Organizational Effectiveness

Making the Most of Leadership Assessments

February 4, 2011

I was talking “leadership assessment” with two colleagues the other day. Both are employed by large organizations well-known for their people development practices. We were exploring the merits of assessing for leadership qualities, both as a pre-employment screening tool and for development purposes after the leader is hired. Not surprisingly, there were varying opinions—which assessments [...]

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Are Your Workplace Traditions Like Grandma’s Roast?

January 11, 2011

Most likely, you’ve heard some variation of the following story: A young woman is getting ready to host her first big family gathering and wants to serve her grandmother’s “special recipe” roast. The woman calls her mother and asks for the recipe. The mother begins, “First you cut off both ends of the roast before [...]

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Don’t Let Nostalgia Impede Progress

October 27, 2010

Back in the day when I was a branch Human Resources Generalist for a department store chain with nineteen locations, communicating with employees was pretty straightforward. We received messages from the corporate offices in Chicago and our store manager decided how to deliver the message—via all-store meeting, department managers or newsletter. Newsletters were my responsibility. [...]

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Change Management According to Granny

October 22, 2010

Dissatisfaction is Part of the Deal for Change Agents While working out at the gym the other day, I indulged in bit of TV nostalgia and watched the Beverly Hillbillies. This particular episode had Jed and Granny discussing how to deliver some disappointing news to Jethro. “Now, don’t worry Granny,” Jed said reassuringly, “I’ll go easy [...]

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Leaders Set the Tone for Customer Service

October 13, 2010

This month over at the LeaderTalk blog, the monthly theme is “A Leader Focuses on Customers” and LeaderTalk author Becky Robinson has asked us to contribute a related blog post. Great customer service starts with the culture a leadership team creates, so it’s a great theme to feature on a leadership blog. Earlier this summer, I [...]

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The Perfect Corporate Culture Doesn’t Exist

July 14, 2010

Have you ever noticed how pervasive “perfection” is in our language? The phrase “perfect storm” is used to describe a “rare combination of circumstances will aggravate a situation drastically”. Last month, ump Jim Joyce ruined a “perfect” game for Detroit Tiger pitcher Armando Galarraga. Recently, corporate success coach Ann Farrell ruminated on striving for the [...]

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Game-Changers Welcome Resistance

June 11, 2010

This morning, while preparing for the work day, I had a random thought and quickly posted it to Twitter: Props to Joan Koerber-Walker for starting the #BeOriginal hashtag on Twitter. Judging by the number of retweets, I’d say this tweet had legs! Or should I say “wings?” To go beyond the 140 characters with that [...]

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25 Free Leadership Development Resources

March 3, 2010

As part of my gig as a guest on the HR Happy Hour’s Leadership Show , I agreed to pull together some leadership resources for the Happy Hour listeners. When I talk with clients about leadership development, they often say one or both of the following: a) We don’t have the time to develop something [...]

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