Workplace Feedback: A Puzzle? A Punishment? Or A Gift?
Originally posted on Forbes.com May 8, 2013 A few years ago I was reading comments on an employee survey and came across a choice comment that said, “I don’t know if I am in line to become the Janitor or the CEO. PLEASE, GIVE ME SOME FEEDBACK!” Everyone would like to know where they stand, … Continue reading
Lin-Sanity: A Strengths-based Approach to Basketball
Many of you have heard about Jeremy Lin, the new, young superstar on the New York Knicks. His rapid rise to stardom has been noticed even outside the world of basketball, due to the inspirational human aspects of his story. In honor of New York’s most recent megastar, what’s now being called “Lin-Sanity” is seen … Continue reading
Which Wolf Are You Feeding?
As leaders in our organizations we’re in positions to make lots of choices. One of the things we get to choose is how we interact with those we lead. This particular choice is an important one. We know that because a variety of studies demonstrate that the behaviors we model as leaders directly influence the … Continue reading
Can Strengths Be Carried Too Far?
We can all think of examples of things that are good for us when done in moderation, but when done in excess can be harmful. For example, drinking water is generally good for us. But, when done in excess, even drinking water can become deadly. The same thing holds true for exercise. It is a … Continue reading
Six Core Elements to Leading a Peak Performance Culture
—This is a guest post from Practical Leadership blogger, Jim Clemmer— Organizational culture development is a complex topic with many intertwined leadership components. Establishing a peak performance culture in what’s sometimes called a “green field” situation has different challenges than changing an established culture (sometimes called “brown field”). A participant in our culture change work … Continue reading
The 16 Days of Competencies: #2 Technical and Professional Expertise
As featured in the article “Making Yourself Indispensable” published in the October 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review. Yesterday, Harvard Business Review published an article titled, Making Yourself Indispensible, by Jack Zenger and Joe Folkman—co-authors of The Inspiring Leader and principals of the leadership development company, Zenger Folkman. After years of extensive research, we at … Continue reading
Are YOU an Inspiring Leader?
I just returned from a visit to the Pacific Northwest. Our destination was Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands. I have a sister there who lives on a lovely boat and we had a “sister’s retreat” with a third sister and niece joining us. This was a very beautiful and inspiring time and place. … Continue reading
Leadership- It’s Everybody’s Issue
In the last few months I have spent time in San Jose, Atlanta, Houston, Minneapolis, England, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York, Doha Qatar, Amsterdam Netherlands, Orlando, New Haven, Chicago and Mexico City. I have also had conversations with people from India, China, Denmark, Switzerland, Washington D.C., Singapore, South Africa, Egypt, Florida and Japan. I have … Continue reading
The Yin and Yang of Strengths and Fatal Flaws
When Jack Zenger and I discovered that what made leaders great was the presence of strengths and not the absence of weaknesses, it fundamentally shifted our view about how leaders can improve. Our efforts to make leaders better had been primarily focused on fixing weaknesses. As we teach people about this research on building strengths, … Continue reading
Sense and Nonsense in Leadership Development
There is a great deal of nonsense that has been written about leadership. It includes meaningless statements such as, “managers do things right, leaders do the right things,” or, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way,” and goes downhill from there. The torrent of clichés and non-actionable … Continue reading
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