How to Handle Underperformers on a Team You Inherit

Category Leadership
by Ron Ashkenas
Tuesday, 04 July 2017 15:43

Recently I was talking with a new manager about the team she had inherited. While she thought that most of the team members were doing a good job, she was concerned that one or two people were not pulling their weight. She wasn’t sure what to do about them. She…

Changing Company Culture Requires a Movement, Not a Mandate

Category Leadership
by Bryan Walker & Sarah A. Soule
Friday, 23 June 2017 10:46

Culture is like the wind. It is invisible, yet its effect can be seen and felt. When it is blowing in your direction, it makes for smooth sailing. When it is blowing against you, everything is more difficult. For organizations seeking to become more adaptive and innovative, culture change is…

Emotional Intelligence Has 12 Elements. Which Do You Need to Work On?

Category Leadership
by Daniel Goleman and Richard E. Boyatzis
Tuesday, 06 June 2017 09:26

Esther is a well-liked manager of a small team. Kind and respectful, she is sensitive to the needs of others. She is a problem solver; she tends to see setbacks as opportunities. She’s always engaged and is a source of calm to her colleagues. Her manager feels lucky to have…

How to Get People to Collaborate When You Don’t Control Their Salary

Category Leadership
by Heidi K. Gardner
Friday, 26 May 2017 15:28

Most of us assume that if we want to change people’s behavior, we need to change their incentives. For example, after I published research and advice on collaboration in professional service firms, I heard from a surprising number of people who wrote to ask questions like, “Maybe it’ll work in a partnership, like a law…

Women at the top still face prejudices

Category Leadership
by Susi Astengo
Friday, 19 May 2017 09:22

A new gender revolution is becoming the trending topic of this decade. After many predictions giving women hope that there is an end to the diminished value of women in leadership positions, the right of women to expect equal consideration for equal work is at the forefront of the new…

Being a Strategic Leader Is About Asking the Right Questions

Category Leadership
by Lisa Lai
Tuesday, 16 May 2017 16:30

If you asked the world’s most successful business leaders what it means to “be strategic,” how many different answers do you think you’d get? Consider this number: 115,800,000. It’s the number of unique links returned when I searched online for “strategic leadership.” There’s a good reason for all of those links: Strategy…

How to Deliver Criticism So Employees Pay Attention

Category Leadership
by Deborah Bright
Friday, 12 May 2017 10:39

In my college days I ranked among the top 10 women divers in the United States. I got that far not just because I worked hard — practicing every day in four-to-six-hour sessions — but also because I had an extremely tough coach who routinely offered both caring support and sharp criticism.…

Onboarding Isn’t Enough

Category Leadership
by Mark ByfordMichael D. WatkinsLena Triantogiannis
Wednesday, 10 May 2017 09:23

An executive we’ll call Lucas Jacobsen was ready for a new challenge. So after more than a decade at a Fortune100 diversified manufacturing firm, where he had risen to lead product development in the power systems division, he decided to move on. He accepted an offer to head up R&D at…

Bring in Outside Experts to Mentor Your Team

Category Leadership
by Jon Younger
Tuesday, 02 May 2017 16:30

Organizations depend increasingly on independent, temporary workers, even for mission-critical work. We call this subset of freelancers who do strategic work in companies or nonprofit organizations agile talent. They contribute technical expertise that an organization does not already have to a critical project or initiative. By providing temporary support, they make…

How to Work with Someone Who Isn’t a Team Player

Category Leadership
by Carolyn O'Hara
Wednesday, 26 April 2017 10:11

Do you work with someone who isn’t a team player? Maybe they’re overly focused on completing and promoting their own work. Or they don’t chip in when everyone else is scrambling to meet a deadline or pulling a presentation together. This isn’t simply frustrating; it can affect your entire group’s performance. How do…

40 Years of Research Proves Women Are Better Managers Than Men Because They Tend to Have This Crucial Skill

Category Leadership
by Michael Schneider
Tuesday, 25 April 2017 09:30

To create highly engaged workforces you'll have to focus on these four keys areas: In a Gallup report based on over four decades of research, including the analysis of 27 million employees' responses, female managers outperform their male counterparts when it comes to driving employee engagement. Gallup defines engaged employeesas those who are involved in, enthusiastic about…

What to Do When You’ve Made a Bad Decision

Category Leadership
by Dorie Clark
Monday, 27 March 2017 14:35

It can be painful to admit when we’ve made a bad decision. Maybe you hired the wrong person, or took a job that wasn’t a good fit, or launched a new product line that no one seems to want. It’s human nature to be optimistic and assume that success is…

decision

Cultivating resilience in a company is a good return on investment

Category Leadership
by Susi Astengo
Tuesday, 08 November 2016 10:49

Stress and burnout related to the increasing pace and intensity of work are on the rise globally. A survey of over 100 000 employees across Asia, Europe, Africa, North America and South America found that stress, anxiety and depression in employees accounted for 82.6% of all emotional health cases…

How Microsoft Uses a Growth Mindset to Develop Leaders

Category Leadership
by Carol Dweck & Kathleen Hogan
Thursday, 27 October 2016 07:38

Research shows that managers see far more leadership potential in their employees when their companies adopt a growth mindset — the belief that talent should be developed in everyone, not viewed as a fixed, innate gift that some have and others don’t. But what are those organizations doing to nurture…

develop leaders

Employee stress, burnout on the rise internationally

Category Leadership
by Susi Astengo
Tuesday, 25 October 2016 09:48

Stress and burnout related to the increasing pace and intensity of work are on the rise globally. A survey of over 100 000 employees across Asia, Europe, Africa, North America and South America found that stress, anxiety and depression in employees accounted for 82.6% of all emotional health cases in…

Why CEOs Don’t Want Executive Coaching

Category Leadership
by Douglas LaBier
Tuesday, 27 September 2016 15:07

A recent study by the Stanford Business School found that nearly two-thirds of CEOs don’t receive executive coaching or leadership development. And almost half of senior executives in general aren’t receiving any, either. Paradoxically, nearly 100 percent said they would like coaching to enhance their development, as both Bloomberg BusinessWeek…

To Seize the Future, Create a Leadership Circle

Category Leadership
by Joseph Pistrui
Tuesday, 06 September 2016 09:53

A global pharmaceutical company was about to lose the strategic advantage of several blockbuster drugs coming off patent. In five years, the revenue shortfall would be significant. The senior commercial and scientific directors formed a “circle of leaders” comprised of 23 senior managers who had no meaningful history of collaboration…

What to Do When You Get a New Boss Every Few Months

Category Leadership
by Rebecca Knight
Wednesday, 31 August 2016 11:55

In some workplaces, reorgs and personnel changes are constant, which means that you might be getting a new boss every few months. How do you develop an effective relationship with your manager when the person filling that role keeps shifting? How much of an investment should you make? How can…

How to Know If Someone Is Ready to Be a Manager

Category Leadership
by Anna Ranieri
Wednesday, 24 August 2016 09:42

When you’re hiring a new manager, the stakes are high. You need someone who can effectively lead people, manage a budget, liaise with upper management — and, usually, do it all from day one. But what if a potential hire doesn’t yet have a track record in doing all of…

Listening Is an Overlooked Leadership Tool

Category Leadership
by Melissa Daimler
Wednesday, 17 August 2016 11:29

“What do you think?” I ask this question a lot. My team knows that when they come to me with a question, this is likely the question I’ll come back with first. Sometimes I even preface it with, “I don’t know.” As leaders in our organizations, it’s up to us…