This morning’s Globe & Mail (Canada’s national newspaper) features a practical article (The pep talk – it’s not just talk) on the need for increased communication and engagement during our challenging economic times. The reporter, Wallace Immen, and I talked about this issue a few weeks ago. He pulled together some useful advice. Go to […]
Read post »Hello, Jim. I just read the book from Anthony Robbins “Awaken the Giant Within.” I want to be CEO of computer department some day. I have eleven years experience. I believe I will be a good boss. I learn something new every day. Every day I read books on how to become great person. I’m […]
Read post »A web site visitor described an all too common occurrence today: Our company treats firings and layoff exactly the same. The person being laid off or fired is called to the HR department, given their pink slip, escorted back to their station with an HR person, a hand truck , and boxes. Thirty minutes later […]
Read post »A regular feature of my monthly newsletter, The Leader Letter, has been the section entitled “Thoughts that Make You Go Hmmm….on_____.” Here’s a preview of that section that will appear in the February issue being e-mailed to subscribers next week. “Progress everywhere today does seem to come so very heavily disguised as Chaos.” Joyce Grenfell […]
Read post »The senior manager and support professionals we’ve been working with these days are nervous. There’s a lot of uncertainty and plenty of negativity inside and outside our organizations. As I saw in an offsite executive team retreat I facilitated in January, the biggest danger is that leaders allow themselves to be discouraged, demoralized, and de-energized. […]
Read post »Performance management and coaching is a core leadership skill. During tough times “dumbsizing” or layoffs are used with all the finesse of a neurosurgeon doing brain surgery with a chainsaw (see “Wise Managers Treat Layoffs as Last Resort”). Too many managers don’t have the courage or skill to face performance issues and deal one-on-one with […]
Read post »Just as customers today are demanding “just in time, just for me” from companies, audiences are losing patience with speakers using overly theoretical or purely entertaining approaches. It’s often useful to learn “what’s new.” But it’s even more useful to learn “what’s working.” The most powerful keynote presentations today are well-researched, relevant, and tailored to […]
Read post »I love to get feedback from readers of my books. I especially like to get push-back or hear views from a different angle than I’d intended when I first wrote the section under discussion. A reader of The Leader’s Digest took issue with me including the following Elbert Hubbard quote: “The world bestows its […]
Read post »Some people like to build things with their hands. As Heather can certainly attest to, I didn’t get the handyman gene. My farmer father and my cabinetmaker brother got those. I’ve come to love the creative act of writing. My grandmother was a poet, so that set of genes made me much handier with a […]
Read post »With the auto sector loan package dominating the news, Canada AM (Canada’s major national morning current events show) called me for an interview on what’s needed to turn things around in this critical industry. I have trained and consulted supervisors, managers, and executives across a wide variety of industries over the past 30 years. That […]
Read post »During the darkest times strong leaders shine the brightest. Successful long term investors like Sir John Templeton and Warren Buffet “buy at the point of maximum pessimism.” That’s how they created incredible value and wealth. Successful team and organizational leaders invest in leadership development when it’s most needed. Now’s the time to engage and energize […]
Read post »It’s a crazy time of year . A time for futurists, forecasters, and analysts to line up with seers, fortune tellers, and prophets to gravely tell us what 2009 has in store. Instead of tea leaves, animal entrails, and crystal balls, the “experts” will use data, charts, and complex theories. And they’ll mostly be wrong. […]
Read post »Understanding that a large percentage of people subscribe to my blog via email, I’m going to take a break over the next few weeks. The purpose is twofold. Firstly it will allow me to get into the spirit of the season. And secondly I don’t want to be on the “quick delete” list of emails […]
Read post »Awhile ago I was called for an interview by CKNW radio in Vancouver to talk about the growing Blackberry problem. The BC Legislature has just banned politicians from bringing their Blackberrys into sessions. The timing was perfect. As a seminar leader and facilitator, this is becoming a pet peeve of mine. We have been conducting […]
Read post »The CLEMMER Group has been working with the Canadian division of an internationally owned services business. The company has been in Canada for just ten years and growing very rapidly. Early in our consulting to this company, we started working with them to define and more effectively shape their organizational culture, after one of the […]
Read post »Recently Corporate Meetings & Events magazine asked me to contribute an article responding to the question “How can the speaker’s presentation go beyond leadership theories to provide practical applications for my audience?” Following is my response. I will admit to more than a little bias in providing this advice! If you go to Amazon.com and […]
Read post »A web site visitor from England sent me the following e-mail: “I’m astonished at how good basic common sense reads as a revelation; even more confusing to me, is why it is so difficult for me to share such good practice with managers who are operating with an altogether ‘different’ philosophy and getting it wrong!? […]
Read post »I received an e-mail from a reader who was recently promoted into a process improvement coordinator role working with their management team. He asked me for the right path to begin. The root of this kind of question is what has caused so much of the fad surfing and rigid off-the-shelf programs that have messed […]
Read post »I once asked a manager “how many people work here?” He replied, “About half.” Our subsequent consulting assessment work within his organization showed that he was wrong. He was too optimistic. They had a major commitment crisis. People were disengaged and morale was sinking to new lows. Here are some ways to energize and engage […]
Read post »Many managers are investing huge money in sales and marketing while blindly throwing money at technology and maybe a bit left over for training. Very little serious attention or investments are made in improving the organization’s effectiveness. One of the big imbalances these days is all the marketing money plowed into branding. But if frontline […]
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