This month is the first anniversary of our strategic partnership with Zenger Folkman. Last August I kicked off that inaugural partnership issue with excitement about “a new era beginning” and our first attendance at Zenger Folkman’s 3rd Annual Extraordinary Leadership Summit at Sundance Ranch in Utah. Discussion of a potential strategic partnership between The CLEMMER […]
Read post »Joe Folkman’s latest Forbes column, “Exceptional Leaders: Are they the Friend or the Enemy?“, provides yet more of his research on the incredible multiplying power of leaders who are BOTH likable and demanding. Finding synergy where others see contradictions is proving to be a key element in highly effective leadership. “The opposite of a correct […]
Read post »In preparing for Zenger Folkman’s Client conference next week in Park City, Utah, I reread “Making Yourself Indispensible” by Jack Zenger, Joe Folkman, and Scott Edinger published in Harvard Business Review. Reading this landmark article nearly two years ago was one of the key steps in taking a closer look at Zenger Folkman’s revolutionary leadership […]
Read post »Over the past few months we’ve been writing about the profound payoffs of leader likability. Our research clearly shows that likability correlates directly with a leader’s effectiveness and the results he or she produces (see “Demanding Leaders Are Much More Effective – and More Likable” ). So how can a leader increase his or her […]
Read post »We’re approaching a crisis point in succession planning and building leadership depth. The 2008 financial crash caused many leaders approaching retirement to put off their plans as their retirement funds sank. Organizations delayed or stopped leadership development as they switched into survival mode. Organizations are now waking up to an urgent new focus on building […]
Read post »Trust is a very slippery concept to grasp. Everyone agrees it’s vital to leadership. But what are its core components? And what are the steps to building trust? If a leader in our Extraordinary Leader Development System is rated as trustworthy but wants to be ranked in the 10% of leaders on trust, how does […]
Read post »I’ve delivered hundreds of leadership workshops over the past few decades. Until our partnership with Zenger Folkman, these sessions were based on “timeless leadership principles” that encouraged participants to build their improvement plans around the weaker areas to round out and expand their leadership skills. That meant focusing on weaknesses. Last week I delivered another […]
Read post »A few months ago in Charismatic Leadership is Vastly Overrated I quoted from a European study published in Sloan Management Review on the downside of charisma. I also quoted Good to Great author, Jim Collins, reporting on his findings that charisma can be more of a leadership liability than an asset. Despite the mounting proof […]
Read post »If you’re interested in dramatically boosting personal, team, or organization leadership and coaching skills there’s an incredibly rare opportunity you’ll want to seize this summer. And you could combine this powerful Leadership Summit with vacation and leisure time in picturesque Park City — one of Utah’s top tourist destinations favoured by entertainment stars during Robert […]
Read post »For years we have been warned that our labor force will be seriously affected by the aging baby-boom generation. As the years pass, however, it is becoming clear that the threat is not just the baby-boomers retiring. It is much broader. As organizations continue to experience turnover, restructuring, changes in business strategy, and market volatility, […]
Read post »Last week’s blog on You Are Here: Multiple Feedback Points Locates our Leadership Skills described the work we’re currently doing introducing hundreds of leaders at one company to the groundbreaking new approach of strengths-based leadership development. As we continue to use only self-assessments to discuss leadership strengths we’re seeing an overwhelming interest in getting much […]
Read post »The American Society for Training and Development recently asked 10 “of the biggest names in the industry” to weigh in on the past, present, and future of the profession. ASTD’s conclusion from this input was “the need for skills development, the importance of learning and development, and the link between employee performance and organizational success […]
Read post »My last blog looked at using multi-rater feedback to pinpoint our leadership location. This is proving to be twice as accurate as self-assessment in identifying leadership strengths that we can magnify toward exceptional leadership. Not only does feedback help leaders build strengths — or identify fatal flaws that could derail their career — asking for […]
Read post »We’re currently facilitating a customized version of The Extraordinary Leader development sessions with hundreds of supervisors and managers in an organization using just self-assessments. Executives in this company had very negative past experiences with using 360 feedback assessments. They agreed that those experiences came from the all too common weaknesses-based approach grounding most 360 feedback […]
Read post »Leadership likability has many meanings. And the implications go much deeper than whether a leader has lots of “Like” button clicks. Zenger Folkman’s research shows that leaders who score high on the Likability Index are also rated as being highly effective leaders by their direct reports, peers, manager, and others. These ratings correlate to sharply […]
Read post »Soundview Executive Book Summaries has released a summary of Zenger Folkman’s new book, How to Be Exceptional: Drive Leadership Success by Magnifying Your Strengths. The summary covers: • How to pinpoint your best leadership traits and choose the right development target for yourself. • How to use feedback and action learning on the job to […]
Read post »“I don’t care about being liked, I just want to be respected,” is a statement repeated by many less than extraordinary leaders. Trapped in either/or thinking, these narrowly-focused leaders often push hard for results while leaving a trail of damaged relationships and enervated people scattered behind them. Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg, is perpetuating a related […]
Read post »Last week’s two blogs reviewing and excerpting Joe Folkman’s book The Power of Feedback drew very positive reader responses. One wrote, “‘I’d like to give you a little feedback’ really does send a shiver up my spine! Eeek! I am going to read this book because I need to change my mindset.” The reader went […]
Read post »“The only people who are truly incompetent are those who refuse to listen to and accept feedback from others.” “People do not give equal attention to all attributes. Some characteristics count more than others. Understanding which characteristics are most critical is an essential element in bringing about change.” “Small changes in specific areas can have […]
Read post »“I’d like to give you a little feedback” sends shivers up the spine of many people. Sometimes prefaced by a cursory point or two on our strengths or what we did well, most of the feedback centers on what we’ve done wrong or on fixing our weaknesses. Rather than benefiting from the power of feedback, […]
Read post »