Articles
The Power of Definitions
AN AESOP FABLE: CONSTRUCTS, REALITY AND DEFINITIONS Aesop narrated a story of a man and a lion who are competing to determine who is the strongest. To prove his point, the man shows to the lion a statue of Hercules tearing apart the jaws of a lion. The lion’s retort is that a man created…Read More »
The Leader as Influencer
One of the measures of a great leader is how people think, talk and remember that person. The greatness of a leader is how instrumental he or she is in accomplishing a vision that creates conditions where significant improvement is achieved. Such people are admired because something has been deeply touched in the admirer, and…Read More »
The Servant Leader Influences Intrinsic Motivators
The idea of “leader as a servant” has been around for some time and long before Robert Greenleaf coined the term for modern business about 40 years ago. Here are some thoughts on the need for servant leaders in today’s business climate. One of the measures of a great leader is how people think, talk…Read More »
Are Women Better Team Players?
No one doubts that high performance teams are meant to be the engines that drive success in today’s business environment. Though much has been written on team theory and there is no scarcity of experiential team trainings, the pathway to team effectiveness has remained elusive for many managers. We can draw some insights into predictors…Read More »
High Performance Teams & Collective Intelligence
While high performance teams are the drivers of success in an organization, building such teams can be elusive. Simply assembling extraordinarily skilled individuals to have a high-performance team is not necessarily a recipe for success. Many a team of very bright individuals often underperform to their potential and might even underperform compared to a team…Read More »
Pedagogical Virtues of a Virtual Workshop Environment
A core premise in addressing the pedagogical virtues of a virtual environment is the distinction between teaching and learning (see https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud.) The premise being that learning is a process of discovery, experimentation and exploration rather than telling, instructing and teaching. If we accept such premise, the virtual workshop environment is ideal. For starters, it has a…Read More »
An Influencing Paradox
Recently, I was looking at synonyms in the dictionary for influencing and I found words such as affect, have an impact on, determine, guide, shape, change, alter and transform. These are generally positive terms particularly if influencing has a constructive impact. Then as I scrolled down, another set of synonyms appeared such as sway, control,…Read More »
Does Good Leadership Include Intimacy?
In a recent training program, the participants and I were looking at different leadership attributes such as trust, vision and innovation. I suggested that intimacy was one of those attributes as well. The participants did not disagree with intimacy being a component, but it did catch them by surprise and a conversation began around the…Read More »
Enjoyment & Performance
Participants In a recent workshop discussing thought leadership, were asked to identify one aspect of their job in which they excelled. One participant started her sentence with “I enjoy”. I found that very revealing but also very profound because, rather than looking at performance as a skill based endeavor, she made a very powerful connection…Read More »
Positive Thinking & Realism
In a recent coaching workshop, the difference between being positive and being realistic became a topic of discussion. The risk perceived in having a positive approach was that some considered it naive or Pollyannaish and lacking connection with reality. Our conversation explored tempering a positive approach with realism, in order to moderate the two contrasting…Read More »
Learning Points from a Workshop on Managing Difficult Conversations
Some time ago I was having a conversation with an extraordinary high school teacher discussing how one would measure a successful class. My friend had no hesitation in his response, “I am sure that it was a successful class,” he said, “when I know I have learned something at the end of the class.” I…Read More »
Redefining Accountability: Creating A Workplace Consonant With Human Values
by Valerio Pascotto, Jules Goddard and Tim Gallwey Published in Interconnections Issue 5 2010. The desire to count, to make a difference and to excel are universal human drives. Yet most companies find it difficult to tap into these motives. This is because they define accountability in a way that most employees find demeaning. As…Read More »