August, 2015

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Sarcasm is Not a Leadership Competency

Let's Grow Leaders

I’m not sure why so many people in positions of power think sarcasm is a leadership competency. Sure a quick wit, used well, can energize the team and lighten the load. But a sarcastic remark meant to belittle those who don’t dare fight back diminishes confidence, degrades trust, and leaves folks looking for the nearest escape route. In fact, an audience member asked me again last week (anonymously through my polling app) , “Can you talk about the danger of sarcasm?

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7 Skills for Becoming An Emotionally Intelligent Leader

General Leadership

GeneralLeadership.com and the General Leadership Foundation bring Leadership Advice from America's Most Trusted Leaders to You! Read more at [link]. “If your emotional abilities aren’t in hand, if you don’t have self-awareness, if you are not able to manage your distressing emotions, if you can’t have empathy and have effective relationships, then no matter how smart you are, you are not going to get very far.”.

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5 Approaches To Connecting Your People

Lead Change Blog

Have you ever noticed how people tend to herd into groups and stay in those groups? Do you notice that most people “seek their own” in your organization and stay in those comfortable groups? Have you ever been frustrated that your people don’t seem to cross the aisle, or the building, and readily build relationships among each other? Getting your folks integrated with each other is a challenge for most leaders.

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A Love Song In 1,000 Verses: My Ode To Leadership….And Life

Terry Starbucker

On December 25, 2005, it started this way : Hello blogland, starbucker here – I figured that Christmas Day was the best time as ever to start doing this. Yes, I always tend to look at the glass as “half full” – call me an eternal optimist, call me a fool, but I find it’s the best way to live one’s life with the least amount of angst. I hate angst. Now I wish I could always see the bright side of everything, but hey, that’s why I need to blog – to share perspectives and learn from other experienc

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Reduce Bias in Hiring: Structured Interview Questions for Employers

Structured interview questions are a valuable tool for reducing bias in hiring. They help: Ensure all candidates are asked the same questions in the same way Level the playing field so all candidates have a fair chance of being successful Improve credibility, reliability, and validity Download the guide to get the most out of your interview questions!

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To Connect With Others, Don’t Interrupt

Michael Lee Stallard

#97 Give People Time to Finish Speaking Before You Begin. Make sure there is a pause in the conversation so that you don’t cut someone off from what they were trying to communicate. Don’t interrupt! This is the ninety-seventh post in our series entitled “100 Ways to Connect.” The series highlights language, attitudes and behaviors that help you connect with others.

Tips 277
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So You Want to Be a Leader? You Better Find a Mentor

Great Leadership By Dan

Guest post by Nigel Dessau: I have never met anyone who was successful in life who did not have at least one mentor. Having good mentors indicates that you have a great network—something every 21st century executive and leader should have. However, finding the right mentor can be a challenge. A few years ago, I worked for a company that was acquired by Sun Microsystems.

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Three Critical Questions for Strategic Planning

General Leadership

GeneralLeadership.com and the General Leadership Foundation bring Leadership Advice from America's Most Trusted Leaders to You! Read more at [link]. Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. Henry Ford. As a freshman engineering student, I remember vividly the day my professor announced we needed to know the answer before we performed the calculations.

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9 Tips for Creating a Positive Change in Your Culture

Lead Change Blog

Many of the organizations that I have worked in this year are involved in dramatic change. They are doing more to meet the increasing demands of customers in order to compete with companies within their industry. They are implementing new productivity standards, causing them to measure more effectively the behaviors of their employees and the return on investment for the implementation of newly defined competencies.

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The Real Secret of Life

Terry Starbucker

“I never want to grow up.” – Terry “Starbucker” St. Marie, August 3, 2008. This is the second in a series of my 3 favorite posts over the past 9+ years, in anticipation of my 1,000th (!) post coming up on August 23rd. As always, I’m eternally grateful that you’re here today to read this post and join my More Human Leadership journey.

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Treat People as Partners

Michael Lee Stallard

#96 Treat People as Partners. Treat people as equals. Never speak down to anyone or intentionally ignore him or her. This is the ninety-sixth post in our series entitled “100 Ways to Connect.” The series highlights language, attitudes and behaviors that help you connect with others. Although the language, attitudes and behaviors focus on application in the workplace, you will see that they also apply to your relationships at home and in the community.

Licensing 272
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How to Stay Competitive in the Evolving State of Martech

Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr

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Please Vote for Modern Servant Leader Today!

Modern Servant Leader

Can I get 1 minute of your time? I’ve been running this blog to advocate servant leadership adoption and digital media action, for free, since 2008. In all that time, I never asked a favor. Today though, I have a favor to ask. It should only take a minute of your time. I want to continue spreading servant leadership adoption and digital media action, to help others succeed.

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How to Get Employees to Care About Your Company

Let's Grow Leaders

Great commercials, strong PR, a brilliant social media strategy all warrant effort when building your company’s reputation. But there’s no better PR than an army of loyal employees living and breathing your brand. You know the type– folks with enthusiasm bursting from their veins–talking up your products and services with their friends at every bar, baptism and bat mitzvah they attend. “No, I’m telling you this works, I’ve seen it from the inside!

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How Do You Listen as a Leader?

General Leadership

GeneralLeadership.com and the General Leadership Foundation bring Leadership Advice from America's Most Trusted Leaders to You! Read more at [link]. “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” Winston Churchill. How do you listen as a leader? Have you ever really spent much time as a leader thinking about how you listen?

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Leading Change Requires Attitude Adjustments

Lead Change Blog

My first job as a manager ended up being much more of a lesson than I had hoped. My prior leadership experience was limited to my fraternity or the Jaycees. In my jobs, I had only had 2 or 3 bosses by the time I became a boss so I made things up as I went. Many of the things I made up were mistakes. The trucking business experiences high turnover, but ours was even high for the industry.

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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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Leaders Should Be (More) Human Too: In Praise of Touchy-Feely

Terry Starbucker

This is the last in a series of my 3 favorite posts over the past 9+ years, in anticipation of my 1,000th (!) post coming up next Sunday, on August 23rd. I’m so grateful you’re here reading this today, and I hope you’ll join me again next week to help me celebrate this milestone (to make it easier for you please be my guest to sign up for email delivery of my posts in the box on the right side bar).

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Read a Book With Your Team Quarterly

Michael Lee Stallard

#99 Read a Book Together Quarterly. Periodically select a business book for your direct reports or team members to read together. Consider reading one book every quarter. Meet to identify ideas from the book that you can implement. Some examples include The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace , Pour Your Heart Into It , and It’s Not About the Coffee.

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Let’s Not Confuse Hard Work With Meaningful Work

Tanveer Naseer

The following is a guest piece by fellow author Dan Ward. Like most authors, I get a lot of questions about my books. One question I struggle to answer is “Was the book hard to write?” On the one hand, writing my books required considerable time and effort. Researching, drafting, editing, re-editing and then re-re-editing all involve a certain amount of mental exertion and can get taxing after a while.

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7 Questions to Improve Your Team’s Communication

Let's Grow Leaders

Nothing will improve your team’s productivity faster than better communication. Having a deliberate process and cadence of communication will save hours of lost time, productivity and drama. If you don’t have a formal plan, or haven’t spoken with your team recently about how communication is going, it’s worth taking the time to communicate about communication.

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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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Know Your Enemies! (Of Learning, That Is…)

General Leadership

GeneralLeadership.com and the General Leadership Foundation bring Leadership Advice from America's Most Trusted Leaders to You! Read more at [link]. “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”. John F. Kennedy. In his TED talk from February 2011 Retired Army General Stanley McChrystal talks about how after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 he had to become a different leader, a leader who in some ways had to completely relearn how he did things.

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Want Better Performance? Clear the Path!

Lead Change Blog

I’m a working musician on the side. I’ve been playing music professionally since the early ’70’s. It is difficult to make a living in music, as much today as it was forty years ago. The band I’m in here in Denver has been together since 2006. It’s a team of skilled musicians with shared values and common goals. We all have day jobs – but we commit a great deal of time and energy to this band.

Audience 279
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Leadership – What’s Love Got To Do With it?

Terry Starbucker

In anticipation of my 1,000th post coming up on August 23rd, I wanted to share a few of my favorites over the past 10 years. These posts go to the core of my principles of More Human leadership, as well as take a peek into my heart and soul. That’s been the nature of this blog – documenting a personal journey that has revealed itself little by little, and week after week.

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Hold “Stop-Start-Continue” Meetings With Your Team

Michael Lee Stallard

#100 Begin “Stop-Start-Continue” Meetings. Periodically hold “stop-start-continue” meetings to review your team’s activities. During these meetings, identify the activities your team should start that you are not presently doing, current activities that your team should stop doing, and activities that your team should continue doing. “Stop-start-continue” meetings give your team an opportunity to voice their thoughts on projects and enhance connection.

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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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The (Slightly Terrifying) Freedom of Being a Female Entrepreneur

Women on Business

We've Moved! Update your Reader Now. This feed has moved to: [link] If you haven't already done so, update your reader now with this changed subscription address to get your latest updates from us. [link].

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How to Tell a Great Story

Let's Grow Leaders

Have you ever noticed how much easier is to remember someone’s point when they wrap a story around it? So why do so many leaders stick with dry powerpoint presentations and yawner “motivational” pep talks when they could tell a story. How could you better use stories to galvanize your team toward stronger results? This Summer, I’ve trained hundreds of people on my STORIES model of impactful communication.

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Leaders Lead – Take Charge and Move Out

General Leadership

GeneralLeadership.com and the General Leadership Foundation bring Leadership Advice from America's Most Trusted Leaders to You! Read more at [link]. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. “When in command: command.” – Admiral Chester Nimitz. If being a leader means anything, it means taking charge and executing the responsibility others gave you.

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Trust From The Inside Out

Lead Change Blog

I have had a challenging time with my left eye over the last fourteen months. It started with a torn retina that became a detached retina, which was immediately operated on, until finally a cataract developed in my left lens as a result of the retina surgery. For over a year my vision has been impaired. The cataract, first diagnosed in March, developed so fast that almost every fifteen days I could tell of negative changes in my vision.

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Tough Comp Conversations: A Guide For Doing Them Right

Speaker: Rusty Lindquist, VP Strategic HR Insights at Bamboo HR

Compensation can be tricky, few things carry as much emotional weight as comp. And with the increased transparency in the market, combined with our collective propensity to rate ourselves against others, the frequency of these very difficult conversations is increasing. In this webinar, we will deconstruct some of the psychology around comp. We’ll take an analytic look at comp’s role in the employee experience, and then we’ll get really tactical with guidance on very specific compensation conver

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The top 10 things you’re resisting that will make you a better leader

Persuasive Powerhouse

There are certain patterns of resistance I’ve noticed in the leaders I’ve worked with that are really good at their craft – but have the potential to be great. These behaviors that leaders resist can increase their potential to lead at the top of their game. Perhaps as you read through the list, you’ll notice some of your own resistance poking through as you tell yourself: “I don’t have time.” “It’s not as important as meeting our goals.” 

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Organizational Transformation Requires Leadership at all Levels

Great Leadership By Dan

Guest post from Satish P. Subramanian The Business Challenge The low success rate in organizational transformation and the organizational inability to positively move the dial on the success rate over the years is a strategic problem. Organizational transformation is the complex endeavor of redesigning the organization which significantly impacts all or most aspects of the business.

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How To Work Less and Accomplish More

Women on Business

We've Moved! Update your Reader Now. This feed has moved to: [link] If you haven't already done so, update your reader now with this changed subscription address to get your latest updates from us. [link].

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Experts Share Thoughts on Communication: A Frontline Festival

Let's Grow Leaders

Welcome back to the Let’s Grow Leaders Frontline Festival. Our August Festival is all about communication. Thanks to Joy and Tom Guthrie of Vizwerx Group for the great pic and to all our contributors! Next month’s Festival is all about Building Effective Peer Relationships. New contributors welcome. Refining Your Personal Communication Style.

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The HR Leader’s Survival Guide

HR leaders drowning in paperwork struggle to meet C-suite's strategic expectations. Burnout and high turnover plague the field, with 95% feeling overwhelmed. This guide explores how the right tools can free HR from admin tasks and empower them to become the strategic leaders they’re meant to be.