What is the Key to Resiliency for Leaders?

Resilient leaders are the ones who can bounce back after being faced with a difficult challenge.  These challenges could occur from a downturn in the economy, a defective product, bad customer experiences, or possibly unsustainable profitability. The key to being resilient is to recognize that the situation is most likely temporary and to recognize the … Read more

Why Leaders Need to Ask the Right Questions

Even though most business leaders have years of experience and confidence in their knowledge and abilities, knowing that they don’t always have the answers is a critical skill all great leaders must develop.  They not only need to ask the right questions of their employees, vendors, clients, partners but they also need to constantly question … Read more

Learning to be Objective is Critical for Effective Leaders

Leaders need to be objective but that is a difficult challenge when dealing with all the other demands and deadlines facing them daily.  They may also be experiencing stress or even lack of sleep which affects their ability to think, and more importantly act objectively. The important thing for a leader to recognize is how … Read more

What Type of Negotiator are You?

Negotiation is a skill that almost everyone uses in their daily lives.  For leaders, negotiation is critical to move a business forward and achieve significant profit growth. Negotiations are not only with vendors and customers but also occur internally with employees, regarding promotions, raises, time off, and project assignments. What types of negotiators are there?  … Read more

Why Great Leaders Spend Time Every Day Learning

A leader’s mission is to direct and motivate an organization so it can achieve profitability.  Although this seems like a simple statement the reality as we know is much more complicated. A leader needs to oversee a maze of issues while staying ahead of their competitors. On top of it, one bad move and it … Read more

How to Deal With a “Know-It-All”

Supposedly Sir Francis Bacon is credited with the quote “knowledge is power.”  A true leader definitely needs to be experienced but they should also seek out others who are more knowledgeable in certain areas than they are. Ego gets in the way, however, because some leaders won’t admit they don’t have all the answers. If … Read more

What Are Your Super Powers?

According to Dictionary.com, a hero is “a person who, in the opinion of others, has special achievements, abilities, or personal qualities and is regarded as a role model.” This does not mean, however, that all heroes are viewed as leaders. The added piece to this is that leaders need to take these abilities and motivate … Read more

How to Encourage and Empower Your Employees

If a company is to be truly effective, the organizational chart should be upside down with the leader on the bottom.  His or her role should really be to encourage, empower, and energize their team to perform at their best. In addition, they need to provide their staff with the proper resources, training, and coaching. … Read more

Follow the Leader

The news has covered many stories about CEOs and other members of the senior management team misbehaving in terms of lavish parties, exorbitant salaries, etc.  When the economy tanked, other issues of exploiting executive privileges came to light as well. There were also a few executives who seemed to be unaware that bad practices were … Read more

Leaders are Catalysts for Change

Most definitions for catalyst describe a chemical reaction, but it also means “a person or thing that precipitates an event or change.”  A leader not only has to suggest changes to move an organization forward, but also has to have a solid plan to not only execute these changes, but to communicate them effectively so … Read more