Is ignorant a bad word? Should we hire the ignorant? The answers are No and Maybe. It takes a special leader to hire the ignorant and sometimes hiring them is a bad idea. It can also be a powerful word for pushing us to grow.
Do you write thank you notes? It is a powerful way to build trust with others and to monitor how well you are recognizing great things that people are doing around you.
Great leadership and great followership starts and ends with conversations that create understanding and actions. Here is one conversation around Building Trust that makes a difference.
Followers need leaders that tell them the truth AND help them find the path out if they choose to work through a challenge. Here is a story about telling the truth, leadership, followership, and how it can make a big difference in a life.
Leaders need to know others and be known by others. Here is a tool to help start those conversations – it is great leadership and great followership.
What to do with people that are not performing on a team? This is a question asked in my leadership / followership class and I committed to blog on the answer.
A question from my Leadership / Followership class at the Holland Chamber of Commmerce. Question was around the facilitation of a group that was stuck in the decision making process.
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.
What does great followership / great leadership look like? Here is a visual example thanks to TED.
The Birkman Method defines it and many leadership programs talk about it. Asking directly What do you Need is a cornerstone question to great leadership. In this question people are invited to the trUPerformance conversation.
Leadership is challenging. One challenge is creating a safe place for conversations and still have boundaries when problems come to you that are beyond what you can help solve. The formal name is Employee Assistance Program, but another good name is Leadership Assistance Program.
Performance. Accountability. Terms used often in organizations and yet our actions as leaders send a message that our job is to fix people. A leaders job is to care for people and give them an opportunity to join the discussion.