When an employee is underperforming and hurting the team, good leaders should begin by asking these 4 questions.

The only way you can grow is to know what’s not working so you can fix it. To solicit the feedback you need, have intentional candor meetings. Here’s how to do that in 5 steps.

If you want truly great results as a leader, you have to become a master delegator. Here are 4 struggle points and how to turn them around.

Alignment doesn’t just happen. Leaders create it. Sync up your team for success with these 3 components of effective alignment.

Plenty of people are good talkers. Few are good listeners. Here are some tips to practice the art of listening.

You can make sure the people around you get the right message the first time—every time—by avoiding these 3 communication fails.

Under-communication is a consistent problem in business. Here are 5 tips for avoiding confusion and creating clarity.

How do entrepreneurs achieve their dreams without sabotaging their marriages? You can invest in your marriage with these 4 gifts.

Boosting your team’s morale can be as simple as intentionally noticing and affirming your team members’ everyday contributions.

In 2000, I got one of the greatest opportunities in my career. I was appointed publisher over the Nelson Books division of Thomas Nelson Publishers, which was one of the top English language publishers in the world. I knew our team had experienced some financial troubles, but I was thrilled for the chance to lead. […]

Under-communication is a consistent problem in nearly every business. You can solve that by taking ownership of the communication happening around you. I’ve worked with more than my share of poor communicators over the years. One was a boss who rarely shared information and never in a timely way. My office happened to be in […]

To lead others, you need a compelling vision. But lofty words are not enough. A vision statement must draw a crystal-clear picture of the future that guides action. In 2000, I took over Nelson Books, a major division of Thomas Nelson. I quickly discovered that it was the least profitable of the fourteen units in […]

People get “trained” to come late because they know nothing significant will happen until well after the announced start time…. For example, “the purpose of our meeting is to report on the results of our latest market research and give you a chance to ask questions.” Or, “the purpose of our meeting is to evaluate prospective titles for Don Miller’s new book and determine which one we are going to recommend to the author.”

You are often your own worst enemy. It starts with the words out of your mouth and the voices in your head. From telling yourself that you aren’t knowledgeable enough to take on a new challenge to the nagging doubts about important career moves, the negative words in your mind are obstacles to the success […]

The idea of self-talk elicits images of less-than-sane people muttering to themselves as they stumble about less-than-safe streets. I try not to look like that when I talk to myself. In theory, this means ensuring my internal monologue is actually internal when other people are about. In practice, people are always sneaking around corners and […]

People have delivered countless speeches in history. But even speeches delivered by the most prominent people, on the most auspicious occasions, routinely make little difference. Think of presidential speeches, like inaugural or State of the Union addresses. How many of them had any lasting impact? Just a few, like John F. Kennedy’s 1961 exhortation to […]

He stood awkwardly in the front of the room. I remember him shifting on the balls of his feet as he read a script from behind the podium. We were called into the auditorium to hear the vision of the company. Rumors of impending layoffs circulated, increasing the tension in the room. Many years later, […]

Company culture can make or break a business and those who are a part of it. According to a study by Deloitte, half of workers agree that culture has the strongest effect on their experience and engagement, beating out the environment and even the tools and technology they use on the job. For a company […]

Comedians refer to an audience that hasn’t heard any jokes yet as a “cold room.” It is thus the job of the comics who go first or second in the night to warm them up. You tell some jokes, suggest a convivial mood for the crowd, and hope they’ve brought their funny bones. I have […]

“Does it get easier the more people you fire?” someone once asked me. I’ve been in leadership for decades now, and there’s no escaping letting people go from time to time. But that doesn’t make it easier. “No,” I said, “it hasn’t. And I hope to God it never does.” But while frequency doesn’t translate […]

Unresponsive people drive me crazy. I hate sending an email or Slack message to someone and then waiting days to hear anything back. (Admittedly, I have sometimes been guilty of this myself.) This is particularly maddening when you don’t hear anything at all. One of the questions I always ask when interviewing executive assistants is […]

When I was the CEO at Thomas Nelson, one of our authors was frustrated. In response to a disappointing sales report, he fired off a blistering email to one of our divisional leaders. He complained about poor results. He criticized the sales strategy and our failure to execute. Worse, he challenged the leader’s intelligence, competence, […]

Good conversationalists have great influence. In this post, I share five strategies I have learned for having better conversations.

Trust is to an organization what oil is to a car engine. It keeps the moving parts from seizing and stopping forward motion. But trust is not something you can take for granted. It takes months—sometimes years—to build. Unfortunately, you can lose it overnight.