After reading one of my articles entitled “Leaders Take Responsibility for Their Choices” along with a comment from another reader, Heather Bruce posted these reflections: “I agree with Don’s email and the article in our very human tendency to find something or someone to blame! I have found over time that asking myself: ‘what outcome […]
Read post »After a cool and wet spring in much of eastern North America, last week we finally started those lazy, hazy days of summer. Relaxing in a shady spot or sandy beach with a good book sounds pretty good. Since I am an avid reader, and I have just finished writing another book, here are some […]
Read post »It’s finished! After six months of intensive research and writing I’ve sent the manuscript for my latest book, Growing @ the Speed of Change, to be typeset and printed. Of course, I’ll see page layouts and final proofs so many more times until I’ll clearly need some time off on a few long car cruises […]
Read post »Last week’s post included this quote from The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler: “Without cultivating a pliant mind, our outlook becomes brittle and our relationship to the world becomes characterized by fear. But by adopting a flexible, malleable approach to life, we can maintain our composure […]
Read post »One of our free services allows subscribers to receive a couple of my featured articles every month. We seem to have a wide variety of subscribers ranging from magazine editors who reprint my materials as regular columns or articles, bloggers, internal newsletter editors publishing development material for their employees or association members, large member based […]
Read post »Unpredictable, unexpected, rapid, and even unfair change is rocking governments, businesses, and people worldwide. And the history buff in me finds lots of evidence to show this really isn’t a new trend – and will never stop. There’s no “getting through this crazy period” to some mythical place of stability, or predictable sameness. Whether these […]
Read post »As I am finishing the last editing stages of my latest book, Growing @ the Speed of Change, I am running into huge number of speaking and workshop Clients wrestling with massive personal and organizational change. It’s a powerful reaffirmation of the focus and message of this book. And I don’t think it’s just me […]
Read post »There’s plenty of evidence to show that we’re in the midst of a major world shift. We’re living through another of dozens in a centuries-long line of disruptive pivot points. Part of nature’s rejuvenation is a phase of cleansing and purging. This usually rocks our current frameworks, expectations, and maybe too-comfortable lifestyles. Cleansing and purging […]
Read post »The June issue of my monthly e-newsletter, The Leader Letter, went out last week. In it I included an item from my April 30 blog posting responding to a workshop attendee who read one of my articles with a chart on moving from casual or moderate to intense levels of customer service. She also asked […]
Read post »Last week we sent out the Improvement Point below to subscribers. “Despite all the talk – passionate speeches, glossy brochures, clever ads, high tech videos, convincing sales pitches, snappy slogans, strategic plans, and solemn annual reports – the service and quality action delivered by most organizations is mediocre at best.” – from Jim Clemmer’s article, […]
Read post »On May 19 I was interviewed for a one hour teleconference by Shelley MacDougall and Kevin MacDonald. Shelley and Kevin have created a program (mainly for the private club industry) called the Extraordinary Leader. It is a tele-class and web-based community with the focus of developing Extraordinary Leaders. This year-long program is divided into twelve […]
Read post »We’ve been working with Don Ritz, (VP Safety and Health), Bruce Huber (Director, Safety and Health), and their highly dedicated team at Barrick Gold for the past five years. It’s been a real treat because everyone is so deeply committed to building a much safer company in an industry with a bad safety record. During […]
Read post »If you’re confused by the alphabet soup of quality fads over the last 20 years: Quality Assurance (QA), Total Quality Management (TQM), Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI), Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Statistical Process Control (SPC) coupled with Baldrige criteria, Reengineering, Balanced scorecards, and, currently, Six Sigma… and LEAN Six Sigma… and TOYOTA Lean Six Sigma than […]
Read post »In times of uncertainty and upheaval like – we’re now experiencing – we turn to “experts” to tell us what’s going on and what we can expect. Don’t believe a word of what they are uttering. Numerous studies show that expert predictions are wrong. The great British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who led England during […]
Read post »www.connectitnews.com has been posting a series of my articles on their site. Recently they ran this one: Many Managers Disempower Themselves Many managers unwittingly believe that leadership only comes down from the top. They give away their power by believing that they don’t have any. Read the whole article here. After reading this article, Herb […]
Read post »The April 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review has a short item entitled “How Toxic Colleagues Corrode Performance.” The authors polled several thousand managers and employees from a range of American companies. Here’s what they found is the impact of negative and rude behavior in the workplace: • 48% decreased their work effort • 47% […]
Read post »A positive outcome of these turbulent times is that it’s reminding us to never get too attached to our jobs, “stuff” we’ve accumulated, or circumstance of our lives. It’s all here today and gone tomorrow. I’ve been studying the ancient wisdom of Buddhist philosophy for many years. A key teaching is accepting life’s impermanence and […]
Read post »I just participated in a conference call with a small group of professional speakers and workshop leaders debating the worldwide societal and organizational changes we’re currently experiencing. It was a continuation of the discussion from my April blog posting (“What in the World is Happening Today”) at https://www.clemmergroup.com/blog/?p=697. I have the scars from starting in […]
Read post »A workshop attendee recently visited our web site article library and read “Casual, Moderate, and Intense Levels of Customer/Partner Focus.”. She sent me an e-mail asking for further insights to the intense level of service I highlighted in that chart. She also wanted ideas on how to accomplish this on a smaller scale within a […]
Read post »There’s a growing urgency for everyone to step up and lead up, down, and across all levels of our organizations today. It’s a theme I am hearing a lot more these days. Here’s some powerful research and perspectives on this topic I pulled together in writing my new book, Growing @ the Speed of Change. […]
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