Kelly O'Connell

There’s no shortage of advice about how to be an effective business leader. Scores of books have been written, speeches given, and interviews conducted with experts about the best way to lead a company to success. With all that information floating out there, narrowing in on the simplest, most effective leadership strategies can seem overwhelming. However, there are several time-tested ways to use your leadership skills to maximize your company's cohesiveness and success. Here are a few of the most well-researched ways that leaders can promote a great corporate culture. Responsibility and Accountability According to Ivy Exec, the best, most effective business leaders lead by example, always striving to practice what they preach. The psychological reasons for the admiration people feel towards these types of leaders are complex, but they generally have to do with integrity. Everyone has likely had a boss or other leader who demonstrated laziness, hypocrisy or…

The digital revolution has brought a myriad of opportunities to the modern workplace. Remote work, in particular, is proving increasingly popular. A notable IWG study reveals that, on a global scale, 70 percent of employees work remotely at least once every week. Some conduct the majority of their work digitally. Success in a remote workplace relies on effective management. With the right approach and resources, it's possible to build a cohesive and highly effective team. Below, we offer five key strategies for making the most of a remote setup: Establish Success Criteria for Evaluating and Hiring Remote Employees What makes a successful remote employee? Who is best equipped to handle the unique demands of remote work? These questions should play a key role in the hiring and onboarding process. Detailed hiring criteria may make it easier to spot ideal remote prospects. Examples could include: Evidence of personal discipline and drive, especially with solo projects…

Change is part and parcel with success in today's competitive business landscape. Organizations that struggle to implement necessary changes will ultimately stagnate. No company is immune; some of the world's most powerful corporations have fallen prey to innovation, or more specifically, their inability to keep up. In this rollercoaster environment, change must not be avoided, but rather, built into every element of the workforce. Enter organizational change management — a discipline designed to ensure that disruptive new processes or ideas are implemented in a way that most benefits both individual stakeholders and the company as a whole. This concept may be familiar in the C-suite, but it's also notoriously difficult to execute. This unfortunate reality is best exemplified by a Strategy&/Katzenbach Center survey, which highlights a success rate of just 54 percent for major change initiatives. If you're determined to beat the odds, you'll want to implement the best practices…