Set audacious goals, and don't start the mentor relationship until you commit to these six steps. I recently Googled the word “mentoring,” and immediately noticed three things. One, it remains a trendy topic. Two, most everyone who writes about mentoring provides a definition of what mentoring is. And, three, many of them want to sell you a program on how to make mentoring work. Sadly, however, I notic...

You’re going to have to be more flexible and more giving than ever as an employer in the current economy, but it pays off. If you are looking to retain good employees, join the club. Every smart leader knows that a cohesive, enduring group of workers is the rock on which you build new ideas, new ventures, growth, and all the rest. So I think we can agree that, once you’ve got people you trust who are doing g...

Wouldn’t it be nice if the world was made up only of people who are just like us, who like us, and who think exactly the way we do? Well, no. Because (1) we’d be wasting iconic truisms like “opposites attract,” and (2) it would be monumentally boring, and (3) it would be just plain un-American. Anyone in a leadership position ought to have as a goal–especially here in the U.S. with our na...

More than 700 million days of paid time off go untapped every year by American workers. Stress in your workplace? If you can’t cut it with a knife, you can probably at least see a little of it lurking in the dark corners. It’s a fact: If your employees are doing great work–setting and meeting deadlines, inventing new ways of doing things, and generally killing it in your area of expertise–they are, o...

If you listen to the leadership gurus, you tend to hear that there are two possible outcomes in any relationship interaction: win-lose—which you are told to avoid—and win-win—which you are told to strive for at all costs. They’re not wrong, but I would like to suggest that they aren’t going far enough. What do I think you should be looking for when you interact with others? I can tell you in...

DON'T KILL YOUR DREAMS. As a responsible business person, I thought it was the right thing to do. I’m pleading guilty: in the one-pointed pursuit of my business endeavors, I killed off the most important passion of my youth. In visiting with entrepreneurs and other leaders, I’ve noticed a similar trend: Many have abandoned things they were passionate about in their earlier days in order to create wh...

We all know what the glass ceiling is and how it affects women in the workplace. Let me introduce you to the concept of the Velcro floor–and tell you one way leaders can help women pull away from it, starting now. If you knew the recipe for a solution to gender inequality at work, you’d share it, right? Well, I read a study the other day that opened my eyes to what women are saying about the lack of a level p...

Emoji can be useful to make workplace communication friendlier and less abrupt. When used in moderation and in the right context, it can bring people closer together. If you spend any time on social media, you have seen your share of emoji—those little pictures of yellow smiling faces, cups of coffee, and soccer balls. (The older term, “emoticon,” refers to the ones that are done with typographical imag...

Everybody’s telling you to avoid so many meetings. Here’s some opposite advice. It’s almost a cliché that people hate going to meetings, and many of the complaints are legitimate. Meetings take up a lot of time. They distract people from important tasks. To add insult to injury, if you’re the one who called the meeting, some are focused on other things such as daydreaming, looking at their...

As a business leader, I know, you’re no softie. That’s why you’re in charge. You didn’t get where you are today by knowing all the words to “Kumbaya.” You have developed a thick skin, an unsentimental view of the world, and a Teflon exterior that lets problems roll right off your back. Those are all important leadership qualities in the workplace, sure. But if that’s all you are,...