How to Encourage Collaboration in the Workplace

How to Encourage Collaboration in the Workplace

Why is it important to encourage collaboration in the workplace? What can you, as a leader, do to foster collaborative relationships amongst your team members? The success of your project and your leadership depends on a sense of shared creation and shared responsibility. Consistently, research shows that leaders who cultivate collaborative relationships in their teams are viewed as highly effective and inspire the highest levels of engagement.  To encourage collaboration in the workplace, follow these four practices:

How to Practice Mindfulness in Relationships

How to Practice Mindfulness in Relationships

Why is it important to be present in a relationship? How can a lack of presence sabotage your relationship? When you are not present in a relationship, it’s very easy to misconstrue actions and situations and become reactionary, even explosive. Sooner or later, your lack of presence will poison the relationship to the point where it can no longer be mended. Practicing mindfulness in relationships is a two-step process: 1) first, accept yourself, and 2) second, foster non-judgmental communication with your partner. We’ll discuss both of these principles below.

The Consequences of a Lack of Accountability at Work

The Consequences of a Lack of Accountability at Work

Does your team have accountability issues? How can a lack of accountability harm your business in the long run? Not every leader understands nor is willing to hold their people accountable for their actions or lack thereof. As a result, many organizations run into harmful issues which require time, resources, and change to resolve—but to leave them unresolved is to ensure that your company never achieves its full potential.  There are three issues that stem from a lack of accountability: employee development, communication, and individual motivation. Learn more about each one below.

A Leader’s Guide to Challenging the Status Quo

A Leader’s Guide to Challenging the Status Quo

Why is it important to challenge the status quo? What can you, as a leader, do to make sure your organization is keeping up with the times and always improving? People in organizations get used to doing things a certain way and are often reluctant to change their habits, defaulting to the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality. Even if they know a procedure could be better, they’ll often resist changing it simply because it’s easier to carry on as usual. However, challenging the status quo is your job, as a leader. To challenge the status quo, always stay

Kouzes and Posner: The Leadership Challenge

Kouzes and Posner: The Leadership Challenge

What is Kouzes and Posner’s The Leadership Challenge about? What are the five principles of exemplary leadership? The Leadership Challenge is a field guide for becoming the kind of leader that other people want to follow. International bestselling authors and longtime research partners James Kouzes and Barry Posner have compiled thousands of case studies and millions of responses to surveys over the course of decades and used them to distill leadership into five overall principles. Below is a brief overview of the book.

Poland’s Shock Therapy: Did It Work as Intended?

Poland’s Shock Therapy: Did It Work as Intended?

Who instituted Poland’s shock therapy? How did the shock therapy affect the Polish economy? In Poland, shock therapy was implemented on the advice of Jeffrey Sachs who was working as an advisor for the Solidarity party. The Solidarity was reluctant to institute policies that went directly against the worker-centric economy they’d promised to create. But the economy was in a critical state, so they went ahead with Sachs’s proposal in exchange for foreign aid. In this article, we’ll take a look at Poland’s shock therapy, and what happened in its aftermath.

Russia’s Shock Therapy: Neoliberalizing Russia

Russia’s Shock Therapy: Neoliberalizing Russia

Who instituted Russia’s shock therapy? How did economic shock therapy affect the Russian economy? In Russia, shock therapy didn’t have the promised results. Yeltsin swore that there would be around six bad months, but by the end of his year of emergency powers, Russia would recover and be a world superpower again. However, a year later, millions of Russians had lost their life savings and a full third of the people had fallen into poverty.  In this article, you’ll learn how shock therapy unfolded in Russia, and what happened in its aftermath.

Attributes of a Great Leader: Would You Make the Cut?

Attributes of a Great Leader: Would You Make the Cut?

What makes a great leader? What qualities would you ascribe to a leader you’d be willing to follow? Since the mid-1980s, Barry Posner and James Kouzes, the authors of The Leadership Challenge, have been conducting studies asking people in both business and government what qualities they value in a leader. They’ve found that consistently people want the same qualities in a leader whose leadership they would be willing to follow. Here are the four attributes of a great leader, according to Posner and Kouzes.

Shock and Awe: Iraq War Economics

Shock and Awe: Iraq War Economics

What is Shock and Awe? What was the reason the United States invaded Iraq in 2003? The term “Shock and Awe” is typically used to refer to the 2003 United States invasion of Iraq under George Bush’s administration. Bush sold the project to Americans with a simple promise that they were bringing freedom to a troubled area. Many mistook this for a promise of free and fair democracy. However, the real objective was to create the freedom for private companies to harvest as much of the country’s wealth and resources as possible. In this article, we’ll discuss the real motives