With the eyes of the world on South Africa for the 2010 FIFA World Cup there have been many media stories on the remarkable progress of the country since abolishing Apartheid in 1994. Last Saturday night Heather and I were looking for a movie to watch at home. We happened upon Invictus starring Morgan Freeman […]
Read post »Recently I was working with a group of managers in a large, complex organization that was going through big changes. There was lots of learned helplessness, victim thinking, and riding the Bitter Bus into Pity City. As we challenged each other and explored our fundamental choice to lead, follow, or wallow we discussed the implications […]
Read post »A fascinating and fast paced five minute video has been making the rounds at a few conferences where I’ve been speaking recently. Entitled Shift Happens: Did You Know? the video uses a series of statistics and examples to show the accelerating pace of change creating our turbulent times. Here are a few shift disturbing examples: […]
Read post »As a follower of my work, you likely know that we’ve built a very large web site over the past 15 years. The biggest contents areas are over 300 articles, hundreds of blog postings, and over 85 issues of The Leader Letter. It’s a good thing I love to write or this would really feel […]
Read post »I’ve written quite a lot about coaching as a central leadership task. The CLEMMER Group is getting ever deeper into developing and delivering customized coaching workshops, competency models, performance management systems, and the like. I have over 300 citations, quotations, and research papers filed under coaching in my research database. Here are a few: “You […]
Read post »I absolutely love this book. It’s a unique combination of solid research, relevant and illustrative examples, with lots of practical how-to applications. I don’t know Kathleen but I’ve worked with Jack on and off since 1981. You can read more about our relationship from my blog post “Reconnecting with Jack Zenger as Guest Blogger: ‘The […]
Read post »Recently I was a panelist at our local Chamber of Commerce Young Professionals meeting. Each of us on the panel was asked to give 10 minutes of reflections to the young professionals starting their careers on “I wish I knew then, what I know now.” This was followed by a very spirited and lively question […]
Read post »The pace is frenzied – even desperate – in most organizations today. Restructuring, revamping IT systems, and reengineering processes are just a few of the major initiatives driving big changes across organizations. At departmental levels projects, goals and objectives, and operational bottlenecks expand exponentially. Add with today’s 24/7, always on and always connected technology, all […]
Read post »For gardeners like me, June in Southern Ontario is the peak of the season. Everything is lush, green, colourful, and fragrant. All the hard work of spring preparation and last year’s perennial planting is now paying off. “Servant Leadership” is the theme of the June issue of The Leader Letter being published tomorrow. So here’s […]
Read post »Last month Return on Performance magazine asked me to respond to a series of questions on motivating employees to attract new customers in a recovering economy for their “Winning Tips” section. My responses below reflect many of the internal service and servant leadership themes found throughout my work – and this month’s issue. Ask yourself… […]
Read post »I am glad to see that last month’s newsletter (The Leader Letter) theme of spring clean up, To-Stop lists, busyness, and The Acceleration Trap touched a nerve with many readers. It’s a complex, multi-layered, and very serious problem at personal, team, and organizational levels. Following are some thoughtful reflections and observations on the topic: “I […]
Read post »Jack Zenger is one of those very special people whose work and personal relationship has had a big impact on my career. And he’s a wonderfully warm human being and all around nice guy. As co-founder and president of California-based Zenger Miller, Jack and his organization developed outstanding leadership training programs that my previous company, […]
Read post »The first week of May I facilitated a large (130 participants) four-day leadership development and planning “Advance” for Aga Khan University (AKU) at the Great Rift Valley Lodge in Kenya. I have never been to Africa before. It was an extraordinary and eye-opening trip. A big highlight was working with a group of exceptional leaders […]
Read post »My last post looked at a common cause of poor internal or external customer service rooted in not seeing – or hearing – customers in 3D. A major contributor to this problem, and the resulting “functional chimneys,” is management’s failure to listen to the needs of service teams and their individual contributors. “If you don’t […]
Read post »3D is all the rage today. Movies like Avatar take us to a new level of realism. TV manufacturers are furiously announcing new 3D systems. Apple has reportedly filed patents for special 3D glasses technology. Adding the third dimension of depth to a movie brings us up close and puts us into the action. Are […]
Read post »Recently, I was approached by a misguided manager looking for training and motivation programs to “fix” their frontline service staff. This is a fairly wide spread and common problem showing a lack of understanding about basic customer service cause and effect. And it’s focused on treating symptoms rather than the underlying disease. How reasonable would […]
Read post »We’ve recently run into another wave of problems with implementing new organizational computer systems. In one case, the term “change management” became a derogatory euphemism for having inflexible and ineffective systems forced on divisions and departments. When frontline staff pointed out deficiencies with the system and how it caused problems for customers – and most […]
Read post »There’s an epidemic of frantic busyness, multi-tasking, project overload, way too many goals, and tyranny of the urgent. An old folk saying reminds us “the hurrier I go the behinder I get.” A theme running through many recent blog postings has been the critical need to be more focused, disciplined, and strategic with our personal, […]
Read post »As I was preparing to facilitate a senior management team retreat and planning session I came across an excellent Harvard Business Review article on the huge problem of frantic busyness and priority overload. This was especially timely since the executive team was debating how they’ll deal with a long list of urgent projects, goals, and […]
Read post »Now that we’re a few months into a new decade, has the pace of change slowed down for you or your organization? Not very likely! Constant change is constantly with us for some time to come. Like the earth’s tectonic plates continuously grinding against each other, change is often produced with a massive earthquake-like shift. […]
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