Everyone who accepts a role with responsibility for providing leadership to others must accept the reality that it will eventually be their duty to tell someone, “You can’t work here…
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Expecting the Best: You Get What You Expect to Get
About forty years ago, before anyone had heard or even contemplated the term, “FedEx”, Federal Express marketing guru, Vince Fagan worked with the company’s ad agency to create one of…
There's No Hacking Leadership
One of my new least favorite words (along with “handcrafted” and “curated”, but that’s another post altogether) is the word “hack”. Not in the old sense of a taxi driver…
For Better Leadership Communication, Put a Different Device in Your Hand
The fact that each of us has continually at hand, if not in hand, devices that practically beg to announce our every thought or emotion immediately upon conception represents one of the…
Good Leaders Delegate Into Their Weaknesses
At the risk of adding fuel to a fire that’s burning pretty much out of control already, I will submit that, for those interested in learning, there are a plethora…
Making No Decision is a Decision, and Usually the Wrong One
Last week I spoke for a group of college students in a management course. Corresponding with a chapter of the text currently being studied in class, the subject of my remarks was, “You…
Staffing is More Than Putting Butts in Seats
During my travels as a veteran road warrior, I’ve recently encountered some rather remarkable signs of short-staffing, and employees who were (or should have been) wearing “trainee” badges, or perhaps…
Three Things Leaders Can Do To Earn the Benefit of the Doubt
When I begin a new executive coaching engagement, my due-diligence process usually involves conducting focused interviews with a representative sample of my client’s peers, direct and indirect reports, other close…
Huddles or Hurdles? It's Your Choice
Let’s start with some locker room talk. No, not that kind… This morning, at the Y, I overheard a conversation between two guys who were, like most of the rest of…
Three Ways You Might be Undermining Employee Engagement
We won’t bore you with yet another recitation of Employee Engagement stats. They’re ugly. And it’s costing businesses worldwide more than anyone can afford. Way too few people are excited…