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Showing posts from July, 2022

How To Achieve Early Career Success

“By 2025, experts predict that Millennials and Generation Z will make up the majority of the world’s workforce. They are two of the most populous generations on earth, and they’re going to have to navigate a work world full of unprecedented challenges,” explains  Mark Zides , author of the book,  The #PACE Process For Early Career Success .   He adds, “The career landscape is rockier than ever, and navigating it takes more than just a résumé to find a perfect job.  The # PACE  Process for Early Career Success  book is designed to help readers unlock the mindset, traits, and techniques needed to  P lan,  A pply for,  C ommit to, and  E xplore an ideal career path.”  “Whether you plan to enter the corporate world, join a startup, or start your own business, you will learn how to:  build a network master interviewing skills leverage your personal brand move on to your next opportunity when the timing is right  Leveraging more than twenty years of experience as an entrepreneur, businessper

12 Golden Rules For Communicating Effectively

Here are the 12 golden rules of effective communication from  Paul Falcone , as highlighted in his book,  2600 Phrases for Setting Effective Performance Goals . Always remember to : Recognize achievements and accomplishments often. Celebrate success. Deliver bad news quickly, constructively, and in a spirit of professional development. Praise in public, censure in private. Assume responsibility for problems when things go wrong, and provide immediate praise and recognition to others when things go right. Create a work environment based on inclusiveness, welcoming others' suggestions and points of view. Listen actively, making sure that your people feel heard and understood and have a voice in terms of offering positive suggestions in the office or on the shop floor. Share information openly (to the extent possible) so that staff members understand the  Why  behind your reasoning and can ask appropriate questions as they continue along in their own path of career development and le

How To Be A Compassionate Leader

“Being human and doing what needs to be done are not mutually exclusive. In truth, doing hard things and making difficult decisions is often the most compassionate thing to do,” explain the authors of the timely and compelling new book,   Compassionate Leadership:   How to Do Hard Things in a Human Way . Whether you are a seasoned leader or new in your leadership role, add this book to your list of must-read books during 2022. Authors  Rasmus Hougaard  and  Jacqueline Carter , explain that: Compassion  is the intention to be of benefit to others. Compassion is not about pleasing others and giving them what they want. For example, compassion can be tough and direct, such as addressing another person’s behavior if it is out of line. But it is done with the intention that helping them change will ultimately lead to better outcomes for everyone. Also, Hougaard and Carter share that  empathy and compassion are different from each other . “The two terms differ in that empathy is an emotion,

How To Create A High-Performance Workplace Culture

In his book,  The Responsible Leader ,  Tim Richardson  explains that to create a  high-performance culture , you need to  plan and prepare  for the following moments to ensure the conversations surrounding them are both meaningful and intentional: recruitment and induction of new team members performance management discussions promotion interviews and talent management discussions coaching discussions customer sales presentations handling customer complaints and problems briefings to the press, analysts and wider market senior leaders' contact with, and briefings to, teams across the organization internal presentations with executive committees team meetings and management meetings Richardson's advice to  improve the quality of these conversations  is to consider: How clear is the principal message for the conversation?  How can you ensure that the content of the discussion is focused on the key message(s)? How can you ensure the quality of the listening by all parties? How ca

High-Performing Teams Do This

  According to  Ron Ricci  and  Carl Wiese , authors of the book,  The Collaboration Imperative , high-performing teams have the following characteristics : People have solid and deep trust in each other and in the team's purpose--they feel free to express feelings and ideas. Everybody is working toward the same goals. Team members are clear on how to work together and how to accomplish tasks. Everyone understands both team and individual performance goals and knows what is expected. Team members actively diffuse tension and friction in a relaxed and informal atmosphere. The team engages in extensive discussion, and everyone gets a chance to contribute--even the introverts. Disagreement is viewed as a good thing and conflicts are managed.  Criticism is constructive and is oriented toward problem solving and removing obstacles. The team makes decisions when there is natural agreement--in the cases where agreement is elusive, a decision is made by the team lead or executive sponsor,

Inspiring Leadership Quotes

These quotes truly inspire me and hopefully they will inspire you as well : “The three common characteristics of best companies -- they care, they have fun, they have high performance expectations.” -- Brad Hams “The one thing that's common to all successful people: They make a habit of doing things that unsuccessful people don't like to do.” -- Michael Phelps “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." -- Harry S. Truman “The leader of the past was a person who knew how to tell. The leader of the future will be a person who knows how to ask.” -- Peter Drucker “Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” -- Dwight D. Eisenhower “Good leadership isn't about advancing yourself.  It's about advancing your team.” -- John C. Maxwell "People buy into the leader, then the vision.” -- John C. Maxwell “Great leaders have courage, tenacity and patience.” -- Bill McBean "Pe

How To Lead With Deep Purpose

Having conducted extensive field research,  Ranjay Gulati , author of the book,  Deep Purpose ,  The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies ,  reveals the fatal mistakes leaders unwittingly make when attempting to implement a reason for being.   “My interviews with well over 200 executives across 18 firms revealed the secrets of these companies—not the usual facile frameworks, but new ways of thinking about business that allow leaders and companies to operate with heightened passion, urgency, and clarity,” shares Gulati. “I call this,  deep purpose .”   Furthermore, Gultai explains that most leaders think of purpose functionally or instrumentally, regarding it as a tool they can wield. On the other hand, deep purpose leaders think of it as something more fundamental; an existential statement that expresses the firm’s very reason for being. These leaders project it faithfully out onto the world.   “Rethinking the nature of purpose should prompt you in turn to re-imagine your role

How To Move Teams From Isolated To All In

Earlier this year brought a new book that provides workplace leaders an urgently needed methodology for helping companies to reduce worker loneliness, and it delivers a blueprint for building strong, high-performing workplace teams. The book is,  Connectable: How Leaders Can Move Teams From Isolated To All In , by  Ryan Jenkins  and  Steven Van Cohen .   “72% of workers suffer from loneliness. And, what was once a simmering problem shifted to a crisis when COVID-19 and the sudden transition to remove work isolated workers from each other as never before,” report the authors.   “Loneliness is the absence of connection,” explain the authors. “Loneliness is not defined by the lack of people, because someone can be lonely even while surrounded by others. We require more than the presence of others. We require the presence of others to dream, strategize, and work toward commons goals.”   Furthermore, “workplace loneliness is defined by the distress caused by the perceived inadequacy of qual

Leading With Gratitude

Now is a perfect time to read the leadership book,  Leading With Gratitude , by authors  Adrian Gostick  and  Chester Elton .  Published in 2020, the book provides managers and executives with easy ways to add more gratitude to the everyday work environment to help bolster moral, efficiency, and profitability.  Gostick and Elton also share  eight simple ways managers can show employees they are valued . Then, they supplement their insights and advice with stories of how many of today’s most successful leaders successfully incorporated gratitude into their leadership styles.  Awhile back, the authors answered this question for me:  Question : Why is it more important than ever to express gratitude? And how best should a leader do that?  Gostick and Elton : “Our research shows there is a staggering gratitude deficit in the work world, especially when times get tough. People are less likely to express gratitude at work than anyplace else. And yet expressions of gratitude for employees’ ef

10 Ways To Be An Effective Leader

Here are 10 behaviors, techniques and tips you can use to be an effective leader: Respond to questions quickly and fully. Take an interest in your employees and their personal milestone events. Give feedback in a timely manner and make it individualized and specific. Be willing to change your decisions. End every meeting with a follow-up To Do list. Support mentoring -- both informal and formal. Don't delay tough decisions. Do annual written performance appraisals. Explain how a change will affect employee's feelings before, during and after the change is implemented. Have face-to-face interaction as often as possible.

Elevating The Human Experience In The Workplace

A recent Deloitte quantitative survey led by  Amelia Dunlop  of 6,000 people in the US revealed that 84% of respondents said they do their best work then they feel worthy. And nine out of 10 people surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that it matters to them to feel worthy. Yet, five out of 10 indicated that they sometimes, often, or always struggle to feel worthy.   It’s this last finding in particular that presents a real challenge in the workplace. Dunlop, author of the book,  Elevating The Human Experience , explains that all too often, “Work is not only a place where we are missing inherent worth with systems that do not recognize the worthiness of all humans, but also a place that actively obscures our efforts to see ourselves as worthy because we are constantly reminded of, and competing, for our relative extrinsic worth in the form of praise, promotion, and raises.”   Dunlop’s book is for anyone who knows what it is like to struggle to feel loved and worthy when showing up at wor

Leadership Books To Read This Summer