I just returned from speaking about values-based leadership, employee engagement, productivity and innovation to students and faculty at Illinois State University. Here is a link to an article on my presentation. While visiting my alma mater, I had the good fortune of interacting with Dr. Jim Jawahar, the Chair of the Management and Quantitative Methods Department, and several of the department's outstanding faculty members. During the discussion, we identified several areas of shared interest. Starting today and over the coming weeks I'll be writing about what I learned.

To begin, Assistant Professor Dr. Laura Erskine has done some fascinating research on leading employees via online, virtual interactions. In a thought-provoking article published by my friends at the Center for Creative Leadership, Dr. Erskine wrote: "Although physical separation and communication channels may be what the news media and organizations are focused on, the real driver [in virtual leadership] is the degree of psychological distance between leaders and followers. Followers who felt that their leader trusted them, backed them in difficult situations, and gave them autonomy, were both more successful and more satisfied." The full article is available online at this link.

Next week, I'll be chairing the Human Capital Institute's Employee Engagement Conference in Boston. It's not to late to sign up and attend. You can find out more about the program at this link. In the coming weeks I'll be working on an article for The Economic Times in India, a guest editorial I was invited to write for Talent Management magazine, speaking along with my colleague Jason Pankau to the leaders of a hospital system in Chicago and completing a book proposal for a book I'm coauthoring with Stephen Paletta, winner of Oprah Winfrey's Big Give television program and founder of The International Education Exchange.