Retention Problems?
One leader behavior reduces turnover intention by
%
Want to know what it is?
Watch the video.
What People are Saying…
How Approachable Leadership Helps Reduce Turnover and Improve Retention…
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?
Which Cover Do You Like Best?
We are about to release our new book, The Approachability Playbook, and we'd love your feedback on our cover design. Please take a moment to let us know which one you like best! Write you answer in the comment section below.
Panama Papers Leadership Lessons: 3 Tips to Increase Transparency
By now you’ve probably heard about the Panama Papers – the 11.6 million files leaked from the database of the world’s fourth largest offshore law firm in, you guessed it, Panama. The documents name a number of notable international politicians, business leaders and celebrities who are said to be using offshore bank accounts to hide their money or avoid paying taxes. Click here to brush up on details of the scandal.
Leadership Lessons from the Panama Papers Scandal
One important leadership aspect of this story was first called out by Geoff Colvin in his Fortune article. He states that discoveries like the Panama Papers – where we find that our elected leaders aren’t what we thought they were – are becoming less and less of a “scandal.” Sadly, we are beginning to expect this kind of reality from our leadership. This begs the question: “Are today’s leaders more corrupt, venal, or dishonest than yesterday’s?”
“Human nature being what it is, it’s hard to believe that they are,” Colvin writes.
But they appear to be. And that’s all that matters.
Taliesin! Watch This Week’s Approachability Minute with Phil
My team and I are excited to bring you the first video in a series, The Approachability Minute. In these videos, I will touch on some of the main concepts of Approachable Leadership. Each video will be just a few minutes long so you watch quickly, gain some insight, and hopefully leave that minute with some new ideas to improve your leadership immediately.
Our first video asks, “What kind of space are you creating at work?”
Batman, Superman and Positive Leadership
This weekend I subjected my wife and daughter to Batman v Superman. Critics are panning the movie, calling it dark, humorless, and too long. All true. I can pick out many things I would change. Instead let me tell you what I appreciated about it. This is a big movie...
9 Tips to Disagree with Your Boss
You disagree with your boss. How should you handle it? Healthy disagreement among colleagues is completely normal and, in my opinion, critical to making a business as strong as it can be. But what if you disagree with your boss? The problem is that disagreements often...
Fast Company Features Phil Wilson: 6 Signs You’re Management Material
Fast Company published an article last week detailing what makes a person "management material." After consulting a number of experts, they came up with these 6 traits: You're good at building relationships. "You cannot be a leader unless people are willing to follow...
Creativity and Frontline Employees: 4 Ways to Bring Them Together
We should encourage creativity in our frontline coworkers.
One study found that “service creativity,” or the creativity of frontline service employees, “directly [affects] customer service ratings.”
The problem in today’s workforce is that most of the time, frontline coworkers aren’t given the freedom to be creative.
How can leaders help create an environment like this? Approachability doesn’t hurt. Here’s Burkus:
“Managers can play a key role in facilitating the creativity of front-line staff by expressing confidence in their service employees and seeking out employees’ opinions on resolving customer issues or providing service.”
Nothing makes you more approachable than seeking out your coworker’s thoughts and opinions. You show them their views are valuable to you and the organization. The more you invite creative thinking, the more coworkers will embrace it on their own.
6 Leadership Tips from a Three-Star General
"Leadership is deliberate: You don't accidentally have successful teams." This was one of the leadership tips retired Lt. Gen. Frank Kearney gave to executives at a recent West Point training. Lt. Gen. Kearney served as deputy commander for the US Special Operations...
Lessons from Google: 5 Ways to Create Psychological Safety
Companies do better when workers collaborate. Employees who work in teams produce better results and report higher job satisfaction. It's been proven over and over again. Most recently by Google. In 2012, Google decided to ask itself a really important question: why...
