Building trust in the workplace is much like growing plants in a garden; you have to sow the seeds. If you don’t sow it, you can’t grow it. It doesn’t matter how rich the soil is in your garden, how much sunlight it receives, or how often you water, if you don’t sow the seeds, you…
One of the biggest challenges leadership, learning, and talent development professionals face when they propose a new initiative is convincing their CEO of the financial impact of the proposed initiative. Without a clear sense of the positive financial impact, it’s easy for a leader to dismiss a new proposal as being too disruptive, too expensive,…
In a new article for Training magazine, Jim Diehl and I share the results of a 1,300-person study of teams in today’s work environment. The survey results reveal there’s much work to be done: only 27 percent of respondents said their teams perform at top levels a majority of the time. Millennials scored their team…
I’ve always appreciated this quote from famed author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.: “Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.” What good is building character only to have it erode due to a lack of maintenance? Coaching enables people to gain clarity about who they are,…
Dear Madeleine, I am a fairly new marketing manager for a large consumer goods firm. I have three great people who work for me—I inherited them, so I lucked out. We function like a well-oiled machine. The problem is my boss. She was promoted about two years ago and now oversees several managers of different…
Power. The word itself evokes a reaction. What thoughts or feelings do you have when you think of power? Perhaps you picture an organizational chart where the boxes at the top are imbued with more power than those below. Maybe you imagine an iron fist, representative of a person who rules over others with absolute authority.…
If you’re a leader, particularly in a large organization, the chances are your people don’t see you as a real person. They have a mental image of what they perceive you to be like, not who you actually are, says research by Nathan T. Washburn and Benjamin Galvin. This mental image is formed through random…
Think about a leader you admire. Maybe it is the CEO of your company, the principal of your local high school, or the president of your alma mater. If I asked you about the specific qualities that made them successful, you’d probably tell me about their hard skills—teachable abilities such as vision and strategic thinking.…
All over the world, leaders are using coaching to gain a competitive edge. But does coaching solve every problem one might encounter in the workplace? “No. It’s not a panacea,” says coaching expert Patricia Overland in an article for Chief Learning Officer. “Determining when coaching is a good investment can be challenging.” Overland shares a…
Dear Madeleine, I am an EVP of strategy and shareholder value for a billion dollar global conglomerate. I have been working with a coach for the last six months and she has made a huge difference in terms of helping me prioritize, focus, and develop more powerful relationships. Things have been going so well that…