The demise of Toys R Us — the toy store that captivated every elementary schoolkid’s daydreams — was ultimately just another illustration of management gone wrong. It can be easy to point fingers at big box and online competitors as…
Leadership
How to Avoid These 3 Culture Change Pitfalls
Culture change is a human experience. It’s not just a business imperative, as it has been viewed for decades, as reflected in these expressions: “If we’re going to grow, we have to change the culture” and “This culture is toxic,…
Competence Isn’t Enough. You Need Champions and Maybe a Little Narcissism
Do you work closely with executives? If you do, you’ve probably run into a few surprising aspects to leadership that don’t get talked about much. For instance, what’s with the common occurrence of charming, good looking executives moving quickly up…
We Want Disruption Until It’s Us Being Disrupted
“So many of us in business (say) ‘I want innovation. I want disruption. I want the next big thing’,” said Bradley West to his DisruptHR audience in Winnipeg last year. But “Stop changing my process,” he added mockingly. The message…
Futureproof Your Organization by Hiring From Within
The war for talent is heating up this summer with the recent news that there are more job openings than unemployed job seekers. In many ways, it’s a job seeker’s market. This is not only putting more pressure on employers…
What Every HR Manager Needs to Know About Succession Planning
The only thing constant is change. Even in the world of business, where we try to eliminate as many independent, unknown variables as possible, nothing is set in stone. Succession planning is the best way to prepare for the eventuality…
The 21st Century Way to Getting Your People to Do Great Work
Leading is like parenting — everybody thinks they do a much better job than they actually do. There’s a definite gap between how most executives assess themselves and how their direct reports do. Leaders and their teams seem to be watching two…
Put Away the Phone. Leave the Office and Start Meeting the People Who Do the Work
Note: The following is an excerpt from the author’s new book, When Leadership Improves, Everyone Wins. Realize that as leaders, we are signal senders. What signal does it send to our people when we stay on the executive floor or…
Great Leaders Know When to Ask for Help and How to Do It
Do you ask for help when you need it? Do you wait until the very last minute? Would you prefer to suffer and go it alone rather than reach out to others for an assist? Does your perfectionism masquerade as…
Safe-to-Try: A Way of Making Tough Decisions
Stuck making a decision? You are not alone. Making decisions makes most people afraid. Even leaders fear the consequences of making the wrong call. Either because they want to protect their position or lack the courage to challenge the status-quo, leaders avoid…
Leadership Lessons from the Golden State Warriors Locker Room
On June 8th, the Golden State Warriors basketball team won its second consecutive National Basketball Association championship. Observers agree that the Warriors are packed with talent, no doubt the principal reason for their success. But on the way to winning…
Fail Fast and Take the Heat Out of Failure
I recently met with a client responsible for organizational development in the financial services sector who was seeking ideas, information, and input from ImagineNation towards cultivating a “fail fast” organizational culture. It caused me to explore what might be some…
Do You See the Invisible People?
During my flight home yesterday evening, I made an effort to acknowledge the work of an amazing flight attendant. “You’re incredibly good at your job,” I said, “and I simply wanted to say thank you.” She replied with a genuine…
Don’t Be a Clueless CEO
“Please, I need separate checks for our meal.” That caused me to look up from my menu because I had never heard that before. Our normal routine is that he pays for one lunch/dinner and the next time it is…
Where Did We Go Wrong with Leadership Development?
Most of us seem to intuitively understand the connection between leadership and success, because collectively we invest a lot of time and money in self-help classes and books intended to improve our leadership skills. In 2011, the self-help market in…
None of Us Are Rational, So Smart Leadership Means Learning to Deal With Emotions
Emotions drive behavior in the office, often much more than we’re aware of. To be more effective leaders, we need to become more attuned to our own emotions as well to those of the people around us. This may come…
Emotional Intelligence Is Not Just For Leaders
Emotional Intelligence (EQ) isn’t something that can be easily taught or trained, which is why it’s such a vital competency for the employees within your organization to have. The term EQ has been tossed around the HR space for the…
What Does a Great Leader Look Like? Here’s a Checklist
In the current economy, leaders and executives often forget that their leadership objective is not only to manage the company processes, or to supervise the production of widgets. Their role is made important by the charge to lead people. As…
Beware the Myth of the Super Leader
“We will all learn together. I want to learn from you as well as you learn from me.” This, from a new CHRO who sits on the executive committee for a global organization. She is at the table with a…
For the Good of the Organization You Need to Be a Little Machiavellian
In our workplaces, as in society at large, we try hard to create open, transparent, meritocratic structures. Our increasing success can blind us to some nagging obstacles. We can persuade ourselves that we are creating new utopias: workplaces in which…