Posts From: Leadership

At this time of year, we’re all experiencing some form of Super Bowl fever. But there’s a lot more than good football and clever commercials in store … there’s a lesson for training professionals.

Read More

The oft-quoted Yogi Berra once quipped, “If you don’t know where you are going, you could wind up someplace else.” Vision is about knowing where you are going and how you will get there. In organizational change, vision is about articulating the purpose of the project so that others know why they are following and can take the initiative and improve the path. A clear, well-developed vision serves a change leader in two important ways. It gives direction and focus to employees (so they are inclined to move from the status quo), and it defines the scope of the initiative (so you don’t wind up somewhere else).

Read More

Your efforts to promote collaboration could be killing innovation. Collaboration is the hot word today, which means leaders and teams are expected to know how to do this. So we train people on how to honor everyone’s strengths, how to include different perspectives in decision-making and how to celebrate team milestones. We push people to say “we” instead of “me.”

Read More

“These are the times that try men’s souls!” This famous quote hundreds of years old by Thomas Paine at the time of the American Revolution could equally apply to the difficulties faced by so many around the world today. And, it is exactly this unfavorable situation, which proves the point that most people are, in fact, externally shaped by the forces in our environment - economic, social, political, military, religious, and other circumstances. One of these counterproductive patterns that is increasingly obvious in my own and others’ daily lives is the multiplying lack of collaboration between individuals, groups, and entities. We see it, hear it, experience it, and are at least indirectly negatively impacted by such unrest that spans our settings - interpersonal relationships, work life tensions, labor-management strife, and political rigidity. But though we are all likely to agree about these realities ...

Read More

Communicating about an organizational change can inform and inspire employees and set the stage for success. However, it can do just the opposite, when done without preparation and consideration A design engineer from a midsized, private R&D firm tells it well. “Everyone was herded into an hour-long talk from the company founder and CEO, a man with a strong, flamboyant personality. We all saw and heard his intoxication with a new Balanced Score Card approach. It had a glitzy acronym that I can’t even remember now. He told us, with flurry and frenzy, that our performance reviews would conform to the new BSC approach. Instantly, everyone went from understanding how their work was being evaluated to wondering if they’d ever cash another bonus check. The anxiety was palpable. He ended his presentation with ‘My door is always open.’ Every person there knew that there was no way that his door was open to our concerns.”

Read More

I just returned from my second trip to China. This time, I taught business owners the art of emotional engagement when speaking. The biggest problem I had was getting the owners to focus on one theme for their speeches.

Read More

There is anecdote about President Harry Truman envisioning his soon-to-be successor, General Dwight Eisenhower (known as Ike). Truman is said to have quipped, “He’ll sit here and say, ‘Do this! Do that!’ And nothing will happen. Poor Ike. It won’t be a bit like the army. He’ll find it very frustrating.” In more recent years, much has been written about the limits of forced compliance. If this anecdote is accurate, six decades ago even the most powerful man in the United States recognized those limits.

Read More

While so many individuals, organizations, and areas continue to cope with the damaging impact of the world-wide "Financial Crisis," in the past few weeks, events have also re-focused our attention on another devastating one - the "Character Crisis." This crisis is one that, unlike the financial one, touches virtually all of us worldwide. Let’s take a look at how.

Read More

In his 1993 book “The Winner Within,” hall of fame basketball coach Pat Riley contributes an entire chapter to what he called the “constructive covenant” or the promise that every team member must make in order for the team to reach the pinnacle of success. In Riley’s words, the covenant “binds people together, creates an equal footing, helps people shoulder their own responsibilities, prescribes terms for the help and support of others and creates a foundation for teamwork.”

Read More

Faced with a problem that cannot be ignored, budget and deadline constraints often push well-meaning decision makers toward the fastest, cheapest fix. A quick fix treats the symptoms, but rarely addresses the underlying problem. This pattern is described by the “shifting the burden” systems archetype. Decision makers recognize a problem and see two possible courses of action. One is a symptomatic approach, which appears to be quicker and cheaper. The other is a fundamental approach, which requires more expenditure and time. Taking the quicker, cheaper route alleviates the symptoms, at least for a while. However, it also draws time, attention, and investment away from the fundamental solution.

Read More