February, 2025

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Sudden layoff: How Do I Help My Friend Who Just Lost Their Job?

Let's Grow Leaders

Practical Ways to Show Up as a Human-Centered Supporter after a Sudden Layoff Your friend just lost their job in a sudden layoff. They’re blindsided–concerned for themselves and the mission. Maybe its tied to recent government turbulence or related downstream impacts. Or a corporate shake-up. Either way, theyre reeling, and youre wondering how to help without overstepping or offering a bunch of empty clichs.

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Think This, Not That

Leading Blog

O UR mindset can either work for us or against us. A mind full of false narrativesfalse beliefswill keep us from growing into our potential. Unchallenged, these negative beliefs will become the soundtrack we live by and keep us from moving in the direction of our best selves and change the outcome of our lives. Josh Axe identifies in Think This, Not That twelve mental barriers that obstruct personal growth and hinder success.

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Stop Asking Why: Ten ‘What’ Questions Senior Leaders Can Use to Drive Alignment

Next Level Blog

When youre a senior executive, your success depends on influencing, aligning, and mobilizing others toward strategic goals. Yet, even at the highest levels, misalignment often arises due to differing motivations. How well do you truly understand the priorities driving your peers, board members, or senior team? And are your assumptions accurate? The best way to understand whats motivating someone is to engage them in a conversation that surfaces their goals, their ambitions, and their fears.

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The Secret of Enthusiasm is Short-Term Commitments

Leadership Freak

Many leaders weaken decision-making by prioritizing agreement over commitments. Over-concern about agreement sabotages decision-making. In some situations, people dont commit until they agree 100%. When thats true, change your process and expect everyone to commit once decisions are made. Those who aren't committed find fault. Those who are committed find a way.

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8 Pillars of Leadership Development

Great leadership development is the key to sustainable business growth. Are you ready to design an effective program? HR can use Paycor’s framework to: Set achievable goals. Align employee and company needs. Support different learning styles. Empower the next generation of leaders. Invest in your company’s future with a strong leadership development program.

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The Hidden Leadership Skill That Makes Employees Feel Valued

Tanveer Naseer

When it comes to developing leadership skills, the focus tends to be on strategic thinking, decision-making, and communication skills. But theres one skill that can create a far greater impact on driving organizational growth and innovation. And that skill is the art of mindful listening. Why? Because it sends a.

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Our Human Journey

Leading in Context

By Linda Fisher Thornton The human journey. Were all taking it, but we dont always know where its headed. We cant always see where weve been until later, when we have the long-term perspective and can begin to make sense of the twists and turns weve taken throughout our lives.

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What Can Leaders Learn from Elite Athletes About High-Level Performance?

Leading Blog

W ITH THE SUPER BOWL around the corner, what can business leaders learn from elite athletes about high-level performance? Be like Roger. And Michael. And Simone. And Usain. And many others. Thats key advice for business leaders seeking to improve their impact and excel in a sustainable, long-term way thats good for them and everyone around them. The Roger, in this case, is none other than Roger Federer, the tennis legend considered an exemplar of athleticism and sportsmanship.

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Leading in the Age of Non-Stop VUCA

Next Level Blog

Back in the early days of the COVID pandemic, I wrote a post on how to lead under volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous conditions. You may know those four words by their common acronym VUCA. To be honest, I didnt think that things could get any more VUCA than they were during the pandemic. Im beginning to think I was wrong about that. Practically every week over the past year theres been a new breakthrough or application in the field of artificial intelligence.

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How to Get People to Do What You Ask (Influence Without Authority)

Rich Gee Group

Listen to the audio Listen, I get it: trying to get someone to do what you need - when theyre higher up than you or not even in your department - can feel like youre yelling into a void, especially if they talk down to you. Or worse, if they brush you off like youre not worth their time. Ive been there, and it can be frustrating as hell. But heres the thing: influence isnt all about titles.

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Trust And Leadership: 4 Proven Practices To Inspire High-Performing Teams

Tanveer Naseer

One of the highlights of hosting my “Leadership Biz Cafe” podcast has been the chance to interview Stephen M.R. Covey twice, exploring how successful leaders develop trust within their organizations.

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The Hidden Skills That Separate Good Leaders from Great Ones

Speaker: Chandra McCormack, CPA, MBA, NACD.DC

Technical degrees might open doors—but it’s the soft skills that keep them open. In the face of disruption, evolving workplace dynamics, and rising expectations of leadership, soft skills like communication, emotional intelligence, and presence have become core business essentials—not nice-to-haves. Inspired by stories from her father coupled with her own career journey, seasoned executive Chandra McCormack breaks down how to lead with impact, connect with purpose, and cultivate a workplace cult

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The Outsider Advantage: How Leaders Like Medtronic’s CFO Are Rewriting the Rules of Success

N2Growth Blog

When Fortune highlighted Medtronics appointment of Thierry Piton as CFO, it wasnt just a leadership hiring updateit was a referendum on modern leadership. As N2Growths CEO with over 25 years in the industry, having placed and consulted private and public organizations across the globe ranging from early-stage start-ups and NGOs, to Fortune 100 companies and top-tier higher educational institutions, Ive long argued that clinging to industry tenure as the gold standard for executives is like using

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Not My Tornado: How to Stop Workplace Distractions from Stealing Your Focus

Let's Grow Leaders

4 Workplace Distraction Traps Keeping You Swirling Ever feel like your workday is a full-blown tornado of workplace distractionsemails flying in, urgent requests swirling around, and meetings popping up like unexpected hail? Just when you think youve got a handle on things, another task comes spinning your way. Distractions at work are everywhere, and if you dont take control, youll spend your day chasing debris instead of making real progress.

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7 Qualities that Drive High-Impact Teams

Leading Blog

O RGANIZATIONAL teams determine overall performance, shape culture, drive growth, and deliver results or not. Todays teams face a new reality. Never before have they encountered the changes and challenges brought on them by remote, hybrid, and in-person work environments. Add in the emergence of AI and countless other workforce and societal trends, and its apparent that yesterdays approaches no longer apply to todays realities.

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Mindset or Competency: Which is More Important?

Leading in Context

By Linda Fisher Thornton This post will explore the interesting relationship between leadership mindset and competency. Which is most important? What happens to our leadership capability when our mindset is out of date? How we think about something impacts what we do about it. Nick Petrie, Center For Creative Leadership, writes inVertical Leadership Development Part Ithat In terms of leadership, the stage from which you are thinking and acting matters a lot.

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State of AI in Sales & Marketing 2025

AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.

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Older Executives: Keep Your Eyes Wide Open

Rich Gee Group

Listen to the interview. Lets talk reality here. Youve been at the same company for 15, 20, maybe 25 years. Thats awesome, right? Youve worked your way upclimbed each rung of the ladder through decades of promotions, salary bumps, cost-of-living increases, and a ton of sweat equity. But heres the cold, hard truth: youre not bulletproof. You might be a walking target.

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Aligning Your Organization’s Goals With Your Noble Purpose: The Missing Leadership Link

Tanveer Naseer

Why are some organizations able to thrive during periods of uncertainty while others struggle to find firmer footing? While its easy to assume it has to do with something distinctive about their product or service offering, the truth is that its something far more fundamental. While we all understand that.

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How to Make Recognition More Meaningful by Adding Affirmation to Your Appreciation

Great Results Team Building

Appreciation is one of the most powerful tools a leader can use to build a winning team. In fact, Harvard Business Review reported that 69% of employees say they would work harder if they felt their efforts were better recognized. And Terryberry found that 92% of workers are more likely to repeat a specific action after receiving recognition for it.

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How to Thrive When Your Boss is Disengaged

Let's Grow Leaders

You Care. Your Boss Doesn’t (Or So It Seems). What to Do Next With a Disengaged Boss Youre giving it your all. Youre solving problems, driving results, making things happen. But your boss? Theyre off in another world. It could be your boss is disengaged. Or, maybe they are super engaged, just not on your MITs (most important things). Maybe theyre laser-focused on a massive restructuring.

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5 Ways to Improve DE&I in the Workplace

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are critical for an organization’s success. And companies that take bold action to help ensure an inclusive workplace will win every time. Discover how your company can create a culture that celebrates DE&I while achieving higher revenue and growth.

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8 Principles to Get You to Great

Leading Blog

H OW do successful people think? The key to doing well is thinking well. Its a way of being in the world. Becoming great means making the hard choices necessary to get you there. Performance coach Doug Hirschhorn advances eight principles in 8 Ways to Great that direct the decisions of top performers. Principle #1: Find Your Why? How questions bring up negative thoughts and inadequacies.

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Unethical Thinking Leads to Unethical Leadership

Leading in Context

By Linda Fisher Thornton As humans, we are flawed thinkers who easily fall victim to biases and traps. The biases and traps we so easily fall into reshape our thinking in ways that can lead us to make bad decisions. As you review the list of leadership traps below, think about how each can lead to unethical thinking and actions.

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Consensus Poisons Dynamic Options

Leadership Freak

Never make decisions until theres disagreement. A camel is a horse designed by consensus. Consensus distills dynamic options into dull decisions. Complex situations have many solutions. People arent thinking when everyone agrees. Consensus empowers obstructionists. You havent found the best decision when everyone agrees. You found the easiest decision.

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Understanding Founder Mode As An Employee: How to Thrive in a Founder-Led Startup

Sales Wolf Blog

Are you experiencing Founder Mode? If you work for a founder-led company, it is almost a certainty that you are experiencing Founder Mode that intense, high-stakes mindset where the person at the top is laser-focused on scaling, optimizing, and eliminating roadblocks. Founder Mode manifests through a relentless push toward excellence, and if you do not understand how to operate in this environment, you will struggle.

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No Ego: How Leaders Can Cut the Cost of Drama, End Entitlement and Drive Big Results

Speaker: Cy Wakeman, M.S., CSP, President, Reality-Based Leadership

Most HR leadership philosophies are grounded in two completely faulty assumptions — “change is hard” and “engagement drives results.” Those beliefs have inspired expensive attempts to keep change from being disruptive to employees. What these engagement programs actually do is create and reinforce feelings of victim-hood and leave employees unprepared to adapt to real changes that are necessary for the health and profitability of their enterprises.

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Two Unexpected Ways to END Your Next Meeting That Engage and Grow Your Team

Great Results Team Building

Most meetings are relatively joyless experiences They become routine checklists and overlong discussions that end in a whimper. But team meetings dont have to be this way. They can (and SHOULD) be culture-building experiences that inspire action, creativity, and growth. Your team gatherings are a prime opportunity to foster collaboration and engagement, especially if you rethink how they end.

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Echo Effect: The Secret to Giving (and Getting) Better Feedback

Let's Grow Leaders

How to Communicate Like a BossWith a Little Help from Your Pod Whales have a pretty cool way of navigating their world. They use echolocationsending out sound waves, listening to the echoes, and adjusting based on what they hear. But heres the key: they dont do it alone. They move in pods, supporting and protecting each other. They get better feedback because communication is a team sport.

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Leading Thoughts for February 6, 2025

Leading Blog

I DEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Jonah Sachs on the experts trap: While expertise can make us enormously efficient at playing an established game, it can also make us slower to realize when the game has changed and less able to respond to those changes.

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Leader Mindset And The Ethical Use of Power

Leading in Context

By Linda Fisher Thornton Ethical leaders understand that their role revolves around adding value for others, not for themselves. They are careful to avoid taking advantage of situations for personal gain or for the gain of their colleagues or friends. This other-centered focus keeps them thinking about how what they do will impact those they serve and others in the community.

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Innovation: Five Signs You Might Be Faking It

Every company wants to be a leader in innovation, but how can you tell if your company is really innovating or just going through the motions? See the 5 signs you might be faking innovation and what to do if you are.

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7 Signs Your Leadership Style Is Driving Away Your Best Employees

Lead from Within

The greatest threat to your organization’s success isn’t your competitionit’s your leadership style driving top talent out the door. In my work coaching senior executives, I’ve documented a concerning pattern: leaders often remain blind to the behaviors that prompt their most valuable employees to quietly plan their exits. As I challenge C-suite executives through talent retention transformations, one truth remains constant: leadership behavior, not compensation, determin

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5 Steps to Create Intentional Impact with the IEP Method® by Anese Cavanaugh

Anese Cavanaugh

What kind of impact do you intend to have today? Its one thing to mean well its another to actually create the impact you want. Setting clear intentions (whether for yourself or with your team) saves time, energy, and resources while bringing focus and alignment. You are always making an impact, and you have the power to consciously set an intention for how you want to experience each moment and how you show up for others.

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Big Bet Leadership – Former Amazon Exec John Rossman On Solving Tough Problems & Driving Transformation

Tanveer Naseer

In the face of rapid change and disruption, organizations everywhere find themselves in a race to not only preserve their market share, but discover the next big opportunity that will given them the keys to future growth and innovation. And according to my guest in this episode, that opportunity can.

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Four Dimensions High-Performance Work Teams Invest In and Master

Let's Grow Leaders

High Performance Teams Dont Leave Their Achievement to Chance You know what it’s like when a high performance work team fires on all cylinders. Theres energy, trust, and clarity. You make decisions quickly, everyone shares their insights, and people genuinely enjoy working together. But you also know what it feels like when things are offwhen trust erodes, confusion reigns, and progress slows to a crawl.

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How to Set Better OKRs and Drive Results

Before you can achieve success, you have to define it. Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) give you the framework to do just that. Paycor’s free guide includes a step-by-step process leaders can use to work toward – and achieve – their loftiest business goals.