While speed and efficiency are necessary leadership traits in our always-on, do-more world, there’s also a point of diminishing returns. If we let agendas and clocks dictate all of our meetings, we could be undermining our own efforts to encourage meaningful collaboration and innovative thinking. Consider the unfortunate impact. Many people are reluctant to speak up and contribute something that disrupts the cad...

I’ve noticed something interesting lately in my conversations with corporate leaders. Naturally, there are a few common themes: increasing demands and endless meetings that suck up valuable work time. (I’m guessing you can relate to that.) But when I ask these leaders how they personally contribute while in meetings, I almost always get an answer that involves status updates. Giving them or getting them. Briefi...

Avid gardeners know from experience that accelerating the growth of a tree…requires pruning it. To make it grow bigger, you have to cut it back. That counterintuitive principle also applies to professionals. If we want remarkable business growth, we need the courage to prune things back, our schedules, our projects, and our commitments. We must be willing to drop our dependency on some of the things we’ve a...

We can make every effort to be objective, rational, and open-minded when making decisions or contemplating new ideas, but there are several roadblocks that may get in the way. The first one is cognitive bias. We simply can’t escape its effects. I’ll give you an example. You’re presented with a new business opportunity. Naturally, you’ll look at the forecasts, the spreadsheets and the potential...

Every day we generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. This information has led to some tremendous breakthroughs with the potential to improve thousands of lives. As leaders, we also have mountains of data available to us—honestly, more than we can assimilate or make sense of. Yet huge decisions are made every day based solely on the numbers. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love numbers! But, in my years working wit...

Every day we generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. This information has led to some tremendous breakthroughs with the potential to improve thousands of lives. As leaders, we also have mountains of data available to us—honestly, more than we can assimilate or make sense of. Yet huge decisions are made every day based solely on the numbers. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love numbers! But, in my years working wit...

This year, Netflix released a wildly popular new program called Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. In the series, Japanese organization expert Marie Kondo visits the clutter-heavy homes of selected American families and helps them tidy up using her now-famous KonMari method. The springboard for this media sensation was Kondo’s worldwide best-selling book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Even if you haven’t r...

I’ve noticed something lately during my time on the yoga mat. My yoga practice isn’t just enhancing my mental and physical health; it’s also highlighted some interesting parallels that map to essential leadership concepts. I suppose that makes sense, considering yoga has been a path to self-realization and enlightenment for thousands of years. A yoga studio (or our yoga space at home) might seem far rem...

Many companies today are worried they don’t have the right leadership to succeed in the digital and disruptive age. Maybe they’ve got it all wrong. What if they actually have the right leaders—but they’re being held hostage by the same old expectations, metrics, and rewards? Here’s the problem. The very nature of business is continually evolving. Consumer needs fluctuate. Technology keeps...

Leaders have a powerful influence on an organization’s culture. They set the tone for how employees perceive their work experience, so leadership and culture go hand in hand. In many ways, leaders’ success depends on their ability to help shape and uphold organizational culture. That’s a formidable task - and one that requires selflessness, conviction and strong character. Besides nurturing those qua...