I grew up in a farming community along the shores of Lake Michigan in the American Midwest. My grandparents were farmers. And although my folks didn’t farm, I spent a fair amount of time on my Grandpa V’s farm. Especially the summer of my 13th year when my Uncle Myron planted a full ACRE of…
Leadership
How to Avoid Getting Sucked Into Needless Activity
There’s no shortage of important work to do – both at home and in your job. So, the last thing you want tossed your way is unnecessary work. Nobody likes needless activity, right? But this is easier said than done. I’m sure you can easily recall getting pulled into something that did not add value…
9 Questions to Help Your Team Create Vision
Think back to the last project you led. How did you begin? Were you successful getting people on board, or was it more challenging than you’d planned? No matter what you’re leading, getting people to line up behind a vision is the first order of business when you take on a new leadership role. Satirist…
How to Encourage Your Team’s Bold Ideas
Are you looking to help your team launch innovative ideas? Then listen up. Your efforts to help them might actually be diminishing their creative brilliance, one “helpful” suggestion at a time. Branding expert Sally Hogshead wrote about this phenomenon when describing how well-meaning people pose the biggest threat to a team’s boldest ideas. Innovative ideas…
Autonomous Employees Still Need Leaders
Humans crave autonomy. When a baby savors that first taste of independence as she crawls away from Mom and Dad, the die is cast: the desire chart one’s destiny is strong. When it comes to autonomy in the workplace, companies have come a long way from the highly regimented scheduling and oversight of industrial-era offices….