leadersayswhat

Did you know George Washington was not really the first President? This widely-held belief has been propagated for over two centuries. So how does a historical misnomer of such proportion occur? It took a massive rebranding strategy.

When people discuss the essential communication skills for leaders, active listening is always listed. This typically includes the same general practices-paraphrase, maintain eye contact, keep an open body language, etc.

When I speak with leaders, there is typically a current of frustration that people are not connecting with their message. "I gave an impassioned speech about a change in the company's direction," one CFO told me.

Last week, I had the good fortune of attending a company's midyear recognition ceremony. It was your typical workplace event until the CEO took the stage to deliver the awards. What could have been a dry narration was instead an exercise in leadership.

In a recent interview Mel Brooks discussed one of the few flops of his career, the 1986 movie Solarbabies. What started as a small $5 million dollar sci-fi movie became a $25 million dollar disaster.

Want to solve most of your leadership issues with one competency? It's not intelligence, technical skills, or flexibility, although these would be nice. We need to focus on self-awareness.

In the workplace, we often shortcut conversations by using clichés.

How do you inform your team of organizational changes? Do you give some advanced notice before it is going to take place? Maybe provide a few hints so it is not such a surprise? Or do you drop the preverbal bomb with little to no warning? If you lean...

Every leader is looking for a competitive advantage. We analyze business models, speak with consultants selling "the next big thing," and delve into industry best practices all in the hopes of finding the magic bullet no one has ever considered.

When I speak with employee relations professionals, they always say that 95% of workplace conflicts are based on a miscommunication. Once they've diagnosed this, the real challenge is in how a leader plans to fix it.