Content about Political philosophy

January 6, 2012
The Power of Local Leaders

Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, authors of “The Progress Principle,” have been studying what they call inner work life—the confluence of emotions, perceptions, and motivations that occur continually throughout the workday. When inner work life is positive, people feel happy, have positive perceptions of their work and those they work with, and are highly motivated by the work itself. In their quest to find the forces that rule inner work life, the authors discovered that lower-level, local leaders —such as team leaders—can be surprisingly powerful.

By Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer

December 1, 2011
Bust Out of Recession Mode—How to Rally the Troops

Leaders must be able to help their employees see the possibility and promise of what is to come, while making peace with the past. A company can’t succeed unless its employees are invested in its success, and they need to get into the right mindset. Here’s what leaders need to do to rally their troops and get them excited about the future.

By Mike Noble, Managing Partner, Camden Consulting Group

Leaders must be able to help their employees see the possibility and promise of what is to come, while making peace with the past. A company can’t succeed unless its employees are invested in its success, and they need to get into the right mindset. An organization’s leadership team must have the ability to motivate and inspire. Here’s what leaders need to do to rally their troops and get them excited about the future:

November 22, 2011
Creating a Holistic Talent Management Team

Before creating a holistic talent management team, organizations have to be more honest about what kind of environment is wanted and what exists (inclusive, collaborative, separate, self-preservation). What type of leadership style is wanted and what exists? Is all leadership held to the same standards with regard to producing the optimal work environment?

By Richard Lynell

What does a holistic talent management team look like?

Well, that answer varies, depending on your organization and its leadership, culture, and environment. But regardless of this, I believe a talent management team should be an independent function of the organization, similar to an internal audit team.

November 7, 2011
Bosses Pass the Torch to Build Effective Teams

Many company owners talk about their efforts to build a strong staff in terms of teambuilding activities. But building a strong team starts with talent—identifying, attracting, and deploying the right players to achieve your company’s goals and take on your mid-level responsibilities, thereby freeing you up to focus on performance and sustainability.

By Mary Hladio, Founder and CEO, Ember Carriers Leadership Group

October 31, 2011
Chesterfield County Accelerates Leadership Transitions

Chesterfield County, VA, trainers believe a loss of executive leadership typically is not due to lack of talent or skill set, but due to misunderstandings or an inability to become “organizationally savvy.” With that in mind, the county launched its Transition Acceleration program.

By Margery Weinstein

October 17, 2011
The Leadership Imperative: Mission Success

If a leader inspires, aligns, motivates, and enables the organization around a common vision, then a company has taken the first step toward becoming fearless.

By Tom Rieger, Senior Practice Expert, Gallup

There are no fearless leaders, but there are courageous ones. Everyone has fears they need to face. The key is to learn to overcome those fears. Mark Twain said, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.” To create a fearless company, leaders must master fear—their own and others’. They have to have the courage to fix what’s wrong.

July 27, 2011
Knowing Who You Are and What You Believe

If we are to become the leaders we have the potential to be, it is essential that we understand who we are and what we believe, says Doug Moran, author of  “If You Will Lead: Enduring Wisdom for 21st Century Leaders.” While there is a great deal of self-awareness associated with all of the “If” Sixteen Leadership Attributes, these first four in particular—character, authenticity, integrity, and self-efficacy—provide a strong foundation for self-awareness.

By Doug Moran

Why Self-Awareness Matters

If we are to become the leaders we have the potential to be, it is essential that we understand who we are and what we believe. While there is a great deal of self-awareness associated with all of the “If” Sixteen Leadership Attributes, these first four in particular—character, authenticity, integrity, and self-efficacy—provide a strong foundation for self-awareness.

July 25, 2011
Training Today: Creating High-Performance Expectations

Individuals who are clear about their performance expectations also are generally clear about their goals, know what their boss and others expect from them regarding their performance, and understand their job responsibilities. But holding people accountable often can be harder than it seems. In a survey of 800 leaders, trainers, and human resource executives, The Ken Blanchard Companies learned that only 41 percent agree or strongly agree that accountability is alive and well in their organizations.

Performance expectations are the extent to which an individual perceives that work outcomes must be done to a certain level of quality and quantity. In this particular case, the expectations are external and may come from the customer, the boss, or colleagues.

June 6, 2011
Strategies for Success (May-June 2011)

Training magazine taps 2011 Training Top 125 winners and Top 10 Hall of Famers to provide their learning and development best practices in each issue. In this May-June 2011 edition, we look at strategies for leadership development and collaboration.

Values and Leadership

By Rafael Pastor, Chairman and CEO, Vistage International, Inc.

An essential component of leadership is to articulate and exemplify the organization’s core values. These values must be clear, compelling, and repeated. And the leader must both “walk the talk” and inspire his/her colleagues within the organization to also live the values.

June 6, 2011
The X Factor

Everyone has a story about a manager who gets great results but achieves a low employee retention rate. Believe it or not, there is room in your company for many different management styles. You just have to figure out the best way to develop these leaders so your company makes the most of the best they have to offer.

By Margery Weinstein

June 6, 2011
Training Today: The Stabilizing Effect of Great Leadership

Great leadership doesn’t happen by itself. But a recent Ken Blanchard poll of more than 450 leaders revealed that only 16 percent had a comprehensive plan for developing new leaders, and 26 percent said that their company offers very little in the way of training for new managers.

In good economic times and in bad, some companies seem to deal with adversity better than others. What’s their secret? That’s something that The Ken Blanchard Companies has been studying for more than 30 years. In our experience, the companies that best deal with adversity are those that have:

June 2, 2011
Leaders’ Path to Improvement

Short of completing a 360, how is a leader supposed to know what he or she most needs to work on? The first step is to bring personality into the equation—for them to ask, “What kind of leader am I?” Using a model of the eight dimensions of leadership can help to identify the leadership “blind spots” associated with particular leadership styles.

By Mark Scullard, director of research, and Jeffrey Sugerman, president and CEO, Inscape Publishing

In our May-June 2011 print article, we discussed what people want from their leaders. As part of a 360-degree assessment, we gave 16,619 participants—or raters—the chance to give feedback on what leadership practices their leaders should do more often. The three most common requests for leaders were:

April 4, 2011
AIT Laboratories Has Winning Leadership Formula

AIT Laboratories formulated a leadership program that has enabled it to meet its succession planning goals, and keep its leadership pipeline well stocked with fresh talent. The company offers two leadership development programs to 80-plus employees, a leadership program for managers, and an advanced leadership program for 20 employees.

By Margery Weinstein

AIT Laboratories formulated a leadership program that has enabled it to meet its succession planning goals, and keep its leadership pipeline well stocked with fresh talent. The company offers two leadership development programs to 80-plus employees, a leadership program for managers, and an advanced leadership program for 20 employees. Here are some of the ingredients that go into the winning formula:

March 25, 2011
The Power of “As One”

Authors Mehrdad Baghai and James Quigley reveal how the concept of “As One” makes all the difference between a group of individuals and a unified team. Those five letters symbolize the culmination of individual action into collective power. They describe how individuals can collaborate to achieve extraordinary results—together.

By Mehrdad Baghai and James Quigley

As One. It’s a short phrase. Only five letters. But those five letters are filled with meaning and inspiration. They make all the difference between a group of individuals and a unified team. Those five letters symbolize the culmination of individual action into collective power. They describe how individuals can collaborate to achieve extraordinary results—together.

“The aspiration to work as one is the timeless leadership challenge.”

March 16, 2011
Breakdowns Between Silos
In this excerpt from “Workarounds That Work: How to Conquer Anything That Stands in Your Way at Work,” Russell Bishop looks at the breakdowns between silos that can occur among internal groups, departments, or business units, as well as among external partners, subcontractors, or teammates on joint development projects.
  By Russell Bishop, Editor-at-Large, Huffington Post, and President, Bishop & Bishop A recurrent challenge confronting organizations large and small is that of silo behavior. We broached this subject when we began talking about misaligned leadership. Breakdowns between silos can occur among internal groups, departments, or business units, as well as among external partners, subcontractors, or teammates on joint development projects.
September 1, 2010
Reclaim 100 Senior Executive Work Hours Per Week

One way to rejuvenate battered spirits and restore discretionary energy is to rally your team around a common goal. See how an executive team used a three-step process to redeploy more than 100 hours of senior executive time toward value-added work.

By Francie Dalton, president, Dalton Alliances, Inc.

Let’s assume there’s not an ounce of fat left in your association. You’ve redlined, streamlined, and realigned, all the while continuing to deliver indisputably high value for your members. Even if you’ve somehow managed to convince everyone in your organization that the hemorrhaging is over, malaise has permeated your senior team, bringing a sense of insurmountable workload and a presumption that the dire straits state will continue for a long time to come.

July 29, 2010
What Is Your Leadership Legacy?

When should you start thinking about the legacy you are leaving as a leader? In some ways, professional athletes have an advantage because they "retire" at a much younger age than most of us, and the media continually reminds them of their legacy. In a recent article about Shaquille O'Neal in Sports Illustrated, the writer notes that at this point everything Shaq says and does is focused on his legacy and what people will remember about him after his basketball career is over. But some athletes are fortunate to move on into other careers such as broadcasting launched by their popularity as an athlete. People often feel they are too young or too old to think about their legacy. But the time to think about it is now. 

When should you start thinking about the legacy you are leaving as a leader? In some ways, professional athletes have an advantage because they "retire" at a much younger age than most of us, and the media continually reminds them of their legacy. In a recent article about Shaquille O'Neal in Sports Illustrated, the writer notes that at this point everything Shaq says and does is focused on his legacy and what people will remember about him after his basketball career is over.