Tag Archives: Leadership

Leadership Quotes

A colleague was recently looking for leadership quotes to pass on to her clients. Her example was, “You have to have a vision to make it come to fruition.” Here are my two cents (two quotes for leaders, and everyone … Continue reading

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Implementation – The Overlooked Root Cause

A recent group discussion entitled “Should Failure be Rewarded” inspired me to ponder botched implementation as a persistant yet overlooked root cause of failure in most organizations. Here’s my response, elaborated on for this blog: Insist on a thoughtful analysis of “failures.” Reward people … Continue reading

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Organizational Culture

A colleague wrote: I quote from page 23 of the Chapter “No mere Ape’ in *Ramachandran VS (2010) The Tell-Tale Brain ? Unlocking the Mystery of Human Nature, Random House India.* “….By hyper-developing the mirror-neuron system, evolution in fact turned … Continue reading

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More Thoughts on Authority

A colleague wrote today on our list serve, prompting the following thoughts: Gil, I liked the thoughts you offered in your note below. Thanks for taking the time to share them. Your comment: “Because of human reactions to authority, it … Continue reading

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Leadership is the “root cause”

I’m fresh back from a ten day journey through London, Krakow, Budapest and Bucharest. What I saw and heard in my business conversations convinces me more that I’m on the right track thinking about the systemic influence of leadership behavior. … Continue reading

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The Nuclear Industries Blind Spot (and they’re not the only ones)

I wrote this as part of a Linkedin Nulcear Safety Culture Group. In sum, the nuclear industry, and many outside that industry, while understanding some of the behaviors and processes necessary for healthy culture, don’t have a clear grasp of … Continue reading

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Don’t Chase the Stray Cow – Lessons on Leadership and Human Systems (from my upcoming book “Leadership Can Be Learned”)

“That’s just like my cows.” I’ll never forget Norm, a down to earth engineer who had been dealing with and managing people for decades, speaking up during the retreat I was facilitating. I had just drawn a bell shaped curve … Continue reading

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Managing the Wired Generation

I wrote this in response to my friend Mark Schaefer. He writes a pithy and practical marketing blogg which fouces on the us eof social media and has a large international following. In Mark’s last article, he posted a provocative question: … Continue reading

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Resistance to Change

 I think it’s helpful for leaders to get it that “resistance” is a wired response of the reptilian brain. The reptilian brain is constantly monitoring the environment for danger, and any change in the environment increases risk (from a pure … Continue reading

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The Leadership Paradox: the Shared Leadership Traits of Gandhi and Patton – excerpted from my free e-newsletter

Modern jargon about leadership, such as “coaching” and “servant leadership,” evokes images of a kindly leader including their people in “consensus” decision-making and providing friendly support to them as they get things done. An even more radical notion, supported by … Continue reading

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