Part Four of a Series on The Tempting Ten Wallow Words (Click to read Parts One, Two or Three) Following is a condensed scene from Moose on the Table: A Novel Approach to Communications @ Work. The book’s central character, Pete Leonard, is a middle manager in a tech services firm. He reports to […]
Read post »Part Two of a Series on The Tempting Ten Wallow Words (Click to read Part One) A central theme of my fictional story of Pete Leonard in Moose on the Table: A Novel Approach to Communications @ Work was how he gave his power away by acting as if he was powerless. He and his […]
Read post »Doug, the division leader, was angry and frustrated. “I’d like to start by understanding why our current results are so badly below forecast,” Doug said, his moustache quivering slightly. “We’re not even close to hitting our numbers.” Crickets. Chuck studied his shoes. Everyone else became very interested in their notes, coffee mugs, or the water […]
Read post »In his weekly Guardian column, Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley, and author, explained how “Dictators like Putin surround themselves with liars and propaganda. That leads to very bad decisions.” He writes, “Trump, Putin, Xi — these men aren’t stupid. But they […]
Read post »Tomorrow we publish my February blogs in the March issue of The Leader Letter. This issue focuses on bully and bad bosses. The line between a bad boss and a bully boss can be tough to discern. It’s mostly about intentions. Bad bosses often intend to do well — and many times overrate their own […]
Read post »Is this happening in your team? People are texting each other what they really think during a video or conference call The real conversation happens after the meeting or call Your team doesn’t debate all sides of important issues and avoids touchy topics People agree to a plan of action but then do something else […]
Read post »During a retreat with the leadership team of a large healthcare organization, we were running a little behind schedule so I said we’d move fairly quickly through the Responsibility for Choices principle in our leadership discussion. Fortunately, an astute participant piped up with, “Jim, I think we need to talk about our ‘blaming and disclaiming’ […]
Read post »In the wake of two fatal crashes of Boeing’s new 737 Max jets, Harvard Business School professor and author of a new book on creating psychological safety in the workplace, Amy Edmondson, published an article on Boeing and the Importance of Encouraging Employees to Speak Up. She writes, “The accidents and the resulting media attention […]
Read post »André Gide, French writer and Nobel Prize winner for literature said, “The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity.” Sincere hypocrisy came to mind when a workshop participant complained about how badly his manager and their bosses needed that very leadership development session. He said […]
Read post »Most managers proclaim an open door policy. “You can always come and see me about any problems or issues” they say. Or they’ll leave team meetings they’ve chaired believing there aren’t any issues or objections to plans they’ve set since no one spoke up. Before running a Moose-on-the-Table workshop for a management team, I had […]
Read post »Given the overwhelming research on the power of optimism can leaders and teams be too positive? Intuitively we know that’s true. An overly positive view often leads to whitewashing issues as if pretending they don’t exist will make them go away. Over the top optimists often avoid those courageous conversations that address the difficult Moose […]
Read post »May you enjoy a Moose-free Holiday Season! Moose-on-the-table is a concept I’ve written about extensively such as in my “edutaining” fictional book by that title. Around the world I’ve facilitated management teams having courageous conversations about elephants in the room, and kangaroos or camels on the table. The original concept comes from families with significant […]
Read post »Last November I began delivering a series of half-day leadership development workshops (part of their ongoing "management forums" series) for City of Guelph supervisors and managers. This is a rare treat to work with a group of learning leaders just 30 minutes from my home in Kitchener, Ontario. Given our close proximity we pulled out […]
Read post »A recent survey of more than 400,000 employees across various industries by the Corporate Executive Board (CEB) showed that “nearly half of executive teams lack the information they need to manage effectively because employees withhold vital input out of fear that doing otherwise will reflect poorly on them. This restricted information flow can cripple a […]
Read post »I recently joined the LinkedIn group “HR – Organization Development & Training.” Eli Sopow, Special Advisor, Change Management at Royal Canadian Mounted Police, posted the question “can changing behavior change your organization culture?” It was a question at the heart of so much of The CLEMMER Group’s consulting and training work of the last years […]
Read post »I’ve always loved reading. Back in the day, one of my favorite times in elementary school was when our Book of the Month orders arrived. I remember savoring the sharp acrid smell of ink and paper when I first opened my new book (often a Hardy Boys mystery or adventure) and anticipated being carried off […]
Read post »I love working with concepts, the big picture, strategy, and ideas. I’ve also come to really enjoy conceiving, researching, and writing books. I just finished my seventh, Growing @ the Speed of Change: Your Inspir-actional How-To Guide For Leading Yourself and Others through Constant Change which I am really pleased with. It’s my best book […]
Read post »As part of my morning spiritual reading and meditation, I just finished reading the collected works of Joseph Campbell in a delightful little book entitled, Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor. This book set me into deeper contemplation on connecting Campbell’s powerful insights on society’s myths, stories, and symbols with my life journey. As I […]
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 »In what may be a sad sign of our times, I recently received two e-mails from new web visitors/subscribers inside of a few days asking for advice on dealing with a toxic or bad boss. I have written quite a bit about upward leadership and dealing with a bad boss. One of my more comprehensive […]
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