When Change Hits “Upside the Head”

Change.  It’s a topic that provides much fodder for discussion among leaders.  We anticipate it; study it; plan for it; and, if we are smart (or lucky), we make it happen or respond to it with strength, a sense of purpose and a clear head.  Sounds pretty simple.
But of course, it’s not.  Sometimes change hits [...]

Workplace Democracy – A Genie in A Bottle

Okay so I’m going where Boomers fear to tread here today. I’m going take a look at workplace democracy.  It is a hard place for me to go because I grew up with, and came to understand and accept, a workplace that is best described as a benevolent dictatorship.  So the notion of people voting [...]

Ambiguity in Leadership is a Certainty

Anyone who has ever been in a leadership role for longer than, oh, five minutes, knows that leadership is not a prescriptive thing.  As simple as we try to make it with lists of the ten top things to do here or the best five things to do there, it remains complex and full of [...]

In Praise of Peacocks, Nerds, Dorks & Dweebs

Some time ago, I read a book called “A Peacock in the land of Penguins”.  The book was written by B.J. Gallagher Hateley and Warren H. Schmidt and it tells the story of an organization of Penguins who seek to differentiate themselves from the competition by hiring birds of a different feather.
As the story goes, [...]

Leading By Example & Mistaken Beliefs

According to Albert Schweitzer, “Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing”.
If Albert is right about that, then leading by example, although a simple enough concept carries with it a pretty big impact.
On the face of it, to get it right, leaders must exhibit the behaviour they would like [...]

Change & The Credibility Factor

I’ve been thinking about change lately, mostly about what it is that separates a person who seems to be able to influence change in a positive direction, from a person who might have the authority and the technical skill to do the work, but seems unable to pull it off.
The word credibility comes to mind.  [...]

Making Change Happen When You’re Not The Boss

Some time ago I noticed that someone had googled this: “How to make change happen when you’re not the boss”
I imagine this is something that rates very high on the frustration scale in a lot of organizations because hierarchy is so often allowed to get in the way of good ideas. And, while there are [...]

How Not to Waste Time at Meetings

It happened every Friday morning.  My colleagues and I would sit around a very large conference table, shaking the sleep out of our heads, inhaling excessive amounts of coffee and chatting about, well, whatever.   We would be there for over an hour as we each took a turn to inform the others what we were [...]

Know Thyself Part III – Personality Type

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, more affectionately known as MBTI ®, is based on the psychology of Carl Jung and was developed by Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother Katherine Cook Briggs.  These women, after fifty years of research and development produced a tool that has proven invaluable to people in all walks of life.
Basically the [...]