One of the more popular topics among organization types is leadership development. Countless books, articles, conferences and training programs are focused on the subject, the abundance of which suggests that most people feel there is a perpetual gap between the behavior they want and what they get from those in roles designated as “leadership.” The … More Leadership . . . Development?
Most change leaders are highly aware of the need to manage their messages. Unfortunately, even when helped by outside consultants with green shoes (I couldn’t resist!), most leaders rarely put into practice everything we know about engagement, communication and managing emotions during times of change. Why? Because dealing with the human side of projects is … More Words Mean Everything
One of the great myths of corporate life is that incentive pay leads to better performance. Corporate leaders often speak with great moral conviction of creating pay for performance cultures that only reward people when they meet performance expectations. The logic suggests that if organizations provide a big enough carrot, people will work harder to … More The Truth About Paying for Performance
Change can be a moving target. When observed solely from the surface, navigating the waves of organization transition can feel like an unpredictable thrashing of human emotion that disrupts smooth sailing toward our desired objective. But that’s really just a problem with our perception. It represents our failure to understand the deeper, more nuanced needs … More Going Deep
Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address, posted with vodpod
One of the surest signs that change leaders don’t know what they are doing is the excessive use of jargon. It’s easy to spot. Just listen for words like strategic, alignment, partnering, values, sustained, vision, execution, branding, methodology, governance, scalable, global, integrated, empowerment, enablement, or any other intelligent-sounding, yet empty clichés that assume speakers have … More Stop Hiding Behind Jargon
At 7:51 am on January 12, 2007, a man wearing a baseball cap, T-shirt and faded jeans entered L’Enfant Plaza in Washington D.C. amid the morning rush of commuters and quietly removed his violin from its case. The violin was the rare Gibson ex-Huberman handcrafted in 1713 by Antonio Stradivari during the Italian master’s “golden … More Context is Everything
Earlier this week I was sitting in a town hall meeting held by the head of human resources for an organization going through a major overhaul of its HR function. The audience was a collection of HR professionals from throughout the world gathered in person and via the web to hear about state of affairs … More The Leadership Power of Vulnerability
“When all else fails, read the instructions.” That simple, seven-word warning ought to appear on the instruction manual for everything that comes unassembled. It should appear in bold face, large font letters on every purchase from Ikea, every home theater system, every backyard play set, and every brightly-colored, multi-part plastic child’s toy packaged in an … More Read the Instructions
My view of organization effectiveness starts with two important assumptions: We are interdependent, and as a result We need to collaborate. Interdependence implies that people need to cooperate in order to accomplish what they want. In the workplace, managers need employees to accomplish results that lead to department or organization success. Likewise, employees need managers … More The Assumption of Interdependence
Erik Van Slyke 