The pace around The CLEMMER Group these days may not be as frenzied as the U.S. presidential race but some days it feels like it! We’re not out on the campaign trail kissing babies or slinging mud at our opponents. But we have been very busy spreading the word about Zenger Folkman’s revolutionary leadership development approaches while rebranding and refocusing our web site, slide templates, training materials, consulting approaches, and expanding our delivery capabilities (for ZF background see the September issue of The Leader Letter).
I thoroughly enjoyed working with Jack Zenger again after all these years in putting together last month’s Strengths-Based Leadership Development webcast (click on the title for free access to the archived session). Joe Folkman joined us later in the session as we discussed the four factors that make the Strengths-Based Leadership Development System so uniquely powerful and revolutionary. As I’d have expected from a partner of Jack’s, getting to know Joe has been a delight. He’s a unique combination of very deep expertise in psychometrics and a warm and delightful human being with a great sense of humor (he’s even a bit of a ‘Dad Jokester’!)
Tomorrow we publish my September blogs in the October issue of The Leader Letter . Throughout the issue are many of the activities we’re working so hard on pulling together this fall. The two biggest are our complimentary (no charge) October 25 Building Exceptional Leaders executive briefing and panel discussion in Toronto, and our first Extraordinary Leader public workshops on November 13 in Calgary and November 29 in Toronto (hosted by ZF Client Canadian Tire).
If you haven’t already had a look around, you’ll also hear about our newly redesigned website. Hopefully, you’re finding a much easier time navigating the large and ever growing personal, team, culture, and leadership development content all freely available.
I’ve been lost in a steep learning curve over the past few months getting up to speed on Zenger Folkman’s vast and bottomless pool of leadership development research and strengths-based approaches. That part of our frantic pace has been a wonderful state of flow where time has vanished. The sense of alignment and connection with my personal purpose has been the most meaningful I’ve experienced in a very long time. This is clearly where I belong at this point in my life.
We’re at the intersection of powerful and revolutionary research emerging from the new movements of Emotional Intelligence, Positive Psychology, Appreciative Inquiry, and Strengths. These emerging fields are scientifically — and conclusively — showing that we can only flourish by moving away from focusing on what’s wrong, performance gaps, and weaknesses. The evidence for what needs to change and why is growing every day. But there’s been a huge vacuum around how to apply these findings to leadership development.
I feel a growing and profound sense of mission to bring the revolutionary approaches so well developed by Zenger Folkman to Canadian leaders. Join the revolution and lead with strength!
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