My last blog post discussed Dan Tobin’s new book on building a leadership development program. His first chapter deals with identifying your organization’s high-potential talent. Once high potential people are identified, the next question often is whether to tell those rising stars that they’ve been flagged as such and will be developed further. In their […]
Read post »The Danish philosopher, theologian, and psychologist, Søren Kierkegaard once observed, “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t so. The other is to refuse to believe what is so.” For centuries, April 1 has been celebrated in many countries with pranks, hoaxes, and practical jokes. Wikipedia has a fascinating collection […]
Read post »An e-mail inquiry and a Globe & Mail article last week, converged to illustrate the rapidly growing need for organizations to significantly boost their coaching and development skill-building efforts. The Globe & Mail article proclaimed that “a growing number of employees now want a lifetime commitment with one organization.” The piece cites recent studies by […]
Read post »I often poll my audiences to see how many work in or lead an organization that has published a statement of values. Usually about ¾ of the group raises their hands. I then ask a rhetorical question (not asking for hands to be raised) about whether those values have a “high snicker factor” throughout the […]
Read post »What does Toyota’s ongoing recall problems and Tiger Woods’ infidelities have in common? They’re both a great source of material for comedians and late night TV. They are also very expensive, make sensational headlines, and have tarnished stellar brands. But an especially interesting leadership link is how these two big news stories vividly demonstrate today’s […]
Read post »You probably spend large chunks of your day in meetings or on conference calls. That’s especially true if you’re in any sort of management, project, or team leadership role. Whether in person or using communication technology, meetings, conferences calls, or webinars are more important than ever in our increasingly complex and interconnected world. Research clearly […]
Read post »We’ve heard a number of inspiring stories and seen many examples of personal and team excellence during the Vancouver Winter Olympics. “The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur.” – Vince Lombardi “At the winter […]
Read post »During all my decades of studying, personally applying, training, and coaching leadership, I’ve come to appreciate that hope and optimism is a core defining element. Leaders make us hopeful. Whether leading ourselves, our families, our teams, organizations, or countries, when times are darkest true leadership shines brightest. Leaders don’t sugarcoat or avoid facing tough problems […]
Read post »I just got a follow-up e-mail from “Bob”, an internal Industrial Relations/Human Resources professional within one of our larger Clients. He was a participant at a leadership fundamentals workshop I ran in June. Another participant in that session was an extremely vocal and negative supervisor who continually complained about her inability to lead because of […]
Read post »After reading one of my articles entitled “Leaders Take Responsibility for Their Choices” along with a comment from another reader, Heather Bruce posted these reflections: “I agree with Don’s email and the article in our very human tendency to find something or someone to blame! I have found over time that asking myself: ‘what outcome […]
Read post »Keeping frontline staff engaged and energized is a growing problem. The leadership opportunities were just illustrated again last week in a couple of leadership development workshops with supervisors and managers who were frustrated by the low levels of morale and commitment from the staff on the teams they lead. They were quick to point to […]
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