Over the past year I've been reading and listening to podcasts on the "Growth Mindset".  This is not a new concept, rather one that has evolved into something positive, much more important and highly coveted these days.  In layman's terms, it's self-motivation, simple as that.  If we dig deeper, which no doubt all of us are doing these days, what we find is a quagmire of unknowns as we look for something or anything that motivates us during these trying times. We're left aski

I’m sure we’ve all had that one cheerleader of a manager at one point in our career, I can’t be the only one. One holiday, the department secret “Santa” left a pair of Pom Pom’s on his desk with a poster that read, Sis Boom Bah Humbug. But if you, like I, rolled your eyes until you were dizzy at every attempt at motivational meetings, you might be wondering- how can managers achieve that level of buy-in from their teams without all the pomp and circumstance? When an objective

How do you shift Bias when there is virtually no way to measure it?  The fact is you don't because if you have a brain you're automatically bias.  Bias is inherent, implicit and unconscious and impacts decisions based on habits and beliefs.  So, then how do you remove or decrease bias from the workplace?  Change the process rather than the person, and rely on data and not assumptions or intuitions, even from the most seasoned managers. To be clear workplace bias is common, bu

This article was adapted from Prof. M.S. Rao’s book, 21 Success Sutras for CEOs Article Author: Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D., Founder, MSR Leadership Consultants “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” ―Peter F. Drucker Anybody can make decisions when complete information is available. Anybody can make decisions when partial information is available. But it requires immense imagination and intuition to make decisions when there is a dea

When in need, Google's got it. I just finished reading an excellent article on the demystification of good management skills as supported by data and research culled by Google. Google, known for its forward thinking and powerful organizational culture, has identified the secrets to successful new management roles. Thought provoking for me was the skills necessary to get the promotion to management is often not what is necessary to fill the role. Yes, we've all been in the pos

In his book Stakeholder Theory: The State of the Art, researcher Ed Freeman describes a business’s relationships with stakeholders this way: “To create value for stakeholders, executives and entrepreneurs must see business as fully situated in the realm of humanity. Businesses are human institutions populated by real live complex human beings. Stakeholders have names and faces and children. They are not mere placeholders for social roles. Most human beings are complicated. Mo

There are three ways that your employees can relate to the culture of your organization. They can confront, complain, or conform. When a stakeholder confronts, they believe that their behaviors are the right behaviors. When they complain, they will knowingly or unknowingly isolate into social bubbles of outliers living in segregation within the organization. When they adapt their way to behave, and conform to the value system (broken or otherwise) of your organization's co

Having recently posted a source for CCP templates and a few terrific ideas, I also wanted to post a much more comprehensive list of to-do's for all you, Do It Yourselfers for a customized Crisis Communication Plan of your very own. Here is a set of recommended steps for the development of CCP for your organization: 1. Identify the goal of the plan. Before you begin, your team should determine what the objective of the plan is. It can be as simple as: "This plan creates a str

The book Political Risk: How Businesses and Organizations Can Anticipate Global Insecurity*, was specifically written to facilitate learning from past political challenges, in both national and international environments.  Let’s see if the same lightbulbs go on for you as did for me as I read each of these crisis categories. Geopolitics: Which are cross-border crises such as interstate wars, great power shifts, multilateral economic sanctions and interventions Internal confli

This post is an excerpt from an article written by Written by Swetha Amaresan, and is a wonderful resource for CCP downloadable templates located on the Hubspot blog HERE. Crisis Communication Strategies 1. Spokesperson Response When your company makes a mistake, the best thing you can do is to apologize and make it appear human. The most effective way to do that is to assign a spokesperson to speak on your brand's behalf. After all, it's a lot easier to relate to one person