Culture – Nathan Magnuson

The Applause of a Single Human Being

This post is an excerpt from my new book Ignite Your Leadership Expertise, which is available on Amazon.com. Recently I had an idea for one of my corporate leadership programs that has over 6,000 leaders enrolled. In an attempt to make the program communications more personal, I included an insightful…

Creating a Leadership Culture

March 13, 2017 Culture Guest Post Organizational Effectiveness

This post comes courtesy of Mark Miller, a best-selling author of 6 books, an in-demand speaker and an executive at Chick-fil-A. His latest book, Leaders Made Here, describes how to nurture leaders throughout the organization, from the front lines to the executive ranks and outlines a clear and replicable approach…

Is “Culture” Just a Buzzword?

July 17, 2016 Culture

“What we really need around here is a _________ culture.” I’ve heard this dozens of times. You probably have too. In most cases, the blank is filled with “leadership” or “accountability,” but it can be all sorts of other things too: communication, collaborative, engaging, development-oriented, execution, work-life balance-friendly – you name…

Do You Have a Royal Culture?

November 2, 2015 Culture Organizational Effectiveness

After repeat appearances, the Kansas City Royals have accomplished something they haven’t done in 30 years: win the World Series. Baseball experts point to a wide variety of factors for the team’s success: an emphasis on putting the ball in play vs. hitting home runs, aggressive base running, a dominant…

Getting the Most from the Human Element

February 16, 2015 Communication Culture Engagement Influence Organizational Effectiveness

If you’ve been responsible for delivering business results for any length of time, you’ve probably hit a wall once or twice with people. Someone’s feelings got hurt, another manager is difficult to work with, company politics create unseen landmines, some colleagues disagrees with you and a couple may be out…

Why Do We Even Have Core Values?

April 21, 2014 Core Values Culture decision-making Leadership Organizational Effectiveness Values

Most organizations have core values. Somewhere anyway. They’re usually posted on the website and probably printed on a brochure somewhere. But do people talk about them individually? Does anyone know them? Are they specific and meaningful enough to make a difference? At the end of the day, the organization is going to…

Catch People Doing Something Right

March 17, 2014 Culture Influence Inspiration Personal Effectiveness

Several years ago I needed to perform a complicated banking transaction on a certain day but wasn’t going to be able to arrive during lobby hours. Having worked as a bank teller back in the day, I knew it would probably prove an impossible request. But to my surprise the…

How Do You Diagnose an Organization?

October 14, 2013 Culture Human Resources Influence Leadership Organizational Effectiveness Questions Strategic Thinking

You’ve just been assigned to fix a problem or design a solution for an organization, department or team. Maybe you’ve been brought in as a consultant or joined a cross-functional task force. Regardless, management wants results. Where do you start? Just like in medicine, the last thing a change practitioner…

Leadership Profile: Jack Welch

October 7, 2013 Courage Culture Influence Inspiration Leadership Leadership Profiles

I first heard Jack Welch speak at the Leadercast Seminar in 2013. Even though he was over a decade into retirement and in his upper 70s, Welch’s rich enthusiasm for business and leadership took the audience (and the moderator) by storm. In raising General Electric’s value by over 4000% in…

6 Ways to Change Your Learning Culture

July 8, 2013 Culture Human Resources Learning Organizational Effectiveness Strategic Thinking

When you were growing up, you probably spent hours sitting in a classroom listening to teachers deliver lecture after lecture in school. Now, as an adult employee, the thought of sitting through company training seems boring, unproductive, pointless and wasteful compared to actual work you could be doing. And if…

8 Critical Stages for Anyone Creating Change

May 20, 2013 Communication Culture Human Resources Leadership Organizational Effectiveness Strategic Thinking

It’s been said that the term “change management” is a misnomer because if you are trying to “manage” change, you’re already too far behind! Change must be led from the front. Because of that, when I first discovered John Kotter’s eight stage process for creating major change in a university…

Three Keys to Sustaining Culture Change

September 10, 2012 Culture Leadership Organizational Effectiveness

I read an excellent post by author Mark Miller recently about what it takes to create a leadership culture. It couldn’t have been more spot on. To create a winning leadership culture, according to Miller, you must define it, train it, practice it, measure it, and model it. Want I…