The 8 Traits Great Leaders Have in Common

By Julie Bawden Davis

Truly effective leaders possess more than drive, ambition and charisma. While those traits are important, it’s leaders who’ve reached the pinnacle of self-fulfillment and acceptance who are the most dynamic and successful. Great leaders also have a high degree of emotional intelligence, which comes from being self-actualized.

Self-actualization, the final stage of noted American psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, refers to the point when you realize your true potential and seek personal growth and self-fulfillment.

While not all great leaders have learned to be self-aware, many of the most recognized are those who’ve achieved self-actualization, says Jill Salzman, co-host of the …read more

An Insider’s Guide to Successfully Selling Your Business

By Glen Stansberry

What’s better than an entrepreneur who gets to sell his or her business to a big company—often earning millions for his or her shareholders and becoming independently wealthy overnight? The media clamors for these stories, wondering who the next Instagram is going to be with a fat billion-dollar payout. As business owners, we know it’s not typical, and quite rare to have such a booming overnight success, yet it’s also possible; and many of us hold on tight to that dream.

So, I wondered, what does it take to make your company one of those that succeeds on such a grand …read more

How a Daily Morning Meeting Can Improve Your Business

By David Niu

Raise your hand if you’re a leader who thinks, “The faster we grow, the less time we have for meetings.”

At one time, my hand would have shot up, since I used to think this way. But I had it all wrong. As Verne Harnish, author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Growing Firm, claims, it should be the exact opposite—the faster you’re growing, the more meetings you need to keep your people in sync, since everyone is running around like crazy.

But these meetings shouldn’t be hour-long, slog-through-an-agenda kind of …read more

Top Technologies to Help You Run Your Business

By American Express OPEN

Women business owners at the OPEN for Women: CEO BootCamp event share what technologies are essential to help them run their businesses. What tools do you rely on? How has technology helped you run an effective business?

…read more

When It Comes to Time, Great Business Minds Don’t Have to Think Alike

By Alexandra Levit

In her book The Culture Map, global workplace expert Erin Meyer talks about one particular keynote speech she had to give to an audience in Brazil. Her remarks were slated to last 60 minutes, but the client said she could take all the time she needed.

Meyer didn’t quite believe him. After all, during just about any keynote address in America, you can expect a firm index card countdown:

“10 minutes remaining”

“5 minutes remaining”

“2 minutes remaining”

At “0 minutes remaining,” you’d better get off that stage!

Meyer took 65 minutes to give her Brazilian speech and had a great time responding to …read more

9 Keys to Dealing With Depression in the Workplace

By Bruna Martinuzzi

Would you be surprised to learn that an estimated one in 10 adults in the United States suffer from depression? The information, compiled for a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2010 (the most updated numbers available), shows that depression affects people in all walks of life. What’s more, depression is on the rise globally, according to the World Health Organization. In Canada, for instance, more than one in five employees report experiencing depression.

The Mayo Clinic defines depression as “a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of …read more

Here’s Why Your Employee Engagement Efforts May Be Failing

By James O’Brien, PhD

Savvy business leaders understand that staying engaged with your employees cuts waste and boosts productivity—and that monetary benefits emerge from both of those results. To get to that point, however, small-business owners have to establish powerful channels of communication with the workers they’re seeking to engage.

“Employee alignment needs to be a top priority,” says Andre Lavoie, CEO of ClearCompany, a talent management software company. “Companies literally depend on this kind of alignment to succeed, and employees depend on it for their own engagement and personal success.”

A key part of the process that leads to greater employee engagement is …read more

Small Businesses Looking Healthier—For Now

By Kelly Spors

Times are looking brighter for many small-business owners, but there’s still a nagging fear that dark clouds are looming around the corner.

The National Small Business Association’s 2014 Mid-Year Economic Report finds that many small business owners have seen their hiring rise in the past six months—albeit slowly. Twenty-three percent of business owners survey hired new employees in the past six months compared to 22 percent that reported hiring in the six months prior. However, only 19 percent of small-business owners reported reducing their employee headcount in the past six months—the lowest percentage since 2009. Nearly half of …read more

Why Psychology Courses May Be More Valuable Than MBAs

By Angela Stringfellow

Psychology plays a part in almost every aspect of business. From helping target and refine your marketing message to gaining a deeper understanding of human behavior—both internally among your staff and externally with your customers and competitors—psychology is an area of study business leaders need to be tuned into if they want to run successful companies.

Just how useful can it be to dig deeper into this subject? Quite a bit, experts say. A number of areas of psychology directly relate to business leadership, including organizational psychology and leadership psychology, which study the ability of individuals to effectively lead groups of …read more

How Texting in the Workplace Could Damage Your Business

By Carla Turchetti

When you take a look around your business, does it seem that everyone is all thumbs? Are cell phones glued to your employees’ hands as their fingers fly through text after text?

You may not have given the issue much thought, but as a small-business owner, it’s up to you to decide whether it’s OK for your employees to text on the job.

“Text messaging can lead to serious employment issues, including lost productivity, discrimination, harassment and retaliation claims,” says lawyer David Reischer, COO and founder of LegalAdvice.com. “A small business should have an employee-texting policy and make efforts to …read more