Years ago a wise person told me that the “problem for most people and organizations is not knowing what to do but it’s figuring out how to change ourselves (and how to help others change).” A daunting task indeed, but not impossible.
A recent survey on wellness efforts in the workplace showed that the [...]

Recently I was featured in a CBC national radio show on heroes on the anniversary of a man who died while saving others when an Air Florida plane crashed in the Potomac River in Washington D.C. and it got me to thinking: What makes a hero? Webster’s describes a hero as one who shows great [...]

When CEO Tony Hsieh was asked why Zappos was so successful, he said “for us, our number priority is company culture—once the culture is right, great customer service and brand building happens naturally.” This can be as true for a small team of people just as much as for a large company.
But what exactly defines [...]

The No. 1 reason employees hold back from taking initiative is because they feel that their ideas don’t matter because leaders make decisions without asking for input. If you want your team to take a more active role in your business, you need to listen to what they say.
In my new book, Stepping Up: [...]

What a month this has been. The pages of the newspapers are filled with fear—Italian bonds at record highs, congressional leaders locked in a battle to solve the debt crisis, persistent unemployment and businesses sitting on hoards of cash but afraid to spend it because of a “lack of confidence.” In the United States, Thanksgiving [...]

Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel once said that “we become the stories we tell.” Having worked with some of the best companies in the world on building great corporate cultures, I believe that the best organizations consistently use stories to drive culture. In fact, the ability to tell compelling stories is an essential [...]

Whether in our work as leaders or in our individual lives/careers, the ability to drive change (or to change ourselves and others) is a key competency for leaders. This month I’d like to suggest that focusing on the positive is a much better way to drive change than focusing on problems. This is as true [...]

OK so you think “Izzo has finally lost it”-Boiled Frogs! You all have probably heard that if you put a frog in boiling water they instantly hop out, but that if you put them in cold water which you slowly warm to a boil, they will simply die in the water. Well, trust me, [...]

As a child most of us looked forward to the occasional field trip at school which broke up the daily routine but also offered the kind of learning you can’t get in a classroom. It seems to me that any company, leader or professional who wants to keep learning should also take field trips on [...]

Airplane pilots have checklists that they follow for pre-flight and pre-landing preparation. The checklist has its genesis in 1935 when the U.S. Army received a new plane from Boeing that crashed and burst into flames soon after takeoff on its first flight. Why? It crashed because the experienced pilots forgot one important step, just one [...]