How to Foster an Organizational Culture of Learning
August 14, 2018 | | Leave a comment
Guest Post by Courtney McIntosh Increasingly, organizations are discovering the value of investing in a learning culture. And it makes sense, learning drives engagement, retention, innovation and so many other business priorities. That’s why I’m delighted to host this guest post by Courtney McIntosh with actionable insights and access to findcourses.com’s L&D Report 2018. Let’s all learn together about this… and please share what you and your organization are doing to promote a learning culture. Learning culture, defined by Stephen Gill, co-owner of Learning to be Great LLC as “a work environment that supports and encourages the continuous and collective …
Posted in Learning Matters
Tagged Change, culture, engagement, learning
Vexed by Virtual?
Virtual teams—once a novelty—have become a standard feature of today’s workplace. According to Remote.co, a forecast of employment trends by the World Economic Forum called flexible work, including virtual teams, “one of the biggest drivers of transformation” in the workplace, while a Gallup poll found that 37 percent of respondents have already worked virtually. And virtual work makes tremendous sense in terms of cost savings, productivity improvements and the ability to engage the best talent literally anywhere in the world. But, despite its popularity, many organizations and the leaders responsible for the teams continue to struggle with countless challenges. How about you? Which of …
Posted in Leadership Matters
Tagged accountability, assumptions, communitcation, community, isolation, performance, rapport, technology, trust, virtual teams
Help Them Grow: 19 Powerful Ways to Build Confidence in Children
July 17, 2018 | | Leave a comment
Guest Post by Karin Hurt and David Dye I am a huge fan of questions! My early days as a training facilitator proved that not only did I learn more by asking great questions, but I could help others learn more with them as well. And that’s why I’m so excited about this guest post by my friends David Dye, Karin Hurt, and their 12-year-old son Sebastian. They’ve written a children’s book, Glowstone Peak, a story designed to build courage and leadership in children. To be honest, though, there are a lot of lessons for us adults as well. I hope …
Posted in Happiness Matters
Tagged confidence, Conversation, leadership, listening
Rethinking Your Response When an Employee Resigns
“I quit!” These words strike fear in the hearts of managers everywhere. Resignations represent one of the most emotional, stressful and challenging situations leaders face. They undermine confidence in ourselves, our leadership and our organizations. They threaten the status quo. And they have the potential to compromise team dynamics and business results. Continuum of responses No wonder many managers demonstrate reflexive—and not always constructive—responses to these two emotionally charged words. In fact, leadership responses to resignations frequently fall toward one end of the following continuum or the other. Many managers panic and immediately begin a scramble to turn back the …
Posted in Leadership Matters
Tagged attrition, mindful, resignation, talent
Persist or Pivot? 8 Questions to Determine How to Move Your Plan Forward
June 26, 2018 | | Leave a comment
Planning is a cornerstone of leadership and a foundational competency required for success in today’s complex and uncertain business environment. Love it or hate it (and plenty of managers and supervisors do hate it), planning is a non-negotiable priority for anyone responsible for driving results. Yet, this key activity that ensures alignment, appropriate resource allocation, risk mitigation and organizational support is fraught with challenges. Field research over the past two years highlights the most persistent planning problems facing leaders. Propensity for action A natural bias for action on the part of many leaders teamed with a time-starved workplace conspire to …
Posted in Leadership Matters
Tagged action, alignment, flexibility, persist, pivot, planning, process
Why “Okay” Isn’t Good Enough for Remote Leaders
Guest Post by Kevin Eikenberry and Wayne Turmel I’ve been following the work of Kevin Eikenberry for the past six year and consistently find his writing to be high-quality and highly practical. Teaming up with co-author Wayne Turmel, The Long-Distance Leader is no exception. Given today’s highly distributed workforce, leaders are challenged to find ways to connect, build trust, engage, and drive performance across geographies, time zones and cultures. This book delivers actionable, in-the-trenches advice for these leaders, offering everything from 19 Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership to detailed guidance about communicating and coaching. I’d consider this required reading for the …
Posted in Leadership Matters
Learn-gevity: Enhancing Your Ability to Learn, Perform and Succeed Over Time
“Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong learning attempt to acquire it.” ~ Albert Einstein Lifelong learning has long been understood to be a critical success factor. But today, it’s taken on even greater importance. The pace of change continues to accelerate and the level of complexity, ambiguity and uncertainty means that what you knew yesterday may be irrelevant today. The half-life of technical skills continues to shrink. According to Josh Bersin, the half-life of a technical skill is just 2 years. And lifespans continue to grow. In fact, it’s expected that 50% of millennials will live to …
Posted in Learning Matters
Tagged assumptions, curiosity, discomfort, habit, insights, life-long learning, lifespan, reflection, social
How to Build Business Acumen on a Budget
May 16, 2018 | | Leave a comment
The complexity, connectivity and pace of business today demand that employees and leaders understand their work like never before. This goes beyond “corporate speak” and buzzword vocabulary; everyone in today’s organizations must have a working knowledge of the strategy and how that translates to the bottom-line. This is why business acumen is among the most searched and sought-after competencies by those looking to build their skills and an edge. The good news is that an MBA is not the only option. There are countless ways to acquire the knowledge critical to success, even if time and funds are running short. …
Posted in Career Matters
Tagged business acumen, shadowing, strategy
Recognizing ‘Robligation’
rob·li·ga·tion /rˌäbləˈɡāSH(ə)n/ noun (invented) the heavy, suffocating experience of agreeing to a project or assignment only to realize that it hangs over your head, robbing you of the experience of joy until it’s completed It’s something I’ve experienced since high school; and I thought was my own unique brand of neurosis. I would take on a significant responsibility, assignment or task. I might have been excited about and even honored by it… until it became mine. Then, this potentially joyful and interesting opportunity would immediately transform into something very different—an obligation or duty I was somehow bound to until completion. …
Posted in Happiness Matters
Tagged imagination, obligation, opportunity, reframing, stress
The Magic of Making an Effort
Just over a year ago I gave a keynote speech at a conference in Russia. I worked diligently to master a few key phrases. But, between having no natural capacity for foreign languages and not hearing much Russian in my day-to-day life, the result was dreadful. I actually might have insulted their mothers as I greeted the audience; but they smiled and clapped enthusiastically. Throughout the conference, I tried out my slow and very clunky greetings. It was uncomfortable for me and probably sounded like nails on a chalkboard to those with whom I spoke. Yet, even my worst attempts …
Posted in Leadership Matters, Learning Matters
Tagged demonstrated effort, effort, flexibility, perfection, stretch assignments
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Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go
When you help employees grow….engagement, retention, productivity, and business results will grow as well.
