There are very few strictly “health or safety problems.” But there are many leadership and organizational culture problems that show up in accidents, sickness, absenteeism, conflict, stress, and other symptoms of ineffectiveness. Like incompetent doctors, ineffective managers often make people sicker. Research shows that workers are three times more likely to experience accidents in a […]
Read post »Are you and your team struggling with constant changes in leadership, direction, and priorities? Are customers, other departments, or your senior management demanding more and more of all of you? Are the pressures of life squeezing the joy from your day? Join us online Thursday (December 3 from 1:30 – 2:30 Eastern Standard Time -5:00 […]
Read post »Many organizations are continuing to struggle with today’s economic challenges. But the most corrosive threat to long term organizational health and performance comes from within. With contradictory forecasts from pundits, politicians and other prognosticators, many people are highly stressed about their future. Even companies with strong action plans and solid business models are seeing employees […]
Read post »We are now putting together a 45 – 60 minute complimentary webcast for December 3. This presentation is a look at key concepts and approaches for personal growth and for building leadership up, down, and across an organization. I’ll bring participants my latest research, revised model, and practical approaches from the work I’ve been immersed […]
Read post »Harvard Business Review published a special July/August issue on “Managing in the New World.” One of the many excellent articles in this expanded issue is entitled “Leadership in a (Permanent) Crisis.” The authors state “when the economy recovers, things won’t return to normal – and a different mode of leadership will be required.” They go […]
Read post »As we continue to bounce through turbulent economic times, we often need to be reminded that central to successfully leading and living above the line is deciding how to frame the adversity and challenges we face. “In the final analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of […]
Read post »Last week Tom Egan, Human Resource Services, Service Alberta sent me this e-mail: “Do you have articles on Knowledge Transfer in the public (preferably) or private sector? I am finding out there is a lot on knowledge management but not quite as much for knowledge transfer. What works and what does not. I am looking […]
Read post »Whether it’s across an entire organization or with a local team, culture change is a hot issue these days. For good reason; culture trumps strategy, structure, processes, or technology. We have long defined culture as “the way we do things around here.” A team or organizational culture heavily influences what’s acceptable and unacceptable behavior. And […]
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 »One of our free services allows subscribers to receive a couple of my featured articles every month. We seem to have a wide variety of subscribers ranging from magazine editors who reprint my materials as regular columns or articles, bloggers, internal newsletter editors publishing development material for their employees or association members, large member based […]
Read post »Unpredictable, unexpected, rapid, and even unfair change is rocking governments, businesses, and people worldwide. And the history buff in me finds lots of evidence to show this really isn’t a new trend – and will never stop. There’s no “getting through this crazy period” to some mythical place of stability, or predictable sameness. Whether these […]
Read post »There’s plenty of evidence to show that we’re in the midst of a major world shift. We’re living through another of dozens in a centuries-long line of disruptive pivot points. Part of nature’s rejuvenation is a phase of cleansing and purging. This usually rocks our current frameworks, expectations, and maybe too-comfortable lifestyles. Cleansing and purging […]
Read post »The June issue of my monthly e-newsletter, The Leader Letter, went out last week. In it I included an item from my April 30 blog posting responding to a workshop attendee who read one of my articles with a chart on moving from casual or moderate to intense levels of customer service. She also asked […]
Read post »On May 19 I was interviewed for a one hour teleconference by Shelley MacDougall and Kevin MacDonald. Shelley and Kevin have created a program (mainly for the private club industry) called the Extraordinary Leader. It is a tele-class and web-based community with the focus of developing Extraordinary Leaders. This year-long program is divided into twelve […]
Read post »www.connectitnews.com has been posting a series of my articles on their site. Recently they ran this one: Many Managers Disempower Themselves Many managers unwittingly believe that leadership only comes down from the top. They give away their power by believing that they don’t have any. Read the whole article here. After reading this article, Herb […]
Read post »The April 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review has a short item entitled “How Toxic Colleagues Corrode Performance.” The authors polled several thousand managers and employees from a range of American companies. Here’s what they found is the impact of negative and rude behavior in the workplace: • 48% decreased their work effort • 47% […]
Read post »A positive outcome of these turbulent times is that it’s reminding us to never get too attached to our jobs, “stuff” we’ve accumulated, or circumstance of our lives. It’s all here today and gone tomorrow. I’ve been studying the ancient wisdom of Buddhist philosophy for many years. A key teaching is accepting life’s impermanence and […]
Read post »I just participated in a conference call with a small group of professional speakers and workshop leaders debating the worldwide societal and organizational changes we’re currently experiencing. It was a continuation of the discussion from my April blog posting (“What in the World is Happening Today”) at https://www.clemmergroup.com/blog/?p=697. I have the scars from starting in […]
Read post »A workshop attendee recently visited our web site article library and read “Casual, Moderate, and Intense Levels of Customer/Partner Focus.”. She sent me an e-mail asking for further insights to the intense level of service I highlighted in that chart. She also wanted ideas on how to accomplish this on a smaller scale within a […]
Read post »There’s a growing urgency for everyone to step up and lead up, down, and across all levels of our organizations today. It’s a theme I am hearing a lot more these days. Here’s some powerful research and perspectives on this topic I pulled together in writing my new book, Growing @ the Speed of Change. […]
Read post »