Insights | Culture Development
When the Middle becomes the Beginning: Why and How – you need to invest more in coaching your mid-level leaders
When the Middle becomes the Beginning Do you think it’s too costly to develop your middle managers as well as your executives? Think again. Many organizations treat middle management as a Darwinian proving ground by making a minimal investment and then waiting to see who survives. Meanwhile, the best development tools such as executive coaching, action learning task teams, and high fidelity simulations, are reserved for senior leaders and a select group of high potentials. These are often expensive and the size of their [...]
The Risks of Either-Or Thinking
Either-or thinking is a trap we can easily fall into that encourages us to believe there is only one right behavior and it blinds us to the opportunities of a more balanced, albeit more paradoxical, approach. Life is full of light-hearted paradoxical sayings: slow down to speed up, tough love, stability through change, and more. Most leaders easily understand that these behaviors sound like opposites ends of a continuum but are really very complimentary. We know there can be great benefits in using “both” [...]
The Purpose of Servant Leadership
The Purpose of Servant Leadership Leadership comes in many colors. In today’s world, we see leaders who demand respect by putting others down and elevating themselves. We see leaders who know something is right or wrong, but in order to keep the peace or achieve an agenda, they don’t speak up. We see leaders who drive their people for results at all costs. And, occasionally we see a strong leader who emerges as a true servant leader. In my experience it is far too [...]
Emotional Intelligence for Teams
Emotional Intelligence for Teams When we think about how to best develop leadership skills in those around us, we frequently encounter the need to strengthen Emotional Intelligence (EI). Likewise, most leadership development programs identify EI as a major objective. However, little attention has been given to developing the emotional intelligence of teams, despite the fact that organizations strongly rely on teams for delivering a wide range of results. We see this as a major oversight. Research has found a clear correlation between team emotional [...]
Feedback on Feedback
It's not much of a surprise that most leaders honestly say they want quality feedback. What IS surprising, is that very few people, leaders included, are actually good at giving feedback. Many simply don't give enough. Studies and surveys show that as many as 1/3 of all feedback interventions backfire while a whopping 98% of employees will fail to be engaged due to lack of or poorly delivered feedback. In the face of these startling numbers, 58% of managers still feel they do give [...]
Lasting Change Demands Transformational Leadership
When a leader puts people and relationships at the center of any effort for cultural change, we describe their strategy as transformational leadership. A true transformational leader knows that it is their people who get results and execute any change. The leader is the conduit. Transformational leadership builds the capability of people and brings higher levels of personal commitment from individuals to the organization's vision and objectives. Experts in the field say that transformational leaders can motivate followers to transcend their own interests for [...]
Being Accountable for Accountability
We all love working with people that hold themselves accountable to completing their projects, initiatives and strategic plans as promised. Unfortunately, there aren't as many of these people as we might like. As leaders, it's up to us to hold individuals accountable and to encourage accountability among team members. Most of us just aren't as good as it as we need to be. The Harvard Business Review says one out of every two managers is terrible at accountability because 46% of all managers reporting [...]
Power of the Team
Power to of the Team Do you feel like team work leaves no time for your work? No surprise. In early 2016, Harvard Business Review reported an increase of more than 50% in the amount of time spent in collaborative activities. Over the past 20 years, globalization, strategic partnerships, and the demand for innovation and speed have resulted in a heavily team-based work environment. For many companies, more than three-quarters of an employee's workday is spent in meetings, on the phone, and responding to emails. [...]
