Feedback

Set Up Your Team To Be Successful

The first month of 2016 has already come and gone. By now you’ve (hopefully) set your primary strategic goals for the year, pinpointed the destination, and painted a clear picture of what winning looks like for your organization. The next step involves one of the most important leadership roles and skills – setting up everyone…

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Are Dumb Rules Killing Innovation in Your Company?

Innovation is the process of coming up with new ideas and/or putting together existing ideas, products or services in new and different ways to achieve value. In order to do that, we sometimes have to first get rid of the obstacles that are getting in the way. One quick and simple method for eliminating barriers…

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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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How to Give Four Generations Feedback

I had one of those defining moments in life the other day. I went to the doctor for a minor ailment, and for the first time I noticed that the person wearing the stethoscope was younger than me! My prevailing view of the world says that authority figures – doctors, judges, teachers, etc. – should…

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Our Leaders Need to Start Acting Like Leaders!

The ability to inspire trust is an essential leadership trait. According to a recent survey conducted by the marketing research firm, Maritz Research, our current crop of leaders has a lot of work to do in this area. Conducted in March of this year, the survey reported that: 25 percent of U.S. employees have less…

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Protect yourself from the dangers of conventional wisdom!

Recently I wrote about the dangers of relying on conventional wisdom to make critical business decisions. I thought it would be fun to look at some actual examples from over the years. This “telephone” has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to…

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Expose Yourself! Get Better Results by Making Your Thinking Visible

Expose yourself? No, I’m not talking about trench coats or the number two activity on the web (porn is BEHIND social media these days!). I’m referring to common communication challenges that can be easily overcome by pausing to bring others along in your thinking process. When we present ideas to other people, especially new ideas,…

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Are We Short-Changing our Middle Managers?

Every once in a while you run across a statistic or bit of information that really makes you sit up and take notice. Here’s the latest one for me. According to the ASTD (American Society for Training & Development), the ranks of middle managers have significantly declined over the past two years while their responsibilities…

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Are You Ready for the Pendulum Swing?

Without question, the past recession has hit many companies hard. But as business leaders struggling to keep our companies afloat, we sometimes forget that it’s been hard on employees as well, including those who managed to keep their jobs. According to a survey conducted earlier this year by Kelton Research, today’s employees are feeling under-empowered,…

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Does Your Culture Support Innovation?

There’s a lot of people talking about innovation these days, myself included. The good news is that business leaders seem to be sitting up and taking notice of this important subject. The bad news is that once a topic becomes popular in the media, people have a tendency to see it as the next “management…

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Making the Leap to Disruptive Innovation

Does your organization struggle to innovate on a consistent basis? If so, you may want to get your customers involved. Innovative companies have always intuitively understood the importance of customer feedback. But now there’s evidence that strongly suggests that direct customer involvement in the new product development process can make a real difference in your…

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Two, Four, Six, Eight… Are You Going To Innovate?

Are you sick and tired of hearing about the constant need to innovate in today’s markets? If so, I have some bad news. Innovation is not just another catchphrase of the day. It’s a new business imperative, and it’s not going away any time soon. The good news is that most leaders and managers are…

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