Welcome to Great Leadership! This blog is retired and no longer publishing new content or accepting guest posts. However,  there are over 1200 posts in the archive that can be accessed chronologically or via the search box on the sidebar. You can also purchase an ebook with over 40 of my best posts organized by chapters. See top tab.  - Dan McCarthy ..read more

Guest post from Sarah Rozenthuler: In our rapidly changing world, new pressures are emerging. To navigate more demanding customer expectations, an acute distrust of business and so much remote working, leaders need to find new ways of operating. Cultivating leadership presence is foundational for this to happen. With deeper presence, a leader is able to remain centred when facing unexpected disruptions, be open to new directions and build trusting relationships. People follow people. Leaders who are grounded in who they are, what they stand for and what really matters take others with th ..read more

Guest post from Ruth King: How many times have you heard “It’s not my fault” from an employee when it really IS that employee’s fault? He is making excuses about why he didn’t do his job. If he really can’t do the job either training is necessary, or a career readjustment is necessary (my euphemism for firing someone). He has to do what he was hired for or you don’t need that employee. Employees must be personally responsible for their work.  This is one of the toughest things to teach employees because most of them have grown up not taking personal responsibility for anything…and t ..read more

Guest post from Beth Miller: Values are more than a list of words on your website or a poster in your office. For values to benefit an organization they need to be lived by everyone and fully integrated into a company’s processes and decisions.  Without a focus in your values, a clear definition of each value, and integrating your values into your hiring and performance management system, your values will remain hollow words. Focus I remember many years ago going to visit a new client. Upon entering the lobby, I couldn’t help but notice the very large poster with a listing of compan ..read more

Guest post from Stephen Shapiro: To find better solutions to your most difficult business problems, paradoxically, you don’t want o focus on solutions. Instead you want to make sure you are asking the right questions. Changing the question changes the range of possible solutions. Changing Just One Word Can Change Your Solutions If your challenge is, “How can we hire the right talent?”, you might put your energies into time-consuming campus outreach programs, complicated recruitment campaigns, or expensive technology. But changing the question to, “How can we retain the right talent?” ma ..read more

Guest post from Grace Pacie: We’ve all heard the story that lateness costs the country billions in lost productivity  - it’s claimed that lateness costs American businesses more than $3 billion dollars a year, but can that figure be trusted?  Are late people a liability or an asset in the business world? Punctuality issues are very often combined with a bundle of behaviours which I have christened “Timebending” in my new book ‘LATE! A Timebender’s guide to why we are late and how we can change’. Timebenders do not work in a linear way – they get deeply absorbed in their work an ..read more

Guest post by Clint Babcock: Recently I was teaching a class on negotiation for salespeople. I set up a buyer–seller role play scenario and I asked two participants to work through the scenario in front of the rest of the class.  Both were provided with the pertinent information they needed to secure a good deal; all they had to do was negotiate the price.  I specifically narrowed this role play down to this one issue; neither one of them knew what they were selling.  Such a scenario allows participants to focus on how best to work through the money issue. The point of doi ..read more

Guest post by Steven K. Gold, M.D.: Leadership is all about decision and action. As leaders, our goal is to make the best decisions that lead to the most productive actions. As the world becomes less certain, even highly unpredictable, how do we go about optimizing our chances for success? Fortunately, we have a group of experienced leaders who have been grappling with the challenges of uncertainty for many years: successful entrepreneurs. For over 20 years, I have studied entrepreneurs. As an academic and as a thought leader, I have conducted studies of thousands of entrepreneurs of all ..read more

Guest post from Rob Hartnett: “What is a high-performance leader?” a leader asked me in a Facebook Live session. One of the many I have done since Covid-19 as we pivot to new ways of working. A high-performance leader is one who is intentional about their leadership. They are not a leader because their position entitles them to be; they see leadership as a verb, a skill to continue to develop and hone. High-performance leaders operate with a growth mindset and are great communicators. A growth mindset means they operate with: 1. Agility 2. Curiosity 3. Persistence From my research and e ..read more

Guest post from Beth Miller: We’ve all been challenged with at least one difficult person at work. Why do they have to be so rude, dismissive, abrasive, etc.? Difficult employees aren’t the person who has a bad day and acts out in appropriately, they are the ones who have gained a reputation for being difficult. And, if they are spreading their bad behavior to others and having a negative impact on the team, then they are more than difficult, they are toxic. Why are they so difficult? This is the first question that you need to ask yourself. Experience has shown me that there is often an und ..read more