Let People Be Themselves
I spoke to a CEO this week who intentionally focuses the culture of his small organization around authenticity. He said people shouldn't have to be a different person at work compared to how they are at home, or when eng ...
Category: Leadership
Can Being Inclusive Change You?
Inclusion is one of the 12 human principles that Maddie and I write about in Humanize (Chapter 8, starting on p. 190). We also talk about decentralization, and in this month's Harvard Business Review, Gail McGovern, the ...
Cracking the Culture Code: Language
This is a guest post from Eric Lanke, CEO of the National Fluid Power Association How do association executives build and sustain the culture of their organizations? Specifically, what is the CEO's role versus others ...
The Secret to Better Leadership
I attended a session this week about leadership development in the association world. We talked about different leadership styles, and the need to adapt your style to fit the context, and then we talked about leadership ...
The Hard Work of Transparency
Transparency is one of the 12 human principles that Maddie and I wrote about in Humanize, and it's one I come back to frequently. Along with decentralization, collaboration, and experimentation, I'd put transparency in m ...
How Is Your Organization Like a BMW M5 Sedan?
Well, the comparison may not be as flattering as you think. A few years ago, the BMW M5 sedan came with a 500-horsepower, 10-cylinder engine and the best led headlight bulbs. That's practically NASCAR power. I had a f ...
There Is No Trust Without Risk
I make this point all the time in my speaking and consulting, yet I don't think I have ever blogged about it directly. We all want trust. We want to be able to trust our colleagues in the workplace, and we certainly want ...
Book Review: Small Giants
Small Giants: Companies that Choose to Be Great Instead of Big by Bo Burlingham Portfolio, 2005 As you can see, this is not a new book--bordering on 10 years old--but it's worth a review, because it has some rea ...
Big Data and Leadership and Management
There is an article in the December 2013 issue of the Atlantic titled, "They're Watching You at Work." It's not so much about privacy or spying, as it is about big data, and how that can be applied, not to sales and mark ...
The Power of Amateurs
Yesterday I commented on the number one frustration I hear from the non-users of social media (that it's all about what people had for lunch). Today we'll tackle another popular attack from a few years ago: that social m ...