Given that our state was in the path of totality for the August 2017 solar eclipse, people in our neighborhood gathered to watch. The closer we were to the time of totality, the larger the crowd became. MORE
No doubt about it: we have a “me first” culture. My progress. My success. My actualization. In this environment, servant leadership can be challenging. When you’re surrounded by messages telling you to put yourself first, how do you strengthen your mindset towards service? Here are the four steps I take. Acknowledge the elephant in the room. While servant leadership runs counter to our social norms, it also contradicts our very nature. We’re all habitually self-centered. MORE
“Cash is kind” was the CFO’s favorite go-to line when vetoing spending requests. The CEO always agreed. Therefore, over time, “make money” became the company’s informal mantra. Over time, company culture changed too. Ethical corners were cut. Legal lines were crossed. Compliance became the norm, as did cutthroat competition. Money became the only yardstick by which success was measured. MORE
In my post Once You Understand Emotion, Motivation Is Easy , I laid the link between Deci and Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory and current emotions. In this post, I will briefly expand these ideas and then focus on a specific emotion from a communication and leadership point of view: Anxiety. MORE
Welcome to the January Leadership Development Carnival! The themes for this month are… Let’s get started! Productivity. Neal Burgis of Burgis Successful Solutions submitted Great Leaders Simplify Complexity. MORE
HTC made a not so subtle tease today that a new version of the HTC Vive is on the way with improved resolution. While it doesn’t look like this will be positioned as a ‘Vive 2’, here’s what we could see from a ‘Vive 1.5’ MORE
Taken from the Introduction of The Art of Servant Leadership II by Art Barter. In The Art of Servant Leadership II, we offer a case study in transforming a company into a servant-led organization. MORE
If your life was a silent film, could the people in the audience discern your influence? We leaders have become a communicative group. I just Googled “leadership,” and got 861 million hits. We’ve written books on leadership, blogs on leadership, articles on leadership, and white papers on leadership. MORE
According to the 2015 Employee Trends Report by Quantum Workplace, one of the biggest areas of concern for team members is that there is often not open and honest communication with managers. So why is this? Why does miscommunication pervade at least 50% of business conversations? MORE
Avoid the comfort trap. I recently read a post by Steve Keating titled The Benefit of Living an Uncomfortable Life. The post reminded me of my own bipolar relationship with comfort. I’m bipolar because I want comfort, but I also want to make a difference. Steve reminds us that comfort doesn’t change anything. We must be uncomfortable to make a difference. Comfort is a Poor Goal. I realized comfort is a default goal. A pursuit of comfort squeezes out all but our most elevated goals. MORE
With the onslaught of AI and other disrupting technologies, the workplace will undergo rapid changes. In the VUCA world, employees are struggling and constantly challenged to move out of their comfort zones. Every industry is in the process of transformation. Traditional jobs are disappearing and new roles are coming up. To keep up with this rapid change, individuals need to adapt to the changes. MORE
My wife is a big fan of TV cooking shows. You name it, she likes to watch it: IronChef, TopChef, Great American Food Truck, and MasterChef, just to name a few. MORE
Picture this. You walk out of an airport to take a taxi cab to your hotel. The taxi driver has a sullen look, seems completely disinterested in you, plays music you dislike, and talks to his buddies on his phone all the way. MORE
The primary goal of any system is balance, and as a leader, your role is to orchestrate the balance within the organisational system. When a system falls out of harmony we get dis-ease; and yet many leaders I meet don’t understand the importance of balance and creating a sustainable rhythm to ensure the system works optimally. Everything in nature has a natural rhythm, and this provides predictable results which make us feel safe and secure. MORE
Excerpted from Transform Your Company by Alex Vorobieff. Buy your copy today on Amazon or download Alex’s free magazine Confident Roi to learn more about identifying the problem areas in your company and to find the tools and resources to turn your business around. Paddling in Circles. MORE
The following is an excerpt from The Essentials of Theory U. Three Divides. Today, if we look into the abyss, we see three major divides. They are: • The ecological divide : unprecedented environmental destruction—resulting in the loss of nature. • MORE
Welcome to the March Leadership Development Carnival! The themes for this month are… Let’s get started! Communication. Jason Carroll of IA HR provided How to Avoid ‘Fake News’ in Your Workforce Analytics. MORE
In a hospital, lives are saved or lost long before patients’ treatment plans are written and implemented. Planning is Impersonal. Stefan Swanepoel advises leaders to “see the whole [chess] board” strategy-wise. Are you a leader tasked with planning for routine operations along with the response when routines are disrupted in ways big or small? MORE
At first, I was worried. Might she have been in an accident? Taken ill? Ten minutes after the time our coffee meetup was supposed to start, a horrible thought leapt into my mind. Had I gotten the date or time or place wrong? A frantic scroll through sent emails confirmed I was in the right place, right day, and right time. I called her. She’d forgotten about our get-together. Forgotten. It had been her idea to meet. MORE
The following is an excerpt from Conversations Worth Having. What Kind of Conversations Are You Having? “The moment of questioning is also the moment of choice, which usually holds the greatest leverage for effective action and positive change.” ” ~ Marilee Goldberg. MORE
February is heart month. You might be wondering what that has to do with leadership. Lots more than you might think: if we fail to take care of ourselves, there’s no leading or serving others. Many of us spend lots of time on work and too little on ourselves, thinking self-care is something for self-indulgent sissies. That’s a thought to let go of. Years ago, when I mapped out what I wanted from life, being a statistic for heart disease wasn’t on the list. MORE
Rekha was a new manager who got promoted to a team manager role based on her hard work and dedication. But like most first time managers, she was struggling to provide effective feedback to her team members. She would often give them feedback in front of the whole team, or would make the feedback sound so negative that it would do more damage than good to the individual concerned. MORE
“Empathy is about standing in someone else’s shoes, feeling with his or her heart, seeing with his or her eyes. Not only is empathy hard to outsource and automate, but it makes the world a better place.” ” Daniel H. Pink. MORE
The information technology world has figured out that sometimes it is easier and cheaper to obtain services they need through vendors providing those services over cloud computing, than it is hiring someone to do the work. This is known by the term “as-a-Service.”. The Basics of “as-a-Service”. Defining characteristics of “as-a-Service” include: Being provided by a vendor rather than in-house. Cloud-computing technology eliminates or reduces the need for on-site equipment and software. MORE
It may go like winning the lottery, or like the grim reaper running amok. That is the likely spectrum of emotion you will encounter on announcing your change plan to the team or the organisation. No matter how brilliantly researched, planned, and executed, you will meet resistance to change. Simply put, our brains are hard-wired to protect us in a myriad of ways when we feel threatened. So what does that mean for your people? What does the research say? MORE
To echo one of Zig Ziglar’s many quotes, “The first step in solving a problem is to recognize that it does exist.”. As a leader, do you know the tell-tale signs that there is a problem? You can look at falling sales, poor culture and high turnover, but these are more symptoms, not the root cause. Far more often than not, the root cause is the lack of business alignment. Paddling in the ‘same direction’. Let’s use a Disneyland canoe ride I watched once to explain business alignment. MORE
The move from specialist to leader can be challenging. Fortunately, new advances in neuroscience support a focus on learning to lead. Like many STEM professionals, Kurt excels at his practice as a highly sought after tax attorney. His style of using analytical thinking has supported his success in the practice of law. He finds it easy to be steeped in data-driven situations that require sharp focus and logical decision-making. MORE
Seven years ago, I accepted a leadership position at my school and asked the Lead Change community if having a title would matter. You can see the original post and discussion here. Seven years. MORE
Imagine trying to lead an organization or team without words or conversation. Impossible, right? Everything leaders do is mediated through conversation. So, what are you doing with your conversations? What if you had the keys to ensure your conversations would fuel productivity and engagement? Keys that would inspire creativity, motivate collaborative action, and generate innovative possibilities for resolving complex challenges? MORE
To say I ‘fell’ into leadership is probably a little unfair, but when I found myself running a small sales team several years ago, I fully admit to suffering from imposter syndrome. Somehow, I’d achieved a position of authority (and a board seat) without any formal training. MORE
Welcome to the February Leadership Development Carnival! The themes for this month are… Let’s get started! Communication. Jesse Lyn Stoner of Seapoint Center provided How to Make an Effective Apology and Restore Trust and Your Credibility. MORE
Welcome to the Leadership Development Carnival. We’re excited to share posts from leadership experts from around the globe on the topics of communication, employee performance and engagement, personal and professional development, productivity, team building, and more. Communication. David Grossman of The Grossman Group shared Leadership: 6 Clues It’s Time to Adopt a Strategic Messaging Platform. MORE
“Management isn’t doing—it’s seeing that it gets done.” ” ? Loren B. Belker, The First-Time Manager. Tons of information is accessible on the internet on mistakes that first-time managers make. Enough literature is available on developing new skills by new managers. Here are key skills that the first-time managers need: Listening skills. Effective delegation. Emotional intelligence. Influencing skills. Effective communication skills. These skills develop by practice. MORE
The following is an excerpt from of Culture Wins: The Roadmap to an Irresistible Workplace. How I Accidentally Discovered Our Company’s Staff Values. There’s a lot of old-school thinking about vision. MORE
In any professional environment, management is composed of a leader and a group of colleagues working collaboratively. Together, they work towards their team’s goals. Ideally, the team should meet their targets and perform well under an effective management. MORE
The following is an excerpt from the introduction to The New Science of Radical Innovation. When an organization achieves a higher level of complexity, it increases the organization’s options and ability to respond to external challenges and produce radical innovation. MORE
I started my first full-time salaried job right out of college. My employer was fair and kind, but his office intimidated me. The décor and furniture didn’t help. He had two uncomfortable chairs opposite a large oak desk, a faded leather executive chair, an old metal filing cabinet, and a library of worn books lining the back wall. The room screamed my boss’s credentials. Very little, if anything, communicated: “Welcome! Come on in and have a seat.” MORE
As a leader, do you ever feel like your habits automatically engage to turn a new experience into an old pattern of response? If so, you might consider using a surprising approach to personal and professional development: learning from experience. MORE
No-one I speak to disputes the fact that we live in a VUCA world full of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. MORE
From the heavy demands of a 24/7 world, the whiplash of political turmoil, to the care of aging parents, boomerang kids, and personal health challenges, there is much to test our resiliency. In fact, resiliency is becoming the theme of corporate meetings and church sermons. Let’s first define resiliency as it relates to human. It is not, contrary to Webster’s dictionary, the ability to bounce back. That’s fine if one is a piece of steel or a willow tree. MORE
It was the day of the Great Fishing Contest. I was about seven years old. We lived in a small town with a creek that ran right through the center of the town square. Every year, the town held a fishing contest. There were prizes for the most fish, and the biggest fish, and the smallest fish, and all sorts of other things. There were prizes for different age groups, so I had a chance. I had been fantasizing about winning one of those prizes for months. My father offered to teach me some things. MORE
A lack of clarity can be very frustrating. We obsess over meaningless details and our uncertainty makes us decide over and over again. We waste effort worrying about factors outside our control. Clarity produces many benefits for character-based leaders. Being clear demands effort, but produces great results. Clarity brings out our courage. When we select something, we must choose not to select many others. One of my most persistent difficulties lies in my love of options. MORE
Lead Change Blog
JANUARY 5, 2018
HTC made a not so subtle tease today that a new version of the HTC Vive is on the way with improved resolution. While it doesn’t look like this will be positioned as a ‘Vive 2’, here’s what we could see from a ‘Vive 1.5’
Lead Change Blog
MAY 24, 2018
The following is an excerpt from Conversations Worth Having. What Kind of Conversations Are You Having? “The moment of questioning is also the moment of choice, which usually holds the greatest leverage for effective action and positive change.” ” ~ Marilee Goldberg.
Lead Change Blog
MAY 21, 2018
The primary goal of any system is balance, and as a leader, your role is to orchestrate the balance within the organisational system. When a system falls out of harmony we get dis-ease; and yet many leaders I meet don’t understand the importance of balance and creating a sustainable rhythm to ensure the system works optimally. Everything in nature has a natural rhythm, and this provides predictable results which make us feel safe and secure.
Lead Change Blog
JANUARY 9, 2018
Welcome to the January Leadership Development Carnival! The themes for this month are… Let’s get started! Productivity. Neal Burgis of Burgis Successful Solutions submitted Great Leaders Simplify Complexity.
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Last year, we hosted the 2017 MVP Awards across three of our sites. In order to get ready for this year’s coming awards across even more of our sites, we’re catching up with some of our judges from the previous awards who offered their time and insight to make the awards even better. Take a look!
Lead Change Blog
OCTOBER 20, 2017
According to the 2015 Employee Trends Report by Quantum Workplace, one of the biggest areas of concern for team members is that there is often not open and honest communication with managers. So why is this? Why does miscommunication pervade at least 50% of business conversations?
Lead Change Blog
MAY 22, 2018
It may go like winning the lottery, or like the grim reaper running amok. That is the likely spectrum of emotion you will encounter on announcing your change plan to the team or the organisation. No matter how brilliantly researched, planned, and executed, you will meet resistance to change. Simply put, our brains are hard-wired to protect us in a myriad of ways when we feel threatened. So what does that mean for your people? What does the research say?
Lead Change Blog
MAY 23, 2018
I started my first full-time salaried job right out of college. My employer was fair and kind, but his office intimidated me. The décor and furniture didn’t help. He had two uncomfortable chairs opposite a large oak desk, a faded leather executive chair, an old metal filing cabinet, and a library of worn books lining the back wall. The room screamed my boss’s credentials. Very little, if anything, communicated: “Welcome! Come on in and have a seat.”
Lead Change Blog
MAY 10, 2018
Taken from the Introduction of The Art of Servant Leadership II by Art Barter. In The Art of Servant Leadership II, we offer a case study in transforming a company into a servant-led organization.
Lead Change Blog
MARCH 15, 2018
The following is an excerpt from of Culture Wins: The Roadmap to an Irresistible Workplace. How I Accidentally Discovered Our Company’s Staff Values. There’s a lot of old-school thinking about vision.
Lead Change Blog
OCTOBER 9, 2017
If your life was a silent film, could the people in the audience discern your influence? We leaders have become a communicative group. I just Googled “leadership,” and got 861 million hits. We’ve written books on leadership, blogs on leadership, articles on leadership, and white papers on leadership.
Lead Change Blog
SEPTEMBER 22, 2017
No-one I speak to disputes the fact that we live in a VUCA world full of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.
Lead Change Blog
FEBRUARY 6, 2018
Welcome to the February Leadership Development Carnival! The themes for this month are… Let’s get started! Communication. Jesse Lyn Stoner of Seapoint Center provided How to Make an Effective Apology and Restore Trust and Your Credibility.
Lead Change Blog
MARCH 30, 2018
No doubt about it: we have a “me first” culture. My progress. My success. My actualization. In this environment, servant leadership can be challenging. When you’re surrounded by messages telling you to put yourself first, how do you strengthen your mindset towards service? Here are the four steps I take. Acknowledge the elephant in the room. While servant leadership runs counter to our social norms, it also contradicts our very nature. We’re all habitually self-centered.
Lead Change Blog
MARCH 19, 2018
Rekha was a new manager who got promoted to a team manager role based on her hard work and dedication. But like most first time managers, she was struggling to provide effective feedback to her team members. She would often give them feedback in front of the whole team, or would make the feedback sound so negative that it would do more damage than good to the individual concerned.
Lead Change Blog
SEPTEMBER 8, 2017
To say I ‘fell’ into leadership is probably a little unfair, but when I found myself running a small sales team several years ago, I fully admit to suffering from imposter syndrome. Somehow, I’d achieved a position of authority (and a board seat) without any formal training.
Lead Change Blog
MAY 4, 2018
The information technology world has figured out that sometimes it is easier and cheaper to obtain services they need through vendors providing those services over cloud computing, than it is hiring someone to do the work. This is known by the term “as-a-Service.”. The Basics of “as-a-Service”. Defining characteristics of “as-a-Service” include: Being provided by a vendor rather than in-house. Cloud-computing technology eliminates or reduces the need for on-site equipment and software.
Lead Change Blog
SEPTEMBER 11, 2017
Given that our state was in the path of totality for the August 2017 solar eclipse, people in our neighborhood gathered to watch. The closer we were to the time of totality, the larger the crowd became.
Lead Change Blog
MAY 25, 2018
Avoid the comfort trap. I recently read a post by Steve Keating titled The Benefit of Living an Uncomfortable Life. The post reminded me of my own bipolar relationship with comfort. I’m bipolar because I want comfort, but I also want to make a difference. Steve reminds us that comfort doesn’t change anything. We must be uncomfortable to make a difference. Comfort is a Poor Goal. I realized comfort is a default goal. A pursuit of comfort squeezes out all but our most elevated goals.
Lead Change Blog
APRIL 12, 2018
The following is an excerpt from the introduction to The New Science of Radical Innovation. When an organization achieves a higher level of complexity, it increases the organization’s options and ability to respond to external challenges and produce radical innovation.
Lead Change Blog
MAY 16, 2017
In any professional environment, management is composed of a leader and a group of colleagues working collaboratively. Together, they work towards their team’s goals. Ideally, the team should meet their targets and perform well under an effective management.
Lead Change Blog
APRIL 18, 2018
“Management isn’t doing—it’s seeing that it gets done.” ” ? Loren B. Belker, The First-Time Manager. Tons of information is accessible on the internet on mistakes that first-time managers make. Enough literature is available on developing new skills by new managers. Here are key skills that the first-time managers need: Listening skills. Effective delegation. Emotional intelligence. Influencing skills. Effective communication skills. These skills develop by practice.
Lead Change Blog
MAY 16, 2018
With the onslaught of AI and other disrupting technologies, the workplace will undergo rapid changes. In the VUCA world, employees are struggling and constantly challenged to move out of their comfort zones. Every industry is in the process of transformation. Traditional jobs are disappearing and new roles are coming up. To keep up with this rapid change, individuals need to adapt to the changes.
Lead Change Blog
MAY 15, 2018
To echo one of Zig Ziglar’s many quotes, “The first step in solving a problem is to recognize that it does exist.”. As a leader, do you know the tell-tale signs that there is a problem? You can look at falling sales, poor culture and high turnover, but these are more symptoms, not the root cause. Far more often than not, the root cause is the lack of business alignment. Paddling in the ‘same direction’. Let’s use a Disneyland canoe ride I watched once to explain business alignment.
Lead Change Blog
MAY 3, 2018
Excerpted from Transform Your Company by Alex Vorobieff. Buy your copy today on Amazon or download Alex’s free magazine Confident Roi to learn more about identifying the problem areas in your company and to find the tools and resources to turn your business around. Paddling in Circles.
Lead Change Blog
MAY 9, 2018
My wife is a big fan of TV cooking shows. You name it, she likes to watch it: IronChef, TopChef, Great American Food Truck, and MasterChef, just to name a few.
Lead Change Blog
FEBRUARY 12, 2018
February is heart month. You might be wondering what that has to do with leadership. Lots more than you might think: if we fail to take care of ourselves, there’s no leading or serving others. Many of us spend lots of time on work and too little on ourselves, thinking self-care is something for self-indulgent sissies. That’s a thought to let go of. Years ago, when I mapped out what I wanted from life, being a statistic for heart disease wasn’t on the list.
Lead Change Blog
MARCH 14, 2018
In a hospital, lives are saved or lost long before patients’ treatment plans are written and implemented. Planning is Impersonal. Stefan Swanepoel advises leaders to “see the whole [chess] board” strategy-wise. Are you a leader tasked with planning for routine operations along with the response when routines are disrupted in ways big or small?
Lead Change Blog
JUNE 19, 2017
Picture this. You walk out of an airport to take a taxi cab to your hotel. The taxi driver has a sullen look, seems completely disinterested in you, plays music you dislike, and talks to his buddies on his phone all the way.
Lead Change Blog
APRIL 10, 2018
“Cash is kind” was the CFO’s favorite go-to line when vetoing spending requests. The CEO always agreed. Therefore, over time, “make money” became the company’s informal mantra. Over time, company culture changed too. Ethical corners were cut. Legal lines were crossed. Compliance became the norm, as did cutthroat competition. Money became the only yardstick by which success was measured.
Lead Change Blog
APRIL 3, 2018
Welcome to the Leadership Development Carnival. We’re excited to share posts from leadership experts from around the globe on the topics of communication, employee performance and engagement, personal and professional development, productivity, team building, and more. Communication. David Grossman of The Grossman Group shared Leadership: 6 Clues It’s Time to Adopt a Strategic Messaging Platform.
Lead Change Blog
MARCH 22, 2018
The following is an excerpt from The Essentials of Theory U. Three Divides. Today, if we look into the abyss, we see three major divides. They are: • The ecological divide : unprecedented environmental destruction—resulting in the loss of nature. •
Lead Change Blog
APRIL 27, 2018
A lack of clarity can be very frustrating. We obsess over meaningless details and our uncertainty makes us decide over and over again. We waste effort worrying about factors outside our control. Clarity produces many benefits for character-based leaders. Being clear demands effort, but produces great results. Clarity brings out our courage. When we select something, we must choose not to select many others. One of my most persistent difficulties lies in my love of options.
Lead Change Blog
OCTOBER 24, 2017
“Empathy is about standing in someone else’s shoes, feeling with his or her heart, seeing with his or her eyes. Not only is empathy hard to outsource and automate, but it makes the world a better place.” ” Daniel H. Pink.
Lead Change Blog
APRIL 2, 2018
From the heavy demands of a 24/7 world, the whiplash of political turmoil, to the care of aging parents, boomerang kids, and personal health challenges, there is much to test our resiliency. In fact, resiliency is becoming the theme of corporate meetings and church sermons. Let’s first define resiliency as it relates to human. It is not, contrary to Webster’s dictionary, the ability to bounce back. That’s fine if one is a piece of steel or a willow tree.
Lead Change Blog
MAY 11, 2018
At first, I was worried. Might she have been in an accident? Taken ill? Ten minutes after the time our coffee meetup was supposed to start, a horrible thought leapt into my mind. Had I gotten the date or time or place wrong? A frantic scroll through sent emails confirmed I was in the right place, right day, and right time. I called her. She’d forgotten about our get-together. Forgotten. It had been her idea to meet.
Lead Change Blog
MAY 18, 2018
It was the day of the Great Fishing Contest. I was about seven years old. We lived in a small town with a creek that ran right through the center of the town square. Every year, the town held a fishing contest. There were prizes for the most fish, and the biggest fish, and the smallest fish, and all sorts of other things. There were prizes for different age groups, so I had a chance. I had been fantasizing about winning one of those prizes for months. My father offered to teach me some things.
Lead Change Blog
AUGUST 21, 2017
Seven years ago, I accepted a leadership position at my school and asked the Lead Change community if having a title would matter. You can see the original post and discussion here. Seven years.
Lead Change Blog
APRIL 30, 2018
The move from specialist to leader can be challenging. Fortunately, new advances in neuroscience support a focus on learning to lead. Like many STEM professionals, Kurt excels at his practice as a highly sought after tax attorney. His style of using analytical thinking has supported his success in the practice of law. He finds it easy to be steeped in data-driven situations that require sharp focus and logical decision-making.
Lead Change Blog
OCTOBER 6, 2017
In my post Once You Understand Emotion, Motivation Is Easy , I laid the link between Deci and Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory and current emotions. In this post, I will briefly expand these ideas and then focus on a specific emotion from a communication and leadership point of view: Anxiety.
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