If you are reading this post, you clearly understand the value of saving time. Over the last few months, CMOE has scoured the web to find the best-of-the-best leadership blogs so you don’t have to.
In this article, you’ll find five of the hottest leadership posts that circulated the web this summer. From inspiring motivation and productivity in the workplace to learning how to transform potentially damaging situations into positive outcomes, to continually growing as leaders, we’ve found some real gems.
Enjoy!
1) How To Turn Small Talk Into Smart Conversation
“Water-cooler gossip” has been poisoning office cultures for decades. But in this joint post written by Chris Colin (a comedian) and Rob Baedeker (a journalist), you’ll learn about innovative ways you can use the human propensity to gossip for something more proactive and productive. Some takeaways from this article include
- Approaching a conversation by asking for stories rather than answers, i.e. “What’s your story?” rather than, “How are you?”
- Avoiding the expected response by going to the next level when you realize you’re engaging in a “mirror conversation.” Don’t be afraid to use wit and honesty to prompt a meaningful, productive conversation.
- Breaking the “mirror conversation” by practicing the art of disruption to move the dialogue forward.
2) Three Ways to Tackle Indecision
Dana Byers, a longtime leadership coach, uses her website to provide leaders across all industries with applicable tips and advice on continuous personal improvement. In her article 3 Ways to Tackle Indecision, Byers writes about how easy it is for leaders to be overwhelmed by the slew of options presented to them. While having many options to choose from can certainly be advantageous, it can also result in high levels of stress. Byers gives readers advice on how to thwart this stress and become more decisive by subscribing to three key methods:
- Coin toss
- Advise a friend
- Forecast
Check out her post to learn more about how these methods can help you make your next hard decision.
3) Why You Hate Work
Written by Tony Schwartz and Christine Porath of The Energy Project, Why You Hate Work touches on the sensitive but highly relevant subject that most people feel at some point in their professional careers: I hate work. After learning that only 30 percent of Americans feel engaged by their work, members of The Energy Project partnered with the Harvard Business Review to conduct a survey about what, exactly, inspires employees to do their best work. According to a vast majority of respondents, engagement and productivity are at their highest when peoples’ physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual needs are being met.
As such, this post helps leaders identify some ways to help employees meet these four core needs by
- Creating opportunities for staff to regularly renew and recharge at work.
- Implementing ways to make workers feel valued and appreciated for their contributions.
- Allowing employees to focus intently on their responsibilities and define when and where they get their work done.
- Encouraging team members to do more of what they do best and enjoy most.
By supporting employees and helping them meet these core needs, leaders can have a profound influence on the engagement, loyalty, satisfaction, and energy of their staff.
4) Hack Your Brain to Become a Better Leader
Steve Farber, president of Extreme Leadership Inc. and The Extreme Leadership Institute, frequently writes about various ways leaders can use innovation and fresh thinking to improve their leadership skills.
In his post Hack Your Brain to Become a Better Leader, Farber explains that entrepreneurial leaders often operate with their brains functioning at a level that resembles something closer to the grand finale of a fireworks display than a controlled and methodical burn. Though pyrotechnics are certainly entertaining, they can be hard to follow, hard to control, and emotionally exhausting. When leaders reside in this space, it not only makes them feel mentally and emotionally drained, it can also have a negative effect on how they manage things like people, budget, time, energy, and other valuable resources.
Along with presenting scientific content that explains the benefits of overriding a hectic brain, Farber also includes helpful tips on how to hack into and control the chaos:
- Designing cognitive constraints
- Delegating urgent tasks
- Staying physically active
5) Three Steps When Good Intentions Blow Up
Anyone who has ever held a position of leadership knows what it’s like to approach a meeting, problem, or task with good intentions and come out battered and bruised by personal attacks.
While this is an unfortunate part of being a leader, leadership guru Dan Rockwell knows just what it takes for leaders to make it through. In Three Steps When Good Intentions Blow Up, Rockwell looks at three effective ways leaders can not only survive the scrutiny of personal attacks but also use them to improve the organization as well as their leadership skills. Generally speaking, Rockwell considers the three areas below to be the most powerful solutions:
- Apologizing for unintentional harm or misunderstandings
- Declaring good intentions
- Inviting involvement from others
As a standout leader in your business, company, or organization, you know just how transformative the world of leadership can be. Along with the changing wants and needs of teams and employees comes the ever-evolving landscape of keeping up with business demands and staying fresh in your market. Though exhausting at times, leadership can ultimately make or break a business, meaning that staying relevant and effective is a crucial element of long-term success.
Contact CMOE today to learn more about how to use leadership skills to improve your management, your team, and ultimately your organization.
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