What role does humility play in today’s leadership and how does this trait benefit leaders in facing the challenges present in today’s global market? That’s one of the questions I discuss with my guest Dave Balter in the latest episode of “Leadership Biz Cafe”.

Dave is the CEO and founder of the word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing company, BzzAgent, which has been featured on CBS News, the BBC, and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. His company has also been the focus of two case studies done by Harvard Business School.

Recently, Dave started a new web project titled “100 Days of Humility” in the hopes of drawing more attention to the need for greater humility in today’s leadership. The goal of the project is to encourage people to share their thoughts on humility in leadership, with the community voting for the story or idea which best illustrates the important role humility plays in leading others.

The project has attracted the interest of a number of well known thought-leaders, including Guy Kawasaki and Seth Godin (you can also check out my contribution to this project by visiting this link).

Over the course of our conversation about the importance of humility in leadership, Dave and I discuss the following points:

• The personal experience that lead Dave to recognize why leaders need to embrace humility.
• The tangible benefits or improvements leaders can create by bringing a greater sense of humility to their leadership.
• How the level and type of interactions leaders have with their employees affects their ability to be humble.
• The relationship between how much you trust those you lead and the level of humility you exhibit through your leadership.
• What a sense of humility reveals about your character and ability to lead others.
• How humility can keep leaders grounded in their vision in the face of organizational success.
• Four measures leaders can employ to bring a greater sense of humility to their leadership.

I’d like to thank Dave for reaching out and wanting to share his own experiences as a leader coming to terms with the role humility plays in leadership. The experiences and insights he shares helps to shed some light on how humility is not just a nice trait to have, but a critical component to ensuring the success of your team’s efforts to reach your organization’s goals.

As I mentioned at the end of the show, I’d love to hear what you think about this episode, as well as what other topics you’d be interested in hearing more about in upcoming episodes of my show. You can share your thoughts/ideas by leaving a comment below or by filling out the contact form on my website.

Click on the player below to listen to the podcast:

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Noteworthy links:

• Visit the 100 Days of Humility project website.
• Dave Balter’s Inc. Magazine article on humility in leadership – “The Humility Imperative: CEOs, Keep Your Arrogance in Check”.
• My quote on humility in leadership for the 100 Days of Humility project.

The following is a guest post by Marlene Chism.

Drama in the form of negativity happens for many reasons and not just because of personalities, or because of women bickering and gossiping at the water cooler. Often negativity exists because the structures currently in place do not support the massive changes taking place in the business. In other words the business is growing and changing and there is a need for increased structure to support and manage the change.

Yet another reason for negativity is due to our natural and biological response to change. The brain craves certainty, and when you feel uncertain, the almond shaped structure in the brain called the amygdala releases chemicals into the blood stream that you experience as fear, anxiety and doubt.

What leaders often forget is that employees feel the most uncertainty because they are the last to hear about the changes, and they had very little, if any, input regarding how to implement and navigate through the upcoming changes.

Leaders constantly tell employees to “embrace change” when the very changes they ask them to embrace are changes that threaten their sense of security or well being, at least from their perspective.

Providing consistency while navigating change can improve workplace relationships, increase trust and reduce negativity. Here are four ways to reduce drama by increasing consistency. Click here to continue reading »”4 Ways To Reduce Workplace Negativity By Increasing Consistency”

A few weeks ago, one of my readers left a comment on my blog asking why are there so many silos present in today’s organizations. Since replying to my reader’s query, I thought this would be a good topic to address as a follow-up to my previous piece where I shared a number of actionable steps organizations can implement to garner greater success from their collective efforts.

Now before I discuss how leaders can break down various internal silos that might be present in their organizations, let’s first look at why these silos are created in the first place.

Essentially, internal silos are created out of fear that if a mistake is found or some form of failure is encountered, the organization’s leadership will be interested primarily in finding someone to take the blame. As such, the various teams will isolate themselves to ensure they won’t get lumped with those who are within the leadership’s current focus of finger-pointing and blame.

The other reason silos take hold in organizations is because of that desire we all have to maintain a sense of familiarity; a ‘comfort zone’ that serves to provide feelings of order and consistency in the face of today’s fast-paced and ever-changing marketplace.

Within teams or departments, there is a given set of informal rules, a ‘way of doing things’ that creates this comfort zone because of its relative predictability. When teams have to co-ordinate with other teams or divisions, they find Click here to continue reading »”5 Strategies To Free Your Team From Organizational Silos”

I’m delighted to present a new feature here on my site: a new podcast series called “Leadership Biz Cafe”.  Through this new podcast, I hope to invite business leaders and leadership experts to join me in conversations about their ideas and insights on the challenges and opportunities to be found in today’s increasingly competitive and global market.

For my first episode, I welcome Guy Kawasaki, the best-selling author and former Chief Evangelist at Apple, to the guest chair.  Guy is the co-founder of the popular online content aggregator Alltop.com (you may have noticed the site badge in the sidebar of my site) as well as one of the founding partners of Garage Technology Ventures.  Earlier this year, he released his latest book called “Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions” which recently made the New York Times bestseller list.

I had the opportunity to get an advance copy of Guy’s book and after reading it, I invited him to be the first guest on my new podcast series which he graciously accepted.

During the podcast, we discuss a number of topics including:

• What does enchantment mean and what’s the first step to take to become more enchanting
• How we can develop more trusting and beneficial relationships
• Why trying to be influential is not the best long-term strategy
• The 3 steps every leader can take to enchant their employees
• Why employees need to enchant their boss (one of the unspoken truths many of us don’t like to admit)

It’s a great interview and Guy and I even shared a few laughs along the way.  So I’d like to invite you to check out this first episode of the “Leadership Biz Cafe” podcast and please let me know what you think of the show by leaving a comment below.  I’d love to hear your thoughts on this new addition to my site and what topics you might be interested in hearing more about in some of upcoming shows for this new series.

Click on the player below to listen to the podcast:

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Links mentioned during the podcast:

Visit Guy Kawasaki’s website to learn more about his book.

Buy Guy Kawasaki’s book “Enchantment” on Amazon.com (or Amazon.ca for Canadian readers)