so your vision is never lost.
LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS
Written by: Don Hadley The Primary Problem In organizations, there can be too much talking and not enough doing. Vision without action (or talking without action) is simply wishful thinking or hallucination. When this sort of behavior is occurring, some leaders tell me “you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink”. This statement implies that we cannot get employees to take action. That is a cop-out! The reality for great leaders is that we realize […]
Written by: Don Hadley One of the biggest challenges organizations face today is “the changing of the guard”. The examples below briefly demonstrate how succession (or lack of it) can dramatically hurt or transform an organization: One disaster: The head of the company was almost 80 years old. He was having troubling recruiting and retaining leaders that wanted to run the organization. None of the existing employees, to his knowledge, had the desire, attitude, skills and habit to be able […]
A 2016 survey of CEOs by PWC showed that a strong majority of business leaders — 55%— believe a lack of trust in the workplace constitutes a foundational threat to their company. Source: Forbes Trust is an interesting animal. It not only involves trusting someone’s intentions, but also their competence in being able to do what they say. It is more than trust in an individual, but also in ourselves, the process, the world, other people in general, life, etc. […]
The Wall Street Journal article is greatly appreciated because it highlights what occurs when an employee rating system is poorly implemented and used in organizations. However, it was an incredibly simplistic perspective. The perspective was that of someone who has only taken a cursory look at this approach, and we see this from newer employees and rookie leaders who have not thought through ratings systems properly in the past. It did not explain how powerful this approach can be if […]
Executive coaching isn’t just for executives anymore. Every day, we all engage with other people to accomplish things, whether at work or at home. The principles that apply to business world coaching easily translate to other types of relationships. All relationships come down to a few basic factors, the biggest of which are trust, honesty and dependability. In other words, each of the parties clearly states their needs and wants, knows the other person will work hard to help them […]
The mind and heart can envision and feel great things, but so many times there is a disconnect in where we are today vs. where we desire to be. While there are many necessary pieces to bridging that gap, one of the key girders is accountability: the willingness to do what one says. Part of this is holding others accountable. There must be both individual and team accountability for a business to work effectively. I am reminded of Peter Block’s […]
When most people think of communication, they think about talking and passing along information, advice or opinions. Effective communication also involves actively listening, knowing when to speak and when to stay silent. Keep in mind that 85% of what we communicate is nonverbal so in addition to being patient, your face and actions must also be considered. All organizations maintain that they value open communication, but few listen to their staff, customers and suppliers effectively. Listening, like any other skill, […]
A clear, effective communication skill is one of the best attributes a person can develop. It equips you to be successful professionally and personally. By communication, we mean stating your needs clearly and listening to others with the intention of fully understanding what they are trying to say. It is a “two-way” street. Can you identify with this example? It is the job of leaders to go to the unknown and find out what’s there. Asking employees for honest […]