One of the things I love the most about traveling around and speaking at conferences and meetings about Perfecting Connecting ® is the conversations I have afterward with audience members. They often start with, “I really would like to be a better networker and connector but I’m so bad at it!” People have a very…
City councils, boards of administrators and other governing systems demand a performance management framework that focuses on what outcomes employees will achieve, and how success is going to be measured. This tool reveals how to construct an integrated performance management framework that takes into account the many different functions which a city or a county…
In the book Straight Talk: Turning Communication Upside Down for Strategic Results, Eric Douglas describes four different communication styles: the director, expresser, thinker and harmonizer. Each different style is based on a unique set of assumptions. Here’s a quick snapshot:
The foundation for building rapport is based on the exchange of a few basic communication signals. Here are 4 key ways to build instant rapport. This is based on the book, Get Along With Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere by Arnold Sanow and Sandra Strauss.
This tool is useful for visualizing the steps in a typical strategic planning process, from the initial environmental scan to the narrowing of strategies and developing of related performance targets. Managers and leaders can use this tool to communicate their planning process to other managers, employees, board members and other stakeholders. This tool is best used…
This tool defines the 20 qualities of leadership that researchers have identified as common to virtually all organizations. It may be used to determine the leadership qualities people revere most within the organization. It can also be used to aid an individual leader gauge his or her own leadership skills.
Professor Alex Haslam of the University of Exeter, in a recent presentation put on by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, took the following position in answer to the question, “What makes a great leader?”
The respected consulting firm, Hay Group, has just announced the release of its 6th Annual Best Companies for Leadership study. The top 20 are major corporations with a global presence. Collectively, over the last five years, they have generated shareholder returns that are 36 times better than those from the Standard & Poor 500 companies.
I came across a quote from Oprah Winfrey, interviewed in the Dec. 26/10 issue of Parade : Everybody just wants to be heard…Do your eyes light up when I enter the room? Did you hear me and did what I say mean anything to you? That’s all they’re looking for. That’s what everybody is looking…
I have been touting the 4-Drive Model of Employee Motivation since I first read the 2008 Harvard Business Review article “Employee Motivation: A Powerful New Model” by Nohria, , Groysberg, and Lee. You could say I’ve been a very BIG advocate for this model! It is a powerful theory on human motivation in general, and…
The late great expert on mythology, Joseph Campbell, used to tell a tale from the days of King Arthur. One day during a feast, the Holy Grail appears high in the great room but draped in a veil. Then it disappears. The bold Sir Gawain proposes that the knights all go off to find the…
One of the best books written on teams and teamwork is The Wisdom of Teams by Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith. They make the distinction between a “team” and what they call a “working group.” The latter is the most common form in workplaces today: a VP with a group of managers, each in charge…
A number of years ago my wife and I attended a workshop on how to facilitate dialogue. The session was led by our colleagues Will Stockton and Marjorie Herdes of Mobius, Inc. They do tremendous work, especially facilitating large group and community dialogue sessions, using a “roadmap” they’ve evolved over the years which they call…
The Institute for Corporate Productivity recently came out with four recommendations for putting in place an effective, robust process for managing and recognizing individual performance. Focusing, as is their wont, on the practices of high performing organizations, their research found that:
Hewitt Associates have come out with another informative study, called The Current State of Performance Management and Career Development 2010. They surveyed HR professionals from 193 employers. On the performance side, it looks at how companies are using performance goals (the “what”) and behavioral competencies (the “how”) in their year end performance assessment process. Here…
Stephen was the manager of a work-group in a company where he was held strictly accountable for the milestones, deliverables, and the overall performance of his work-group. But Stephen constantly struggled with destructive conflict between two individuals (Sal and Christy) who had radically different approaches to problem-solving on key projects that had high corporate visibility…
When delivering presentation skills training programs, one of the first requests we get is, “Can you provide some tips and tools to polish our presentations so that they are less boring and everyone stays awake?” The reality is the attention span of an adult is 8 seconds. Now, this does not mean that people won’t…
“Don’t they get it?” said the executive, “If we don’t generate a good return to our shareholders, there won’t be any investment in the company. And, without investments, there won’t be any more company to give them their job. What more motivation do they need?” Do you hear a faint echo of your parents here?
I was so excited about my book recommendation this month, “Never Eat Alone,” and the great connecting strategies that author Keith Ferrazzi openly shares in this truly “must-read” book. And then Hurricane Katrina struck. Since this tragedy more than 10 days ago, I have witnessed the power of effective networking and the healing arms of…
Wouldn’t you agree that life is about quality connections? Our success, happiness, and well-being are largely the by products of our ability to get along well with others and cultivate positive relationships. Below is a checklist of the active ingredients in creating enduring connections. These are from the book, “Get Along with Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere…