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 June 20th - 26th, 2011. Enjoy!
Maren Hogen, Marenated: Great People ARE Better - Fast Company co-founder Bill Taylor wrote a provocative piece for the Harvard Business Review this past week that caused quite the stir within the talent management and HR community when he claimed that "great people are overrated". Maren responds to Bill's post and sets the record straight that great people are in fact key to an organization's success.
Jason Seiden, Fail Spectacularly: How to Surround Yourself with People Better than Yourself - There is an old adage that says to be great in business you need to surround yourself with people that are smarter and more talented than yourself. While this is sage advice, our egos and insecurities often get in the way of following it. Jason shares some great suggestions for surrounding yourself with people who are better than you.
Tim Sacket, The Tim Sacket Project: What We Still Don't Get in HR - The global financial crisis and economic downturn has really forced HR to up its game in recent years. However, as Tim explains, when it comes to making effective hiring decisions there are some things that HR still doesn't "get".
Ann Bares, Compensation Force: The Work is Reward Enough? Really? - For many people being assigned to a new role or being asked to take on new and challenging projects is often seen as a reward for their high level of work performance. But is the work itself reward enough? Ann shares some recent statistics on compensation trends and provides her take on awarding promotions without increasing an employee's pay.
Matt Charney, Monster Thinking: SHRM 11 Spotlight: Social Media Bootcamp for the HR Front Lines- The 2011 SHRM national conference arrived in sunny Las Vegas yesterday and not surprisingly there has been a lot of buzz in the blogosphere about the annual human resources event. Matt shares a great interview he held with Carrie Corbin (AT&T's associate director of talent acquisition) who will be presenting on the importance of using social media on the front lines of HR.
I like to cap off each week by sharing a resource that I feel will help you to Maximize Possibility in your organizational and professional life. Today I am excited to feature an all new resource from one of my favorite bloggers in the leadership development community. Enjoy!
The Resource: Leadership Development Roundtable Challenge
What It Is: The Leadership Development Rountable Challenge is a new monthly feature on Dan McCarthy's Great Leadership blog. Each month a leadership challenge will be posed to the six core members of the roundtable and their special guest. The seven participants then share their take on the leadership challenge in 200 words or less. Readers then vote for their favorite response and a week or so later the votes are tallied and the winning response is announced.
Why You Should Check It Out: It is not surprising that a new and exciting blog series like this would come from a guy like Dan McCarthy. As the founder of the popular Leadership Development Carnival and one of the top leadership development bloggers out there, Dan continues to delight followers with new ways to bring together some of the top bloggers in the HR, talent management, and leadership development community.
Dan has assembled an A-list of core members to "sit" at the roundtable including Art Petty, Steve Roesler, Mary Jo Asmus, Jennifer Miller, Scott Elbin, and of course himself. I find it fascinating to see how each member of the roundtable views and approaches the challenge at hand. Their perspectives are diverse and everyone has a unique take on how the challenge should be handled.
The roundtable approach is a great example of why it is so important to invite a variety of viewpoints to tackle a problem or challenge. While each member's view on the issue differs, all have valid points that, when combined, paint a more holistic picture of what is really going on in the presented situation. This holistic viewpoint is critical for effective decision making and serves as a great example of how you, as a leader, should seek to assess and solve problems.
I encourage you to head over to Dan's blog and check out the first installment of the Leadership Development Rountable Challenge. I am confident you will find it to be a great learning and development tool!
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 June 13th - 19th, 2011. Enjoy!
Mary Jo Asmus, Aspire Leadership Solutions: 30 Overlooked Acts of Leadership Courage - Ask anyone and they will tell you that effective and authentic leadership requires strength and courage. Mary Jo shares 30 acts of leadership courage that you should strive to emulate.
Lois Melborne, Aquire Blog: Analytics Academy: Quality of Hire - HR and recruiting has made great strides in recent years to bring a higher degree of analytical rigor into their business function. I am happy to say that the average time to fill an open position is no longer the holy grail of recruiting metrics and smart HR pros are now looking more holistically when it comes to evaluating their recruiting efforts and hiring decisions. Lois shares some ways to better measure and analyze the quality of your employee selection decisions.
Scott Elbin's Next Level Blog: Five Signs That You're So Busy Doing That You Don't See What Needs To Be Done - As a manager and leader it is easy to get so caught up in the burning fires and minutia of the day that you lose sight of the bigger picture of what is happening in your team or organization. Scott highlights five signs that you are you are too busy doing to see what really needs to be done.
Art Petty, Management Excellence: Lend a Coaching Hand to Your First-Time Leaders- Most of us will never forget the first time we were given the opportunity to formally lead and manage others at work. Whether it was a moment you dreamed about for years or something that just fell into your lap, chances are you were nervous, excited, and looking for any help or guidance you could get. Art makes a strong case for lending a coaching hand to the first-time leaders in your organization.
Seth Godin's Blog: Summer Reading, 2011- Looking for something good to read this summer? Who better to look to for suggestions than Seth Godin who shares his summer 2011 reading list.
Each week I like to feature a resource that I feel will aide in your efforts to Maximize Possibility in your professional or personal life. Today I have a great series of inspirational videos to share with you from one of today's most sought after personal development gurus. Enjoy!
The Resource: Breakthrough With Tony Robbins
What It Is: Breakthrough is a moving (albeit short-lived) NBC television series produced by Tony Robbins that can be viewed free of charge on Hulu. In each of the six episodes Tony helps people to overcome their fears, realize their dreams, and get the most out of life every single day.
Why You Should Check It Out: For a motivational speaker/writer and self-improvement guru, Tony Robbins is about as close to a household name as you can get. There's a good reason for this: he has had an incredible impact on the lives of those he's touched and has helped numerous individuals to change their lives for the better.
Breakthrough provides a center stage view of Tony in action as he coaches couples and individuals to achieve greater levels of happiness and success in life. The stories and transformations you will witness are amazing and inspiring.
With the steady stream of negative media coverage and the seemingly endless supply of low-brow reality television shows available to viewers today, it was great to see a broadcast network like NBC take a chance on a positive and uplifting show like Breakthrough. While the show was cancelled after only two episodes, all six recorded episodes are available free of charge on Hulu.
Unfortunately I must convey a sense of urgency to you today... Breakthrough will only be available on Hulu for a limited amount of time and will be removed from the site on September 18th, 2011.
Head over today and check out your choice of six great episodes while you still can!
It was another great week for reading HR, talent management, and leadership development blogs! With all the great posts this past week it was especially hard to narrow it down to just five to share. Here are five choice blog posts from June 6th - 12th, 2011 to get your week off to a great start. Enjoy!
Rob Tucker, Reading About Leading: How to Align Your Team: Clarity and Reinforcement - The alignment of a work team with its organization's goals and objectives is critical to a successful project outcome. Rob shares some tips for gaining team alignment by clarifying objectives and reinforcing positive behaviors.
Bret Simmons, Positive Organizational Behavior: Seeing REAL Relationship - Interpersonal relationships are a key element in successfully leading and influencing others. Bret shares four things to look for in REAL relationships.
Ben Eubanks, UpStart HR: Influencing People at Work - You can't always rely on authority to get your way in the workplace and influence is often times a better approach. Ben shares some tips for managing others through influence versus authority.
Kevin Wheeler, TLNT: Company Culture: How to Assess if Candidates Will Fit Your Organization - As if finding a job candidate with the right knowledge, skills, and attributes weren't challenging enough, it is equally important to find the right candidate who also fits within your organization's culture. Kevin highlights four ways to assess if a job candidate will fit in your organization.
Wally Bock, Three Star Leadership: 2011 Summer Reading and Re-Reading List - Looking for some new reading materials to keep your mind sharp this summer? Who better to take suggestions from than Wally Bock who shares his picks for some great summer reads.
Happy Friday! I like to finish off each work week by sharing a resource that I feel will benefit your quest to Maximize Possibility in your organization and professional life. Today I have great monthly newsletter to share from one of my favorite authors - Tim Sanders. Enjoy!
The Resource: Tim Sanders' Monthly Email Newsletter
What It Is: Tim's email newsletter is published once a month and features a variety of great content to help you grow and develop both your personal and professional lives. In his newsletter you will find updates from his latest book and speaking tours, cities where he will be appearing next, highlighted posts from his blog, links to free eBook downloads, recent video clips, book recommendations, and lots of other engaging content.
Why You Should Subscribe: I talk about Tim Sanders a lot on this blog and for good reason - he consistently delivers high calibre content that I simply cannot help but sharing with others. His monthly newsletter is a prime example and provides a consolidated view of the "best of the best" of what Tim has been working on over the past month.
One thing I really like about the message that Tim shares in his newsletter (and other content) is that it often blurs the line between our professional and personal lives. He recognizes that these two "lives" are intrinsically connected and takes a holistic approach to getting the most out of life and realizing the level of success that we are all capable of.
I could dote on and on about all the great things you will find in Tim's newsletter and all the reasons you should subscribe, but it is probably best that you find out for yourself... Head over to Tim's website to sign up for his monthly newsletter and 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 May 30th - June 5th, 2011. Enjoy!
Jennifer Miller, The People Equation: Professionals Don't Offer Excuses - Want to know the hallmark of a real business professional? Jennifer explains why real professionals avoid making excuses, have the courage and candor to admit their mistakes, and focus their energy on finding solutions to the problem at hand.
Carol Morrison, Institute for Corporate Productivity: The Ironies of High Performance - Carol recaps some of the highlights from the I4CP's 2011 High Performance Oragnizations Survey as well as a few unexpected ironies that were found in the results.
Bill Waddell, Evolving Excellence: What Do You Think - What your employees are thinking about at work, and perhaps more importantly what you as a leader think your employees are thinking about can have a big impact on the performance of your organization. Bill has a great post looking at the critical relationship between what an employee is thinking and how their thinking is guided by the way an organization's leadership thinks of them.
Michael Haberman, HR Observations: Human Resources, Creativity, and Innovation- Reflecting on his experience at this year's HREvolution un-conference, Michael shares four ways that HR can foster greater creativity and innovation.
Bryan Baldwin, HR Tests: Can an Applicant be TOO Qualified? And... Does it Matter?- One of the more interesting talent management dilemmas that emerged during the Great Recession is the issue of whether or not an applicant can be too qualified for a position and if so, how much it really matters. Bryan writes a nice post taking a look at this provocative issue.
Happy Friday - I hope you have had a wonderful week! Each Friday I like to highlight a resource that I feel can help you and your organization to Maximize Possibility. Today I am excited to share an exciting new resource from one of my favorite business leaders: Jack Welch. Enjoy!
The Resource: It's Everybody's Business with Jack and Suzy Welch on CNBC
What It Is: It's Everybody's Business started as a web series featuring Jack and Suzy Welch as they work with large national companies to tackle pressing and high-stakes business challenges. This past week I was excited to see that this engaging series is now being brought to the masses on CNBC starting Monday, June 6th!
The show is a beautiful blend of reality television and business case study that gives you a front row seat as Jack and Suzy guide executive teams in finding solutions to the challenges they are facing. The issues they tackle are highly strategic, timely, and can have a huge impact on the organization's financial success. Using Jack's now famous Work-Out methodology developed during his tenure at GE, he and Suzy bring key players within the organization together to flesh out the issue at hand and arrive at the best decision possible.
Why You Should Check It Out: Anybody who follows my blog or subscribes to my newsletter knows that I am a huge fan of Jack Welch, his relentless pursuit of performance excellence, and the high level of candor that he leads with. While reading his books and articles provides great insight into the mind of this famed business leader, watching Jack Welch in action brings things to a whole new level. It's Everybody's Business allows you to act as a fly on the wall and witness one of the greatest minds in business at work.
Let us not forget Suzy Welch either. As the former editor of the Harvard Business Review she brings years of business experience to the table and has a keen eye for hidden problems keeping organizations from reaching their full potential. Together the two make up a powerful team that provides incredible insight into how organizations can approach complex problems and opportunities and make the best decision possible.
If you want to see how high-stakes decisions are made in large corporate boardrooms, this is the show for you. I am confident you will find it entertaining, and more importantly you will find it to be a great learning tool to improve the way you make important decisions within your organization. Head over and learn more about the show today and don't forget to tune in for its premier at 9pm Eastern on Monday, June 6th!
