How To Light A Fire Under Your Team When Things Are Going Well

How To Light A Fire Under Your Team When Things Are Going Well: It’s easy to create a sense of urgency among your team when business is tough. It’s harder when you come into a role after your predecessor had tripled business in seven years.

5 Things Highly Successful People Do To Stay Motivated

5 Things Highly Successful People Do To Stay Motivated: We've all been there.  Something we worked hard for, put a lot of thought and effort into, didn't go the way we'd hoped. A job, a promotion, a raise, assignment to a plum project.

6 Ways Effective Listening Can Make You A Better Leader

6 Ways Effective Listening Can Make You A Better Leader: When employees say they want their voices to be heard, they are really saying they want leaders who will not just hear them, but really listen to them.    As employees seek more attention, feedback and support, leaders must become more mindful of individual needs in order to more effectively inspire professional development and overall performance.   Leaders who listen are able to create trustworthy relationships that are transparent and breed loyalty.  You know the leaders who have their employees’ best interests at heart because they truly listen to them.

4 Steps To Find The Right Mentor

4 Steps To Find The Right Mentor: People often say that finding a mentor is essential as an entrepreneur, especially a young one at that. I am a sophomore at Duke University and the co-founder of Star Toilet Paper, so the experience I had prior to starting this company is my camp and caddying experience. So how do I even know what steps to take or how to develop a business?
While many people within the realm of entrepreneurship are willing to be helpful, there is a big difference between someone who answers a few questions for you and someone who is genuinely interested and invested (not monetarily) in both your company and in you. To me, the most important aspect of a mentor is the latter of the two; your mentor must have a vested interest in learning more about you and what you wish to do to change the world with your new company.
But how do you go about obtaining this type of mentor, and how do you know if they are the right person?
Where: In college, I have access to both people and resources. But you don't need to be a student to access the people and resources you need. In any major city, there will be a variety of incubators, accelerators and universities that are hotbeds for innovation and centers of knowledge. That does not mean that you need to find the entrepreneurship professor at the closest university. See what is around you and how you can make the most out of those resources. I have found that it is often the third or fourth degree of separation that leads to the best person for you.

3 Tips for Surviving as a First-Time Manager

3 Tips for Surviving as a First-Time Manager: Your first management job is a big win – a sign that you’ve done something right in your career. It’s also the first time that your success is completely tied to the performance of other people...

5 Ways To Unlock Authentic Leadership

5 Ways To Unlock Authentic Leadership: In today’s culture, where so much emphasis is placed on the superficial, people crave authenticity. Employees today are hungry for real what-you-see-is-what-you-get leadership. The most inspiring and influential leaders therefore don’t lead because of what they do (though they do plenty), but because of who they are. Too often leaders and those who aspire to be, forget that.

How To Be A Great Mentor

How To Be A Great Mentor:

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. - William Arthur Ward

Have you employed a mentor to help you navigate the professional world? Maybe you found her during your first job search; perhaps it was when you transitioned careers. Either way—your mentor most likely provided guidance and helped you overcome challenges. And if you’re really lucky, she inspired you along the way.

3 Tips To Navigate A Leadership Crossroads

3 Tips To Navigate A Leadership Crossroads: Judith E. Glaser (@CreatingWE) and Lori Polachek (@LPolachek1) offer advice to business leaders at a fork in the road.

The Art of Screwing Up

The Art of Screwing Up: I was enjoying breakfast with my good friend, Danny O’Brien, recently, when our conversation moved to the topic of screwing up, making mistakes and the steps we take thereafter.  Danny said, “The quality of our lives is not determined by whether or not we screw up—because we all will.”

Forming Better Professional and Office Relationships

Forming Better Professional and Office Relationships: Whether you are a CEO or entry-level employee, getting along with others is paramount to success and your career is no exception to this rule.  While tenacity, hard work, intelligence and making the right decisions are all significant factors in the equation to achievement, interpersonal relationships can either make an individual's career manageable and more lucrative or set up unnecessary barriers to getting what you desire.

People CAN Change Their Past -- Put Mistakes Behind You.

People CAN Change Their Past -- Put Mistakes Behind You.: People often think they can’t change their past, but I disagree. Perhaps we can’t change every mistake in our past, but we have to remember that the past is a moving target. Every day that goes by us becomes a part of our past history. Whatever we do today will become a part of our past tomorrow, which means we do have the power to change our past by doing the right things today. Today we have the ability to continue building on our past story, and that gives us the power to modify that story into one we can be proud of.  It’s important to remember that the whole of our past is far more powerful than any of its parts.

In A Daze? Easy Ways To Defeat 'Fuzzy Brain' At Work

In A Daze? Easy Ways To Defeat 'Fuzzy Brain' At Work: Unproductive days at work come in many forms. There are the days when you’re tired (I probably shouldn’t have gone to that midnight movie premier last night), days when you’re distracted (How can I focus on work when my relationship is on the rocks?), and days when you can’t get motivated (Can’t I do the monthly report next week?).

Don't Bring Problems To Your Manager -- Bring Solutions

Don't Bring Problems To Your Manager -- Bring Solutions: In today’s workplace, if you want to stand out as a valued employee, don’t bring problems to your manager -- bring solutions. Why? Because there are too many problems for managers to solve all by themselves; that’s why you were hired. So don’t be part of a problem. Become a solution-generating employee and you’ll increase your value to your manager and to the company.

Pump Up the Volume -- Establishing Your Leadership Presence

Pump Up the Volume -- Establishing Your Leadership Presence: As an executive or want-to-be executive, wouldn?t you love to have presence? Wouldn?t you love to have people drawn to you when you speak and pay attention to what you are saying? Presence is one of the most common characteristics shared by over 150 CEOs that have come to our CEO Insights class or Speaker Series here at McGill. Two in particularly lit up the room, Sir Richard Branson and Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus; very, very different personalities yet both had presence.

5 Habits Of Leaders Who Create Workspace Culture

5 Habits Of Leaders Who Create Workspace Culture: When I was a student (once upon a time I thought I was to be a clinical psychologist), and broke, and spending time in New York City (also about the time I decided I was not to be a performing artist, choreographer for my career after spending years here doing so), I used to make extra money volunteering for psychological studies at Columbia University. I arrived one day and was told to wait in a small room for the study to start. The room started to fill up with other people, also waiting, until it was jammed and people were sitting on the floor shoulder to shoulder. Things got testy, arguments broke out, there was jostling. After 45 minutes the researchers came in and announced that the study was over: they had been measuring how we reacted when we were crowded into a small space.

The Most Powerful Workplace Motivator

The Most Powerful Workplace Motivator: The most powerful workplace motivator is our natural tendency to measure our own performance against the performance of others, according to research by Harvard Business School professor Ian Larkin. He describes his findings in this article, which first appeared on the HBS Working Knowledge website.

Seven Steps to Negotiating Success

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

Cultivating 'Soft Skills' to Get Ahead

Cultivating 'Soft Skills' to Get Ahead: Personal aptitudes and attitudes like being a good listener and communicator strongly influence likability and workplace relationships.

Seven Customer Service Lessons I Learned in One Day With Richard Branson [Video]

Seven Customer Service Lessons I Learned in One Day With Richard Branson [Video]: It’s rare to find a leader who elevates the experience for employees and customers to such a degree that other brands benchmark against his or her company. I recently had a unique opportunity to spend a day with one such leader, an entrepreneur and billionaire who has built a brand considered the gold standard in customer service—Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson.

How Employees Can Succeed Faster

How Employees Can Succeed Faster: Google used to have a formula for finding the best employees: it screened for high SAT scores and grade point averages. Sounded like a good plan (especially since Google’s two founders demanded it).

Tips For Talking To Customers

Tips For Talking To Customers: In a recent post, I discussed the importance of communicating with customers and not making assumptions about them. Listening to feedback from your customers can be incredibly helpful.

Six Ways Introverts Can Be More Powerful

Six Ways Introverts Can Be More Powerful: I have a hard time thinking of Warren Buffett and Al Gore as introverts. But according to Susan Cain, author of last year’s popular book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, they join Charles Darwin, J. K. Rowling, Mahatma Gandhi, Google’s Larry Page and at least a third of the world’s population who prefer listening to speaking, reading to socializing, and working on their own to collaborating in teams. In other words, they are natural born introverts.

Innovation Leadership: The Revolution Starts With Words

Innovation Leadership: The Revolution Starts With Words: High sentiments always win in the end.  The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more than those who offer safety and a good time.  When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.

10 Things Inspire Teams to Optimally Perform

10 Things Inspire Teams to Optimally Perform: More and more people feel stuck at work and are looking for validation. Not only do they want to be heard, but more importantly they want to know that their contributions are being noticed and not taken for granted. Not for the sake of attention, but more so because they want to know that their skill sets are still relevant and useful and that they are making a difference to advance the organizations they serve. With professional development budget cut-backs in recent years, employees have had to start investing in themselves as concerns grow about where their capabilities best fit in their organizations and what their futures hold. Leaders must understand that in today?s new workplace, there does not exist a single recipe to encourage employees to perform better. Rather, it?s about how to maximize the ingredients in order to create hundreds of recipes that are customized and authentic; that provide long-term continuity and impact. To get you started, here are ten ways to inspire teams to optimally perform.

How To Remember Everything

How To Remember Everything: A husband-and-wife team of brain researchers has discovered a kind of brain cell that goes a long way to explaining how memory works and how you can remember things better.  May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser have been researching the brain since 1988, and in 2005 they announced the discovery of so-called grid cells.  These grid cells create a direct, intuitively simple map of everywhere you go, basically, sending the data to your hippocampus, the seat of memory and emotion in your brain.

5 Ways to Build A Future Leader

5 Ways to Build A Future Leader: Philly is a great town – it’s filled with interesting people and awesome food (oh yes, with a little history thrown in). I was there last week for the HR Conference for senior level executives. The energy at the conference was amazing – there are so many exciting developments in the new world of work. I left with my head spinning (in a good way).

Overcoming the Biggest Challenge in Business: Your Own Insecurity

Overcoming the Biggest Challenge in Business: Your Own Insecurity: I was struck this week by something Barbara Corcoran, real estate mogul and Shark Tank expert, recently said.

10 Ways To Inspire Your Team

10 Ways To Inspire Your Team: More and more people feel stuck at work and are looking for validation.   Not only do they want to be heard, but more importantly they want to know that their contributions are being noticed and not taken for granted.  Not for the sake of attention, but more so because they want to know that their skill sets are still relevant and useful and that they are making a difference to advance the organizations they serve.   With professional development budget cut-backs in recent years, employees have had to start investing in themselves as concerns grow about where their capabilities best fit in their organizations and what their futures hold.

Five Easy Steps To Giving The Best Speech Of Your Life

Five Easy Steps To Giving The Best Speech Of Your Life: Good talks are short, lively and engaging. Speaking is about being yourself while not getting in the way of the message you’ve been asked to deliver. In that sense, there’s nothing to fear.

The 'It' Factor: How To Have Executive Presence In A Meeting

The 'It' Factor: How To Have Executive Presence In A Meeting: Think back to a recent meeting, when someone there just seemed to attract and engage everyone around the table. Someone like Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg or Virgin’s Richard Branson—someone who has the ability to walk into a boardroom, command attention, and leave everyone wanting more. Someone who has that “it” factor.

The 7 Ways Successful People Approach Their Work

The 7 Ways Successful People Approach Their Work: When it comes to work, everyone has their own methods for getting tasks done.

5 Time-Tested Success Tips From Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos

5 Time-Tested Success Tips From Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos: Amazon's Founder, Jeff Bezos has had an incredible entrepreneurial career. He has gone from simply selling books online to offering consumers tens of thousands of products. Not satisfied with conquering the online retail world, Amazon then productized access to its infrastructure, ushering in the era of the public cloud. This innovation has eliminated billions of dollars of annual costs previously associated with creating and maintaining web-based businesses.

What The Most Successful Leaders Know About Creating An Inventive Culture: A Case Study

What The Most Successful Leaders Know About Creating An Inventive Culture: A Case Study: Iron Man is a fictional superhero.

8 Ways to Undermine Yourself as a Leader

8 Ways to Undermine Yourself as a Leader: As entrepreneurs, we spend a lot of time honing our leadership style and working tirelessly to ensure our teams are motivated to work with us. There are countless resources to improve on various attributes you utilize both in and out of the office, but there’s less information readily available on pitfalls to avoid. You might think you’re doing a good job, but here’s a list of how you might be undermining yourself.

Leading With Engagement Instead

Leading With Engagement Instead: We all know that influencing by authority—by command & control—is out. Influencing by engaging and enrolling is in. Yet too many leaders still rule with claws and teeth, rather than cropping grass alongside their herd and nudging them in the right direction.
What about you? Are you helping employees envision an exciting future—or are you sending their innovative brains scurrying for cover?

Are You a Visionary Business Leader?

Are You a Visionary Business Leader?: What does it mean to be a visionary business leader?

How To Approach The Boss When Conflict Arises At Work

How To Approach The Boss When Conflict Arises At Work: Sometimes the hardest part of your job isn't the work; it's the people.

Tips for Building Long-Term Client Relationships

Tips for Building Long-Term Client Relationships: A business is only as good as the clients it serves, and no business gets far after losing the clients it has. The key to success is building relationships that go beyond one-time projects and provide value to these clients on a consistent, ongoing basis.

Essential Tools of Talent Management

Essential Tools of Talent Management: There’s a problem that small-to-midsized but fast-growing private companies often don’t see coming until the damage is done. Namely – they don’t recognize until it’s too late just how much value is being lost owing to immature talent development, retention, evaluation and recruitment processes.

Five Ways Helpfulness Wins Hearts and Sales

Five Ways Helpfulness Wins Hearts and Sales: Taxi Mike, Geek Squad and Vanderbilt University Medical Center take the same successful approach to stand out from their competition, and you can too.

The Difference Between Asserting Yourself and Being a Jerk

The Difference Between Asserting Yourself and Being a Jerk: First it was Suzy Lee Weiss and her Wall Street Journal Op-Ed. Then last week we got the crazy but ?amazing? University of Maryland sorority girl who penned a letter to her ?sisters? telling them they were losers, ?faggots,? and ?retarded.? Now people are calling Reese Witherspoon and her DUI antics amazing. There has been such an outpouring of support for this trifecta of bitchiness that I?m surprised Ann Coulter hasn?t been crowned woman of the year yet.

The Easy Path to Persuasion

The Easy Path to Persuasion:

If you want to persuade a customer to do something - buy a product, request more information, or call your toll-free line, for example - do you think the odds are better if: It appears to be quick and easy? It appears to be difficult and time-consuming? Of course, "easy" is the obvious

5 Ways Leaders Can Reclaim Their Identity

5 Ways Leaders Can Reclaim Their Identity: The first job I had was with a large Wine & Spirits company.  It was a top-down, best-practice, zero-defect, career-path, fear-based culture.  Everyone was accountable to someone else, and had to follow a set of policies and procedures.   In this company, you were not encouraged to freely express your individuality.  In fact, in the classical ways of bureaucracies, the best sales people had been promoted into management – where they were floundering because they lacked the right types of skills to succeed in their new roles.  A great sales person is not necessarily a great manager.  But this company didn’t care about the consequences they created.  This was a linear-thinking, cookie-cutter, no-individuals-for-hire organization.

Who Are The Best Marketers?

Who Are The Best Marketers?: Who are the best marketers out there right now?  Who are the leaders shaping the way businesses interact with their customers and the marketplace?  Big questions, right?  What is more important than “who” is doing it, is “what” are they doing to meet the ever-changing needs of customers and to deliver results for their companies.

7 Common Excuses That Prevent an Employee From Being Great

7 Common Excuses That Prevent an Employee From Being Great: It’s usually easier to come up with an excuse than it is to actually get something done. I’ve learned that many employees have the potential to be great, but they let excuses get in the way of their true potential. As a leader, it’s important to address these excuses and challenge your employees to be better. Here are some excuses that send my “BS meter” off the charts.