David McLean

WHAT really COUNTS?
The 95-year-old you knows what was really important and what wasn’t; what really mattered and what didn’t; what really counted and what didn’t count at all. What advice does the wise “old you” have for the you reading this? Take your time. Jot down the answers on two levels: personal advice and professional advice. And once you have written down these words, take them to heart.

Imagine yourself at 95 years old, knowing what was important and what wasn’t. Take that knowledge to heart now, both for your career and for your personal life.

First, take a deep breath. Take a deeper breath. Now, imagine that you are 95 years old and you are just about to die. Here comes your last breath. But before you take your last breath, you are being given a wonderful, beautiful gift: the ability to travel back in time and talk with the person who is reading this. The 95-year-old you has been given the chance to help the you of today to have a great career and, much more important, to have a great life.


Acknowledgment: the three paragraphs above are highlights from an original article by Marshall Goldsmith

***link to the original article in the comments box below


#ikigai #selfactualization #selfcompassion #coaching

What do you remember most about the best leader you have ever worked with? This is one of my favourite questions to pose to an audience attending an emotional intelligence workshop because the answers enviably get at the heart of “resonate” leadership.

CEO’s and their senior leadership teams have a moral and ethical responsibility to ensure every employee has a leader who cultivates psychological safety. Building your leaders “empathy” and “emotional intelligence” is essential.


How Organizations Can Encourage Empathy in the Workplace by the Center for Creative Leadership:

1️⃣Talk about empathy.
Let managers know that empathy matters. Research shows that understanding, caring, and developing others is just as important, if not more important, particularly in today’s workforce

2️⃣Teach listening skills
When a manager is a good listener, people feel respected, and trust can grow. Managers should focus on listening to hear the meaning behind what others are saying by paying attention to not only the words being said, but also the feelings and values being shown, through nonverbal cues such as tone, pace of speech, facial expressions, and gestures.

3️⃣Encourage genuine perspective-taking.
Managers should consistently put themselves in the other person’s place. For managers, this includes taking into account the personal experience or perspective of their employees. It also can be applied to solving problems, managing conflicting, or driving innovation

4️⃣Cultivate compassion.
Support managers who care about how someone else feels or consider the effects that business decisions have on employees, customers, and communities

5️⃣Support global managers
Working across cultures requires managers to understand people who have very different perspectives and experiences.


Acknowledgment - infographic source: The Bosses We Remember“ - Nine features of leaders that direct reports value highly. Based on a tweet by Vala Afshar. Sketchbooks by Anuj Magazine and article from Center for Creative Leadership


#leadership #leadershipdevelopment #chro #humanresources #emotionalintelligence

What are the “vital behaviours” that you need to demonstrate at “crucial moments” in your life to achieve what your really want?

Recently I reread a classic I love by Stephen Covey - 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

1️⃣Be Proactive
2️⃣Begin with the End in Mind
3️⃣Put First Things First
4️⃣Think Win-Win
5️⃣Seek First to Understand,Then to Be Understood
6️⃣Synergize
7️⃣Sharpen the Saw

What habit/s are most critical to achieving your own unique definition of success?

In a recent conversation I had with a couple of entrepreneurs we were discussing what was most critical to their success and leading their start ups. They shared their stories and their crucial moments and their key learnings.

Five themes emerged: the importance of “perseverance” , how “learning on the fly” was essential, the ability to sell and be a compelling story teller , the value of building a network of individuals and establishing a personal brand as individual who can be trusted to deliver results and keep their commitments,

We also explored the question: “what is your superpower?” And the impact that “leveraging their strengths” had played in their success.

What is your super power?


Acknowledgment: Stephen Covey & Image is by Nathalie Tu


#management #leadershipdevelopment #leadership #personaleffectiveness

Are you listening to your employees enough? Crisis = Opportunity - The opportunity is to start turning attrition into attraction

By not understanding what their employees are running from, and what they might gravitate to, organization leaders are putting their very organizations at risk.

“Employees were far more likely to prioritize relational factors, whereas employers were more likely to focus on transactional ones.”- McKinsey & Company

McKinsey & Company go on to report:
“Research underscores the many ways the pandemic has irrevocably changed what people expect from work. The landscape will continue to change as companies try out new hybrid-work approaches. If you’re a CEO or a member of a top team, your best move now is to hit “pause” and take the time to think through your next moves. A heavy-handed back-to-the-office policy or other mandates delivered from on high—no matter how well intentioned—are likely to backfire.

But don’t think through your next moves in a vacuum; include your employees in the process. Look to them to help shape the plan and solutions. Research suggests that executives aren’t listening to their people nearly enough. Don’t be one of these executives.” - McKinsey & Company

***links to other valuable resources in the comments box below


Acknowledgment: McKinsey & Company and infographic from SHRM

Source article: “Great Attrition’ or ‘Great Attraction’? The choice is yours” - link in the comment box below

#employeeengagement #employeeexperience #retention #chro #humanresources #ceo #management #leadership #employeeexperience #organisationalculture

What are your emotions trying to tell you right now, and how can they serve you?

“The book Emotional Equations by Chip Conley illustrates that the more unpredictable the world is, the more important it is to master our emotions in such a way that our internal world doesn’t mirror the chaos of the external world. Chip’s book amplifies the importance of creating that emotional space in our lives such that we don’t unconsciously react to everything…

…Chip not only provides a comprehensive list of emotional equations that he’s derived, he also shows how to create your own emotional equations by encouraging readers to rethink their relationships with their own emotions and asking the question, “What is this emotion trying to tell me right now, and how can it serve me” - TONY HSIEH

***I follow Chip Conley and read his LinkedIn posts daily for his brilliant insights!

To learn more about Chip’s ideas and book I recommend:

1️⃣ Tim Ferriss blog post: How to Become an Effective CEO: Chief Emotions Officer

2️⃣ Daniel Pink bog post: 3 equations that can change your life

***links to the blog posts recommended in the comments below


Acknowledgment: Visual Synopsis by Chip Conley

#emotionalintelligence #selfawareness #emotionalagility #feelings

How is your organization developing its workforce’s “critical thinking” skills?

“With critical thinking ranking among the most in-demand skills for job candidates, you would think that educational institutions would prepare candidates well to be exceptional thinkers, and employers would be adept at developing such skills in existing employees. Unfortunately, both are largely untrue.” - Matt Plummer

What is critical thinking?
“To demystify what critical thinking is and how it is developed, our team at Zarvana turned to three research-backed models:
1️⃣ Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment,
2️⃣ Pearson’s RED Critical Thinking Model
3️⃣ Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Using these models, we developed the Critical Thinking Roadmap, a framework that breaks critical thinking down into four measurable phases: the ability to execute, synthesize, recommend, and generate.” - Matt Plummer

***links to to learn more about the critical thinking roadmap in the comments box below

Source: infographic by globaldigitalcitizen.org and post derived from an HBR article by Matt Plummer

#management #leadership #leadershipdevelopment #criticalthinking #leanmanagement

What self care practices have changed your life? Inevitably the road gets rocky, what do you do to proactively sustain your resilience?

Here are 5 categories of resilience practices:

1️⃣Change the narrative
When something bad happens, we often relive the event over and over in our heads, rehashing the pain. This process is called rumination; it’s like a cognitive spinning of the wheels, and it doesn’t move us forward toward healing and growth. The practice of Expressive Writing can move us forward by helping us gain new insights on the challenges in our lives

2️⃣Face your fears
The Overcoming a Fear practice is designed to help with everyday fears that get in the way of life, such as the fear of public speaking, heights, or flying. We can’t talk ourselves out of such fears; instead, we have to tackle the emotions directly. The first step is to slowly, and repeatedly, expose yourself to the thing that scares you—in small doses

3️⃣Practice self-compassion

Self-compassion involves offering compassion to ourselves: confronting our own suffering with an attitude of warmth and kindness, without judgment. In one study, participants in an eight-week Mindful Self-Compassion program reported more mindfulness and life satisfaction, with lower depression, anxiety, and stress afterward compared to people who didn’t participate—and the benefits lasted up to a year

4️⃣Meditate

As mindfulness gurus like to remind us, our most painful thoughts are usually about the past or the future: We regret and ruminate on things that went wrong, or we get anxious about things that will. When we pause and bring our attention to the present, we often find that things are…okay.

5️⃣Cultivate forgiveness
If holding a grudge is holding you back, research suggests that cultivating forgiveness could be beneficial to your mental and physical health. you begin by clearly acknowledging what happened, including how it feels and how it’s affecting your life right now. Then, you make a commitment to forgive, which means letting go of resentment and ill will for your own sake; forgiveness doesn’t mean letting the offender off the hook or even reconciling with them.

What self care practices have changed your life?

Acknowledgment : Image Credit - advocacyforchangeproject and posted highlights the resources summarized in an article from The Greater Good Science centre by KIRA M. NEWMAN


#selfcompassion #selfcare #resiliency #wellness #wellbeing #humanresources

Leadership = Listening
Do you ask for feedback on how well you listen to individuals you work with?

The leader of the past was a person who knew how to tell. The leader of the future will be a person who knows how to ask.” — Peter F. Drucker

“Successful people become great leaders when they learn to shift the focus from themselves to others.” - Marshall Goldsmith



***links to additional resources in the comments below


Acknowledgement : G.D. Bodie, D.L. Worthington, and C.C. Gearhart, 2013. Infographic: Debra Kurtz, consciousempathyatwork


#leadershipdevelopment #management #communicationskills #coachingskills #emotionalintelligence #empathy #influence #leadership #consciousleadership

It’s Okay to Not Be Okay…do you hold the space for others to express their feelings?

“Toxic positivity tasks the person in need with faking an emotional response that is totally disproportionate to what they are actually experiencing” - Vasundhara Sawhney

“If you’re still not convinced that being too positive can be toxic, consider its impact on the people you care about (including yourself): You may feel you’re being supportive by sending positive affirmations to a friend who is going through a difficult time, but in reality, you may be invalidating their feelings and harming them when they are already in a vulnerable state. Your positive affirmations create the idea that your friend is in some way incapable of handling their feelings. You may also be unintentionally gaslighting them by signaling that there isn’t really a problem at hand”-Vasundhara Sawhney

Vasundhara Sawhney suggests using phrases that affirm the other persons feelings and lets them know you are here to support them without expectation:

-It is okay to not feel okay right now.

-You should feel whatever emotions you want to feel.

-Take your time. I am with you and I’m listening.

-You’re allowed to feel this way. Your feelings are valid.

-Feel your feelings. Sit with them. Let them pass. And let others ride the wave of whatever emotions they’re feeling too. It’s okay.


Acknowledgment: Infographic by thepresentpsychologist and post based on highlights from the article by Vasundhara Sawhney -link to the original article in the comments below


#emotionalintelligence #compassionateleadership #compassion #empathy

Are you focusing on “time management” or “energy management”? How are you managing your energy? How is your organization enabling and supporting your energy management and wellbeing?

“think of life not as a marathon, but as a series of sprints, each punctuated by periods of rest and recovery. “ - Tony Schwartz

In order to feel sufficiently energetic every day, organisations need to shift to investing in employees health and wellbeing, rather than focusing on getting the most out of them.

This COVID19 pandemic has taught a lot of us how to manage our energy rather than our time. Many are struggling with a lack of energy, because we are parents, carers, struggling with the pressure to stay 'always connected', or simply lacking motivation.

Organization’s must encourage employees to incorporate periods of 'rest and renewal during the working day, and give them the autonomy to do this in a way that works for them.

Whether it be enjoying mindfulness walk in the morning by yourself or a walk with your family, or catching up with friends or Taking a brief walk around the block for 10 minutes to break up your day every 120 minutes - it is necessary to feel renewed and motivated to work everyday.


Acknowledgment: This post is derived from an original post from the global Human Resource management thought leader Lynda Gratton, & infographic source: gosiarysuje

***links to additional resources in the comments box below


#leadership #management #wellbeing #wellness #stressmanagment #resiliency #emotionalintelligence

What is the “future of work”? How do you identify the skills your organization will need in the future?

“Reacting to changes rather than following a process to identify future skills puts organizations at risk of falling behind. Not having the right future skills in place can negatively affect a company’s performance. It can reduce innovation, increase talent costs, lower quality and customer service standards, and make it much more difficult to pursue market opportunities” (PwC, 2019).

What are The Top 10 skills for 2025?
Clearly creative problem solving, leadership & influence skills, emotional intelligence and learning agility are all essential skills we need cultivate given the speed of change in our world.

Over the past five years, the World Economic Forum has tracked the arrival of the Future of Work, identifying the potential scale of worker displacement due to technological automation and augmentation alongside effective strategies for empowering job transitions from declining to emerging jobs

With the workforce of the future heading into new, undiscovered territory it's important to look beyond the headlines and examine the data behind the trends. Reading headlines won’t give you the information needed to make informed decisions and position the organization for success in the future.

“Organizations must be able to meet the needs of multiple generations and influence a mixture of workers across demographics, technological skills, and employment contracts.” - McLean & Company


***link to the full report in the comments box below


Acknowledgment: World Economic Forum and. McLean & Company

#industry40 #futureofeducation #futureofwork #highereducation #chro #humanresources

How do leaders need to evolve? Managers Can’t Do It All: It’s time to reinvent their role for the new world of work

Digitalisation, agile initiatives, and the shift to remote and hybrid work have all dramatically transformed the role of managers.

Managers now need to focus on enabling their teams to be successful, rather than being served by them; coach performance, not oversee tasks; and lead in rapidly changing, more-fluid environments.

In their recent Harvard Business Review article, Diane Gherson (former chief human resources officer at IBM) and Lynda Gratton (professor of management at London Business School) reveal, managers are struggling to keep up.

The article examines three companies that are reimagining the role of the manager: Standard Chartered, IBM and Telstra, where managers have been supported to develop new skills, and managerial responsibilities have been radically redefined.

***link to the complete article in the comments box below


Acknowledgment: originally posted by David Green & HBR

#humanresources #leadership #management #futureofwork #culture #learning #peopleanalytics #employeeexperience

Psychological safety is like oxygen. When it's in the room, we don't even notice it. The second it's gone, it is all we notice!

“Psychological safety creates a virtuous circle where people are comfortable admitting their mistakes and learning from their failure; as a result, everyone openly shares their ideas and experiments, cultivating an innovative environment. It also prevents teams to fall prey to analysis paralysis, and leads to faster decision-making.”

During these unprecedented times our fast and sloppy amygdala can l take over and individuals may more readily move into a fight, flight or freeze response.

As leaders we need to take extra steps to be aware of individuals perceptions of the psychological safety they are experiencing. It is vital that we clarify our intentions and check in for possible misunderstandings.

How do you Foster Psychological Safety in Virtual Meetings?
“Interpersonal fears are amplified for employees working from home during a prolonged crisis like the pandemic. Building psychological safety in virtual teams takes effort and strategy that pays off in engagement, collegiality, productive dissent, and idea generation”

Acknowledgment: links to articles below from which the post is based

#psychologicalsafety #growthmindset #inclusion

What is the future of HR? Yesterday I spent the morning with a CHRO and their leadership team presenting our research on the “future of HR” and exploring the “so what’s” and “now what’s” for their organization and their people strategy - brilliant examination of the drivers of change that will continue to influence the HR landscape:

1️⃣Shifts in workforce demographics and composition are bringing more diversity to organizations.
2️⃣Political, social, economic, and environmental developments are raising concerns around living costs, recession, global health concerns, climate change, and social movements.
3️⃣Work itself is being reconceptualized through contingent workers, multiple-job holders, and remote and hybrid work.
4️⃣Changes in employee sentiment are driving an increased desire for work-life balance, flexibility, and security.
5️⃣Technological application and advancement are forcing organizations and HR functions to evolve and adapt.

HR is evolving and is expected to lead the organization in a variety of new ways.

Read McLean & Company’s latest report to learn more about the activities through which HR is anticipated to lead the organization in 2030. This report combines our research with a survey and detailed interviews with leaders in HR and beyond.

***Full report linked in the comments below 👇


Acknowledgment: research and infographic by McLean & Company

 #FutureOfHR #HRTrends #HRLeaders #CHRO #HRStrategy #HumanResources #Research #hr

Tea bags and elephant riding? Two leadership metaphors to ponder.

The tea bag theory of leadership
“Leaders are like tea bags: you only know how good they are when they land in hot water. If you want to be a good leader (or a good tea bag) you have to take the risk of landing in hot water occasionally. These are the moments when you accelerate your career: you succeed fast or you fail fast. But even if you fail fast, you learn faster recover quickly and move on. Hot water moments are the moments of truth when you learn and grow as a leader.” -Jo Owen

The elephant & the elephant rider
Social Psychologist Jonathan Haidt describes the brain through the clever metaphor of as being comprised of an elephant & an elephant rider. Haidt describes the old brain structures of our limbic system - those driven by motivations of fighting, fleeing, resource acquisition, & impulsivity - as an elephant & our newer brain structures like the forebrain - those driven by logic, rationality, & thoughtful planning - as an elephant rider. Although the rider can wisely inform the elephant of the best course of action, if the elephant is fearful & afraid, it's going to rear up & cast the rider aside... this is panic.

Questions to consider:

1️⃣When you are a leader in hot water how effective in your elephant rider?

2️⃣How are you learning from your failures and successes faster and how will you apply your learning’s to the new challenges you face in 2023?

#emotionalintelligence #leadership #leadershipdevelopment

What are your emotions trying to tell you right now, and how can they serve you? How are you cultivating “emotional self awareness”?

Mindfully labelling your emotions can be useful.

“Emotion experts call this “mindfully embracing” an emotion. What does that mean? Rather than getting caught up in the drama of an emotional reaction, a mindful person kindly observes the emotion without judging it as the right or wrong way to feel in a given situation, creating space to choose a healthy response. “ -VICKI ZAKRZEWSKI, & JASON MARSH

Emotional self awareness requires language to become “fluent” in naming our emotions. The wheel below helps us to see just how big the emotional dictionary is and tune in more clearly to the frequency of our “emotional energy”

***What Does it Look Like to Feel Emotions Consciously? I highly recommend the article on this topic by The Conscious Leadership Group link in the comments box below



Acknowledgment Image Credit: Geoffrey Roberts


#emotionalintelligence #selfawareness #leadershipdevelopment

What is organizational culture?

👉What could you add to the infographic list?

Four perspectives I appreciate on culture:

1)John O. Burdett and his brilliant book: The A-Z of Organization Culture (link below)

2)Dave Ulrich seeing culture through an outside/in lens as the desired identity of the firm in the mind of the best customers (links below)

3)McLean & Company Turn Organizational Culture into a Competitive Advantage (link below)

4)Rishita Jones MCIPD perspective:
“I have heard it being called the character of an organisation. I have also heard it being referred to as an asset. Some have even said it should be considered a product.

Either way, culture is how things get done without conscious thinking and awareness. Sometimes we can’t pinpoint to anything in particular, yet everything is revealing to some extent.”

1️⃣What kind of humour do you see, feel and hear throughout the organisation? Is it light-hearted or dark? Is it lively or is it noticeably absent?
2️⃣When you are waiting for calls to start, is there conversation and connection time?
3️⃣Are people ready to walk out of the door or go offline as soon as it’s the end of their day?
4️⃣How do employees interact – both big and small?
5️⃣How do people deal with mistakes and failures?
6️⃣What information is shared transparently and freely?


Acknowledgment: Rishita Jones MCIPD for her commentary/questions on culture and for the infographic


#chro #culturechange #culturaltransformation #culturematters #culture

What book do you recommend to leaders who are trying to build their “coaching muscle group”?

My go to recommendation is 📚 Michael Bungay Stanier brilliant book “The Coaching Habit” because his book focuses on “Coaching made simple. (and Impactful)”

Michael’s book focuses on the 20% of coaching skills that will give you 80% of the impact…so you can start practicing “being more coach like” right away!

Question:
What are the coaching questions you like to use when you are trying to be more “coach like” as a leader or when you are coaching a client?


***link in the comments box below to some useful questions & other relevant resources


Acknowledgment: 📚 Michael Bungay Stanier

#coach #coaching #leadership #management

How do you Learn From Your Failures? How do we make failure less threatening to the ego? Research offers a few suggestions:

1️⃣ Observe other people’s failures
In their paper, Eskreis-Winkler and Fishbach propose removing the ego from failure as much as possible by looking at other people’s failures first, before you take on a task yourself.

2️⃣ Get some distance
If negative emotions are getting in the way of your understanding, they also suggest trying self-distancing techniques.

3️⃣ Share your own failure story
People tend to hide their own failures, out of a sense of shame, but there are ways to turn failure into success by transforming it into a story of growth.

4️⃣Recognize your successes
There are other ways to shore up your own ego. Studies consistently find that experts are better able to tolerate failure in their fields, in part because they have a past history of accomplishment and future predicated on commitment.

5️⃣ Feel the disappointment
If all else fails, try just feeling sad over your mistakes and defeats. There is a great deal of research suggesting that sadness evolved as a response to failure and loss, and that it exists in order to encourage us to reflect on our experiences.

6️⃣ Focus on the long-term goal
Often, we need to ask ourselves: Will my failures lead to rewards down the line?

7️⃣ Practice mindfulness
There is yet another reason failure often contains superior information: failure violates expectations,” Eskreis-Winkler and Fishbach write. Because people almost never intend to fail, failure can be surprising, which has the happy effect of waking up our brains—and a brain that is awake learns more than a brain that’s sleepwalking. When you feel surprised by failure, take that as a signal to be mindful and to sit with it rather than ignoring it.

8️⃣Reflect on the lessons you learned
Because failure requires more interpretation and thinking than success if we’re to learn from it

9️⃣Do less
Increasing our capacity to learn by engaging in fewer tasks that present opportunities for failure

🔟 Practice self-compassion
Many people believe that they should be hard on themselves in the wake of failure; after all, how else would you grow?

***link to the source article below & other relevant resources


Acknowledgment post based on article by JEREMY ADAM SMITH who found Research on how to overcome some emotional and cognitive barriers so that we learn from our defeats & infographic by Village: The Wholehearted School

#leadership #leadershipdevelopment #learningexperience #selfcompassion
#learningagility

What are you responsible for? What are you NOT responsible for? What are you willing to take 100% responsibility for?

“The opposite of blaming is taking responsibility. When we place blame, we locate the cause and control of our lives outside ourselves. When we take responsibility, we locate the cause and control of our lives inside ourselves.” - The Conscious Leadership Group

***recommend the video in the comments box below on the concept of 100% responsibility


Acknowledgment: The Conscious Leadership Group and Infographic Source: Zenishwa. Note post is adapted from an original post by Dr. David Weiss

#leadership #leadershipdevelopment #selfcompassion #emotionalintelligence

DO YOU HAVE A LEADERSHIP PIPELINE?
IS YOUR ORGANIZATION BUILDING LEADERS AT EVERY LEVEL?

A major shift in “skills”, “time application” and “values” must take place at each turn in the pipeline

LEADERSHIP PIPELINE - 6 turns in the pipe:
1️⃣Managing self to managing others
2️⃣Managing others to managing managers
3️⃣Managing managers to managing a function
4️⃣Functional manager to business manager
5️⃣Business manager to group manager
6️⃣Group manager to enterprise manager


Benefits of a well-defined leadership pipeline:

✴️ By establishing appropriate requirements for the six leadership levels, companies can greatly facilitate succession planning

✴️ Individual managers can clearly see the gap between their current performance and the desired performance

✴️ HR can make development decisions based on where people fall short in skills, time application and work values, rather than rely on generalized training and development programs

✴️ An individual’s readiness for a move to the next leadership level can be evaluated objectively rather than tied to how well they performed in their previous position


***link to the articles below


Acknowledgment: post based on the work of Stephen J. Drotter, Ram Charan & Center for Creative Leadership


#leadershipdevelopment #successionplanning #chro #leadership

8 Factors of Happiness.
From Duke University Study on Happiness

“I don't have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness--it's right in front of me if I'm paying attention and practicing gratitude.“-Brené Brown

I also recommend: 12 Steps to Happiness
Sonja Lyubomirsky’s book The How of Happiness offers readers more than a dozen everyday activities they can practice to become happier in the short and long term. Lyubomirsky compiled the list of activities after conducting and reviewing years of research about what distinguishes happy from unhappy people:

1) Do more activities that truly engage you
2) Savor life’s joys
3) Learn to forgive
4) Practice acts of kindness
5) Nurture relationships
6) Cultivate optimism.
7) Avoid over-thinking and social comparison
8) Develop strategies for coping
9) Count your blessings.
10) Strengthen your spiritual connections.
11) Commit to your goals
12) Take care of your body


***links in the comments box below to source materials from The Greater Good Science Center


Acknowledgment: Sonja Lyubomirsky and Tanmay Vora

#happinessatwork #selfcarematters #selfawareness #selfmanagement #selfactualization #selfleadership #brenebrown #resiliency #resilience #gratitude #wellnessatwork #wellbeing #mindfulness

In a world full of ambiguity .... a reminder of what you can control...

Acknowledgment: Cindy Kremer, BA (Hons) MHRM CHRL for original posting

I also recommend from Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI) the following article: “Tips for Transitioning to Life After a Pandemic” - ***link below

#resiliency #wellbeing #emotionalintelligence #selfempowerment

What do you believe is within your control?
In a world full of ambiguity .... a reminder of what you can control...


Acknowledgment: Cindy Kremer, BA (Hons) MHRM CHRL for her original post


I also recommend from Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI) the following article: “Tips for Transitioning to Life After a Pandemic” - ***link below


#resiliency #wellbeing #wellness
#emotionalintelligence #selfempowerment

How do you define leadership character?

As we wind down 2021 it is always fun to take a look back. This week I'll be sharing some of my top 20 posts, in terms LinkedIn community engagement. Here is number 9!

In our current context of the COVID-19 outbreak, the word character in relation to leadership has surfaced a lot

What exactly is character?
The lack of definitive consensus is problematic because character is a potent differentiator in leadership, especially during a major crisis. A leader’s character is vital to their ability to allay fear, move people forward, and help facilitate a solution that will benefit all of society.

Drawing upon a decade of research, scholars at the Ivey Business School at Western University assert that character is an amalgam of virtues, values, and personality traits that are embodied in an individual’s habitual behaviours.

Their research identified 11 dimensions of character and supporting behaviours (depicted in the info graphic) that are critical to good leadership: accountability, courage, collaboration, drive, humanity, humility, integrity, judgment, justice, temperance, and transcendence.


***link to additional resources in comments box below


Acknowledgment: Gerard Seijts & Ivey Business School at Western University


#leadershipdevelopment #leadership #charactermatters #culture #management #highereducation #chro #ceo

Are you your own worst critic?
In this competitive society of ours, how many of us truly feel good about ourselves?

“Can you look without the voice in your head commenting, drawing conclusions, comparing, or trying to figure something out?” ― Eckhart Tolle

Discover the Power of Self-Compassion
It’s common to beat ourselves up for faults big and small. But according to psychologist Kristin Neff, that self-criticism comes at a price: It makes us anxious and dissatisfied with our life

Researcher Kristin Neff reveals the benefits of going easy on yourself: less anxiety, less conflict, and more peace of mind in the article in the comments box below

Self compassion provides an island of calm, a refuge from the stormy seas of endless positive and negative self-judgment, so that we can finally stop asking, “Am I as good as they are? Am I good enough?” By tapping into our inner wellsprings of kindness, acknowledging the shared nature of our imperfect human condition, we can start to feel more secure accepted, and alive

Here is a question from Jacqueline to ask on a hard day when you feel there’s a lot of bad things happening around us “what if this was being done for me and not to me”?


Acknowledgment: Kristin Neff & Helen Young-McLaughlin for the Eckhart Tolle quote

#resiliency

Do you know the 6Ms of strategy?
What would you add?

M1: Magic.
The products and services that we offer and what they do for our customers.

M2: Market.
The customers whose needs we serve and the alternatives we compete against.

M3: Means.
The assets and capabilities that we and our partners can bring to the table.

M4: Money.
The way and amount of revenues we generate versus the costs and risks we have.

M5: Meaning.
The things that we find most important and to which we most aspire.

M6: Momentum.
The factors outside our control that help or hinder us in what we do.

Together, these six elements contain the essence of strategy. They cover what you offer (Magic), to whom (Market), how (Means), what you get in return (Money), why you do it (Meaning) and in what context (Momentum). Have them all clear and aligned, and you have your 6M Strategy!

Jeroen Kraaijenbrink recently sent me an advanced copy of his new book “The One Hour Strategy”. What I especially appreciated were the powerful questions he integrated into the book to consider an organizations current approach to strategy, as well as consider how an organization could be more future focused, in its approach to strategy. It is book structured in a clear, concise and compelling way so that a busy business leader can easily absorb and apply the ideas in an organization.


***Link in the comments below to learn more about Jeroen Kraaijenbrink new book


Acknowledgment: infographic and 6M strategy model by Jeroen Kraaijenbrink

#strategyconsulting
#changemanagement
#organizationalbehavior

Alexis Zahner & Sally Clarke are launching a podcast!

“The podcast is a collection of insightful, incisive conversations with the foremost thought leaders in Human Leadership, as well as CEOs and other leaders who are lighting the way forward. Raw, personal stories stand alongside profound, data-backed insight. Be ready to connect, nod, laugh and learn!” -Sally Clarke

Alexis Zahner describes the podcast as a big conversations around human-centred leadership at work and beyond.

“This is a story about you, as a Human, and a Leader. It doesn’t matter your industry, your geography, the products you sell or the services that you offer. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a corporation, or a small business, it doesn’t matter your profit margins or your official job title. Our common denominator is the same, we are humans first and leaders second. This is a call to everyone who prioritizes learning and growth to truly put Humans first in business. Human Leaders is a movement of leaders changing how we work to ensure business and humans can thrive through work. Human Leaders create workplaces where every single person feels seen, their contributions valued and their voice heard. It is about mobilizing the global leadership community to reimagine what work looks like” - Alexis Zahner

Alexis Zahner & Sally Clarke would love to hear your feedback - and if you have any suggestions for who you'd like them to interview next on the podcast!


***Links to the podcast in the comments box below


#leadershipdevelopment #futureofwork #transformationalleadership #servantleadership #leadership #learningagility #empathy #emotionalintelligence #industry40

How many hours per week do you spend in meetings? If someone told you when you were 10 years old you would be spending a significant portion of your life “in meetings” - how would you have reacted?

👉🏿According to a study by Bain & Company, organizations spend about 15% of their time in meetings and most people consider meetings to be unproductive. A whopping 37% of meetings are considered to be adding no value to the organization.

If you are looking for a “boot camp” on meeting effectiveness look no further- see Elise Keith


How often should you meet?
What Criteria should we use for Picking the Best Meeting Cadence?

Meeting frequency depends on five factors:

1️⃣Urgency & Importance
If the team pursues urgent and important goals, they need to meet often

2️⃣Stability

3️⃣Work Function
Does your team work “in the business” or “on the business

4️⃣Interdependence
How dependent are the team members on one another to accomplish their goals

5️⃣Location (or Lack Thereof)
Small teams that work together in the same room don’t need to meet much

***link to the full article below

Acknowledgment: Elise Keith

I recommend Elise Keith’s book “Where the Action Is” & her website as exceptional resources on the topic


#organizationalculture #leadership #management #agile #meetingplanning #chro

Here are 15 Valuable Emotional Intelligence “TED Talks” on Youtube:

1)Why Aren’t We More Compassionate?
2) The Art of Managing Emotions
3) You Aren’t at the Mercy of Your Emotions – Your Brain Creates Them
4) How to Practice Emotional Hygiene
5) Emotional Mastery: The Gifted Wisdom of Unpleasant Feelings
6) The Power of Emotional Intelligence
7) Six Steps to Improve Your Emotional Intelligence
8) How We’ve Been Misled by Emotional Intelligence
9) The Light and Dark Side of Emotional Intelligence
10)The Gift and Power of Emotional Courage
11)The Three Secrets of Resilient People
12)The Importance of Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child
13)Emotional Intelligence from a Teenage Perspective
14)The People Currency: Practicing Emotional Intelligence
15)Emotional Intelligence: Using the Laws of Attraction

Cultivating “emotional intelligence” is foundational to remaining resilient & effective in a #vuca world


***Thank you to Kelly Miller a positive psychology blogger for the carefully curated list


Acknowledgment: infographic Daniel Goleman


#management #leadership #humanresources #emotionalintelligence #highereducation #resiliency #chro

How are you cultivating a growth mindset?


“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.” – Abraham Maslow


In a VUCA world cultivating a “Growth Mindset” and our learning agility is crucial.



Acknowledgment: Carol Dweck for her work on #growthmindset


#highereducation #chro #learningagility #leadership #emotionalintelligence

How are you building or eroding trust in relationships and learning to trust yourself?\n\n“the foundation of empowerment leadership is getting other people to trust you. That’s certainly true, but there’s one last thing you need to know. The path to empowerment leadership doesn’t begin when other people start to trust you. It begins when you start to trust yourself.” -Quote from “Begin with Trust”\n\nI read “Begin with Trust” again this week by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss and it was an excellent way to reflect on the topic of leadership and what’s essential to building trust. It had some poignant quotes:\n\n“Leadership begins not when others trust you but when you trust yourself.”\n\n“Withholding your true self puts a cap on trust and on your ability to lead.”\n\nQ: What are your favourite quotes about trust?\n\nQ: What have you learned about establishing trust or learning to trust yourself?\n\nI think we would all agree that trust is essential - it’s like oxygen in the room - if you don’t have it nothing else matters. \n\nCurious to hear from LinkedIn thought leaders: Helena Clayton Amy Edmondson David Marlow Jacqueline Arnold, PCC Dave Ulrich Melissa Carson Emily Pearson, Dip MHCC Charles Jennings Josh Bersin Mary Glowacka Mary Ann Baynton Stephen Frost Nicole Paquet Eric McNulty \n\n\nAcknowledgment: infographic by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss and original article \n\n***links to the original article in the comments below \n\n\n#leadership #emotionalintelligence #leadershipdevelopment #trust

What are the most important leadership competences?

How do you rate when it comes to leadership?

Day in and day out, you’re being evaluated as a leader. What results do you get? How do you handle tough challenges? Do you have the right skills to be an effective leader?

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a clear picture of your strengths, weaknesses, and areas to improve? Wouldn’t it help to know what leadership competencies matter most — and what you could learn to improve your future prospects?

Leadership Competencies for:

A) Leading the Organization:

1)Strategic Perspective: Understands the viewpoint of higher management and effectively analyzes complex problems
2)Being a Quick Study: Quickly masters new technical and business knowledge
3)Decisiveness: Prefers quick and approximate actions in many management situations
4)Change Management: Uses effective strategies to facilitate organizational change initiatives and overcome resistance to change


B) Leadership Competencies for Leading Others:

5)Leading Employees: Attracts, motivates, and develops employees
6)Confronting Problem Employees: Acts decisively and with fairness when dealing with problem employees
7)Participative Management: Involves others, listens, and builds commitment
8)Building Collaborative Relationships: Builds productive working relationships with coworkers and external parties
9)Compassion and Sensitivity: Shows genuine interest in others and sensitivity to employees’ needs
10)Putting People at Ease: Displays warmth and a good sense of humor
11)Respect for Differences: Values people of different backgrounds, cultures, or demographics


C) Leadership Competencies for Leading Yourself:

12)Taking Initiative: Takes charge and capitalizes on opportunities
13)Composure: Demonstrates self-control in difficult situations
14)Work-Life Balance: Balances work priorities with personal life
15)Self-Awareness: Has an accurate picture of strengths and weaknesses and is willing to improve
16)Career Management: Uses effective career management tactics, including mentoring, professional relationships, and feedback channels

Acknowledgment: Center for Creative Leadership

***link to original article in comments box below

#leadership #leadershipdevelopment #management #selfleadership #chro #ccl

“Look at other people and ask yourself if you are really seeing them or just your thoughts about them.... Without knowing it, we are coloring everything, putting our spin on it all.”
- Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are - Mindfulness Meditation In Everyday Life


5 Mindfulness Practices for Difficult Times

1️⃣Nurture hope with gratitude
Being grateful for all the good we experience is a first step in cultivating ongoing hope. In prayers, meditations or through exercises like journaling or having a gratitude diary, try to exercise gratitude for at least one thing, person or situation right now in your life.

2️⃣Find peace within yourself
Peace begins when we make peace with our own thoughts, emotions and bodies. And the peace we experience in ourselves is proportional to the peace we are able to offer others and the world. Find ways to access inner peace and quietude

3️⃣Exercise kindness and compassion
The perception of threats trigger the limbic system of the brain, pushing us into survival mode—a fight or flight. We see everything around us as a threat

4️⃣Cultivate equanimity
Staying mentally and emotionally balanced even in the face of great difficulty is the quality of equanimity. Whether it is through meditation, prayer, connection with community or any other activity that lends valuable perspective

5️⃣Each one teach one
Each of us have the power to transmit peace in what we share with others. All it takes is that we connect with one person, listen deeply and share ideas


***links to additional resources in comments below

Acknowledgment: Rich Fernandez & Ideapod


#emotionalintelligence #mindfulness #mindful #leadership #leadershipdevelopment #chro

Is Your Organization Capitalizing on its “Capabilities”?

Is your organization competing by leveraging and building the optimal “organizational capabilities”?

The RBL Group have identified twelve well-studied capabilities that help organizations succeed in the marketplace

“Capabilities” represent what the organization is known for and good at doing, somewhat like the Big Five personality traits represent an individual’s persona”

Dave Ulrich unveiled a 18 months study by his team at The RBL Group into uncovering the potential of an Organizational Guidance System (OGS) designed to shift thinking and actions in companies on how the leverage the right “organizational capabilities”


***links to articles in the comments box below


Acknowledgment: posting based on original content from Dave Ulrich & Norm Smallwood

#hrstrategy #chro #strategy

Are you intentionally leveraging 70 20 10?

Very grateful to Charles Jennings for a recent email exchange regarding research dispelling the common misperceptions around “70 20 10”

There’s no doubt the work of Bob Eichinger, Mike Lombardo and the team at the Center for Creative Leadership was fundamental in highlighting a critical fact – that most learning, most of the time, comes not from courses and programmes, classrooms, workshops and eLearning, but from everyday activities

We’ve known for years that the ‘70+20’ are critical and that it’s in these zones that most learning happens. It’s now time to put this knowledge into action.

More recently, researchers have been validating the importance of the learning that happens as part of the daily workflow. One example of is the work of Professor Andries de Grip and his team at the Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

Professor de Grip’s 2015 report ‘The importance of informal learning at work’ explains that On-the-job learning is more important for workers’ human capital development than formal training

Acknowledgment: Charles Jennings

***link to original blog post in comments

#learninganddevelopment #leadershipdevelopment #reskilling #chro #highereducation

The Future of Jobs Report 2020 & The Top 10 skills 2025

Clearly creative problem solving, leadership & influence skills, emotional intelligence and learning agility are all essential skills we need cultivate given the speed of change in our world.

Over the past five years, the World Economic Forum has tracked the arrival of the Future of Work, identifying the potential scale of worker displacement due to technological automation and augmentation alongside effective strategies for empowering job transitions from declining to emerging jobs


***link to the full report in the comments box below


Acknowledgment: World Economic Forum

#industry40 #futureofeducation #futureofwork #highereducation #chro