What You Need to Know About Using StrengthsFinder For Employee Engagement

More and more, managers are being encouraged to use positive reinforcement in their employee reviews, rather than focusing on weaknesses. The argument is that by doing this, employees are more productive and engaged in their work. Opponents of such a management technique say that discussing negatives, or ranking employees against each other, can actually encourageRead… Read more »

Improving Police-Community Relations Before It’s Too Late

Civil unrest in places like Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore has local government leaders across the country concerned about police-community relations in their own cities and towns. While it’s true that larger cities with greater diversity – whether economic, ethnic, racial or religious – are more at risk, government leaders in cities of all sizes canRead… Read more »

Creating a Digital Transformation Plan of Action: A Guide for Leaders

In earlier SMART Articles, I discussed the evolutionary phases in becoming a digital organization, described how all business functions are being transformed by social and digital technologies, articulated the primary barriers to digital engagement, and offered a digital transformation framework (to read these and other related pieces, click here). This article extends those pieces by proposingRead… Read more »

A Good Quote is More Interesting Than This Headline

Let’s start by admitting that, sometimes, all a reporter needs is a quote to finish a story. Any quote, as long it’s relevant and they meet their deadline. What they’d really like, however, are birds flying backwards. That’s the gist of a legendary quote used in one of my journalism classes, from a guy tellingRead… Read more »

Four Leadership Opportunities You May Be Overlooking

When I was early in my career I discovered the catch-22 of gaining leadership experience: to be selected for a leadership position I needed to show I already had some previous leadership experience. So I had to get creative to break the cycle and get my feet wet. If you find yourself facing the same situation,Read… Read more »

Women in Leadership: CEO Barbie

In November 2014, the Pew Research Center surveyed public attitudes regarding gender and leadership in US politics and business. They found that people see little differences between men and women when it comes to leadership. Both genders were equal in terms of innovation, ambition and decisiveness. The major differences that surfaced were women were seenRead… Read more »