How can the absence of ill-being equal the presence of well-being? Does lessening unhappiness increase happiness? Does getting what is good in life require more than eliminating what is bad? These are among the key questions researcher and professor, Martin Seligman, tackles in his inspiring and insightful new memoir, The Hope Circuit: A Psychologist’s Journey […]
Read post »Greek mathematician, Euclid, was hired to teach geometry to a young, impatient Egyptian heir to the throne. The prince was an unmotivated student. He especially resisted learning basic formulas and theories before getting into practical applications. “Is there no simpler way you can get to the point?” he asked. “As the crown prince I should […]
Read post »Years ago I reported to Harold, a leader who proudly described his MBE approach — “management by exception.” “If you haven’t heard from me, that’s a good sign,” he explained. “That means I think you’re doing just fine. I only deal with the exceptions. I look for problems and people that need correcting. Those are […]
Read post »What percent of time do you or your leaders spend among these three areas: Solving technical problems or applying your technical expertise? Using data and analytical skills, sending/receiving e-mails, planning, directing, and decision making? Talking individually or collectively with people inside and outside your organization, coaching, developing, and inspiring action? Have you lost your balance? […]
Read post »Recently I was coaching, “John,” a very successful entrepreneur who’d built his company from a small to mid-sized player in their industry. His goal was to become one of the major companies in their market. We were reviewing his 360 assessment report. Feedback from 21 direct reports, peers, and others rated him very high in […]
Read post »Would you like to: Increase employee engagement by up to 8 times? Double/triple leader’s motivation to implement a personal development plan? Build coaching and leadership skills around natural strengths? Make performance appraisals an inspiring event people look forward to? Double rates of improvement from 360 feedback? Sounds farfetched, I know. It might even sound like […]
Read post »Last month I delivered a 45 minute webinar on Essential Elements of Leadership, Coaching, and Culture Development (click the link to review the archived session). This was followed by 15 minutes of audience Q & A. Here a few more good questions I wasn’t able to get to in our brief time together: Q: Is […]
Read post »About 10 years ago we customized a series of leadership training workshops for a large company. Over the next few years nearly 1,000 supervisors and managers went through the two-day workshops. Ratings were high and participants reported numerous positive outcomes and benefits from attending. However, senior executives didn’t participate and we weren’t able to get […]
Read post »Where’s summer gone already? July and August seem to move at a much higher speed than the rest of the year. I hope you’ve had some downtime to rest and recharge before heading into a busy fall. As I wrote in “Does Your Leadership Team Need Strategic Focus?“, fall is a popular time for leadership […]
Read post »Last month I participated in the 3rd Canadian Conference on Positive Psychology in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. Having attended the first Canadian conference at the University of Toronto in 2012, and avidly following all the research, articles, and books in this burgeoning new field I found the conference lived up to their theme “Exhilarate 2016 – Learn […]
Read post »For the past few decades I’ve followed the ground-breaking work of Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania. Based on his extensive research, articles and books, and his 1998 term as elected president of The American Psychological Association he’s now considered the founder of the burgeoning new field of positive psychology. This is defined as […]
Read post »Would you like to help your leaders increase employee engagement by up to 8 times, double or triple their motivation to implement a personal development plan, build coaching and leadership skills around natural strengths, make performance appraisals an inspiring event people look forward to, and double rates of improvement from 360 feedback? As farfetched as […]
Read post »Bill Bryson’s book, A Short History of Nearly Everything is an extremely entertaining — at times LOL funny — recap of some of the world’s biggest shifts in scientific understanding. He cites many humorous, and sometimes tragic, examples of prominent scientists who can’t change their thinking despite mounting evidence to the contrary. Here’s an example: […]
Read post »“We all have our boss horror stories. The underminer. The bad communicator. The credit hog. The snake. Then again, if we’re lucky, we’ve all had those amazing bosses as well — the supervisor who encourages all employees to take their work up to the next level; the manager who makes everyone around them look better.” […]
Read post »I was coaching a university vice president who was responsible for student and community relations. In reviewing his 360 assessment we aligned his strengths, passion, and organizational need to identify his “leadership sweet spot.” Strengthening his communication skills from the 75th to the 90th percentile is what he felt would help him elevate his leadership […]
Read post »Our organizations desperately want and need much stronger leadership and coaching at all levels. But most organizations aren’t significantly improving employee engagement, customer satisfaction, attracting and retaining top talent, succession planning, increasing health and safety, or energizing organization culture. Traditional leadership and coaching skill development methods are producing very little behavior change. Current approaches are […]
Read post »This July will be the fifth Zenger Folkman annual leadership summit I’ve attended. These are powerfully condensed learning opportunities providing unique opportunities to: Gain deep insights and experiences from top global leaders in talent development Learn about the latest research on leadership, coaching, and culture development Participate, evaluate, or become certified in multiple award winning […]
Read post »We’ve recorded a webinar on Executive Team Building and Culture Development that you can access in our archive now. Here’s what we cover: Strategic Organization/Culture Development: Building a common understanding/framework for leading change Leadership is an action, not a position: Developing a culture with leaders at all levels Balancing “hard” management systems/processes with “soft” leadership/people […]
Read post »As the name implies, an effective keynote presentation condenses key ideas from broad topics to its core essence. Memorable keynote presentations that connect and “stick” with audiences spice these points with humor. This “edutaining” combination is powerful. It’s often one of the big differences between dry presenters strangling their audiences through “death by PowerPoint” and […]
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 […]
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