The Clemmer Group's Busy Summer of 2012Over the years “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” became a clichéd back-to-school assignment. This September, our response is “what vacation?” and “we were extraordinarily busy!”

Our biggest news of the summer was A New Era Begins: Our Strategic Partnership with Zenger Folkman. If you were on summer vacation and missed many of my blogs and the August issue of The Leader Letter, it’s full of ZF related research and articles. A pivot point in getting our new relationship rolling was Scott Schweyer (our SVP of Consulting and Training) and I attending Zenger Folkman’s Annual Extraordinary Leadership Summit at Robert Redford’s Sundance Resort in the beautiful mountains just above Provo, Utah. Before and after that insightful and inspiring three day August conference we completed our certification in Zenger Folkman’s foundation program, the award-winning and deeply research-based Extraordinary Leader Strengths-Based Development System.

How we spent our summer was in a blur of preparation for a very busy fall lineup of Strengths-Based Leadership Development webcasts, breakfast presentations, executive briefings, panel discussions, and public workshops. Tomorrow we’ll publish the September issue of The Leader Letter . This issue compiles my August blogs drawing on what we’re learning about the incredible power and almost unbelievable payoffs of developing strengths-based leadership skills. There’s also links to an excellent piece from Bruce Huber on Barrick Gold’s highly successful Courageous Safety Leadership and my presentation on Courageous Leadership for Health and Safety at the Health, Safety, & Environment Conference and Trade Show in Toronto on October 4.

We’re delighted to work with McGraw-Hill Ryerson in the Canadian launch of Zenger Folkman’s groundbreaking new book, How to Be Exceptional: Drive Leadership Success by Magnifying Your Strengths. In more than three decades of watching thousands of leadership books come and go in this business, I can count on one hand — starting with Corporate Cultures and In Search of Excellence — the very few that marked a major turning point in development focus and approaches. How to Be Exceptional is one of those books. It herald’s a mega-shift in leadership training and development. If you missed last week’s blog posts, you can read my book review and a few insights gleaned from How to Be Exceptional in tomorrow’s issue. Then download or buy a copy as quick as you can. And join in the biggest revolution in leadership development in the last 50 years.

You’ll also see that tomorrow’s issue kicks-off The CLEMMER Group’s brand and image makeover. Our marketing director, Julie Gil, worked late into many nights — while she thought we were dancing in the sun in Utah — creating and orchestrating our redesigned web site, The Leader Letter  as well as managing the myriad of details around all the fall activities you’ll find outlined here.

Here’s to leveraging the strength of leadership!