Employee engagement is certainly a hot topic in companies these days, having a direct effect as it does on organizational success, employee retention and the bottom line. Unfortunately, I still see and hear too many instances of employees “checking out†and disengaging from work. The most common thread I see?… Read More »Employee Engagement? Start with Leadership Engagement
Is it that time of year again for you? Time to write a performance report! Everybody loves performance reports, whether you’re giving them or receiving them…ok, nobody really likes them. They’re kind of a pain. Often that’s because we make them more difficult than they need to be. Have you… Read More »That Annoying Performance Report
Did you know that the smallpox virus is a possible weapon in the fight against cancer? I didn’t. And what does that have to do with leadership anyway? A couple of years ago I was a volunteer judge for the speaking portion of the Health Occupations Student Organization’s contest. One… Read More »Leadership and Smallpox
by Tom Deierlein, on October 20, 2015 Back in the military when I was 17 years old, I was taught an early and important lesson about leadership. If there are two Privates assigned to scrub toilets – one of them was in charge of scrubbing toilets. No matter how simple… Read More »Want Results? You Need a Single Person of Accountability
How can a leader be effective in crisis management when a real, no-kidding, unanticipated disaster strikes? Some years ago I commanded a large Air Force squadron that was faced with a major crisis that threw us off our game for a while. Without going into details, I’ll say that the… Read More »10 Leadership Actions for Crisis Management
The room was always filled beyond capacity. Anyone in the organization the boss had even casually met was invited, and by invited he meant required to attend. There was an agenda, but it was meaningless since he didn’t follow it anyway. Any random thought could become the topic at hand,… Read More »6 Steps For Effective Meetings
Leadership development is an on-going process that starts well before a person becomes a supervisor or manager. People are always watching their leaders and when they become leaders themselves, they tend to emulate the behaviors they saw. So, as a leader, you’re always training new leaders. Every day. It seems… Read More »Random Thoughts about Leadership Development
With all of the new subscribers we’ve been picking up I thought it was a good time for a look back at a few of our most popular articles. Enjoy! Civilian or military, leadership rests on the same basics A good leader doesn’t have to bark orders to get good… Read More »Looking Back: Some of our most Popular Leadership Articles
As we reflect on the events of September 11, 2001, we remember the shock and horror of that day. But, we should also remember the days that followed. For a time, we put all our differences behind us and united as a single nation with common beliefs. The nation demonstrated effective… Read More »Leadership Development: A 9-11 Lesson for Team Leaders
No one’s perfect and when the average imperfect individual finds him or herself in a leadership position, there are suddenly many more opportunities to mess up. As the scope of responsibility grows the likelihood of making mistakes increases. That’s why your leadership skills training should include a look at mistakes… Read More »Leadership Skills Training – Mistakes to Avoid