Leadership

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 ...

Read More

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.

Read More

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 ...

Read More

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 ...

Read More

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...

Read More

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 ...

Read More

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.

Read More

I was struck by a series of observable events in the public arena recently involving both formal and informal leaders. These events highlighted for us the true essence of leadership, an attribute too often falsely equated with glamour. These events cause us to be reminded that leadership was founded instead upon the character we develop and demonstrate as we progress through the ups and downs of life’s journey. The first instance involved ...

Read More

“I’m just not sure our leadership team is really committed to changing things that really need to be improved here. They seem to be dragging their feet.” These are the words of a frustrated follower, who we will refer to as ‘Joe’, communicated to a colleague. When asked by his colleague what he could do to influence the leadership team to embrace these changes, Joe said “I’m not sure. I haven’t really thought about that since I was waiting for them to lead the way.” After further probing by his colleague and added reflection by Joe, it became clear that there was plenty that Joe could do to ‘influence up’ in this situation. Too often the emphasis is placed on leaders alone without acknowledging the reality that sustained business success can only be produced when ...

Read More

It’s hurricane season again, and many municipalities are preparing for how they will deal with a natural disaster. After Katrina, it became obvious that local government officials must better prepare their leaders and resources in case their city or county is affected. To help mayors and city or county officials, The National League of Cities, in cooperation with the International City/County Management Association is conducting more than 40 emergency training programs across the country called the ‘Crisis Leadership for Local Officials”. The Leadership Training Institute is calling for trainers to help deliver workshops.

Read More