The Leadership Compass

I continue to be amazed at the common and ineffective practice by ‘leaders’ at all levels and in all types of organizations. Regardless of sector, size, geographic or other demographics and psychographics, these leaders still believe that successfully managing and leading their organization is all about ...

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(The following is a guest blog written by Emily Thomas. It provides practical insights that can contribute to our better understanding, practice and development of effective leadership. I am grateful to Emily for this fine contribution to my regular LEADERSHIP COMPASS blog and sure readers will find it valuable.) The really great leaders -- the titans of business and government -- can seem so far from everyday workers like you and me that it's tempting to write them off as a special class of individual. Who could hope to mimic their accomplishments or legacy? However, that's a dangerous line of thought because ...

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Innovation is often viewed as a "silver bullet" solution by leaders and managers in today’s challenging business environment. However, it is important to note when it makes sound business sense and when it doesn’t. As a guiding principle, Innovation makes sense when a business is faced with unfavorable conditions that call for different solutions, not just better execution, for instance ...

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This is a question I’ve often been asked. Both my own and others’ experience, as well as leadership research, indicate that today’s leaders and managers must be much more adaptable than those of previous decades. This is an increasing trend I first began to notice in the 1980’s. It was interesting for me to hear Coach Don Shula of the Miami Dolphins talk about his team’s ’24 hour rule’ that required players and coaches alike to adjust their ...

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This is a fascinating, often-asked question in part because many people incorrectly think the characteristics of high performing leaders and managers do differ by industry. However, upon closer, more careful examination, leadership and management experts as well as role performance studies have shown that what IS required as a threshold requirement for success in more specialized or complex fields is a foundational level of competency in that field. For instance, my colleague, Dr. Drea Zigarmi, points out that both a lack of knowledge and their lack of adaptability contributed to the downfall of both Carly Fiorina at Hewlett Packard and John Sculley at Apple Computer. It is also important to note that an exceptional level of competency in one’s field is required for “expertise-based leadership” roles such as an actor, athlete, artist, scientist, or physician where expert knowledge, skills, and experience are necessary. Gardner refers to this as a specific “domain” of intelligence required to be viewed as a “leader”, or what we might also refer to as a recognized “star performer” or celebrity in their field.

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Employees and customers, like people in general, are impacted by their direct experiences with others. People are emotional creatures and research by my colleague, Dr. Drea Zigarmi, has shown that employee passion is a result of our emotional experiences. As a result, while leaders of an organization may be individuals to whom we are willing to demonstrate ongoing commitment, our experiences with our direct manager, or employees can undermine it. That said, the single best available key for any organization is to ...

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Tough times, whether externally or internally based, test us as leaders, followers, and test our organizations. It is in such situations that we can really benefit from perspective about what works and what doesn’t in such times. Research shows that one significant, persisting pattern among "great leaders" who succeeded across the range of tough times is that they have experienced more setbacks than other leaders and individuals. One of the most remarkable stories ...

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In working with both managers and employees, I’ve discovered over the years that they often experience confusion between two very different dimensions of a Leader and/or Manager’s make-up and performance. Understanding this difference and communicating it clearly is important for aligning both people and performance—including that of the Leader/Manager. So let’s clarify these two dimensions...

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Most of us have heard the saying that “in crisis there is also opportunity.” However, few leaders and organizations take clear, consistent action enabling them to capitalize on specifically what this opportunity is for their situation. So let’s unravel this mystery so you and your organization can take advantage of your opportunity. The easier opportunity to see, of course, is for those organizations who continue ...

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Consider this fact: the current worldwide economic crisis is not a natural phenomenon. Instead, it is one that is man-made. And, as such, it only became a reality because self-serving individuals were not identified and prevented from their now infamous destructive actions as managers and leaders. Here they absolutely failed to effectively execute their accountabilities. Why did this occur? More importantly, what can be done now AND in the future to minimize risk for re-occurrence? Warren Buffet recently pointed out, people tend not to apply the lessons of history but repeat their errors time and again. One of the two root causes of ineffective leadership is simply that too many individuals in such positions do not possess or demonstrate the required capabilities for managing people, processes, problems, decisions, tasks and communications. Our work at Life Associates has typically identified that no more than 20% of manager-leaders (MLs) are considered to be effective by the employees reporting to them.

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