How to Undermine or Reinforce Your Corporate Culture

Ever had a manager who hung those motivational posters around the office, spoke of “pushing together,” or “you’re empowered to give great service”—and then acted at least once in complete disregard of those statements? You don’t want to be caught even once It takes only one time caught by subordinates to lose the faith of…

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How to Be a Great Coach: 3 Keys for Leaders

What does coaching have to do with leadership? Everything. Years ago, as a new leader (a.k.a. manager), I was responsible for a team of people and a pile of targets. There was so much I didn’t know about effective leadership. It’s easy to believe that as long as there’s plenty of work to do, you’re…

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8 Steps Every Leader Must Take to Deal with Setbacks

As a business owner in this age of rapid technological change, with the surge of worldwide competitors, setbacks and adversity are virtually guaranteed. Based on my years of experience mentoring and advising entrepreneurs, you need to attack problems and challenges with a mindset of success, or it is unlikely that you or your business will…

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8 Tips for Right-Brain Entrepreneurs to Build Balance

Traditionally, the majority of entrepreneurs have been logical thinkers, problem solvers, with full attention to details. These are the stereotypical left-brain engineers. Yet I see a big shift from the knowledge age, with its left-brain foundation, to a critical focus today on visualization, creativity, relationships, and collaboration, which are more in the domain of right-brainers.…

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10 Traits of Leaders Who Can Hold People Accountable

Getting things done effectively in a startup requires total individual and team accountability. You can’t afford excuses and multiple people doing the same job. In my view, “taking responsibility” is the core element behind accountability. Many people hear responsibility as an obligation, but I hear it as “the ability to respond.” Unfortunately many people don’t…

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7 Secrets About Confidence We Can Learn from Female Billionaires

Lolly Daskal coaches some of the wealthiest billionaires in the world. What’s her billionaire-making secret? In short, the keys to success lie within. According to Daskal, it’s not about your specific habits or personality—it’s about how well you know yourself. In some ways, that’s a relief—you don’t have to start getting up at 5 AM…

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10 Key Strategies for Innovation Leadership by Design

As a business advisor, I strongly believe that continuous innovation and design thinking are the keys to long-term viability and success. A recent survey of design professionals shows strong agreement, but 92 percent expressed some lack of confidence in their organization’s design vision. They are always on the lookout for ways to prepare current and future design…

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Do People Follow When You (Think You) Lead?

Let’s get personal. Do you think you’re much better than a marginal leader? Well, here are a few tests for you to help come to an answer. And a few tips for you if you fall a bit short. Why do people follow their leader? Dictators are not great leaders in the long run. People…

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Do You Act Like an Eagle Scout?

You may have been a Girl Scout or a Boy Scout in your youth. Certainly, you are aware of the top rank in each—the Gold Award for girls and the Eagle badge for boys. Scouting teaches leadership and even if we were not members in our youth, there are lessons for us all. Be prepared!…

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