Relationships or Performance?
When relationships matter, process trumps outcome. Leadership does not have to be about relationships or performance, and yet there are circumstances where performance do trump relationships. Great...
View ArticleRead Seth
People who want to be there best find ways to feed their thirst for excellence. For me, Seth Godin is a voice that feeds me. He takes a fancy corporate slogan like Entrepreneurial Spirit and makes it...
View Article3 Questions that help create a culture that SUPPORTS performance
Is a performance conversation you are having with your own leader, peer, or direct report laced with adjectives and/or emotions? Too often they are, and it clouds the real issues that need to be talked...
View ArticleRelationships: Building vs Maintaining
Relationships are tricky. They start at random places - soccer games, first days of a new job, school functions, board meetings. They only actually become a relationship, a thing that we can point to...
View ArticleInviting the Voice of Ownership
Talent management is about having great conversations. Having a great conversation starts with an invitation, and too often leaders get focused on who does not participate vs focusing on who does. Here...
View ArticleIgnorant vs Stupid vs Agile
We try to avoid labeling people, and yet words have definitions that help us clearly state something we are seeing. In the world of talent management, there is a fine line between being ignorant and...
View ArticleLeadership and EGO: Words of Wisdom from Alan Mulally
In a recent Inc. editorial, advice from Alan Mulally (past CEO of Ford and Boeing) was direct and simple - It's not about you. It is all about the plan. The biggest trap for leaders is EGO, and Mulally...
View ArticlePassion and Art: Why does it matter?
The passion of the artist. Where does it fit in the performance equation and how do we find it? Here is the where, and a little bit of the how, but the how is a much bigger conversation. Here are four...
View ArticleWriting More Effective Goals – Some tools that will help
My goal is to equip leaders to lead more effectively, and development plans are a key part of leadership and general talent development. Here is a LinkedIn article i just published and one other...
View ArticleLeadership as a Buffer
Colin Powell shared some leadership lessons with me recently and here is one I took away - sometimes as leaders we need to be a buffer. Being a buffer could be protecting your 'turf' and it has a...
View ArticleFailure 101 – The Movie Is Better Than The Book
Failure is painful, and yet a key part of the 'entrepreneurial mindset'. This hit me as I tried to read a book from a speaker that gave me one of my favorite TED talks, Sherry Turkle. The book was not...
View ArticleTime to DEVELOP PEOPLE – 3 Tips to Make It Happen
Time has replaced money as the number one excuse from leaders for not developing their people. Here are three tips for making it happen if it truly is a priority, and one tip includes a lesson I...
View ArticleEmpathy: 3 Things Leaders Can Do to Develop It
Leaders have to be empathetic, and unfortunately there is not a metric on empathy which makes it elusive and often ignored. That is until the feedback comes by key people leaving or they do not care...
View ArticleThe ONE key to performance
Everyone is a leader. More correctly, everyone has a chance to lead each day in all aspects of their life. It is your choice, so what is your answer? I work on helping leaders to lead more effectively,...
View ArticleHow to win the Talent War – part 1
How worried are you about finding the right people? Lots has been written about the talent shortage recently. In a recent study my state (Michigan) actually ranked as the fourth toughest state for...
View ArticleHow to win the Talent War – part 2
Nature abhors a vacuum. In the war for talent, your leadership weapon is to create positive vacuums and provide support for those willing to fill them in a positive way. It is not always easy work, but...
View Article#peoplecentered #leadership – A Hashtag Does Not Make It So
What is leadership? How effectively am I leading? I believe great conversations start with a question, and here are the answers a group of leaders gave me during a recent presentation of my keynote...
View ArticlePost #300 – Two Things That Are Critical For Great Development Conversations
Leadership and performance. It is easy to get lost in the the theory. Here are two key pieces of information to keep leading and individual development in perspective.
View ArticleHow to win the Talent War – Part 3 – Be people-centered leader
People-centered leadership. Easy to say, and the capacity to do it will be tested when you commit to developing your people, because their career plans might lead them outside your team or...
View ArticleMind the GAP
How do leaders effectively manage their personal growth and the growth of their organization? It boils down to MIND THE GAP, and here is a keynote workshop I did for a group of economic development...
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