A few weeks ago I was sitting at a restaurant watching waiters step around some food that was spilled on the floor. This went on for almost 10 minutes before the restaurant manager came out with a mop and bucket to clean up the spill. I am fairly certain that cleaning the floors is not part of the restaurant manager’s job description.

The incident reminded me of how much I loved having dinner with my family when we had teenagers. As soon as they would finish their meals, they would excuse themselves and exit quickly from the dining room only to hear their mother say, “Pick up your dishes!” Click here for full article.

In the last five years, there have been more than 50 acquisitions of top design and innovation firms. But several leaders in the field say companies often struggle with new acquisitions and fail to provide their design teams with leadership.

They made the comments at a roundtable discussion about design leadership last Wednesday at the Fortune Brainstorm Design conference in Singapore. Click here for full article.

Coaching is a billion-dollar industry. Either companies are securing them for their executives, or individuals are paying out of their pockets to get this resource on their side. According to executiv+co, executive coaching—once looked upon with skepticism—is now embraced as the way to a more enriched workplace, and leaders have discovered that it works.

If your company invests in you in this way, you may see it as a perk; but in some cases, it is a way to correct management or leadership styles that may be veering off the tracks. No matter, coaching has been around for more than 30 years, and apparently, has only blossomed. Click here for full article.

No matter how hard you try to create a supportive and fulfilling workplace, the day will come when you find out that a valued employee is thinking of leaving or has already accepted an offer outside the firm. What you do at that moment — whether you decide to convince the person to stay or let them go gracefully — matters not just to that specific situation but to your organization for years to come. Click here for full article

Imagine you call a leadership team meeting to gauge how important the team feels digital transformation is to the company. Would anyone dare say it is not a strategic imperative, even if they privately thought it wasn’t? The meeting ends with seemingly clear agreement that digital transformation is mission critical. But what happens after the meeting, when the person tasked to lead digital transformation asks team members to nominate people to work on the effort? All too frequently, everyone says they can’t spare their scarce resources. Click here for full article.

Feedback is more than a routine part of working life, it’s an art. And something that everyone should take the time to learn. So how do you give feedback so that it helps both the individual and the wider business?

Let’s get straight to the point, shall we? Most of you don’t know how to give feedback.

Wait. Let me rephrase. Most of you don’t know how to give effective feedback. Click here for the full article.

The value of gender diversity in leadership has been well documented and yet men still greatly outnumber women in most areas of leadership from parliaments to corporate boards. What’s more the men recruited as leaders still tend to fit a typical alpha-male stereotype.  

Various reasons have been cited as barriers to female advancement. One cause must be that talented women are blocked by too many less competent men being recruited or promoted on the basis of outdated stereotypes of what makes a good leader. Click here for full article.