Entries by gmader

Challenge yourself to set down your smartphone

/in

I just returned from a lovely summer vacation at a nice beachside resort. Being the proud workaholic that I am, (I love what I do!) I use these vacations to unplug from work. I, personally, need this disconnection physically and spiritually. Additionally, unplugging greatly contributes to my business success. These times off provide invaluable opportunities to think, reflect, take stock of progress, and to create and plan for the future. As my wife and I were sitting on the beach and by the poolside, the number of people constantly glued to their smart devices struck me; people of all ages, from all walks of life – fathers, mothers, their kids. In fact, with many guests, […]

Five Necessary Areas of Improvement for Your Team

/in

Any organization is a mirror image of its leaders and leadership team. If the leaders operate among themselves with strong and genuine trust, unity, communication and ownership, these characteristics will naturally cascade through the veins of the organization and internalize in its culture and DNA. However, if the leaders run their organizations and functions as individual silos, rather than a unified team, their people will follow suit. And, if they have trust issues among themselves or if they are the source of negative, passive aggressive, victimizing or blaming behaviors the same issues will inculcate throughout their teams and the overall organization. Even if leaders say all the politically correct things in public, their people will […]

How do you relate to your personal goals?

/in

I recently had the opportunity to deal with two situations in which two professionals that I am coaching dealt with a similar reality in a completely different way. Both clients are very determined and successful people. The topic they were dealing with was achieving their personal goals. I’ll use fictional names and call one David and the other Bruce. Both set ambitious personal financial goals and both failed to achieve them. David reacted emotionally to his missed goal. He was upset; he felt the sky had fallen. He identified with his goals so he took not achieving them personally. Bruce on the other hand, related to his result as a smaller tragedy. While the goals […]

Why Your Online Reputation Matters More Than Ever

/in

In the past, if you fired or laid off an employee, any dirty laundry would have been contained to solely the parties involved—and maybe family and friends. Today, that laundry can be aired to everyone. Welcome to the Social Era. The importance of protecting our businesses’ reputation online in order to be able to attract high quality customers is nothing new. But a new study by CareerArc, a global HR technology provider of social recruiting and outplacement services, sheds light on another significant reason—online identities are crucial for hiring and retaining top talent. According to the report, the past five years marked the longest streak in job growth on record in the United States. With […]

Glen Campbell – a true hero

/in

I recently watched the CNN documentary “I’ll Be Me” about Glen Campbell, and if you haven’t seen it yet, I can’t say enough to recommend it. The following is an excerpt from the program’s write-up: “Two years ago, music icon Glen Campbell was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and told to hang up his guitar and prepare for the inevitable. Instead, Glen and his wife, Kim, went public with the diagnosis and announced that he and his family would set out on a Good Bye Tour. Even the optimists predicted the tour would only last a couple of months. Not only did Glen exceed everyone’s expectations, but what began as a six-week tour, quickly grew into […]

Work-life balance is possible…if you change your approach

/in

Many people struggle with the notion of maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Ambitious, driven and committed people want to be successful in all aspects of their life, not just their professional career. They want to have it all. They want to have a great marriage, nurturing family life, fantastic health and fitness and a satisfying social life. And, they want to have or achieve all these desires simultaneously. There is a notion that the Europeans have more of a “Work in order to Live” mindset while in North America, we tend to “Live in order to Work.” I think this is somewhat true. However, I have also seen from my own experience working with people […]

Just do it

/in

There is something to be said about “just doing it.” I sometime refer to it as “Fake it till you make.” Alternatively, in plain English this means: “Doing what you said, even when you don’t feel like it.” Sometime it feels like: “Doing what you don’t like doing in order to achieve what you do want to achieve.” It seems a simple enough concept. However, so many people struggle with this personally and/or professionally. One of the biggest reasons why people don’t achieve what they want is lack of sufficient action. Most people fail to achieve their dreams and aspirations because they don’t make the effort, they don’t take the action or they don’t stay […]

How to start a great blog

/in

I have had my blog now for around four years. As I have expressed before, I love writing and I love my blog. Taking on the practice and discipline of writing on a frequent and regular basis has inspired and forced me, in the best way, to look inward in order to bring forth, articulate and share new leadership ideas and insights that would be relevant and useful to others. My blog has become my catalyst for new thinking and a key platform for expressing my Self, adding value and making the difference I want to make. It has also deepened my self-confidence and sense of who I am and my purpose. Over the last […]

Create and achieve more possibilities for yourself

/in

When people believe a goal, ambition or dream is unattainable or unlikely to be achieved, they usually do not invest their time, heart and effort to pursue it. In plain words, they don’t go after it. For most people this is how the story begins and where it typically ends. However, so many people have desires, ambitions and dreams that they sincerely want to achieve and have not done so. They may have believed in these dreams in the past or even made attempts to pursue them. But, if they felt challenged or simply didn’t succeed, they gave up their efforts. I meet so many people who have become resigned about “having it all” in […]

Why is it so hard to do the right thing?

/in

Many years ago when I was still living in Israel, the government launched a national campaign to reduce the outrageously high rate of casualties on the highways. The campaign slogan was: “On the road be wise, not right.” That slogan stayed with me over the years. I found it to be such a powerful and relevant principle for living. In my work I coach leaders and teams. I have seen that even when people genuinely want to work together in a more authentic, courageous and effective way, it is often hard for them to do so. In most cases, people know what works and the right thing to do. However, it is still often hard […]

The Risk of Circumstantial Decisions

/in

I was chatting with a good friend who is in a major career junction in his life. My friend is a fairly senior leader in one of the service functions in his company. He had been doing the same type of job for the last 15 years. Over these years, he advanced, he was promoted and grew the scope of his responsibilities. However, he remained in the same function serving similar business and sales units for all these years. He was mentally tired of doing the same thing for so long. He felt he needed a change. He just wasn’t sure what the change should be. His dilemma was – to look yet again for […]

Why is Leadership so important NOW?

/in ,

In today’s market environment, thriving and struggling businesses alike seem to be experiencing increasing challenges in competitive, economic and market conditions. In these times when the business opportunities and challenges are bountiful and the tangible material and physical resources such as budgets, expenses, resources and travel are scarce, most leaders I speak to seem to feel a growing need to unleash and promote the intangible assets. They seek to boost the mental and leadership energy, creativity, ownership and resourcefulness of individuals and the team as a whole. Leaders often talk about the fact that in today’s environment “the only constant is change.” In this environment, any team weaknesses or dysfunctionalities that could have been avoided […]