Mary Barra or Miley Cyrus

For all those skeptics who have always complained of the glass ceiling, and that they cannot get to their goals because of XYZ, there was yet another piece of evidence yesterday, Tuesday Dec. 10^th.  Mary Barra was named GM CEO the successor of CEO Dan Akerson.  The first female CEO in GM history, she is scheduled to start her new role in January this coming year.  Mary Barra has worked at GM for 33 years and has experience with positions in manufacturing, engineering and senior management. She began her GM career a co-op student in the Pontiac Motor Division in 1980 and gradually worked her way up the corporate ladder.  So although her goals in making CEO didn’t exactly happen overnight, her proven track record and careful career planning certainly did payoff. 

Within the past decade, many organizations have realized the essential need for diversity in sustainable growth, innovation and success.  Although historically women have been underrepresented in the automotive industry similar to engineering and technology, organizations such as GM have made a formal commitment to focus on women as a strategic lever for growth. 

Organizations who are driven for success, are increasing the percentage of female recruits, they effectively identify and mentor women with management potential, and increase the number of women in leadership positions.  Women can help organizations relate to a customer base that includes a higher percentage of women.  Leading companies recognize the importance of having women involved in product development and innovation. 

The most important initiative that a company can take to improve their gender diversity as well as their overall strategic Human Capital planning as it relates to competitive advantage, is to measure where they are in total numbers.  Metrics is the only sure way of expecting change and growth. 

Beyond measuring, training can make a significant difference because company leaders and hiring managers may not even realize their own gender bias.  Recruiting, retaining and advancing women is not about quotas or a checklist, but rather it’s about identifying the best possible talent and heading them toward the goals of gaining economic and innovative competitiveness.  Women are currently underpaid and under-recognized, and that’s a fact.  In fact, the gender pay gap has hover at 77 cents on the dollar since 2007 (Huffington Post). However, an organization simply cannot have the goal of by excellence in service and quality in product development, if only 50% of its employee population are given a seat at the table. 

Unlike the automotive industry, the entertainment industry has realized the value of women in driving the bottom-line.  Although she is no Miley Cyrus when it comes to popularity in the media,  Mary Barra who currently ranks 35^th on the Forbes List of 100 Most Powerful Women, is proof that organizations are slowly but surely waking up and jumping on the band wagon to the best kept secret; the Woman Human Capital Advantage. 

Transformers Ultimate Power

Now days, when we hear the words Transformer, we automatically think of the entertainment franchise co-produced between the Japanese Takara Tomy and American Hasbro toy companies back from the 1980’s. The original forms of the transformers utilized varying humanoid-type figures while later versions presented robots able to transform into everyday vehicles, electronic items or weapons.  On the other hand, the word Transformer has been in the engineering and physics realm for many years, dating back to the early days of the use of electricity. A transformer is an electrical device that takes electricity of one voltage and changes it into another voltage. You'll see transformers at the top of utility poles and even changing the voltage in a toy train set.  Although it seems the terms are worlds apart, there is a common theme between the two and that is Change. 

So why are we suddenly talking about engineering and the entertainment industry?  That’s because as leadership development strategists, we are in the business of change.  Preparing leaders and organizations for change outside of themselves in the case of their organization, but also change within them.  In today’s’ fast paced and highly volatile economic environment, it is even more imperative that people and organizations not only adapt to change, but to also invite it.  What’s the difference? From an organization development perspective, benchmarking, strategy planning and competitive advantage are based on the premise that in order to stay competitive, our offerings need to stay innovative in the eyes of our customers.  This is not unchartered territory.  From the days of Ford Motor Companies to McDonalds and up to now, this basic principle has had to take precedence.  However, what about from the viewpoint of employee productivity and team leadership? 

There has always been the discussion that one can be a good manager without being a good leader. In fact, there was a theory discussed not too long ago called transactional leadership.   Transactional leadership would encompass the exchange of traditionally expected tasks: managing, supervising, organizing work, and monitoring performance. This would mean following procedures, a set of guidelines and tasks.  Bringing this back to our original discussion of organization development, the question I want to pose to you is:  in a transactional environment, what behavior if any is the manager going to encourage?  My answer:  Status Quo.  The truth is, a manager is only avoiding failure by managing, meaning prevention and cannot be the catalyst to change, meaning proactive.  The change we are referring to here would cover many areas including adapting to individual employees needs, motivating employees according to their motivational triggers, job design based on talents rather than just resume matching, and proactive team productivity measures, such as innovation days, and culture change in general, just to name a few.  These examples are all in a sense, babies born out of the marriage of a learning organization culture, and transformational leadership.  The initiatives and processes leading to each of them require constant cultivation and nurturing.

It was James MacGregor Burns who first used the term transformational leadership in 1978 to describe a process in which “leaders and followers help each other to advance to a higher level of morale and motivation.”

In any circumstance, if you want to have someone perform according to your liking, they have to want to perform.  Long gone are the days of the iron fist, or the “I will fire you”.  Having influence comes from trust, support, and the match between the intrinsic motivation of the follower and the influencing power of the leader. We have seen even under circumstances of severe punishment, whether physical or emotional, such as the Nazi Concentration Camps, or the Abolishment of Slavery during the Civil War, that over a period of time, people will only follow those, whom they believe in. 

Reasons Transformational Leadership has an influential effect:

• It is able to create a supportive environment where responsibility is shared
• It is able to encourage actions that support the organization rather than personal interests
• It is able to break through status quo; have freedom to set strategy and change direction
• It is able to allow one to earn genuine trust, respect, and admiration of their team
• It is able motivate performance and business impact beyond expectations

In our next article, we will discuss, suggested ways a leader can find their transformational voice.  In the mean time, stay tuned to our Interview Series Titled:  The Voice of Leadership on Blog Talk Radio.

Transformer Photo Credit: HD Wallpapers

Related Reads:

Leadership Qualities of Angela Ahrendts
Steve Jobs Leadership
Ballmer Away Microsoft

Let’s Talk Woman To Woman

In 2013, with the advents of the changes in the pregnancy and leave act, the announcement of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer of her pregnancy and intention to only take two weeks off and the release of the book Lean In, there has been yet another invitation to revisit feminism.  It seems as if there is a necessary need for change to shake the foundation of the cultural basis, which supports oppression of individuality: the expression of individuality, of not only working and non-working women, but also that of men. Part of what made feminism so successful was the way women in different situations developed their own variants and organized for the goals most important to them (see the timeline here). All women:  Native American women, working class women, Jewish women, Catholic women, sex workers, and women with disabilities, described what gender equality would mean for them and worked together to achieve it.  It seems as if somewhere along the line, in the hopes of equality, the divide got even larger between men and women.  

The truth is, for women to be more capable of what they want to do, their male counterparts need to be mobilized to be who they want to be as well.  We simply cannot expect one part of society to change without it affecting the other parts.  A good analogy of society would be the human body.  If one organ of the human body was affected by a disease like diabetes, it would affect the other parts.  Likewise, for medication to be effective, it would have to relieve symptoms in all organs of the body, rather than just one. 

So what does all this mean today? 

Women such as Gail Evans having been in the playing field since the 60’s, first as a former Press Secretary and then as an Executive Vice President of CNN, have urged women to “not complain and accept the role of a victim,” however going on to compare women to men in communication style and how to “win,”  Although the differences in behavior are valid, what are they actually teaching society? Men or women? That even in the 21^st century when they thought they had the freedom to choose who they wanted to be, they have to regard men as their role models rather than creating their own style and balance if you will.  In her book, Play like a Man and Win like a woman, Gail points out that “girls are brought up to be nice and pleasing,”  As a mom raising boys, I am sure I am not the only one who teaches my boys the value of respect and kindness.  Even in her book Lean In written by Sheryl Sandberg the COO of Facebook, she says “we have to ask ourselves if we have become so focused on supporting personal choices that we are failing to encourage women to aspire to leadership,” Another double standard assuming that all women want to be in positions of leadership and if they don’t, society is not “aspiring” them to do so. 

When generalized statements such as these are made by women, I am even more disappointed than I would be if a man made them.  Men and women are different, they will always be.  No matter what society changes, the biology and psychology of the two are different.  A woman’s choice to be a leader vs. cashier, a dancer or a researcher or a homemaker, is just as personal her deciding whom she wants to marry, how many children she wants to have, and so on. In fact, when I interviewed happy homemakers who are perfectly content raising a family and having a part-time job may be, the number one thing that they said was how sick they were of women executives who thought their choices were not good enough, or that somehow they were “victims.”  

The double standards are so prevalent among women, but when Mississippi governor Phil Bryant says “America’s educational troubles began when women began working outside the home in large numbers,” eyebrows are raised.  Cheryl Sandberg herself said that the greatest career decision a woman makes is whom she marries, implying that her husband is supportive.  The question I have is, isn’t the real career decision in that case made by her husband, rather than by her? What if similar to her, her husband wanted to be a COO and as she so bluntly put it didn’t want to “sit at the table” because he put his career first? 

The truth is not all women want to be executives, not all women want to be politicians, and not all women want to be COO.  If as a society we want to level the playing field, we have to put individuality before gender, rather than trying to focus on the differences between genders.  A man makes a choice to be a pilot, a nurse, or a ballerina just like he makes a choice to be an executive.  Women need to have that choice too.  Rather than being compared to men and then being told, they try too hard, or that they are too pleasing.  As a western society, we have become so accustomed to changing things that, what feels natural is no longer valued.  Happiness comes from balance, and balance is based on authenticity, rather than what “should” be.  Whether a man is “shoulding” on a woman’s choice, or another woman is “shoulding” on a woman’s choice, it is all the same.  Not all women’s choices are created equal and neither are all men’s and that’s what makes the world a beautiful place and what makes it turn; diversity of choices.

The Various Flavors of Women | Create infographics

More related reading:

Why Business Success needs Business Women

Why are there so few lady scientists?

Margaret Thatcher Leadership Qualities to Note

Don’t expect an Emmy Award in the C-Suite

We all keep hearing about that word; the one that is supposed to be the glue of organizations, the developer of financial and human capital sustenance and growth.  Yes, I am referring to leadership.  It is not a prized position.  In fact, when things go well, it’s all about the team, and when it goes bad, it’s all about their bad judgment.  But I am not here to define leadership.  Many sources, including Center for Work Life blogs have done this already, but I want to shed some light on managing your career as a leader.  How would one go about using one’s abilities and talents and focus on developing the competencies necessary to choose the right companies, functions and teams to fulfill the leadership challenge?  Pinpointing the needed competencies in today’s highly divergent geographical and industrial market is a hard enough question.  I am aiming to answer what will be useful in the future. 

I have examined hundred of executives profiles over the past decade or so and have interviewed numerous top manager regarding the talents and competencies of current and future leaders, especially within the C-Suite and have found some clear “cuts” if you will (pun intended).

Credit: James Martin (CNET)

The truth is that although there used to be clear lines between the various C-level jobs and their functions, today’s technology and global decision oriented market demands that at the forefront of one’s technical and functional expertise, executives hone in on their leadership and business acumen as a whole.  Every C-level executive needs to have a plan for how to develop a structure that will provide a competitive edge.  This is exactly the reason why upon promotion to the C-Suite, executives can no longer solely rely on what they had as competencies, but rather to quickly add to the repertoire as relates to business strategies and contributions to key decisions within the overall organization, rather than their unit or department or function.

It is now more important than ever for functions and departments to come out of the parochial thinking and respond quickly to what the organization’s vision dictates, so that they can get the necessary actions built by their teams in conjunction.

Whether a CIO, CMO, CSHO, CHRO, CFO,  or CEO, the executive suite, is less exclusively concerned with functions within their role, and is instead more attuned with leadership and organization effectiveness across multiple platforms, functions, and regions across the world.  In a sense, the C-Suite today is no longer just a function leader, but rather a “Hybrid” of all function leaders.  One of the common concerns I hear when working with our C-Suite clients is that they feel they have more in common with their executive peers than with the people within their function whom they have been amongst for years.  “This is not a bad thing” I tell them.  It means you are evolving to your needs” I tell them. So here are some needs and the talents and competencies necessary to meet them:

1.  With the advents of technology and generational changes in the market from baby boomers to millennials, all C-level positions have to poise themselves to manage a workforce and a customer base that has grown up in the digital age and has a strong desire for speed and immediate communication.

2.  One of the greatest and most emphasized themes concerning leadership within the C-Suite is the concept of risk management.  Due to the various global events that have shaped the economy since a decade ago,  such as 911 and the Wall Street Revolution, executives need to act as partners in making rational choices.  Balancing the agenda between new opportunities and assessing them for merits strategically and financially should be at the heart of every C-level leader.  This will mean becoming more culturally and internationally aware and training their team on real-time operational and legal effectiveness across multiple time zones.  Safety, security, and reputation management are all becoming integral to the senior leadership’s agenda.

3.  Less risk means more need for collaboration, increased need for transparency, and innovation and a more active rather than reactive mindset. 

4.  Investing largely in succession plan development is a huge component of competitiveness among organizations, and as a talent specialist, I am so often concerned to see this be treated as an HR priority, rather than an entire organization’s goal toward striking a competitive advantage. Ironically, our research shows that it’s now more common for the CEOs to owe their jobs to the boards rather than to their predecessors. Over the past year there was a notable jump in the number of CEOs who were recruited from their company’s board. I hope that this comes with more accountability at the top. Internal hires are certainly recommended as C-level recruits, as they create the right morale for teams, but board appointed candidates are as good as the board’s effectiveness. Is the board rightly facilitated? Is the board diverse enough?

5. With more women in the executive suite, more millennials and more demands in work-life balance, extrapolating the link between top performers’ personal values and their valued proposition to the organization will need to be a top priority.  Leadership within the executive suite needs to be directly tied to the key performance indicators of an organization to deem it as surmountable for the success and ROI of talent to organization performance.  Vision execution will no longer be the CEO’s job, but that of the entire C-Suite.

6.  All and all, the types of skills increasingly in favor are strong communication, empathy, collaboration, and trust building. One skill that will be of foremost importance will be the ability to elicit public trust as the face of the company. That will include facility and credibility with socially responsible initiatives. To thrive as a C-level executive, an individual needs to be a good communicator and team player, a culturally aware collaborator, capable of leading regardless of rank, a strategic thinker who can connect with key players quickly, able to engage their team and customers with flexibility and resistant to stress and burnout.

This last theme has run consistently through my findings in that the requirements for all the C-level jobs have shifted toward Emotional Intelligence and “softer” leadership skills. Technical skills are merely a starting point, for what is the success factor. In other words, the Hybrid executive can no longer lead from the “Suite”, he/she has to lead, eager and starry eyed, with a diamond hand from anywhere, and anytime, Emmy Awards not included!

Inspiration is not just the Beach at Trouville

Considering the report by CBSNews that this year’s Gallup survey shows 70% of employees are not inspired by their work, the journey to achieving inspiration and engagement may seem unrealistic. In Greek mythology, inspiration was thought to be accessible only through muses, who appeared to certain people at certain times. Though the concept of muses is a less popular belief in modern culture, inspiration still remains elusive. However, those who spend time to better acquaint themselves with inspiration have learned it’s not an elusive mythological being, but an achievable and maintainable state of existing. For that matter, inspiration is known to have two qualities. First, it is catalytic and second, it’s collectively infectious, especially in the workplace.

How to create an Inspirational Work Culture

1.       Stay on Target

Great leaders don’t change history by solving unimportant issues, just as multi-million dollar companies don’t succeed without meeting a need. When it comes to maintaining inspiration in the workplace, managers and organizations should regularly visit and re-visit the organization’s mission.

2.       Invest in your players

In Human Capital is an Important Factor for the Success of an Organization , Ravindu Gamage states that Human capital is a valuable resource, because it recognizes that people should be treated as assets, rather than as an expense. Within this frame of mind, every employee should be valued and nurtured within a company. This can be accomplished through investing in employee’s talents and interests, as well as utilizing the Five Languages for Engagement TM.

3.       Guide relentlessly

When solving the puzzle that is inspiration, why not turn to some of the most inspired and loved artists in history? Eugene Boudin: The Man Who Inspired Monet is perhaps a fitting article for consideration.

The Beach at Trouville
By: Boudin

Boudin saw Monet’s charcoal drawings and knew he could do more. Though Monet was not particularly interested in painting, Boudin kept encouraging him to paint with him on the beach. Finally, after some time and Boudin’s continued guidance, similar to the inception of a firework, Monet bloomed and became passionate about painting, moving forward to lead the impressionist movement. Good leaders see potential and invest in their employees with care and unwavering determination.

4.       Share stories

When in doubt of the power of storytelling, simply refer to the IMDB highest grossing box office films, with Avatar topping the list at $760,505,847. People love stories and are propelled by their motivational influence. Just as books line the shelves at Barnes and Noble and movies continually flow into theaters, stories cycle through every company and every office. The key is to become the narrator of inspiring stories about the general human condition which minimizes differences in people and capitalizes on their collective power and determination to win.  Tell humorous and motivational stories by the water cooler and in meetings.  Your stories will strengthen work culture by inspiring others, as well as influencing them to share positive memories.

5.       Inspire with motivation

Countless studies have shown that employees, who are challenged by their roles, excel and strengthen their organizations. Challenges lead to trial and tribulations, resulting in learning and growth. Heard of the saying, “couples who play together stay together?” It’s even truer in organizations.  Engagement comes from participation in common goals.  In order to “keep the fire burning,” continual skill building is vital. Take employees out of their comfort zones and challenge them to do more.

Inspiration isn’t something that can be touched or tasted, but it is certainly something that can be influenced and felt. So go forth, and inspire.

Liar Liar… is someone’s business suit on fire?

Truth is a tricky thing. The movie Liar Liar, illustrates this well. Fletcher Reede is a man who builds his life and career on lies, which in the end comes back to haunt him. He learns that his perpetual dishonesty has forever damaged his home and professional relationships. On the other hand, when Reede is forced to tell nothing but the absolute truth, he hurts people’s feelings and still damages relationships. So we know that blatant deceit isn't good, but is honesty always the best policy?

 Why We Don’t Always Tell The Truth published by the Harvard Review provides interesting insight. Author of the article, Ron Ashkenas, focuses on the concept of “shading the truth” at appropriate times. He says “there are times when a little white lie or the absence of key facts might be appropriate.” In his writing, a salesman serves as an example for the type of role that may involve limiting the truth and figuring out how to deliver it later. Realistically, his argument is even backed by performance statistics. Research referenced in Honest Workers at a Disadvantage on the Job found that honest employees didn’t perform as well, had lower customer satisfaction scores and yielded fewer sales conversions. In essence, this is the case because customers felt satisfied with the transaction upfront when they talked to a fibber.

At first glance higher scores and more sales seems great. In fact, it feels good to tell someone what they want to hear and make them happy. But as demonstrated by Fletcher in Liar Liar, there are consequences down the line. Customer satisfaction scores for dishonest transactions would likely plummet upon further investigation. The real truth would eventually surface after receiving the misrepresented product or service and it would not only damage that employee’s scores, it would also create a bad image for the company.

Furthermore, within the same research which demonstrated on the job liars performed better, it was ironically revealed that dishonest employees stayed with companies for significantly smaller periods of time and required more supervision. Understandably, dishonest employees weren't trusted with as much by their employers.  

As a general rule of thumb, there are pros and cons for more and less honesty when it comes to “getting the job done”. Less honest employees tend to benefit immediately while honest employees see long term rewards. But there is an important factor that hasn't been addressed yet, which is the delivery of honesty. What about the new breed of employees, whom we’ll call “Kind Truth Tellers?” These are individuals strong in their emotional intelligence and leadership skills. Kind Truth Tellers avoid jobs that involve offering a service they can’t tell the truth about. As positive people, they understand how to highlight the best aspects of their service or product, while being completely honest. After an up-beat friendly conversation about the product of interest to a customer, a Kind Truth Teller might say “It sounds like you might really enjoy this ______ and I’m so glad I could answer your questions today. As it is very important that you’re completely satisfied, I want to make sure you know that this product has a delayed shipping date of July 20^th.” Including the less appealing truth may lose the sale. More likely, it will gain the trust, and respect of the customer.

Be it a sales call or a conversation between a manager and an employee, honesty is the best policy. As individuals, everyone has the ability to remain honest if they work at it. All that being said, even when the truth can’t be softened, it is still best in the long run for everyone involved. Better the customer knows upfront that they don’t want that product, than they never buy from the store again due to lack of trust. As shown by research, the employee who is treated kindly, but occasionally challenged through honest feedback, will grow and likely gain ground in their career.

No one is saying complete honesty is easy or that it is even continuously sustainable. We are all human and we all slip up. However, the goal is to continue developing ourselves and try. It seems appropriate to close with one of history’s most famous honesty quotes, which was coined by Thomas Jefferson “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.” 

Additional Topics of Professional Interest:

Lions and Tigers and Confidence, oh my!
Leadership Qualities of Nelson Mandela
How to avoid bottling Emotions

Calling Stumbleupon users. My organization, Center for Work Life, is on Stumbleupon and we would love to follow you. Come visit us so we can share content.

Trees, Taxes, Expos and Such

What do Taxes and Trees have in common?

Have you ever thought about your capacity to be as awesome as a tree? Not in the sense of being covered in bark and leaves, but in the sense of your existence and all you do. A tree stands strong through the wind, holding the weight of others who reside within it, and protecting those who find shelter under its branches. A tree’s most important function is oxygen production which contributes to sustaining life. In fact, the healthiest trees are those that best perform the services above. One might imagine those trees would also be the happiest, if they could say so themselves.

Are people so different? Research by many sources, including Harvard Business School explains that people who give more are happier. In an organization sense, the larger organization has many trees embedded within it, in that employees who feel supported and nurtured toward growth by their leadership will serve as smaller trees in guiding the path of other employee. Behavior I/O psychologists refer to this as Organization Citizenship Behavior.  Healthy Organizations, are in fact trees with a lot of germination potential.

Not convinced?

Below are some other facts to consider.

1. Individuals experience stronger positive moods by providing a service to others. Psychologists believe that being charitable effects brain chemistry by inducing endorphins.

2. The happiness created by giving has been observed globally amidst many cultures, the rich and the poor. Essentially, research suggests that this is a psychologically universal trait.

3. Furthermore, for those who need even more of an incentive, Giving is rewarded by the IRS in the form of a Tax deduction.

So keep giving and smiling to stay happy like a tree.  

Additional Topics of Interest:

Here are some more posts and happenings from Center for Work Life:

The Jedi Guide to Self-Confidence

Evolve to Resolve

How to Ward off Negative Energy in the Workplace

Don't just sell them, Wow them! - New speaking sample video

Events:

Center for Work Life made a trip to the Entrepreneur's Law School Expo today, which was a lovely event. Making new friends and learning about the wonderful accomplishments of fellow professionals always makes for a great morning. 

Dr. Farnaz (Center for Work Life)

Emilyann (Center for Work Life)

Iron Man 3 and The Leadership Gadgets

Acting as a leader is like writing your own screenplay. You have a vision of making a difference but getting from “A” to “B” isn't as simple as 1, 2, 3. In the case of a screenplay, ultimately the audience isn't concerned about the details of writing mechanics or the changes that happened along the way. Many written words, team collaboration during production, and more lead to what the audience does care about which is the movie. The final product is what causes impact and draws out reaction. Without achieving a result that demands impact while evoking reaction, time spent on the screenplay is wasted. Obviously, leaders face a similar dilemma. Leaders can spend years following leadership checklists, but if they haven’t discovered how to spark reaction in people, they've likely not achieved potential.

So how does a leader “write” their life screenplay in such a way that pushes the boundaries; a screenplay, that like some of the best movies impacts people’s cores and demands action? Let’s look at some great movies like Iron Man 3 to utilize some tricks.

Remember the “Human Factor”

Photo Credit: Fan Pop

Heavy action and special effects are a common trend in high-budget Hollywood movies today. The problem is that more and more of these movies become so entrenched in the “fluff” that they lose the human connection to the audience. Fortunately, not all blockbusters have fallen pray to the trend. Iron Man 3 has received praise in this area because the writers chose to emphasize Tony Stark’s bad past and relationships. Despite his superhero persona as Iron Man, the audience gets to know the person underneath. Basically this film relies more heavily on relating to the character rather than showing a lot of “fluff.”

As a workforce leader, don’t get caught up in the numbers, the data and the statistics. Those elements are all important to the business, but as a leader, one must focus on behaviors that are responsible for producing the numbers. Only in that sense can the numbers provide an indication of the extent to which the focus is appropriate or should be altered.

Cling to the Unexpected

Unfortunately with the age of technology has come a very impatient society. Everything is at our fingertips and boredom strikes easily. Keeping each day upbeat prevents disinterest. When analyzing classically successful films, the unexpected moments are of course the most noteworthy. Think of when Darth Vader revealed his identity as Luke’s father in Star Wars. More recently, Tony Stark finds himself in the unexpected scenario of functioning without access to all his money.

As the writer of your leadership screenplay, don’t be afraid to take risks or try the unexpected. Take it to the next level by challenging yourself ruthlessly. Sure, it is scary and sometimes it won’t result the way you thought it might. Still, even when things don’t go as planned, being a risk taker and innovator will inspire others. Inspiring others is the true mark of a leader.

Recent Topics of Interest

Below are some additional Center for Work Life posts on other platforms. I hope you will find these insights helpful.



Avoiding Groupthink
Bringing Online Meetings to Life
Social Media Ethics
Healthcare Reforms and The Healthy Organization
Conflict Resolution Tips




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