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…
Influence
Why Leaders Need to Understand the Difference between Influence and Manipulation
If you enact a leadership role, you have some measure of influence. And you also likely don’t see yourself as a manipulator. Do you know where influence stops and manipulation begins? Read on to learn what two prominent authors who’ve conducted extensive research on leadership and change management have to say about this important distinction….
Even Good Leaders Lose Against a Bad System
“The other day I had a revelation at work.” That’s my friend Sally, chatting with me at lunch. “Oh? How so?” That’s me, ever the inquisitor. Sally took a new job a few months ago and we were catching up on life. “Well, the VP of my division stopped me in the hall the other…
BS That Works – New Video Series
A few years ago, I read the book Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change. It remains one of my favorite business books of the last decade. The authors are part of a consulting firm called Vital Smarts and I’m subscribed to their newsletter. Vital Smarts has recently launch a series called The Behavioral Science…
How to Tend Your Company’s Cultural Garden
How much care is taken with your company’s values? Are they simply slogans on a banner in your lunchroom . . . or something deeply embedded in your organizational culture? And what happens when leaders make business decisions that fly in the face of those values? That’s what I write about in this month’s Smartblog…