ISC Blog

Many industry leaders and teams are frozen in place, afraid of making bad decisions. But sometimes making no decision is even worse.

The most productive leaders:

Set stretch goals.
Drive hard for results.
Practice unfailing consistency.
Expand knowledge and technical skill.
Display energy and take initiative.
Anticipate and solve problems.
(Zenger – Forbes.)

In an HBR post, Zenger and Folkman added a seventh trait, “Be collaborative.”

This post focuses on INITIATIVE.

The 5 practices of initiative:

#1. Do for yourself what you wish others would do for you.

Would you like a mentor? Then get off your butt and find a mentor. Do you need more information from higher ups? Go ask questions.

#2. Consider a lousy leader an opportunity to contribute.

You develop skills, gain knowledge, and develop humility when you do your boss’s job for him. If he takes credit for your work, forget it.

Expand your resume. Continue learning, developing, and contributing. Then move on.

#3. Fail trying, not gathering information.

Losers hide behind the word ‘right’. I’m waiting for the right time, the right team, the right resources.

Unproductive people love the word, ‘waiting’. I’m waiting for permission. I’m waiting for someone to return my call.

Initiative gets in trouble sometimes. But trouble caused by initiative is better than trouble caused by delay.

Ask forgiveness, not permission.

Proactive leaders believe NOW is better than later.

#4. Learn by trying stuff, not simply talking.

Talk deceives teams into believing they’re getting stuff done. Yes, define problems and explore solutions, but make choices that enable visible action.

If you can’t see it, it doesn’t count. Talking about things is a beginning. But initiative always ends in action.

#5. Do more than needs to be done.

Anticipate what your customers need and give it before they ask. This applies to colleagues, employees, and bosses.

If you will start small, you’re less likely to stay small.

If you go to work every day just going through the motions, you aren't alone.

According to Gallup, only 33% of employees are engaged at work.

So, how can nearly 70% of the workforce be disengaged?

I believe it's because there is a tremendous lack of recognition in the world today, or what I call the global recognition deficit. And there are statistics to prove it.

According to OC Tanner research:

• 79% of employees who quit their jobs claim that a lack of appreciation was a major reason for leaving

• 65% of Americans claimed they weren't even recognized one time last year

My company, oGoLead, fielded national research and found even more evidence for the lack of recognition in the workplace:

• 82% of employees feel their supervisor doesn't recognize them for what they do

• 60% say they are more motivated by recognition than money

Today’s challenge is as difficult as it is simple. Seek advice from an imperfect boss or colleague. If you’re feeling brave, seek advice from your spouse or children. But there’s more.

Commit to do whatever they advise.

Examples:

“I’d like to fuel energy on the team. What advice do you have? Before you answer, I want you to know that I’ll do whatever you say for a week.”

“I’d like to live a more meaningful life. I wonder what advice you have for me. Before you answer, I want you to know that I’ll do whatever you say for a week.”

“I’d like to get better at holding people accountable. What do you suggest I do? Before you answer, I want you to know that I’ll do whatever you say for a week.”

Rational:

Shake things up once in a while or you’ll sink into ruts.
The phrase, “I’ll do whatever you say,” changes the dynamic for the advice giver.
“I’ll do whatever you say,” humbles you. Everything good in leadership begins with humility.
This exercise shows you who you trust. I found that I don’t trust as many people as I thought. Maybe I need to deepen some of my relationships?

Guidelines:

#1. Declare an intention before seeking advice.

What could I do this week to:

Develop new relationships?
Deepen current relationships?
Become a better leader? (Spouse, friend, boss.)
Move my career forward?
Encourage my team?
Fulfill my vision for life?
Serve you/my team?
#2. Set a short time limit, perhaps a day or a week.

#3. Regardless of the question you craft, commit to do whatever they tell you, before they respond.

You know the value of people trusting YOU. But how are you helping managers TRUST EACH OTHER?

You aren’t done trust building until the people around the table trust each other.

Elvis got it right when he sang:

We can’t go on together
With suspicious minds
And we can’t build our dreams
On suspicious minds

Choose how you show up BEFORE you show up.

#1. Show up to let others be right.

Take advice. Stop finding fault with advice. If advice won’t make matters worse, try it.

Give room for others to learn. Say, “That’s an interesting idea. Why don’t you try it? Let’s meet next Thursday at 3:00 to debrief.”

4 tips for letting others be right:

Will an idea cause damage? Intervene.
Does the person possess drive and openness? Let them dive into the deep end.
Is there a track record of learning from failure? Provide rope for trying things.
Do they get defensive when receiving tough feedback? Perhaps learning from failure will develop humility.
#2. Show up to embolden others to act.

Permission-giving hinders bold action.

Teach people to stop asking permission and start declaring intention. “I intend to,” is more courageous than, “May I.” (See, Turn the Ship Around, by David Marquet.)

Too many suggestions hinder bold action. Affirm more. Tweak less.

Others are timid when you don’t trust their talent.

#3. Show up to get out of the way.

Step back and allow others to act.

The transition from being IN the spotlight to shining the spotlight is painful for some. Your need to be the center of attention prevents initiative.

Notice your need to be part of the action. When you feel left out, stay out.

Give yourself freedom to give others freedom:

Coach instead of giving quick answers when people seek input.
Affirm instead of tweak.
Schedule reports. (Use #1 and #2 above during reports.)
Learn to speak directly with kindness. Lack of courage to speak your mind prevents you from freeing others to act.

The courage to step back is often greater than the courage to step in.

In the world of sales, you have a choice to either follow the path of the Sales Dog or the Sales Wolf.

The Sales Wolf aggressively chases their prospects and will do anything and everything necessary to reach their targets. They may be successful in the short term, but their tactics fall far short when it comes to building long-standing, trusting relationships.

The Sales Dog, on the other hand, is committed to developing trust from the onset, working much more in partnership with the clients, rather than simply being seen as a simple supplier who can be easily replaced.

Forbes Media recruited us to join its Agency Council. Ethical concerns guided our decision to decline.

THE OFFER   
According to its website, the Forbes Agency Council is an “invitation-only organization for senior-level executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies.” It’s positioned as an exclusive group of executives. An honor to be selected. A career status symbol.

But the honor isn’t free. Joining the Council requires annual dues. It’s a fee-based membership group. You pay to belong.

Dues-paying Forbes Agency Council members can publish “expert business articles and short tips” on Forbes.com. These articles are part of the Forbes CommunityVoiceTM content thread, the purpose of which is “connecting expert communities to the Forbes audience.”

If you think that paying a news organization for the opportunity to publish content sounds suspiciously like advertising, you’re not alone.

The ever-changing social media algorithms make it harder to get engagement on social media posts. With some content writing tips, however, you can make your message more appealing to more people.

If you invest time, effort and money into posting on social media, I am sure you would want to get a good return on your investment. That return should see you meeting or exceeding the goals you have identified for each social media platform.

But if you post without a social media strategy that outlines how each platform will help you accomplish your business goals, many of your efforts will be wasted.

Having a social media strategy and action plan, based on your unique business goals, resources and available time, is essential to your success.

Even with a well laid out action plan, you still need to create social media posts and content that speak to your identified audience and inspire them to take action.

The actions they can take include engagement (likes, comments, shares), visiting your blog or a landing page, or buying something.

In this article, I share seven social media content writing tips for creating posts that get the attention of your target audience and inspire engagement.

Most American workers are not aiming for the corner office. Approximately one third (34 percent) of workers aspire to leadership positions, with only 7 percent aiming for senior or C-level management. (CareerBuilder)

Why are workers avoiding leadership? 52 percent are simply satisfied in their current roles. 34 percent don’t want to sacrifice work life balance.

A Berrett Koehler study found only 43 percent are comfortable being managers. Only 32 percent saying they like being managers. (Managing for People who Hate Managing)

Why managing sucks:

You were promoted to your level of incompetence. (The Peter Principle)

Companies promote the best salesperson to sales manager. In the process they lose their best salesperson and end up with a frustrated manager.

You’re caught in the middle between upper management’s goals and employee empowerment. You don’t have authority to make decisions and aren’t included in company goal setting.

You were promoted and not trained. 61 percent of new managers DON’T receive management training. Only 34 percent report receiving any mentoring.  And only 31 percent report receiving any coaching. (Blanchard)

Finding enjoyment in managing:

#1. Stop working so hard.

Let talented people do their jobs. Stop telling people how to do the work you assign. People resent your interference and enjoy your support.

You might be able to do the job better than others. Keep your mouth shut. Let people do their work.

#2. Show up to coach, inspire, and encourage.

Delegate authority and get out of the way. Show up to offer support, but don’t tweak everyone’s work.

Show respect.
Offer encouragement.
Stay available.
#3. Schedule follow-up meetings.

Ambiguity is stressful. Alleviate ambiguity by scheduling follow up meetings. “Let’s touch base next Tuesday at 3:00 to finalize things.” (Then stay out of people’s hair.)

#4. Get a mentor/coach. Don’t wait for permission, just do it.

What makes managing a painful experience?

How might managing become more enjoyable?

Key nonprofit fundraising trends for 2026 plus every nonprofit fundraising trend we've seen since 2018.

The deadly habits of highly toxic leaders:

#1. Toxic leaders think others need to grow, but they don’t.

There is no hope for a leader who doesn’t need to learn and grow.

Toxic leaders:

Carry the curse of knowledge that allows superiority. My wife and I watch cooking shows on TV. The contestant who already knows-it-all inevitably crashes and burns.
Don’t listen to ignorant novices.
Don’t read. It takes too much time.
Reject coaching and mentoring. Sadly, in some organizations having a coach is punishment.
You become irrelevant when you don’t learn and grow.

#2. Toxic leaders expect blood from turnips.

Turnips are great if you need vegetables, but not if you need blood.

Toxic leaders want turnips to move into leadership, but turnips don’t aspire to lead, for example.

Hope is cruel. Your team wants you to stop tolerating turnips, but you hope they’ll step up.

You have aspiration for those who have none for themselves. (Some people are thriving at their job and they don’t want to move up.)

Tips for toxic turnip lovers:

Leverage strengths. Know the top five strengths of everyone on the team.
Fuel energy. Watch for bright eyes. What are people doing when their eyes light up?
Move slowly. Don’t promote turnips in the hope they will start giving blood. Toxic leaders expect too much, too quickly, from reluctant turnips. They may rise someday, but not now.

How to Weasel out of Change:

You’re frustrated when others do it. Maybe you’re a weasel, too.

#1. Weasel out of change by using the “exception justification”.

Exception-thinking appears when the response to advice is, “Yes, but,” or “What about?”

If you want to stay the same, use an exception like a comforting baby blanket. Now you can keep doing the same ineffective things and feel good about it.

It’s interesting that people who seek advice use small exceptions to justify rejecting advice.

You seldom change while looking for excuses to stay the same.

#2. Weasel out of change by using the “small flaw justification”.

If you want to stay the same, discount the WHOLE truth by finding a small flaw in the advice someone gives.

Find small reasons not to change so you can justify staying the same.

Imperfect people use imperfection as an excuse to continue following an ineffective path.

#3. Weasel out of change by using the “it might fail justification”.

It’s interesting that people who are failing use the excuse, “I might fail,” to continue failing.

Failure-thinking is seen when people say, “But it might not work,” or “What if I fail?”

You might not always get what you reach for, but if you reach for nothing, you always get it.

Tips:

Stop using small things as reasons to reject the whole.
Seek advice from someone you respect. Don’t judge it. Follow their advice for a week. (See: An Exercise Guaranteed to Ignite Growth in Anyone.)
Invest in yourself. Hire a coach.
Adopt an imperfect plan so you can make imperfect progress.
Find reasons something might work.
What excuses do people use to avoid growth and change?

How might leaders overcome the challenge of weaseling out of change?

One of the benefits of leading many different types of organizations over my 30+ year career was having a window to observe and study other leaders.

Let’s face it, honing your leadership skills is not a one-off event; it’s a process of learning new skills that are required in the role and practicing them day in and day out.

I found that looking across at how other leaders practiced their craft was an excellent source of learning material; I saw what worked and didn’t work and was able to pick and choose to enhance my own repertoire of skills accordingly.

Most of what I saw in others was quite pedantic. They typically followed the “leader book” prescribed by the experts in the field and by academics who wrote papers on the subject.

It was a rare occurrence to witness a truly different approach to what the crowd of other leaders was following.

Although in the moment they might seem larger than life, interviewers are people just like you.

That means they're susceptible to the same psychological preferences and cognitive biases that affect the rest of us. Simple tweaks to the way you speak and hold yourself can make you seem much more likable, competent, and hirable in their eyes.

With that in mind, we rounded up a list of easy strategies to forge a connection with your interviewer and boost your chances of landing the job.

Here are 24 psychological tricks to ace your next job interview:

This is an open love letter to business owners, sales leaders or anyone leading a team of sales people that are mobile aka “out of the office” most of the day. Sales is a system and you, the “mobile” salesperson and any tool, process or procedure you follow together, is part of that system.

Since you are part of that system, take a look at what you can do first, as a contributor to that system. When you take this step first and communicate that you have done this, to the mobile salesperson, I guarantee you will get the improvement you are looking for.

Here are the 3 Most Common Problems with “The Mobile Salesperson” that we see, that readers of this love letter can focus on first to improve results:

Here is an alarming statistic for business owners and high-level managers: Researchers say a whopping 70% of your employees have no idea about big picture strategy where they work.

So how are the people on the front lines supposed to lead the charge if they don’t know where they’re going?

Face it, many of us have worked for companies that had us running in one direction and everything was fine. Until one day someone said, “Oh, didn’t you hear? We’re not doing it that way anymore.” Sometimes it’s as simple as a new expense report form. But other times it’s something extremely important such as brand re-positioning, or even new rules of engagement for poaching employees from a top competitor. And what about safety issues or recalls?

The reality is that America isn’t short of ideas. We’re just not communicating them properly. An Interact/Harris Poll found that 91% of employees feel their leaders don’t communicate well.

Sometimes being a sage is about what you DON’T do.

#1. Don’t cast pearls before pigs.

Never treat unmotivated learners the same as motivated. Hunger motivates pigs to seek food, but when their bellies bulge, they lay in the mud. They don’t want change. They want confirmation.

When you realize you’re dealing with a pig say, “Oh, I see you already know what you should do about this. I shouldn’t have offered my suggestions. Please feel free to keep me informed on your progress.”

2 ways to spot a pig:

Pigs always look for the next thing to gobble up. The solution you provide is never quite good enough.
Pigs seem enthusiastic until it’s time to change something.
#2. Don’t include timid learners with pigs.

The difference between pigs and timid learners is resistance. Pigs gobble up your solutions and find fault. The timid need time and courage to try something new.

Show patience and compassion with the timid. Allow pigs to wallow in their own mud until they’re ready to change.

Don’t include fearful novices with resistant pigs. The timid need a safety net. Pigs need to struggle in the mud longer.

#3. Don’t minimize problems.

Give solutions AFTER defining problems. A solution without a problem is a good idea. A solution to a big problem is a mandate to action.

The bigger the problem, the more valuable the solution and the wiser the advisor.

Don’t say, “That’s no big deal,” to a struggling novice. Instead ask, “What’s painful about this situation?” Allow pain to be painful – so that solutions feel like an opportunity.

Recall the frustrations in your past. Tell stories about your struggles but don’t focus the conversation on yourself.

Ask, “What will it feel like to solve this problem?”

What does a sage avoid doing?

How do you deal with resistant pigs?

The birth of a wise sage:

You become a wise sage in the dark. There is no sagacity in easy wins. Success is a platform that’s built on courage, struggle, failure, and success. You move toward sagaciousness when you:

Stand for principle when tempted to compromise.
Confront arrogance and practice humility.
Try, fail, own it, and learn. Finger-pointers never learn and grow.
A wise sage courageously exposes struggle, but fools hide the struggle and snarl like lapdogs.

Explain the pain of failure with personal language. Avoid generalities. Painful struggle makes you inviting and trustworthy.

Pain teaches empathy and openness – if you have the humility and courage to listen.

You cannot close your heart and be a wise sage.

A wise sage looks for growth in others not sympathy for herself. The reason to explain the lessons from pain include:

Connection.
Humility.
Honesty.
Encouragement.
You’re an encouragement to others when they realize you found success on the other side of failure. Maybe they can too.

There’s more to becoming a wise sage than moving through darkness to light, but this is a beginning.

What have you learned in the dark?

How might a leader become a wise sage?