The pervasiveness of bullying never ceases to amaze me. I recently met with an organization and it was very clear from the outset who was in charge of the meeting. This individual made it very clear that he was going to set and control the agenda. The guests were there simply for his abuse and [...]
Every now and then I sit through the credits at the end of a movie. The list seems endless with credit given to anyone and everyone who possibly contributed to the film. From the leading actor to the truck drivers and foley clappers, everyone gets their name up on the big screen. While we all [...]
Fear is one of our most primal emotions. It helped our cave-swelling brethren survive – and they presumably passed on their successful genetics to us. Unfortunately, that hard-wired emotion of fear is still with us millions of year later. Fear is a leading cause of procrastination. Seth Godin argues in his book Tribes that it is often the fear of [...]
Ever noticed that once you start thinking about something you start seeing it everywhere? Think about buying a new car, and pretty soon you start seeing that model of car constantly? It seems that the more I read and talk about trust, the more issues related to trust, trustworthiness and lack of trust start to [...]
There is a difference between thinking you are a leader – and actually being a leader. Many of us have had the misfortune of having to deal with people who think they are leaders. There is the “Phantom Leader” who is there on paper but is, for all intents and purposes, invisible. The result is [...]
It seems that empathic leadership is increasingly being devalued in organizations. While the great minds of leadership extol the virtues of engaged, supportive “show me that you care” approaches, it appears that many organizations want to embrace a much different set of values. Psychopathic leadership seems to be the new shiny thing that is taking [...]
Real leaders know that sometimes we have to roll up our collective sleeves to solve a problem. Whether we caused the problem or not. We pitch in, share accountability and deal with the issue. Seth Godin in his book Linchpin talks about Matt Dayton, a nordic skier in the 2002 Winter Olympics. According to Dayton, the winner [...]
It would seem that as each new week goes by, organizations are adopting an ever-increasing variety of new policies, guidelines and rules to influence and, in some cases, control employee behaviour. No one would argue against policies that prevent discrimination, enforce respectful behaviour or take a stand on workplace bullying. But taken together, these new [...]
Leaders, by their nature, strive for success. They focus on the success of their organizations and, by default, enjoy a sense of personal achievement when things go well. And they also suffer the consequences -both professionally and personally- when things don’t go according to plan. Why is it that some skilled and successful leaders often [...]
One of the reasons that the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey has been so enduring over the past two decades has been its pragmatic foundation in principles. There are hundreds of books written about leadership that extol some complex theory, oversimplified model or metaphor to help us be more effective or [...]