Upsize Your Leadership

All High-Performing Teams Have These Traits in Common It’s fashionable today for managers to refer to their employees as their team, whether the group actually functions as a team or not. That’s unfortunate. It blurs what makes authentic teamwork distinctive. It cheapens the meaning of “team.” As a result, many so-called teams are not really teams, at all. They are simply a collection of individual contributors who happen to work t...

What Management Is Learning from the COVID-19 Shutdown There is hardly a business in America which has not been adversely impacted by the corona virus pandemic. Yet many are learning how to thrive, even while their employees are working remotely for the first time ever. In this episode Daniel Ramsey shares lessons which he has learned from many of these business leaders who have chosen to tackle the challenges of the COVID-19 shutd...

The Fruitless Quest for Leaders without Flaws One of the weightiest questions in the study of history is how to judge leaders from the past. Not in terms of their military, political, or other achievements. But in terms of their character and morality. Should their behavior be measured by our standards today? Or should they only be accountable to the standards of their own era? Recently mob action has toppled several statues of ren...

Seven Intrinsic Benefits Which Motivate Commitment Whether you lead a company, a non-profit, an institution, or a government agency, people join your organization and remain committed to it for one of seven reasons. And for the most part, money and benefits have little to do with it. Instead, one of seven intrinsic benefits exerts a gravitational pull on those who choose to become part of your team or organization. This benefit -- ...

5 Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Experience Few times in our history has political leadership at every level of government been so visible as it has been in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. And the visibility has been on a daily basis. People have therefore been able to see great leadership on display, along with other leadership which has not necessarily been so great. Even though the crisis is far from passed, we are far ...

Attract Local Customers by using Smart SEO Occasionally I use this podcast to address topics which are not strictly a leadership core competency, but which could greatly benefit people in certain leadership positions.. This is one of those episodes. I've aimed today's program at professionals, entrepreneurs, and leaders whose businesses rely on the internet to bring them customers, especially local customers. Their ability ...

The New Mandate for Today's Leaders The Armed Forces War College uses the acronym VUCA to described the world today. That stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Change, and Ambiguity. Ron Holifield, my guest on this episode and the president of Strategic Government Resources, argues that this state of affairs has brought on a new set of expectations for leaders. People, he says, are looking for leaders who communicate a sense of c...

Making Good Use of the Shutdown The pandemic shutdown has been particularly disruptive for owners of small or medium-sized businesses. Rather than merely hunkering down and waiting out the economic downturn, men and women who are heading and leading smaller businesses should see the opportunity in the moment. What are these opportunities? To answer that question, I turned to Bob McKinnon, host of RealLeadershipPodcast.com and a vet...

Emotional Well-Being When Leading in Times of Uncertainty If any one word describes the American landscape at the present moment, it's "uncertainty." The national shutdown over the corona virus pandemic has left leaders everywhere facing uncertain futures for their people and their organization. The pressures of leading in times of uncertainty can take a toll on the emotional well-being of any leader. In this episode I ...

Crisis Leadership in the Face of the Corona Pandemic The corona virus pandemic calls for exceptional leadership both globally and at every level of society. This is by no means the worst crisis mankind has faced. But it is no doubt the most extensive. Great leaders emerge in times of great crisis, especially prolonged ones. In such moments these leaders have historically pursued five time-proven principles: Stay visible as a role ...

How Non-Profit Leadership Differs In many ways, leading a non-profit is more challenging than leadership in the for-profit realm. Because non-profits are so dependent on volunteer workers, the leader must have exceptional skills in engaging people and motivating them. To accomplish this motivational task, non-profit leaders must be able to draw people to their organization by articulating a distinct and clear sense of purpose. And ...

Leadership Development Done the BNSF Way Shortly after the turn of the century, under the leadership of CEO Matt Rose, BNSF Railway initiated a comprehensive leadership development program. Among other things, it provided exceptional mentoring experiences for emerging leaders across the company. At the heart of this effort was what BNSF calls its Leadership Model. The model centers on five principles: Lead More, Manage Less Cast ...

What Values Actually Steer Your Corporate Culture? A basic tenet of leadership is to define the primary values which should guide your organization. These are the values which we espouse. But are they necessarily the values the organization embodies? What's often the case is that an organization has a set of espoused values which are posted prominently and listed in employee handbooks. But the values which actually guide the or...

The High-Performance Molecule for Team-Building For leaders who want to develop a high-performing team, here's a template to work from. I call the template the High-Performance Molecule, because my graphic representation of it resembles a molecule. I structure this molecule around five essentials for any team which wants to perform at an exceptional level. If one or more of these elements is weak or ignored, the team may still ...

Do You Want a High-Performing Team? Andrew Carnegie once described teamwork as "the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results." As a manager or leader, your own success is either limited or expanded by the performance of your team. It therefore behooves you to build a team which is uncompromising in its commitment to high performance. But what does high performance mean, exactly? The team has to make that de...

How Satisfied Are Your Workers with their Second Paycheck? Studies have repeatedly shown that intrinsic motivations, not extrinsic ones, are the longest lasting in their impact. With an appropriate intrinsic paycheck, people often stay with an organization long after they have concluded that their extrinsic paycheck -- salary, bonuses, benefits, etc. -- is too small. This episode looks at five intrinsic rewards which determine how ...

Consensus-Building: A Constant Challenge for Leaders Among other things, leaders are consensus builders. That’s part of their mandate to unite people around a course of action. Achieving consensus is not always an easy task. There are countless ways in which a leader’s effort at consensus-building can be blocked. In this episode I lay out seven time-proven principles which leaders should keep in mind when working to forge a consens...

Gratitude Safeguards Good Leadership What are the most important leadership traits? Opinions on the subject are found in dozens of lists. But few of them include gratitude, which is unfortunate. Gratitude is the foundation for many vital attitudes and outlooks which make for great leadership. Gratitude promotes optimism, humility, and openness to others. It safeguards against resentment and bitterness, both deadly to good leadershi...

Leaders Who Coach With the rise of empowerment styles of leadership, companies increasingly expect those who lead or manage to coach and mentor their people. Over the past 20 years I've helped a number of companies establish internal coaching or mentoring programs. And for several semesters I taught an MBA course on coaching skills for managers. In this episode I offer an overview of how this emphasis on coaching has evolved an...