Gurnek Bains and his colleagues at YSC Consulting have written a book called Meaning Inc: The Blueprint for Business Success in the Twenty First Century. In it they argue that it is critical for leaders to create organizational cultures that have meaning and are meaningful for team members. This blog entry looks at the four primary challenges (or qualities) that the authors believe leaders will face in their attempts to create meaningful work cultures.

Leadership development is an important aspect of the director role, and not just something that is recommended for executives. All directors should review their own leadership skills from time to time and determine what and how to improve.

A guest post from Patrick d’Astous , chief scientist at Smartbox Software. A project manager puts, by trade, or by choice, his credibility on the line every day. Another way to say this is “a project manager is as good as his/her last project’s perceived success”. Compared to traditional management and its long term objectives, …

Last spring I walked into a client’s office to deliver a leadership development program design and was greeted with, “We just got the McKinsey/BCG/Bain (take your pick) consulting report and we are completely reorganizing the business unit.”[i] Sound familiar? Look anywhere – business, the marketplace, organizations, or personal lives – the amount of turbulence today …

Adaptability and Resiliency as Overlooked Leadership Qualities In my mind the unsung hero of effective leadership are two related and overlapping qualities: adaptability and resiliency. The ability and, probably more importantly, the willingness of a leader to adapt his or her thinking, behavior, or strategy based on changing circumstances, miscalculations, or other factors, is a …

The news is filled with the exploits of more than a few examples of dishonesty and greed, leaders who purposefully worked in their own behalf, rather than from a sense of responsibility for institutional integrity. We know the list and it keeps getting bigger. For the last 50 years it has not been fashionable to …

There is significant outcome data that demonstrates a strong correlation between the skills and knowledge of the individuals responsible for leading change and the actual success of organizational change initiatives. This again begs the question: What leadership behaviors or competencies are most strongly associated with effectively leading or overseeing change initiatives? This blog entry addresses three competency areas associated with effectively leading change.

Leadership is the key factor in any capital campaign – leadership that energizes the process from its onset. So, to start a campaign, the first donors must be Board Members. These individuals must set an example with their level of giving so they have the credibility/leverage to solicit the other Board Members and so they …

A leadership transition is a critical change for the organization, the new team, key stakeholders and especially the new leader. The need for the newly hired leader to get up to speed quickly, understand the business, navigate the culture, build relationships with key stakeholders, assess and lead their new team, and understand their own personal leadership strengths and needs in the context of this new role can be a daunting task.

In my last post (October 13) in the Management Library's leadership blog (managementhelp.org/blogs/leadership), I offered history and some detail on the Five Core Strategies of Appreciative Leadership. Today, instead, I’ll share some of the practices of Appreciative Leadership.