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Separating Mistakes from Misdeeds in Performance Management
September 9, 2017 |
You’ve probably heard – and may even believe – that if you’re not making mistakes, you’re probably not trying hard enough. So, are we all supposed to start making mistakes to prove we’re trying? And what if we start making mistakes and getting in trouble for them? Then what good is this old saying to […]
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Mistakes versus Misdeeds: A principle you can grow with
August 28, 2017 |
You might have heard it said that if you’re not making mistakes, you’re probably not trying hard enough, and it’s one of my favorite, difficult topics in leadership! Before we explore this any further, let me be clear that the kinds of errors that I’m addressing are not the kinds of mistakes that literally put […]
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Like a ship’s navigator, leaders need to approximate their position, make a decision, and move on
November 24, 2016 |
I recently interviewed Scott Wallinger (left) for my podcast, an iconic manager and leader in the forestry profession (http://leadershipnature.com/podcasts/s1e13-scott-wallinger/), and Scott reflected on his lessons in leadership through the lenses of history and experience. Near the end of this episode, Scott talked about the tendency of foresters to analyze things until they have the answer […]
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Site Preparation for Leadership: What every manager needs to do to help leadership stick
July 13, 2016 |
If you only got a 10 to 35 percent survival rate on your next reforestation project, would you be happy with the result? I don’t think so. Unfortunately, that is the success rate of most training – including leadership training – not necessarily because of the quality of the training itself but because of what […]
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Don’t Waste Your Time Training
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Training is great. Don’t get me wrong. I make a good living as a leadership trainer. But entirely too much training is thrown at fixing performance challenges when the root cause of the problem lies elsewhere. This wastes their time, your money and opportunity cost for everyone of taking better action. Much like teaching a […]
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Feedback is the Fuel of Leadership
August 27, 2015 |
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 […]
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Leading Volunteers and Earning Discretionary Effort
August 1, 2015 |
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. […]
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Eating Your Vegetables at Work: Quit Whining about Giving Performance Appraisals
July 9, 2015 |
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 […]
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Institutional Baggage: When looking back keeps you from going forward
June 4, 2015 |
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 […]
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Who’s the Fairest Leader of All: Because One Person’s Fairness is Another Person’s Affront
April 2, 2015 |
In working with a team of supervisors recently, I asked them to prioritize a list of 14 leadership competencies so that I could coach them on the topics in the right priority for them, but the exercise took an unexpected turn. A leadership competency is a bundle of behaviors” or a set of related skills […]
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