Leadership definition affects organizational culture
A great many people have attempted to come up with an effective leadership definition. Webster’s defines leadership as: “a position as a leader of a group, organization, etc.; the time when a person holds the position of leader; the power or ability to lead other people.” However, this doesn’t tell you what a leader actually does or the key attributes of a leader. We prefer this definition of leadership: the skill of influencing individuals and teams to enthusiastically accomplish common […]
Are You Leading A Great Team?
Written by:  Don Hadley Businesses are working to compete more effectively with better people and teams. However, competition is tougher now than it has been in the past.  The world moves more swiftly.  The culture of what is expected is vastly different than it was even three years ago. To be able to prevent problems, overcome obstacles and take advantage of opportunities, we need to use true teams to make the difference. The Typical Approach Many leaders develop a following […]
Change Management Process for New Managers
When my friend John moved downstate to take a new position, he was nervous. He was coming into a totally unfamiliar organization as a manager. Most of the people he would be managing were 20-30 years older than he was. There was an established culture with prevailing relationships and time-honored routines, yet part of his job was to shake things up. He and I both worried about his ability to tackle these challenges. How could he, a much younger manager, […]
Dean Smith Shows Why Inclusive Leadership of Diverse Teams Fosters Creativity and Flexibility
Dean Smith began his long and historic coaching career at the University of North Carolina in 1961, at the tender age of 30, but already with a long history of compassion and inclusion behind him. As a high schooler in rural Kansas in the late 1940s, he pushed his school to integrate the basketball program, which at the time had separate teams for black and white players. He kept that activism up at UNC, where he signed the first African-American […]
Introverts in Your Logistics Team: How to Improve Teamship and Communication Skills
A local logistics company had hired a great team of very qualified drivers, engineers, and managers, but they had a problem, and that problem’s name was Dave. Dave was great at planning. He had the math skills of a rocket scientist. He could figure out routes, costs, weights and savings better than anyone else on staff. Dave spotted inefficiencies the way most people spot a twenty-dollar bill on the sidewalk. His face would light up as if he had found […]
Cognitive Flexibility in Leadership Can Make Any NC Business As Nimble As a Small Business
It was 4th down on the two-yard line, early in the first quarter of a September 2013 game between the struggling Carolina Panthers and the go-nowhere Giants. The choice to go for it or not was a seemingly obvious decision. Of course, you kick the field goal. You “have to take the points here,” as announcers are fond of saying. Panther’s head coach Ron Rivera was perhaps the perfect example of a by-the-book coach. Generations of coaches had kicked the […]
How to Increase Employee Engagement in the Workplace
We recently encountered a client with a problem. They wanted to build their business with an engaged, cooperative workforce—a common goal of so many of our clients. However, their company was extremely compartmentalized, so employees from different divisions hardly ever spoke to each other. This led to a great deal of disconnect between various departments. For instance, the sales team and the warehouse team viewed each other as adversaries, rather than as allies. Obviously, this was a roadblock on the […]