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 […]
Read post »“This instinctive need for what we don’t yet have creates in us a persistent state of dissatisfaction. Without it, our ancestors would always be only one failed hunting session away from starvation…unhappiness is nature’s way of keeping people on their toes. It’s a crude system, but it has worked for thousands of years.” “Studies show […]
Read post »With the rapid growth of Positive Psychology there’s been an explosion in books on happiness. Amazon lists 100,000 books on the topic! I lean heavily toward personal, leadership, or organization development books that are evidence-based. Neil does cite some research and many of his approaches align well with the emerging science of well-being. What sets […]
Read post »As we heard at last month’s Canadian Positive Psychology Association conference, strengths-based approaches are rapidly spreading across fields of personal growth/development, education, leadership, organization effectiveness, community building, coaching, counseling, and others. In our field of leadership/organization development we’re hearing more talk about strengths-based tools and techniques. But we’re often not talking about the same thing […]
Read post »Last month I participated in the 3rd Canadian Conference on Positive Psychology in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. Having attended the first Canadian conference at the University of Toronto in 2012, and avidly following all the research, articles, and books in this burgeoning new field I found the conference lived up to their theme “Exhilarate 2016 – Learn […]
Read post »Many managers see people as they are, and treat them according to what they see. Outstanding coaches, however, see people as they could be, and work to grow that potential. If you buy a little goldfish and keep it in a small bowl it will remain no bigger than a few inches long. Move that […]
Read post »“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” These are a few lines of a poem penned by the metaphysical English poet, John Donne, around the time of Shakespeare. Community, interdependence, and oneness has been a central part of many ancient philosophies […]
Read post »Research from our database of 250,000 multi-rater feedback surveys shows huge differences in results produced by leaders rated as having the highest coaching skills. These include 8 times higher levels of employee engagement, over 3 times more willingness to “go the extra mile,” half as many team members thinking about quitting, and dramatically higher levels […]
Read post »The “dark side” of fixing weaknesses is very alluring. Last week I was facilitating our Extraordinary Leader workshop with a group of senior leaders. This was a highly experienced team who were strongly motivated to improve their organization and their own effectiveness. All participants had been through 360 feedback assessments before. Many reported feeling beat […]
Read post »For the past few decades I’ve followed the ground-breaking work of Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania. Based on his extensive research, articles and books, and his 1998 term as elected president of The American Psychological Association he’s now considered the founder of the burgeoning new field of positive psychology. This is defined as […]
Read post »Would you like to help your leaders increase employee engagement by up to 8 times, double or triple their motivation to implement a personal development plan, build coaching and leadership skills around natural strengths, make performance appraisals an inspiring event people look forward to, and double rates of improvement from 360 feedback? As farfetched as […]
Read post »A sure path to marital unhappiness — if not divorce — is when a newlywed sets out to change his or her spouse. Yet how many performance management discussions are built on the same premise? Too often managers set about trying to “improve” his or her direct report by fixing weaker areas. How enthused are […]
Read post »“We all have our boss horror stories. The underminer. The bad communicator. The credit hog. The snake. Then again, if we’re lucky, we’ve all had those amazing bosses as well — the supervisor who encourages all employees to take their work up to the next level; the manager who makes everyone around them look better.” […]
Read post »I was coaching a university vice president who was responsible for student and community relations. In reviewing his 360 assessment we aligned his strengths, passion, and organizational need to identify his “leadership sweet spot.” Strengthening his communication skills from the 75th to the 90th percentile is what he felt would help him elevate his leadership […]
Read post »Innovation clearly sets organizations apart. It’s key to inventing our future. But how do you cultivate innovation in leaders and teams?
Watch webinar »Decades ago pioneering leadership researcher and author, Warren Bennis, declared, “The organizations of the future will increasingly depend on the creativity of their members to survive.” The future is here. Disruptive innovation is destroying and creating whole new industries at a blistering pace. Before experts have finished declaring that something can’t be done or won’t […]
Read post »Managers play the most important role in creating employee engagement. Building a mini-engagement survey into 360 degree feedback instruments guarantees that managers get personal, confidential data on which they can then take action.
Read whitepaper »Many succession planning processes involve identifying and developing high potential leaders. As with promising amateur athletes working to secure very scarce spots at the professional level of their sport, not every leader considered to have strong potential grows in their career to ever higher leadership roles. Through our evidence-based approaches to identifying key leadership skills […]
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Watch webinar »During these rapidly changing times leadership skills are critical. Yet many studies show a profound dissatisfaction with leadership effectiveness across most organizations. And a vast majority of executives feel their leadership skill development efforts aren’t effective. A major part of the problem is that we’re “seduced by the dark side” of fixing weaknesses or closing […]
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