employees

Three Innovation Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make

When was the last time your company came out with something really new? How long has it been since you totally reinvented a critical business process that resulted in significant cost savings or productivity increases? If you can’t remember (or you can remember but it’s been so long you don’t want to admit it) you…

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How to Suck at Leadership

Have you ever woken up in the morning and said to yourself, “I’m tired of being a good leader. Today, I want to suck at it.”? Well, today’s your lucky day! As someone who strives to keep up with the latest in leadership, it recently occurred to me we have tons of books, videos, blogs,…

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10 Brainteasers to Stretch Your Brain

Earlier this year, I posted a blog entitled “Tease Your Brain.”  It offered 10 brainteasers that showed how our preconceived notions, combined with the brain’s tendency to see what it wants or expects to see, greatly affect how we solve problems and make decisions. To my amazement, it quickly became one of the most popular…

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Take the Innovation Self-Test

Ever wonder why some companies seem to effortlessly come out with one great innovation after another while others struggle to get even one new product or service out the door? There’s a reason for it. Innovation is a complex process that involves a lot more than just throwing money at an R&D department and hoping…

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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. 1….

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Are You Playing to Win?

Your #1 job as a leader is to create a compelling vision of winning, then keep yourself and everyone else in the organization focused on it with laser-like intensity. Are you focused on winning and moving towards it each day, celebrating milestones along the way? Or do you play to not lose? When an organization…

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Don’t Just Do It, Get It Done!

I work with, support and present to hundreds of CEOs and business owners each year. In a world that changes as quickly as ours, they are getting more and more worried about old, entrenched ways of thinking and doing as a source of real vulnerability for their organizations. Most of them are also deeply concerned…

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Did You Hear it Through the Grapevine?

Spring is here and life is bursting out at the seams! The bees are buzzing, the flowers are blooming, and people are hard at work getting their gardens ready for the growing season. Experienced gardeners know there’s more to just planting the seeds, laying down some mulch, and watering the soil. Creating the best environment…

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Redefining Excellence for Today’s World

Thirty years ago, Tom Peters published an incredibly influential business book, In Search of Excellence. In it, he defined eight characteristics of excellent companies: a bias for action, staying close to the customer, autonomy and entrepreneurship, productivity through people, clear and compelling organizational values, focusing on what you do best, operating with a lean staff,…

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Are You Wearing Rose-Colored Glasses?

Business leaders often see their organizations through rose-colored glasses. Find out how to get in touch with what’s really going on in your organization.

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Are You a Tourist or Resortist?

Whether on a billboard or inside your organization, language matters. Find out why the words you use can help make the difference between winning and settling for second best.

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Are Your Employees Getting Happy Feet?

Here’s some interesting news. According to the Department of Labor, unemployment fell for a fourth month in a row. The current rate of 8.5% represents its lowest point at any time in the past three years. Leading indicators also show that the economy continues to grow. Granted, it isn’t creating jobs as quickly as we…

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