-
Emotional Intelligence in Effective Leadership
Paul Hiltz shares a story of how people can be so emotionally charged about issues near to their heart and explains what leaders can do to prepare resistance to change in the work world.
-
Pay Attention to Your Customers
All businesses are, or should be, customer-driven. But, as John Foster explains, being customer-driven goes beyond simply meeting customers’ needs.
-
Tips on Team Collaboration
You can take several practical steps to ensure a healthy and productive team collaboration. John Foster shares how he develops highly effective teams.
-
Tips on Coaching
To grow as a company, leaders need to shift responsibility to others, grow more leaders within the company. John Foster talks about effective ways to do this.
-
Leadership Defined
Leadership is of critical importance to business executives. Vishen Lakhiani defines his vision of great leadership, and how that vision changed over the years as he gained experience in the business world.
-
Customer Focus Increases Profits
Businesses all want a great bottom line: profits. But, as Vishen Lakhiani reports, focusing on profits is not the best way to either increase the profits or run a business.
-
The Principle of Dialog + Listening
Are you having “nonversations”? Traci Fenton describes how to foster an environment of authentic dialogue and listening as part of a democratic organization.
-
Decision Making As a Skillful Collaboration
The collaborative decision-making process takes skillful leadership to pull off. But when you do pull it off, Larry Dressler says, its rewards are significant.
-
The Importance of a Human Connection in Negotiations
Negotiations are often difficult encounters, and can easily stall out or break off. But finding common ground and adding a human element to it, as Larry Dressler illustrates, can make all the difference.
-
Leadership Is About Convening
The skill set that effective leaders possess today is complex and varied—but one of the most important skills a leader has is the ability to bring diverse people together and tap into their collective wisdom, explains Larry Dressler.
-
Enabling Success: Empowering People and Teams
True success is not about individual accomplishments. Instead, as Andy Mulholland shares, success is about team achievements and helping those around you do well.
-
Balancing Operations and Financials
Company success comes with a blend of skills--and understanding the balance of those skills is critical to long-term success, explains Andy Mulholland.
-
Successful Managers Know How to Communicate
Successful managers share a common characteristic: excellent communication skills. Andy Mulholland explains the importance of these skills, and how they have changed over the years.
-
Tough Conversations
Every leader has to know how to steer a misfiring team back on track. Stephen Dando shares his insights into handling difficult situations.
-
The Positive Effect Of Letting People Go
Performance problems don't go away on their own. John Roberts explains why taking decisive action to terminate employees – including managers – can produce positive side effects.
-
How To Let People Go
Terminating an individual, notes John Roberts, does not have to be an emotional situation if a logical process is followed. That process includes a written appraisal policy, regular evaluation sessions, and verbal and written documentation of shortcomings as well as agreed-upon tactics for improvement.
-
Ethics
Integrity is vital in business. Lord Kalms shows how the only rule your company should never break is upholding honesty and ethical behavior.
-
Diversity In Teams
"Leader builder" Robin Ryde discusses the benefits of diversity and shares strategies for getting the best out of different teams and differing people.
-
Satisfying Customers
Putting customer needs at the heart of your business is key. BAA's former CEO suggests ways to motivate staff by improving your customer feedback.
-
Persevere And Achieve The Unexpected
Amelia Fawcett shows how you can get a team to accomplish extraordinary things by encouraging out-of-the-box thinking and sticking with it.
-
Beware Of Optimistic Forecasts
People are natural optimists, and this will show in their forecasting. David Michels presents tips for treating forecasts with more realism.
-
Be Clear What The Aim Is
Sir Gerry Robinson offers advice on making sure you and everyone in your company knows what you're trying to achieve and what their part in it is.
-
The Impact Of Strategic Storytelling
When conveying an important message, deliver the message via a story. Jay Conger provides tips for constructing a story that provides maximum recall of the intended message.
-
Creating The Appropriate Work/Life Balance
Alliant Energy's Chairman discusses the importance of life outside work and how encouraging this creates a more productive environment within your company.
-
Adapt Your Leadership Style For Each Individual
Leaders are only as successful as their teams want them to be. David Brandon shows you how to prosper by treating every team member as an individual.
-
Delegate Responsibility In Order To Move With Speed
Robert Herbold shares how to effectively delegate responsibility in order to achieve aggressive goals and become a market leader, a lesson he learned at Microsoft.
-
Creating Financial Acumen Within Your Company
Every individual in a company is charged with making money for that company. Blythe McGarvie shows how she trained her staff in financial acuity.
-
See The World From Other People's Perspective
Jeffrey Pfeffer encourages leaders to see the world from the perspectives of others, enabling these leaders to build stronger relationships and have greater influence among those people with whom they work and interact.
-
Leading People Through Change
Amy Butte, former CFO of the New York Stock Exchange, shares how she worked with Finance employees to get their buy-in, which was key to making tremendous technological, organizational, and procedural changes possible.
-
Setting Expectations Is A Key Skill
Aart de Geus discusses the delicate balance between setting expectations high enough but not too high. The key is in listening to what the customer needs, meeting or exceeding reasonable expectations, and being clear about goals that cannot be actualized.
-
Make Meetings Optional
Meetings, meetings, and more meetings. Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson share stories about how Best Buy made a dramatic cultural change that cleaned up its calendar.
-
Customers Give You Feedback Everyday
Sometimes the basics are easy to overlook. In this example, William Lamar shares his experience at McDonald's and how listening to customer feedback resulted in a better cup of coffee.
-
Learn Not To Fear Feedback
Nobody's an expert at coaching and mentoring. Paula Barbary Shannon explains why providing supportive feedback is something you have to practice and do every day.
-
Define The Purpose Of Your Leadership
True and lasting leadership derives from intrinsic motivations. William George shares a touching story about how never to lose one's sense of purpose.
-
Watch Your Competitors And Challenge Your Strategy
If you can't invite your competitors to share their strategies with you, do the next best thing. Philip Kotler shares the story of how IBM invited Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy - or a reasonable look alike anyway - to discuss how Sun is going to "bury" IBM.
-
Integrated Leadership
Is it possible to have both a successful business and personal life? According to William George it is, but there are trade-offs to be made.
-
Question Your Customers To Establish What They Need
Charles Brewer shares why the old adage "Put yourself in their shoes" is imperative in a successful sales culture. In this lesson, he explains how to ask the deep questions that will reveal key points to strengthen client relationships.
-
Balancing A Need For Achievement With Your Personal Life
Clayton Christensen is a noted professor and researcher at Harvard Business School, but he also knows the value of balancing a need for achievement with healthy personal relationships. In this lesson he shares how he started his life on a path that would lead to a successful "career" in marriage and parenting.
-
Out Work Your Competition
As Jerry Rice explains, determination and a tough work ethic are what allow you to out-perform the competition.
-
Diversity Is Good Business
A company's employees ought to reflect the markets and the people the company serves, as well as the people where the company is located. Sir David Bell describes how his company does that in London, and the results of reflecting the diversity of the city.
-
Getting Senior Management To Extend The Boundaries Of Accountability
Adrian Hodges explains how a change of tactics can help accomplish goals when engaging senior management on the issue of corporate responsibility.
-
The Machine That Changed The World
One book gave John Neill the words to explain his ideas. By using "The Machine That Changed the World," he found a way to communicate lean thinking to employees at all levels.
-
Engage, Empower And Excite Your People
Impossible! This is the red flag that challenges people, and according to William Johnson, people love to be challenged to achieve what they think others can't achieve.
-
The Value Of Setting A Long-Term Strategy
When implementing a long-term strategy, connecting the overall vision with day-to-day operations is essential. Anders Dahlvig explains how setting such a strategy can provide for a comprehensive plan while creating a sense of stability.
-
Globalization Leads To Collaboration
Globalizing operations is a growth opportunity that many leaders will undertake. But William Fung reminds leaders that the challenges of this endeavor should never be tackled alone.
-
Diversity in Business
According to Sahar Hashemi, diversity isn’t about gender, race, or religion. Instead, it’s about the uniqueness that each person brings to his or her job.
-
Be Your Own Customer
Want to maintain an advantage over your competition? Then find ways to connect better with your customers. Sahar Hashemi explains how to do this.
-
Negotiating Change
Negotiating change is never easy. It’s stressful for managers who are in charge of the change and for employees who are feeling the brunt of that change, but there are ways to go about that change, says John Smith, that can bring about a successful result.
-
Developing a Values Culture
The learning organization helps drive the values culture. All new hires undergo six modules built around six core values. Basic business activities are related to each value. For example, everyone fills out a time report because that reflects the value of integrity.
-
Why Teach Values?
Accenture doesn’t have time to develop all of the skills that all their people may need in all situations. When someone is in a situation where they lack all the needed skills, they apply Accenture’s core values.
-
Building A Team Of Talent
Leaders can't help but admire the "shining stars" in an organization. Joseph Eckroth cautions that, while these individuals are important, it's truly the collective talent of a team and how they work together that gives an organization its strength.
-
Just Keep Going
To push past obstacles, says Stacey Peralta, you must keep going no matter what.
-
Open Communication Is Key To Engaging Your People
Good communication is one of the simplest and most effective tools a leader has at his disposal. Robert Milliner reminds leaders that encouraging an open dialogue with employees brings harmony to an organization and provides an edge over competitors.
-
Making Business Ethics Part Of Your DNA
As a prime directive of her job, Phillipa Foster Back gets up close and personal with the concept of business ethics.
-
The Importance Of Listening
When you truly listen, what you hear may surprise you. Phillipa Foster Back recounts an important lesson from her early career that taught her the value of active listening.
-
Improving Customer Interaction & Satisfaction
Because consumers are becoming so much more technologically savvy, says Robert Fort, customer interaction and satisfaction is easier to track and analyze.
-
Look At Customer Needs To Set Strategy
Mark Greiner puts forth an alternative to the traditionally analytically driven method of devising strategy. Instead, he promotes forming strategy based on real customers using real products.
-
The Benefits Of Coaching
Jason Zeman relates a personal story about how continuous coaching can encourage people to achieve their goals even when they don't believe in themselves.
-
Facilitating Chaos In Teams
Most people try to steer clear of chaos. Myles Downey tells leaders how to make chaos work for their teams.
-
Instinct, Debate & Data Make The Best Decisions
To make wise decisions, you need to consider several factors. Gavin Patterson describes those factors and helps leaders see how to incorporate them in their decision-making process.
-
Inspiration As The Catalyst For Goals
The energy that comes from inspiration is far better than the energy that comes from obligation and duty. Myles Downey talks about how to use inspiration to set goals.
-
The Art Of Listening
A leader's ability to listen to staff and create an environment where staff know their ideas and solutions are desired can lead to improved productivity, work performance, and enjoyment, explains Myles Downey.
-
Clarity Of Intent
If you want to have a successful meeting, Myles Downey says, then be clear on your intent going in.
-
Engage Your Customers To Grow Your Business
It's important to know the difference between talking with your customers and talking at them. Dan Wittner highlights how engaging customers grows a business.
-
Use Customer Feedback To Set Priorities
Communicating with customers helps an organization set and prioritize goals, as Brian Malloy illustrates in this lesson about developing a customer-centric organization.
-
Everybody Affects Customer Satisfaction
Tammy McLeod shares how a survey by an outside company served as a wake-up call for expanding the view of customer service.
-
Use A Crisis To Build Community
Sometimes a negative experience can draw people together. Tammy McLeod reveals how you can use a crisis situation to unite a community and improve customer satisfaction.
-
Give Customer Strategy A Simple Framework
Simplify the message of value that your company offers to clients. Barbara D. Stinnett suggests how to convey complex solutions in an easy to understand, customer-centric fashion.
-
Setting The Tone For Customer Advocacy
Customer advocacy cannot be the responsibility of the CCO alone. As Jeb Dasteel shares, every person in an organization must believe and participate in customer service to create a successful culture of wooing clients.
-
Let Customers Know You Are Listening
Jeb Dasteel explains why responding to customers, even with disappointing news, is preferable to withholding communication and may even be beneficial.
-
Balancing A Career & Family
Achieving a satisfying work-life balance is often difficult, but it can be done. After years of work-related travel and moves, Eva Majercsik reveals how to manage family and a career.
-
Overhauling Talent Management To Meet Market Demand
As needs change in the marketplace, talent and learning functions have to adapt. Eva Majercsik describes how she helped overhaul talent management at her organization.
-
Improving The Quality Of Your Contribution
Only speaking up when you know you have the right or popular answer may be safe, but it isn't the best contribution you can make, as Don Vanthournout shares from his own experience.
-
The Importance Of Balancing Strategy & Operations
Every team needs a good balance of experience and abilities in order to be successful in the long term. Don Vanthournout highlights how strategy and operations work together.
-
Leveraging Networks To Change The Competitive Landscape
As Andrew Ray bluntly puts it, "A competitor is not always a competitor." Here he shows how investing in networks can change the competitive landscape.
-
How Individuals Can Contribute To Growth
Andrew Ray brings company growth down to an individual level and highlights how each person can contribute to overall progress.
-
Crafting A Successful Change Initiative
Company-wide change initiatives are rarely easy to undertake—but they can be highly effective. Andy Halford talks about how to initiate change that promotes growth and health.
-
Moving To Dynamic Problem Solving
The quicker pace of technological changes means that training and problem solving have to advance more quickly as well. Chris King discusses how the US Army stays on top of moving targets.
-
Effective Leaders Are Self-Aware
Everyone has habits or quirks of which they aren't aware. Bob Cancalosi illustrates an experience that helped him realize the value and necessity of being self-aware if you want to be a strong leader.
-
Leading Tools in Customer-Focused Marketing
Amazon is the benchmark for customer-focused marketing. Nothing is extraneous. It’s all simplicity.
-
Coaching and Mentoring for Career Development
Career development, says Martyn Redgrave, hinges on four issues: intellect, energy, ambition, and choices. Here he details how people can use each issue to further their careers.
-
The Five E's of Leadership
There are many ways to consider the critical aspects of leadership. Martyn Redgrave likes to look at leaders in terms of their ability to carry out the “Five E’s.”
