Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend and are energized for a promising week of Maximizing Possibility in your organization! I like to start off each week by highlighting five posts from the HR, talent management, and leadership development blogosphere that I found to be especially good reading during the past week. Below are my picks for January 24th - 30th, 2011. Enjoy!
Tanmay Vora, QAspire Blog: Creating a Learning Organization: 10 Actions for a Leader - Jack Welch boldly proclaimed that an organization's ability to learn and translate that learning into action is its greatest competitive advantage. Tanmay draws inspiration from Mr. Welch to suggest ten actions a leader can take to create a culture of learning. My favorite: #10 - allow people to make mistakes and learn from them.
Bret L. Simmons, Positive Organizational Behavior: Human Capital Investment Starts With Hiring - Hiring and employee selection is something that I am especially passionate about. Quite frankly, I feel it is the most important investment an organization can make in itself and one that carries huge consequences for an organization's performance. Bret seems to agree and shares four evidence based selection tips for identifying the best candidate for the job.
Clive Johnson and Jackie Keddy, HRM Today: Top Tips for Kicking Conflict Into the Long Grass - For as long as people have organized themselves into teams and businesses with a common goal there has been conflict. This is unlikely to change. What must change, however, is the way organizations approach the inevitability of conflict to ensure it does not escalate beyond healthy disagreement. Clive and Jackie offer up ten tips for dealing with unhealthy conflict in your organization.
Tim Sanders, Sanders Says: Listen More Than You Talk For Better Meetings - For sales people it is easy to verbally dominate a meeting with a potential Client. After all, there is only so much time available to communicate all the great reasons why the product or service being offered is perfect for their needs. Tim takes a different approach to the sales meeting. He suggests that if you want to sell more, start by listening more than you talk and goes on to offer up four tips for doing just that.
Drea Knufkin, Business Pundit: The State of the Union, Dissected for Business - Millions of viewers tuned in as President Obama issued his annual State of the Union Address this past Tuesday. With so much information in such a short period of time it can be difficult to digest everything that was said and comprehend what it means for your business. If you are feeling a bit lost after the SOTU, Drea does a nice job of breaking it down for business leaders.
Happy Friday - I hope you have had a great week! Each Friday I share a resource that I feel will help you to Maximize Possibility in your organization and professional life and I have a great one for you today...
I'm going to keep things short and sweet this week... HR blogger extraordinare Chris Ferdinandi has called upon his network of human resource thought leaders to put together a free eBook with 21 ideas on how you can become a more effective HR professional in 2011. The ideas and tips you find in this eBook are short, actionable, and will help you to Maximize Possibility in your professional life this year.
Click here to download the eBook and go Do Amazing Things in 2011!
Wow, it was sure a great week for reading HR, talent management, and leadership development blogs! As a service to you I have sifted through all these great posts to identify five that I found to be especially well suited to Maximize Possibility in your organization and professional life. Below are my picks for the week of January 17th - 23rd, 2011. Enjoy!
Laura Schroeder, HRM Today: Seven Leadership Competencies for Succession Planning - Leadership succession planning has been shaping up to be a hot topic in 2011. This was further underscored by Steve Jobs' unexpected leave of absence from the helm of Apple this past week. Laura has a great guest post up at HRM Today where she identifies seven leadership competencies to look for when developing an executive succession plan.
Art Petty, Management Excellence: Nine Key Professional Capabilities Required by Our Times - The business world is in a constant state of flux and you don't need me to tell you that the way we work has changed dramatically over the past decade. It should come as little surprise that the ingredients for success in business and one's career have also undergone considerable change. Art has identified nine key professional capabilities, attributes, and behaviors that are necessary for success in today's business environment.
Joe Light, The Wall Street Journal: Recruiters Rethink Online Playbook - Many bloggers from the recruiting world have long predicted the downfall of the online job board and scoffed at its lack of effectiveness in sourcing qualified job candidates. Quite frankly, these recruiting pros have found more effective ways of luring top talent to their organization that doesn't require sifting through thousands of electronic resumes to identify a handful of attractive candidates. Joe's article in the WSJ has generated a lot of buzz in the recruiting world this week - check it out to see how companies are changing their approach to online recruiting as hiring picks up.
Mike Figliuolo, Aspire CS Leadership Solutions: Have You Trained Your Replacement? - The thought of training a co-worker the skills necessary to take over one's job is hard to fathom for many employees - especially with the pain of layoffs and downsizing still fresh in mind. Drawing on his military experience as a member of a tank crew, Mike makes a compelling argument that this is exactly what teams and organizations must do in order to successfully ensure business continuity in the event of an unexpected departure of a team member.
Heather Stagl, Enclaria: Three Options for Dealing with Organizational Culture - The way a leader approaches an organization's culture may be the single most important element in determining whether or not a change initiative is successful. Heather identifies three options for dealing with your company's culture as you attempt to implement meaningful change.
Happy Friday! I hope you are staying warm wherever you live and are getting through these long days of winter as best as possible! Each week I like to feature a resource that I feel can help to Maximize Possibilityin your professional and/or personal life. Today I have an excellent resource from my good friends at Target Training International (TTI) that promotes the importance of a healthy family through improved interpersonal communication.
The Resource: TTI Family First
What it is: TTI Family First is a behavioral-based communication assessment made available free of charge from Target Training International. TTI produces a number of powerful talent and performance management tools (many of which I use in my consulting practice), and recognized that the success of its DISC based assessment could be easily transfered from the workplace to the household in the form of TTI Family First.
Family First is based on a DISC assessment which identifies an individual's natural and adaptive behavioral styles. One's behavioral style is a major factor in determining how we communicate with others and, in turn, prefer to be communicated to.
Just like in the workplace, communication is often a source of conflict and dysfunction in families. TTI Family First seeks to eliminate this source of conflict by painting a picture of each family member's unique behavioral style and providing a road map for effective communication via an easy to follow checklist of communication do's and don'ts.
Why You Should Give it a Try: I came across this quote by Zig Ziglar the other day that really got me thinking about the important tie that exists between the health of our family lives and our performance at work:
"I believe that being successful means having a balance of success stories across the many areas of your life. You can't truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles"
Zig is absolutely right - success in life stretches far beyond business and the workplace. I have seen far too many people who are wildly successful in their professional lives, but struggle to realize success and happiness in their family lives. I cannot help but feel that many of these struggles are rooted in the failure to recognize and understand our differences and tailor the way we communicate and interact with each other based on these differences.
As I mentioned earlier, TTI Family First is adapted from an assessment originally designed to improve communication in the workplace. I can say from experience that this tool does amazing things for improving the communication and effectiveness of teams and organizations and it can do the same in the household too.
If you are looking to improve the level of communication in your family and build stronger bonds with your loved ones I highly recommend that you give TTI Family First a try. It is free of charge and can dramatically change the way you view and approach the differences among your family members.
Remember, success in life stretches far beyond the workplace. Now go Maximize Possibility!
Happy Monday! I like to start off each week by featuring five posts from the HR, talent management, and leadership development blogosphere that I found to be particularly good reading. Here are my picks for the week of January 10th - 16th, 2011. Enjoy!
Theresa Welbourne, TLNT: Creating a Culture of Accountability: It's All About Positive Peer Pressure - Accountability has been a hot topic for some time; and for good reason - organizations with a strong culture of accountability have been shown to outperform low-accountability companies by a wide margin. Nonetheless, creating a culture of accountability is still a challenge that many leaders struggle with. Theresa identifies an important element to creating such a culture - peer pressure.
Jason Lauritsen, Transforming Business Through Talent: The Challenge of Proving ROI in HR - I am happy to say that many HR professionals have begun to place a real emphasis for identifying the value their department brings to the organization in recent years. However, demonstrating the ROI of HR initiatives can be a real challenge at times. Jason identifies three common challenges you are likely to encounter when trying to show a return on investment in the human resources world.
Marc Michaelson, Leaders. Better. Brighter.: The Fear and Trust Factor Continuum - Fear and mistrust can wreak havoc on an organization's culture and performance. Marc takes a look at the importance of trust in fostering employee engagement and building a high performance company culture.
Mark Stelzner, Inflexion Advisors: What Are You Afraid Of? - For better or worse, meetings are a fact of life for all of us. Regardless of the organization you work in, it does not take long to recognize that there are a lot of unspoken fears present among among those in attendance. Mark identifies three common fears that hinder meaningful dialog and progress in business meetings.
Steve Roesler, All Things Workplace: The Value of Self Awareness - Don't miss Steve's short and insightful post about one of the most important, but frequently overlooked skills possessed by truly great leaders: self awareness.
Each Friday I like to share a resource I have found to be beneficial to my professional life and development that I feel will also help in your quest to Maximize Possibility. Today I have an excellent audio book from Robin Sharma to share with you. Enjoy!
The Resource: Extraordinary Leadership by Robin Sharma
What it is About:Extraordinary Leadership is predicated around a simple but profound philosophy: "If you consume oxygen, you are a leader." Robin understands that true leadership is not defined by title or rank within the organizational chart, but rather it is defined by the small actions we take each day that make a difference in the lives of those around us. Sharma believes that to be human is to be a leader and in his book he outlines five best practices for leadership as follows:
- Leadership begins with you - We lead by the example we set through our behavior.
- Leaders put people first - When you do good by your people, they in turn do good by the Customer and help to build a powerful organizational culture.
- Leaders demonstrate a strong bias towards action - Leadership is not about doing what is easy, but doing what is right. The pain of discipline is always less than the price of regret.
- Great leadership begins with self leadership- It is impossible to inspire and lead a team if you do not first lead yourself. If you do not take care of and feel good about yourself, it is impossible to make others feel good about themselves. Again, when you take care of your people, they in turn take care of Clients.
- Leave a footprint- Start thinking about what your legacy as a leader will be today before it is too late.
True to his own words (best practice #3) Robin provides actionable steps for each of the above that you can implement to become a better leader.
Why You Should Download and Listen: Like all great leadership books, Extraordinary Leadership is rooted in leadership fundamentals and their consistent application. Robin does an excellent job of articulating these fundamentals, but more importantly he provides actionable ways to implement them into your everyday life.
The beauty of his philosophy (that we are all leaders) comes from the fact the five best practices listed above can be implemented by anyone, regardless of title or position. You do not need a corner office to treat others right and set a powerful example with your actions that will inspire those around you to live a better life.
What also makes this book great is that it acknowledges that leadership is really a simple concept. So often writers make leadership out to be much more complex that it needs to be, and in doing so make their theories and ideas difficult to grasp and even more difficult to implement.
Sharma breaks this mold and explains how leadership is rooted in the consistent application of the fundamentals. He does not purport that intelligence, creativity, determination, and all the other things that come to mind when we think of being successful in business are not important. They are, however, he demonstrates why these factors by themselves are not enough to be a successful leader.
If you are ready to be a better leader and start realizing the greatness you are capable of in life, I highly recommend that you download the Extraordinary Leadership audio book today. It is just over an hour in length, highly engaging, and full of powerful insight for being a great leader regardless of your title or position. Oh, and did I mention it is free? Hard to beat that!
Now go Maximize Possibility!
The ringing in of a New Year is a time of excitement and promise for all the Possibility that the coming year has to offer. Last week I paused for a moment to look back at the year that was 2010. Today I would like to shift gears and take a look ahead at what the HR, talent management, and leadership development blogging community sees in store for us in 2011. Below is a great collection of posts containing predictions, resolutions, trends, and thoughts for 2011. Enjoy!
Tanmay Vora, QAspire Blog: A Worthy Goal for 2011 and Beyond
Suzanne Lucas, Evil HR Lady: New Year's Resolutions for Your Career
Frank Roche, KnowHR Blog: 11 New Year's Resolutions for HR Communications in 2011 (that you can actually keep)
Dan McCarthy, Great Leadership: 31 Days to Become a Better Leader
Sharlyn Lauby: HR Bartender: A Bartender's Predictions for 2011
Deborah Herman, TLNT: My 2011 Wish: Why Not Take a Little Closer Look at the Unemployed?
John Hollon, TLNT: The Latest Word on Salary Increases: For 2011, it Looks Like 2.8%
Ron Thomas, TLNT: Looking to 2011 and Beyond: "Who You Gonna Call?" Will it be to HR?
Amit Bhagria, Young HR Manager: HR Trends for 2011 - What Does 2011 Hold in Store for HR?
Bob Sutton, Work Matters: My Main Focus for 2011: Scaling Good Behavior
Evil Skippy at Work: Wishes for 2011
David Zinger Employee Engagement: What are Your Intentions for 2011?
Erin Schreyer, Authentic Leadership: Could 2011 be the Year of The Incredibles?
Jon Hyman, Ohio Employer's Law Blog: 2011: A Rehiring Odyssey
Quashan Locket, Memoirs of a Millenial: New Years Career Resolutions
Erik Samdahl, Institute for Corporate Productivity's Productivity Blog: New Year's Resolutions from Leading Human Capital Executives
Alexander Hiam, The Leadership Blog: Small Business Resolutions for 2011
Kelly Dingee, Fistful of Talent: Resume Roulette - Is Yours Ready for 2011?
Tim Tolan, Fistful of Talent: 2011: Implementing the NO IDIOT RULE
Krista Ogburn Francis, Alive HR: To Resolve or Not to Resolve
Ben Eubanks, UpstartHR: Put up or Shut up. That is All
Jesse Harriot, Monster Thinking: 2011 Job Market Trends
HR Introvert: Time for Due Diligence on Personal Objectivity
Tim Sanders, Sanders Says: Three Lists to Make for 2011
Rachel Suff, XpertHR: New Year's Resolution: Boost Poor Performance?
Michael Carty, XpertHR: Why It's Time for HR to 'Step to the Front' in 2011
Drew Tarvin, Humor's' Office: 5 Work Resolutions You Shouldn't Make (And One You Should)
Kaihan Krippendorff, Fast Company: Five Innovative New Year's Resolutions
Roberta Matuson, Fast Company: Will 2011 Be Your Best Year Ever?
Shawn Parr, Fast Company: 10 New Year's Resolutions for Innovative Teams
Mark Stelzner, Inflexion Advisors: 2011: The Year of Reactionary HR
Seth Godin's Blog: Maybe Next Year...
Laura Schroeder, Working Girl: 2011: The Year of Visibility
Laura Schroeder, Working Girl: Top 5 Talent Management Trends in 2011
Alexandra Levit, Water Cooler Wisdom: 5 Leadership Predictions for 2011
Michael Haberman, Omega HR Solutions: A 2011 Human Resources Forecast
Cathy Missildine-Martin, Profitability Through Human Capital: 10 HR Analytics Predictions for 2011
Sylvia Rosen, Business Pundit: 5 New Year's Resolutions You Should Make at Work
Judy Lindenberger, The Lindenberger Group: What's the Future for HR?
Jason Seiden, Fail Spectacularly: Jason & Elle Talk New Year's Resolutions
Bill Boorman, The Recruiting Unblog: Where Will Social Media and #Socialrecruiting go in 2011?
Jon Ingham's Strategic HCM Blog: Is 2011 the Time to Stop Treating People Like Tools?
Jon Ingham's Strategic HCM Blog: HR Predictions for 2011
Matt Lafata, HRchitect: 2011 HCM Industry Predictions
Each Friday I like to share a resource I have found to be beneficial for my own personal and professional development that I hope will also help in your quest to Maximize Possibility. Today I have a great collection of motivational podcasts to share with you from Success magazine. Enjoy!
The Resource: Success Magazine's Success Interview Podcast Series
What It Is: The Success Interviews Series is a collection of podcasts made available by Success magazine that feature one on one interviews with Robert Stuberg and select leaders from the personal and professional development industry. In these interviews Robert and his guests discuss strategies for achieving greater success and happiness in one's personal and professional life and provide actionable tips for implementing these strategies.
Why You Should Download Them: As many of you know I am a big fan of free downloadable audio resources such as this one. These podcasts are a convenient and effective way to maximize the limited amount of time we have each day to devote to personal and professional development. Short in nature (typically less than 30 minutes), these interviews are a great way to utilize your time when commuting, doing chores around the house (shoveling snow!), or waiting to pick up your children from school.
Robert Stuberg is a well known success guru and his guests bring an interesting and practical perspective towards realizing greater levels of success in life. His conversations are always lively, intelligent, and engaging and I often find myself wishing I could chime in and be a part of the action.
The only bad thing I can say about the Success Interviews Podcast Series is that there are not more of them! While there are only 8 podcasts available for download, I am confident they will make a worthwhile addition to your professional development library. Head over and download them today and Maximize Possibility in your life!
Happy Monday and welcome to 2011! The end of the year serves as a great time for reflection and looking back at all that was accomplished over the past 12 months. The HR, talent management, and leadership development blogging community is no stranger to this tradition.
Over the past couple of weeks many of my blogging colleagues have taken the time to reflect on what they feel was their (and others') best work from the past year and share it with their readers as they bid adieu 2010. Before we jump into all that 2011 has to offer, let us pause for just a moment and reflect on all the great blog posts that 2010 gave to us. Happy new year and enjoy!
Tom Peters! Blog: Bests
Alice Korngold, Fast Company: The Year in CSR: The Four Trends of 2010
Wally Bock, Three Star Leadership: Looking Back at 2010
John Hunter, Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog: 3rd Annual Management Blog Review
Michael Davenport, The Human Racehorses: My HR Top 10 for 2010 (And Some Personal Faves!)
Jon Hyman, Ohio Employer's Law Blog: Top 10 Labor & Employment Law Stories of 2010: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, & Part 5
Shauna Moerke, HR Minion: 400: How Did I Have This Much to Say?
Jimmy Guterman, Harvard Business Review: The Top 10 HBR Blog Posts of 2010
Dan McCarthy, Great Leadership: Reflections on 2010: The More I know About Leadership Development the Less I know
Art Petty, Management Excellence: Two Great Blogs and a Best of Leadership Caffeine Post
Jen Miller, The People Equation: The 2010 People Equation Influencers
Mark Vickers, The Institute for Corporate Productivity: The Top 10 Talent Trends of 2010
Drea Knufkin, Business Pundit: 75 Best Business Blogs of 2010
Tanmay Vora, QAspire Blog: People Focus - 2010 Management Improvement Carnival & Gratitude 2010
Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist: Most Popular Posts of 2010
Amit Bhagria, Young HR Manager: Year End Wrap-Up - The Best of the HR Blogosphere 2010
Trish McFarlane, HR Ringleader: Help Me Blog: Your Best Memory from 2010
Gautam Ghosh, Designing HR for Organizations 2.0: My Top Posts of 2010
Steve Boese's HR Technology Blog: Farewell 2010
Janet Swaysland, MonsterThinking: Top 10 in 2010
Ben Eubanks, UpStart HR: Management Blog Reviews
Allison Green, Ask a Manager: Most Popular Posts of 2010
Michael McKinney, Leadership Now: Best Leadership Books of 2010
Dan Markovitz, Timeback Management Blog: Blog Carnival Roundup 2010
Mark Anderson, Stats Made Easy: Favorite Posts from Three Rings in the 2010 Carnival of Management Blogs
Jamie Flinchbaugh: Blog Carnival Annual Roundup: 2010
Jon Ingham's Strategic HCM Blog: Reviewing My 2010 Predictions
Dan McCarthy, DDI's Talent Management Intelligence: The 20 Best Leadership Blog Posts 2010
Evan Carmichael, The Entrepreneur Blog: The Top 50 Leadership Blogs of 2010
