July, 2015

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5 Big Rules For Productive Conference Calls

Let's Grow Leaders

It’s easy to fool ourselves into the illusion that “just having a conference call,” instead of a face-to-face meeting or one-on-one, will save time. In fact, it’s that kind of thinking that leaves many managers moving from call to call with little time to connect with their team. In an attempt to salvage some productivity in their day, they put the phone on mute and try to get real work done at the same time—and don’t pay close attention to much as a result.

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A Legacy that Matters

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 you want to leave a legacy, invest in people, and encourage those you develop to pass on everything they learn from you to others who will do the same. – John Maxwell. A leader owes it to his organization to lead in a way that will benefit the organization in the future.

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3 Insights About Stress Every Leader Should Know

Michael Lee Stallard

Who experiences greater levels of stress: non-leaders or the boss? When I ask this question while teaching workshops on leadership, nearly all the bosses in the room respond that they are the ones under greater stress. They’re wrong. Hard data makes it clear that non-leaders experience greater stress and in many instances it has a negative effect on their performance.

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A Critical Team Building Mistake to Avoid At All Costs

Lead Change Blog

Please Don’t Do This. Last week I spoke with a company executive who said, “People are upset, can you help us with some team-building?” I replied, “Probably not.” He looked at me with a combination of shock and amusement – he wasn’t used to trainers or consultants telling him they didn’t want his money. “Okay, tell me why you won’t help us?

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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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15 Steps To Great Leadership (The More Human Way)

Terry Starbucker

Frank sat back, shook his head, and looked me straight in the eyes. “How did you do this? I mean, to get from where you started to where you ended up must have been a hell of a story.”. It was May of 2010. We had just finished a review of one of our operating centers in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Our company was up for sale, and Frank was with a group representing one of the opening bidders getting a chance to really “kick the tires”.

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Six Things Great Leadership Teams Do

Great Leadership By Dan

Guest post from regular contributor S. Chris Edmonds : When I consult with executives on crafting a high performance, values-aligned culture, one of the first things I do is to examine the effectiveness of their leadership team. Whatever that team is called - an executive team, a leadership team, a management team, etc. - that core team must model, reinforce, coach, and drive their desired culture.

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Three Conversations of 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]. “A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That’s why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet.” Truman Capote. At its core, leadership is about conversations.

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Is There a Place for Love in Leadership?

Michael Lee Stallard

“A company is stronger if bound by love than by fear.” – Herb Kelleher, cofounder of Southwest Airlines. When Kip Tindell, CEO of The Container Store, first heard Herb Kelleher’s words more than 40 years ago he was, in his own words, “completely taken by it.” In Tindell’s excellent book, Uncontainable , he describes how he and his leadership team went on to shape The Container Store’s outstanding “employee first” culture in ways that reflect love.

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How Conflict Makes Us Better

Lead Change Blog

Conflict. The very word sends negative and fearful thoughts through even the most hardy leaders. None of us like conflict. If we had our way, each one of us would steer away from it and navigate towards the less painful, smoother waters. However, where would any one of us be if we avoided conflict altogether? We must admit that while uncomfortable, and even painful, conflict helps us become better leaders.

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The 6 Most Effective Lessons For The On-The-Job Leadership Teacher

Terry Starbucker

I always thought it was strange how great leadership was always thought to be vitally important to a businesses success, but yet it was quite often the least discussed thing in the meeting rooms, and the budget money allocated to “leadership training” was always limited (or the first thing to get cut back). Why is this the case? It’s a question that has banged around in my head for a long time.

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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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Using the Billboard Effect to Develop and Obtain Employee Buy In on the Leader’s Vision

Great Leadership By Dan

Guest post from Jeff Wolf: Warren Bennis, acclaimed scholar, author and advisor to corporation presidents said "Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality." Well expressed, but it's easier said than done. What's needed are practical steps to develop a communicable vision coupled with practical steps to achieve employee buy in. Notice that I emphasized the word practical, because unless the leader's vision is easy to understand, believable and clearly stated, even the most imagin

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Effective Delegation: An Easy to Use Tool

Let's Grow Leaders

When you’re overwhelmed, stressed, and busy, you know the natural answer is to delegate more. But there’s a risk. When you’re moving fast it’s wasy to get sloppy or overbearing in your delegation: ( see 3 delegation mistakes you don’t have to make). That’s why I’ve created this easy checklist for you to use the next time your delegating an important task.

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About Saying “I Love You”

General Leadership

GeneralLeadership.com and the General Leadership Foundation bring Leadership Advice from America's Most Trusted Leaders to You! Read more at [link]. “ Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love. “ Mother Theresa. I think the story goes like this: Wife chides husband, “You never tell me you love me; you never say “I love you.” Husband replies, “What are you talking about?

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Create a Book to Celebrate Your Workplace Culture

Michael Lee Stallard

#95 Create a Book to Celebrate Your Workplace Culture. Create a book of employees’ stories or articles about living out the core values of your organization. Two excellent examples are Zappos’ Culture Book and Smile Guide: Employee Perspectives on Culture, Loyalty and Profit, which is about The Beryl Companies. You can read a review of Smile Guide by Bob Morris on ConnectionCulture.com.

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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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5 Surefire Ways to Make Conflict Worse

Lead Change Blog

There are opportunities every day to engage in some form of conflict. Someone cuts you off while driving. The customer service rep on the phone gives you the runaround. Your coworker undermines you in a meeting. A friend lets you down on a promise made. Want to de-escalate conflict? Don’t do these things. For some reason it is easier for me to describe what to avoid, rather than how to creatively deal with conflict.

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Why Great Leadership Can Always Use More Cowbell

Terry Starbucker

Note: This is the 3rd installment of excerpts from my book manuscript of “More Human: A Journey To The Heart Of Great Leadership” The first installment is here , and the second here. . It’s a story about how a fun employee recognition program pulled a team closer together in their quest to go from good to great, building and cementing a solid foundation of pride, respect, trust and goodwill.

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11 Leadership Lessons And Quotes From Minions

Joseph Lalonde

T his weekend saw the lovable, banana shaped evildoers from Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2 return to the big screen. In Minions, we get to see the semi-origins story of the bad guys you want to love, and maybe eat (they do look like bananas after all). The Minions can’t seem to keep a master. Time after time, we see the Minions accidentally offing the one who’s supposed to be leading the tribe of yellow guys.

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Leading through Influence: A Frontline Festival

Let's Grow Leaders

Welcome back to the Let’s Grow Leaders Frontline Festival. Our July Festival is all about leading through influence. 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 Effective Communication. New contributors welcome. Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seeds of either success or failure in the mind of another. – Napoleon Hill.

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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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Ten Leadership Lessons From A Commanding General

General Leadership

GeneralLeadership.com and the General Leadership Foundation bring Leadership Advice from America's Most Trusted Leaders to You! Read more at [link]. This article was originally published on Huffington Post by Vala Afshar in prep for an interview with our Co-Founder and Senior Curator , Brigadier General John Michel. You can join Vala and Michael Krigsman every Friday at 3PM EST as they host CXOTalk.

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Fort Worth’s Bike Riding Mayor Betsy Price Steers the City

Michael Lee Stallard

Texans know every herd follows a lead steer. On several days throughout the year, you can see a herd in the old cow town of Fort Worth, Texas, a city of approximately 800,000 people, following its lead steer. The surprise, however, is that this herd is on bicycles and its lead steer is their mayor, Betsy Price. Mayor Betsy Price mounts her bike each summer to lead “rolling town hall meetings.

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Organizational Alignment is the Key to Managing Change

Lead Change Blog

There are two types of organizational change: change that is mandated and change that is proactive. The latter is easier and can be less emotional than the former, yet the lines often blur between the two – frequently because proactive change launched by one group is perceived as mandated change by another. Thus, both types take preparation and skillful execution if they are going to produce positive results.

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4 Moves Smart Leaders Make to Get Better Team Results

Great Leadership By Dan

Guest post by Victor Prince : Teams at work are like portfolios of people with different skills and performance patterns. Like smart investment managers, smart people managers figure out how to shift their investment of time and energy from some parts of their portfolio so they can invest more in other parts where there is more potential for improvement.

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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 Complete List of Toxic Behaviors that Poison Teams

Leadership Freak

Toxic behaviors connected to communication: Assume silence is agreement. Overstate teammate’s opinions and question their motives. Sweep difficult topics under the carpet. Speak for others.

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How to Motivate Yourself

Let's Grow Leaders

I had just finished reviewing the syllabus with my Masters level leadership class, and asked my typical follow-up question. “What else would you like to cover?” Lin raised her hand and asked sincerely, “Professor, you are so passionate about what you do, it’s oozing out of you. How do we motivate ourselves to feel like that?” Oh boy, a challenge.

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Happy Independence Day

General Leadership

GeneralLeadership.com and the General Leadership Foundation bring Leadership Advice from America's Most Trusted Leaders to You! Read more at [link]. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” When the Second Continental Congress voted to approve a resolution of independence declaring the United States independent from King G

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Be Sensitive in How You Describe Colleagues

Michael Lee Stallard

#93 Be Sensitive in How You Describe Colleagues. Saying this is “my employee” or “one of my people” is disconnecting. Refer to people as “a colleague” instead. This is the ninety-third 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.

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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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This is the Most Important Lesson You Will Learn Today

Lead Change Blog

We’ve moved through the Information Age at light speed over the last few years, and find ourselves lost in the deep space of the Information Overload Age! Knowledge from the ancient thinkers, wisdom from our founding fathers and the most current insights from some of the best minds of the world are at our fingertips. A simple Google search turns up hundreds of thousands of answers to the very same question.

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What Neuroscience Tells Leaders to Pay Attention to

Great Leadership By Dan

G uest post from Amy Brann : The best leaders wear many hats including a Coaching one at times. A leader can help people to grow and develop. Neuroscience may say the leader, in their Coaching role, helps facilitate self-directed neuroplasticity. We’ll explore what this means shortly. There are some similarities between a leader’s overall role and a leader in a Coaching role.

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4 Tips to Create a Productive Office Space

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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To All the (Jerky) Managers I’ve Known Before

Let's Grow Leaders

I had asked the group to share their teachable point of view on leadership in the form of a TEDdy Talk (e.g. learn to improve your speaking Karin Hurt style). Ultimately everyone would have their 5 minutes of TEDdy Talk fame, but tonight we were just practicing “Wow” openings. “Carrie,” who hadn’t said a heck of a lot before this, stood up and gave the most impassioned imitation of a horrible boss I’ve ever heard– as her “wow” opener. “

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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.