Professional Development

Make Good Decisions Dad

Leadership development can happen anywhere. Talent management is about having great conversations and doing something positive with what you hear and learn. This lesson in leadership was from the mouth of a nine year old, and I am glad I listened.

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Rule 3 – NEVER cancel without rescheduling

Trust is critical in a healthy relationship. For leaders, a way to establish it is to put great value on the one on one time and never cancel without rescheduling right away. This is the final rules for one on ones that must NEVER be broken. Talent management is about great conversations. Follow these three rules and you are on your way to having them.

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Performance plan = Coaching? 2 Arguments for NO

Coaching is a term used by leaders and organizations in many performance conversations. Using it as a label for helping individuals through a performance plan is the wrong move. Talent management is about having great conversations, and connecting coaching with ‘I am in trouble’ will forever taint your process. Here are two reasons why . . . .

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Rule 2 – Individual (not leader) owns the agenda

A key conversation and habit for any leader is the one on one. Here is the second rule for leaders doing one one ones – letting the owner be the individual, not the leader. Talent management is about great conversations, and this one will be more effective if the ownership is not with the leader.

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Everyone needs a Target. Everyone!

Talent management is about great conversations. It is a mistake to assume a six figure salary means that people can be totally independent and will create their own performance expectations. The one on one template I use defines that expectation and helps people see the goal that must be attained.

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Questions to help the work get done (and the team to be built)

Talent management starts with what we will commit to doing and making sure we have what we need to be successful. These are also the building blocks for teamwork. Seth Godin paints a great picture of teamwork and how to get past disagreements. Here are a few more questions to help you use these to solve your disagreements and move the work/the team/your contribution forward.

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4 Things That Identify a Great Community

Shifting Gears is a unique program in Michigan that helps people effectively move through a career transition. Often people that come to a program have been unemployed for 1+ year and are frustrated with what they are experiencing. The key to Shifting Gears is community, and creating it and getting people to contribute to it is the key to making it work. Here are 4 characteristics of a great community.

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What is your learning BRAND?

Have you heard of TED? Where do you learn? Talent management is about great conversations. As part of that conversation, I love to ask these two questions to help me understand someones learning Brand. Use them, and if you are asked, be ready to offer some authentic and energized answers.

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What do I do?

Talent management and leadership starts with great conversations. One of the most important conversations is around What do I do? In the answer and the process towards the answer is the essence of leadership. The clarity, focus, and accountability that is built into this question will take you to a different place in terms of your performance.

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Building a Leadership Development Program from Scratch

How do you build a leadership development program from scratch? It is a questions posed to me and it would not leave my brain until I wrote it down. Talent management is about great conversations, and leadership development is about structuring those conversations around experiences, self reflection, and networking. It can be done well and with a single currency – time from other leaders.

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What if We Called It Your Individual Development Story?

A key piece of talent management is an individual development plan. Yet so few people have them, and something has to change because it is one of the most critical pieces of the process of helping someone get better. What if we called it an individual development story? When we call it a story the elements we look for and the roles we offer become clearer and expected. Talent management is about great conversations. An individual development story has all the makings of a great conversation.

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