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…
Ladies and Gentlemen, today we are going to talk about politics. We’ve just finished a grueling New York City Democratic mayoral primary season. The apparent winner is Bill de Blasio, an Italian who managed to get enough votes from the black community to easily defeat the leading black candidate, at least for now (avoiding a…
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…
Do you love a boss who treat you kindly? Is this enough? This is a critical issue. We spend considerable time focusing on the importance of managers who can engage their people, stressing things like prioritization and availability – because the absence of these traits is so disengaging. But there is another aspect: the seemingly…
Great leaders are great listeners. They encourage others to express their opinions and seriously consider what they hear, even if it challenges pre-existing beliefs http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2013/09/03/6-ways-leaders-can-get-better-results-by-not-talking/. Yet, when we think of great leaders, listening is not the attribute that first comes to mind. Our perceptions of leadership are heavily influenced by Hollywood. We expect leaders to…
As HR Professionals have you ever stood in front of an employee group as you were sharing your company’s new employee development program and you get mostly blank stares, maybe one or two heads nod. I have, and it’s frustrating. It’s time for us to change the dialog; it starts with changing the implied employee…
When managers get frustrated, they sometimes describe their work as herding cats. And the more managers are being asked to manage Millennials the more cats it seems they have to herd. If you’ve ever owned a cat, you know what a challenge that can be. Asked to describe the Millennial population, managers use expressions such…
I’ve written a series of blogs focusing on the urgency of addressing gender diversity in new and customized ways, pointing out that approaches currently used are unlikely to break the glass ceiling http://stangercarlson.com/2013/08/27/developing-women-is-risky-business/ http://stangercarlson.com/2013/08/28/women-in-waiting/ http://stangercarlson.com/2013/08/29/designing-for-women/. I’ve also explained the value of diversity from a business standpoint http://stangercarlson.com/2013/07/24/unlocking-diversity/. Now along comes an HBR blog piece that…