Leadership
Matthew Harrington
Election Reflection: When Does a Vision Become ...

Reflecting on the recent election, the Harris campaign's lack of a clear and compelling vision became evident in contrast to Trump’s well-communicated stance, making it challenging for voters to see her future for America. Drawing from the change formula, a successful campaign requires acknowledging dissatisfaction, defining a visionary goal, and setting clear steps toward achieving it—elements that were more apparent in Obama’s 2008 campaign, where “hope and change” aligned with voters' aspirations and activated widespread engagement. Ultimately, the Harris campaign's struggles highlight the need for leaders to craft a vision that resonates powerfully and unites people around a shared purpose, as fear alone can often overshadow hope if it lacks sufficient clarity and preparation.

Election Reflection: When Does a Vision Become Lost—or Was It Never Realized in the First Place?
Leadership
Matthew Harrington
Lincoln’s Leadership: A Blueprint for Resilient ...

As Election Day 2024 nears, reflecting on Abraham Lincoln’s legacy offers valuable insights into adaptive leadership, resilience, and unity. Known for his humility, conviction, and strategic flexibility, Lincoln showed how true leaders use disruptions to inspire lasting change. This election, we can look to Lincoln’s example of courage and empathy, guiding us to face challenges boldly and strive for a united future.

Lincoln’s Leadership: A Blueprint for Resilient Leadership Beyond Election Day
People, Leadership
Matthew Harrington
Navigating Conflict in the Workplace: The ...

Conflict at work is inevitable, but with the right tools, it can become an opportunity for growth. In this post we explore how leaders can guide teams through conflict by understanding how the brain processes emotions through the downstairs, middle room, and upstairs functions of the brain.

Navigating Conflict in the Workplace: The Downstairs, Middle Room and Upstairs of Resolution
Culture, People
Matthew Harrington
Belief-Behavior Conversations In Action: How ...

Belief-behavior conversations, as we discussed in our e-book: Revitalize and Retain Staff, aim to address the root causes behind actions, rather than merely correcting surface-level behavior. Pixar’s leadership used this approach to facilitate open, meaningful dialogues, helping the team uncover the underlying beliefs fueling their actions. Once these beliefs were identified, leaders guided team members toward reframing them, creating lasting behavioral change.

Belief-Behavior Conversations In Action: How Pixar Transformed Team Dynamics and Communication
People, Leadership, Culture
Matthew Harrington
Leadership Growth Lattice in Action: How ...

Discover how LinkedIn transformed employee growth and retention with the Leadership Growth Lattice, a modern alternative to traditional career ladders. By encouraging skill development, cross-functional teamwork, mentorship, volunteerism, and alignment with personal life goals, LinkedIn fostered a culture of continuous learning and flexibility. This holistic approach empowered employees, reduced turnover, and fueled innovation, positioning LinkedIn as a top employer in the competitive tech industry.

Leadership Growth Lattice in Action: How LinkedIn Embraced Holistic Employee Development to Drive Retention and Innovation
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Crush Your Next Presentation With These 40 Tips

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Crush Your Next Presentation With These 40 Tips

You probably aren’t going to have to do a TED talk anytime soon in your near future.  However, we all have to present, communicate and convince other people. Asking for that salary raise? Discussing the new project with your team?  Needing to get buy in from stakeholders? Speaking in front of your board? This all requires crushing it during the presentation. Presentation skills, I believe, are one of the most undervalued, least taught, and difficult skill for many leaders to master. Here are 40 tips, hints and facts that I practice, use routinely and hope you find some help with: crushing your next presentation…

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I'm not always the best at being assertive, here are 7 Steps I learned to become more assertive

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I'm not always the best at being assertive, here are 7 Steps I learned to become more assertive

I have to be honest, and you may not believe me, but this is one of the hardest skills I am in the works of learning.  Perhaps it's my 8-person family, puritan upbringing, and as a middle child I just went along with what the group wanted, but assertiveness has never been a strength of mine.  I believe in a give, give, give, ask method of forward movement (in marketing, sales, strategy, people, etc.), however sometimes I recognize the ask has to come a little bit sooner.   Assertiveness is not being tough or arrogant.  It’s actually a very humble and thoughtful dance.  It is recognizing that we have value and we sometimes need to put up boundaries for others to recognize our value.  

Forget the New 2019 Leadership Fad and Try These 13 Back-To-Basics Disciplines To Be A Great Leader

Forget the New 2019 Leadership Fad and Try These 13 Back-To-Basics Disciplines To Be A Great Leader

As I continue to travel around and see various businesses and organizations trying to get the edge on their competition or the market, I’m still astonished at the lack of basics from our leaders.  Don’t get me wrong, the basics are hard.  And, sometimes they’re not hot or new. And, so they are rarely discussed (even though some of them have been around for years) and barely used. However, they are time-tested and worth consideration. Forget the the 2019 leadership buzzwords and try some of these concepts as you develop your leadership.

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Stop Talking about Generations and Start Talking About Better People-Skills!

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Stop Talking about Generations and Start Talking About Better People-Skills!

My punch line at the end of most of my talks is, “we don’t have a Millennial problem, or even a generation problem, we have a people to people problem.” As the generation guy, I’m saying we need to stop talking about generations and start talking about empowering our workers (Boomers, Xers, Yers, all) to better handle people!

The Leaderverse

The Leaderverse

Welcome to 2019!  I’m excited to boot up the blog again and hope to be pushing out more content this year with a focus on leadership.  

Growing Millennial Leadership is a passion project for me and like many things, it needs to evolve.  This year many of my topics will be around real practical leadership skills, as well as the innovation, grit and resilience that is needed to not just be a good employee, entrepreneur or leader, but also to lead a healthier life.

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At The Heart of True Innovation are Trust and Vulnerability

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At The Heart of True Innovation are Trust and Vulnerability

Innovation, or the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, unarticulated needs, or existing market, has a lot to do with the tasks, processes, and smart people! However, true innovation relies more on the ability to trust and be vulnerable in the incubator stage of an idea or innovation.

False innovation can be defined, if we borrow some language from vulnerability author Brené Brown as, “the absence of honest conversation about the hard work that takes us from lying facedown in the arena to rising strong has led to two dangerous outcomes: the propensity to gold-plate grit and a badassery deficit.”

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White Paper: Millennials, Brands and Trust - FREE DOWNLOAD

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White Paper: Millennials, Brands and Trust - FREE DOWNLOAD

Based on a presentation given at NYC Relate Live Conference, this 10-page white paper digs down into the concept of the Beloved Brand Triangle that author Matt Harrington created and showcased at the conference.  Learn how Millennials, trust are all intertwined and walk away with key questions to ask your organization and customers to build a more beloved, Millennial-friendly company.

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Part 3: How "Narrative Belonging" Should Define Today’s Brands for Millennials

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Part 3: How "Narrative Belonging" Should Define Today’s Brands for Millennials

Let’s build out the Beloved Brand Triangle with thesis #3.  The final point on our triangle is narrative belonging.  Narrative Belonging is the ongoing effort by a brand to tell the story continually of how a customer that uses the brand will have a sense of belonging to the product and service that will greatly enhance the customer’s existence and experience.

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Why Millennials Need Authentic Trust in Their Products

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Why Millennials Need Authentic Trust in Their Products

The challenge for many companies is that the Millennial generation will hold you to your sales pitch.  The days of the “snake oil” salesman are dead.  For many companies, who are not entirely truthful, who lack competency and character in their business practices and product, they will rue the day that 93 million Millennials find out that they are in fact not telling the truth.  This generation, who has a rigorous demand for excellence, will hop on their social platforms and announce to the world that you are now deemed untrustworthy.