Leadership Beyond Borders

Today's business leaders face several challenges, and they all did not just start with the pandemic, but they are not alone. For hundreds of years, our military leaders have been facing challenges even more significant than those we face today. So the question we pose in this episode, what can we learn from our military leaders. In Part 2 of this three-part series, we look at history and one of the US's most important Civil War battles, Gettysburg. We use this battle to teach us some essential leadership lessons that can benefit you as a leader today.

Today's business leaders face several challenges, and they all did not just start with the pandemic, but they are not alone. For hundreds of years, our military leaders have been facing challenges even more significant than those we face today. So the question we pose in this episode, what can we learn from our military leaders. In Part I of this three-part series, we look at history and one of the US's most important Civil War battles, Gettysburg. We use this battle to teach us some essential leadership lessons that can benefit you as a leader today.

In business and life, we sometimes have the inability to fully understand and tackle human emotions, impacting our behavior, especially in business. As leaders, we should exemplify the kind of behavior we want in our organizations, and without both emotional & social intelligence, we cannot do that. We need both emotional and social intelligence to make decisions, manage stress and set examples for others. We need to know and understand our own emotional state to impactfully lead others. In this episode, we speak with an expert who helps us understand what emotional and social intelligence is and its impact on leadership.

For the last two decades, there has been a shift in how we hire and retain employees. This shift primarily began with the entrance of the millenniums into the workforce and then there was another shift as Gen Z made their appearance. At the same time, technology in the workplace has allowed organizations to reimagine the way they work and manage talent. One of the most impactful changes has been how technology allows companies to screen and hire employees no matter where they are located. It also allows employees to collaborate from different locations and time zones. And although this all started a few years ago, we were pushed into fast-forward when COVID hit the world. Companies had to hire and manage virtually. They had to use the technology available, and processes had to be adjusted. In this episode we explore the best practices for hiring, retaining and engaging employees in during the pandemic and not only in middle size companies but also in SMBs

On December 31, 1999, the world was in a panic related to the formatting and storage of calendar data for 2000. Even though we had years to prepare for this, we still waited until the last minute, and 21 years later, there is another panic. Businesses are wondering what will happen when Google changes to mobile-first indexing on March 31, 2021. They are also wondering what will happen when the core values for website ranking changes in May. Businesses' need to prepare themselves, but they have had other priorities over the last 12 month, adapting their business models because of the pandemic. But some good has come out of the pandemic. Businesses have been propelled forward into the digital and mobile world. Google quickly jumped on these changes with a whole new suite of core values for website ranking. This episode looks at them and explains what you need to do to make your website visible.

Change happens every day, it is a constant and transitions are inevitable, but some of us bare better than others when it comes to change. Many people spend a great deal of time and energy trying to avoid change, but you cannot run away from change, it will catch up with you. Look what happened at the beginning of the panic, that was change that none of us could run away from this kind of change. Some kinds of changes are controllable, and some are not. If you can learn to cope with change, you'll lower your risk for anxiety and depression, and you will just feel better. At the end of the day no person or situation will stay the same forever. At the minimum, we all change, we all grow older, and we all are forced to open our eyes to new ways of life. It does not matter if it is in your personal life or your professional life you will face change. In this episode we talk about how to better cope with change and how to become more resilient.

Who is the most exciting person in the room when you're at a networking event or a social outing? Simple, it's whoever has the most unique and insightful stories to tell. It's all about content, and content marketing is built on the same principle. By seeking to answer the unanswered questions or provide unique insights into complex problems, great content captivates an audience and sparks meaningful conversations. Content marketing can do the same thing; it can spark engagement between your brand or business and your customers or prospects. In this episode, we learn how to effectively use content marketing through thought leadership articles, blogging, market research and more. We speak with a company that is a leader in using content marketing and a CMO that knows the ropes. We talk to us about how to use content marketing effectively with some great examples of thought leadership and market research in the digital marketing and local search arena.

There are a lot of podcasts talking about what enterprise as well as small businesses should do to keep their businesses floating during the pandemic, but not a lot of them talk about how to plan now for the recovery and comeback. Only a few brands, retailers and local businesses are managing to sufficiently compensate the loss of offline revenue with online sales. They have basically but their businesses into hibernation, but now with the light at the end of the tunnel, it is time to plan the comeback. This process is especially going to be hard for lifestyle companies , where the owners live from their businesses. In this episode we talk about a method that can help lifestyle companies develop a plan not only for recovery but for growth.

Small businesses have a lot to gain by implementing digital transformation. "Going digital" can help business owners develop productive and cost-effective workflows, reduce administrative overhead, and unlock growth opportunities. However, many small business owners find it challenging to embrace digital transformation. It's not that they don't want to - it's just that many of them find that technological solutions aren't as accessible as they hoped, and that the intimidating knowledge gap can be hard to bridge. All this changed this year. Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, said: "We saw 2 years of digital transformation in 2 months" Suddenly, businesses that were online-skeptical are rushing into the digital space because they simply must. In this episode we talk to a company that helps businesses reach "tech savviness" regardless of the industry they are in.

As usual, brands must consider their target audience when developing their messages, and this expectation is intensifying as consumers place greater emphasis on brands' actions. People relate to positive messages around social issues such as the environment, coronavirus safety, and systemic racism; therefore, how a business or brand positions itself can impact consumer loyalty. It essential for businesses and brands to recognize diverse cultures and different values. We all have unconscious biases and draw from our own experiences as our default, and this makes it hard for marketers to spot when a marketing campaign is not as inclusive as it could be. Therefore, we must monitor diversity and inclusion in marketing, and there are different ways to do this. In this episode, we explore how we can do this and ensure we reach every possible consumer group and leave no-one out.