Marja Fox shares her expertise on building a positive and productive company culture in this blog that identifies the value of having fun at work.  Everyone hates consultants. We are the business world’s equivalent of lawyers. So, introducing yourself to a new set of clients can be a bit fraught; they already hold a host of not-so-flattering opinions about you before you even open your mouth. One such occasion was kicking off a post-merger management project involving two dozen clients,…

Jessica Lackey shares a sage reminder designed to inspire you to keep on walking your talk. A post of yours gets only a handful of likes. Your newsletter list is growing oh so slowly. You get no feedback for a presentation or a meeting you prepared so hard for. And yet…. The clients you are working with start echoing back your words to you. Or your team and peers start mirroring your behavior. Colleagues and friends start picking up books…

The fast pace of business and the constant call for innovation increases burnout and attrition. Fortunately, in this article, Jared Simmons shares ways to keep pace. Everyone wants to innovate, but few can find the right balance. Innovation creates excitement and allows teams to think and grow beyond their current state but is often quickly constrained by parameters like time, budget, and expectations. Because of the kind of whiplash experience this can create, burnout occurs, and fresh ideas eventually die…

Bernie Heine shares three challenges leaders face with the work-from-home situation and how to deal with them. WFH: “Working From Home” is here to stay! We say that because research and our collective 2.5 years of COVID experience clearly demonstrate it. In our family, both of our children are working fully remotely, with no intention of ever commuting to an office. The percentage of the U.S. workforce WFH tripled between 2005 and 2020 but was still only 15% at most….

Susan Drumm shares an episode from her podcast series The Enlightened Executive. In this episode, she interviews Bill Adams on the Leadership Cycle model and how to use it to inspire more and control less. Maybe you recognize yourself or another leader you know in this common but ineffective leadership pattern: A leader wants to scale their organization, so they start working even harder, adding more hours to their workday and everyone else’s, pursuing results at the expense of people….

  Robyn Bolton draws innovation inspiration from the Princess Bride to illustrate how the innovator embarks on a hero’s journey within a corporate setting.   A few weeks ago, I wrote a post using quotes from “Moneyball” (the movie, not the book) to describe the experience of trying to innovate within a corporate setting. It was great fun to write, I received tons of feedback, and had many fascinating conversations (plus a fact check on the year the Red Sox broke…

  From Jared Simmons’  company blog, a post on why motherhood is a leadership development boot camp. Motherhood builds skills that are competitive advantages in the workplace.  “Motherhood and apple pie” are meant to evoke an image of something universally good – something everyone can agree on. But, like most things about moms, this phrase has morphed into patronizing passive aggressiveness, at its best.  When someone at work says, “That’s just motherhood and apple pie,” what they are really saying…

  David Edelman explains how the foundations of Theater provide powerful tools for leaders to connect, motivate, and deliver during times of constant dramatic change.  When a theater is empty, the tradition is to keep a lone bulb lit on the stage — a ghost light — really for safety, but superstitiously to keep away the bad spirits lurking in the building. Sadly, most theaters right now are lit merely by their ghost bulb, but in the absence of action…