As a gardener, I love this time of year. My office looks over our back gardens. After looking at a brown, dead landscape for the past months, the garden is alive with spring flowers and vigorous green growth. The 19th-century British theologian and essayist, John Henry Newman once said, “Growth is the only evidence of […]
Read post »As posted last week, Aaron Beck pioneered the field of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). This approach was a major change to helping depressed patients focus on underlying negative beliefs. It upended traditional psychoanalytical theory and opened up a powerful new field of treatment. University of Pennsylvania psychology professor, Martin Seligman built on CBT theories and […]
Read post »The use of 360 degree assessments has exploded in the past few decades. They’re now widely available in a bewildering variety of tools used for leadership development, executive coaching, performance management, personal growth, etc. Do a Google search on variations of 360 degree feedback, assessment, or tools and go shopping among millions of options. The […]
Read post »Erin (not her real name) is a rising high potential director now reporting to a new VP. He was hired from the outside with a mandate to revitalize their department. Erin is upset and struggling. The personal values and leadership approaches that made her so effective were seen as too soft and not results-focused enough […]
Read post »“I hate all this change. Why can’t things just stay the same?” Dirk shouted angrily at the TV news anchor. He threw a pillow at the TV screen and clicked it off with a snort. Suddenly a hissing noise arose from the corner of the room and green, shimmering mist filled the air. Dirk stood […]
Read post »The evening before a speaking engagement in Vancouver, I was in a hotel room on the 37th floor overlooking Stanley Park, English Bay, and The Lion’s Gate Bridge. After a pleasant dinner with a friend, I returned to my room. The sun was setting on a beautiful, warm spring evening. Wanting to enjoy the view, […]
Read post »Since the mid-sixties, there have been a large number of experiments with animals and people revealing that helplessness can be a conditioned or learned response. An early experiment with learned helplessness was demonstrated with rats. When they were put directly in ice water, they could swim around for forty to sixty hours. But if the rats were […]
Read post »The founder of MacDonald’s hamburger chain, Ray Kroc, was well known for his motto, “when you’re green you’re growing, when you’re ripe you rot.” May is a great time for us in the Northern Hemisphere to reflect on whether we’re greening ourselves with new growth or stagnating and decaying. Once again this spring I’ll be […]
Read post »I recently awoke to a pleasant surprise in my e-mail. I’ve been included on a list of the world’s "top 30 most influential leadership gurus." I am especially honored to be in the company of leaders that I’ve learned so much from, such as Warren Bennis, Tom Peters, Ken Blanchard, Jim Collins, Stephen Covey, Marshall […]
Read post »A reader recently sent me a lengthy e-mail raising questions dealing with age and organizational culture. Here’s the essence of it: "My daughter is a youthful 29 years old (and short which doesn’t help!) working in the financial services industry. Over the past four years she has done very well with a few promotions. Her […]
Read post »A reader responded to a blog question about executive teams I raised in a January post ("Have you fallen and can’t get up?") with a story of how she has personally fallen, and is having trouble getting up. She leads a group of experts in a professional organization who are extremely disdainful of her and […]
Read post »February was named after the Latin term februum meaning purification. In the old Roman calendar the purification ritual, Februa, was held on February 15. Some historians also connect the Latin word for fever, febris, with purification or purging from the sweating common with fevers. This medieval painting, “Fevrier” (February), was for an illustrated manuscript in […]
Read post »As we scurry madly into the Holiday Season, the year-end retrospectives are beginning. It’s time to look back on what was and ahead to what can be. This is also what highly effective – and disciplined – management teams do so much more regularly that their mediocre peers. Many management teams have a limited or […]
Read post »Like finding a $20 dollar bill in the pocket of a jacket you haven’t worn for a while, it’s always delightful to rediscover inspirational gems. Over the past few weeks I’ve been working with a very progressive and delightful Client to finalize a two-day management training workshop we’ve been customizing for their senior and middle […]
Read post »September starts a new school year in the Northern Hemisphere. Perhaps you or people close to you are entering a new phase of academic life this month. It’s often a time of stress and excitement, anticipation and trepidation, or of endings and new beginnings. Our education systems are tiered with steps and stages that lead […]
Read post »Recently I was working with a group of managers in a large, complex organization that was going through big changes. There was lots of learned helplessness, victim thinking, and riding the Bitter Bus into Pity City. As we challenged each other and explored our fundamental choice to lead, follow, or wallow we discussed the implications […]
Read post »As a follower of my work, you likely know that we’ve built a very large web site over the past 15 years. The biggest contents areas are over 300 articles, hundreds of blog postings, and over 85 issues of The Leader Letter. It’s a good thing I love to write or this would really feel […]
Read post »Now that the writing, publishing, and launch of my latest book Growing @ the Speed of Change is through its busiest phase, I am able to spend more time indulging my passion for reading. I generally have a novel of historical fiction, a book on spiritual/philosophical/meditation, and one or two personal growth/leadership/organization effectiveness books on […]
Read post »Given the popularity of my Thriving in Turbulent Times webcast on December 3rd (over 550 sites tuned in), I am partnering with the Canadian Society for Training and Development (CSTD) to bring you another fast-paced hour of ideas, inspiration, and how-to applications on developing leadership skills on February 12th. In this unique and rare webcast, […]
Read post »Right around now, many people who resolved to make positive changes this year are floundering. It’s easy to get pulled down by a few slips off our intended path. Pick up a cup of water or coffee and estimate how heavy it is. Now hold it straight out sideways at shoulder height. How much heavier […]
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