Author: Robert Bacal

In two other articles on informal leadership, we’ve looked at understanding informal leaders, and developing informal leaders (and the perils attached to that). In this article we’ll look at some ideas about how to maximize the benefits and effectiveness of informal leadership in…

In Understanding Informal Leaders In An Organization (and Benefiting From Them) we provided a brief overview of the power of informal leaders in organizations. It makes sense for formal leaders to recognize the pivotal roles these “influence leaders” can play, and to…

Managers, supervisors, executives or any others with formal power and title within an organization can reap huge benefits from cultivating and developing existing informal leaders in their work units. Or, informal leaders can work against the formal leaders in the organization. When…

One of the characteristics of an effective leader is that he or she “makes those around them into better performers”. That’s oft said about the best athletes, but also applies to musicians, and even managers like yourself. While the best athletes…

Leading When Fogged In It happens to every leader eventually. The path forward is obscured as if by fog. Changes beyond one’s control make it impossible, at least for a while, to identify what to do next. For a CEO,…

Nailing Down The Meaning of Values – Personal AND Corporate (Part 1) If personal and corporate values are to have any usefulness, they have to be used to make decisions and guide behavior. Most of us have worked in organizations,…

Do Leaders Have To Have A Specific Core Set Of Skills To Be Successful? It’s a Yes, and a No If you read books about leadership, or listen to leadership experts, you may come away with the idea that there…

Importance Of Credibility For Leadership Success First, if there is one defining characteristic of leaders who are effective over long periods of time, it’s that they behave in ways that cause people to see them as credible. That means that…

Here are the next imperfect phrases from my book. I’m Not The Only One, Everyone Thinks That… (Passive aggressive technique to pressure another person isn’t likely to endear you to anyone). It’s All In Your Mind (A terrible thing to…

Here are ten phrases you should never use in any kind of relationship at home or in the workplace, if you value the other person. These words are documented as being harmful because they are patronizing, passive aggressive, or otherwise…

Here is the next ten “imperfect phrases” you need to eliminate/replace so as to reduce the chances of instigating or continuing a destructive conversation of argument. Are you starting to see a trend here? Notice that there are 3 clear…