I feel very strongly and passionately about great leadership. It is a privilege to lead a team or a group of people towards success in the workplace, the community, or just on an assignment. With that privilege comes a responsibility — a responsibility to lead, guide, direct, praise, course correct, inspire, challenge, celebrate, inform, [Continue]

Do you remember your high school, college, graduate school graduation ceremony? Can you recall what it felt like? Everything is exciting, stimulating and ahead of you! I have said several times how great it is to be a retailer because you get so many fresh starts to be great and succeed: new day, new week, [Continue]

I wanted to share this article from Steve Tobak, The Corner Office on BNET – The CBS Interactive Business Network. As leaders in retail, we must be constantly learning and growing in our leadership. Steve discusses 10 Ways to be a Better Manager below that I think will resonate with all of you as you [Continue]

Integrity is everyone in the organization’s job and responsibility. Every associate must contribute to the code through their feedback, contributions, actions, and communications. It is your responsibility to be a part of the integrity of your company. As leaders in your organizations as managers, it is critical that you do the right thing [Continue]

You are well on your way to building a special store. We have discussed a lot in the previous three articles. Here’s a summary of how to take a good store to great: Finally the processes! Let’s put all these great resources to work in the store. There are five key areas that must be [Continue]

So, we have talked about seeing potential in a store that could be developed to take it from a good store to a great store and all the partnerships you will need to leverage to make it happen. It’s time to take a deep dive into the store to create your action blueprint, so it’s [Continue]

The blueprint for taking a good store to great is not much different from how you normally review a store —-people, product, presentation, process. With this potential opportunity however, you will think BIGGER and more critically than you might normally act. This will require you to take partners in the vision. Here are the partners [Continue]

Seeing potential and working the vision is a hallmark of great leadership. Last week I wrote about “Really, Where Are You Going?” It spoke about having goals and stating them out loud before lining up the tasks and objectives to achieve it. The article concluded with speaking about vision. The vision is the big picture [Continue]

A special treat today! An article by Robert Sutton in the Harvard Business Review blog – The Conversation. A blog you should check out. This article speaks to one of the special ingredients that I spoke to in a favorite boss. I will work my tail off for a boss that has my back and [Continue]

Everyone has had a favorite boss. What was it (or is it) that made (makes) that boss special and stand out from the others? If you are like me, it is fairly easy to spell out the special ingredients in that recipe. Sense of humor, fun. Work is hard stuff and demanding. There is no [Continue]

If you have never heard the POST-IT NOTE story, it is time. In the 1960′s a scientist at 3M was working on an adhesive for a project. The adhesive was unsuccessful; however, the scientist still felt it had value. He floated the adhesive around the company but failed to get anyone excited about it. One [Continue]

Best selling author and former President of Ford and Chrysler rants in his 2007 book, “Where Have All the Leaders Gone?”, about everything from George W. Bush to Iraq to healthcare to the auto industry. He referenced great leadership moving this country through World Wars and depressions in the past and is disgusted, frankly, with [Continue]

Robert Sutton, Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University, is set to release a new book in September called “Good Boss, Bad Boss.” He has defined what he believes are 12 things that good bosses believe and conversely bad bosses do not.   Now I have worked for my share of good and [Continue]

Leadership that makes you wish you were… in waste management. Or renting umbrellas on the beach. Or a street vendor in New York City. Or anything else besides what you are doing. Honestly, whoever thought that person would make a great leader was way off base. Or maybe drugs were involved. I know! It was [Continue]

TEAMBUILDING is a crucial part of the leader’s job. Building a cohesive unit of people that work well together, bring out the best in each other, and achieve success is a worthwhile and dynamic responsibility. It is not a task that you can just cross off your list when complete. Things will change with people [Continue]

DO YOU HOVER? Are you making all of the decisions for your people? Are you telling them exactly what to do, how to do it, when to do it? STOP micro-managing your people! I know you mean well, really, … but it does not work in so many ways. Land the helicopter and go do [Continue]

Good article from John Slimp on www.createawinningteam.com. Imagine for a moment that your child or spouse is sick. You know that there is medicine available that will make him or her better, but because you didn’t invent the medicine, you will not use it. Unthinkable as this is, many mangers follow this thought process every [Continue]

There are leadership lessons to be found in all areas of our life including entertainment. I ran into this article on the Harvard Business Review website by Rebecca Keegan. She had the opportunity to observe James Cameron at work on Avator. She does a terrific job summarizing his leadership style and the lessons apply to [Continue]

Do you have a question? What do you want to know? Have you asked? Do you really want to know what is going on in your stores? Have you asked? Do you wonder what they are thinking? Have you asked? Curiosity is what we are talking about. As retail leaders, curiosity needs to drive some [Continue]

Hello DAILY VOICEMAIL DEALIO followers.  Last Monday we discussed formulating your leadership brand to have a LEADERSHIP MANIFESTO of your own.  A reminder that a manifesto is a public announcement of your intention and principles.  And — I shared my own leadership manifesto that I am striving to live up to.  In addition, I challenged [Continue]