The Louder He Talked Of His Honor, The Faster We Counted Our Spoons
The title quote of this blog entry was attributed in the 19th century to one of America’s foremost essayists, philosophers, and poets (you can find out who he was at the end of the blog). We’re now well into the 21st century and this adage still holds true today. And it’s an apt entry into … Continue reading
I’m the Boss! Why Should I Care If You Like Me?
Originally posted on Harvard Business Review May 2, 2013 Many people assume that it’s possible for a person to be an effective leader without being likable. That is technically true, but you may not like the odds. In a study of 51,836 leaders, we found just 27 who were rated at the bottom quartile in … Continue reading
Women’s Collaborative Leadership: Learning to Excel in the Workplace
Originally posted on The Huffington Post on April, 24, 2013 For decades, John Zenger and Joseph Folkman have analyzed the leadership traits that lead to success. These include characteristics such as integrity, initiative, and problem solving. Additionally, Zenger and Folkman designed tools to test these qualities, and made a somewhat startling discovery… … Women outscore … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
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, … Continue reading
The Power of Asking
Recently I was sharing some data with a group of leaders on the impact of asking for feedback. The data showed an exceptionally strong correlation between asking for feedback and the overall effectiveness of a leader. One of the leaders commented, “I must be a great leader then because I seem to get boat load … Continue reading
Forbes Blog: Filling the Talent Pool — With Women
Earlier this week I heard a presentation from a consultant representing one of the large auditing and consulting firms. He presented research the firm had done with CEOs regarding the issues that were top of their minds. Clearly revenue growth was one big worrying topic. The other was talent development. It sounded like many CEOs … Continue reading
Keeping Your Strengths from Becoming Weaknesses
Recently I was coaching Richard, an exceptional leader. He had a huge desire to build a great educational product. While most people would be satisfied with the product as it was, he was constantly searching for the latest, greatest research and approach which left him continuously redesigning the product. All these changes generated a huge … 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
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