Tag Archives: Leadership

Change-Friendly Leadership (Book Review)

Change Friendly Leadership by Dr. Rodger Dean Duncan

change-friendly-leadership-book-reviewWhen I got my review copy of Change Friendly Leadership, I was transported back to my college days of studying change management. It was a great course and I had a phenomenal teacher, so my thirst for ideas related to managing change well started early. Good thing I found this book! I have two pages of notes and I’m not even finished going back and digging into all of the pages I’ve flagged for further review. There may be another review in the future or even some posts on subtopics to delve deeper, because this thing is full of solid advice for business leaders trying to work within the change process.

Okay, now that I’ve built it up, let’s peel back the layers and dig into a few of the key points of Change-Friendly Leadership.

What I liked

  • Training failure-The author quotes a study by ASTD (American Society for Training and Development) that says that despite record amounts being spent on training in the workplace, less than 30% of training is being implemented. Continue reading →

Why Do You Keep Hiring Poor Candidates? (Leadership 101)

poor culture fitSo you made a bad hire. Lesson learned. Eventually it happens to everyone.

But why haven’t you moved them on yet? Why are they still hanging around and leeching the morale from your team when you know good and well that they just aren’t going to fit?

Every day that you keep a “poor fit” employee, you make the decision to hire them all over again.

I’ll explain. See, when you hire someone and put that money into them, that’s what economics nerds like to call “sunk cost.” In a nutshell, the cost of the original choice has already been incurred, so don’t let that impact your decisions going forward. Continue reading →

How to Take Action and Get Results

How to Take Action and Develop an Action Oriented Culture

take action get resultsWe recently had a new employee start on our executive team, and her fresh take on things is incredibly valuable for us in our quest for continuous improvement. One piece of our action-oriented culture that I have taken for granted was especially interesting for her.

Recently at our executive off-site retreat, we had a lot of discussions on strategy and the direction of the company. Throughout the day we touched on many topics, and there were several times when an attendee was asked a pointed question about their process area (HR, finance, contracts, etc.).

Before anyone was allowed to leave, we took the time to assign action items to each person who had a request sometime during the day. There were several dozen actions assigned among the various participants, and nobody (including our CEO) walked out without an action item, a due date, and a scheduled follow up plan.

For us, it was a standard meeting, just with topics of broader scope.

For her, it was a peek into a world of accountability and an action-oriented leadership team that she hadn’t previously known.

Normal Isn’t Good Enough Continue reading →

Playing the “Boss” Card (Leadership 101)

How the “boss” card damages your leadership potential and how to avoid it

Why? Because I said so, and I’m the boss, that’s why.

the boss cardIf you’ve ever heard those words, you’ve probably transported yourself back mentally to a time when you were a young child being chastised by an adult. If you spend any amount of time around kids, there eventually comes a time when you’ll have to say, “Because I said so” in response to a protest.

We’ve all seen that scene play out in its various flavors and settings in the parenting world, but the real question is still unanswered.

Why is it so common in the workplace?

Let me clarify-I’m not talking about doing day to day tasks that are routine. Most normal people wouldn’t challenge their manager with regard to the little things and how they are done.

I’m talking about situations and scenarios outside the norm where the question is clearly laid out there: is this going to be your way or mine? Continue reading →

Turn The Ship Around! (Book Review)

I was very excited to read my copy of�Turn the Ship Around! How to Create Leadership at Every Level by L. David Marquet (here on Amazon). I actually found out about the book through a random link that I followed on Twitter. The link led me to a video interview of the author, and it excited me enough to hunt down the publisher and request a copy of the book.

At its core, this book is about changing the leader-follower model to a leader-leader model. It’s written by a man who spent years in the military (which is probably the most pervasive user of the leader-follower model of any organization you’ll find), so it instantly sticks out as an innovative idea.

A sampling of ideas from Turn the Ship Around Continue reading →

Thinking On Your Feet-The Hidden Leadership Skill

As I’ve been pulled into more meetings and face-to-face interactions with our leadership team, I’ve noticed two things.

  1. Some of our leaders are very, very good at thinking on their feet.
  2. Me? Not so much.

Okay, I get that perspective is a big part of this discussion, but it’s really been interesting to observe some people taking on tough questions without flinching. Is it competency? Seniority? Age? Job function? What’s the secret?

If I had to say, it’s probably a good mix of all those, plus a dozen other intricate details (personality, familiarity with the group, etc.). So what’s a person to do if they are not very good at it to start with?

Lessons from improv

I did a little research to get some ideas on how to respond more naturally to those types of questions, and the “Yes, and…” tool is one that I’ve started implementing already. Continue reading →

HR-Stop With the Problems Already

“I don’t like going to HR meetings. They are always about problems, not solutions.”

I heard that comment at the SHRM conference earlier this summer, and it’s stuck with me ever since. There is nothing quite like having to sit in front of your CEO and tell them about some problem that is coming at you like a freight train. There are two parts to doing this the right way that will help diminish the perception above.

#1-Offer solutions, too

It may sound simple, but when you come to the meeting with a problem, bring two or more solutions with you as well. Don’t feel helpless or powerless. You are the person with the most in-depth information about the issue so far, and it’s your responsibility to take that information and turn it into a potential resolution.

My boss (the CEO) has a saying that I always repeat whenever I’m faced with a tough decision:

Tell me how we can, not why we can’t.

#2-Be proactive

So you’re sitting there thinking, “Huh, he must be talking to someone else. I don’t have any big problems that I have to share with our leadership at this point.”

No, I’m talking to you, too! You just have a different action. It’s time to be proactive. Start looking for ways you can cut costs, streamline your functions, save time for managers, etc. Look for some solutions to age-old problems, not just new ones. Not sure where to start? Ask some of your managers what their biggest pain points are with regard to the HR or recruiting processes. Ask your senior leaders what their biggest concerns are at a corporate level. Then take that information and use it.

Want to know the fastest, easiest way to prove the value of the HR department? Solve a problem that plagues the management team. Yes, it seems simple, but it is often overlooked because HR tends to exist in its own little “bubble” and never takes the time to actually find out what the business needs are from the HR function.

Then take the time to communicate what you’ve found in the way of solutions to current problems.

Pretty soon your managers will be saying, “I am looking forward to the next HR meeting to see what they have come up with this time.” Then ask for a raise. You deserve it. :-)