The Boss: How Influential Are You?

Mastering three imperatives is the way managers advance from being basically competent to fully effective. Readers will learn what those imperatives are and what they need to do to exhibit mastery of them–to go from good to great.

Leadership Is a Contact Sport

Developing as a leader is a difficult endeavor. It’s not easy, but I’ve developed a leadership development model that has now proven to work with thousands and thousands of people. This model is just eight steps: Ask, Listen, Think, Thank, Respond, Involve, Change, Follow Up.

John Wooden

Few things provide greater satisfaction or joy than to learn that another feels that something you have said or done has been of help to them. This is especially true when it occurred with no thought of something in return.

Abraham Lincoln

When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say, and two-thirds thinking about him and what he is going to say.

Howard Gardner

I don’t believe behavior change lasts unless people’s minds change voluntarily. I’m interested in leadership that’s overt and mind-changing that’s intentional.

Rick Sidorowicz

High performance is not about telling or selling or dictating or mandating anything. It’s about clarifying, engaging and applying the talent of people. And to do that, your work has to be about having conversations about who you are, what you are up to and what you want to achieve.

John Kotter, Dan Cohen

You need to address anxieties, accept anger, and demonstrate credibility in a very gut-level sense, to evoke faith in the vision.

Are You Your Employees’ Worst Enemy?

Many leaders inadvertently stand in the way of superior performance. Here’s how to avoid the hindrance trap. And to check your own performance, take our interactive survey.

Baldev Seekri

Although methodology, milestones and measurements are extremely important for any journey of achievement, and they have their place in the execution stage of the journey, what is required in the earliest stage of the journey is to make the participants of the journey perceive the worthiness of the task at hand. This is where the true leadership skills are put to a test. How effective … [ Read more ]

Just Ask Leadership: Why Great Managers Always Ask the Right Questions

The smart, aware executive today is doing something different. He or she is asking questions. Almost like leading itself, “asking” has different techniques and styles. Readers will learn which ones are right and the best fit for them in this article.

Breaking Bad Leadership Habits

Leaders have to learn and practice new management techniques to overcome the habits that could be holding them back.

Adding Too Much Value

A classic problem of smart, successful people is Adding Too Much Value. This bad habit can be defined as the overwhelming desire to add our two cents to every discussion. Adding Too Much Value is common among leaders who are used to running the show. It is extremely difficult for successful people to listen to other people tell them something that they already know without … [ Read more ]

Peter Senge

While many executives acknowledge the need for leaders at every level of the organization, they rarely manage the enterprise as if those leaders existed. They fall into a trap that has become embedded in our language; they confuse rank with leadership. The belief that the leaders are only those with executive titles and corner offices serves to reinforce the lack of initiative, enterprise, and entrepreneurship … [ Read more ]

Charles Handy

What do you see as the key attributes that make leaders successful? Passion. They really have to believe in what they do. Ironically, this means they can occasionally believe in very bad things. Most effective leaders, therefore, also have a moral compass. They’ve also got to be quite tough in order to deliver their passion. The effective leaders that I’ve met are a strange combination … [ Read more ]

Charles Handy

The leader’s first job is to be a missionary, to remind people what is special about them and their institutions. Second it is to set up the infrastructure for that to happen—not the superstructure, not to take the actual decisions, but to set the support systems, the people in place. The two go together; it’s no good having a brilliant strategy and structure and great … [ Read more ]

Charles Handy

The interesting thing about organizations is that they can make the assumption that they’re never going to die. And the reason that you stay immortal is you have discovered what’s unique about you. The job of the leader is to work that out. To express it. Very few leaders succeed in doing this. I ask a lot of leaders of organizations what it’s all about. … [ Read more ]

Taylor Bodman

I learned from Peter J. Gomes that people burn out less from a lack of energy than from a lack of a sense of purpose.

Leadership Is More Than the C-Suite

Given the dynamic nature of businesses and markets, one of the most complex and difficult challenges facing every enterprise is selecting, developing, and deploying leaders at all levels to meet current and future needs. To meet this challenge, businesses must understand the demands of leadership at different organizational levels and within different roles. Most successful enterprises require four distinct kinds of leaders.

Marshall Goldsmith

Superstition is merely the confusion of correlation and causality. Any human (in fact, any animal) tends to repeat behavior that is followed by positive reinforcement. The more we achieve, the more reinforcement we get. One of the greatest mistakes of successful leaders is the assumption, “I behave this way, and I achieve results. Therefore, I must achieve results because I behave this way. […] One … [ Read more ]