Dear Madeleine, I manage a large team of creative professionals in a US-based advertising firm. My company went to an unlimited PTO plan 18 months ago. Covid-19 weirdness aside, I am finding that my people are not taking time off and seem burnt out. I am confused by this. I talk to each of my…
Recent technology advances have made it a lot easier to create the type of collaborative learning experiences today’s organizations are looking for, says Scott Blanchard, president of The Ken Blanchard Companies. “Platforms from companies like Intrepid and Degreed have allowed us to create a cohort-based design that stretches the learning out over a period of…
Dear Madeleine, I manage a department in a large manufacturing organization. Some parts of our business are going gangbusters, but my area is suffering from a slowdown due to the restrictions and economic impact of Covid-19. We were able to redeploy some of my people to the busier parts of the business, but still ended…
Dear Madeleine, I thought I could take it, but now I am not so sure. I live in a state that is just now having an explosion of Covid-19 cases. I thought at this point things would be going back to semi-normal, yet it appears things are going from bad to worse. My mother is…
Dear Madeleine, I am a director in a small company. My boss (a boomer) keeps mentioning that I need to develop my brand. I really don’t understand what she means. The more I learn about personal branding, the more it feels like something that can limit me. It also feels like kind of an old,…
Ken Blanchard says it is difficult for leaders to plan for the future while they are also managing the day-to-day. For that reason, he suggests organizations have two groups of leaders: one that focuses on the present and a second that looks toward the future. In their new book Lead from the Future, Mark W.…
A common coaching objective for executive clients is to exude greater executive presence while also being authentic. Many successful leaders are known for having exceptional executive presence. When you see this quality, you just know. However, when you don’t see it—you also know. The path to executive presence can be challenging due to the following…
Dear Madeleine, It has recently become apparent that one of my newer direct reports is lying. In one instance, he told me a presentation was proofed and ready to go and I found out it wasn’t when I went into the document on our shared drive to make a change. In another instance, I learned…
“I’m sure you’ve heard the saying People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. And that is so true for anyone who is in a leadership role today,” says Kathy Cuff, senior consulting partner at The Ken Blanchard Companies. “In our SLII® leadership development class we conduct an exercise…
As an antidote to the negative consequences of personality-based leadership theories, new generations of leadership, learning, and talent development professionals are rediscovering servant leadership. That’s great news for those of us who believe that simply focusing on acting like a leader is a poor substitute for developing the character and behaviors of someone who truly…
Dear Readers, This week I am using this space to address my own questions—questions that have been on many people’s minds: How can I help? What can I do? What actions might count? We can no longer look away. The time has come to challenge ourselves to be better humans. It is hard to know…
“So many of us are dealing with changes to our work routines. It’s generating a mountain of new requests and tasks that require us to get things done using new guidelines, practices, and procedures,” says bestselling business author Dr. Vicki Halsey, VP of Applied Learning at The Ken Blanchard Companies. “Leaders need to: (1) be…
Dear Madeleine, I know I should be grateful to have a job, and I love the company I work for. BUT. My whole company is madly trying to stay afloat and reinvent itself and I have more work coming at me than I can possibly do. I am working 16-hour days. I have my laptop…
Dear Madeleine, Every time I hear the word “feedback” I have a strong, negative response. This comes from a recent experience with a manager. Going into the relationship, I had always been someone who asked for feedback. This manager, however, gave me feedback so often there was no need to ask for it. She seemed…
In this age of fast-moving markets, fickle consumers, and unprecedented risks, we need leaders who think and act like entrepreneurs. In his latest book, Entrepreneurial Leadership: The Art of Launching New Ventures, Inspiring Others, and Running Stuff, Joel Peterson explains the important difference between an entrepreneur and an entrepreneurial leader: Entrepreneurs can launch new ventures…
