One of the responsibilities that comes with leadership is not only to communicate the vision or purpose behind your employees’ shared efforts, but to ensure that your team stays motivated and on track to achieving their goals. Under normal circumstances, this can prove challenging to sustain over the long term as employees grapple with various obstacles that stand in their path.

Of course, in light of today’s conditions of continual change and upheaval, it’s easy for that focus to shift to putting out those daily fires as a means of feeling some form of accomplishment, instead of directing your energies towards guiding your employees to excel and thrive despite the obstacles that stand in their way.

But should we consider it unrealistic for leaders to foster hope for tomorrow and to inspire greatness in those they lead in response to the challenges their organizations face in today’s global economy? For one organization, the answer is a resounding ‘no’ and they have a number of success stories to back them up.

Genesys Works is a non-profit organization which “enables inner-city high school students to break through barriers and discover through meaningful work experience that they can succeed as professionals in the corporate world”. As this brief video shows, although these students live in an environment which paints a bleak future, it doesn’t mean that they can’t be inspired to succeed because someone was willing to believe in their potential to commit to something greater – Click here to continue reading »”How To Use Your Leadership to Inspire Greatness”

Several weeks ago, I received a review copy of Dr. Brenda Shoshanna’s latest book “Fearless”. Dr. Shoshanna is a practising psychologist and therapist and has made appearances on national television networks ABC, CBS, and MSNBC, as well in numerous publications including Boardroom, Mental Health News, and Publisher’s Weekly.

Although her book looks at managing fear from the lens of personal self-improvement, I found that many of the ideas and concepts she shares in her book relate directly to the issues leaders face in managing their organizations. As such, instead of writing a review of her book, I invited Dr. Shoshanna to discuss with me some of the ideas she shares in her book and what leaders and businesses can learn from them.

TN: In your book “Fearless”, you write about changing our perception of fear and of the resistance many of us create, consciously or otherwise, when faced with the idea of change.  In fact, there’s an interesting line you wrote about change – “Change is a gift. Change is a friend” (p.35) . I think not just in personal life, but in business, change can be hard for many to openly accept.

People are programmed, deeply programmed, to want to keep everything the same. And that gives a sense of security, but really it’s a false sense of security because while you’re trying to keep everything the same all the time, life is nothing but change. It’s a kind of rigidity. The way to be most successful in your business and your work is learning how to be resilient and spontaneous and fluid; to be able to really live with change, to flow with circumstances, to be present for what’s happening right now. That’s the real art of it.

And when you’re flooded by fear, or when you’re flooded by anxiety, you can’t be present for what’s really needed right now in this moment. You might be living in the past or living in the future, or strategizing how it’s going to work out. But the real way to succeed is to be here fully and see what’s needed, what’s happening, and respond in a way that’s really on target.

TN: From a rational, intellectual point of view, I think most of us can agree that change is a natural part of life and business, and how being highly adaptive is a key trait for success. And yet, many still struggle with change, even when Click here to continue reading »”Managing Fear and Change in the Workplace”

Today’s piece is a guest post by S Max Brown.  Max is the VP of Organizational Learning at the Recognition Management Institute and in the last ten years, he has made nearly one thousand presentations in locations all around the world. He’s taken clients rappelling on the Great Wall of China, facilitated at the Parliament of World Religions Conference in Spain, spoken to a cheering crowd in the Netherlands, and even survived a severe winter presentation in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Recently, Max and I co-wrote the guest piece, “Is Your Leadership Serving Others… or Just Yourself?” for the “Wake Up and Shake it Up” leadership series organized by Shawn Murphy at Achieved Strategies.

Executives that secure big pay packages for themselves and then lay off thousands of employees don’t inspire much loyalty or confidence. Yet examples of such corporate excess and greed are plentiful. Why are we surprised when employees don’t feel like doing their best for the organization? Why are we surprised when our organizations suffer accordingly?

Recent research finds that we become more egocentric and self-centered as we gain more power. Sometimes, we believe that we can hide our insecurities by attacking, blaming, or otherwise tearing others down. Moreover, according to Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen, we often focus on activities that yield the most tangible accomplishments while neglecting relationships because we are driven by instant gratification.

Albert Einstein made a similar observation regarding human behavior when he said: Click here to continue reading »”Real Leaders are Other Focused”

When we look at the various examples of effective and successful leaders, one of the traits we see that they share in common is exhibiting a strong sense of confidence. Now by confidence, I’m not referring to pushy, aggressive, or self-serving behaviour. Rather, I’m pointing to those leaders who create this air of calm reassurance about them, who are clearly happy with their lives and are comfortable with who they are; those who we often refer to as being “natural born leaders”.

Ironically, confidence is not something you’re born with, it’s something you develop from inside. And confidence is certainly not linked exclusively to positions of authority, but is something that everyone can nurture and develop in themselves. But how exactly do we foster this feeling of confidence, especially in those moments where we feel it starting to wane? To answer this, let’s look at the common traits found among those who exude a sense of confidence:

1. Believe in yourself
One thing that’s obvious when you see or hear a confident person is that they have a keen awareness of what they are capable of. When they walk onto a stage to give a speech, stand at the top of a ski hill at the beginning of a race, or when they face their team to offer some guidance on what to do next, there’s no mistaking that Click here to continue reading »”5 Steps To Help Build and Strengthen Your Confidence”