Dear Madeleine, I spent a decade of my career at a very sexy, high profile tech company and rose to a senior position. I worked 24/7 and my commute was a horror show. When my kids were little, my husband was traveling a lot for his job, and things started fraying around the edges, I…
Dear Madeleine, I lead a team in a large organization. I stepped in as an interim leader when my boss went out on leave—but he never came back. At this point, my challenge is that I need to delegate more and make people on my team do the stuff they should be doing. I have…
Everyone experiences emotions—happy, sad, angry, afraid, ashamed, etc. Emotions can move you forward or hold you back. Your reactions to others’ emotions can positively enhance a relationship or partnership, or negatively detract from it. People with high emotional intelligence are able to recognize emotions that surface within themselves and others. Emotional intelligence, also known as…
Does training really work? “If we as leadership, learning, and development professionals can’t answer that question with an enthusiastic yes, we’re all in trouble,” says Dr. Paul Leone, ROI expert at Verizon and author of the book Measuring and Maximizing Training Impact: Bridging the Gap between Training and Business Results. “The truth is, HR people…
“Everyone wants to be happy,” says Neil Pasricha. “We were brought up to believe that if we worked hard we would have great success, and then we would be happy. But that just isn’t true.” Pasricha shares research that indicates combining great work with success, doesn’t necessarily lead to happiness. In fact, it is the…
Dear Madeleine, I work for the tax collector’s office at my local county tax agency. The bulk of my efforts go to facilitating change into that environment. I am a career-driven person and I am finding it very difficult to influence others. My job is under the umbrella of a state agency and I recently…
Dear Madeleine, I’ve had my eye on a position that might be opening in my company. It would be a big step for me, but I think this is the job I have always wanted. My problem is that the minute I start even thinking about applying, I feel overcome with anxiety and literally break…
In their academic paper Identifying Primary Characteristics of Servant Leadership, researchers Adam Focht and Michael Ponton share the results of a Delphi study they conducted with scholars in the field of servant leadership. A total of twelve characteristics were identified, five of which were agreed upon by all of the scholars polled. These five most…
Dear Madeleine, I started a business with my best friend about ten years ago after the real estate bubble burst and we were both laid off from our financial services business. Against considerable odds, we have been very successful. We decided when we started to grow that he would be CEO and I would CFO/COO. …
In this episode, Vicki Halsey, author of Brilliance by Design, shares a case study of a team putting the ENGAGE model into practice. For years, both in the school environment and in corporate education, Vicki Halsey observed what was happening in classrooms—a teacher standing in front of a group of people, talking at them. The…
Hi Madeleine, I have been working for over 15 years in my field and have moved up the ranks. In my last role I was a manager. Six months ago, I left my old job and moved to a company that had a small team where I was given a supervisor/team lead title that was…
In this enlightening episode, Brené Brown describes her research study, seven years in the making, that looks at the future of leadership and the barriers and obstacles to daring leadership. “One of the most important findings of my career is daring leadership—a collection of skills and practices that are teachable, observable, and measurable. It’s learning…
Dear Madeleine, I have been assigned to handle a new team and we are currently in the developmental stage. Yesterday as I did a few one-on-one sessions, one of the new hires on my team (let’s call her Laura) mentioned that one of my tenured team members (let’s call her Carol) was cold to her.…
“Building a servant leadership curriculum begins by identifying the attitudes, skills, and behaviors of a servant leader,” says Vicki Halsey, vice president of applied learning for The Ken Blanchard Companies. “Once you’ve identified what to teach and how to teach it, you can begin to look at the training modules you have in place and…
Dear Madeleine, I work as a training manager in a large organization. Two years ago my boss was let go. Since then, I have been doing both her job and my old job. I like my current boss (formerly my boss’s boss) but it’s obvious that he is fine with the existing situation. I’m not—and…
