… While a few schools do require communications courses, most of the estimated 90,000 people who graduate with MBAs each year in the U.S. aren’t required to take courses designed to improve their presentation skills. With that in mind, I put together five essentials all business owners should be aware of when presenting, regardless of where they want to...

  Many talented senior executives admit to feeling a sense of powerlessness at work. But there are steps they can take to regain control, according to new research from the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®), a top-ranked global leadership education and research organization. A sense of powerlessness is understandable “due to the nature of today’s...

There are certain conversations all leaders dread: the ones in which we have to deliver bad news, discuss a sensitive or “political” subject, or talk about a project or meeting that’s gone wrong. The mere thought of having these difficult conversations fills you with anxiety, and distracts you from other work. You don’t want to play the bad...

 Paying attention is the disciplined art of seeing more accurately. It is the starting point for making sense of complexity and challenge. People who are competent at paying attention can do the following: Focus their attention; shift focus as required. Focus the attention of others; shift the focus of others. Attend to the emotions, needs and concerns of...

 The word “recession” doesn’t inspire most of us. With the global economy faltering and countless complex challenges facing us at every turn, it’s all too easy for “vision” to give way to “hunkering down,” “getting by,” or “being practical.” But in turbulent times, we desperately need...

If it’s true that time is money, then it’s small wonder business owners find they can never truly clock out. Wherever they go and whomever they meet, entrepreneurs are walking billboards for their companies. In a tough economy, where advertising budgets are cut to the bone, that kind of person-to-person marketing is more important than ever. But if...