Approachable Leadership Blog
Muhammad Ali | Approachability Minute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unrZsTMtI9A&feature=youtu.be Last week we lost Muhammad Ali. He personified approachability. Even though Ali was a big, powerful man he always looked for ways to shrink distance between himself and others. In today's Approachability...
Workplace Stress Costs Companies $300 Billion a Year
Workplace stress is bad for business and bad for workers.
This, according to recent research compiled by Eastern Kentucky University’s Occupational Safety Department. This new research supports something we’ve emphasized for a while (it is a core topic of our White Paper on The ROI of Approachable Leadership).
Here’s the deal.
Businesses are run by people. Plain and simple. People are emotional, even those of us who have a hard time showing it. We have families, friends, debt, yards to mow, meals to prepare, cars to fix, the list goes on and on (I feel my blood pressure rising just writing that sentence). We have responsibilities – things life requires of us. Then we have jobs. And with a job comes another endless list of more responsibilities.
Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe | Simon Sinek TED Talk
Good leaders make you feel safe, but there’s a difference between good leaders and most leaders. Most leaders make their employees scared.
4 Reasons Why Leaders Should Listen More
Listen more. Talk less. Peter Drucker said, "The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said." I was reminded of this quote last week while reading "4 Things Your Employees Are Desperately Trying to Tell You." This article caught my eye for the...
Approachability Minute | Abilene Paradox
The Abilene Paradox is where a group of people make a decision none of them agree with. Can Approachable Leadership keep your team from going to Abilene?
5 Words to Change to Achieve More in Leadership and Life
Small things make a big difference in what you achieve. I recently read an article about Walt Bettinger, CEO of Charles Schwab. When he interviews someone he takes them to breakfast and asks the wait staff to get the order wrong on purpose. Then he watches the...
Do You Really Want to Lead Others?
Not everyone wants to lead others. When you were promoted to a leadership position did anyone ask, "Do you want to lead others?" It's an interesting question. What if your truthful answer is no - would you be honest? Because in most companies if you don't want to...
Phil Featured in AMA Quarterly
Check out Phil's feature article "Are You the Reason Your Employees Are Leaving?" in the Spring edition of the American Management Association's Quarterly Journal (page 39). The article dives into the research and thought process behind Approachable Leadership. Click...
10 Leadership Books I’m Adding to My Shelf
Leaders are readers. This is a truth affirmed over and over again by the great leaders of the world – Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Ghandi – but the one that got me recently was John W. Gardner. Gardner was "a legendary public intellectual and...
6 Leadership Styles: Which One Are You?
What's your leadership style? Last month Entrepreneur published an interesting article that describes six different leadership styles. The styles were described by Tor Cosantino, who assessed himself as a Pacesetter, only to find out that his peers classified him as a...
Approachability Minute – Nerdy T-Shirt
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVsF8URgj6A] Human preferences change over time. This is the major critique the Austrian School of economics makes against the Keynesian School. Which brings us to the nerdiest t-shirt I own. It also brings up an...
The Role of a Leader: What We Learned from Fortune’s Top 50 List
What is the true role of a leader? Last month Fortune released its third annual list of "The World's 50 Greatest Leaders." It carries names you would expect, like Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, and Pope Francis. It also names some people you may not know like Marc Edwards, the...
Approachability Minute – Prince
It's been a week and a half since Prince passed away at his home in Minnesota. Like most 80's kids, I completely owe my experience and love of music to Prince...I literally wore out my Purple Rain cassette tape. So as you can imagine, when I heard the news for the...
Power Distance: What Leaders Can Learn from the Volkswagen Scandal
Volkswagen's emissions scandal is a case-study in how power distance can kill a company. It began in 1999 when new rules were established on how much nitrogen oxide could be emitted from exhausts on vehicles. The new rules phased in between 2004 and 2009. Around 2007...
10 Qualities of a Real Leader
What’s the recipe for a “real leader?”
Many companies today are cursed with bosses who aren’t leaders.
While companies should always strive to put true leaders into authority positions, sometimes you find bosses who aren’t real leaders. Fortunately you can also have leaders who don’t hold an “official” leadership role. These “informal leaders” are some of the most valuable people in your organization.
Approachability Minute – Bridge
Sometimes leadership lessons come from the most unlikely places – like my 12-year-old daughter. This weekend, as we drove across a bridge, she taught me about perspective.
5 Sources of Social Distance in the Workplace
Social Distance Can Really Disrupt Your Work One of the foundations of Approachable Leadership is the idea of "power distance" (click here to read how power distance destroyed Nokia). Power distance describes how different people react to people in power. Some are...
Approachability Minute – The Masters
Jordan Spieth scored a 7 on a par 3 at the Masters last weekend. What does that have to do with leadership?
