Blog

Feedback is the Fuel of Leadership

By Tom Davidson

When you’re an individual contributor, you measure your results by sales, acres, widgets and reports, but when you’re a leader, you measure your results by feedback. This was on my mind as I cut, split and piled firewood last weekend. I had felled the dead trees months before, and they had been collecting fungus and […]

Leading Volunteers and Earning Discretionary Effort

By Tom Davidson

How to lead volunteers and others because they don’t have to be there and they don’t plan to stay. Partially retired and looking for meaningful volunteer work, my wife called a local animal shelter to offer her services, but what happened next is a lesson for anyone who cares about, depends upon, and leads volunteers. […]

Eating Your Vegetables at Work: Quit Whining about Giving Performance Appraisals

By Tom Davidson

Like making fun of Donald Trump’s hair, performance appraisals are an easy target, and I’m tired of the whining. For example, a recent Cornerstone OnDemand/Harris survey reports the following: “Of employed U.S. adults who have experienced their employer’s performance review process Less than half (45%) said the feedback they receive is a fair and accurate […]

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda: What makes a “good” decision?

By Tom Davidson

As mentioned in Question Traps are Just around the Cubicle, Fox News’ Megyn Kelly started a minor fad last month among political commentators by asking presidential hopeful Jeb Bush if he would have ordered the Iraq invasion “knowing what we know now.” More than a trap question (because it’s hypothetical), the inquiry also implied that […]

Institutional Baggage: When looking back keeps you from going forward

By Tom Davidson

My foot was still on the accelerator when the air bags collapsed in my lap. I had been looking back into traffic and looking for a gap to pull into far longer than I should have and failed to look forward at the car in front of me, who’s driver had changed her mind and […]