The Top 5 Things Employees Want (and Need!) to Hear from Management

The Top 5 Things Employees Want (and Need!) to Hear from Management: Employees want good pay. They want to have some say in how they perform their jobs. They want to be treated fairly. And they want management to be consistent in word and deed. But if you really want a motivated, committed workforce, you?d better answer the five questions that every employee wants to know.

Three Tips for a Successful Debate or Presentation

Three Tips for a Successful Debate or Presentation: There is much anticipation surrounding this election season's first presidential debate. It's each candidate's opportunity to present their ideas to a wide audience and persuade viewers of their positions. Similarly in a business presentation, a presenter must win over the audience and clearly communicate his point of view in a way that causes the audience to take action.

Steps To Effective Change Management

Steps To Effective Change Management:
Change management is a complex process which varies according to each individual organization’s needs. There will be different approaches taken depending on a wide range of factors including the type of organisation, the change objectives and the external environment.

However, there are 5 fundamental steps which need to be part of any effective change management program...

5 Ways to Rock Star HR Leadership

5 Ways to Rock Star HR Leadership: One of the dirty little secrets of HR – Human Resources as a professional practice – is that it’s not always about the people and humanizing brands. Not really, anyway. Some HR professionals have more in common with the Governance, Risk and Control department of the enterprise. HR sometimes gets a bad rap for being more concerned with limiting risk to the corporation than it is with making sure the employees – people, everyone – are working well and that the company’s culture can sustain its people in a fast-paced business. As a talent management practitioner and speaker, I spend a lot of time on HR topics of course. I'm one too = a flavor of HR professional.

Great Leaders Don't Do It Alone...They Get Help

Great Leaders Don't Do It Alone...They Get Help: There's a model we all have in our heads, of the fearless, solitary leader: the John Wayne-like character out ahead of the pack, carving a path in lonely glory for others, less leaderlike, to follow.

Measuring Your Company Goals

Measuring Your Company Goals:
I’ve been making New Year’s Resolutions for my business for years. You could also call what I compile at the start of the year goals for my company. Rather than creating a stagnant business plan that I forget to update, I simply revisit what I want for my company at the fresh start of the year.
So why am I telling you this when New Year’s is so far away?
Because the rest of the year I measure my goals..

6 Steps for Creating a Game Changer

6 Steps for Creating a Game Changer:

At one time or another all great leaders experience something so big and so impactful it literally changes the landscape - it’s what I call a “Game Changer.” A game changer is that ah-ha moment where you see something others don’t. It’s the transformational magic that takes organizations from ordinary to

How to Detect Your Blind Spots That Make Your Colleagues Disrespect You

How to Detect Your Blind Spots That Make Your Colleagues Disrespect You: This article is by Sara Canaday, a career strategist and corporate speaker and author of  You—According to Them: Uncovering the Blind Spots That Impact Your Reputation and Your Career.

Four Things to Consider Before You Grow

Four Things to Consider Before You Grow: Every entrepreneur wants their business to grow. But rapid growth can quickly get out of hand if you don’t plan for it

Seven Steps to Negotiating Success

Seven Steps to Negotiating Success: Tried-and-true negotiation tactics from author and negotiation expert Selena Rezvani.

3 Tips for Achieving Your Work/Life Balance

3 Tips for Achieving Your Work/Life Balance: “There isn’t a moment of the day when I’m not thinking about my business.” Does this sound familiar? Many entrepreneurs and business owners report that they work non-stop, day and night. Sure, it’s great for your business, but is it good for your life?

How To Address Challenging Team Members

Don’t Reward Bad Behavior – How To Address Challenging Team Members:
What happens when a co-worker or team member speaks in an aggressive or passive aggressive manner that tends to take over or misdirect your meetings and your projects? If you sit there in silence, it’s a passive way of condoning their message...

4 Steps To Painless (And Effective) Performance Evaluations

4 Steps To Painless (And Effective) Performance Evaluations: Conducting effective performance evaluations is like painting a room.  If you do all the prep work diligently - all the sanding, spackling, taping and priming - the actual painting is easy.   So too with employee evaluations.

Why You Need to Ask Questions About Your Culture

Why You Need to Ask Questions About Your Culture: Organizational culture powerfully influences a company's performance — or at least we say so. I often hear executives reassure me that projects will get done because "we have an execution culture," or that customers will be well taken care of because "we have a culture where the customer comes first." At the same time, culture is also one of the great rationalizations for managerial shortcomings. Many times I've heard that a project was delayed because "we don't make quick decisions around here," which is the managerial equivalent of "the dog ate my homework."

The Commitment Engine

The Commitment Engine: One of the most effective ways to build your team is to enlist your staff in the recruiting process. In The Commitment Engine, John Jantsch, a marketing and digital technology ...

Are You an Impactful Leader?

Are You an Impactful Leader?: This last weekend, the Empact100 took place at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where 100 of the most impactful entrepreneurs were recognized by the White House. There were some great speeches given by many people, including Jeff Hoffman, the co-founder of Priceline and Steve Case, the founder of AOL.

How to Respond to Negativity

How to Respond to Negativity: "I'm getting to the end of my patience," Dan,* the head of sales for a financial services firm, told me. "There is so much opportunity here — the business is growing, the work is interesting, and bonuses should be pretty good this year — but all I hear is complaining."

Leadership Truths That Every Leader Needs To Know

Leadership Truths That Every Leader Needs To Know:
Successful business leadership is about the ability to create a compelling vision that is backed up by strong values, a strong sense of purpose and that inspires other people to help you to achieve it. In order to do this it is essential that, as a leader, you create an environment where people are encouraged to work harmoniously together using their own unique talents and skills to achieve common goals.
It sounds fairly straightforward doesn’t it?

6 Ways Successful Teams Are Built To Last

6 Ways Successful Teams Are Built To Last: It takes great leadership to build great teams. Leaders  who are not  afraid to course correct, make the difficult decisions and establish standards of performance that are constantly  being met – and improving at all times.   Whether in the workplace, professional sports,  or your local community, team building requires a keen understanding of people, their strengths and what gets them excited to work with others.   Team building requires the management of egos and their constant demands for attention and recognition – not always warranted.   Team building is both an art and a science and the leader who can consistently build high performance teams is worth their weight in gold.

New To Leadership? If You Only Do One Thing, Do This

New To Leadership? If You Only Do One Thing, Do This: Yet another really interesting post from Glen Llopis, this one about what young leaders need to do to lead folks from older generations.  His four recommendations are: 1) Be an active listener and learner, 2) Get to know them on a personal level, 3) Embrace differences, 4) Earn respect by being less authoritative.

Market Research 101

Market Research 101: "Market analysis resources to help you target your best customers"

How Do You Persuade Others?

How Do You Persuade Others?: There is one book that everyone needs to know on why people do what they do.  It’s called Influence:  The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert B. Cialdini, and it is a classic.  Cialdini is professor emeritus of psychology and marketing at Arizona State University.  He doesn’t speak often about persuasion, but he has people approved to speak on the subject for him, so if you get a chance to hear a Cialdini clone, do so.

23 Leadership Tips From Oprah Winfrey

23 Leadership Tips From Oprah Winfrey: Oprah Winfrey is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of her generation. Raised by her grandmother in rural Mississippi until age six and then by her mother, who worked as a maid in Milwaukee, Ms. Winfrey was an unlikely candidate to become one of the most dominant media personalities of modern America.

Sparking Your Imagination

Sparking Your Imagination: "How to light your creative fire"

The Key to Changing Organizational Culture

The Key to Changing Organizational Culture: The Boston Globe just ran a front-page story in their "Ideas" section on organizational culture, inspired by some depressing events involving the Boston University hockey team. It was much more impactful than the average writing about culture, and raised the important question: Why do conversations about an important topic like culture typically go nowhere, leading companies to waste time and money with "cultural change efforts" which very seldom work?

The Top 5 Leadership Skills for Sustained Innovation

The Top 5 Leadership Skills for Sustained Innovation: Anyone can innovate once. All it takes is a good idea, some hard work, sufficient resources, and a little bit of luck.

Reaching Out To Departed Customers For Recovery

Reaching Out To Departed Customers For Recovery:

Every business has customers who have departed.  There are a variety of reasons that prompt departure. How you react to the departure will either validate that they left for a good reason or begin the process of bringing back that customer and that customer revenue.

Follow these five steps...

What It Really Takes To Be Inspiring

What It Really Takes To Be Inspiring: What are the top three traits of highly inspiring people, and what can we learn from them?

What's Your Best Business Advice?

What's Your Best Business Advice?: "A strong mantra separates a good business owner from a great one."

Management: Develop Your Emotional Quotient

Management: Develop Your Emotional Quotient:

Management has changed over the last couple of decades. The old 80’s style of management and motivating people by fear has evolved and today’s management is a much more supportive, encouraging, inclusive and altogether more effective form of directing and developing people.

5 Ways to Lead with Emotional Intelligence -- and Boost Productivity

5 Ways to Lead with Emotional Intelligence -- and Boost Productivity: Employees today are much more aware of whether or not they are a good fit in their workplace culture and they want their leaders to be more mindful of their needs.   In general, employees have become more sensitive about how to best co-exist in a workplace environment that allows them to be who they naturally are.   Employees are tired of playing games and just want to be themselves.  As such, they are managing their careers and looking to advance by searching for jobs that truly fuel their passion, fulfill their desires, and ignite their real talent.   For most, today’s economic landscape has made the career management journey extra challenging.  And beyond career advancement opportunities, people want their supervisors and leaders to be more in touch with who they are as people (not just as their colleagues) to assure that their career track is in proper alignment with and  supports their personal and professional goals.

How to be a Great Manager that Employees Want to Work With

How to be a Great Manager that Employees Want to Work With: I recently spoke to Jill Geisler, who is the author of Work Happy: What Great Bosses Know. Her companion “Great Bosses” podcasts  on iTunesU have been downloaded 8 million times – and counting. Jill heads the leadership and management faculty of the Poynter Institute. She teaches, writes and consults on critical issues for leaders and counts among her clients The Boston Globe, CNN, and the Washington Post. In recognition of her lifetime contributions to journalism, the University of Wisconsin honored her with its “Distinguished Service to Journalism” award, the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association named her to its Broadcast Hall of Fame, and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences inducted her into its prestigious Silver Circle.

Six Ways To Save Face When You Are Caught Unprepared

Six Ways To Save Face When You Are Caught Unprepared: Nearly 60% of readers who responded to my recent informal poll said the main reason that President Barack Obama flunked the first debate was that Mitt Romney was better prepared.

How to Win Over Someone Who Doesn't Like You

How to Win Over Someone Who Doesn't Like You: Does your co-worker scowl every time you walk by? Is that guy in your networking group consistently aloof? Sometimes, for no clear reason, someone may decide they dislike you – and if you want a more comfortable work environment, it’s up to you to change the dynamic. So what can you do to disarm a cranky colleague?

3 Ways to Become a Strategic Risk Taker

3 Ways to Become a Strategic Risk Taker: Some people are fundamentally risk-averse, by nature. Others seek risk out to the point of recklessness. Culturally, we tend to think of this first group as the wise ones, especially by contrast to the wild ones. They are the ones who stick with one job, one spouse and one set of super-slowly maturing blue chip stock market investments for a lifetime.

Meet Your Virtual Mentor

Meet Your Virtual Mentor: I met John Spence a few weeks ago. He was smart, funny, generous with his advice and encouraging.

Employee Survey Success: The 3 A's of Employee Satisfaction Surveys

Employee Survey Success: The 3 A's of Employee Satisfaction Surveys: The employee survey (i.e., employee satisfaction surveys) should form the backbone of any employee engagement initiative. In my book, Employee Engagement 2.0, I explain how the first step to improving anything is to measure it, and employee satisfaction and employee engagement are no different. But too often, despite a considerable investment in time and money, employee surveys fail to move the needle of engagement. For your survey to actually drive business results, you have to follow what I call the “three A’s of employee surveys.”

Leading the Unmanageable to Do Amazing Things

Leading the Unmanageable to Do Amazing Things: There was no way Chris Lin could survive inside the Coca-Cola culture. So, I gave him a two-year unbreakable consulting contract and invited him to be our voice of truth. One of the best choices I ever made.

5 ways to avoid burnout at work

5 ways to avoid burnout at work: Here are a few methods, from simple coffee breaks to Panamanian CEO retreats, to avoid work burnout and recharge your business.

The 3 Secrets to Conflict Resolution

The 3 Secrets to Conflict Resolution: Good leaders are great at resolving conflict. Great leaders keep conflict from arising in the first place. Here’s how they do it.

4 To-Dos for Your First Year on the Job

4 To-Dos for Your First Year on the Job: When I started my first job out of college (actually, while I was still in college), the idea of working someplace every day for an entire year was a bit terrifying. Although my course schedule was always full, and I’d worked during school as well, I’d never had to clock a full eight (ahem, 12) hours in a row—and of the hours I did put in, none were under the watchful eye of anyone but myself.

How to Make One Better Decision Each Day

How to Make One Better Decision Each Day: Jeff Hawkins, founder of Palm and Handspring, spoke on campus at Stanford University in 2009. He said that whether you run a dry cleaner or a tech company, if you could just make one better decision each day, you would end up dominating your industry.

How to Become the Strategist Your Company Needs

How to Become the Strategist Your Company Needs: Cynthia Montgomery is the Timken Professor of Business Administration and immediate former head of the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School, where she’s taught for twenty years. For the past six years, she has led the strategy track in the school’s highly regarded executive program for owner-managers, attended by business leaders of midsized companies from around the globe. She has received the Greenhill Award for her outstanding contributions to the Harvard Business School’s core MBA strategy course. Montgomery is a top-selling Harvard Business Review author, and her work has appeared in the Financial Times, American Economic Review and others. She has served on the boards of directors of two Fortune 500 companies and a number of mutual funds managed by BlackRock, Inc. Her new book is called The Strategist: Be the Leader Your Business Needs.

Become an Opportunity Maker With Others

Become an Opportunity Maker With Others: Years ago, a board member brought me into a corporation to lead a team in creating two products that he felt would boost the stock price. Here's how it happened. In my vigorous interview of him for The Wall Street Journal, he described how the firm could fall behind without them, and I became fascinated by their capacity to scale. He read my article.

39 Leadership Points to Ponder

39 Leadership Points to Ponder: Are you doing what's needed to lead your staff and business to success? Consider these hallmarks, benchmarks and best practices of effective leaders

The Right Way to Ask for Help at Work

The Right Way to Ask for Help at Work: I’m not exactly sure when it happened, but at some point in my career, I started to believe “help” was a four-letter word. OK, well, it technically is, but you know what I mean. Somewhere, I had picked up the idea that asking for help was tantamount to admitting weakness, and ultimately, failure.

Successful but dissatisfied? How to change your mind, not your job

Successful but dissatisfied? How to change your mind, not your job: I recently had a conversation with a friend who?s looking for a new job. This individual is highly successful, well regarded and, apart from the usual hectic business life, has not much to complain about. He just feels like something?s not right. My friend is a classic example of a mid-career prisoner: successful but not satisfied. Trapped by his own success and his healthy pay, he feels unfulfilled and dissatisfied.  Actually, what he needs isn?t a change of job but a change of outlook.

How to turn a weakness into a strength

How to turn a weakness into a strength: Richard Branson on the proverbial lemons and lemonade

The One Talent That Makes Good Leaders Great

The One Talent That Makes Good Leaders Great: It is easy to spot leaders: They are the people others follow.

5 Leadership Takeaways From Michelle Obama

5 Leadership Takeaways From Michelle Obama: First Lady Michelle Obama has been actively in the news for two things. The first would be her fashion sense. But the second and most defining are her leadership skills and community activism.

Barbara Corcoran's Secrets to Success

Barbara Corcoran's Secrets to Success: At the 2012 World Business Forum, Shark Tank investor Barbara Corcoran shared the lessons that helped her business grow.

7 Sure-Fire Ways Great Leaders Inspire People To Follow Them

7 Sure-Fire Ways Great Leaders Inspire People To Follow Them: Twenty-five years ago Santa Clara University Professors Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner wrote The Leadership Challenge, a primer on how to make extraordinary things happen in organizations by helping leaders perform their personal best. Two million copies have been sold and an updated version of the book has just been released. Since the book helped to frame my own ideas on leadership, it was a pleasure to sit down recently with both Kouzes and Posner to talk about a topic I consider the most relevant to this column: how leaders can communicate a vision that gets people excited about going to work each day.

How To Reward Employees On A Tight Budget

How To Reward Employees On A Tight Budget: The past few days I was working with a wonderful group – the senior Legal and Policy team of a client company – and we were talking about how to foster an environment where “employees are happy to come to work and can achieve their potential.”  Someone noted that’s harder when money's tight - when, for instance, you don’t have the budget to pay overtime or give significant raises.  Which led to a great conversation about what’s motivating to people.  We all agreed that money is great (it’s hard to imagine employees saying no to more money), but that you can reward and incent people in meaningful ways that don’t involve financial compensation.

Why Are They Leaving?

Why Are They Leaving?: 5 symptoms to help you diagnose the causes of employee turnover

When You Just Don't Fit In At The Office

When You Just Don't Fit In At The Office: Three and a half years ago Forbes merged its dot-com and magazine editorial staffs, and we magazine editors got a dose of culture shock. We were used to coming and going as we pleased. We had few meetings. Especially in the mid- and upper-level ranks, we didn’t socialize together much. Having moved here midway through my career, from a nightly television show where I was by necessity joined at the hip with my colleagues, I loved the independence and freedom of the place.

3 More Career Lessons From The Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women

3 More Career Lessons From The Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women: Michelle Obama. Nancy Pelosi. Marissa Mayer. Lady Gaga. The Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women 2012 list names 100 very unique and powerful women who have made an impact on society. Although these women come from different backgrounds and lifestyles across the globe, they all have one thing in common: they have achieved great success.

5 Essential Lessons for First-Time Managers

5 Essential Lessons for First-Time Managers: Last April, I applied for an entry-level sales position at my current company. It wasn’t my dream job by any means, but at the time, I had just graduated from college and was employed at an advertising agency I was desperate to get out of.

The Four Things Young Leaders Must Do to Effectively Lead Older Generations

The Four Things Young Leaders Must Do to Effectively Lead Older Generations: When I first became a department manager at 25 years old, everyone on my staff was at least 10 years older than me.   Thankfully, my parents taught me as a young boy how to effectively communicate with older people.  The first 15 years of my career I was faced with leading older generations.  How could I earn the respect and get ?buy-in? from those who didn?t always enjoy getting direction from a leader who was (in some cases) as old as their own children?    Managing older generations at work requires patience, the ability to listen carefully, and the knowledge that you must learn the old ways of doing things before you can apply your new ideas.

PROFIT W100: Getting Started

PROFIT W100: Getting Started: How W100 leaders became involved in their businesses

3 Questions To Help You Align Company Culture With Core Values

3 Questions To Help You Align Company Culture With Core Values: While walking a potential investor through my first company’s office, he suddenly stopped to take a few deep breaths. I thought something was wrong until he told me, “I’ve never felt such powerful energy!” As a 21-year-old entrepreneur, I had taken our company culture for granted until that moment.

There are Four Types of Professionals When it Comes to Business Development. Which One Are You?

There are Four Types of Professionals When it Comes to Business Development. Which One Are You?: Bruce H. Rogers and Russ Alan Prince are the co-authors of the just published book Profitable Brilliance: How Professional Service Firms Become Thought Leaders now available on Amazon  http://amzn.to/OETmMz

How to Stay Responsive

How to Stay Responsive: Higher sales and better retention await those who resolve customer issues quickly. Here’s how to stay responsive as more people ask questions and air grievances via social media

21 Ways to Win at Public Speaking

21 Ways to Win at Public Speaking: Public speaking is an essential skill — not just for CEOs and Oscar winners — but for each and every one of us. Whether you are asked to give a toast at a wedding, say a few words at a birthday dinner, nail a sales presentation, or speak to the student body, might as well shoot for the stars.

5 Ways To Improve Your Customer Service

5 Ways To Improve Your Customer Service: The pace of technology is ever-quickening. Feel like your business is struggling to keep up? We do-- It’s no secret that the online marketplace and popularity of e-readers have forever changed our business of bookselling. Whenever we feel the push of technology, along with getting the push we need to learn something new, we remind ourselves to focus on what has always helped us to stand out—our customer service.

3 Easy Exercises to Boost Your Creativity

3 Easy Exercises to Boost Your Creativity: These strategies will help you think outside the box to discover your next business idea.

Are Your Employees Engaged?

Are Your Employees Engaged?:

Want to know how committed your employees are? The real test of employee engagement, says serial entrepreneur and author Kevin Kruse, is ?discretionary effort.? Connecting through the Miami airport last October, Kruse ? author of the new Employee Engagement 2.0: How to Motivate Your Team for High Performance saw it

To Find Your Next Great Business Idea, Narrow Your Focus

To Find Your Next Great Business Idea, Narrow Your Focus: A winning business opportunity often isn't obvious at first. Successful entrepreneurs can identify new niches and whether they can be profitable.

How To Be A Better Leader In Just 5 Days

How To Be A Better Leader In Just 5 Days: What if you could improve your leadership effectiveness in only 5 days? No really – what if? What if there were no costs, no strings attached, no hidden agendas, no complex curriculum, but just a simple set of instructions for you to follow over the next 5 days that will change your world as a leader? Well, I have a 5 day leadership challenge for you which will do just exactly that – You in?