Tag: Human resources
3 Tips For Being More Strategic, Starting Now
In the last post about strategic thinking skills, no places have been more important for strategy than in chess and war. In those contexts, strategy intended to render opponents useless. Somehow, that made its way into corporations, where also through strategy, we wage a different battle with products and services. Just as humility, integrity and ...
There’s Something Missing from Most Leadership Advice
I’ve probably said this before, but do a search on “leadership” books on Amazon.com and you’ll find literally millions of titles. Frequently, themes focus on leadership “behaviors” such as integrity, humility, collaboration, listening to others, creating a vision, inspiring others, taking risks, modeling good behavior and so on. But what about being strategic? I admit, ...
Top 5 Leadership Insights Learned from 8-year-olds at an Art Studio
This is another post in the “everyday leadership” category. One must follow one’s inspiration, and everyday events have surprised me lately. This time, it’s not a family reunion or hockey team helping out at church that offered leadership inspiration, but rather my daughters’ eighth birthday party at a Minneapolis open art studio, Simply Jane. It’s clear creative ...
What Great Leaders and Jerry Maguire Have in Common
One of my favorite movies is Jerry Maguire. There is much of your typical “integrity and character” fodder. But, what really resonated when I saw it 15 years ago and then recently was the loneliness that can sometimes accompany true leadership or pushing change. There are many things you probably inferred, or that supervisors and mentors ...
Move Over Change Management, Change Habits Instead
When beginning a new HR lead role a few years ago, one of the first requests I had for the president — my new boss — was to tell me his organizational wish list. His first response was, “I want you to create a development culture in our business.” That word “culture” struck me. I ...
McDonald’s Jan Fields Proves Leadership is for Everyone
I attended a Women’s Leadership Forum at a large corporation recently featuring Jan Fields, President of McDonald’s USA. She is #88 on Forbes “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women,” sharing the stage with the likes of Hilary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Meg Whitman and Marisa Mayer. I had just published a “best leadership advice” blog post, so ...
Debunking Assertiveness, Part II: 5 Ways to Get More Women in Leadership
It’s clear we’ve moved beyond the days of telling women they should “be more assertive” as explained in my last post, Debunking Assertiveness: Real Reasons There Aren’t More Women in Leadership, Part I. However, there are some barriers to getting more women on leadership teams and on boards. They include homogenous culture at the top, ...
Debunking Assertiveness: Real Reasons There Aren’t More Executive Women, Part I
Attend most leadership conferences or read any book geared toward women, you’ll probably hear someone telling women they should be more assertive. I’ve been in professional roles since the early ’90s, and it irritated me back then. To hear that in 2012 is infuriating. Even worse, in our most respected business periodicals, we’re still telling women ...
Please Accept My Resignation
Imagine that today your #1 person turns in his/her resignation. This is a shock. Your company has a robust talent management process. You identify people from within, precisely defining each level of their leadership lives with accompanying training. You analyzed this person’s compensation and paid them above market. Maybe they even had a development ...
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