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As Hostelworld considered a pivot from a hostel booking platform to a mission-driven company fostering social connections, CEO Gary Morrison knew that cultural transformation was essential to support the business transformation. To align with this new direction, Morrison implemented an innovative, AI-powered performance review system from Incompass Labs. This approach enables unbiased 360-degree feedback, focuses […]

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If you’re considering issuing an order to your employees to head back to the office, you might learn valuable lessons from the differences between Amazon and Dell approached the change. For example, a significant change in employee experience such as an RTO order is one of the most important instances in which leaders should apply the […]

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“Is having a sacred playbook an asset that companies should preserve at all costs, or does it become a liability holding companies back as the world around them changes?  Is there a point at which a company’s size, growth, and industry-spanning tentacles make a unified culture of decision-making and inventing impossible?” These questions, posed in […]

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The failure of most DEI efforts result from the approach most commonly employed by companies. Reliance on programs and targets—such as employee resource groups (ERGs) and hiring quotas—without addressing the fundamental values and culture of the organization, only leads to additional bureaucracy rather than a genuine sense of belonging. While dedicated programs and metrics are […]

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Brand power comes from keeping – not only making – promises.  And to keep your brand promises, your brand and culture must be aligned and integrated.   In other words, brand-building requires brand-culture fusion. But a recent HBR article by Roger L. Martin, former dean of the Rotman School of Management, and a couple of LinkedIn […]

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“Know thyself.”  For centuries, this has been the motto of great leaders.  Now, here’s a tool that helps you do just that.  It’s a new twist on a SWOT analysis that will help you uncover new insights about yourself. Instead of looking at Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats to your company, look at your Self, […]

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Mentoring is a valuable path toward growth and development. A mentor can share insights from their expertise and experiences to help you grow and develop – and being a mentor can help you achieve clarity and focus as you reflect on your own development. A few pointers to get the most out of mentoring: Start […]

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Your core values can’t simply be words on your website or on a poster in your office; they must be used.  Learn how Amazon uses its core values in my new post on LinkedIn:  Do You Use Your Core Values Or Just Talk About Them? related: Do Your Core Values Have Teeth? Fusion: How Integrating […]

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In this, the last in my series of leadership lessons learned from popular TV shows, we learn from Yellowstone.  John Dutton and the cast of characters from the fictional Montana ranch show us that leading doesn’t always involve what we think it does. We learn that when it comes to motivating employees, it depends less […]

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Ted Lasso, the leading character in the popular Apple+ series by the same name, provides an excellent model of exceptional organizational leadership. The leadership lessons from Lasso are about coaching, changing, and character-building. My new Smartbrief on Leadership video explains how Lasso shows what great leaders do — take a look! related: Lesson from Succession: […]