You are moving to a new place to live or to work. What are you bringing with you? What are your keepsakes? If you mentioned thank-you notes, cards, and/or letters, you’re not alone. At times, the impact of sending these items is underestimated. I wrote on this subject in a recent HPSG Pulse blog post that I shared on LinkedIn. We all have experiences that make a difference in our lives long after the experience. When I…

We think about learning from what goes wrong. But do we also learn from our successes? It is a standard process to assess when something does not work as expected. The situation is reviewed, and changes are made. A good action is to study those who have the best outcomes. This provides a “success plate,” a template that captures what goes well. It identifies what drives the best outcomes. A senior executive in an addiction…

Reducing variance has been a key focus of mine for many years. Notice I said many years. It shows that reducing variance is a never-ending journey. Is leadership variance always a bad thing? There are those situations when a leader may vary an approach seeking improvement. I call these operational trials. There are times when a situation arises where a process or action needs to not be followed. These are isolated or emergency situations. In general, reducing…

If you leave, who will take your place? If there’s a family emergency, who can fill in for you? Should job openings be filled externally or internally with a candidate who has been developed along the way? A related question: Are individuals who achieve great individual results great at developing others? Most know the answer is “not always.” It could be that things come more naturally to them, and they assume the same is true…

Leadership isn’t ultimately about what the leader can do. It’s about what the leader can multiply. A leader who develops others creates capacity that compounds over time. Their influence doesn’t stop with what they can do; it keeps expanding through the people they’ve poured into. In fact, the ability to develop others is one of the most important skill sets a leader can possess. Here are a few reasons why: Organizations outlast individuals. A leader…

It is a cliché to say that obstacles create opportunities. Why? Some of the opportunities are ones we deeply wish had not come about. One of the themes of a recent commencement talk at UW-Whitewater Rock County Campus was obstacles and opportunities. It was an honor to have my friend Barry there. Barry was diagnosed with ALS. He and his family and friends were and are sad and devastated. There are times Barry is, of course,…

What makes a good supervisor? I have asked this question hundreds of times. The consistent answers when someone says they have a good leader are, “They are approachable,” “They are willing to work side by side with me,” and, “They don’t ask people to do things they do not do themselves.” This column is on approachability. My experience is the higher a person is on the organizational chart, the less approachable others assume they are.…

Psychological safety. Amy C. Edmondson brought this concept to life by describing it in terms of a workplace where people feel safe to speak up, ask questions, admit mistakes, and offer ideas without fear of humiliation or punishment. While the term has been around for some time, my observation is that it’s currently at or near the top of the list of what people want and need. This is a topic I was fortunate to learn…

Clarity is not about saying more. It is about removing everything that is not necessary. This came home to me last year when I attended a talk based on the book Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less, by Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz. Holding up my mirror of self-reflection, it was apparent to me that my weekly columns were too long. My columns used to run 750 to 800 words…

“It is not my job.” Many of us have heard this said or at least implied by employees. While it’s true that people have specific jobs and job descriptions, great cultures are filled with individuals who do what needs to be done. This includes people in leadership roles. For example, a leader sees an employee parking in an area that is meant for customers only. The person does not report to them. What does the…