Every month, my friends all over the world send me links on topics that are important to leaders. I’d like to share them with you. Feel free to chip in.

Inspiration

1. Fresh list of 9 inspirational books top CEOs advice to read.
2. The Guardian presents the key findings from roundtable discussion on how best to inspire and engage employees.
3. And one more set of ideas on how to inspire innovation among employees from Benoit Gruber, VP of Corporate Communications, Sage Enterprise Market and Sage X3.
4. Bran Ferren, a celebrated proprietor of R&D ateliers, explains how companies can cultivate the rare people who create miracles.
5. Research proves that half of today’s workforce would take a 15% pay cut to work for an organization with an inspiring purpose. HBR shows How an Accounting Firm Convinced Its Employees They Could Change the World in this case study.

 

Success

1. 10 things wildly productive people do not do and 10 destructive habits to avoid while running a business are described in this Forbes article.
2. Why so many people who passionately wish to succeed find themselves elusively far from success? How can we pursue our peak performance? Some thoughts on this topic read here.
3. Everything about success in 26 short quotes arranged from A to Z.

 

Motivation

1. TED summarizes 7 fascinating studies that give insights on what motivates us at work more than money.
2. Forbes suggests 5 ways to motivate high-performers.
3. The right incentives for Millennials that can make younger hires want to commit to your organization are covered in Strategy+Business article.
4. Incentives often go wrong. Here are six rules to keep in mind when thinking of the next rewards program.

Learning

1. Live business projects can be powerful vehicles for learning, especially when they aim for dramatic outcomes on a tight timeframe. HBR suggests how to design work projects as learning tools.
2. Workday introduces Workday Learning, the company’s new solution for learning management (LMS). Read more about the benefits of their fresh approach and about evolution of the learning platform market in this Forbes overview.

Behavioral Economics

1. Some arguments about the future irrelevancy of behavioral economics due to minimization of inconsistency in our behavior.
2. Here is a transcript of presentation at Marketing Science Ideas Xchange providing an evolutionary take on behavioral economics.
3. Green labels weigh heavier than contradicting product information for consumers’ purchase decisions and post-purchase behavior. Here is a profound study proving this statement.
4. Don’t miss this overview of 10 basic instincts in behavioral marketing.

 

Targeting

1. Forbes gives a couple of tips how to do interactive marketing and target customers in real time to increase sales.
2. PlaceIQ shows a few ways location data can improve a targeted promotion to potential customers as they walk by a store.

 

Consumer psychology

1. Certainty profoundly shapes consumers’ behavior, but organizations overlook one of the most potent tools of persuasion they have at their disposal, namely conviction. In this article, HBR offers four levers that can be applied at all levels—from one-to-one pitches to sales and marketing efforts to leadership initiatives—to enhance company’s persuasion strategies
2. How pricing psychology can improve your sales? Here are 10 helping strategies in this regard
3. Read about an emerging retail trend that is a key for attracting millennials.

 

Brand Marketing

1. The “millennial” generation likes to do things differently. Read the insightful story about new advertising tools and redefined ways of brand marketing to Millennials.
2. In this video interview CEO Mark Organ, Bo Bandy of Readytalk and Paul Hetherington of iCompass explains how companies harness their brand advocates to join them in a community to help further the company’s goals and how a culture of advocacy is the future of marketing.
3. Learn how any brand could hugely benefit from YouTube as one of the largest and most effective marketing channels.

 

 

Photo David Carroll