HUMAN BEINGS are complex. Throw in complex organizations operating in complex markets, and you’ve really got to marvel at how it all comes together every day. In the face of all this complexity, there are four basic behaviors that leaders can adopt that will drastically improve their leadership and, by extension, the experience of those they lead. 1. Create Effective Organizations A very common mistake I see leaders make is to conflate the terms effective and efficient. Efficiency is a focus on process, maximizing outputs while minimizing resources. In business, this often looks like keeping ..read more

WE habituate everything. The more often we experience something, the less we respond to it. It’s the way we are built. What was once exciting—a relationship, a job, a song—becomes unremarkable after a time. Where we once saw the need for change, we now shrug off and move on. Our brain stops responding to things that don’t change. In Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There, Tali Sharot and Cass Sunstein ask what if you could, to some extent, dishabituate? What if you could once again appreciate what you now take for granted? How do we rekindle the love we once had? How do we be ..read more

BRAD JACOBS, CEO and serial entrepreneur—United Rentals and XPO Logistics—has made and kept a few billion dollars and aims to show us how to do the same in How to Make a Few Billion Dollars. The most valuable part of the book for me was the first chapter on transforming how you use your mind. Here are ten ideas for rearranging your brain to achieve “big goals in turbulent environments where conventional thinking often fails.” Love He begins with love. Why? Love “has a lot to do with getting your brain in the right place to make good decisions. Fast-paced business environments swing between up ..read more

INNOVATION is more about being bold than being disruptive. If you want to push your career and your organization forward, you need to get bold. Using examples of some of the most extraordinary disruptors, Shawn Kanungo offers eight lessons to help you become bolder in The Bold Ones. Bold Ones are those who are brave enough to fundamentally reinvent themselves, challenge norms, and revolutionize their worlds. Bold Ones think, act, and build for a future they see, one that others close their eyes to. Disruption strategist Kanungo presents the mindset needed and the strategies to adopt to create ..read more

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Chris Deaver and Ian Clawson on co-creating: “The dark truth of success is that if we make it all about ourselves, our own egos, our individual performance, it eventually breaks down. It won’t have staying power. Most of us have experienced the reality of bosses or corporate cultures that go it alone, pushing agendas on us rather than building with us. Startups know this feeling. People running full speed toward their dreams know this feeling. But it ..read more

WE ALL MAKE bad or certainly less-than-stellar decisions for any number of reasons. Sometimes, there are too many options to choose from. Or, conversely, we don’t bother to explore other options than the ones in front of us. We easily create narratives to fit our interpretation of reality, cherry-picking the information that gets us what we want. And these are just the more common challenges we face. So, what do we do? In Wise Decisions, Jim Loehr and Sheila Ohlsson take us through some science-based approaches to help us make better choices. The starting point for good decision-making is per ..read more

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. General Gordon R. Sullivan on the power of reflection: “Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore said that he had been reflecting, asking himself three questions: “What is happening? What is not happening? How can I influence the action?” Moore’s behavior captured the essence of strategic leadership. Moore was scanning his environment, thinking about his situation, then determining his best course. The future was winning the battle, simply parrying each thrust. T ..read more

HERE'S A LOOK at some of the best leadership books to be released in April 2024 curated just for you. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month. Uptime: A Practical Guide to Personal Productivity and Wellbeing by Laura Mae Martin Google’s Executive Productivity Advisor offers insights on how to make the “new way of work” work for you, providing actionable steps to optimize your productivity, accomplish more, prevent burnout, and cultivate a harmonious work-life balance. Every day, tens of thousands of Google employees, from executives to interns, rely on Laura Mae M ..read more

Here is a selection of Posts from March 2024 that you will want to check out: Honor Converts by @jamesstrock Progress Results When Persuasion Overcomes Do You Want To Be Liked or Loved? by @MLombardiNFL via @TheDaily_Coach How to Offer Feedback in a Fragile World by Tim Elmore @GrowingLeaders The Culture of Work: Beyond the Paycheck by @toddordal Introduction to The Manager's Journey by @artpetty The Parallels Between The Hero’s Journey and The Manager’s Journey Are Strong It's Not A Big Sacrifice by Marlene Chism @stopyourdrama Consideration requires you to see a bigger picture Four Respon ..read more

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Executive coach Daniel Harkavy on the core coaching competency of discernment: “Discernment refers to the ability to see what is not visible, to understand what is not being said. Discernment enables a coach to ask effective questions, unearthing roadblocks, fears, and doubts that keep a team member from reaching his or her goals. And where do you get discernment? It comes with time in the coach’s seat. The more you invest in people and the more focus ..read more