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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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Teamwork Takes a Mobilizing Goal
February 19, 2015 |
There’s nothing quite like a mobilizing goal to get the best out of teams and teamwork. When bad weather threatens, our Virginia Department of Transportation is well prepared, and everyone knows their jobs. When hurricanes are tracking up the east coast, our power companies collaborate with others up and down the Atlantic Coast and deep […]
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How to Facilitate Smart People and Prevent them from Becoming a Dumb Group
January 29, 2015 |
Facilitation means more than going to the flip chart or whiteboard and picking up the pen. Contemporary organizations get most of their work done through work teams, and successful leaders need to know how to step into the role of facilitator, not just scribing notes for the rest of the team but also helping accomplish […]
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Organizational Climate Change for Leaders
January 22, 2015 |
As natural resource professionals, we’re familiar with the issues and impacts of climate change, both on the environmental and human side of the equation. Climate change is complex, emotional, and divisive. As leaders, we also need to be aware of the issues and impacts related to organizational climate change, another complex, emotional and divisive subject […]
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Man-Made Climate Change in Organizations
December 25, 2014 |
On Saturday, December 20, two officers with the New York Police Department (NYPD) were executed while sitting in a critical response vehicle on a New York City street, and that night a segment of the same police force demonstrated their disrespect for Mayor de Blasio by turning their backs on him just ahead of his […]
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Throwing Subordinates Under the Bus: Professional in politics but amateur in leadership
October 2, 2014 |
It’s only the latest example of a senior leader publicly throwing his subordinates under the bus, but it’s a big one, with a lesson for everyday leaders as well. To “throw someone under the bus” is a contemporary version of the expression, to “throw someone to the wolves.” In both cases, the one doing the […]
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The Capacity Conundrum
September 4, 2014 |
My first lesson in maximizing capacity was when I was 11 years old, delivering newspapers, but the principle applies to every leader, team, and organization. The principle is this: C = f (H ,T, M), in other words, capacity (C) is a function of horsepower (H), time (T), and motivation (M). While it might seem […]
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Hit the Ground Running with Your New Team
July 3, 2014 |
In addition to being responsible for your own work group, new managers are likely to be on four to five additional committees, task forces or teams at any one time. Over the course of a year, you’ll be starting up, tuning up or turning around teams on a continuous basis. In addition, you’ll attend 62 […]
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The Cost of Not Doing Strategic Planning
June 19, 2014 |
An executive recently told me that his leadership team needed to do some strategic planning, get on the same page about their mission and vision, and invest some time in sorting out their direction, getting on the same page, and identifying their focus areas for the next few years. Naturally, a number of his team […]
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An Introvert’s Guide to Groups (part 7 of 7)
April 1, 2014 |
Here’s my seventh and last installment on An Introvert’s Guide to Groups, this one about the use of dialogue. One of the reasons that introverts fail to speak up soon enough or often enough is that they are – in their own words – “still thinking it through.” The only problem with this is that […]
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