3 Guidelines to Avoid Resistance to Change
People don’t resist change. Change is a normal and natural part of living. The only time you stop changing is when you’re dead. What people resist is having change imposed on them. Here are three guidelines to invite people to participate in the change process, and to...
The Best Way to Listen
The most powerful gift you can give another is your undivided attention. When the best techniques don't work, simply close your mouth and pay attention. The best way to listen is with your mouth shut. This poem, written almost 50 years ago, is as relevant today as it...
How to Deal With a Steamroller Personality on Your Team
In this guest post, Mike Figliuolo explains how to deal with a steamroller personality, one of the personalities described in his new book, Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results. Heather joined your team a year ago. You hired...
3 Approaches to Culture Change: What Works
You can’t “do” culture change to your organization. Culture arises from the beliefs and underlying assumptions held by the people in the organization. Trying to change culture by decree or through training programs won’t affect people’s beliefs. One way to change the...
Manage Your Polarities or They Will Manage You
Do you ever hear a little voice in the back of your head saying things like: look before you leap … or ... two wrongs don’t make a right … or ... if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it? We all have tapes running in the background that guide our actions. If you...
How to Set the Right Goals and Make Them Work for You
Are you starting to lose focus on your goals? If so, you're not alone. This is the time of year a lot of people lose their focus. The problem is that annual goal-setting doesn't work. You can't plan an entire year and know in advance all the goals you will need to...
Confessions of an Extrovert: We Need Understanding, Too
Dear Introverts, It’s nice that people are appreciating you so much more these days and showing how to build on your quiet strengths. But we extroverts are also often misunderstood, and we need champions, too – people who will stand up for us and challenge common...
How Managers Can Solve the Problem of Employee Retention
Employees are not a replaceable commodity. According to recent research, the tide has turned and employee retention has become a critical issue for organizations. One of the easiest and most effective ways keep top talent is through “stay interviews,” developed by Bev...
The 10 WORST Popular Leadership Quotes
Great leadership quotes inspire and guide us. They become part of our mainstream language and instilled in our culture. We accept them as a reflection of the ideal, aspire to live them and use them when teaching others about leadership. But sometimes a quote takes...
How to Delegate Effectively and Minimize the Risk
Delegating is often one of the hardest things for a manager to do. You give away your authority to make decisions but are still responsible for the outcome if something goes wrong. Often managers don’t delegate because they hold one or more of these beliefs. Do any...
From Corporate Officer to Clown: Reinvent Yourself But Not Your Purpose
The first female officer in the 150-year history of Stanley Black & Decker, Barbara Bennett was among the first women in a Fortune 500 company to break through the glass ceiling in 1989. Her direct style tempered by easy-going humor allowed her to fit quite well...
Vision Requires Action: 7 Tips to Move and Keep Moving
Creating a shared vision is one of the most important roles of a leader. But vision alone is not enough. Vision requires action. Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. – Japanese proverb First: Do a “Vision Check” to make sure you...