successful business; but how do you instill and encourage the passion that fuels that teamwork? Here are some tips for instilling — and motivating — your team…

Conflict in Brainstorming

A few years ago, I heard someone give an answer to this age-old question; and it’s an answer that I’ll never forget. “People argue,” she said, “because they CARE. They care so passionately, they’re willing to argue to get their point across, because they want you to understand why they feel the way they do.”…