In this article, Jared Simmons shares useful advice that can help you deal with difficult conversations at work. At some point in your career, you’ll be faced with the need to have a tough conversation with a colleague, boss, or team member. There are countless guides on how to master these conversations, what to do and what not to do. Here are some things I try to keep in mind as I prepare to have a tough conversation, or suddenly…

Peter Costa offers his perspective on gender and leadership. There are mountains of research on the importance of diversity in building high-performing organizations. There is at least as much insight on the nature of leadership, including that there is no one “right” leadership style. The most effective leaders are true to themselves, their strengths, and their values. At the same time, different situations call for different leadership styles. Are these conflicting ideas? Perhaps, but if the current situation shows us…

Ben Dattner co-wrote this article that explains why being a great second in command requires emotional intelligence. In 1959, John French and Bertram Raven, social psychologists, published their “Five Bases of Power” model, which has been highly influential in social and organizational psychology ever since. The five kinds of power they delineated included the ability to reward or punish, power derived from one’s rank or role, expert power (which is a function of knowledge and expertise), and what they termed…

Bernie Heine offers advice on balancing analytical and emotional intelligence. Our Neural Networks Don’t Have to be Rivals. In times like these, we are all stressed, fearful, and worried for ourselves and others. Our people are concerned about their jobs and providing for their families. More globally, we are all concerned about the nation’s health and well-being. As a manager, you must persevere in managing budgets, sales targets, and the thousands of other decisions that keep your organization alive. All…

  Ravi Rao recently co-hosted a webinar with Angela Thompson for the Columbus Retail Roundtable where they discussed the importance of emotional intelligence at all levels of the corporate arena. I have a very weird background. Essentially, three chapters.  Chapter one was a decade spent in a science environment at Johns Hopkins and then Harvard, studying the brain, studying the science stuff of how the brain works, starting at the kind of individual brain cell, the neuron level up through…

  Ravi Rao was recently interviewed on the podcast The Why Word where he explains how businesses can become emotionally healthier places to work, and reap the benefits of a happier, motivated, and more productive workforce. Humans survive because we care about each other, because we are connected to each other, because we are so aware of each other. The challenge with something like the COVID virus, and SARS, too, is that we have even diminished the, if you will,…

  Robyn M. Bolton explains why it’s important to cultivate emotional intelligence and move out of a ‘bad neighborhood.’ ‘If you spend a lot of time in your own head, you’re spending time in a bad neighborhood.’ I was deep in a bit of worry and self-doubt when my friend uttered that sentence. Immediately, my mind conjured an image of falling down building, boarded up doors and windows, overgrown yards, and empty streets (basically downtown Cleveland in the 1980s). ‘Man,…

This post from Jeremy Greenberg’s company blog identifies five lessons that CEOs can learn from Howard Stern. Howard Stern has been one of the most controversial entertainers since he hosted his first radio show over 40 years ago. Love him or hate him, he has enjoyed a successful career thus far – building his brand into an empire worth over $600 million as well as transforming the landscape of terrestrial and satellite radio. Stern’s success can teach us a lot…