An Interview with Jake Jacobs on Real Time Strategic Change
I was delighted to catch up with Jake Jacobs, the creator of Real Time Strategic Change (RTSC), the approach that brings hundreds of people together to make collaborative decisions about their organization in real time, which I described in Try Collaborative Change...
Tune In and Turn Off
Technology gives us the opportunity to be “always on” and the illusion of increased productivity. The reality is that it’s not healthy, and over the long run you will be less productive. Even understanding this, it can be hard to resist the pressure to quickly check...
How to REALLY Listen
My friend Jake said, “When someone tells me about a problem, I used to try to help them solve it. But I’ve learned that simply listening can be more helpful than the best advice I might give.” Jake is not alone. Many of us equate listening with problem-solving, and we...
Results Driven vs Process Driven Leadership
During a break in the meeting, Dan pulled me aside and whispered, “No more ‘p’ words, please.” “What are ‘p’ words?” I asked. “You know,” he replied, “Words like process, perspective and paradigm.” Dan is results-driven. There were way too many "p" words in this...
TweetChat: An Exciting New Way to Learn, Connect, and Explore Emergent Leadership
I had the honor of being invited to guest host the India HR Twitter Chat this past week, with two of my favorite leadership experts Tanmay Vora and Tanvi Guatam. The #IndiaHRChat is attended by many experienced business leaders and HR professionals who tackle meaty...
Create a Team Charter to Go Faster and Smarter
Victor's team had recently delivered a couple of large projects, and he was pleased with their performance. But there was feedback that they were feeling burned out, and two people had recently requested transfers. When I suggested creating a Team Charter, he told me,...
The Best Way to Predict Your Future
"The best way to predict your future is to create it." - This popular quote is attributed to Peter Drucker. But what does it really mean? Do you muscle your way into the future, constructing your life as though it's a project? If you try to do that, you'll be...
The 4 Practices of Successful Flat Organizations
As more organizations are becoming flatter, the looming question is whether it’s possible to “do more with less” or whether it’s necessary to rethink the distribution of power and control as described by Peter Drucker, Peter Block and Gary Hamel among others. Emergent...
The 12 Team Behaviors That Drive Team Performance
What can you do as a team member to help your team achieve The 6 Benchmarks of High Performance Teams? There are 12 team behaviors that directly affect the quality of your team's results, the ability to make smart decisions and the commitment to implement them. Task...
How to Give Your Boss Bad News and Keep Your Credibility
“Bad news isn’t wine. It doesn’t improve with age.” –Colin Powell One of hardest tasks in management is how to give your boss bad news. After all, you want to show you’ve got everything under control, are making the right decisions, and are executing flawlessly. As...
The 40 Best Leadership Quotes
There's a good reason leadership quotes are popular. A few lines can pack a lot of information that teach and inspire. In A Tweet, a Blog Post, and a Profound Teaching I shared quotes from my own writing. These are the top leadership quotes by others. (If I missed one...
Emergent Leadership Topples the Pyramid
What's your view of leadership? If you're like most people, you have an underlying belief that leaders should be out in front of the line, leading the way. The Hierarchical View of Leadership In the traditional, hierarchical view, senior leaders are at the top of the...