(TheMIX) — There is tremendous goodwill, not to mention countless exciting experiments, around making the world of work more human — designed to promote more freedom, equity, engagement, and passion. Why, then, can those words sound so cheap when we hear them repeated over and over by leaders of all stripes? Probably because these words are uttered much more often than they are ever enacted.

That’s why it’s so refreshing to spend time with a leader who is relentlessly inventive and effective as a champion of this cause. We aim too low, says Ricardo Semler, the irrepressible force behindBrazil’s Semco Group. “We constantly talk about passion — serving customers passionately, filling in forms passionately — but what if we created the conditions for people to feel exhilaration, to get involved to the point they shout ‘yes!’ and give each other high fives because they did it their way and it worked?”

What if, instead of assuming passion will just show up when we invoke it, we focused on designing organizations to unleash it?

To learn, read more….

Whether you’ve built a learning organization from the ground up or were promoted to the position, as chief learning officer you’re called to serve the company by fostering a culture of learning at every turn. Since all business demands continual adaption to changing tides in the economic environment, a learning organization itself needs to preserve its function as the tiller of the company, because it’s surprisingly easy to drift off course. Let’s look at some common mistakes that can trip up CLOs and, by extension, have hurt the entire learning enterprise.

Mistake No. 1: Failing to Make the Transition From Tactical to Strategic Thinking

Mistake No. 2: Getting Your Program Funding at the Last Minute

To continue reading this article from the Chief Learning Officer, written by Frank Waltmann, click here….

While some argue that the coaching industry is slowly coming of age, historically anyone with business experience across a wide range of sectors – from real estate to psychiatry – has been able to hang out a shingle. Without any clear qualifications or barriers to entry, coaching is a free-for-all – anyone can be one.

“There isn’t a business which hasn’t been marketed to by people professing to be business coaches, claiming the widest experience and who promise to work wonders,” remarks James Mason, managing director of coaching firm Mindshop. Mason is particularly critical of franchises offering a “cookie-cutter” or one-size-fits-all approach that use coaching gobbledegook, often via the latest forms of social media. They are one reason some people in the industry have now stopped calling themselves coaches and adopted other titles, including “sales scientists” or “business catalysts”, says Mason. “They’ll do anything to distance themselves from the word ‘coach’.”

But what’s to stop those less qualified to coach from making their own moves on the market when even the top coaching practitioners – the experienced business professionals and highly qualified academics – are still struggling to define what they do?

Even qualifications present a sticking point. Successful graduation with a masters of business coaching or a degree in coaching psychology, as well as various diplomas and certificates, does not deliver an automatic licence to operate when, in the eyes of the market, a coaching graduate is no substitute for a battle-hardened former chief executive with tried-and-tested business acumen.

Continue this article found on LeadingCompany, by clicking here…

Of all the competencies sought after by today’s budding business leaders — critical thinking, emotional intelligence, the ability to influence and inspire a team, to name a few — perhaps the most valuable is one that isn’t learned in a boardroom but on a baseball or soccer field as children.

Mental toughness is a term commonly used in sports — a term many begin to hear from coaches in youth athletics. Tuning out the noise or pressure and performing to potential in an otherwise difficult situation is what makes fans admire the most astute professional athlete.

It’s not that the quarterback was able to throw the winning touchdown, but the fact that he or she was able to do so under the tight and uncomfortable circumstances of the situation.

While sports stars grab the majority of headlines in the mental toughness arena, this trait has become essential for leaders to be successful in business as well, according to Christine M. Riordan, dean of the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver.

Global business leaders, facing the complexity of an uncertain working environment, need to have the same psychological readiness as an athlete. It’s not just a matter of leaders’ knowledge, ability or skill that sets them up for success, but also an ability to deal with the pressure and stress of competition, fatigue and failure, Riordan wrote in a 2010 Forbes article, “Six Elements of Mental Toughness.”

Continue reading…

I was exceptionally honoured when the senior editor of the Harvard Business Review Blog Network asked me to write a post about introverts, which led to the network publishing An Introvert’s Guide to Networking. I have been amazed by the response it’s garnered and the number of emails I have received from introverted executives “pouring their hearts out” to me.

As I read through the hundreds of comments on the post and the emails, I realised there are clear myths about introversion that are relatively pervasive. I aim to dispel them here.

Introversion myth #1: Being introverted is the same as being shy

Introversion myth #2: Introverts are socially inept or anxious in social situations

Introversion myth #3: If I am fearful of public speaking i must be an introvert

Introversion myth #4: Introverts have communication challenges and difficulty knowing what to say

Introversion myth #5: If you act like an extrovert you can “overcome” introversion

What is introversion?, continue here….

When companies evaluate the broad array of management development tools and resources available, they turn increasingly to coaching for its flexible and highly personalized approach to enhancing leaders’ performance. Yet, despite growing popularity and broad acceptance of coaching, uncertainty persists with respect to its objectives, delivery and effectiveness.

First, there is some ambiguity about the differences between coaching, executive coaching and counseling. Adding to the confusion, coaching frequently suffers from a lack of transparency, organizational support and clear objectives, along with inadequate measurement, which impedes organizations’ ability to evaluate its effectiveness.

Further, different types of coaching will have different outcomes. General performance-based coaching is what managers and peers provide to individuals at any level on an ongoing basis. This type of coaching is tactical and is sometimes combined with counseling to fix a problem or improve a specific skill.

Continue reading further about this article found on Chief Learning Officer, and written by Sandi Edwards, by clicking here…

In mid-2007 I decided to go to the headhunters with an updated CV, looking for non-executive director (NED) positions (to see my qualifications, read below).

All were keen to use me as a potential NED except Lynn Anderson, who was managing partner of Russell Reynolds and who I knew socially in Mosman. After giving him my pitch he looked at me and said: “Are you stark-raving mad?”

He asked me how much I was worth and I demurred, so he asked me if I owned my house. I replied in the affirmative and he then said that he estimated my worth to be about $10 million, which was pretty close.

He then said: “Chris you should look at the mirror every day and say to yourself ‘I am eminently sueable’. They will want to put you on high-tech companies which are far too risky. Forget being an NED.”

These comments took me by surprise because it is rare that someone does not act in his own self-interest and for a headhunter to turn down the opportunity to earn commission from good stock is rare indeed.

Several weeks after that event I was on the golf course relating the story and a fellow player said I had just received the best advice I could get, and lamented about how he wished someone had said that to him five years ago.

His story was that he had joined the smallest division of a family company, where total revenues were about $50m.

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Imagine if more people inside the organisation could learn to think, act and communicate like those who inspire us? Imagine if the ability to inspire others could be practised not just by a select few, but by the majority?

Leadership abilities, such as those described by emotional intelligence (EQ), explain what leaders do, but not why they perform. Furthermore, knowing what to do is all very well, but the big question is how to do it. In the course of working with some of the world’s best organisations over the last 12 years, the question of how to develop inspirational leaders is the most common one that I’ve faced.

In this article I’d like explain why leaders do what they do that inspires us and then introduce you to a simple revolutionally new online tool for developing inspiring leaders. This goes a long way to answering the question of how to develop a leadership culture that motivates colleagues and customers and inspires the rest of us. According to more than 20 years of research in psychology, there are at least seven common factors that contribute to creating positive behaviour change.

1. Engagement – “I have a dream …”
2. Benchmarking – self-discovery & self-directed change
3. Create manageable, measurable goals and share them
4. Model the skills
5. Practise new skills and provide feedback
6. Provide follow-up support
7. Evaluate change

Read the whole article about inspiring leaders by By Martyn Newman, by clicking here…

The survey, conducted by the Australian Women Chamber of Commerce & Industry, was open to women who own and operate their own business. A total of 2,952 women took part.

Overall, 53% of respondents said they are not contributing to their superannuation, while only 22% of respondents have always contributed to their super.

AWCCI chief executive Yolanda Vega says the super contributions of female business owners are “extremely inauspicious”, calling for the introduction of relevant policies and programs.

“Women today are leaving their employers and starting up their own business in numbers never previously seen,” Vega says.

“Generally, women don’t pay themselves a wage as business owners for the first few years and therefore cannot contribute to super either.”

“Now that we have more information about this fast-growing sector… we must implement policies and programs that will be conducive to women.”

Pauline Vamos, chief executive of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia, agrees there is a serious problem when it comes to women and super.

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There’s an old saying that if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. That idea holds true when you’re trying to assess a candidate’s leadership potential. You have to start with a clear picture of what leadership means to you and, more importantly, what it means in your organisation.

Many organisations have leadership competency models that purport to describe the key characteristics and behaviors that they seek in their leaders. The problem with many of these models is that they are so full of jargon and clichés that they don’t provide much in the way of useful guidance.

Having looked at dozens of these models over the years, I can make it simple for you. Leadership behaviours fall into one of two broad categories: the behaviors that drive results and the behaviors that build relationships. Both categories are equally important for long-term success. The most successful leaders exhibit both in abundance.

Continue here to read some questions in each of those two categories to keep in mind when assessing a candidate’s leadership potential, Driving results and Building relationships….