Throughout my work I’ve quoted extensively from Martin Seligman’s pioneering work in founding the breakthrough field of positive psychology. This is the study of positive emotion, positive character traits, and positive institutions to raise the importance of psychological health around the world. His most recent focus has been on helping people move from enjoying a […]
Read post »Recently we had a web site registration with “ineffective manager” filled in under title. When we sent an e-mail verification to “Tanya’s” e-mail address, we learned she had not registered for access and was mystified as to who did. Our best guess is that one of Tanya’s colleagues or direct reports signed her up in […]
Read post »As shown in the extensive research of our web site section, Focusing on Strengths, we have overwhelming evidence that building strengths is 2 to 3 times more effective than fixing weaknesses, closing gaps, or “rounding out” lower leadership skills. But when a weaker leadership skill crosses the line into fatal flaw territory the “horns effect” […]
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The Conference Board’s recent study on the state of leadership development in Canada shows serious shortcomings and lots of improvement opportunities (see my last blog). The results are also supplemented by interviews with five Canadian organizations that are making a best-in-class impact with their leadership development programs. View the report overview and reviews. Leaders are […]
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The Conference Board of Canada recently published a report summarizing their research on leadership development from a cross section of public and private sector organizations. Participants identified their top leadership development drivers as: addressing declining levels of leadership capacity planning for succession and growing the talent pool engaging and mobilizing employees managing changing demographics and […]
Read post »As I wrote in “Perceptions Are a Leader’s Reality” a leader’s impact on others is dramatically increased by the presence of a few towering strengths or sharply reduced by one or two glaring weaknesses. This halo or horns effect was first documented with empirical research by Edward Thorndike, an early 20th century pioneering American psychologist. […]
Read post »I’ve written extensively about coaching skills development. Many of my leadership books have full chapters on coaching and developing. We have also designed and delivered numerous coaching skills development workshops. Two years before we formed a strategic partnership with Zenger Folkman I reviewed their new book, The Extraordinary Coach: How the Best Leaders Help Others […]
Read post »During one of my workshops we were discussing keys to building responsibility and ownership. One participant told us that he and his wife had their four year old grandson, Tyler, stay overnight at their house. In the morning he came running down the stairs and reported, “Grandma, Grandpa, somebody peed in my bed!” Kids will […]
Read post »Since The CLEMMER Group’s founding in 1994, business, organizational life — our world — has been dramatically changing. Our first programs and services were built around my just published, third book Pathways to Performance: A Guide to Transforming Yourself, Your Team, and Your Organization. Over the next 15 years I wrote four more books that […]
Read post »Have you ever caught yourself saying, “that’s not reality, that’s just their perception”? This is a common trap leaders often fall into when receiving personal feedback or reviewing organizational survey data. We judge ourselves by our intentions. Everyone else assesses our leadership effectiveness by our behavior. That’s a highly subjective evaluation based on what others […]
Read post »After reading my post “Recognition Pitfalls and Traps” a reader sent me an e-mail highlighting two points that resonated most with her: “Employees are like partners, to be listened to and involved in running the organization”; and “Sincere and honest recognition is one of the lowest cost and highly effective ways a leader can inspire […]
Read post »If you want to ask me how you should live your life, I ask you what is the most meaningful thing to you, your raison d’être (reason for existence), and suggest you ally yourself with that (your bliss). – Joseph Campbell: A Fire in the Mind: The Authorized Biography, Stephen Larsen and Robin Larsen …what […]
Read post »As I posted a few years ago in “At What Stage Are You in Your Hero’s Journey?” I drew from Joseph Campbell’s pioneering work on mythology in writing my only work of fiction, Moose on the Table: A Novel Approach to Communications @ Work. Campbell’s life work focused on exploring how religions, philosophies, arts and […]
Read post »International consultant and management author, Ram Charan, wrote a provocative article in the July-August issue of Harvard Business Review. In It’s Time to Split HR he declares “I talk with CEOs across the globe who are disappointed in their HR people.” He goes on to explain that CEOs would like to get the same sort […]
Read post »George Bernard Shaw, the highly creative Irish playwright (he wrote more than 60 plays and won a Nobel Prize in Literature), and founder of the London School of Economics, George Bernard Shaw once declared, “Some people see things as they are and say ‘why?’ I dream things that never were, and say ‘Why not’? Seeing […]
Read post »At this fall’s Canadian Society for Training and Development conference I am delivering a full-day pre-conference workshop on November 11, Powerful New Approaches to Building Extraordinary Leadership and Coaching Skills, and a 90 minute conference session on November 13, Revolutionary Leadership Development that Doubles Learner Motivation. In their eNewsletter CSTD shone “the Speaker Spotlight” on […]
Read post »Last week I delivered a fast-paced webcast addressing the serious talent gap impeding many organizations. As I outlined at the beginning of the webcast, research shows: • 70% of executives think their organization lacks adequate bench strength. • 97% of organizations report serious leadership gaps — 40% say these are severe. • 65 to 75% […]
Read post »Since putting our website online in 1996 it’s grown to 1,900 pages of book excerpts, columns, blogs, articles, videos, webinars, and information about The CLEMMER Group’s programs and services. All of these resources became increasingly difficult to navigate, which was further complicated by a clunky website platform that allowed few options to make navigation easier. […]
Read post »After listening to an angry customer vent his dissatisfaction with the organization’s service, a supervisor replied, “If it’s any consolation to you, we treat our employees worse than we treat our customers.” You’ve heard it said that no one can serve two masters. In too many organizations with their traditional top down hierarchy, that means […]
Read post »How can apathetic or disengaged frontline servers produce happy customers? Some exceptional employee will delight customers despite how they’re treated by their boss or the organization. Most don’t. The vast majority of employees directly reflect the care and service they experience every day in their team or workplace. “The Secret to Delighting Customers? Put Employees […]
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