Competency models can provide a central framework for defining the skills and behaviors essential to an organization’s success. A well-built competency model provides a strong support structure for leadership development, talent, and performance management. A robust competency model outlines the behaviors needed to create the organization’s desired culture. But how effective is your competency model? […]
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 »Most safety problems have deadly or life altering consequences. That’s especially true in healthcare organizations. Medical errors, quality of care, and infection rates are clear examples. In a recent study published by the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Martin Makary, professor of surgery and health policy and management at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, […]
Read post »A long list of studies shows that 50 – 70% of leadership, culture, and organization change and development efforts fail. For example, a Harvard Business Review article by Michael Beer and Nitin Nohria on “Cracking the Code of Change” concludes, “the brutal fact is that about 70% of all change initiatives fail.” These efforts typically […]
Read post »“I owe, I owe, so off to work I go.” “Work sucks, but I need the bucks.” “I’d rather be fishing/sailing/golfing/…” Surveys show that these phrases express the feelings of a growing number of frontline performers today. Too often these contagious feelings spread throughout a team or organization. How many of these attributes of cynical […]
Read post »360 assessments are now being used by over 85% of larger and leading organizations. As I wrote in “9 Problems with 360 Multi-Rater Assessments” there’s a growing backlash and resistance to their use because they often search for gaps and weaknesses. Our work with Zenger Folkman has shown that 360 data on a leader’s effectiveness can […]
Read post »How many of these points apply to your organization? High “snicker factor” on your vision, values, or mission statements Declining or stagnant employee engagement levels Absenteeism and “mental health days” Difficulty attracting or hanging on to top talent Waning or plateaued Client/Customer satisfaction Resistance to change Weak trust and teamwork Less than stellar service/quality levels […]
Read post »With over 500 sites from many countries tuned to our one hour webcast last week it’s clear that Leading a Peak Performance Culture is a topic with lots of interest. You can now view the full archived webcast by clicking here. During this fast-paced session I gave a high altitude, jet speed overview of a […]
Read post »Wells Fargo is now America’s largest bank by market capitalization. One of Zenger Folkman’s early and largest Clients, the company has been working extensively on leadership and culture development for the past decade. CEO John Stumpf observed, “We always say we could leave our strategic plan on an airplane, somebody could pick it up, and […]
Read post »We are often asked, “What is the one thing a person ought to do to be a better leader and have a more successful career?” While it is difficult to narrow down the list to just one thing, there is one that seems to surface over and over again in our research. That one thing […]
Read post »Many organizations have increased their efforts to strengthen the coaching skills of their supervisors, managers, and executives. That’s because of mounting evidence showing that coaching effectiveness dramatically improves employee engagement, levels of customer satisfaction, productivity, safety, and profitability while reducing turnover, absenteeism, and costs. Coaching skills have an especially vital impact on “volunteerism.” This is […]
Read post »As I wrote in “Perceptions Are a Leader’s Reality” a leader’s impact on others is dramatically increased by the presence of a few towering strengths or sharply reduced by one or two glaring weaknesses. This halo or horns effect was first documented with empirical research by Edward Thorndike, an early 20th century pioneering American psychologist. […]
Read post »After months of searching for just the right executive I am delighted that Brad Smith recently joined our team as Director, Business Development. Brad has nearly twenty years of experience as a trusted advisor in organizational effectiveness, leadership/culture development, learning, career and talent management, consulting, Human Resources, and performance improvement to hundreds of organizations in […]
Read post »Over the years “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” became a clichéd back-to-school assignment. This September, our response is “what vacation?” and “we were extraordinarily busy!” Our biggest news of the summer was A New Era Begins: Our Strategic Partnership with Zenger Folkman. If you were on summer vacation and missed many of my blogs […]
Read post »Over the years I’ve written about how Barrick Gold dramatically improved their safety record. They went from being a typical international mining company with the industry’s sad record of deaths and injuries to one of the leaders in their field. With Courageous Safety Leadership at the center of their major culture change, Barrick reduced total […]
Read post »Last week’s 55 minute archived webcast on Leadership and Culture Development for Higher Health and Safety is now available. During the webcast I covered: Defining Culture Organizational Culture and Safety Performance Fatal Five Failure Factors Culture Transformation Pathways Key Implementation Steps Click on Leadership and Culture Development for Higher Health and Safety to access the […]
Read post »Toronto-based Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA) has just released an excellent new “Career GPS” tool. This online assessment is designed to help HR professionals pinpoint and track their professional development goals. But the first six of eight Domains provides a very useful summary and checklist of the critical “soft skills” everyone in a management position […]
Read post »Over the years that I have been writing The Leader Letter, culture and organization development emerged as a core theme. One of the early OD works was a 640 page text book written by Newton Margulies and Anthony P. Raia entitled Organizational Development: Values, Process, and Technology. On page three they outline these core values […]
Read post »I am continually looking for research linking the “soft skills” of leadership and culture with safety performance. Most safety programs are focused on “hard” or tangible systems and processes like regulations, training, audits, risk assessments, compliance, incident analysis, and the like. Those are critical elements in moving toward zero workplace injuries. The focus of my […]
Read post »Our Linked 2 Leadership group on LinkedIn (connect with me at http://ca.linkedin.com/in/jimclemmer) is having a lively and insightful discussion on the question, “What are the top reasons why cultural transformations fail?” Since the failure rate of organizational change efforts like health and safety, quality, productivity, innovation, customer service, morale/engagement, teamwork, or public sector renewal is […]
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