Over the last several months, I’ve been writing about what leaders should be providing their team with to help them succeed and grow. Without question, leadership is a selfless role, one that requires an individual to give more than they get in return if they are to be successful in performing this function for their organization.

And yet, if we understand that all interactions in the workplace should be viewed as relationships between people and not simply ‘transactions’, what can leaders expect to receive from those they lead – outside of attaining their shared goal? Reading some of the commentary written last week over how this past Father’s Day was celebrated helped to bring this particular issue into a sharper focus as I think there are some strong parallels between these two groups.

When it comes to discussions about Father’s Day, there’s usually a reference made to how less money is spent celebrating this day as compared to Mother’s Day, or how dads often end up with presents like a striped tie or some other stereotypically tacky present. This year, though, I read a few articles that recommended that ‘homemade gifts’ should also be included as a present that dads would least like to receive for Father’s Day.

Personally, I couldn’t disagree more with this. In fact, for this year’s Father’s Day, I wore the hand-painted T-shirt my kids made for me last year as they took me out to be celebrated and spoiled. As I walked around our city streets, wearing this homemade T-shirt with the words “Best Papa in the Universe” blazoned across the front, I noticed how every time Click here to continue reading »”Learning to Appreciate the Gifts That Come With Leadership”

Inspiration can be a curious thing.

I’m always amazed at how seemingly unrelated pieces can stir up new ideas or perspectives about our world and the way we live and conduct ourselves within it. Take, for example, this commercial released on YouTube last week by Coca-Cola called the “Happiness Machine”.

While the commercial is effective in creating this idea of Coca-Cola being a source of happiness, there’s also a valuable lesson here that can be imparted to business leaders in how they interact with their employees.

It’s not hard to see that this social experiment by Coca-Cola led to Click here to continue reading »”What A Soda Vending Machine Can Teach Us About Employee Engagement”

Next week, from November 24th to November 26th, users on various social networking sites will be participating in a global celebration called TweetsGiving. The idea behind this 48-hour event is for people to spread words of gratitude on their blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media sites. There will also be off-line events planned in cities around the world. I’ll be participating in this event by posting messages on Twitter expressing gratitude during TweetsGiving, as well as writing a piece here in which I’ll be sharing a personal story as an expression of gratitude for a lesson learned long ago.

So, why am I writing about this now? Simple – I want to ask you to join me next week in helping to spread words of gratitude as part of the TweetsGiving community. It can be about anything you like – Click here to continue reading »”TweetsGiving – A Celebration of Gratitude”

In my previous piece “Validation – The First Step Starts With Us“, I spoke of how giving praise or showing appreciation to others serves to validate what people intuitively know about themselves, that it creates the understanding that they are being recognized for what they do or how they feel.  While the piece gave rise to some wonderful comments and discussions here on this blog and elsewhere, it also brought to light some interesting experiences relating to the act of acknowledging those around us.  After reading my piece on validation, some of my readers shared with me their stories of showing appreciation to others and how the reactions they received from the act were mostly that of indifference and in some cases even wariness or suspicion.

These experiences understandably left them doubting their ability to offer validation to those around them, if not the value of their words and actions.  It also left a few of them asking the question of how can one help validate others if they don’t value what you’re trying to offer.  To answer this question, I want to first look at two reasons why the act of offering praise or appreciation is not having any beneficial effect on those receiving it. Click here to continue reading »”Believing In The Power Of You”