leadership love

Love may seem out of place in a business context, but it’s actually a key leadership quality today. Employees want to feel their leaders know them, trust them, and care about them as whole persons. And, when they do, they’re more likely to be engaged and motivated to do great work. In my latest Smartbrief […]

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Now is the time to prepare your business for the recession.  In addition to the typical strategies of cost-cutting and cash flow management, add culture-building.  A healthy, effective, and resilient company culture can help you not just survive, but actually thrive during an economic downturn. In my new Smartbrief on Leadership video, I explain how […]

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I’m not a designer so I don’t have any expertise on this, but from the perspective of brand leadership. infusing your office design with your brand seems an effective way to turn your office into a magnet, inspiration, and guide for employees.  Plus, when I reached out to my go-to expert on all things office […]

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The age-old question – which is more important, customers OR employees – is a misguided, and potentially dangerous one.  As a business leader, you shouldn’t prioritize one group over another. Instead, you should link employees and customers. One way to connect employees and customers is to use cultural tenets that are relevant and important to […]

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“Start with why.”  It’s great advice, but you need to do more than start with why.  You need to put your why into action.  And that’s where lots of business leaders get tripped up. My latest LinkedIn Brand+Cuture Series post, Start With Why But Don’t Stop There, explores how to close the gap between vision […]

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A regular day of rest – a sabbath – is an important leadership practice because it enables you to fill up your tank so you can serve others.  And taking a sabbath helps put your brain in task-negative mode which leads to greater productivity and creativity. In my new Smartbrief on Leadership video, I provide […]

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently referred to Meta employees in a new way:  Metamates.  Is this a good idea?  Should you use a coined name to refer to your employees? The poll I fielded on LinkedIn yielded a definitive answer: It depends.  28% supported the practice of made-up names for employees; 32% voted against it; […]

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How aligned and integrated are your external brand identity and internal organizational culture? Does your organization have the right core values that it needs to cultivate your desired culture and achieve your brand vision? How big is the gap between your existing brand identity and the one you aspire to? In what specific ways are […]

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As you think about the coming year, I’m guessing are you don’t want another only OK, keep-our-heads-above-water, just-grateful-to-still-be-around year – you want 2022 to be a year of greatness! To help you turn your hopes and dreams for the new year into reality, I’ve just published “2022 Great Business Action Plan” – a piece that […]

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The problem at Amazon is not simply that its culture has gone awry; more importantly, it has become disconnected from the company’s brand. Amazon’s brand has always been grounded in its aspiration of becoming “Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company.”  And its leaders have used the organization’s core values, “Leadership Principles”, to guide the company in service […]