Are you driven to achieve? Are you overly concerned with the opinions of others? Ken Blanchard left a reminder on voice mail the other day that if your self-worth is dependent on your accomplishments plus the opinion of others you are in trouble, because that means your self-worth is up for grabs on a daily…
Most work teams experience conflict, but few team members know how to respond appropriately. Dr. Eunice Parisi-Carew, who recently presented on the topic of Why Teams Fail—Dealing with Friction and Dissension recommends that teams address conflict head-on and look at it as an opportunity to be creative and innovative instead of something to avoid. As…
So much of leadership advice focuses on what to say and how to act in ways that creates trust, confidence, and followership. And while it is important to understand how certain leader behaviors can be interpreted by others, that should never take the place of authenticity. All of us have a genuine leader inside of…
Want to know what a person believes? Watch their behavior. People act consistently with their world view. If someone is acting scared, or selfish, or self-centered, they are telling you something about their beliefs. That’s the message Hyrum Smith, co-founder of LegacyQuest and former vice chairman of Franklin Covey delivered at The Ken Blanchard Companies…
Are you ready for Open Leadership? That’s the question that Charlene Li asks in her book, Open Leadership: How social technology can transform the way you lead. A major theme in the book is that leadership is about relationships, and because social technologies are changing relationships, leadership also needs to change. And while most executives…
New research suggests employees who must appear dispassionate at work may have less energy to devote to work tasks and may receive less than positive appraisals from others. “Our study shows that emotion suppression takes a toll on people,” said Dr. Daniel Beal, assistant professor of psychology at Rice University and co-author of the study.…
In the June 2010 issue of Ignite, Madeleine Homan Blanchard discusses how Leadership Strengths Are a Double-Edged Sword. She goes on to explain that positive characteristics such as optimism, confidence, and intelligence can turn into delusion, arrogance, and unhealthy competitiveness if left unchecked. In her work with highly successful executives, this crossover from strengths to…
What’s the relationship between notoriety and leadership? That’s the question that might surface for you as you look at the following list of people who have recently been nominated as one of today’s top leaders in our Top Leader Survey. As you scan the list below, you’ll probably see some names you immediately recognize. Others…
In his recent blog post on Decoding Leadership, business author and consultant Norm Smallwood laments that if you ask 30 leadership development experts to define leadership, you get 31 different answers. To make his point he recounts an experience meeting with a group of senior executives and asking the question: “What are qualities of effective leaders?”…
Have you ever wondered how bright, successful leaders go from speeding along on the career fast track to suddenly crashing and burning? Two recent books help identify some of the unknowing ways that leaders ultimately trip themselves up in their careers. In Know What You Don’t Know: How Great Leaders Prevent Problems Before They Happen…