October, 2012

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Get Real: Take Your Developmental Conversations to the Next Level

Let's Grow Leaders

For a variety of reasons, many manager/employee relationships stay formal, cordial, and don’t realize their full potential. The conversation stays focused on the work at hand, and hopefully there is some discussion of strengths and development needs, along with a plan to improve on them. There is often real reluctance to go deeper. Why? Choices, [.

Planning 438
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No Excuses = Real Leadership

N2Growth Blog

By Mike Myatt , Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth . Leaders don’t offer, nor do they accept excuses. True leadership demands the character to demonstrate personal responsibility for one’s actions, and the courage to hold others accountable for theirs. Excuses attempt to conceal personal or professional insecurities, laziness, and/or lack of ability.

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Bring It: 7 Keys To A Great 3 Minute Startup Pitch

Terry Starbucker

For the last 10 months I’ve been an investor in the Oregon Angel Fund (OAF). We invest in startups and early-stage growth companies in the Pacific Northwest, and as you can imagine, we hear a lot of pitches. Because there are many interested companies and applicants, and only a small number of actual annual investments (just a handful), that first 3 minute summation of “ why you should invest in us ” is absolutely critical.

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Playing the Part of Leader

Lead Change Blog

Posted in Leadership Coaching Leadership Development “Don’t just act like the character. Be the character.” I’ve heard these words from theater directors many times, and so have countless other actors and actresses on stage and screen. The best actors are the ones who cause you to forget that you’re watching a movie or attending a live play, who can convince you [.].

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Recruit and Retain New Blue-Collar Talent

Blue-collar jobs have a branding problem. One company, GEON, partnered with Paycor to find the solution. Learn how to attract, engage, and retain blue-collar employees, helping them build meaningful careers – and support your company’s goals.

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Walk the Talk: Four Tips to be an Extraordinary Leader

Great Leadership By Dan

Guest post by Thomas J. Walter: It’s common knowledge that there are two kinds of leaders, those who speak and those who do. Those who speak are referred to as “vocal leaders,” and those who do are referred to as “servant leaders,” though the title of the latter is frequently off-putting to business leaders of self-proclaimed high stature. While leaders with excellent communication and motivational skills are often praised for these skills, they’re not the only component to being an effective le

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What is Unethical Leadership?

Leading in Context

Exploring "Unethical Leadership" How do we define unethical leadership? While there are hundreds of stories that illustrate examples of unethical leadership in the news, those stories taken together still do not clearly define the boundaries of what unethical leadership includes.

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Being Quiet

Persuasive Powerhouse

. “Wise men, when in doubt whether to speak or to keep quiet, give themselves the benefit of the doubt, and remain silent.” ~ Napoleon Hill. . Many of us are continually re-learning the wisdom that tells us when it’s important to stay quiet. Yet that is what important conversations should strive for – lots of pauses and silence ripe with thought and ideas.

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The Truth About “If You Can’t Measure It, You Can’t Manage It”

Terry Starbucker

“How did you KNOW it was a success?” I asked that question several times last week in a forum that I participated in with a group of business people. We were trading best practices about process and training initiatives that had been considered “successful” I have a problem with using that kind of word without some facts to back it up.

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A Character-Based Leader Leaves a Powerful Legacy

Lead Change Blog

Posted in Character Based Leader Book Leadership Development When you look back on your career, how will you gauge your leadership success? Being a leader can be a thankless job. Some days, it’s hard to feel like anything positive is being accomplished, isn’t it? It can be tempting to think that nobody notices and that your actions don’t really amount to much.

Power 369
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Disconnection at the Heart of Corporate Failure

Great Leadership By Dan

Guest post by Debbie Nicol: Have you ever watched TV with the volume down and the radio on in the background? Some may describe that as crazy, some call it multi-tasking whilst others may sadly say ‘oh we have that all the time at work, everyone talking at once, no one listening, saying one thing and doing another’, creating confusion, misalignment and disconnection, and even at times manifesting as corruption and unethical practice.

Open-book 276
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How to Stay Competitive in the Evolving State of Martech

Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr

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Are Your Actions Setting Up Your Employees To Succeed?

Tanveer Naseer

At one time or another, we’ve all had to deal with a customer service department whose response and actions left much to be desired. A recent experience my wife and I had with the customer service department for a major retailer also illustrated how a leader shows up in those moments can influence their employees’ perceptions of their roles and consequently, impact their organization’s ability to turn a problem into an opportunity to succeed.

Goal 276
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The 3 Gifts: Grateful for Growing

Let's Grow Leaders

They say “feedback is a gift,” but much of the time it does not feel that way. So, what was different this time? It was a cool, crisp night. The warmth of the make-shift spotlight was both frightening and friendly as I stood ready to give my final speech at the SCORRE conference. Frightening because [.] The post The 3 Gifts: Grateful for Growing appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

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Disabled Women Succeeding as Entrepreneurs

Women on Business

Many women have found that in order to have the lifestyle they want working in the corporate world is simply too restrictive. Set hours requiring you to commute to an office, clock in and out, then ask for permission to slightly change your schedule – is simply not conducive to an active and busy life. Women with children find the regular work schedule to be even more difficult to manage.

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How to encourage healthy conflict

Persuasive Powerhouse

I’ve come to believe in the value of conflict as I see leaders struggle with it. It wasn’t always that way for me; early in my career I viewed conflict as a negative thing. I worked at a company for many years where conflict was avoided. Employees tended to agree in public meetings, but have one-to-one meetings afterwards where they vented their real opinions.

How To 274
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5 Ways to Improve DE&I in the Workplace

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are critical for an organization’s success. And companies that take bold action to help ensure an inclusive workplace will win every time. Discover how your company can create a culture that celebrates DE&I while achieving higher revenue and growth.

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The Transparency Debate: How Much Should Leaders Share?

Lead Change Blog

Posted in Leadership Development As leaders grow in levels of responsibility, scope and scale, the issue of “transparency” becomes more significant. Executives have insights into confidential strategy, complex nuances, and serious situations. They also have large teams and a customer base watching every move. It’s common practice for leaders to pull back more as they rise in the [.].

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5 Ways to Make Sure You Don’t Fall off the Fast-track

Great Leadership By Dan

Most organizations have some kind of formal or informal succession planning process to identify their high potential (HIPO), or “fast track” talent. Some will come right out and tell you you’re part of a high potential pool, and some let you know in a more indirect way. Either way, what they don’t always tell you is that these lists are fluid. Each year, people are added and dropped.

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3 Principles For Creating Team Harmony In Today’s Fast-Paced Workplaces

Tanveer Naseer

A leader’s ability to create a collaborative environment through open communication and mutual understanding is undoubtedly becoming a critical leadership skill in today’s faster-paced, increasingly interconnected world. But how do you establish and maintain team harmony if those team dynamics are in constant flux? As team life spans continue to shrink in response to faster industry/market changes, how can leaders not only ensure team cohesion, but adapt to the changing team and pers

Team 270
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A Matter of Trust: Why I Trust You, Why I Don’t

Let's Grow Leaders

Developing real trust takes time. The people we lead come to us with history, memories, and experiences–they recall times of trust inspired and trust betrayed. When we are in a new gig, our teams watch even more closely. “Can I trust you?” “Are you like the last guy?” When we have been with a [.] The post A Matter of Trust: Why I Trust You, Why I Don’t appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

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No Ego: How Leaders Can Cut the Cost of Drama, End Entitlement and Drive Big Results

Speaker: Cy Wakeman, M.S., CSP, President, Reality-Based Leadership

Most HR leadership philosophies are grounded in two completely faulty assumptions — “change is hard” and “engagement drives results.” Those beliefs have inspired expensive attempts to keep change from being disruptive to employees. What these engagement programs actually do is create and reinforce feelings of victim-hood and leave employees unprepared to adapt to real changes that are necessary for the health and profitability of their enterprises.

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50 Inspiring Startup Quotes from Successful Entrepreneurs Includes Women

Women on Business

NEWS AND INSIGHTS UPDATE: A number of women entrepreneurs are included in the list of 50 of the most inspiring startup quotes from successful entrepreneurs that was published on Lifed.com. However, all of the quotes are worth reading. Some of the quotes from business women are: “Having a partner definitely allows you to take more risks.” - Arianna Huffington, Co-founder, The Huffington Post. “Don’t limit yourself.

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Qualities of a Good Business Leader

Lead on Purpose

Guest post by William Lewis. A sound education in business is just one component of being a good leader; to truly take your company to the next level, you must also possess certain qualities that come from within. Think about some of the business leaders you admire – maybe it’s someone famous who has changed the world with their product or service; maybe it’s your own father or mother, someone you’ve grown up with in close proximity and had years to study.

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Leadership Perspectives: What Is Your Intention?

Lead Change Blog

Posted in Leadership Development What does it mean to be a character-based leader? Isn’t that a deep and probing question? There are so many avenues we could take in this conversation, and The Lead Change Group has done that in their new book, The Character Based Leader: Instigating a Leadership Revolution….One Person at a Time, written by 21 authors [.].

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Your 10 Worst Days as a Leader?

Great Leadership By Dan

Bad things happen to good people, including good leaders. Stuff happens – you deal with it, learn from it, and move on. Reflecting back over my own career as a leader, there were some days I’d just assume forget and never have to repeat. Having worked in various HR and leadership development roles, I also had a chance to hear about some serious bad hair days from leaders on the front lines.

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Innovation: Five Signs You Might Be Faking It

Every company wants to be a leader in innovation, but how can you tell if your company is really innovating or just going through the motions? See the 5 signs you might be faking innovation and what to do if you are.

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What The Top Chefs Can Teach Us About Achieving Our Goals

Tanveer Naseer

Over the last few years, whether we might like it or not, reality-based shows have become a regular staple on most television networks. For my wife and I, we’ve become fans of some of the recent cooking show competitions, especially those that put talented and experienced chefs against one another to see which ones are the top chefs in the group.

Goal 264
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Cheer in the Next Gear: How to Make Your Support Count

Let's Grow Leaders

Each time a cyclist peddled past our corner at the Ironman triathlon , the woman sitting next to me on the curb would clang her large cowbell. No words. No sign of emotion. This went on for hours. It was almost a Pavlovian response. See bike, ring bell. She was committed. She never missed an [.] The post Cheer in the Next Gear: How to Make Your Support Count appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

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Laws of Attraction – Attracting the People You Want

Women on Business

What kind of people are you attracting? Are you attracting the kind of people you want to work with? Or the contractors you want working for you? When writing on your website, twitter, help wanted ads, whatever it may be; it’s important to write for the people you want to read it. If you have everything written in very professional language with a very professional website, those are the sort of people that will be attracted to your ad, or website etc.

Quality 266
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Employee Appreciation The Wegman Way

Chart Your Course

What is your business’ most valuable resource? Its location? Its size? Its technology? Hardly. Despite the value of all of these factors, the resource with the most potential to elevate and drive your business is its people. Whether it’s the people on your front line or your back end, employee satisfaction leads to customer satisfaction, which leads to a business’ success.

Training 264
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Tough Comp Conversations: A Guide For Doing Them Right

Speaker: Rusty Lindquist, VP Strategic HR Insights at Bamboo HR

Compensation can be tricky, few things carry as much emotional weight as comp. And with the increased transparency in the market, combined with our collective propensity to rate ourselves against others, the frequency of these very difficult conversations is increasing. In this webinar, we will deconstruct some of the psychology around comp. We’ll take an analytic look at comp’s role in the employee experience, and then we’ll get really tactical with guidance on very specific compensation conver

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6 Things That Make Someone A Great Leader

Lead Change Blog

Posted in Leadership Development There are a lot of good leaders in business today. But what separates the good from the great leaders? In golf, the difference between making the PGA tour and playing on a mini-tour can be less than a stroke average. The margin is very slim. That’s true of most professions. Those that put in [.].

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The 12 Toughest Challenges of Leadership

Leadership Freak

The challenges of leadership are inside leaders. Stop blaming organizations and others for your shortfalls and failures. Take the bull by the horns. You are the bull. The 12 Toughest Challenges of Leadership: Humility during success. Confidence during setbacks. Stepping back so others can step up. Putting plans into action – Follow through. Experience shows [.].

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How Leaders Build Employee Loyalty In The Most Trying Times

Tanveer Naseer

The following is a guest post by Jeremy Kingsley. Lack of loyalty is a serious problem in organizations everywhere today. No longer do people join a company and devote the rest of their working lives to it. Companies are, of course, not exactly known for offering up thirty or forty years of employment, a gold watch and pension plan. Times have changed.

Loyalty 264
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Want Great Customer Service? Call A Vampire

Let's Grow Leaders

If you need to contact a customer service call center, today would be a good day. You will likely get great customer service. Employees will be happy, spirits will be high. Oh, and the pictures will be fantastic. From my experience and in talking to leaders in call centers across the industry, today the phones [.] The post Want Great Customer Service?

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10 HR Metrics to Track in 2024

Discover the power of HR metrics. Master recruiting, control skyrocketing labor costs, and reduce turnover rates. Get insights into key metrics like Time-to-Fill, Cost-per-Hire, and Turnover Rate. Equip your business for success in 2024.