Let's Grow Leaders

FEBRUARY 28, 2025

Practical Ways to Show Up as a Human-Centered Supporter after a Sudden Layoff Your friend just lost their job in a sudden layoff. They’re blindsided–concerned for themselves and the mission. Maybe its tied to recent government turbulence or related downstream impacts. Or a corporate shake-up. Either way, theyre reeling, and youre wondering how to help without overstepping or offering a bunch of empty clichs.

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N2Growth Blog

MARCH 24, 2025

Identifying and promoting leaders is one of the most consequential decisions an organization can make. However, many organizations make the mistake of equating high performance with leadership potential. Effective leadership requires a unique set of skills, including emotional intelligence, adaptability, and the ability to inspire others. This article explores how organizations can distinguish between performance and leadership potential and adopt structured approaches to identify the right cand

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Leading Blog

JANUARY 22, 2025

T HE challenges organizations face today are becoming increasingly complex, interconnected, and unpredictable. Yet, as we examine these challenges more closely, a striking realization emerges: most are rooted in connection issues. Network science heralded as the science of the 21st century, provides a groundbreaking framework for understanding connections.

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Next Level Blog

FEBRUARY 18, 2025

When youre a senior executive, your success depends on influencing, aligning, and mobilizing others toward strategic goals. Yet, even at the highest levels, misalignment often arises due to differing motivations. How well do you truly understand the priorities driving your peers, board members, or senior team? And are your assumptions accurate? The best way to understand whats motivating someone is to engage them in a conversation that surfaces their goals, their ambitions, and their fears.

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Speaker: Chandra McCormack, CPA, MBA, NACD.DC

Technical chops might open doors—but it’s the soft skills that keep them open. In the face of disruption, evolving workplace dynamics, and rising expectations of leadership, soft skills like communication, emotional intelligence, and presence have become core business essentials—not nice-to-haves. Join seasoned executive Chandra McCormack for a breakdown of how to lead with impact, connect with purpose, and cultivate a workplace culture that energizes rather than exhausts.

Skills

Sales Wolf Blog

JANUARY 11, 2025

Your Team's Mindset Is Your Greatest Asset Your greatest asset is not your people. Your greatest asset is how your people think - their Mindset. Most leaders fail to see the biggest lever for growth sitting right in front of them: the mindset of their people. Skills, experience, and knowledge matter, but they are useless if your team approaches their work with the wrong perspective.

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Leading in Context

JANUARY 8, 2025

By Linda Fisher Thornton The Top Post Series for last year on the Leading in Context Blog was called "10 Quotes to Inspire Leaders in 2024". It reflected insights for leaders into how to lead in ways that bring out the best in others, and featured specific areas of focus and strategies for living and leading with values.

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Leadership Freak

FEBRUARY 20, 2025

Many leaders weaken decision-making by prioritizing agreement over commitments. Over-concern about agreement sabotages decision-making. In some situations, people dont commit until they agree 100%. When thats true, change your process and expect everyone to commit once decisions are made. Those who aren't committed find fault. Those who are committed find a way.

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Great Results Team Building

JANUARY 4, 2025

Every leader has blind spots… But ignoring them could cost you your teams trust, engagement, and performance. Blind spots are dangerous because they are more difficult to see the more successful you are. And they are often invisible to the very people who have them. As a leader, what you think is true about your teams experience might be far from their reality.

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Rich Gee Group

FEBRUARY 5, 2025

Listen to the audio Listen, I get it: trying to get someone to do what you need - when theyre higher up than you or not even in your department - can feel like youre yelling into a void, especially if they talk down to you. Or worse, if they brush you off like youre not worth their time. Ive been there, and it can be frustrating as hell. But heres the thing: influence isnt all about titles.

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Lead from Within

JANUARY 7, 2025

The gap in your leadership style is costing your organization millions in lost talent and unrealized potential.Recent Deloitte analysis reveals 82% of senior executives overestimate their leadership capabilities, while only 34% of their direct reports rate them as highly effective. A recent report by McKinsey’s Leadership Index demonstrates organizations with self-aware leaders generate 41% higher shareholder returns.

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Advertiser: Paycor

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Objective

Let's Grow Leaders

JANUARY 13, 2025

To improve relationships at work, reflect to connect Have you ever had a conversation at work take a turn you werent expectingsuddenly, voices rise, arms fold, and you feel the tension? Maybe you walked away wondering, “What just happened? How did we get here?” In those moments, you might feel like defending your position, explain your point more clearly, or even disengage completely.

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N2Growth Blog

JANUARY 9, 2025

An operational executive overseeing the day-to-day business functions is the linchpin between visionary corporate objectives and the tactical steps required to achieve them. The importance of this role in high-performing organizations cannot be overstated: research from various organizational studies shows that effective operations leadership is one of the most reliable predictors of sustained performance and competitive advantage in business.

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Leading Blog

MARCH 21, 2025

I N MY early managerial days, I would often ask my bosses and peers how they learned the skill of delivering bad news. Almost always, their answer was: You will learn it over time, There is no compression algorithm for experience, or some variation of needing to put in the time. Granted, experience is one of the best teachers, but I have discovered there are tactics that can be learned so you dont have to navigate without help.

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Next Level Blog

FEBRUARY 4, 2025

Back in the early days of the COVID pandemic, I wrote a post on how to lead under volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous conditions. You may know those four words by their common acronym VUCA. To be honest, I didnt think that things could get any more VUCA than they were during the pandemic. Im beginning to think I was wrong about that. Practically every week over the past year theres been a new breakthrough or application in the field of artificial intelligence.

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Advertiser: ZoomInfo

AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.

Marketing

Sales Wolf Blog

JANUARY 8, 2025

Do you really know how your team is performing? Imagine walking into your office and knowing, without ambiguity, whether your team had a productive day or week. More importantly. Imagine engaging each team member knowing that they know whether or not they had a productive day or week. If I am your coach, this is a normal occurrence for you and your team.

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Leading in Context

FEBRUARY 5, 2025

By Linda Fisher Thornton The human journey. Were all taking it, but we dont always know where its headed. We cant always see where weve been until later, when we have the long-term perspective and can begin to make sense of the twists and turns weve taken throughout our lives.

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Tanveer Naseer

FEBRUARY 19, 2025

When it comes to developing leadership skills, the focus tends to be on strategic thinking, decision-making, and communication skills. But theres one skill that can create a far greater impact on driving organizational growth and innovation. And that skill is the art of mindful listening. Why? Because it sends a.

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Leadership Freak

APRIL 11, 2025

Toxic self-acceptance corrodes life. Dont be so pleased with yourself that it justifies mediocrity. We approve of ourselves and disapprove of others. Lopsided approval makes us thrash through life like a flat tire. Addiction to self-love becomes self-deception. Others arent your biggest challenge. Self-leadership is harder than leading others. More.

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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.

Diversity

Great Results Team Building

FEBRUARY 27, 2025

Appreciation is one of the most powerful tools a leader can use to build a winning team. In fact, Harvard Business Review reported that 69% of employees say they would work harder if they felt their efforts were better recognized. And Terryberry found that 92% of workers are more likely to repeat a specific action after receiving recognition for it.

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Rich Gee Group

APRIL 15, 2025

Let me start with a quick story about Jessica - one of my rockstar clients who leads a boutique consulting firm. She was working overtime, chasing every flavor of the month leadership approach - new frameworks, fresh buzzwords, you name it. But the harder she chased, the less impact she made. Her leadership vision became diluted, scattered, and forgettable.

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Lead from Within

JANUARY 14, 2025

Artificial Intelligence is methodically eliminating leadership positionsand your role could be next. While 68% of executives dismiss AI’s impact, artificial intelligence already executes core management functions with unprecedented efficiency. Organizations implementing AI management tools eliminate mid-level leadership positions at accelerating rates, with projections indicating 37% of current management roles become obsolete by 2026.

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Let's Grow Leaders

JANUARY 31, 2025

How to Warm Up Your Relationship with an Icy, Difficult Boss You know the type: the difficult boss barely acknowledges you, keeps conversations strictly transactional, and never lets you see their human side. Frustrating right? But heres the thing: their iciness may not be about you. Maybe theyre overwhelmed, introverted, or just wired differently than you.

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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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N2Growth Blog

JANUARY 9, 2025

Assessments have emerged as an indispensable instrument in leadership development, serving as both a mirror that reveals areas of growth and a lens that illuminates hidden potential. At N2Growth , we view these evaluative processes as far more than simple scorecards. When strategically designed, assessments can lead executives to sharpen their strategic thinking, refine their interpersonal skills, and ultimately guide teams toward sustainable success.

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Leading Blog

JANUARY 31, 2025

Here is a selection of Posts from January 2025 that you will want to check out: Nine rules turnaround leaders can live by that don't involve 'fixing the culture' by @artpetty 4 Ways To Constantly Adapt by @JosephLalonde 5 Things Leaders Need to Quit Doing by @Mark_Sanborn It Dont Take Much To Show A Little Love by @JohnBaldoni Success Through Synergy by @KevinPaulScott Genuine synergy rests on four essential pillars Sputnik Moments, Moonshot Visions by @jamesstrock What should our moonshot be?

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Next Level Blog

MARCH 25, 2025

Anyone who has ever flown in the exit row knows the drill. Just before takeoff, the flight attendant stands in the aisle, asks everyone to take their ear buds out, and make eye contact as the attendant asks, Are you aware that youre sitting in an exit row and are you willing and able to assist in an emergency, including opening the exit door and assisting other passengers?

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Sales Wolf Blog

MARCH 13, 2025

Stop Fooling Yourself If you expect to scale your business model, nothing and I mean NOTHING matters more than having a mission, vision, values (purpose) coupled with the right people doing the right things right. Hope is not a strategy. Your hiring process is broken. You believe you are good at picking talent, but the frank truth is your gut instincts are literally costing you millions.

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Leading in Context

APRIL 16, 2025

By Linda Fisher Thornton The Keep it Simple approach is good for many situations, butkeeping it simple will set you up for failure in ethics.Usingan oversimplified approach to solving a complex ethical problemjust means you leave out variables you should be considering.

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Tanveer Naseer

FEBRUARY 5, 2025

One of the highlights of hosting my “Leadership Biz Cafe” podcast has been the chance to interview Stephen M.R. Covey twice, exploring how successful leaders develop trust within their organizations.

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Leadership Freak

JANUARY 20, 2025

Improvement always begins with feedback. People never improve until they know how theyre doing. Self-defeating behaviors persist in low-feedback environments. The feedback sandwich is filled with baloney. A spoonful of sugar before corrective conversations dilutes compliments. Marus Buckingham said, People dont want feedback, they want attention.

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Great Results Team Building

FEBRUARY 3, 2025

Most meetings are relatively joyless experiences They become routine checklists and overlong discussions that end in a whimper. But team meetings dont have to be this way. They can (and SHOULD) be culture-building experiences that inspire action, creativity, and growth. Your team gatherings are a prime opportunity to foster collaboration and engagement, especially if you rethink how they end.

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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

Tactics