Even if you’re naturally inclined to be a good team leader, becoming an excellent leader takes practice. From learning how to solve office conflicts to making better decisions to discovering new ways to market your company, management training takes time. Whether you’re already at the top of your field or you’re a low-level employee working your way up, check out these 100 inspirational blog posts to become a better, more effective leader and manager.

For Entrepreneurs

Small business owners will learn about investing, networking, and planning here.

1. Advice for budding entrepreneurs: Sue Rutherford walks entrepreneurs through the process of building upon a great idea.
2. Essential Tips for the First-Time Entrepreneur: This post lists the different kinds of business plans that entrepreneurs should research before investing in their new brand.
3. 10 unordinary tips for entrepreneur women: Women in leadership positions in business, not just entrepreneurs, will find this post inspiring.
4. Ethical Conduct of an Entrepreneur: This post encourages entrepreneurs to believe in themselves and avoid greed.
5. 5 Sure-fire ways to know if your business will work or not: If you’re wondering how your business proposal or new idea will work out, read this post first.
6. Get Your Business Going Now: This post has great tips for starting all kinds of businesses.
7. A New Year to Be An Entrepreneur: This day-by-day guide can help you create an effective plan to growing your business.
8. Not Everyone is an Entrepreneur: This post can help you recognize your natural gifts as a business leader.
9. More Support for Unintentional Entrepreneurs: Find out how the economy is inspiring more people from the corporate world to become entrepreneurs.
10. How One Entrepreneur Grew Sales to $50 Million in a Mundane Industry: This post should inspire you to become successful just by altering your perspective.

Leadership

These posts offer insightful suggestions for becoming a better leader.

11. Three Dimensional Leadership: Learn how to lead with your "head, hand and heart" by reading this post.
12. Are You a Leader or a Manager?: Ron Edmondson outlines the difference between leadership and managing in this post.
13. Humility as a Leadership Trait: Guy Kawasaki encourages leaders and managers to be more humble.
14. Management: The Coaching Way: Learn how to manage with a coaching style.
15. Leadership Q&A: Leading An Open Organization: This post will help you lead in the new marketplace.
16. Thanks for leading: Think of this short post as a pat on the back for all your hard work.
17. 5 Things I Have to Do, But Don’t Like to Do, as a Leader: Discover why managing, waiting, submitting and even failing are necessary as a leader.
18. Getting the Response You Want: Learn how to get the results you want by reading this post.
19. What is the single most important task for a leader?: Watch Sean Maloney reveal his most important task in 30 seconds or less.
20. Nine Great Questions for Leaders: Ask yourselves these nine questions to challenge your way of thinking and leadership style.
21. Managers Who Coach: Think About Your Best Teacher: If you’re unsure of the leadership style you want to adopt, Steve Roesler recommends mimicking your favorite teacher.

Employee Management and HR

This collection of blog posts gives suggestions for inspiring your employees, investing in your company, training workers, and more.

22. How to earn respect from your employees: In this post, leaders learn how to become comfortable viewing themselves as decision-makers.
23. Forget Wall Street, Small Businesses are Still Hiring: Find out why you, as a small business owner, are in a better position to help the economy.
24. Five Major Pitfalls for Leading Effective Work Groups: In this post, Mark Craemer encourages business managers to create comfortable work environments, build upon the work group, and provide training.
25. Hire People Who Disagree With You: Don’t think that you can only hire people who turn out to be "yes men."
26. Inspire Employees at the Grass-Roots Level: Get simple tips for inspiring your employees here.
27. Despite Cutbacks, Firms Invest in Developing Leaders: Find out why investing in and training choice employees is smart even during a recession.
28. Bad Leadership: This clever post gives specific pop culture examples of bad leaders.
29. Tough Talk for Tough Times: What CEOs Should Be Saying Now: Guy Kawasaki points readers to a list of things managers should be saying to unburden employees’ fears.
30. Where, oh where, has common sense gone?: This article helps employees and managers work together constructively.
31. Two ways to hire, and a wrong way: Seth Godin walks business owners and HR managers through the hiring process.
32. Remarkable Leaders Ask Great Questions: Learn how to push your employees by asking the right questions.
33. Ten Team-Building Tips for Managers: Become a more effective communicator, project manager and leader when you read this post about team building.

Innovation

Discover new ways to strengthen and expand your company or department from these bloggers.

34. Change Management in 4 Steps: The FC Expert Blog outlines the best practices for change management.
35. Ten Top Tips for the Innovative Leader: Embracing change, breaking the rules and collaboration are just a few tips listed in this motivating post.
36. Ten Great Ways to Crush Creativity: Learn how to step aside and let creativity flourish in your workspace.
37. The Mistakes that Kill Sales: If you’re a sales manager, learn what not to do in this article.
38. Five Tips for CEOs on Innovation: By making innovation a priority in your office, everyone will be more creative and insightful.
39. How to Think What Nobody Else Thinks: Learn the trick to being an independent, forward thinker here.
40. How Events Shape Your Career: Are You Paying Attention?: After reading this blog, you’ll learn how to take advantage of offhand comments and seemingly unrelated situations.
41. Think Laterally: Thinking laterally will help your business grow faster.
42. How to Be Lucky: Here you’ll discover that luck isn’t just coincidental.

Continuing Education and Career Growth

Work on your own career to find new management opportunities when you check out these blog posts.

43. Cultivate Your Online Reputation: This blog post by Jennifer Wang has tips for personal branding and monitoring your company’s image, too.
44. Interview with Jason Rzepka: Read this interview with a young communications and public relations executive at a major entertainment company.
45. An Important Leadership Question: What’s Your Dream?: Kevin Eikenberry motivates leaders to consider their own dreams if they want to be successful in the workplace.
46. How to Influence "Up": Get tips on building a solid reputation, being adaptable and more.
47. Best business networks for women entrepreneurs: Women entrepreneurs and leaders will want to check out these networking resources.
48. The hierarchy of success: What’s most important: attitude, strategy, goals or approach?
49. Leadership: You’ll Know Them When They Know You: Learn how to stand out at work by reading this post.
50. How to Move Out of Your Comfort Zone: Leaders are constantly thinking outside the box, even in terms of their own careers.
51. Leadership is About Powerful Partnerships: This post will inspire you to network for the sake of your own brand and your company’s health.
52. Leaders vs. Managers…Are they really different: Consider the differences between leaders and managers here.
53. Aspiring Managers: Learn to Behave Like Adults: Steve Tobak gives managers a lesson in maturity.
54. Leadership Training: Learn about all of the retreats, trainings and other continuing education opportunities available for leaders.

Goal Setting and Decision-Making

Below you’ll find tips for planning out projects, setting goals and making better decisions.

55. Tackle Business Projects: The Smallest Thing That Could Work: This post cautions managers against pitching big ideas first.
56. Better Meetings: Decide How to Decide: Here you’ll learn how to effectively plan out meetings and tap your employees’ brains.
57. 10 Common Mistakes That Startup and Small Companies Make: If you’re helping a company or new team grow, be aware of these mistakes.
58. Powerful manifestos and goal-setting tools: This post on the power of manifestos should inspire you to create one for your own department or company.
59. The Leader’s Role at Project Completion: When everyone else is celebrating the end of a project, what should you be doing?
60. When goal-setting backfires: When setting goals, be aware of these risks.
61. A Time for Flexible, Positive Leaders: In this article, you’ll learn why being flexible and positive will help you make better decisions.
62. The importance of questioning your work: Questioning your work will help you make better decisions and plans.
63. Goals Into Habits: Steve Pavlina shows leaders how to turn goals into habits.
64. Insights into effective decision making: This advises mangers to "try again," "slow it down," and "let go of your ego" when making decisions.

Marketing

Here you’ll learn ways to market your company and your own brand, too.

65. Get Your Marketing Strategy Right and the Rest Will Follow: Small business owners and leaders will learn how to conduct effective market research and present marketing plans.
66. Establishing the "Connection" Factor in Your Business: Lauren Berger offers tips to connect with consumers.
67. Small-Business Owners Anticipate Growth, Market Smarter: Here you’ll get a boost of confidence regarding your next marketing plan.
68. 137 Small Business Twitter Tips: If you’ve had it with social marketing and don’t think you have any ideas left, read this article for more ways to use Twitter to promote your brand, company or department.
69. Public Relations: Your Secret Weapon: Customer Service: Focus on your customer service strategy for a better PR and marketing campaign.
70. Use Salesmanship to Energize Your Organization: John Baldoni recommends a salesman mentality to strengthen your company.
71. Blogging as Management, not Marketing: Rethink your blogging responsibilities here.
72. 25 Must-Read Social Media Marketing Tips: These tips come from high-profile businesses like UPS, Home Depot, Wells Fargo and more.

Office Environment

As a leader and manager, you need to understand how to cultivate an effective office environment that encourages productivity, harmony, and professionalism. Here you’ll learn all about conflict management and more.

73. Conflict at Work?: Steve Roesler offers great tips for understanding office conflict and working through it.
74. Avoid Wasting Valuable Time: Turn your office into an efficient workplace by implementing these strategies.
75. What to Do When People Avoid Conflict?: Learn how to manage employees who shy away from conflict and confrontation.

Communication

These bloggers teach managers to be better leaders through more effective communication.

76. How Leaders Make Big Issues Personal (and Possible): Be more persuasive and influential by learning how to relate to your projects.
77. The Art of Giving Praise: Get over yourself and learn how to give praise to your employees.
78. 9 Tactics to effectively communicate your vision: Read this post for tips on getting others to see your way.
79. How to Speak to an Unruly Crowd: This post has suggestions for speaking to those who may not want to listen.
80. Communication is essential in times of crisis: In times of crisis, your company is counting on you to help them understand their next move.

Getting Help

Even managers need help. Here you’ll find posts that deal with stress management and more.

81. What To Do When You Run Out of Ideas: In this post, you’ll learn how to refresh your mind and get new ideas.
82. 7 Signs You’re Creating Your Own Workplace Stress: This post outlines seven things you’re blowing out of proportion for no reason.
83. Five Myths About Life and How You Should Be Living It: Don’t get sucked into a self-destructive pattern just because you have a stressful life.
84. Stress Management Tips for the Small Business Owner or Freelancer: John Reeve talks small business owners through the stresses of needing to control every aspect of your job.
85. How to Escape Perfectionism: Be a little easier on yourself after reading this article.
86. Who Can Help the CEO? Other CEOs: Learn how to ask for help from your peers in this post.
87. Are you being effectively mentored?: It may be time to find a new mentor after reading this post.
88. Is Work Taking Over Your Life?: Find out if you need to take a step back and breathe.
89. Leaders hold themselves to a higher standard: Motivate yourself to find challenges, make decisions and implement change.
90. Job Stress Management Tips: This post recommends sharing the workload and getting a fresh outlook to deal with stress.

Finance and Economics

Managers will learn how to survive the economy and make smart budget decisions after reading these blog posts.

91. No More Budget Hacking - a.k.a. Know Where to Cut and Where to Spend: Nico McLane has helpful tips for reworking proposals to meet the budget.
92. Is Your Business Ready for the Recovery?: Find out how to get your business ready for the economic recovery here.
93. Make Cost Cutting Invisible to the Customer: Minimize the damage of budget costs by reading this post.
94. Is Your Small Business Getting the Help it Needs?: Learn to fight for your company’s share of freebies and benefits that are being handed out during the recession.
95. Seven steps to successful change, or How can a company start making money again?: In this post, Sam Homer offers ideas for business owners and leaders to rethink their business model and grow from the recession.
96. Weathering the Recession: Tips for Keeping Employees Happy and Productive: Here you’ll learn how to keep your workers happy and comfortable despite a worrying economy.
97. 5 Ways to Fight the Recession as a Small Business: From budgeting to expanding a web presence, these tips can make the difference during a recession.
98. Ten Tips for Using Good Leadership to Survive the Recession: This posts recommends facing problems head on, weeding out low performers and networking.
99. 5 Character Traits to Survive the Recession: Helen Whelan thinks you can help your company survive the recession if you have a healthy dose of passion, perspective and courage.
100. How to survive the recession: Keep your company afloat by adding value to your product, being flexible and becoming an expert in your field.

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Have you ever noticed just how little actually gets done in the average office?  It’s like the people in charge are looking for ways to create an office culture that is chocked-full of turtles who accomplish far less than their wolf counterparts.  What follows is a list of things management can do to create a low-performing team that stays out of the way and accomplishes just the bare minimum to scrape by with their jobs and a paycheck.

1.    Create a culture of cronyism.  Many managers do this and don’t even realize it.  They surround themselves with old college buddies, their nephews, or other people who don’t belong in the office in the first place.  These people are treated leniently and are generally given titles and perks that other, harder-working people are not.  This is a great way to lower morale and decrease productivity.

2.    Manage with apathy.  So many people work hard all the way up to management, and then think that they have paid their dues and no longer have to do anything.  When this occurs, there is always a reason or excuse as to why the boss is running late, or is gone completely.  When this type of manager returns from his or her unexplained hiatus, he or she rules with an iron fist, wondering why things aren’t running smoothly.  After a day or two, it’s back to the same old disappearing manager act.

3.    Overload your hard workers.  Rather than getting those who underperform their peers to work harder, keep distributing the work load to those who actually perform.  Why would you want the guy who takes three days to finish something on the task when someone else will get it done in three hours?  Just give all of the important work to the ones who perform.  Let the lazy employees get all the easy tasks.  This will certainly ensure that everyone decreases their productivity over time.

4.    Reward employees based on time accrued rather than merit.  Nothing says “you don’t really matter” to employees better than rewarding people for putting in time and paying their dues.  It doesn’t really matter if they’ve done a good job.  Simply pay them according to how long they’ve been willing to put up with their chosen profession, rather than what they’ve actually contributed.

Of course, there are many more things management can do to create a more apathetic office culture, but these are the main four.  If used all together, these can create an entire enclave of turtle employees who bear the weight of all their combined office inequities.  Implement these policies and watch your productivity go down the toilet.

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One of the unwritten rules of social conduct is that you should never engage people in conversations related to the topics of politics or religion.  Some people, however, fail to realize just why we don’t bring these topics up with others, especially in the workplace.  These topics can be particularly divisive and can create many problems within an office culture. 

Other uncomfortable topics of discussion have to do with finances and business ventures.  Oftentimes a co-worker will attempt to engage you in a conversation related to his or her home business.  None of these topics are appropriate for the workplace, end of story.  What follows is a list of a few tips for dealing with uncomfortable office talk.

Avoid those trying to initiate the discussion.

If at all possible, avoid the people who are trying to discuss divisive issues such as politics or religion.  Perhaps these people congregate in a certain part of the office or have lunch together.  Do your best to avoid these people when they are discussing these matters, and maintain a professional demeanor around them, avoiding rudeness or confrontation.

Don’t get involved.

If you absolutely cannot avoid being around these people, make sure you don’t encourage their behavior.  As the saying goes, silence is golden.  After a while, they may begin to get the message loud and clear without you having said anything at all.

Politely excuse yourself.

Again, if you happen to find yourself in a situation where being in contact with these people is unavoidable and you are uncomfortable, politely excuse yourself.  If someone wishes to confront you or questions why you are leaving, explain why in a neutral manner.  Letting them know that you don’t think it’s appropriate, whether you agree or not, is the main reason for not engaging in the conversation.

Change the subject.

Maybe you really do like the people, but don’t like discussing these sorts of matters at work.  Make a joke or try and change the subject.  Doing this a few times will let them know that you certainly want to be part of a conversation with them, but on another, less controversial topic.

Notify a supervisor.

If you feel that the conversations are inappropriate and are beginning to feel alienated or harassed, it is time to let someone else know.  Many offices and companies forbid discussions related to politics and religion, and trying to drum up business at work is certainly a conflict of interest.

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There’s a popular adage that says, “God couldn’t be everywhere at the same time, that’s why he made moms”. How true, I used to think, cause my mother was always there when I needed her, even for the most trivial things. Then one fine day, she announced her decision to take up a job; we kids had all grown up and left the nest, she was lonely at home and this position allowed her to make use of her time fruitfully.  

At first it felt strange when I got to mom’s place to find the door locked, a feeling that slowly gave way to a slight hurt and anger. How come mom was not there when I needed her? But this selfish thought vanished the moment I saw what a changed person she had become, just a week after she had taken charge of her life and decided to live rather than just exist.  I realized I had almost been a victim to the prejudice that blinds most of us – that moms are meant to stay home and look after the kids and cook and clean for dads; if not, they’re not good mothers. Au contraire, I do beg to differ now. Here’s how working moms affect their children in positive ways:  

• Children learn to be independent and think and act for themselves without being spoon fed at all times.
• Working moms are good role models for their daughters and sons – daughters because they will grow up wanting to be like mom and achieve the kind of success that she has, and sons because they grow up respecting women and their need to achieve self-satisfaction rather than just act as caregivers for the rest of the family.
• Mothers who work have more self esteem since they feel a sense of accomplishment with what they’ve done with their lives. This makes them happier people to be around. Moms who stay at home tend to get exasperated with the kids’ constant presence and their naughtiness, a situation that leads to yelling and screaming and lots of stress and tension.

 
Mothers who work are successful in all aspects of life when they stay involved in their children’s lives no matter how hectic work life is. It helps when fathers are supportive and responsibilities are shared rather than dumped on mothers’ slender shoulders. Providing your kids a wonderful childhood means juggling both work and home in a successful balancing act – it’s not easy, but with time and effort, it can be done.   

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Being a successful manager requires a good combination of knowledge, skill, and finesse.  In the struggle to make sure everything runs smoothly and profitably, it can be easy to get caught up in the day-to-day pressures one has to face.  Taking care of business is the manager’s raison d’être, so keep these things in mind as you start each work day. 

1. Be proactive.  Don’t wait for things to fall apart before you decide to take care of them.  If you see something on the horizon that might be problematic, nip it in the bud.  Proactive managers earn respect for their abilities, reactive managers demand respect for their title.

2. Resolve problems quickly.  Of course, you won’t be able to see every problem coming, but as soon as one arises, you must take care of it quickly and equitably.  Whether it has to do with employees or clients, no one likes to wait around for the resolution.  Look at the facts and do what is right for everyone involved.

3. Lead by example.  When managing, you should be able to handle job and workload of anyone beneath you.  More than likely, this is true; however, it is important that your employees know that you can do what they do as well.  Every once in a while, roll up your sleeves and help out your staff.  They will know that you care and respect the fact that you want to be involved.  This is not to say that you shouldn’t delegate workload—you definitely should, but showing them that you can do exactly what is expected of them says a lot about you and your company.

4. Let your presence be known.  Don’t fall into the trap of arriving late and leaving early.  If you are starting to do that, look back at number three.  Your employees should know when you’re there and feel your presence even when you’re not physically in the building.  Your place of business should run the same whether you are there or not.  If it doesn’t, you need to make sure you are there a lot more.

5. Maintain a positive working environment.  Employees and management perform better when the workplace is a positive environment.  Negativity is something that can grow like a cancer in any business if allowed to fester.  Learn how to give constructive criticism without demoralizing your staff.  Make sure that issues that are hurting morale are quickly resolved and encourage positive players within the ranks.  A positive, productive workplace will be better for all involved in a variety of ways.

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