ClickCease
Matt Rusten
Why Joy is Vital for Your Leadership and Company

Is joy an underrated asset in your leadership? In our latest article, Matt Rusten explores why joy, much like humor, plays a vital role in building a thriving company culture. From increasing team engagement to fostering resilience, joy can transform workplace dynamics and inspire purpose-driven work. Discover three key ways to cultivate joy in your organization and why it’s essential for leaders who seek both results and fulfillment.

Why Joy is Vital for Your Leadership and Company
Business, Faith, Faith at Work
Convene
Do Not Worry

‘Do not worry.’ We’ve read Matthew 6:25-34 in the Sermon on the Mount, but what does that look like on a day-to-day, minute-by-minute basis? God knows our every worry, fear, and concern – and He can handle it. Many thanks to Darrell Passwater, Convene Forum Team leader, for his encouragement to think about how our lives might be different by truly living out this scriptural principle.

Do Not Worry
Greg Leith
Who Will Lead Your Firm the Day After the ...

Got a quick minute to chat? I’ve been wanting to share something with you as you lead in the midst of the election cycle in the USA or when your political election takes place in your country. When the dust settles on the election and the new country leader is declared, one thing will still be as true as it is right now. You’ll still be the one leading your firm the day after the election. Your team members will still come to work the day after the winner is declared. They’ll still be looking to you for leadership, for a paycheck, for a sense of community at their workplace.

What do they want most that only you can deliver? It’s meaning. That meaning they’re looking for begins with you and your leadership. To be sure, what Washington DC does actually can impact your business significantly, however, the president of the United States or the leader of any country does not lead your firm. You do. It’s an enterprise entrusted to you to lead as a steward. It’s a place where people look to you for answers, where people want to be part of a team that cares about them and where people want to be valued, appreciated, and loved. The next president of the country will not show up this week at your office to encourage your team, fix a broken piece of equipment, hire the next team member, sell a big account, or cast a bold vision about how your team will reach your goals and impact the culture.

Who Will Lead Your Firm the Day After the Election?
Chip Neidigh
A Safe Place To Fall
A Safe Place To Fall
Dave Ulrich
3 Principles of Hope That Enable Transitions

As we find ourselves mid-October and a blink away from a new calendar year, it is an opportunity to prepare for how we view transitions. Transitions allow for reflection and renewal, for letting go and beginning anew, and for learning from the past and creating the future. Instead of laying out trends for the next year, I would like to comment on a fundamental enabler of any transition: hope. Leaders who want to improve, CEO’s who work toward excellence, HR professionals who aspire to deliver more value, and employees who seek well-being all achieve their transitions by realizing hope.

Hope integrates many of the positive traits that shape transitions for others and matter to me personally: learning, patience, service, faith, humility, optimism, gratitude, and so forth. I send hundreds of formal and informal e-mails every month to invite people to programs, to thank people for attending programs, to check in on those I mentor, and to stay connected to those I care about. I begin almost every one of these notes with “Hope you are well.” Hope is one of my personal desires, tag lines, and biases and an enabler of any transition.

If I could implant one trait in my family, friends, and colleagues who are undergoing continual transition, it would be hope. 

3 Principles of Hope That Enable Transitions

Leadership

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Executive Coaching, Development, and ROI: What’s Your Return On Induing?

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Executive Coaching, Development, and ROI: What’s Your Return On Induing?

Return on investment is perhaps the most foundational key performance indicator (KPI) in use today. The deceptively simple formula, (Earnings - Cost) ÷ Cost, defines a flexible indicator that leaders regularly use to assess multiple aspects of their business such as overall profitability, marketing effectiveness, pricing suitability, and profit on inventory. It is also frequently used with scenario analysis to choose between multiple options and understand whether it makes financial sense to make investments in new properties, plants, or equipment.

How’s Your Vertical Tug?

How’s Your Vertical Tug?

How is the “vertical tug” on your life? Are you doing everything in your company and leadership under your own wisdom, wit and power? Can everything on your “to do” list be done without inquiring of God? If so, you could be in danger of experiencing the “Gibeonite ruse”. Convene Board of Directors member Os Hillman reminds us that we must inquire of God before we act in our own strength.

Leadership In Transition

Leadership In Transition

Congratulations! You’ve arrived in the C-suite by building your business or being promoted to the most senior leadership ranks of your firm. Your excitement and eagerness are palpable as you settle in to the work of leading your team to make your corner of the world, and the marketplace, better. But you may also have more than a few butterflies in your stomach, doubts in the back of your mind, or questions about what it will take to succeed in your new role. As leaders evolve and grow, transitions bring some of the most exciting, yet challenging circumstances that they are likely to face throughout their career. Aspiring leaders typically have vision for their organization, career, and impact that they want to have and draw on it as a source of motivation. It is the challenges, blind spots, and frustrations that tend to catch them by surprise. So today, we’re going to explore the question, what happens when the initial excitement of a new or evolving role or professional challenge moves from initial elation to “what have I gotten into?”

The Business Plan

The Business Plan

If failing to plan is planning to fail, then how do some leaders manage to succeed without the aid of a formal business plan? Business planning has a painful reputation. In fact, I regularly speak with leaders of successful organizations who tell me that it is among the most frustrating and painful challenges they have with some going so far as to avoid formal business plans entirely! Moreover, why do so many entrepreneurs’ lived experiences stand in opposition to conventional wisdom that planning must precede success, with effective planning for early-stage startups remaining largely a black box for practitioners and researchers alike? If success is predefined within the boundaries of business plans, why do we see global corporate juggernauts emerge such as Facebook and Google or regional firms develop such as the Texas grocery chain HEB that started as a small country store in 1905 and grew to become the state’s largest private employer? Clearly these organizations look nothing like the firms their founders envisioned in any business plan they wrote.