Month: February 2013

Here Gallup tells us more.  China – you are an economic superpower but your management sucks.  Sorry to be so blunt but 6% engagement? In the US we have much work to do, our scores only suggest that 30% of employees are engaged.  And both East and West agree on one thing: direct supervisors have enormous impact on engagement.

Fascinating, right?  Most of us view China as the top economy.  How does it and should it impact our practices at home?  How we develop our leaders?  My experience visitng China and speaking with friends there tells us that the cultural differences in how professional work is fundamentally different.    

Gallup tells us that barring some catastrophic collapse the landscape looks like China’s on top for the foreseeable future?  How can we better prepare our emerging leaders for this reality?

Forbes proving once again that people join companies and leave managers

Herminia Ibarra shares a broad message of women leaders to other women: don’t be distrrated by things that take away from what you are trying to accomplish.  

Amen sisters.

I’ve been chewing on definitions of leadership lately. What ARE the key skills and competencies that I as a coach help my clients develop. Sometimes it’s really about them furthering their management skills (Ssshhhh don’t tell). sometimes it is about something broader like hinking and acting strategically.   

Roger Martin tells us in this article that strategy doesn’t equal budget.  It should be simpler:

…strategy is a singular thing; there is one strategy for a given business — not a set of strategies. It is one integrated set of choices: what is our winning aspiration; where will we play; how will we win; what capabilities need to be in place; and what management systems must be instituted?

Can you answer those questions for your business?

Leadership is hard. That’s one of the lessons that the HBR editors want us to take from the pope’s resignation announcement today. That and that energy and endurance are critical for leaders. 

I think it also illustrates that it takes courage and strong beliefs to follow your convictions against the great tide of history.  You?

I came across this nice post today. I know that as a fast talking extrovert I have to really focus on leaving room for and engaging my introverted brethren.   If you like this post check out Susan Cain’s witty and engaging TED talk on The Power of Introvertshttp://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts.html

Nothing mind altering here (more in the category of ‘grandma always told you…’) yet important advice all the same: offer what you can and give perks that are indicative of the culture you want to create. 

What’s the MQ (meaning quotient) for your employees??  How many of them (and for them how often) find that their work helps them achieve "flow" (that state where challenge and ability are closely aligned and time just flies by)?

The fine folks at McKinsey talk about ways to easily increase MQ and create meaning.  Some of their tips may surprise you.

If you still think social media is only for your kids, your spouse, the unemployed you are way behind.  Can you really afford to be??  Take a look at this uber cool video from Erik Qualman (updated from the 2011 version) and start thinking about how you communicate with the 50% of the population that is under 30…