9 Ways to Improve Your Active Listening Skills Active listening is an important skill that a leader needs to have and practice.  By being an active listener, you can make better decisions, strengthen your relationships with your team, clients, or customers, and also spot opportunities that you might otherwise miss.  Active listening requires the listener to absorb information, comprehend the message, and retain the information conveyed by the speaker. While practicing active listening, you should pay close attention to the speaker’s non-verbal cues (behavior, body language) to gain a ..read more

Positive Progress and the Art of Negotiation How much time and attention do you spend negotiating every day? Think about it: just getting to your work space requires negotiating activities, meals, and space (think nutrition versus convenience, after-school activities, commuter lanes, etc.) At work we negotiate our way through business deals, customer relations, office politics, and career advancements. Such negotiations often require the agility of Captain America, the stamina of Dean Karnazes, and the wisdom of Yoda. Ask any experienced parent (or listen to the news) and you’ll hear how playi ..read more

A Mindful Lesder Legacy that Endures As a leader, how will your legacy measure up? Your leadership legacy matters. It motivates people in the way they think and behave, today, and in the future. A lasting legacy sets a course: it adds value, creates positive meaning, and empowers others to carry on—with or without you. History reveals it is not uncommon for crisis to create or accelerate significant changes at the top. During the 2008-2009 financial crisis, more than 2,000 CEOs of publicly-traded companies were replaced, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas (CGC). In 2018, CEO tu ..read more

Mindful Leaders Humbly Apologize When an apology is in order, how do leaders in your organization apologize? We can’t help but notice when it goes poorly. Sometimes, it’s a matter of people (or a person) not ready or able to forgive. And that’s understandable, especially when there is no attempt at restorative justice. Other times, apologies go sideways when egos get in the way. At best, it falls short as a polished explanation; the apology is an attempt to justify the behavior. This often results in the erosion of trust. Great leaders—whether they are seasoned executives or untitled leaders—k ..read more

Real Leadership: Real Apology When an apology is in order, how do leaders in your organization apologize? We can’t help but notice when it goes poorly. Sometimes, it’s a matter of people (or a person) not ready or able to forgive. And that’s understandable, especially when there is no attempt at restorative justice. Other times, apologies go sideways when egos get in the way. At best, it falls short as a polished explanation; the apology is an attempt to justify the behavior. This often results in the erosion of trust. Great leaders—whether they are seasoned executives or untitled leaders—know ..read more

Designing You Career: You Are in Charge No one manages your career but you and you must rely on yourself as your own guide, even if you are fortunate enough to have a trusted mentor. Most professionals have already moved between a few organizations by the time they reach mid-career points. This may be due to company upheavals, downsizing, or mergers and acquisitions. With each change comes reflection on the next strategy required to sustain a long and successful career. Complicating anyone’s career landscape is the fact that people change jobs and organizations more frequently than in the p ..read more

Secrets of Successful Careers: Finding Your Core Purpose & Strengths Why are some people promoted to positions that bring out the best in them, while their peers, who are equally talented, get left behind in positions that do not allow them to flourish? Are there secrets to a rewarding and satisfying career in the corporate world? According to Gallup research, only twenty percent of people are working in jobs that provide them the opportunity to excel in what they do best. Since we spend so many of our waking hours working, shouldn’t we try to make that time rewarding and fulfilling? Un ..read more

Jump-start Your Leadership and Team Performance Executives, leaders, and managers are facing tough decisions as we return to work. Newly appointed and seasoned leaders must assess their teams, find the gaps, and fill open positions. Adding to the complexity is the critical task of identifying those who would be better served in a different capacity, often times outside the team or organization. This requires an intricate balance of confidence and humility, as well as skillful communication. The first few weeks are crucial to build trust, learn, and evaluate, even if you are not new to your r ..read more

10 Areas Ripe for Innovation We tend to think of new technology as the space where game-changing innovations occur, but fertile new ideas may reside elsewhere. The Doblin Group, a Chicago think tank, has identified 10 areas where innovation can deliver competitive advantages: The business model: how a company makes money Networking: including organizational structure, value chain, partnerships Enabling processes: the capabilities a company buys from others Core processes: proprietary methods that add value Product performance: including features and functionality Product systems: extended sys ..read more

The Future of Work: 5 Skills for the Robotic Age The challenges of 21st-century work—rapid innovation, unrelenting change and unprecedented uncertainty—have created a stress pandemic. Depending on your disposition, you may view the future as ripe for a spectacular explosion of creativity or poised on the brink of self-destruction. Either way, there’s no going back. The tools and skills we’ve developed over the last century inadequately address imminent challenges. We’re caught between two paradigms: a collapsing industrial platform and an uncertain new one. “Information Age” insufficiently cap ..read more