The Culture+ Blog
Insights to help you create a compelling and connected culture
High-performance teams come from high-performance cultures
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You are slow (and it’s a good thing!)
You are slow. And so am I. It's a good thing, but it can be frustrating. We are slowly being conditioned by tech that speed is good. Page load times, shipping times, instant communication. Tech can't go fast enough. But people are slow. And, really, being slow is a good thing. We need time to think and to get comfortable with ideas. We like to hear the context behind the initiative. We like to ponder options. We like sitting around and talking. We like to sleep on it. But the pressure is to be...
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My book: Future Leader: Rebooting Leadership to Win the Millennial and Tech Future is available now! (part 5)
What will it take to lead effectively in the future workplace? How should leaders respond to one of the largest generational transitions that is happening right now in every workplace? How should leaders respond to rapidly advancing technology that deftly and expertly...
Future leaders invest their time in Creativity, Interactivity, and Productivity (part 4)
What leadership activities should we be investing in? That is where we left it last time. Looking out over the next decade, I believe the best leadership investments will be made in three areas. The first investment is in Creativity. No, I'm not talking about getting...
Investing our time wisely creates leadership leverage (part 3)
We left it yesterday with, "what does it mean to leverage leadership?" What it means is that we invest more of our time on leadership activities that generate bigger returns, and we spend less of our time on other activities that generate smaller returns. Investing...
The future of leadership is leverage (part 2)
I left you with a question at the end of yesterday's post about the future of leadership. The question was: What should we do? The context of the question was that leadership cannot stay the same while the environment around the leader changes. So, what do we do? My...
The Future Leader (part 1)
I fundamentally believe the role of the leader is rapidly changing. Today's leader and the future leader will be, in essence, two very different people. The reason they will be different people is because they will be solving different problems. Think of it in a...
Trust in 1/10th of one second
In only 1/10th of one second, the new person you just met has decided if they can trust you. One tenth of one second. Have you ever done this? Met someone and had an instant reaction, either good or bad? It's visceral. The article that mentioned this stat went on to...
Can we quit calling everything leadership already?
Can we quit calling everything leadership already? It's leadership to get up early and get started on the day. It's leadership when you read more books. It's leadership when you speak out against the comfortable consensus at work. It's leadership when you save your...
Leaders disproportionately influence culture
I wrote yesterday's post about the clear, nice, and expert Starbucks manager from a different Starbucks location. I wrote that post from a location I had not been to before. Unlike the store where the expectations had been communicated clearly, nicely, and expertly,...
Clearly, nicely, expertly
I was in a Starbucks the other day. I chose to sit at the coffee counter near where the baristas make the magic. At this particular location, and at that particular time, I had the privilege of hearing the store manager clearly, nicely, and expertly lay out his...
Future Leaders use onboarding to create connection
One in three people leave a job within six months of starting. I read that stat today and it took me a bit by surprise. What could possibly go wrong in six months that would cause somebody to leave? Then, I married that stat up with another one of my favorite stats....
Underestimating what can be done
Give it more time. We tend to overestimate what we can do in a week or a month, and underestimate what can get done in a year or five. Just give it some more time to blossom. Your project, your promotion, your work, your vision. It can happen. All in due time.
Can you spare five minutes?
What can you do with 5 minutes? Earlier today, I had five minutes until I needed to leave and I had just finished something. It's a weird amount of time because there is nothing you can really do with any intention. Yes, I could have left even earlier for my next...