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Tagged with 'leadership'

What Accounts for the Accountability Mess?

  Accountability is highly subjective. Its meaning depends on whether we’re at the giving or receiving end. Many of us have been lashed with the accountability whip wielded by a blundering manager playing “gotcha games.” Often, accountability is a search for who to punish. The Blame Game and finger-pointing turns problem-solving and performance issues into […]

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Don’t Be an Ass in a Lyin’ Skin

  An Ass found a Lion’s skin left in the forest by a hunter. He dressed himself in it, and amused himself by hiding in a thicket and rushing out suddenly at the animals who passed that way. All took to their heels the moment they saw him.  The Ass was so pleased to see […]

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Love Radiates From the Depths of Our Spirit and Meaning

Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to reflect on the power of love and purpose. As mentioned in my top ten life lessons, I’ve written book chapters and about 200 blogs and articles about love. One of those, posted exactly 12 years ago on Valentine’s Day, was Love is at the Heart of Strong Leadership. Highly […]

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What Are the Most Important Lessons You’ve Learned in Life?

  There’s a quick and easy question! How would you answer it? Life lessons are one of 52 questions I’ve been asked weekly since my last birthday almost a year ago. That’s when our daughter, Jen, gifted me a subscription to Storyworth. The service is designed for older family members to answer a weekly question […]

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Earth Tones: We Need a Climate Change of Hope and Optimism

  “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator,” said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at an international climate negotiations conference.   “A recent global survey asked 100,000 16- to 20-year-olds about their attitudes to climate change. More than three-quarters thought the future was frightening, and more than […]

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For the L of It: Living and Leading Above the Line

Too many appointed leaders sit on the line and wait rather than taking the initiative and stepping up to make things happen. They follow someone else’s lead. Some slip down below the line and wallow in hopelessness and pessimism — which they’ll often call “being realistic.” They may be called “leaders” by their position. But […]

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Fear Factor: Hiding Mistakes, Anger/Resentment, and Not Communicating

Last of a Six-Part Series on The Tempting Ten Wallow Words (Links to previous parts below)   Most of the Wallow Words in this series have a common cause. Fear. In the depths of the Great Depression, U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt famously declared in his first inaugural address in 1933, “The only thing we […]

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More, More, More: I Can’t Get No Satisfaction

  Part Five of a Series on The Tempting Ten Wallow Words (Click to read Parts One, Two, Three, or Four)   How much land does a man need? Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy wrote a short story with this title about Pahom, a peasant farmer who was given a chance for free land. Carrying a […]

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I am Not a Born Leader

Part One of a Series on The Tempting Ten Wallow Words Carl Sandburg, the American historian, poet, and novelist who won two Pulitzer Prizes, once said, “There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.” With today’s urgent streams of […]

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Are You a Micromanaging Snoopervisor?

  During a workshop designed to identify Moose-on-the-Table issues, Jon was surprised by the very clear and strong feedback from his organization that his management group weren’t acting as a team. They contradicted each other, waged petty turf battles, and reinforced departmental silos. Jon’s response was like threatening to cut off an infected arm rather […]

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How to Ensure Screen Time isn’t Scream Time

  A growing number of articles and studies feature debates, research, and advice on returning to the office, working from home, and many hybrids. City cores across North American report office occupancy rates far below pre-pandemic levels. Studies such as those featured in Time magazine show empty office tower escalators with the headline Return-to-Office Full […]

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How to Use Intelligent Failure and Controlled Chaos to Strengthen Agility Ability

  In his article on “Crafting Strategy,” McGill University professor and management author, Henry Mintzberg, provides a good example of innovation and organizational learning in high-performing, agile organizations: “Out in the field, a salesman visits a customer. The product isn’t quite right, and together they work out some modifications. The salesman returns to his company […]

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Higher Hiring: Are You Trying to Teach Frogs to Fly?

Once upon a time, a manager had a frog named Fred working on his team. After returning from a strategic planning retreat, he passionately exclaimed to Fred, “We’re going to open an air courier division! I’m going to teach you to fly!” Fred responded, “I can’t fly. I am a frog, not a bird.” Disappointed […]

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Generating Keen Energy That Electrifies a Powerful Culture

Managers often hire consultants to help them solve major organizational problems. The consultant will interview key leaders and staff, run focus groups, and gather input from a variety of sources. Many ideas are sifted through, and the most relevant one presented to management along with the consultant’s recommended action plan. What’s too often a sad […]

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Powering with Passion and Teaming with Energy

  In A Tale of Two Managers: Command versus Commitment, I contrasted two leaders, Denise and Joel. Denise balances management and leadership very effectively. Joel is out of balance with a techno-management approach. He’s the poster boy for making STEMM leadership an oxymoron. Denise uses a collaborative approach to partner with people. She sees people […]

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Do They See the Leader You’re Trying to Be?

An elderly gentleman went to the doctor about a gas problem. “But,” he told the doctor, “it really doesn’t bother me too much. When I pass gas, they never smell and are always silent. As a matter of fact, I’ve passed gas at least 10 times since I’ve been here in your office. You didn’t […]

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Authenticity: To Boldly Grow Our Inner Space

In their book, Learning to Lead, Warren Bennis and Joan Goldsmith, write, “To be authentic is literally to be your own author (the words derive from the same Greek root), to discover your native energies and desires, and then find your own way of acting on them. When you have done that, you are not […]

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A Culture Compass Charting Your Pathway to Peak Performance

For most of my career, I’ve been a “monomaniac on a mission” about integrating change and development efforts within a systemic culture development process. Way too much money and time has been wasted with isolated programs that don’t provide broader context, support, and follow-through. Decades of our experience and countless research studies show the power […]

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Rethink the Link: Strengthening the Customer Service Chain

How reasonable is it to hold a shipping dock worker responsible for the quality of the products in the boxes he or she is shipping? How reasonable is it for managers to hold the final deliverer responsible for the quality of the products or services he or she is delivering? The person on the front […]

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The Times and the Paradigms are a-Changin’

It’s been 60 years since Bob Dylan wrote his iconic song, The Times They Are a-Changin’, heralding the massive societal shifts about to rock the 1960s. We could apply these lines to today’s organizations: Your old road is rapidly agin’ Please get out of the new one If you can’t lend your hand For the […]

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