Have you ever led a high-visibility project that has crashed and burned? I have and it taught me a powerful lesson about how a leader can turn a failed project into redemption for an employee hesitant to “play big” again. Read on . . . The Back Story Many years ago, shortly after I joined…
Leadership
Leadership by Design: Intersection of Art and Science
Yesterday I was talking “shop” with two colleagues. We’re all in the business of helping develop leaders and the talk turned to instructional design. One of us asked, “How do you go about finding an instructional designer who also has deep experience in creating leadership programs for senior-level staff?” We noodled this idea around…
Boundaries of Fearlessness
In his book Linchpin Seth Godin draws a distinction between the words fearless and reckless. Fearless people, he says, are “unafraid of things one shouldn’t be afraid of.” They push through any imagined “threat” to make a presentation to a difficult customer or conduct a challenging conversation with an underperforming employee. On the other hand,…
Beyond Diversity Training
Ways to encourage diversity on your team beyond race, religion or sexual orientation. Several weeks ago, I got an unexpected Skype call. It was from my long-time client Pete. He was calling from Germany to say “hi” and let me know he’d just landed a new job as Director of Operational Excellence for a large…
Leadership: It’s a 50-50 Deal
The “are leaders born or made?” debate. Said I wasn’t going to go there, but it’s just too irresistible. A couple of weeks ago on the HR Happy Hour, we had a discussion on this very issue. The Twitter backchannel was ablaze with people debating the topic. Personally, I grow weary of the debate because…