Three Types of Forgiveness and Why They Matter to Us as Leaders

Forgiveness. We see it in public gestures like Nelson Mandela forgiving his captors after his long imprisonment or when President Ford pardoned President Nixon. And we often see the results when there is no forgiveness. Like in the news every day – from revenge violence to road rage to people arguing about reclining seats on

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The Keys to Successful Performance Conversations

It is likely you have had an experience like this in your past: You are 8 or 10 or 12 years old. You’ve done something wrong, whether you know it yet or not. You certainly know it after you have been told to “stay after class”, “go to the Principal’s office” or “wait until your

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How to Make Every Performance Review More Effective

When you think about performance reviews, what do you think? Chances are, your first thoughts aren’t positive, and the day of your performance review isn’t a day you circle with positive anticipation. The fact is that . . . Most performance reviews . . . aren’t very effective. Most performance reviews . . . are stressful.

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OPPORTUNITYISNOWHERE

OPPORTUNITYISNOWHERE What do you see in the title above? Do you see “opportunity is nowhere”? Or do you see “opportunity is now here”? The letters are the same so both of them are “there”– and it depends on what you see as to what actions you might take next. You have the same situation as

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Seven Ways to Support and Grow Your Top Performers

Recently I wrote about why as leaders and coaches we mess up when we focus all (or far too much) of our coaching time on lower performers. In that piece, I made the argument for spending at least 50% of your energy, focus and time on coaching and further developing your top or best performers.

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Why Goals Aren’t Enough

If you have read very much of my writing, you’ve read that I believe that too much emphasis can be placed on goal setting. This isn’t because setting goals isn’t important, but because too many people exert effort to set goals, then relax as if the job is done. This is like going to the starting

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Where the Best Coaches Focus Their Efforts

I have the good fortune of working with lots of leaders, and often have the chance to talk with, teach or consult with them on a variety of issues including their role as a coach. The vast majority of those I work with truly want to be more effective and make a difference for their

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The Elements of Mentoring

By W. Brad Johnson and Charles R. Ridley Take two psychology professors intensely interested in a topic and you wouldn’t be surprised that they might collaborate on a book. Make that interest on the topic of mentoring and you might be interested in that book, but worried it would be too academic. Then you find

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Remarkable TV: Leadership Lessons from the Shower

When it comes to coaching others, we often make the same mistake that I made with a “backwards” shower faucet. Intrigued? Check out this episode of Remarkable TV for my leadership lessons from the shower. 😉 Successful coaching starts with understanding and empathy of the other person, not with our agenda or normal approach. @KevinEikenberry

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Persuading the Person Who Won’t Budge

I thought today I would give a short answer to a question I get asked regularly. It gets asked in a variety of forms, but it all comes down to something like this . . . I have a person on my team that won’t budge. They don’t seem to care – about anything –

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