4 traits that foster trust

  • January 02, 2013

If you’re advising a new manager to succeed, start by establishing guiding principles. Groom your managers to evolve into dynamic leaders by helping them develop...

Don’t promote too quickly

  • January 01, 2013

Holly Graf was booted as commander of a warship in 2010 for “cruelty and mal­­treatment” of her 400-member crew. According to the inspector general,...

How to Create an Employee Performance Log

  • January 01, 2013

Some managers tend to evaluate team members based on their most recent positive or negative encounter. This hap­pens most often when a manager has no record of an...

Sam Adams used propaganda as a tool

  • December 26, 2012

Sometimes, leaders must resort to subterfuge. That’s what Samuel Adams and other colonists did to whip up hostility against the English in the late 1760s. One of...

A blueprint to boost self-awareness

  • December 25, 2012

Leaders with emotional intelligence rarely possess it by accident. Their high self-awareness lets them see cause-effect relationships between their feelings and their...

Humbled, a CEO learns to listen better

  • December 21, 2012

Soon after John Heer joined North Mississippi Health Services as CEO in 2004, he decided to improve how his leadership team managed their employees. They evaluated...

How to Finish the Year Strong

  • December 18, 2012

As I write this, there are still two weeks left in the year. Two weeks – almost 4% of the year. Yet many people are already in holiday-coasting mode. So what do I...

ALL CAPS EMAIL? That’s no credible threat

  • December 12, 2012

How belligerent does an email have to be to warrant firing the sender for willful misconduct and threatening a co-worker? A court has concluded that typing in all...

When is the Best Time to Coach?

  • December 12, 2012

Have you ever heard the old quotation, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears”? At that moment of readiness we are most open to new ideas, most...

How to reverse a failure

  • December 10, 2012

When something fails, follow these steps: 1. Look in the mirror. 2. Go right back to work. 3. Communicate directly. 4. Seek other leaders on the team. 5. Make necessary...

How to deliver critical feedback that sticks

  • December 04, 2012

Effective leaders often say they prefer to earn employees’ respect than to befriend them. The test comes when these bosses need to dish out criticism. To express...

Top 10 Employee Retention Strategies

  • December 01, 2012

The biggest challenge for an organization is keeping its top talent. Times are changing and so are the attitudes of today’s worker. Here are the top 10 employee...

The Problem With Thanksgiving

  • November 20, 2012

Many who read this will be celebrating Thanksgiving in the coming days. While on different dates with different origins, many countries celebrate some sort of...