A recent HBR blog post, Meet the New Face of Diversity:The “Slacker Millennial Guy, delivers a message of hope that Millennial males, rather than formal diversity initiatives will finally break the glass ceiling for aspiring female executives. The blog post gives examples of male surgical residents insisting on more reasonable work hours and male lawyers…
We look at leadership effectiveness as encompassing three components: personal effectiveness, relational effectiveness and assertiveness. Each of these components, in turn, has five attributes, all or which require well honed and tested skills relating to thought, communication, action, emotional intelligence and energy. In light of our work in this area, it was refreshing to read…
Great leaders are decisive. So why isn’t decisiveness a key criterion in leadership selection? Whenever we conduct focus groups of employees, a major frustration that emerges is leaders, including managers, who just don’t make timely decisions. How did these people get into leadership roles — especially since decision-making style is one of the easiest things…
Is it actually possible that male insecurity is preventing women from breaking the glass ceiling? We’re not sure of the answer in the absence of reliable data, but a recent HBR blog, Men’s Self-Esteem Drops When Their Female Partners Succeed , cites new data relating to romantic relationships. The data shows male self esteem dropping…
Companies keep telling us that, despite their best efforts, they are failing at gender diversity at senior leadership levels. We listen, knowing that their efforts, while well meaning, were doomed to fail. Then we ask “are you willing to do what it takes to fix this problem.” We are assured that they are. In fact,…
A recent HBR piece advises leaders: Be Yourself, but Carefully, proposing that they adopt selective authenticity in their business interactions. The advice is reinforced in a related podcast by one of the authors. Here are some key points from the HBR authors integrated with my thoughts: 1.Always Be Genuine. Don’t make up stories or exaggerate…
We’re all familiar with Pete Seeger’s song set to the words of Ecclesiastes about “a time for every purpose under Heaven.” As the text,which by tradition is read at this time of year, tells us, there is “a time to build, …a time to be silent and a time to speak.” These are ancient lessons…
As consultants who stake our reputations on really making a difference in employee engagement and business results, we are frequently asked “where should we start to drive engagement and performance?” Or, from executives of companies with very established talent practices: “why are we spending so much money on our talent programs and getting so little…
Recently, I watched the movie Goodbye Columbus for the first time since I saw it in the theater in 1969. The romance film is best known for Ali MacGraw’s debut as an actress in a leading role and for its sad ending, in contrast to the happy ending of The Graduate, a much better known…
One of the toughest things for a leader to do is encourage others to speak openly about their ideas, freely challenging the leader’s point of view. After all, we all come to the party with a certain pride of authorship, and while we say we check our egos at the door, this is rarely completely…