Another exciting and inspiring Olympic games has come to a close. The Olympic flame has been extinguished until it will be relit four years from now in Rio de Janeiro. Chris Brasher, a British athlete, sports journalist and co-founder of the London Marathon once observed, “There is something in the Olympics, indefinable, springing from the soul that must be preserved.”
It was a wonderful coincidence that Scott Schweyer and I were at the Zenger Folkman Extraordinary Leadership Summit during the final week of the Olympics. And for additional inspiration it was held at the beautiful Sundance Resort on the slopes of Mount Timpanogos in Utah’s Wasatch Range not far from Salt Lake City. American actor, Robert Redford, acquired the area in 1969 and established a year-round resort. He named it after the movie role he had just played alongside Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid released that same year. Just over a decade later Redford established the Sundance Film Festival.
What a powerful combination! We were feeling nature’s spirit in the mountains of Utah, with the history of all the film makers who’d passed through Sundance telling their stories of human spirit, while catching glimpses and updates of the Olympic spirit, as we learned about the latest leadership research in building and engaging workplace spirit.
Tomorrow we publish all my July blogs into the August issue of The Leader Letter. This is almost an inaugural issue: it marks the beginning of our new partnership with Utah-based Zenger Folkman. The lead story outlines this new era for The CLEMMER Group with the five main reasons we made this big and exciting move.
Mark your calendars now for September 20 when Jack Zenger and I will be delivering an inaugural webcast on ZF’s “Extraordinary Strength-Based Leadership Development System.”
At the Leadership Summit we learned more about this month’s release of Zenger Folkman’s latest ground breaking book, How to Be Exceptional: Drive Leadership Success by Magnifying Your Strengths. In this issue you learn more about it and read a special first chapter with video clips explaining key concepts.
Performance management has been a highly debated topic for decades. “Are Performance Appraisals an Evil that Must Be Destroyed?” provides a couple of thoughtful reader perspectives.
In the spirit of the Olympics and exceptional leadership, we wrap up this issue with inspiration and insights on Performance Excellence. To quote a famous Olympic sports announcer gaffe from years ago; “If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again.”
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