October Leadership Development Carnival

This month I am happy to be the guest host for Dan McCarthy’s Leadership Development Blog Carnival.  The October edition of this Carnival reminds me that fall is officially here: learner’s are back to school, transition is in the air as we move from summer to winter, and scary season is around the corner when Halloween comes. These fall themes serve us well for presenting the leadership wisdom of this month’s contributors. Our first task will be to go back to school.

BACK TO SCHOOL

Image courtesy of posterize / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What does it take to manage an organization’s culture? As S. Chris Edmonds of Driving Results Through Culture explains in his article, Feel How to Keep Culture on Track, it’s more art than science. It’s similar to effective auto racing. “It’s not about pure speed. It’s about feeling the car ‘in the moment,’ every moment.”

As a business leader, Do you Measure your Emotional Capital? This is critical as Anna Farmery of the Engaging Brand explains with her signature quote: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did BUT people will never forget how you made them feel.”

What’s the insider secret for building a strong organization? It turns out that the “secret” is known information. Strong Organizational Foundations are Rooted in Timeless Truths as Chery Gegelman of Simply Understanding explains in her slideshow of leadership quotes.

There’s a Rodney Dangerfield problem for some in the workplace. It seems they cannot get any respect! As Miki Saxon of MAPping Company Success explains getting respect is not that difficult.  You just need to put your Ducks in a Row: When It Comes to Respect You Get What You Give.

Servant leaders focus on developing the talent of those they lead. It’s easier to work with those star performers, but how can leaders develop their poor performers?  In her article, A Performance Development Tool for Servant LeadersMary Ila Ward of Horizon Point Consulting provides a guide for starting the conversation with poor performers.

Now that we have been properly schooled on the practice of leadership, our next group of contributors will provide their insights on the art of leading transition.  Something all leaders must do themselves and help others to do as well!

TRANSITION

Fall

” Image courtesy of Richard Hedrick / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“For organizations to thrive in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace, leaders have to learn how to build a culture of trust and openness.”  In his article, Four Strategies to Increase Organizational Trust and Transparency, Randy Conley of Leading with Trust shares tips for building a culture that will unleash creativity and innovation in organizations.

As Joel Garfinkle of Career Advancement Blog explains, for most people, changing careers is a process, not an overnight, snap decision. This process does not get easier with time. In his article — My Job Isn’t Satisfying: Changing Careers at 30, 40, or Even 50 — Joel provides tips to successfully make this transition.

When you care strongly about developing effective leaders, it’s frustrating to find out that support for leadership development and training is on life support in your organization! In A Strategic Story About Strategic StorytellingKarin Hurt of Let’s Grow Leaders shares the approaches she used to revive a stalled leadership development project.

You’ve made the jump to management!  You’re no longer just an individual contributor responsible for your own work only.  You now are responsible for the work of your entire team. Now it’s starting to hit you!  What exactly are you supposed to do with these people? Dan McCarthy of Great Leadership has some help for you in his article 25 Tips for New Managers.

Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) is a management philosophy where leaders evaluate employees on results — not on their presence in the office. Is this new philosophy, where employees can independently manage their own time as long as the work gets done, viable for companies? Jennifer Miller of the People Equation provides insights in her article, 7 Considerations for Launching ROWE at Your Company.

“If you think you’re leading and no one is following, you’re really just taking a walk.” Jesse Lyn Stoner of Seapoint Center gives real world proof to this saying in her article, The Process is as Important as the Product: 7 Tips to Manage Both. She explains why creating a “critical mass” of employee support is critical to implementing any change.

“To lead for innovation, leaders need to become comfortable not having the right answers, and instead think about possibilities.” Linda Fisher Thornton of Leading in Context provides these and other insights in her article, Failure is Part of Innovation.

While transition is never easy, some aspects of leadership can be scary especially when leadership is exercised ineffectively. Our last contributors for this month discuss barriers to effective leadership.

SCARY SEASON

Image courtesy of Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A wise grandmother often shared the following with her family: “What you believe about people is how you’ll treat them.”  Robyn McLeod of Thoughtful Leaders builds on her grandmother’s wisdom in her article Are your Beliefs Getting in the Way of Better Leadership?  “As a leader, being aware of our beliefs and being flexible and open enough to shift our beliefs when necessary is a skill that pays off in many ways.”

Mention the word poison and you will get people’s attention! Poison brings harm and destruction. While the natural world has its sources, so too does the business world. Leaders can and do inflict poison on their work teams. The result — whether accidental or intentional — is the same: damaged and destroyed working relationships! In a post from my blog, Management is a Journey, I share Seven Ways to Poison Your Relationship with Your Employees.

This concludes the October Leadership Development Carnival. If you enjoyed the work of these contributors, please share your appreciation in your social media channels. Next month the Leadership Development Carnival will return home to Great Leadership. Be sure to review it there!

Regards,

Robert

Written by Robert Tanner | Copyrighted Material | All Rights Reserved Worldwide

This article is accurate to the best of the author’s knowledge.
Content is for informational or educational purposes only and does not substitute for professional advice in business, management, legal, or human resource matters.

Robert Tanner, MBA

Welcome to my leadership blog. I'm the Founder & Principal Consultant of Business Consulting Solutions LLC, a certified practitioner of psychometric assessments, and a former Adjunct Professor of Management. As a leadership professional, I bring 20+ years of real world experience at all levels of management.

Expert Interview

Wall Street Journal

Expert Presenter

Association of Talent Development

Expert Interview

Society for Human Resource Management

Expert Author

Digital Analytics Association