Posts From: Leadership

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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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 ...

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“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 ...

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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.

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As a leader-manager, consultant-coach, and author whose works and services have been used by thousands of other leaders and managers, many years ago it become obvious to me how valuable it would be to provide them with practical, useable guidance about the high impact practices required for their own, others, and their organization’s success. Blessed with the collaboration and brilliance of my co-author, Dr. Drea Zigarmi, fourteen such ‘best’ practices have been identified. We further discuss these in our book, THE LEADER WITHIN, and how to put them into personal action in our program, THE LEADERSHIP BRIDGE: Situational Leadership II® & DISC, that identifies which are common strengths and which need to be developed based on 16 personal style performance patterns.

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The most common approach to leadership (and management) development is still training-based—and most of it doesn’t work! The reason is that leadership training events and programs require connecting both the development of people and fundamental business processes for them to be successful. A variety of research studies reveal wake-up results for us to heed in adjusting the traditional classroom type of training events approach, whether delivered by a company or as part of a university program. Without follow-up coaching or connection to on-the-job performance only 10% of what is taught is actually applied on-the-job. By contrast, with coaching, performance gains of 50%-73% are commonly achieved. One might even ask whether leadership-management training/development is necessary. The answer is ABSOLUTELY since research shows that less than 10% typically use the approach required for success—let alone doing so effectively! Consistent with this, we have found over the decades that people identify less than 1 in 5 or more managers they have worked with to have been effective ones.

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