This week I am at the beautiful and inspiring Sundance Ranch in Utah at Zenger Folkman’s Extraordinary Leadership Summit, learning about innovative new research and approaches for developing extraordinary leadership. At the same time, the London Olympics are inspiring us with powerful examples of extraordinary athleticism and the pursuit of excellence. Zenger Folkman’s research shows […]
Read post »A key reason The CLEMMER Group has partnered with Zenger Folkman is their research-based and highly practical leadership development systems. An outstanding example of that is in their book, The Extraordinary Coach: How the Best Leaders Help Others Grow. Two years ago I reviewed the book and declared it the best on this vital leadership […]
Read post »I’ve just read an advance copy of Zenger Folkman’s new book, How to Be Exceptional: Drive Leadership Success by Magnifying Your Strengths. It’s an outstanding — it really is exceptional — leadership book co-authored by four of Zenger Folkman’s top executives. In upcoming blogs I’ll review and draw from How to Be Exceptional. Next week […]
Read post »Just after we announced our new relationship with Zenger Folkman a reader sent me an e-mail inquiry that directly hit an issue Zenger Folkman has researched: “Do you have any suggestions on how to promote and get buy in from employees regarding productivity standards? Any suggestions or resources you could give would be appreciated.” Getting employee […]
Read post »As a leadership geek my idea of weekend relaxation is cruising Internet sites for research, insights, and perspectives on culture and leadership development. I’ll often post these to my LinkedIn profile which also links to Twitter and my Facebook profile . If you’re not already connected to me on LinkedIn please send me an invitation to […]
Read post »So far this year my blog posts with the biggest reader response concerns the nonsense we keep hearing about generational differences. My first post was We Need Less Generational Nonsense and More Leadership. Last month I posted a follow up blog on More on Less Generational Nonsense. In response to that last blog, Rande Matteson, […]
Read post »This spring I blogged about the firestorm of debate Jack Zenger and Joe Folkman ignited with their March Harvard Business Review blog post, “Are Women Better Leaders than Men?” Their research was based on a recent survey of 7,280 leaders. The study reinforced some long held beliefs and uncovered a few surprises in the gender […]
Read post »We’ve just finalized a Strategic Partnership with Zenger Folkman (www.zengerfolkman.com). After so many years of successful partnering with Jack Zenger at his previous company (he headed up Zenger Miller when I was a partner in The Achieve Group), I am quite excited to be working with him and his colleagues again. Their foundation program is […]
Read post »Later this month, the 2012 Summer Olympic Games get underway in London, England. The games certainly do have their detractors and a history of controversy, violence, and scandal. But more importantly, the games are an inspiring tribute to healthy competition, international cooperation, and the pursuit of exceptional performance. Dawn Fraser, gold medal Australian swimmer at […]
Read post »This week marked celebrations of the creation of two countries. Canada Day was July 1 and Americans celebrated Independence Day on July 4. Both countries broke away from British rule. Canada was formed by evolution and America by revolution. It’s a good time to look at a few thoughts on the role of change champions […]
Read post »A past Client and long time subscriber sent me an e-mail recalling the successful work we’d done together years ago. He was at the centre of the work we and the CEO were doing on culture and leadership development. They went on to become named as a Top 100 Employer. Part of his e-mail focused […]
Read post »Earlier this month, Nik Wallenda made his record-breaking walk right across roaring Niagara Falls from the U.S. to Canada. With wind blowing mist around him and the wire dripping wet, he descended and ascended the sloping cable. It was high definition, nail biting, heart pounding, suspense that left Heather and I feeling weak-kneed as we […]
Read post »I love e-books. Availability in a Kindle version is now one of the main criteria I use when deciding what books to read. Being able to read a book on my computer, Playbook, or Blackberry is much more convenient than lugging around a physical book or magazine/newsletter/newspaper. Making notes, highlighting, and copying passages in my […]
Read post »Lead by example is a management cliché. Most executives mouth the words. But many executives don’t appreciate how their behaviors set the upper limits for any core value they’re trying to build their culture around. Too often the espoused values are what the top tells the middle to do for the bottom. Ethics and honesty […]
Read post »If you’re a father I hope you enjoyed Father’s Day and were treated like a king. I tried to get our three kids — although they’re now in the twenties and hardly kids anymore — to give me the gift of laughing at all my Dad Jokes all day long. But they would not groan […]
Read post »I am fed up with the continuing stream of unsubstantiated psychobabble about how younger generations need to be managed so much differently than previous generations. This usually comes from, or is spouted by “experts” to, mediocre managers who aren’t inspiring leaders. In their solidly researched book, The Inspiring Leader, Jack Zenger and Joe Folkman provide […]
Read post »June’s issue of The Leader Letter was published last week with a series of my May blogs on customer service (the opening story on Where’s Your Culture on the Customer-Cattle Continuum?, “Want to Improve Customer Service? Treat Your Employees Better“, “American Express Boosts Customer Service with Transformed Leadership and Culture“, and “Delightful Dell Service Shows […]
Read post »I recently had a conversation with a vice president about the pressing challenges she’s facing in her division with priority overload. She was looking at bringing her management team to our Leading @ the Speed of Change: Transforming Personal, Team, and Organization Performance public workshop. We decided to tailor a session for her group that […]
Read post »I was just on a flight from Toronto to LaGuardia airport in New York City. Severe thunderstorms caused us to be diverted to nearby Newark, New Jersey. The captain kept us updated along the way. Once we’d landed in Newark he came into the cabin and asked who would like to get off here and […]
Read post »To deal with all the tumultuous change swirling around us today many executives rearrange their organizational structure. This seems to be an especially favorite approach of a new executive taking over a division, department, or organization. It’s almost routine when there’s been a major organization financial failure or big public blunder. But as with all […]
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