“No, There’s Not an App for That.”
I checked the Apple website recently and noted that there are now over 775,000 apps for the iPhone. That’s an impressive number.1 Here’s another impressive number, but one that’s much smaller: “#1”. As in, most important. As in numero uno, or in primo. Although it’s about as small as you can get, being #1 is … Read more
The Ideal Praise-to-Criticism Ratio
Originally posted on Harvard Business Review blog on March 15, 2013 Which is more effective in improving team performance: using positive feedback to let people know when they’re doing well, or offering constructive comments to help them when they’re off track? New research suggests that this is a trick question. The answer, as one might … Read more
The Magic of Managerial Involvement
Originally posted on Forbes on March 14, 2013 Large sums of money are spent each year on the development of employees and managers. It is estimated by the American Society of Training and Development that this sum was 156 billion dollars in 2011. There is no question that the return from this investment isn’t always … Read more
Do Women Make Better Leaders in the Workplace?
Only 3% of CEOs in the country are female.
Develop Subordinates by NOT Answering Their Questions
Originally posted on mhprofessional.com on Feb. 19, 2013 Based on results obtained from more than 50,000 leaders, developing subordinates is consistently one of the lower scoring leadership behaviors. This is true in every industry and on every continent we’ve studied. Some leaders contend that they just don’t have the time for coaching but what many … Read more
Are You Guilty of Leadership’s Fatal Flaw?
Originally posted on Forbes.com Feb 15, 2013 Average CEO tenure has plummeted from an average of 10 years in 2000 to 5-8 years today. We recently analyzed data on more 35,000 corporate leaders who received 360-degree feedback from approximately 500,000 respondents and discovered a few reasons why these leaders may be tiring sooner. Not surprisingly, … Read more
The Least Effective Bosses Don’t Bother to Train People
Originally posted on Business Insider Feb. 12, 2013 One of the biggest reasons employees leave their jobs is because of a problem with their immediate boss. It’s not necessarily because their boss is abrasive or unpleasant. More often, it’s because they don’t feel like they’re developing professionally. According to research written up at the HBR by … Read more
How Poor Leaders Become Good Leaders
Originally posted on Harvard Business Review Blog on Feb. 4, 2013 In our previous blog, Bad Leaders Can Change Their Spots, we described a group of 71 leaders who were able to elevate their leadership effectiveness from the 23rd percentile to the 56th percentile — that is, from being poor leaders to good ones. While many … Read more
The Gardener’s Shadow – Thoughts on the Importance of “Being There”
There’s an old adage that says, “the best fertilizer is the gardener’s shadow.” It’s easy to understand how that would be true. The presence of the gardener’s shadow is a good indicator of the gardener’s interest, concern, and willingness to do the work it takes to develop a great garden. That presence would be a … Read more
CLO: Start Development Sooner
Originally posted on CLOmedia.com on Jan. 25, 2013 Earlier this month Jack Zenger, co-founder and CEO of Zenger Folkman, a strengths-based leadership development firm, and co-author of How to Be Exceptional: Drive Leadership Success by Magnifying Your Strengths, wrote an article for Forbes in which he lobbied for leaders to invest more heavily in Gen … Read more
