employee engagement

Failure (continuing a thought from Seth Godin)

Failure is an important part of leadership and followership. Striving to be our best does not mean always being right. Seth Godin planted the seed for this post, and I reflect on how certain leaders show they are special by how they process failure openly. Leadership development, self awareness, and building a great culture require a healthy attitude towards failure.

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7 Key Numbers All Leaders Should Know

Learning takes energy. Here are the numbers any leader or follower should think about before they start asking for or embarking on personal change. Talent management is about all of these AND the conversation that follows. Your next talent management strategy or leadership development key note address should probably include all of these numbers.

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5 Habits To Build a Trust Savings Account

Truth and trust are the two areas that all leaders need to focus all of the time. Here are 5 Habits to build a Trust Savings Account (aka: Emergency Fund). The Birkman Method is a great tool for helping to understand the individual needs of your people. This is s cornerstone of both leadership development and the development of the culture of your team.

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What the mirror says . . .

Leadership and team development involves looking in the mirror on occassion. The Birkman Method is a great tool for creating self Awareness for the team and for the leaders. The Birkman Method helps see the natural style, the stress style, and the needs that have to be met in order to help the natural style of the leader be present more often.

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Wisconsin SHRM 2011: My presentations

What is the #1 issue in talent management? There are actually 2: Performance evaluations have to be given on-time AND people need development plans. Here is a talent management presentation around the talent scorecard that I gave at the Wisconsin SHRM 2011 conference as a speaker. It is ideal for a keynote address to leaders looking for a perspective on leveraging their talent and an action plan to do it.

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Learning to listen to ourselves

Resilience and leadership starts with an awareness of self, and gets done with a practice of coaching ourselves when we feel our perceptions taking over. We have to rely on our instincts, but we cannot lead effectively if the people we have to trust feel like we are not listening to them. Here is a coaching example of resilience and building trust.

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Is Your Talent At-Risk? Talent Scorecard – Part 2

Talent management is not about doing the big things, it is about the little things. The little things are conversations, plans, and support that help people feel like a valuable asset. The talent management scorecard helps leaders see how they are doing, and helps leaders develop the focus and skills to help their team perform.

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Do we need a Talent Management Initiative? No . . . Part I

Talent managment is not an initiative, it is about habits. My talent scorecard helps leaders ask themselve “Am I doing all of the important things that my people need”. Leadership development is about helping leaders become skilled at the What of leadership, and this scorecard helps them understand the Why as well as the what.

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Words that make me go Hmmmm – Hold accountable

Leadership and accountability is a double edged sword. Accountability is too often used around revolutionary or punitive rhetoric. Be careful, because it is a powerful word and it can result in some very distructive actions. Talent management has to have accountabiity to work, but it starts with a great conversation and a strong relationship.

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Your voice is smiling

Attitude is contagious. Smiles also become contagious, and people can hear smiles. Here is a thought about how leading with a smile makes a difference.

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4 Habits to Build, 1 Initiative to Avoid (#Retention)

Refocusing on Employee Engagement is an important topic right now as the economy turns, but stop and think of what too many organizations/leaders stopped doing that got us here. Here are four habits that will make at least part of this initiative go away.

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