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In the Absence of Good Leadership, We Must Lead Ourselves

A Reformation, Really?

At the close of Drucker Forum 2017, Charles Handy called for a reformation of business enterprises. Frederick Bird and Henry Mintzberg responded with a tongue-in-cheek revision of Luther’s 95 Theses, their 9.5 Theses which included this paraphrase of Luther’s thesis #32:

Those who believe they can be certain of their salvation because they have achieved higher share value will be eternally damned, together with their consultants.

In the US, government seems to gladly allow enterprises to set their own scopes of responsibility, mainly shareholder value, even when that directly conflicts with the best interests of the employees and the communities affected by the production, transportation, and disposal of their products. (Here’s a recent glaring example).

Could it be that in our zeal to separate economic and political considerations, we’ve absolved businesses of moral responsibility and stalled the conversation about the equitable distribution of costs, income and wealth? Continue reading In the Absence of Good Leadership, We Must Lead Ourselves

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Stephen Interviewed by Heidi Gehman

HLI Int18.003b

Heidi Gehman had some questions for Stephen about HLI. Heidi is a higher education administrator and former colleague of Stephen’s at Oregon Extension. This is part of Stephen’s conversation with Heidi about her work here.

Topics discussed in this interview

    • Integrated, whole self leadership
    • Self leadership
    • Fear-based vs. hope-based motivation
    • Impeccability
    • Wisdom jigs

Continue reading Stephen Interviewed by Heidi Gehman

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The Leadership Game: Deciding Who Gets to Play

Recently, the New York Times reported on a crisis in leadership at the New York City Ballet:

“The country’s premier ballet company, which has defined grace, speed and precision since the days of its co-founder George Balanchine, is now also a stage for the era’s #MeToo convulsions.” In the end, the ballet is looking to hire a new “humane leader.”

Principal dancer Ashley Bouder wrote on Instagram, “May we find a moral and fair individual to lead us out of this darkness and into future respect, integrity and success.” Continue reading The Leadership Game: Deciding Who Gets to Play

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A More Humane (and Effective) Performance Review

Photo by Jj Mendez on Unsplash

85% of employees are “not engaged” or are “actively disengaged,” according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report.

We agree with Jim Harter that this points to a crisis of leadership.

How leaders drive performance is one source of this crisis. Aggressive leaders can push their teams to high performance in the short run but will drive away the best contributors over the long run. Great leaders build teams and team productivity simultaneously by creating great experiences based in great performance. Continue reading A More Humane (and Effective) Performance Review