April 06, 2012

The traditional performance review process is intended to provide an objective evaluation of the employee’s work and how they can do better.  But that’s not most people’s experience.  More often that not, these reviews are one-sided, subjective, political and detrimental to the manager-employee relationship. Or else they are just useless, pro-forma exercises that stay safe.  This article introduces a new and improved paradigm: Collaborative performance “previews” followed by continuous conversations  — managers and employees are reciprocally accountable for goals being met and performance being developed.  

April 24, 2011

Tammy Erickson has spent alot of time with members of Generation X.   In this article she offers her ideas as to why Gen X leaders will use their realism and values-oriented sensibilities  to create more humane organizational cultures. Baby boomers have a hell of a time managing this generation because they don’t spend the time learning about the values X’ers espouse.  Life would be so much easier if they read Tammy Erickson!

Just out: the universals of leadership from a cross-cultural lense covering 62 countries, both positive and negative behaviours.  Check out the skills you need to develop and the attitudes you need to drop!

April 15, 2011

Kenny Moore, aka kennythemonk, offers his litmus test in choosing your organization’s next ethical leaders. Find out how here they treat waiters and what’s going on in their “interior” business conversations.

March 29, 2011

The editors at MindTools say that authentic leaders are often easier to recognize than define, but they all have a few traits in common. Leaders know themselves well, and they never allow someone else to cause them to break their “moral codes.” They put their companies and their teams first, they’re excellent communicators, and they know how to use the right kind of power for the right situation. Here is a wonderful article by Bruna Martinuzzi, describing the “leaves of authenticity”…just beautiful!

One of the most essential leadership behaviors in the Emotional Competence Inventory is Teamwork and Collaboration.   Rather than “building teams”, Harvard business professor Amy Edmonson who studies teams, says we’ve moved onto “teaming”. Read more about it.

Leadership is about going above and beyond the call of duty – or the responsibilities listed on the JobD.  Here’s Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s take on how to go the extra mile. Her first “extra” is Colleagueship which is “considered a sign of whether someone can take on bigger leadership responsibilities in a flat, decentralized organization.”

Read about all 6 here.

Workforce Week is a great source for all things HR.  Read a recent blog post on how  good corporate ethics isn’t just about saying please and thank you:  leaders need to link civility to operations and getting results. Find a roadmap for choosing your organization’s principles of civility here, and more.

March 20, 2011

Mike Myatt, is a Top CEO Coach, author of ”Leadership Matters…The CEO Survival Manual“ and is the Managing Director and Chief Strategy Officer at N2growth. His blog is rich with ideas on all things leadership. Here’s his views on how to help your employees acquire, transfer, apply, manage and leverage corporate knowledge effectively.

http://www.n2growth.com/blog/knowledge-management/

I meet too many leaders who, in the safety of a coaching session, admit to a tremendous lack of caring concern for themselves. It’s not enough to show compassion for others. In fact, it’s empty if you can’t find it for yourself. Kristin Neff is the author of a forthcoming book on the subject and says that people are hard on themselves due to our culture. She says “We have a long history of self-sacrifice and [the belief] that we should put all of our attention on meeting others’ needs. And people really think that self-criticism is an effective motivator, and they believe that if they were kind and supportive to themselves it would mean they wouldn’t work hard, they wouldn’t strive to improve.” Read more here.