CEO

As a leader, when you have a lot on your plate – whether it’s work or family responsibilities– it can feel like things are spiraling out of control.  In my own life, one of the most challenging periods was when I was caring for a deathly ill family member. What I discovered during this experience

The ability to transform ourselves and to persuade and influence others depends on the subtleties of effective communication and the essential fact that thinking impacts emotions, which in turn drive behavior. In order to effectively move someone to action, we must understand how the mind filters information.  One thing lies at the heart of persuasion

Now, more than ever, employee engagement is critical for business success. But frontline workers are often left out of the conversation, which can have a significant ripple effect throughout an organization. To keep your deskless employees connected to and engaged with your company’s goals, follow these three steps.  Employee engagement is shrinking, according to Gallup’s

Leadership programs often emphasize the operational mechanics of leading—planning, organizing, budgeting and content that leans more toward management, such as delegating, time management and giving feedback. What most leadership programs neglect to cover, but that new leaders quickly confront, is how political, ever-changing and unpredictable leadership actually is.  In reality, the emotional aspects of leading

Of the many concerns voiced by CEOs and board members, one is increasingly communicated loud and clear: Even as we fight mounting concerns about a recession, the battle for talent is dominating the corporate landscape. Growing competition for talent is the biggest concern over the next year, according to recent surveys. The majority of CEOs

For more than 20 years, Jeff Bezos fought against the entropy inherent in large organizations. He demanded that Amazon always act as a startup, that it would always be Day 1 at Amazon. As he said in his 1997 shareholder letter, “Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by

In discussing the problem of the talent gap with us, Brady Corporation CEO Michael Nauman emphasized, “Manufacturing, as a subset of the economy, is totally misunderstood.” He stressed that many millennial-age workers, as well as those from Gen Z, have never been in a factory, and they have little if any understanding about the nature

Creating a successful AI-based solution is different from regular software development because how it will operate in a real-world situation isn’t easily predicted. Development is an interactive process that requires extensive testing to ensure it will work well with a company’s existing workflow and deliver a worthwhile return on its investment. As such, effective implementation

Richard Carey had a strange experience recently: After years of using every possible tactic to recruit and retain scarce manufacturing employees, the CEO of Metal Ware laid off a handful of people when a supplier’s aluminum mill went down. Carey’s team ranked its employees and pared those with the shoddiest attendance and overall performance. “There

“The property of being environmentally sustainable; the degree to which a process or enterprise is able to be maintained or continued while avoiding the long-term depletion of natural resources.”   … Definition of Sustainability in the Oxford English Dictionary One of the hottest topics in business over the past few years has been that of “Sustainability,”

After three years of coping with a poor hand in a labor-squeezed economy, which followed a decade of gradually deteriorating leverage, companies are seeing that this year’s slowdown may have nudged the pendulum back in their direction. But CEOs expecting a quick rebalancing of the relationship between labor and management are likely to be disappointed,

The Great Resignation, the Big Quit and the Great Reshuffle have become normal parlance as employers struggle with employee turnover, which has become an issue that must be addressed by management, HR and professionals at the highest echelons of company leadership given the big picture challenges in today’s landscape. Departing employees can significantly impact a

We could not have started Home Depot without the right people—Arthur Blank, Ken Langone, Ron Brill, Rip Fleming, Pat Farrah and dozens of others. Everyone had their strengths. Arthur was meticulous and ran things like a clock. Ron, Ken and Rip brought additional expertise and energy. I’m an idea guy who loves to roam around

Chile’s recent rejection of a new constitution highlights that democracies do not want to be micromanaged. Chile’s proposed constitution included 388 articles outlined in 170 pages enshrining a series of prescriptive rules as the law of the land. Luckily, the people of Chile soundly voted it down. Passage would have reversed the “Miracle of Chile,”

There are many terms being used to describe what’s happening with today’s workforce: “The Great Resignation.” “The Great Regret.” “Quiet Quitting.” However, there’s another trend at play that I believe is one of the main culprits of today’s workplace turmoil. I call it “The Era of Lost Productivity.” Just look at the statistics: U.S. worker

You can’t have a business without customers. It’s that simple. But to create cult-like customers, customers who become ambassadors for your brand and tell others about you—well that takes providing value and creating an experience that they’ll never forget. Success in business is determined by one thing—your ability to acquire new customers and retain them

A busy solo parent to two twins, renovating a house in which her parents can live, and coaching professional athletes on their performance mindset doesn’t leave a lot of room for Bulls Performance Coach Dr. Wendy Borlabi to entertain writing a book. But when she met Chicago sports reporter Annie Costabile on an interview, they

Collaboration tends to suffer when it’s most needed: in times of extreme pressure or crisis. Findings from our analyses of the 2008 financial crisis underscore that pressure on individuals and teams can threaten collaboration—which means that those businesses miss out on opportunities for innovation, joint problem solving and other ways to tap into their employees’

Network security is top of mind for almost every business. The trend of using cloud infrastructure and digital transformation for improved efficiency often puts sensitive data at risk. Startups and large corporations alike will need to focus on emerging security solutions that can protect their hardware and software. Migrating data to the cloud can be

As a professional recruiter, I interview 100’s of job seekers, and the pursuit of well-being and balance is top of their list. Everyone wants it. Fair enough. I too, quest for that elusive perfect balance… as I write on a Sunday at 5 am. But it is my balance and choice. It is also my