Blog

There’s more to emotional intelligence than just understanding what you’re feeling and why. My guest on the Better Leadership Show, author of ‘The Adversity Hack’, Meg Poag, expands that definition. Listen to the episode to learn what emotional intelligence really is, and how it impacts your organization.

Don’t wait until you need to post a job on LinkedIn. Proactively build a virtual bench of A players for the leadership team and their direct reports. This is just one of the ways to make sure you have a great leadership team.

Every organization needs monthly or quarterly town hall meetings: that way everyone is on the same page, and you get feedback and can take the pulse of the organization. If you don't cascade information down and out throughout the organization, you are going to end up stuck and frustrated.

All problem solving starts with a description from your team on what they’re planning to do, rather than a directive from you. It doesn’t matter what you’re running – a hotel, a steel plant, or a software company. Inviting the team into that WHAT space is what turns a team from followers into leaders.

Before you can lead a team, a company, even before you can be a strong part of a great team, you need to start closer to home. Great leadership starts with the self. I share my thoughts and my personal experience of this on the latest podcast episode.

When you don’t care for yourself, you are literally patient zero, spreading emotional contagion to your team. It starts with anger, complaining, stressing, and eventually it leads to burnout. My first ever return guests on the podcast are back to talk about a much overlooked topic for leaders: looking after yourself

A CEO needs to be a visionary for the business. As the CEO you need to make sure there is a crystal clear vision of the future. What will your company look like in 10 to 15 years? What’s the core purpose of the business? What’s the why of your business? Whether you still need to roll up your sleeves in the business or not, you also need to step into the CEO shoes, and own the visionary role. I talk more about this in the latest podcast episode.

I have a problem (or a few) with training. People think of training as one size fits all, but there’s not a one size fits all to how we learn. Training is not always real, it feels separate from work. There’s little ROI. And there’s more. There are much better ways to uplevel your team and I share them in the latest Better Leadership Show podcast.

Seriously, what impact would it have on your revenue, on your clients, on your level of fulfillment, on your ability to attract and keep great people? What would it mean if that happened more often? I speak about that in the latest podcast episode.

Great companies are companies that experience significant and consistent top and bottom line growth. Why is growth so important? In my experience, a lot of leaders overlook the number one reason. Company growth allows you to keep great people, and keep attracting new great people. To keep the talent-profit cycle moving. I speak about that in the latest podcast episode.

Maybe you started doing what you do out of love. Love for what you do, for the people, for the industry. But after a while, overwhelm and frustration gets to you, and you risk losing that love. Not on my watch. I came up with 13 ways to fall back in love with your business – ways I practice every day – and that help me love what I do every single day.

The culture in any organization? You can gauge it by finding out the temperature of each leader. Are you aware of yours? Listen to my conversation with Paul Epstein to learn more about a leader’s temperature sets the culture.

Your HR department probably wants to have a handle on culture. But they get bogged down in hiring, onboarding, perks, etc. And culture…is everyday. So WHO should be in charge of culture? Better Culture Co-Founder, Brett Hoogeveen has an answer you might not expect.

You’re not hiring somebody. You’re inviting them to be part of your organization. So the question is: who would you like in your home? My guest Howard Behar shares his ‘human skills first, work skills second’ approach that helped him grow Starbucks, the organization he was the founding president of.

When people understand their weaknesses and allow others in the team to compensate for them, it allows the entire team to rise to the top, even against smarter, more talented, or stronger teams. In leadership teams as in sports. Listen to my impressive guest, Chad Hymas, talk about where strength comes from.

1+1=3 when everyone is working joyfully, with gratification and with a sense of fulfillment. 

My guest, Alison Tabor, believes that starts with taking stock: asking 3 questions and aligning what you discover. Listen to the interview to find out how to get that result in your business too.

Are you banding together with people who have the same or similar vision? You should, if you want a great team. My guest Ryann Halo has a lot to say about what it takes to build a great leadership team and more. 

When you are able to sit at the table with your peers, set ego aside, and get to the best solution for the company that isn’t about you, that is the mark of a great team. My guest, Pam Nemec, calls this humble collaboration.

What is the promise you make to your customers + what are you actually doing about it = customer experience strategy. Do you have one? My latest guest on the podcast, Jeannie Walters, talks about why every business needs one, and how to do it well.

‘It’s hard to find good people.’ ‘Where are all the good people?’ ‘There are no good people.’ I hear this all the time. But we can’t build strong businesses working with mediocre people. So how do we find them, those good people? Simple, dig the well before you’re thirsty. I talk about what exactly that means in the latest podcast episode.