Blame my accountant’s wall, but I have some strong opinions about the value of simplicity, the epidemic of complexity, and the opportunity we all have to choose one path or the other. For leaders and managers, this is an especially important topic. Because in the world of business, we don’t always get to select the…
Active Listening and Beyond: 3 Steps toward Effective Communication
Active listening skills aren’t just a nice-to-have. They improve communication, strengthen relationships, boost team performance, spur personal and professional growth, and play a huge role in leadership excellence. Taken further, active listening is not just functional. It’s effective. How so? Anyone who has experienced good listening can understand its power. When someone listens to you well,…
Should I Retire or Not? 3 Questions to Ask During the Next Retirement Ad
Should I retire or not? This is an increasingly common and important question—one that challenges a broken paradigm and points to some intrinsic truths about your career goals and personal life vision. In this post, we’ll look at “traditional” retirement, nonretirement, and unretirement, specifically discussing: The status quo of assumed retirement A brief history of retirement (hint: it’s sociological,…
The Ripening of a Problem: When to Choose Patience in Leadership
While the importance of patience in leadership is evident to many who manage people, it’s a topic that doesn’t get as much attention as others. Today, we’re changing that by digging into why and how leaders should allow certain challenges to “ripen” before tackling them. It’s a relatively easy approach to implement, but this specific…
Envision It Solved: Why Skip “How” in Your Problem Solving Approach
A smart problem solving approach might prove as practical and essential a leadership tool as any you can think of. Because one way or another, problems will arise in your business. In this post, we’ll look at: The value of a well thought-out problem solving approach A typical (and problematic) problem process A vision-driven approach…
Thinking Projects: A Tip for Keeping Teams Engaged & Productive during Downtime [VIDEO]
Paid downtime is a fact of work life that can leave business owners and company leaders feeling frustrated, conflicted, guilty, or all of the above. By “downtime,” I’m referring to those necessary interludes when employees must, in effect, get paid to work at less than their expected and normal level of output—sometimes far less. For…
