One thing I have learned over the course of my career is the value of having principles. I have learned that most successful people in any area, field or endeavor are successful because they operate by principles that help keep them on course to whatever success destination to which they are traveling. Without principles, you become forced to be in reactionary mode when situations arise to which you are not prepared. This gets in the way of you being as successful as your pot

Leaders get tired. Leaders get bored. You’ve delivered the core message to the troops over and over. You keep talking the Core Ideology. You keep finding creative ways to talk about the mission. You share stories that illustrate how the mission is being lived out in the lives of ordinary people. You find new compelling ways to cast the vision. You live out the core values and talk about them in meetings. You keep talking about the key objectives you achieve this year. You kee

Many times leaders just can’t resist the temptation of path of least resistance. They take the easier route. They think “why re-invent the wheel?” They look at a successful company and they think they can copy it’s culture and make it their own. They research and study another organization’s culture rather than doing the hard work to create their own. The most common example of this kind of thinking is when companies try to hire away executives from “hot” companies like Apple

There are no bad businesses, only bad leaders. People don’t leave organizations, they leave leaders. Many companies know how to win the game of business, but they don’t make their people feel like winners. Yes, today you can find companies that look successful on the outside, but are filled with people who are depressed, scared and nervous. These feelings create bad culture within an organization and companies rot from the inside out, In a company with a healthy culture, you

Shouldn’t we talk to people on their into our companies rather than on the way out? Instead of trying to locate issues when people are on their way our of your organization, leverage the power of those who have not yet been oriented and assimilated. When employees are in their first 90 days, they are tremendously valuable for insight. They have not yet settled into to how your company operates. They have not been assimilated into the culture yet. The culture has not taught th

It’s always a good idea to ask employees to complete the following set of questions prior to your annual planning sessions: – What do we start doing? – What should we stop doing? – What should we keep doing? – What are we doing too much of? – What are we not doing enough of? These surveys should be channeled through the supervisor of the department, reviewed, catalogued and passed on to the leaders attending. The employee’s input should be measured and used to help determine

Noted management guru Peter Drucker said “Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes…but no plans and no actions.” Your culture is the most powerful factor in your organization, and at most places, the least understood, least discussed and least planned for factor. Culture is the determining factor on how people in the organization respond to new ideas, creativity and enthusiasm. Culture embodies the sense of pride or discouragement in the environment of the

The one thing that has become very clear to me over the years of developing and working with leaders is that we all face the same challenges and struggles. We all want to discover some greater meaning in our lives. We all have dreams we want to fulfill. We all have some fears that limit us. Another thing which has become clear is that none of us truly play our best game at work nor in our personal lives. The world will definitely be a lesser place if we do not raise our stand

How a leader communicates is important, but also what they are saying is a an important component. You may have a lot of potential in your current position, and you may have all the signs of having the ability to be promoted, but as an up-and-comer, if you lack leadership language content, you are not going to make it into key leadership positions. It doesn’t matter if you deserve a promotion, you’ll get passed over, unless you can talk the talk, you’ll never get the chance t

Research has shown that less than 25% of employees actually understand their organization’s strategy. Many do not believe there are goals for their company at all and most don’t feel that they are prepared for the challenges we’ll face in business in the next decade. If business leaders don’t communicate (and remember communication is made up of two parts: transmission and reception) how can people be motivated or even know how they are supposed to contribute? Some ques

As appeared in the April 2 Edition of the Columbia Business Times. In the 21st century, leaders are feeling the challenge of being able to effectively lead with the hard skills of leadership and management: skills such as growing assets, managing physical plants and improving technology. These measurable hard skills have been as timeless as management theory itself, but in these days of rapid, nonstop change, it isn’t enough to just keep the trains running on time. A mul