Best-Practices Leadership

Ways to lighten their load

February 12, 2010

With fewer people doing more work, here are three ways to ease the workload: 1. Give people more choices. 2. Help them prioritize. 3. Don’t overload star performers …

From crayons to water guns: Liven up boring meetings

February 12, 2010

In the downturn, productivity is everything. Small business owners are turning to creative solutions for making conference-room time productive. Here are three examples from “Boring Meetings? Get Out the Water Guns”:

You need more than a gut reaction

February 12, 2010

Leaders sometimes go with their gut when making a decision. Just make sure yours isn’t the only gut being consulted, suggests Reid Carr, president of Red Door Interactive. Here’s one tactic for pulling in the intuition of others:

More tweets from the elites

February 12, 2010

ExecTweets, twitter feed of top business executives and IT pros, offers 20 ways businesses are using Twitter. The list, compiled by BusinessWeek, highlights big and small firms. United Linen, for example, used Twitter during a blizzard to let customers know when their fresh linens would arrive.

Stand out from the crowd via LinkedIn

February 12, 2010

Facebook and Twitter may be getting all the attention, but you still need to pay attention to LinkedIn. LinkedIn is important precisely because it is so stodgy and predictable as a business tool. Here’s how to work it:

The 5 habits of successful CEOs

January 11, 2010

“If you think you can learn what works in the real world from anyone but someone who actually succeeded in the real world, well, let’s just say you might want to rethink your management potential,” says Steve Tobak, corporate problem-solver and “The Corner Office” blogger. Here are Tobak’s five ways to behave like a CEO:

3 secrets behind drive

January 11, 2010

Daniel Pink, author of Free Agent Nation, explores three things you can do to keep your staff motivated and productive:

How to generate game-changing ideas

January 11, 2010

Anyone can learn to innovate. That’s what researchers from Harvard Business School, Insead and Brigham Young University say, after a six-year study. They’ve identified the five secrets to being a great innovator: associating, questioning, observing, experimenting and networking.

Never fly solo; use a wingman

January 11, 2010

We all have our blind spots. For a pilot, that spot is the six o’clock position, and it’s the job of a wingman to “check six,” or keep an eye on a pilot’s vulnerable spot. Stretch the metaphor to the workplace, and it’s the leader who could use a wingman, says Air Force fighter pilot Rob “Waldo” Waldman.

Why Casey Stengel didn’t rely on stars

January 11, 2010

He didn’t invent the practice of “platooning” players in baseball, but Casey Stengel honed it to the point that, under his 12-year leadership, the New York Yankees won 10 American League championships and seven World Series. Before Stengel took over the Yankees in 1949, most managers played a set lineup day in and day out.