A study recently published in Organization Science (“Motivational Spillovers from Awards: Crowding Out in a Multitasking Environment”) reviewed the results of data from an attendance award program at one of five laundry plants in the U.S. Midwest. They concluded: “Reward-motivated employees responded positively to the awards by reducing tardiness, but gamed the system to maintain […]
Read post »A sure path to marital unhappiness — if not divorce — is when a newlywed sets out to change his or her spouse. Yet how many performance management discussions are built on the same premise? Too often managers set about trying to “improve” his or her direct report by fixing weaker areas. How enthused are […]
Read post »Bill Bryson’s book, A Short History of Nearly Everything is an extremely entertaining — at times LOL funny — recap of some of the world’s biggest shifts in scientific understanding. He cites many humorous, and sometimes tragic, examples of prominent scientists who can’t change their thinking despite mounting evidence to the contrary. Here’s an example: […]
Read post »“We all have our boss horror stories. The underminer. The bad communicator. The credit hog. The snake. Then again, if we’re lucky, we’ve all had those amazing bosses as well — the supervisor who encourages all employees to take their work up to the next level; the manager who makes everyone around them look better.” […]
Read post »I’ve used this slide for some time to show a big reason for the 50 – 70% failure rate of organization change and improvement efforts. It shows that many of these common change and improvement initiatives are disconnected and don’t fit together to create a cohesive picture. “Fad surfing in the C Suite” wastes scarce […]
Read post »I was coaching a university vice president who was responsible for student and community relations. In reviewing his 360 assessment we aligned his strengths, passion, and organizational need to identify his “leadership sweet spot.” Strengthening his communication skills from the 75th to the 90th percentile is what he felt would help him elevate his leadership […]
Read post »Antidotes to “6 Dysfunctional Leadership Team Behaviors…“ Make sure everybody in your boat is rowing and not drilling holes when you’re not looking. – Anonymous The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the […]
Read post »Less effective leaders often fall into the either/or trap. Do you want results or teamwork? Do you want happy shareholders or highly engaged employees? Do you want us to hit short-term goals or focus on longer term vision and strategy? Our research clearly shows that extraordinary leaders (top 10%) focus on and/also rather than either/or. […]
Read post »In my recent webinar Executive Team Building and Culture Development I outlined the common failure factors that contribute to the high rate (up to 70%) of failed organizational change efforts. Since a department, division, business unit, or entire organization’s culture ripples out from the leadership team leading it, how the team functions is a vital […]
Read post »Our organizations desperately want and need much stronger leadership and coaching at all levels. But most organizations aren’t significantly improving employee engagement, customer satisfaction, attracting and retaining top talent, succession planning, increasing health and safety, or energizing organization culture. Traditional leadership and coaching skill development methods are producing very little behavior change. Current approaches are […]
Read post »Would you like to: Leverage team and organizational strengths for peak performance Integrate major change efforts and development initiatives Build a foundation for significant and sustained culture change Re-energize and refocus the executive team Build cascading change coalitions and robust implementation infrastructure Last week I delivered a 60 minute webinar on Executive Team Building and […]
Read post »Decades ago pioneering leadership researcher and author, Warren Bennis, declared, “The organizations of the future will increasingly depend on the creativity of their members to survive.” The future is here. Disruptive innovation is destroying and creating whole new industries at a blistering pace. Before experts have finished declaring that something can’t be done or won’t […]
Read post »When I poll audiences for the key performance outcomes their leadership development efforts are aimed at improving, employee engagement gets many of the votes. While many session participants agree that the immediate manager plays an important role in engagement levels, most are surprised by extensive research data showing the influence of the manager on his […]
Read post »I met Chad Hymas years ago when he was a speaker at an executive retreat I was facilitating. He was putting his life back together after a devastating accident that left him a quadriplegic. Chad’s an inspiring speaker on overcoming obstacles and making the most of tough circumstances life may have handed us. How he […]
Read post »In his 1973 book Reflections on the Human Condition, social philosopher, Eric Hoffer wrote, “In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.” How true that’s proven to be over the past few decades. If […]
Read post »This July will be the fifth Zenger Folkman annual leadership summit I’ve attended. These are powerfully condensed learning opportunities providing unique opportunities to: Gain deep insights and experiences from top global leaders in talent development Learn about the latest research on leadership, coaching, and culture development Participate, evaluate, or become certified in multiple award winning […]
Read post »Many succession planning processes involve identifying and developing high potential leaders. As with promising amateur athletes working to secure very scarce spots at the professional level of their sport, not every leader considered to have strong potential grows in their career to ever higher leadership roles. Through our evidence-based approaches to identifying key leadership skills […]
Read post »There are many reasons leadership teams allow their priorities to be badly distorted. Things that matter most — team dynamics, key strategic priorities, and organization change and development efforts — are often crowded out by things that matter least — the crisis du jour or technical problems better solved by those closest to the action. […]
Read post »Traditional assessments and needs analysis look for gaps. And most 360 feedback tools focus on finding and fixing weaknesses. This often leads to: Participants feeling beat up by feedback reports Negative response or avoidance of 360 multi-rater feedback tools Erosion of confidence Defensiveness and fear of making mistakes Data denial and feedback phobia Working on […]
Read post »Most safety problems have deadly or life altering consequences. That’s especially true in healthcare organizations. Medical errors, quality of care, and infection rates are clear examples. In a recent study published by the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Martin Makary, professor of surgery and health policy and management at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, […]
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