Dear Madeleine, I have been with the same organization for eight years. My company offers anyone who has been here for seven years a reduced pay, three-month sabbatical. My boss keeps pestering me to schedule it and take one. (I totally get that this is a good problem for me to have.) I don’t have…
What are the attributes of a modern servant leader in business today—someone who puts the interests of others on equal footing with their own? The Ken Blanchard Companies recently completed a three-city tour piloting servant leadership content with leadership, learning, and talent development professionals in Houston, New York, and Ft. Lauderdale. As a part of…
The Ken Blanchard Companies Ignite newsletter is a must-read for leadership, learning, and talent development professionals.The just published April issue explores how to create a culture of service in your organization. Highlights include Take an Inside-Out Approach to Improving Customer Service Scores Customer service expert Kathy Cuff believes that organizations need to take a look at how their…
The Ken Blanchard Companies Ignite newsletter is a must-read for leadership, learning, and talent development professionals. Highlights from the just published March issue include Servant Leadership: 20 Tips & Strategies from Today’s Top Leaders In a recent Servant Leadership in Action Livecast, over 3,200 leadership, learning, and talent development professionals had an opportunity to hear from 20…
Dear Madeleine, I work with a large team and I am getting overwhelmed by the number of requests to donate to different causes. I am one of the few people on the team without kids, and I have never asked my coworkers to donate to causes I support. But I am barraged by requests to…
One of my favorite buildings is the Chrysler Tower in New York City. Although it was constructed 90 years ago, that building is still standing because it was built with integrity. Since it was designed and assembled properly, it doesn’t need to be propped up—it just needs to be maintained. The same can be said…
I can’t get what I need. My boss doesn’t understand me. My organization’s systems don’t work. I don’t have the resources I need. My job doesn’t take advantage of my strengths. No one appreciates me. My boss micromanages me. There’s no room for me to grow. They don’t understand how much I could be contributing…
Dear Madeleine, I work in a very large company and have managed a small team for a couple of years. About a year ago, my department got a new leader, who is my manager’s boss. This new leader came from another part of the company and apparently is being groomed for the senior leadership 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,…
When people hear the phrase servant leadership, they are often confused. These folks think you can’t lead and serve at the same time. Yet you can, if you understand that servant leadership consists of two parts: A visionary/direction, or strategic, role—the leadership aspect of servant leadership; and An implementation, or operational, role—the servant aspect of…