Digital Library – Voices in Leadership

WRUG & Co's Digital Library of Voices in Leadership

Trusted, experienced voices that align with our strategic growth priorities and our people-centered leadership amplifying & multiplying.

Our Aligned, Elevated Voices by Topic

Brilliant leaders are skilled at handling complexity – Big Think

Strategic thinking wouldn’t be necessary if the business world were benign, stable, and predictable. But, of course, it’s none of those things.

When nonprofit strategic planning goes wrong – Preeta Nayak & Lindsey Waldron

Strategic planning can help improve how an organization makes decisions to achieve their goals and achieve sustainable success. The questions posed during the planning process—about impact goals, resources, change management, or the potential risks of the plan—are not the sort you answer only once.

How to Communicate Your Company’s Strategy Effectively – David Lancefield

Communicating strategy clearly increases the chances of an organization “winning” by helping people decide where to focus their attention, energy, resources, and capabilities. Unclear communication results in wasted effort from lack of alignment and confusion, which leads to inertia.

Can You Say What Your Strategy Is? – David J. Collis & Michael G. Rukstad

Any strategy statement must begin with a definition of the ends that the strategy is designed to achieve. “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there” is the appropriate maxim here.

5 Myths About Strategy – Stephen Bungay

Strategy is still what it has always been: the art of taking action under the pressure of the most difficult conditions.

How to Communicate Your Company’s Strategy Effectively – David Lancefield

Strategy for Start-ups – Gans, Scott, & Stern

Entrepreneurs who commit to the first promising route they see leave their start-ups vulnerable to competitors that take a less obvious but ultimately more powerful route to commercialization and customers.

How to Move from Strategy to Execution – Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic & Darko Lovric

Human ingenuity can be unleashed, and we can collectively achieve what we do at our best — realize our dreams.

How To Improve Your Ability To Effectively Execute – Jack Zenger & Joe Folkman

Most people recognize that effective execution is a critical skill and strive to perform it well, but they may a) underestimate how important it is to their career advancement or b) not realize that you can improve on execution without working longer hours.

Many Strategies Fail Because They’re Not Actually Strategies – Freek Vermeulen

There are usually different ways of doing things, and there is seldom one perfect solution, since all alternatives have advantages and disadvantages.

4 Strategies to Guide Your Team Through a Departmental Transition

A survey by McKinsey & Company found that 80% of organizations have experienced some form of transformation in the past five years, yet only a third of these initiatives have been successfulSusan Peppercorn & Tony Martignetti Read at Harvard Business Review 4...

Brilliant leaders are skilled at handling complexity – Big Think

Strategic thinking wouldn’t be necessary if the business world were benign, stable, and predictable. But, of course, it’s none of those things.

How to Collaborate Effectively If Your Team Is Remote

The solution is in understanding the new rules of engagement; in building a communication skill set that reflects the demands of our digitally-driven age.

High-Performing Teams Don’t Leave Relationships to Chance

A wealth of studies reveal that by fueling our basic human psychological need for belonging, meaningful workplace connections drive many of the outcomes central to high-performing teams.

How High-Performing Teams Build Trust

Trust isn’t relayed from the top down. It’s built organically on a foundation of behaviors exhibited by all team members that empower everyone to produce their best work. – Ron Friedman

10 Pitfalls That Destroy Organizational Trust

In order to trust you as an organization, your stakeholders need to believe three things: that you care about them (empathy), that you’re capable of meeting their needs (logic), and that you can be expected to do what you say you’ll do (authenticity). – Frances X. Frei & Anne Morriss

The Trust Crisis – Sandra J. Sucher & Shalene Gupta

If we can’t trust other people, we’ll avoid interacting with them, which will make it hard to build anything, solve problems, or innovate.

5 Stages of Success That All Level-10 Leaders Master – Logan Stout

Look, being an entrepreneur isn’t easy which is the reason that the percentage of successful entrepreneurs is very low. I see a lot of people get all excited about the possibilities of their business ideas, but they’re unaware of the road map required to reach them.

5 Principles of Purposeful Leadership – Hubert Joly

The way we lead has profound implications on people around us and how we do business… So, start with yourself. Be the leader you’re meant to be.

What Leadership Style Do You Major In? – Hope Horner

Successful leadership requires you to have an understanding of three things: people, process, and performance. Most leaders major in one style and minor in another …be aware of your majors and minors to build and communicate with your team in the most effective way.

5 Steps to Living the Strategic Life

While, certainly, you’re different from an organization, you can learn a lot from some of the principles in business strategy to create a strategic life… This puts you in a better position to control events rather than have them control you. – Graham Kenny

How to Scale a Business: 6 Tactics – Lauren Landry

As an entrepreneur, it’s critical to anticipate your business’ growth. It’s one of the most important business strategies on your path to success… to handle any measures of success, no matter the capacity.

Nonprofit Mergers & Acquisitions: Not Just an Escape Plan – Christie George & Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman

M&A isn’t a sign of failure. It’s usually a sign of progress and doing what’s next.

Scaling up: How founder CEOs and teams can go beyond aspiration to ascent – McKinsey

Here’s what we know about hyperscalers: they outperform industry peers, remain resilient during downturns, and maintain strong cash positions. They set the bar high for corporate performance, and they aren’t afraid to make bold moves… Hyperscaling companies dare to be unreasonable.

Strategy for Start-ups – Gans, Scott, & Stern

Book Highlight, Relationomics – Dr. Randy Ross

When we express belief in and invest in those who have failed, we are making a huge statement and creating an atmosphere conducive for greater commitment. We are saying that we don’t throw people away at the first sign of trouble and we are committed to the growth and development of one another, even in the face of setbacks.

Make Friends by Increasing Your Likability Quotient – Jack Schafer Ph.D.

Laws of attraction play a critical role in shaping human relationships. Certain psychological principles increase the probability that two individuals will be drawn to each other and experience a positive outcome.

Productivity Is About Your Systems, Not Your People – Daniel Markovitz

Leaders are always seeking to improve employee productivity… Personal solutions can be useful, but the most effective antidote to low productivity and inefficiency must be implemented at the system level, not the individual level.

The Pandemic Changed Us. Now Companies Have to Change Too – Jennifer Moss

Today, employees are renegotiating their social contracts with work… We’ve gone from demanding that work stay out of our personal lives to quitting if it won’t. For better or for worse, the pandemic forced us to sink or swim. Somehow, we swam. We learned new skills, increased our emotional flexibility, and learned optimism and the capacity to rebound.

How Resilience Works – Diane Couto

More than education, more than experience, more than training, a person’s level of resilience will determine who succeeds and who fails. – Dean Becker

How to Collaborate Effectively If Your Team Is Remote

The solution is in understanding the new rules of engagement; in building a communication skill set that reflects the demands of our digitally-driven age.

High-Performing Teams Don’t Leave Relationships to Chance

A wealth of studies reveal that by fueling our basic human psychological need for belonging, meaningful workplace connections drive many of the outcomes central to high-performing teams.

Getting Back to the Basics of Human Connection – Edward S. Brodkin & Ashley A. Pallathra

“Attunement” should not be viewed as simply fostering a touchy-feely emotional connection with others, but as a unique power — a power that enables us to perceive communications from others, to connect and have our message understood, and to manage conflict.”

The Neuroscience of Trust – Paul J. Zak

Ultimately, you cultivate trust by setting a clear direction, giving people what they need to see it through, and getting out of their way. It’s not about being easy on your team or expecting less from them. High-trust companies hold people accountable but without micromanaging them. They treat people like responsible adults.

When Trust Takes Away from Effective Collaboration

Contrary to common belief, trust is not a prerequisite for teamwork and collaboration …information sharing, perspective taking, and effective turn taking can help organizations make progress on and speed up change and transformation.

Book Highlight, Relationomics – Dr. Randy Ross

Quiet Quitting Is Loudly Showing Managers a New Perspective – Jaclyn Margolis Ph.D.

Although quiet quitting is not new, the vast attention on the topic has made the message louder. The workplace is changing, and in order for managers to succeed, they must pay attention.

It’s Time to Reimagine Employee Retention – Helen Tupper & Sarah Ellis

Unless efforts are refocused on retention, managers will be unable to drive performance and affect change. Leaders need to take action to enable their managers to keep their talent while still being able to deliver on results.

How Company Culture Shapes Employee Motivation

A great culture is not easy to build — it’s why high performing cultures are such a powerful competitive advantage… culture can’t be left to chance. Leaders have to treat culture building as an engineering discipline, not a magical one. – Lindsay McGregor & Neel Doshi

Three Solutions To Quiet Quitting – Clarissa Windham-Bradstock

The weight of solving this issue does not rest entirely on the employer. If you’re an adult with a job, you have a responsibility to earn your keep and go to your supervisor and have a conversation rather than communicating your dissatisfaction on social media. That’s not easy.

Can You Say What Your Strategy Is? – David J. Collis & Michael G. Rukstad

The Art of Persuasion Hasn’t Changed in 2,000 Years

The ability to persuade, to change hearts and minds, is perhaps the single greatest skill that will give you a competitive edge in the knowledge economy. – Carmine Gallo

How to Communicate Your Company’s Strategy Effectively – David Lancefield

9 ways to be a better conversationalist

Although communication is at the core of the human experience, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and shy away from it, dismissing it as too hard. – Adam Mastroianni

Effective Leaders Are Peacemakers — Applied Leadership Partners

Peacemaking means asking the questions and addressing the issues to either initiate or restore communication… My failure to act created the larger problem down the road. We were stuck in a ditch of my creation.

Three Solutions To Quiet Quitting – Clarissa Windham-Bradstock

Value Propositions That Work – Anthony K. Tjan

Most people can’t explain what their company does — its value proposition. The best way to start getting employees and management aligned is to understand the benefit the company is trying to deliver to its customers

What’s Your Listening Style? – Rebecca D. Minehart, Benjamin B. Symon, Laura K. Rock

Experimenting with how we listen solidifies our active partnership in conversations… Through intentionally applying new ways to listen, we build relationships, understand others, and collaborate and problem-solve more effectively.

Leaders Focus Too Much on Changing Policies, and Not Enough on Changing Minds

Most organizations pay far more attention to strategy and execution than they do to what their people are feeling and thinking when they’re asked to embrace a transformation. Resistance, especially when it is passive, invisible, and unconscious, can derail even the best strategy. – Tony Schwartz

Persuading the Unpersuadable

The bad news is that plenty of leaders are so sure of themselves that they reject worthy opinions and ideas from others and refuse to abandon their own bad ones. The good news is that it is possible to get even the most overconfident, stubborn, narcissistic, and disagreeable people to open their minds.

Make Learning a Part of Your Daily Routine

In our increasingly “squiggly” careers, where people change roles more frequently and fluidly and develop in different directions, the ability to unlearn, learn, and relearn is vital for long-term success. – Helen Tupper & Sarah Ellis

What Leadership Style Do You Major In? – Hope Horner

It’s Time to Reimagine Employee Retention – Helen Tupper & Sarah Ellis

Coaching managers elevates your organization

With the reorganizing of the workplace and introduction of hybrid and remote work for many organizations, evolving priorities for employees, increased job-switching and burnout, managers are more critical to organizational performance than ever. – Calvin Coffee with Amy Lavoie & Kevin Wilde

To Be a Good Manager, You Have to Be a Good Teacher – Ron Carucci

It’s common for newer leaders to make assumptions about what their team can do, giving assignments without fully vetting whether someone has the skill, knowledge, or experience to succeed… effective leaders learn to be good teachers in moments when team members have the confidence and humility to ask, “Can you show me how?”

How Resilience Works – Diane Couto

More than education, more than experience, more than training, a person’s level of resilience will determine who succeeds and who fails. – Dean Becker

Find the Coaching in Criticism

It is the receiver who controls whether feedback is let in or kept out, who has to make sense of what he or she is hearing, and who decides whether or not to change. People need to stop treating feedback only as something that must be pushed and instead improve their ability to pull. – Sheila Heen & Douglas Stone

How to Stop Worrying About What Other People Think of You – Michael Gervais

If you start paying less and less attention to what makes you you — your talents, beliefs, and values — and start conforming to what others may or may not think, you’ll harm your potential.

‘Following Your Passion’ Is Dead – Here’s What To Replace It With – Michal Bohanes

Following your passion is a very “me”-centered view of the world… Find the thing that you’re great at, put that into the world, contribute to others, help the world be better and that is the thing to follow. – Ben Horowitz

Creating a Coaching Culture for the Future Economy – Bruce Court

We all know how musicians and athletes benefit from coaching, and so will your leaders …to some degree, we must all become students at the same time we become teachers. And that’s exactly what a coaching culture should help you to achieve. – Bruce Court

All Elevated Voices & Postings

search for key topics in leadership, strategy, and growth (i.e. vision, purpose, trust, culture, EI, empathy, psychological safety, goal setting, crisis managements, etc.)