During our formative years, parents and teachers, serving as social guides, warned us against the perils of outspokenness. Their training emphasized the importance of not making waves. Repetitive injunctions like “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all,” clearly warned us to remain silent or at least to be careful what we […]

The demanding nature of the modern workplace is threatening to unbalance the leader-follower equation. Motivated by the fear of failure, leaders and followers reluctantly come together, not to address the issue, but to engage in finger pointing, faultfinding, and face saving. Meanwhile, the problem festers and their working relationship suffers as a result. The life […]

Followers need to validate what they’ve seen and heard first hand from a reliable leader before they take action. Whoever said, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” understood this concept very well. It’s important then to put your vision out there in a collective forum so that your followers can match what they see […]

Followers form a mental image of a situation based on what they see, hear or feel. For these reasons it is important to correct misinformation by putting your vision out there so everyone can ‘see’ what you mean. Whoever said, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” understood this process very well. It is human […]

A common complaint among leaders is that there is too much information available and not enough time to derive meaning from it and act decisively. That being the case, then, those who wish to reshape what happens tomorrow must rethink their concept of leadership today. For starters, the assumption that leadership is consigned to the […]

                                                                                          \ Leaders rarely set aside the time and space for followers to compare notes, ask questions and share their concerns. So, they gather at the “rumor mill” where they feel free to make up their own minds about what is going on and why. These gatherings are typically located offsite at popular watering holes. However, […]

There’s bound to be a period of floundering whenever people undergo change—it can’t be avoided. So you might as well face the inevitable and learn to be more graceful and accepting of people’s mistakes. In order to make the most of a potentially difficult period, everyone involved needs to be aware of and embrace these […]

Orchestrating change is not just management’s job. To make change work leaders and followers need an opportunity to voice their concerns through meaningful dialogue and purposeful exploration of what lies ahead. Rather than throw out the old and replace it with the new, there needs to be more open discussion around the change itself and […]