Leadership Sunshine and Shadows

Leadership Sunshine and Shadows

There’s been a lot written about “strength-based” development approaches in recent years. You’re better off building on your natural strengths and talents, research suggests, than trying to improve your weaknesses. The usefulness of the strength-based approach...
Ain’t That a Kick in the Pants

Ain’t That a Kick in the Pants

Isn’t it funny how obvious and oblivious are so close? — Author unknown My work with leaders sometimes involves inviting the leader’s direct reports to purposely kick him or her in the emotional keister. One of the most effective ways of doing this is having the...
Reality Bites for New Leaders

Reality Bites for New Leaders

In the same way, people without children can’t really know what it’s like to have kids until they do, you can’t really know what it’s like to be a leader until you actually lead. That’s the reality of when it comes to leadership. Even organizations that invest...
Leaders as Loyal Rebels

Leaders as Loyal Rebels

If we’ve learned anything during the last couple of years, it’s that people are frustrated with “establishment” leaders. We worry that such leaders aren’t capable of acting independent of their party or organization, even when acting independently would be doing the...