Mike McKee on leadership lessons learned
Company Culture
24 min read

An interview with an NHL player turned CEO

From a Princeton pizza shop to the NHL, from Goldman Sachs to software solutions, Mike McKee, CEO and Director of ObserveIT, has worked on and led teams of every flavor. But whether it’s delivering pizzas or developing security software, it always comes down to people. The Predictive Index Senior Director of Marketing, Thad Peterson, sat…

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Company Culture
5 min read

How executives work remotely around the world

Katherine Boyarsky works for Owl Labs, the maker of Meeting Owl, a 360-degree smart video conferencing camera.  The way that companies approach the employee work environment and structure is changing. More than half of global companies allow remote work, and for a good reason: Employees are 24 percent happier when they work remotely at least…

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Manager speaking during meeting
People Management
4 min read

How to sell an idea to resistant team members

Whether you have a business idea you’re ready to pitch, or a team to lead into the next quarter, it’s important to know how to sell an idea. Unfortunately, the very prospect of “selling” something can turn off team members. This is because selling suggests there’s a better or equal alternative—even when there isn’t. So…

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Employee Engagement
6 min read

Friday Forward: How a weekly email changed the way I lead

Several years back, I started the simple practice of sending out a weekly Friday email to my employees. That seemingly little habit has changed my company, helped me to be a more inspirational leader, and it’s even transcended my organization and impacts tens of thousands of people around the world today. This is the story…

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workplace book club books
People Management
8 min read

Be a great manager with these 12 leadership books.

12 leadership and team management books that have had the biggest impact on the way I manage and lead.

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47' brand leader
People Management
4 min read

The one trait all great leaders must possess

To become a great leader you must take control over one major part of yourself: your ego. Keeping your ego in check is a lifelong pursuit.  As Charles Duhigg explained in his book “The Power of Habit,” our bodies naturally want us to create habitual behaviors. Basically, our brains try to find the most efficient way…

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Two engaged employees laughing
Employee Engagement
6 min read

5 ways to reward employees for standout performance

Decrease turnover and improve employee performance by using these techniques to reward your employees.

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At the heart of "how to run an effective meeting" is strategy.
People Management
6 min read

How to run an effective meeting

Think about the worst meeting you ever attended. Maybe one person monopolized the conversation and spoke ad nauseum about a topic that wasn’t important to everyone else. Perhaps the meeting started 10 minutes late because the previous group ran over their time slot. Or your facilitator struggled, in vain, to get the conferencing software to launch. Whatever…

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Manager sits behind desk at office
People Management
1 min read

The traits of great managers (a data-driven analysis)

We recently released the results of a study of 5,000+ employees about their perspectives on their managers. From it, we gleaned some amazing findings, all of which can be found in our People Management Study report. I had the chance to have a conversation with Craig Weber, author of Conversational Capacity, to talk about our…

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Meeting room discussion
People Management
4 min read

The art of giving feedback

Feedback is a little like management oxygen – we tend not to think much about it and take it for granted but when it’s absent we quickly encounter problems. We know feedback is an important element of management, and I’ve written about it on occasion, but I can’t say I’d seen a lot of insightful…

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Manager ratings and employee engagement levels
People Management
4 min read

We asked 5,103 people about their managers. Here are 3 fascinating findings.

The idea for this study was hatched in April when I was out there poking around the interwebs, trying to dig up some hard data about what traits are found in great managers (and terrible managers, for that matter). What I quickly found was there is an abundance of self-proclaimed management experts who opine about…

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Dani Dawkins laughing at work
Company Culture
5 min read

5 ways to build confidence in a new hire

No matter how you slice it, being the new person at any organization requires you to take a big step into unfamiliar territory. Two months ago, I joined The Predictive Index (PI) as the client marketing manager after working in account management at the same advertising agency for three years. And when I arrived on…

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