As in many other industries, 2020 proved to be both challenging and eye-opening for the legal profession. With COVID-19, we were faced with new laws and novel issues, and we learned the virtual parameters within which we can provide effective....

As adaptation to the pandemic continues and remote work becomes a permanent feature of business, Indiana has a window of opportunity to reverse past brain drain trends. To do so, city and state leaders need to leverage the confluence of three things: The

For a moment, think about your life's most vivid memories. I'd bet you're thinking of some exceptional moments: the birth of a child, a graduation, wedding, a professional accomplishment.

The pandemic has forced companies of all types to reckon with the challenges of remote work, but it has given those in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry the perfect opportunity to transform their businesses.

The 2020 election began in September 2020 with mail-in voting and finally came to an end on January 6, 2021. Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock won their respective races in the Georgia runoff elections, resulting in a 50-50

On top of the devastating health impact of COVID-19 is the economic impact. Most businesses are going down one of two paths right now: hunkering down and simply awaiting a return to normalcy to operate business as usual, or leaning into resiliency,

Like Sept 11, 2011, the Covid-19 pandemic will be a pivotal event, changing the way we do things broadly and deeply. It’s too early to know how yet. And that’s what makes it difficult to plan.

From time to time, employers express concerns about the health issues an employee or applicant may develop in the future due to his or her current physical condition, particularly weight.

By: Josh White, President of Hoosier Contractors Indiana is home to nearly 550,000 veterans, 52,000 of which collect disability compensation or pension payments.

In You Are What You Love, James K. A. Smith asks us to imagine a snowball sitting atop an iceberg. The snowball represents our conscious reasoning. When we learn something new, it goes into our snowball.

Data-driven decision-making is good for business. It’s been proven that the organizations that rely on data to inform decision-making grow faster and are more profitable than those that don’t.

As a new year begins, especially one following a year so unpredictable and unprecedented, it makes sense to think about what successful leadership in 2021 will look like.

"Uncertainty is the only certainty there is." It is doubtful that John Allen Paulos was pondering taxation and financial planning when he made this claim, but the sentiment applies.

Wondering why you can’t get that new washer/dryer delivered next week, find your favorite products on store shelves or even get a desk for your newly discovered home office? Chalk it up to the long, strange year importers are navigating. Our company

With small to mid-market businesses especially vulnerable during this time, these companies must be agile and nimble to adjust in ever-changing times.

When remote work first began, you were likely focused on getting your work done and not using the webcam any more than necessary.

The FDA’s approval of COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use will result in employers considering the adoption of mandatory vaccination policies for their employees.

As organizations adapt to change brought about by the pandemic, many contemplate how long it will take for our world to return to normal.

We can help you implement servant leadership in your small business. One of the services we at Inspire Results provide is to modify content and tools generally written for large corporations and make it useful for small business owners.

If you are like me, you have been on hundreds of conference calls in the past. They were a brilliant solution to remote communication requiring only a phone, a number to the bridge line, and a passcode.

“You did a good job!” Aren’t those nice words to hear? Most of us appreciate a little appreciation once in a while. But there’s one surefire way to make recognition backfire. That word, appreciation, comes equipped with two diction

COVID-19 has affected each of our lives in various ways and has affected many businesses and the economy quite drastically.

Business owners commonly — and often correctly — feel as though they’re the hardest-working person in their business, leading them to wonder how to hold others accountable.

Leadership is a lot of things. It is a role. It likely represents career progress. It can be lonely. And last week, I explained why it is an opportunity. It is also hard to escape the fact that leadership is a responsibility too.

Given her health problems over the past several months, it was not surprising that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg finally succumbed to these challenges.

The coronavirus pandemic has shown all of us how major clinical issues can focus efforts across both business and academia, and how quickly researchers and companies can pivot to find solutions for critical and high value opportunities.

History has proven it: strategic planning is less valuable than it could be. The traditional strategic planning practice that involves business units presenting to executives on a periodic basis is outdated. This particular approach too often relies on as

Communication is hard. Cascading communication - getting a clear and consistent message shared - is harder. Doing it remotely?

If your business is a body, cash is its blood. Just as cholesterol blocks healthy blood flow, slow invoicing, lack of regular financial reports and other things we’ll discuss here, block healthy cash flow.

When her husband died unexpectedly, it ended up being one of her co-workers that stepped in and rescued her by showing a little kindness. Each week for an entire year the co-worker would send a note of encouragement to the young widow, affirming her and g

The need for reliable, affordable internet access has become more apparent than ever.

Who is your product or service created for? What are the common attributes or characteristics individuals share that make them perfect potential customers for your business?

“Show me the money!” Mr. Rod Tidwell, remember him? That egomaniacal football player who was all about “the money” in the Golden Globes snubbed classic movie, Jerry Maguire.

If you are coaching others in the workplace, you probably have some sort of performance management process. While these typically culminate in the annual meeting, many suggest or require at least a midyear check-in too.

Benchmarking can be useful when deciding where to start on a journey of improvement. For example, it is sometimes possible to gather exemplary practices and helpful methodology to apply to one’s own need for improvement from a personal development p

During the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, cyber-criminals introduced companies to an assortment of clever phishing attacks that exploited the chaos.

The events of the past few days have been emotional for everyone. A glance at the news will leave you horrified, hurt, angry, sad, or one of many other emotions. I am not qualified to offer solutions to the anger, protests, and violence.

It is no secret that teachers today are overwhelmed, especially with statewide school closures due to COVID-19.

If you’re in business, conflict is inevitable. And if it’s a family business, conflict is even more difficult to manage. Family business comes with a deeper, more complex ecosystem of relationships that raises the stakes in conflict situations. Family members depend on one another financially and the business is linked to the quality of the family’s relationships.  

Ever feel like you’re the only one with a sense of accountability for the success of your business? At West Point, an early and clear lesson I learned is that a leader is accountable for everything that happens or fails to happen in his unit. For me, that’s the ultimate statement of accountability.  

The world has been inundated with advice and counsel on how to work effectively from home. My advice to you -- keep it simple.  Focus on (1) your effectiveness, (2) your presentation, and (3) your comfort.

We’re all facing a lot of challenges right now, from the financial strain and uncertainty in our businesses to the personal roller-coaster we’re all on.

A crisis communications plan is something companies have in place to use as a guide for external and internal communications during a crisis. The depth of the plan and what it does or doesn’t include can vary widely from company to company.

These are perilous times on many fronts; for those suffering from the coronavirus, their families and the rest of us who are dealing with social distancing and financial uncertainty.

As the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 continues to increase, organizations across the world have implemented travel restrictions, quarantines, furloughs and other measures to combat the spread of the virus to their employees and customers.

In an old comic strip, parents watch their son play video games and envision of a future of lucrative job prospects based on this expertise. That was the joke, back in 1990.

For most of us, accountability only happens once frustration boils over! It’s not thoughtful and planned; rather, it’s reactionary and out of control.

Even if you didn't grow up in the 1980s, you probably know at least some of the lyrics to the Styx classic Mr. Roboto. For example, you may be familiar with this line: "Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto, for doing the jobs that nobody wants to."

Lots of executives, small business owners, and managers talk about the importance of strategic planning. But usually, that’s a terrible, terrible idea.

The past four years have rightfully challenged everyone to take serious stock of their workplace culture, honestly assessing respect and gender parity, or the lack thereof.

The uses of technology in our world today are endless, widespread and constantly evolving.

By: Alison Bell, Chancellor of WGU Indiana Reaching the top of the leadership ladder can be a strenuous process for any woman, as biases and barriers still exist in many workplaces.

On December 20, The SECURE Act (“SECURE”) passed into law as part of a budget bill. SECURE drastically alters retirement account distribution requirements for a beneficiary inheriting a retirement account. 

At Collective Alternative, our company culture stems from the adoption of six core values — characteristics we strive to uphold that create a more rewarding experience both for our clients and the team internally.

As a business owner, do you find a lot of people coming to you for the answers? It can be overwhelming! Instead of giving answers, lead by asking questions. Too many people in leadership roles think leadership is about telling people to do things.

Managing time off requests around the holidays can be daunting for employers, particularly for those who must maintain certain production standards or whose busiest time may be during the...

Employee engagement is defined as “the level of an employee’s commitment and connection to an organization.” Over the past few years, employee engagement has emerged as one of the biggest competitive differentiators for an organization.

Jay was ready to walk away from his business. He’d grown it from 3 people to 18 and it had gotten too complicated. Everyday someone was upset, a crucial deadline was missed, equipment broke down, or a myriad of other problems occurred. He was sick of it.

 “We must do things through people, not to people.” This is the fourth foundational principle of the Leader Education and Development (LEAD) program conducted by the Institute for Postindustrial Leadership at the University of Indianapolis. We also refer to this principle as Through versus To. 

We are taught and conditioned to emphasize our differences, to accentuate our uniqueness, and to celebrate our diversity. But what about our similarities? We are more similar than we are different. This is the fifth of the five foundational principles of the Leader Education and Development (LEAD) program conducted by the Institute for Postindustrial Leadership at the University of Indianapolis.  

From time to time, employers express concerns about the health issues an employee or applicant may develop in the future due to his or her current physical condition, particularly weight.

There’s a cultural disease plaguing almost every organization in human history. It’s a mind virus which insists that if we didn’t come up with it, then it can’t be any good. I’ve heard this expressed a few different ways.  

Conflict. Put people together doing most anything for most any length of time and conflict will occur. Put people together and ask them what the challenges are at work, and conflict will always come up. People have experience and an opinion about conflict, and they don’t talk about positively. We face conflict and generally think if we could rid ourselves of it, we would be better off.  

You know that distractions at work are a productivity problem, and yet they persist. Perhaps the number of distractions you face may be growing. Let’s take a proactive approach to reducing the number of distractions and improving your productivity, starting today.  

When it comes to the future of the National Labor Relations Act—and labor unions generally—the only thing that seems certain is more uncertainty.   That said, while we can't hope to predict the future, by taking a closer look at the present, we can begin to map out the various possibilities it may have in store. Which of these possible futures comes to pass will depend heavily on the outcome of the national elections in 2020.    

In our first article published in July 2018, we began our journey of discovery together by establishing that leadership is something much more than what leaders do and the situations in which leaders find themselves. We further proposed that the industrial leadership theories of the 20th century provided a fundamentally flawed understanding of leadership—one that is hierarchical, managerial, male-dominated, and leader-centric. 

Agency-client relationships, much like dating, involve a healthy amount of initial awkwardness followed by a phase of discovery. While that process can sometimes feel uncomfortable, it’s actually incredibly valuable. The trust that’s built between agency and client through that process can lead to truly great things.  

Legislating Corporate Board Diversity and the Inclusion Imperative In a 2018 study conducted by A Corporate Board Member and Grant Thornton, LLP, researchers found that 14 percent of surveyed directors ranked gender diversity in the selection of new board members as a top concern. This is with good reason as women remain nationally underrepresented in board settings.  

Coaching is a hot topic. It is frequently used for leadership development these days and maybe you’ve heard about how it can transform leaders, teams, and organizations. The International Coach Federation defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.”  

What if I could provide you with one basic piece of advice that would give you an edge in finding and recruiting top talent? I thought you might be interested. But first, we must compare what the student talent landscape once was to what it is today.

Every business leader is going to lose staff members at some point. How you handle a person’s decision to leave your team and the tone you set during the departure can have impact on your business now and in the future. The JoyPowered™ Team will provide ideas on how to handle exits that were the individual’s choice and ones that you initiate. 

My former co-work, Rita, loved Barry Manilow.  She often wore a T-shirt that said, “Never Underestimate the Power of a Barry Manilow Song.” She loved him so much that in one week, she saw him once in Indianapolis and the following weekend she drove up to Chicago to see him. She was our receptionist – and I guarantee you she ate Ramen noodles for a few days to make those two concerts happen. 

It seems like every month there is a news story involving a disgruntled employee or former employee committing some sort of violent act at work. Such senseless acts can result in drastic ramifications for employees, families, communities and businesses. 

Reinforcement Programs Should Use Technology and Balance to Engage Participants
We’ve reached the point where reinforcement isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have, especially leveraging technology to engage participants long after the learning event! While we have all experienced great events or programs, we also know the all-too-familiar frustration of failing to apply and practice new skills once we are back in our day-to-day environments.  

Imagine there’s someone at your organization who is insanely productive. They get as much done as five people combined. Their work is flawless. But there’s only one problem: nobody can stand them. This is the toxic employee. A piece in the Talent Management & HR site TLNT opens with the following: Toxic employees don’t care about a company’s goals, nor do they care about building relationships with co-workers.  

Music can make you cry, laugh, and dance. The right song can transport you to another place and time instantly. Songs can also inspire and inform us when we take the time to listen to the lyrics. That is my goal today – I’m taking five songs from my personal playlists that have leadership lessons in them. Whether you know them or not, like the genre or not, I hope that you will take a listen to these songs for leaders this week. 

I talk to HR professionals on a daily basis and work through some of the most interesting, difficult and complex employee challenges. It's easy for me to acknowledge HR's value to our clients, but a conversation I had this week with one my HR friends was concerning to me, and I thought it might be helpful to address it in this column. She told me her CEO evaluates HR with the same methodology he uses for the sales and production sides of the company.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently added new criteria for burnout as a part of its ICD 11 coding scheme. This moves burnout forwards as a specific condition that can be diagnosed as an occupational phenomenon by health and mental health workers. However, the impact to your business is more than just the fact that burnout can be formally diagnosed now.  

This May, the World Health Organization classified burnout as an occupational phenomenon and expanded the definition to provide more clarity. Gallup has studied employee engagement and its impact for years. In 2018, a study of 7,500 full-time employees found that 23% of employees felt burned out “very often or always” while 44% felt burned out “sometimes”.  

As an employer, when it comes to compliance with employment laws and regulations, you strive to do everything right. You enact strongly-worded policies prohibiting discrimination and harassment. When an employee complains, you promptly investigate. When your investigation reveals a violation of your policy, you take appropriate action against the violator.  

“Wouldn’t you like to be known as the kind of person who brings out the best in others?” is a quote from the book True Colors by Roger Birkman. In the highly competitive game of trying to hire the best employees you can find, just think of what your company could be like—both culturally and in level of performance—if all your employees were performing at their best. 

They aren’t brand new but mentoring and coaching are under-utilized in comparison to other learning modalities. A study by Brandon Hall Group shows that coaching and mentoring are considered highly effective-even surpassing the rating of classroom training’s effectiveness–but they are still used less frequently to develop leaders (2016-2017).  

While the vast majority of companies long for a strong work culture, not all are willing to put in the extra effort that it requires. Instilling culture in new team members isn’t a task that can simply be checked off a list. Rather, it's a series of things company leadership must do that begins with the hiring process. It doesn’t end there either, though. Companies must be devoted to protecting their culture at all costs.

While focus on the southern border continues to captivate national and international media, some significant, yet quieter, changes are occurring across our norther border. In an unannounced policy change and despite longstanding regulations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is refusing to consider requests for renewal of L-1 visa status for Canadian specialty workers pursuant to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). 

The CEO of a successful Midwest bank was rapidly approaching retirement age. Under his dynamic and inspired leadership, the bank had enjoyed 25 years of successful growth, expanding to more than 400 employees. The bank’s board of directors recognized that their CEO would be stepping down in the next few years, and that they needed to start work on identifying a successor.

Before you dive into the details of your next presentation, start preparing your PowerPoint and stressing about how it will go . . . Stop. And ask yourself a more important question. A question that far-too-few people ask. How will I earn their attention? Because if they aren’t paying attention, your message will be lost. This has always been an important question, but in our frantic, internet and gadget-filled lives...

Imagine walking into a bakery where every pastry on display was soggy and half-baked. Of course you’d walk out. Then you learn the bakery owner attended the best culinary school in Paris and finished at the top of her class. She won awards for her exquisite delicacies. But when prospects stop by her glass counter for a better look - she disappoints. What about you? What will your prospects see when they land on your LinkedIn profile?  

Data breaches are constantly in the news and most companies know they should be concerned about privacy and the security of their data, or at least recognize this is an important and complex area.However, most family offices are not sure how to start addressing their concerns, or worse, don’t view the family office as a target. The majority (58%) of malware attack victims were categorized as small businesses in 2018.[i]

Management wants employees to be more efficient. Customers want answers, resolutions, and deliveries faster. So, should we expect productivity increases to be relatively constant over time? This is a big philosophical question about the human condition within the modern world.  This is a big philosophical question about the human condition within the modern world. Are we getting better, or are we just shifting things around so they look different? 

“We must stop destroying before we can start building.” That’s the third foundational principle of the Leader Education and Development (LEAD) program created by the Institute for Postindustrial Leadership. We also refer to this principle as Stop vs. Start. It sounds simple enough. Stop vs Start states that it is necessary to stop doing something wrong before we start doing something right; and that when we start, we must always start with ourselves.

There is an ancient far eastern saying that goes something like this: “If you are planning for a year, plant rice. If you are planning for twenty years, grow trees. If you are planning for centuries, grow people.” In order for your company to grow, there is one thing you should never delegate. The development of leaders should be an on-going effort for the existing leadership of any company.

No one in Indiana says, “As New York goes, so goes America!” On the other hand, the wise employer may want to give some attention to the new law that went into effect in New York on October 9. It may well be a harbinger of things to come, and may at least suggest some best practices. Moreover, if you have any employees in New York, this law applies to those employees.

Unproductive board meetings waste time, demotivate board members and frustrate staff.  While most boards function relatively well, they may not be functioning at their highest level. Here are several simple changes you can make right now that will keep your meetings productive and on target. Implement a consent agenda.

When I was growing up and just entering the workforce, it was common to hear the following statements of wisdom: “Work hard and you’ll be noticed.” “It’s important to wait your turn.” “Companies reward those who make a long-term commitment.”

Managers who are always focused on outputs may be missing the point. To bring about transformational change, it’s crucial to understand the role of inputs and processes in shaping those outputs. It all comes down to a simple idea: everything is a system, and everything is connected. In the LEAD Program developed by the Institute for Postindustrial Leadership, participants are introduced to five profound principles through presentations and group discussions.

Both the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) and the Indiana Supreme Court revamped their definitions of “independent contractor,” in some ways clarifying and in some ways complicating, a complex area of the law. On January 23, 2019, the Indiana Supreme Court overturned an appellate court ruling to focus on the so-called “ABC” test to determine when a worker is an employee or an independent contractor.

When people want to become a more effective leader they ask, “What skills do I need?” When organizations plan their leadership development programs, they start with the skills that will be needed to be successful. It is an understandable goal – to know what people need to be able do in order to lead. Here’s the problem: asking about the right leadership skills isn’t the only question that needs to be asked, because skills aren’t enough.