Leadership, Culture
Matthew Harrington
Putting Values Into Action: The Cornerstone of ...

When teaching or coaching emerging leaders, one topic I push hard on is values. Values refer to the fundamental beliefs and guiding principles that define what an individual, organization, or community stands for. These principles act as a moral and operational compass, influencing behavior, decision-making, and culture.  They are part of the magic three: mission, vision and values.

Putting Values Into Action: The Cornerstone of Leadership
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

Culture

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Using the CAMP Method of Motivation to Motivate and Retain Your Staff

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Using the CAMP Method of Motivation to Motivate and Retain Your Staff

This past week, wearing my other hat as chamber director for southwestern Vermont, I had the pleasure to present at the Vermont Tourism Summit in Burlington, Vermont. My topic was on “Building Your Brand With Local Talent.” Now, because of my job and my background, the presentation was heavy on marketing tactics.  However, I was able to weave in some of my other passion - motivating teams.


Right, makes sense!  With all the strategy and tools to get the marketing job done, we still have the fundamental challenge of human beings leading the charge.  We still need to make sure our staff, teammates or freelancers are happy. This is where I often weaved in our CAMP Method of Motivation.

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Developing Best Business Practices During Chaotic Times.

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Developing Best Business Practices During Chaotic Times.

How do we find our way out of this tunnel of uncertainty and change, or at the very least, learn how to ride the rollercoaster while still continuing to develop business?  As Drucker points out, albeit simplistically, if you want to predict what’s ahead, your best bet is to create it. How do we go about creating a model that can handle the chaos of today, react when necessary, and attack with precision and purpose?  Here are some thoughts…

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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.

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Millennials and Their Rigorous Demand for Excellence in Brands

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Millennials and Their Rigorous Demand for Excellence in Brands

Millennials. Brands. Trust. Three things that seemingly go together, yet each one has its own origin story.  Exploring each one is the task at hand for the next month and a half as we prepare for the Relate Live New York City conference on October 22-23.  How we fit these massive topics all into a 45 minute presentation, giving each one its own stage time, while connecting the dots, threading the narrative through all of them to come away with useful insights and nuggets of knowledge for conference goers will be our challenge.

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Tasks, Processes and Relationships

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Tasks, Processes and Relationships

There are always three things going on in any transaction or more importantly group/team/department/company: tasks, processes, and relationships. You can imagine that most of us focus a majority of our time on tasks (60%), A good organization focuses some of their energy on good processes (30%). This leaves about 10% just to focus on relationships which is actually the hardest and perhaps the most important thing to focus on as companies can always make a new machine, a new process, more tasks, but it's culture and people make up the differential factor between a good company and a great company.