One of the most common things I hear from leaders working on ways they can be more effective is, “The problem is, the levels above me don’t work in this way. It’s very hard to implement these behaviors when the leaders at the top aren’t behaving this way.” The kinds...
It was nice to see a playful kitten with the spirit of Curious George on the cover of The Harvard Business Review about a year ago. My colleagues and I have long touted “curiosity.” From my perspective, curiosity is critical. It’s not just the backbone of...
The following is adapted from Moving from Models to Mindsets. In business, trust is everything. Customers assess your behavior one way if they trust you, and another way if they don’t. If you talk about your products and services with a customer who doesn’t trust you,...
Almost every conversation is an opportunity to build rapport. To do so requires the salesperson to listen harder for rapport cues. On a recent call with a customer, it was clear that he had picked up a cold. We were supposed to talk for thirty minutes, which is not a...
I met with a newly minted leader and long-time colleague, who is both highly collaborative and highly engaging. He cares about his people in a visceral way. I congratulated him on his promotion while warning him that there was the potential for him to fail due to a...