While title and position are an important source of authority, leaders must also develop relational authority to be able to develop and maintain an engaged, accountable, and resilient team. When healthy positional and relational authority are in place, teams work with their leaders, rally around the purpose of their work, and accountability flows naturally. Without… Read more →
Leadership
Gossip: Unblocking the dammed communication
By David Falk It is that time of year where some of us need to keep a look out for icicles and other indicators that we may have ice dams forming on our roofs. If not addressed, a simple ice dam can do significant damage as it blocks the melt water from flowing off… Read more →
Taking Off Our Armour: Vulnerability as Core Leadership Skill
By Dave Dyck In his book, Becoming Human, Jean Vanier proposes that in order to grow into the mature, whole, wise and therefore productive individuals, families, workplaces, and societies that we aspire to be, we must – paradoxically – move towards our struggles, our immaturity, our brokenness. This is especially true, he suggests, for… Read more →
High-Performance Expectations: Five Ways to Protect Your Training Investments
By Sandy K Harder I recently read a thought-provoking and very practical book entitled The Heart of Coaching: Using Transformational Coaching to Create a High-Performance Coaching Culture by Thomas G. Crane (2012). It was especially interesting for me to read it with both of my professional hats on – as an organizational leader (in my… Read more →
Leading Toward Healthy Group Dynamics (Part 2 of 3)
From “Us and Them” to “We”: Leading Toward Healthy Group Dynamics By David Dyck B) Understanding Conflict Escalation and Change: Group conflicts and the escalation pattern that takes us from “we” to “us and them” develops in a predictable four-stage pattern[1]: i) Shared Problem-Solving (i.e. mutuality; goal is to solve the problem): Most of us have been… Read more →
Leading Toward Healthy Group Dynamics (Part 1 of 3)
From “Us & Them” to “We”: Leading Toward Healthy Group Dynamics By David Dyck A) The Challenge Identified: Conflict among team members is inevitable in any group setting. Put people together long enough and there will eventually be friction of some kind. In fact, if work groups are not aware of or processing tension of… Read more →