5 Takeaways for Speakers, Leaders, and Followers

5 Takeaways from the Vice-Presidential Debate for Speakers, Leaders, and Followers: The Vice-Presidential debate was a lot more fun than the first Presidential one.  Both candidates came out swinging and got in some good punches.  Ryan was good on Afghanistan, on Obama as a speaker not a doer, and on the basic premise of the Republican campaign, that the economy isn’t getting better fast enough.  Biden was good on just about everything, once he got over his Gore-like tendency to create a sideshow of smiles, groans and eye-rolls when Ryan was talking.

How to Fire Someone

How to Fire Someone: Some ways to avoid making a bad situation even worse.

4 PR Habits of Highly Effective CEOs

4 PR Habits of Highly Effective CEOs: “There's none so blind as those that will not see” goes the old adage, and nowhere is this more true than boardrooms at budget season.

The Right Way to Be a Mentor

The Right Way to Be a Mentor: Every executive would love to have a great mentor looking out for them. But these days, they?re getting harder to find, as Harvard Business School professor Thomas DeLong explained in a recent Forbes interview. With professional demands increasing and many jobs requiring ?24/7? access, leaders frequently opt out of becoming mentors, choosing instead to focus on their own careers. Demetriouse Russell, a Harvard Business School graduate who now works at his alma mater as the Director of Corporate Relations and Market Development for HBS? Executive Education programs, is bucking the trend. Well known for his active mentorship (he was honored as a ?Living Legend? by the Boston Renaissance Charter Public School earlier this year), Russell credits his early upbringing in tough neighborhoods, including Chicago?s Cabrini-Green development, with helping him appreciate the importance of role models. ?There?s an intrinsic reward for me in helping others, because I was the beneficiary of mentors, teachers and coaches,? he says.

Your Management Style: Hopefully It’s None Of These

Your Management Style: Hopefully It’s None Of These:
There are four kinds of managers that I have seen and heard much about. They find their way into one small business or another and just help things unravel. Sometimes the owner brings them right through the front door, tucked behind their own personality...

3 Ways to Win the Workplace Game

3 Ways to Win the Workplace Game: Are you finding it more challenging to create and sustain momentum in your work?   In a global marketplace that demands more from people, the competitive landscape is fierce.   People are concerned about their futures and that of their children.  They are also increasingly becoming more nervous about “the here and now.”   As such, employees are looking to find ways to remain relevant so as to get discovered faster.   They are eager to stand out from the crowd with the hope of being sponsored by one of their senior executives.    Employees are becoming restless and are finding it difficult to wait for the next opportunity – and are thus realizing that they must create opportunities for themselves before time passes them by.

5 Ways to Amp Up Your Creativity

5 Ways to Amp Up Your Creativity: Whether you are in a brainstorming rut or feel too exhausted to muster up a germ of imagination, here are five action-oriented steps to propel you to the creativity big leagues:

The Secret of Productivity: How to Master Your Time

The Secret of Productivity: How to Master Your Time:
 The fact is that we have 168 hours of time per week. There is no such thing as a “lack of time.” We always find time to do the things we are most motivated to do. Our quality of life—our excellence in our field of work—is determined by how we manage those 168 hours.

 So, how can we master our time? We need to focus our brain on doing what is most important, and stop doing non-essential tasks. Everyone wants a “piece of our time”—and it’s typically in conflict with what we want to do....

8 Secrets To Accomplishing More Each Day

8 Secrets To Accomplishing More Each Day: Work smarter, not harder. Here’s how.

6 Powerful Ways to Embrace Change

6 Powerful Ways to Embrace Change: Most people are averse to change. They like to keep things the way they are; they like to stay in their comfort zone.

Work Is Easier When You’re Motivated

Work Is Easier When You’re Motivated:
Inspiration feels like catching a genie in a bottle — elusive and sometimes unreal. But when you tap into it for yourself, then you find a new kind of motivation...

10 Steps You Can Take To Become A Successful Young Leader At Work

10 Steps You Can Take To Become A Successful Young Leader At Work
Most people near the starts of their careers aren't typically thought of as leaders in the workplace. Not only do they inhabit a low spot in the office hierarchy and lack experience and skills, but also many are too timid and insecure to assume a leadership role. But with the right attitude, an observant eye and a desire to learn, any young professionals can prevail early on.

5 Steps to Smooth Networking

5 Steps to Smooth Networking: Networking is the heart and soul of all kinds of things in life, including job hunting, successful career change and building your own business. Here are five steps to becoming a great networker.

How to Turn Your Fear into Fuel

How to Turn Your Fear into Fuel: Three steps to make your entrepreneurial anxiety work for you.

10 Ways To Get Your Colleagues To Work With You Better

10 Ways To Get Your Colleagues To Work With You Better: One of the most important hiring criteria for many companies is the ability to work as a team player—yet, so many of us have colleagues who don’t play well with others.

The Simplest Way For Leaders To Gain Lasting Loyalty

The Simplest Way For Leaders To Gain Lasting Loyalty: This will be short because it's simple.  There are of course a number of ways for leaders to gain loyalty that involve variations around compensating your employees, running a sound ship and producing strong results for your organization.   These are all naturally true, but I'd argue there's one other method that's simpler and more fundamental and will serve you well in good economic times and bad:

How to Fire Someone

How to Fire Someone: Some ways to avoid making a bad situation even worse.

6 Ways To Be More Productive

6 Ways To Be More Productive: Robert C. Pozen is a very productive guy. At age 66, his résumé is so packed with accomplishments, it’s tough to cram them into a short summary. He has been a law firm partner, an executive at two different investment firms, and he has served various government stints, including associate general counsel at the SEC and secretary of economic affairs under then- Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Throughout his career he has taught, at Georgetown, NYU and most recently, Harvard Business School. Meantime, he has written numerous articles, including two pieces in Forbes I edited back in 2005 and 2009, and six books. His most recent, perhaps not surprisingly, is called Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours.

Can You Succeed Like Apple By Following These 7 Rules?

Can You Succeed Like Apple By Following These 7 Rules?: Is there a secret design agenda that can bring you some of Apple's success? John Edson thinks so.

3 Lessons From Shark Tank on How to Make Your Business More Likable

3 Lessons From Shark Tank on How to Make Your Business More Likable: Are you likable? It could be the key to your business becoming more profitable.

6 Ways To Make A Team of Rivals Work

6 Ways To Make A Team of Rivals Work: When Barack Obama was asked how he’d build a successful government, he referenced one of his all-time favourite books: ‘Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln’. It describes how Lincoln appointed a cabinet of his three biggest rivals (who loathed him), and united them to win the Civil War. This, Obama said, was what he’d do – appoint the best person for the job, regardless of their affiliation, history or any personal grudge.

Seven Keys To Sales Leadership

Seven Keys To Sales Leadership: The sales leadership job is one of the toughest in business today. I have previously written about why this is so, but suffice it to say it is a few critical jobs rolled into one: super seller, coach, strategist and business leader. I have had the chance to work with thousands of sales leaders over the course of my career and have observed that the most successful among them possess key characteristics: the seven keys to being a great sales leader.

Great Ideas Bosses Never Hear

Great Ideas Bosses Never Hear: Employees have a lot to say, but their managers rarely hear it. How companies can benefit more from ideas that originate on the front lines.

Mass Persuasion

Mass Persuasion: “Successful entrepreneurs recommend reading this article about the persuasion techniques companies use to drive engagement.”

5 Leadership Lessons from JetBlue's President and CEO

5 Leadership Lessons from JetBlue's President and CEO: In a recent interview with Dave Barger, President and CEO of JetBlue, we discussed his personal interest in supporting education, how JetBlue views and integrates social responsibility and citizenship into their efforts, the evolving definition of business in society, and 5 leadership lessons he’s learned along the way.

The Strengths and Weaknesses of Your Leadership Style

The Strengths and Weaknesses of Your Leadership Style: There are many leadership styles and a cottage industry has cropped up around defining them. Gayle Lantz, president of WorkMatters, Inc., a human resources consulting firm in Birmingham, Ala., uses the popular DISC assessment tool to as part of her practice to identify leadership styles.

PR Tips from the Pros: Katherine Barna, Tumblr's Head of PR

PR Tips from the Pros: Katherine Barna, Tumblr's Head of PR: This week, we’re bringing you even more PR advice from the pros—this time, straight from Katherine Barna, Head of PR at Tumblr. Check out our primer for using Tumblr to promote your brand, then read on for Barna’s expert tips for making the most of the social media platform.

10 Phrases That Are Holding Your Career Back

10 Phrases That Are Holding Your Career Back: Fillers and qualifiers and jargon, oh my! Get these weak and uncertain phrases out of your vocabulary.

Why Collaboration Is Key

Why Collaboration Is Key: Ideas are worthless until they're out of your head and in front of others.

The 10-Step Failure Challenge

The 10-Step Failure Challenge: When you're learning something new, whether its negotiation or hip hop, you go through several stages:

How To Run A Meeting

How To Run A Meeting: Dr. Nadine Katz goes to a lot of meetings. Some of them last so long the participants have to order in food or switch rooms.

Ways to Avoid Hovering Over Employees

Ways to Avoid Hovering Over Employees:
Regardless of the industry, entrepreneurs vary when it comes to leadership styles. Some employers prefer the traditional top-down approach, while others treat their employees like equals who can IM them throughout the day and grab drinks with them once that day is over. But altogether, teams are formulated at startups to create things, to get things done — without micromanaging...

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?