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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
I’m a big believer that most of the issues that arise in the workplace amount to communication issues—or rather, miscommunication issues.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
