Know it alls make the worst leaders.  The best leaders ask great questions.

Why hiring an executive coach is like hiring a personal trainer for your brain.

Assembling a personal board of directors (PBOD) is a great approach to gaining career insights and advice from a diverse group of trusted advisers.  Learn how to approach assembling your PBOD.

Having a development plan is an important step towards achieving career success, but too many people rely on their bosses and the company to develop the plan.  Take matters into your own hands and own your development plan.

We learn best when we step out of our comfort zone and into the learning zone.  Here are some tips on how to open yourself up to new learnings.

Unlike in sports where the competitions are scheduled, in business the competition never stops, unless your team calls a TIMEOUT.  When was the last time your team called a timeout.

Do you have a daily ritual?  Something you do every day just for you.  Forget servant leadership for a minute and understand that selfish leadership can be important at times too.

I have worked for three companies in my career that had Ping-Pong (Table Tennis) tables in the offices.  The Motley Fool,Time Warner Cable’s Road Runner operation and Doosan Infracore International.  The existence of a Ping-Pong table in each of those environments was very telling about the type of culture that each company wanted to foster.

Three Leadership lessons from an art and innovation workshop at the McColl Center.  Originally published in the Charlotte Agenda.

When working with senior leaders one of the biggest hurdles is to get them to see constructive feedback in a positive light. Too often leaders think feedback is an attack on them.   Referring to feedback as a gift opens their eyes to the positives.

As leaders it is the small actions that can have large impacts. Think about the last time you greeted your employees or customers in the office lobby or at the front door to your retail outlet. If you have never tried it, go for it. That small gesture will have a lasting positive impact. Learn how the actions of one school leader model the behaviors of a great leader.

As a former leader that I worked with always said using the military term, you want “Fewer soldiers, better fed”.  A headcount freeze is an opportunity to increase hiring not freeze it.  The problem is that too many organizations mix up the intent versus the impact.  It is important to be very clear on the goal.  If the goal is to freeze employee expenses (salaries and benefits) at their current level, then a headcount freeze can achieve the same result as a hiring freeze, but in a much more effective manner. 

The key to being a great actor is to be yourself.  Acting is not about impersonation, it is about originality.  The same concept holds true in the business world.  As a leader, the most important attribute you can bring to your job is your authenticity.  There is no one else like you in the world and that is what makes each of us special and different.  Too many people spend their working lives trying to be like someone else or adjusting their personality and approach to “fit in”. 

Stop trying to block the exit door. Instead, focus on getting your employees engaged in opening new doors within your organization.

One of the biggest issues facing many our Groove Management’s clients is employee retention.  Turnover is up across the board.  Voluntary attrition rates continue to climb because the job market has heated up.  Employees are recognizing that there are a lot more opportunities in the marketplace than have existed during the past eight years.  With the aid of LinkedIn and other socialrecruiting tools, recruiters are doing a better job of identifying passive job seekers.  The end result is that companies are struggling to hold onto their top talent.

The toughest interview question I ever faced was frustrating at the time, but turned into one of my greatest career learnings.  

Similar to starting a new job or a new school, the Panthers entered the 2014 season feeling good about themselves.  They had completed a winning season the year before despite being eliminated in the first playoff game.  This season got off to a decent start with a 2-0 record.  The fans were on board and everyone had high hopes.  Then the Panthers hit a wall.  It was as if someone had cast a spell over them.  They won only one of their next nine games; well they did have a tie in there.  Entering December with a record of 3-8-1, the fans and everyone else had counted them out.  Maybe next year they would get their act together. 

Action learning programs exercise the strategic muscles of an organization, build leadership capability, drive employee engagement and improve business results.  Why not trust your strategy projects to your high potentials?

A few employment branding ideas,  each one serves the purpose of building a stronger employment brand.  The products connect your employees to your brand in a unique and fun way.  Even more importantly they connect your employees family to your company and your brand.

Not only was Oscar de la Renta a progressive fashion designer, he was also an insightful leader who recognized the importance of creating a succession plan.  Too many creatives allow their egos and sense of self worth stand in the way of creating an organization that can carry on in their absence.  Oscar de la Renta was unique in this regard.  We can all learn a lesson about just how fashionable succession planning can be from Oscar.