Writing for Success

It’s become fashionable to stress Competencies in designing programs for developing leaders, growing talent and shaping culture. Increasingly, demonstrated Competencies are finding their way into the annual evaluation process where their weight can be significant. But what about Skills? Are there Skills that are so broad-based, even transformational, that they deserve the same emphasis? In…

The Curious Question

A recent HBR blog piece talked about curiosity as a leadership trait capable of getting much higher team performance. The main message is to transparently put your views on the table then solicit the views of others with curious questions, rather than rhetorical questions or questions asked merely to gain support for your point of…

Women and Leadership

A recent Forbes blog discussed how women are reluctant to seek out leadership roles, avoiding these positions in favor of safer career paths. I have witnessed this behavior in a number of situations, in each of which a very qualified woman hesitated to move forward in the same way as men. Most interesting to me…

Let the Pain Points Roll

I’ve been gathering informal feedback from senior HR executives on their top five pain points related to developing leaders and growing talent. Here are the winners: 1.Accelerated Leadership Development – I’ve already mentioned this in a recent blog post, and it tops the list. As Baby Boomers are retiring, employee ranks are thinning, executive layers…