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Conflict Resolution Tips: Task Oriented People with People.
The Recovering Engineer
DECEMBER 11, 2008
2008 Related Topics 
How to Write a Great Individual Development Plan (IDP)
Great Leadership By Dan
NOVEMBER 24, 2008
An individual development plan (IDP) is a tool that helps facilitate employee development. It’s a two-way commitment between an employee and their manager on what they are going to do to grow. IDPs are often used as a way to drive leadership development. Organizations like them because they are visible, tangible evidence that leadership development is taking place.
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20 Best Leadership Movies; Break Out the Popcorn
Great Leadership By Dan
SEPTEMBER 28, 2008
Movies are a great way to learn about leadership! Here’s CCL’s Clemson Turregano, who has facilitated "leadership at the movies" sessions for years: "I started using movies when I was teaching at West Point and then at the Naval War College," he notes. Movies, like a case study, offer real-life portrayals of examples of leadership in crisis. Viewers can use these portrayals to discuss the behaviors they would like to emulate or avoid during similar circumstances."
Ten Leadership Lessons From Ronald Reagan
Great Leadership By Dan
FEBRUARY 19, 2008
In honor of President's Day (not sure where it came from.): “In his lifetime, Ronald Reagan was such a cheerful and invigorating presence that it was easy to forget what daunting historic tasks he set himself. He sought to mend America's wounded spirit, to restore the strength of the free world and to free the slaves of Communism.” That's how Lady Thatcher started her great eulogy of Ronald Reagan, summarizing in one sentence his personal qualities and his great achievements.
18 Tips for Receiving Feedback
Great Leadership By Dan
JANUARY 13, 2008
DO: 1. Seek feedback on a regular basis, especially after you have identified development goals. Exchanging information and perceptions is a process, not a single event. Receive feedback as a gift that provides you with honest information about your perceived behavior/performance. Be open to what you will hear. Let the person finish what he or she is saying. Try to paraphrase what you are being told, either back to the person or in your own mind. Ask clarifying questions.
Conflict Resolution Tips: People Oriented Individuals with Task.
The Recovering Engineer
DECEMBER 16, 2008
"Because that's the way we've always done it!"
Great Leadership By Dan
MARCH 29, 2008
I first came across this story from an engineering colleague of mine, Kyle Smith. He said he got it from Howard Winsett, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. I have no idea if it's true, but it's a great story to help people see the need to challenge the conventional wisdom. Or silly HR policies. Does the expression, "We've always done it that way!" ring any bells? The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That is an exceedingly odd number.
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20 signs of a good leader
Great Leadership By Dan
APRIL 1, 2008
Great list from Tom Peters: 20 signs of a good leader: Good leadership comes in all shapes and sizes. However there are a number of things that great leaders have in common. These are 20 of them: Leaders create opportunities for others. Leaders are not always the best performers. The ability to lead is seldom teamed up with the best ability. Leaders implement. Leaders make mistakes, and then learn from them. Leaders create new markets. No one has become great through countless line extensions.
Coaching Self-Assessment for Leaders
Great Leadership By Dan
AUGUST 28, 2008
The questions below relate to the skills and qualities needed for effective coaching. Use this assessment to evaluate your own effectiveness as a coach. Do you seize development opportunities and focus on immediate performance problems for your employees? Do you try to develop a supportive, emotional bond with your employees? Do you observe your employee's behavior? Do you form and test hypotheses about your employee's behavior before acting on them?
Turning Mistakes into Development Opportunities
Great Leadership By Dan
JANUARY 27, 2008
Y ou may have the story about failure during the tenure of Tom Watson, Sr. as CEO of IBM. As the story goes, a promising young executive at IBM was involved in a risky venture that lost $10 million for the company. When Tom Watson Sr., the founder and CEO of IBM, called the executive to his office, the executive tendered his resignation. Watson is reported to have said, "You can't be serious. We've just spent $10 million dollars educating you!"
The Power of a Written Individual Development Plan
Great Leadership By Dan
OCTOBER 29, 2008
I’ve always been a strong proponent of the importance of having a written individual development plan (IDP) for leadership development. That is, identifying: - What you want to get better at - How you’re going to do it - When you’re going to do it I have one. I make sure my employees have one. And I try to encourage all employees to have one, not just managers. The idea is often met with resistance. I hear things like “I’m developing all the time, why do I need to write it down?”,
10 Ways to be a More Strategic Leader
Great Leadership By Dan
MAY 26, 2008
Practice “what’s possible” thinking. Don’t limit to yourself based on previous failures. Practice using the phrase “up until now…” 2. Avoid the temptation to jump to the quick fix when solving a problem. In many cases, speed and simplicity can serve you well, but if overused, can limit your strategic alternatives.
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The 10 Most Serious Hiring Mistakes and How to Fix Them
Great Leadership By Dan
JANUARY 16, 2008
Guest post from Brad Smart , Author of Topgrading: How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching, and Keeping the Best People : I don’t know about you, but early in my career I was very disappointed with my hiring track record. Assessing selection candidates was my job, too! Thirty years ago I began studying why almost EVERYONE’S hiring record was so bad. Almost everyone?” Yes, so if you’re not satisfied with your hiring success, join the club!
Feedback For Virtual Teams
Great Leadership By Dan
FEBRUARY 23, 2008
Today’s global business environment requires more and more leadership teams to operate from a distance. So how do you provide effective feedback when you don’t see your leaders on a regular basis? Here are some guidelines for effective long-distance feedback. Don’t leave feedback to chance. Giving feedback to long-distance team members requires you to make a more formal effort. Random, in the moment feedback is not as easy because you cannot observe behavior on a day-to-day basis.
Checklist for a Great Individual Development Plan (IDP)
Great Leadership By Dan
APRIL 22, 2008
Here's a checklist I've used to evaluate the quality of a leader's individual development plan. Use to evaluate your own plan or to coach others. Robustness 1. Has the IDP been generated/updated within the last 12 months? Is the IDP complete? Are the development actions substantial? To what extent is there connectivity between the career path, leadership assessment, development needs and planned development actions? Are leadership assessment results linked with the IDP when applicable? Variety 6.
10 Tips for Creative Thinking
Great Leadership By Dan
JANUARY 12, 2008
Challenge current approaches to your work. Think about whether you and your direct reports can work together in new, previously unimaginable possibilities. Challenge existing beliefs and assumptions. Ask yourself, your colleagues and your direct reports whether your current views about how things are done in your company are correct. Get educated. Take a course on a subject like creative thinking, creative writing or improvisational acting to help you flex your creative thinking muscles.
2008 Quought for the Day #14 – Steve Shapiro | Rajesh Setty
Rajesh Setty
AUGUST 26, 2008
About Portfolio Resources eBuzz Blog Home Blog Quought for the Day 2008 Quought for the Day #14 – Steve Shapiro RSS Feed 2008 Quought for the Day #14 – Steve Shapiro By Rajesh Setty on Tue 26 Aug 2008, 4:00 AM - View Comments Background: This is part of the Quought for the Day – 2008 Series. HELLO THERE AND WELCOME. You are a new visitor to this blog.
2008 Quought for the Day #16 – Liz Strauss | Rajesh Setty
Rajesh Setty
AUGUST 28, 2008
About Portfolio Resources eBuzz Blog Home Blog Quought for the Day 2008 Quought for the Day #16 – Liz Strauss RSS Feed 2008 Quought for the Day #16 – Liz Strauss By Rajesh Setty on Thu 28 Aug 2008, 4:00 AM - View Comments Background: This is part of the Quought for the Day – 2008 Series. HELLO THERE AND WELCOME. You are a new visitor to this blog.
2008 Quoght for the Day #13 – Jack Hayhow | Rajesh Setty
Rajesh Setty
AUGUST 25, 2008
About Portfolio Resources eBuzz Blog Home Blog Quought for the Day 2008 Quoght for the Day #13 – Jack Hayhow RSS Feed 2008 Quoght for the Day #13 – Jack Hayhow By Rajesh Setty on Mon 25 Aug 2008, 4:00 AM - View Comments Background: This is part of the Quought for the Day – 2008 Series. HELLO THERE AND WELCOME. You are a new visitor to this blog.
2008 Quought for the Day #17 – Mike Kanazawa | Rajesh Setty
Rajesh Setty
AUGUST 29, 2008
About Portfolio Resources eBuzz Blog Home Blog Quought for the Day 2008 Quought for the Day #17 – Mike Kanazawa RSS Feed 2008 Quought for the Day #17 – Mike Kanazawa By Rajesh Setty on Fri 29 Aug 2008, 4:00 AM - View Comments Background: This is part of the Quought for the Day – 2008 Series. HELLO THERE AND WELCOME. You are a new visitor to this blog.
2008 Quought for the Day #15 – Dave Taylor | Rajesh Setty
Rajesh Setty
AUGUST 27, 2008
About Portfolio Resources eBuzz Blog Home Blog Quought for the Day 2008 Quought for the Day #15 – Dave Taylor RSS Feed 2008 Quought for the Day #15 – Dave Taylor By Rajesh Setty on Wed 27 Aug 2008, 4:00 AM - View Comments Background: This is part of the Quought for the Day – 2008 Series. HELLO THERE AND WELCOME. You are a new visitor to this blog.
11 Steps for Effective Delegating
Great Leadership By Dan
FEBRUARY 24, 2008
Delegation, put most simply, involves the assignment of a specific task or project by one person to another, and the person’s commitment to complete the task or project. It is one of the most important skills demonstrated by successful leaders and one often neglected or overlooked by "overworked" leaders. Effective delegators spend time planning work assignments and organizing resources to achieve business goals in the most productive way possible.
Leadership Derailers vs. Weaknesses
Great Leadership By Dan
FEBRUARY 16, 2008
The Center for Creative leadership’s research on executive success and failure identified the significance of “derailers”, and how they differ than just mere weaknesses. They studied leaders who made it to at least the G.M. level, but then their careers had involuntarily stalled, or had been demoted, fired, or asked to take early retirement. A derailer is not just a weakness. We all have many weaknesses that we may never choose to improve or need to master.
New Leader Integration Process
Great Leadership By Dan
JANUARY 24, 2008
"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss", The Who Using a structured “New Leader Integration Process” can: - Reduce the time that it takes a new leader and his or her new work team to begin to communicate more openly and freely, and build trust, inclusion, and collaboration - Offer the new team the opportunity to surface, explore and discuss their perceptions with the new leader, focusing on needs and expectations, concerns and issues, team direction, goals, and current or anticipated projects.
Woman’s Leadership Programs
Great Leadership By Dan
AUGUST 5, 2008
Companies will often use external, university-based programs as a way to develop their high potential senior leaders. These programs typically are 1-2 weeks in duration and offer an intense (and expensive) learning experience. According to Iris Marchaj, Director of Smith Executive Education, “99% of leadership development programs offered by elite business schools are male-oriented.which is precisely why they fail when it comes to leadership learning for women!”
Seven Ways to Build Trust as a Leader
Great Leadership By Dan
APRIL 6, 2008
Guest post by the remarkable Keven Eikenberry : There are many reasons why trust is important to us as leaders. With higher levels of trust we are able to influence change more easily and quickly. With more trust we are able to create higher levels of productivity and team cohesiveness. I could go on, but in short, being trustworthy and trusted are two of the most valuable attributes remarkable leaders possess.
Tips for Helping an Employee Find a Mentor
Great Leadership By Dan
MAY 2, 2008
Here's 6 tips for helping an employee find a mentor: 1. Look for individuals who are able to understand and shape the employee’s long-term professional goals (e.g., someone who has a similar background or who is currently in a position the employee might like to have in the future). Consider people who are influential within the company. These individuals know how the organization works and can help your employee navigate the system.
Leadership Development on a Tight Budget
Great Leadership By Dan
MAY 1, 2008
There was a question over on the ASTD discussion board that inspired me to write this post. Pam asked: “ I am looking for ideas to provide training with limited resources (space, money and staff)”. It’s a great question. I’ll bet there’s a lot of small, one-person training departments and even big, global companies that need to run a lean organization that are looking for ways to train or develop leaders on the cheap.
Pepsi's Eric Foss on Leadership Development
Great Leadership By Dan
APRIL 21, 2008
Pepsi has always been known as a great company for leader's. USA Today recently did an interview with Their CEO, Eric Foss. Here's the link: Retain talent, but develop it, Pepsi Bottling chief says. I like what he has to say. Here's a summary: 1. Most people quit because they feel underappreciated. Give talented executives stretch assignments. It's a myth that all fresh ideas come from new hires and that long tenure creates stale thinking. "We We definitely do not offer one job for life.
10 Ways to Derail a High-Potential
Great Leadership By Dan
APRIL 20, 2008
Here’s 10 sure-fire ways to derail even your most promising high potential employees: 1. First of all, recognize that high-potential employees are a threat to your own job and treat them that way. These eager beavers are always exceeding expectations, are ambitious, and want nothing more than to step all over you to climb their career ladder. Put them in a job rotation program, with a never-ending series of short assignments with no real accountability or opportunity to contribute.
Five Easy Ways to Break Down Feedback Barriers
Great Leadership By Dan
APRIL 13, 2008
The two major reasons people do not give effective feedback are lack of time and lack of comfort. Listed here are five easy ways to confront these barriers head on. Barrier: “I do not have enough time to give feedback on a regular basis.” Solution #1: Schedule one-on-one development sessions with each of your team members at the beginning of the year. Once the meetings are on the calendar, you won’t have a ‘fit’ issue.
19 Change Tips For Leaders During Turbulent Times
Great Leadership By Dan
MARCH 31, 2008
1.Make time to get out and see people. When you are with them spend most of the time listening. Resist the urge to try and take control of everything. Instead get your star performers involved and rely on them. Tell your people everything that might matter to them. If there are things you cannot tell them, tell them that. Strong emotions will not disappear overnight. Provide opportunities for people to talk. Be patient.
6 Ways to Listen Like a Leader
Great Leadership By Dan
MARCH 3, 2008
The ability to listen effectively is an essential component of leadership, but few leaders know just what it takes to become a better listener. You can improve your ability to lead effectively by learning the six skills for active listening. CCL's Michael Hoppe recently authored the guidebook Active Listening to make CCL's approach to active listening more explicit and available to a broad audience. In the book, he describes the six skills that contribute to an active listening mindset.
12 Ways to Bring an External Perspective to Your Team
Great Leadership By Dan
MARCH 2, 2008
Teams and organizations can often get too insular and unable to think outside of their own boxes. Leaders need to encourage team members to look outside for new ideas. Here's 12 ways to ensure your team members are getting their daily dose of external perspective: 1. Send team members to external training, networking events, or conferences 2. Forward newsletters, articles, research, and best practice reports to your team 3.
5 Ways to Think More Creatively
Great Leadership By Dan
FEBRUARY 23, 2008
The ability to think creatively is a valuable thinking skill that leaders can apply when faced with problems that require a fresh approach. What is creative thinking? It’s the ability to generate fresh alternatives, visualize new possibilities, formulate new approaches to getting things done, and open yourself to new information that does not support your existing assumptions about the way people should do things at your company.
Thinking Strategically: 7 Tips for Seeing the Big Picture
Great Leadership By Dan
FEBRUARY 16, 2008
Think “what if?” With every idea or course of action under consideration, ask yourself and others, “If we implement this idea, how will other units and stakeholders be affected? What might be the long-term ramifications of this decision?” Broaden your perspective. When making an important decision, resist any urge to choose quickly from the first few alternatives that emerge.
Tough Feedback Tips
Great Leadership By Dan
FEBRUARY 16, 2008
We all dread it – the feedback session to: · Address a serious behavior or performance issue · Deliver news that will be an unpleasant surprise to the recipient Tough feedback is just that. tough. And while we may not ever get to a point where we look forward to sharing difficult information, there are ways to make these conversations less difficult.
Leadership Development for C Players?
Great Leadership By Dan
FEBRUARY 3, 2008
Developing employees can be time-intensive. Matching direct reports’ interests, values, and skills to growth opportunities requires energy and careful consideration. How can you optimize the time spent on this activity? By understanding who on your team should be developed—and who requires performance improvement. To understand how successful leaders allocate their employee development time, it’s helpful to consider the return on management, or ROM, of developing your direct reports.
Leadership Development for B Players
Great Leadership By Dan
FEBRUARY 2, 2008
It’s easy to recognize the employees in your organization who bring in the biggest revenues or win awards, or the A players. But there are others that are also important: those who consistently meet expectations but are not standout performers. While these B players may not seek the limelight, it’s still critical for managers to recognize, value, and grow these employees. These steady, reliable performers are your corporate backbone; they keep your organization going, day by day.
Using the Performance and Potential Matrix to Determine the Best Leadership Development Strategy
Great Leadership By Dan
JANUARY 29, 2008
In a previous post, I wrote about how to use a performance and potential matrix to assess your organization's talent : [link]. In this next series of posts, I'm going to describe how to use the results of this assessment process to determine what kind of development strategy is appropriate for every type of leader. Although there are nine boxes in the matrix , I find it more practical to group talent into four categories , each requiring a different leadership development strategy.
Leadership Development for A Players
Great Leadership By Dan
JANUARY 29, 2008
Developing your stars is critical to an organization’s success. Your best employees, or A players, boost company performance, both directly—by working harder at their jobs—and indirectly, by their ability to inspire and motivate others. Therefore it’s critical to invest the time and energy to keep them satisfied and engaged. Understand what drives A players Finding out what motivates your top employees on an individual level is critical.
10 Ways to Involve Leaders in Leadership Development Programs
Great Leadership By Dan
JANUARY 3, 2008
Most of us have heard of the concept of "leader's teaching leaders" - Noel Tichy commercialized the concept in his 2002 book, The Leadership Engine. Jack Welch was known for the amount of time he spent in Crotinville sparing with high-potential managers in "the pit". Here's 10 practical ways to get leaders involved in leadership development programs: 1. Make sure you have executive sponsorship for any and all leadership programs.
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