A key success factor in training & development (T&D) is support from senior leaders: you need funding, you need their buy-in and support, you need their time and help. The problem is that many business leaders don’t understand the value of training. And everyone has been to crappy workshops. Here is a little introduction to [Read More]

Major advance: Situational leadership made a major advance in leadership theory: it helped us move from “one size fits all” to four major leadership approaches, each suited to a different situation. The basic idea is simple and compelling: different situations call for different leadership styles. For example, a beginner needs more coaching support than an [Read More]

Debriefing is a core leadership practice. How can you tell when you are doing it well? How do you know when your debriefing sessions are successful; delivering positive results; added value? What are the signs, indicators or measures of success for debriefing? See these past blogs that introduce debriefing: Introduction: The purpose, process, and benefits [Read More]

Leadership is really tough. In addition to fighting internal obstacles (silos, turf wars, red tape…), the external playing field is never level. We are often competing against companies with bigger budgets and better connections. Doing great things, achieving big results, keeping the troops focused and engaged requires a very deep kind of motivation and commitment. [Read More]

When is the last time you had the good fortune to study human motivation and employee engagement? Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is still extremely valuable: from turning around terrible morale and enhancing employee motivation and productivity, to fully engaging your employees, and inspiring them to peak performance. This blog is intended to be a great [Read More]

Money: Dozens of studies have demonstrated that money is not the number one motivator of employees. Pay rarely shows up in the top three or four motivators. In many studies, appreciation, independence, meaningful work, and opportunities for development are shown to be more powerful drivers of motivation and retention than salary. So why do so [Read More]

Involving senior management in leadership development (LD) is always identified as a critical success factor. Having your VPs and CEO facilitate workshops, however, is not the only way to get them involved. There are many options and alternatives. I hope you find the following suggestions useful in building your own lists. You can make some [Read More]

3 SETS OF OUTCOMES & METRICS FOR WORKSHOPS Many training companies do a terrible job of clarifying metrics for their workshops. I think this is partly due to a weak understanding of what metrics are and how they work, and partly due to a fear of being held accountable for generating results for their clients. [Read More]

Command & control leadership: Many people still think of leadership as command & control. They assume leaders should know their jobs well enough to be able to answer the questions, make the decisions, and tell people what to do. They feel that leadership should be top down, hands on, confident, charismatic—and in your face. This [Read More]

My last blog discussed culture versus cult, and outlined some of the signs and costs of arrogance and dogmatism in organizational culture. To recall a couple of the themes: Language and enlightenment are journeys and not destinations (not final, fixed resting places). We should therefore strive to be: open and curious rather than closed and [Read More]

My last blog discussed the risks and costs of arrogance and dogmatism in organizational culture. When human relations descend to dogmatism and arrogance, they become all “push.” These insiders push their ideas, desires, and feelings on others; they stop listening, interacting, and connecting; they squash difference and dissent. The “push mentality” obstructs more authentic forms [Read More]

My last blog compared the benefits of a tight culture to the risks and costs of building a dysfunctional cult. Let’s continue our discussion. In this blog, we will look at the difference between culture and cult; list some of the signs or indicators of each (how we can tell them apart), and list some [Read More]

Organizational culture can be a huge asset or a crippling liability. In Built to Last, Collins and Porras make a powerful argument for creating “cult-like cultures.” (See also Culture and Bottom Line.) But how tight should your organizational culture be?  How “cult-like” can it get before it becomes dysfunctional? What are the signs or indicators [Read More]

Holistic Cycle of Strategic Planning & Execution   A good plan is nothing without execution. And both strategy and execution have to be anchored in organizational culture. How do all these pieces fit together? Here is a useful map of the strategy cycle that shows how all the major pieces fit together. This map shows how [Read More]

What good is a workshop if the participants don’t use anything they have learned after the workshop is over? Here are a few practical tactics that I share with workshop participants at the end of my workshops. I am writing this blog more or less how I pitch it (verbally) to participants in my workshops. [Read More]

Leadership at the bottom: We mistakenly assume that leadership is reserved for the people at the top — especially crème de la crème leadership activities like creating vision, strategy and core values. This is a perilous mistake that cuts off executives from employees, chokes the idea pipeline, and obstructs professional development at all levels. Don’t [Read More]

Most plans don’t contain a strategy at all but rather a smorgasbord of tactics that individually make sense but collectively don’t add up to a unified, clear directions that sets a company apart—let alone makes the competition irrelevant…. Focus on the big picture, not the numbers.

Fight, flight, or freeze: When threatened, people often revert to one of the three biological responses: fight, flight, or freeze. It is almost always an over-reaction, and no one does their best work when they are getting defensive, running away, or frozen in their tracks. These archaic responses block thoughtful action, shut down the conversation, [Read More]

How do you deal with under-valued skills, or an unfair or unjustified reputation? Outline: Perception is never completely objective Feedback is important Bad feedback is sometimes correct How to deal with an unjustified reputation No immaculate perception: How others perceive you is not the final truth of who you are. Perception does not equal reality. [Read More]

Why 360: One of the most powerful benefits of 360° feedback is that leaders get a chance to compare their own self-perception directly against the perception of others. This is of utmost importance. No one is an island unto themselves. Your work impacts others and the work of others impacts you. The strength of your [Read More]