How do you know you are defensive?

“We often study leadership behaviours and practices we admire. Just as valuable to me is studying bad bosses and behaviour that creates distrust. After all, we learn both from successes and mistakes. We can learn from everyone and every situation, whether it is what to do…or what NOT to do.” Skip Prichard The following article appears at SkipPrichard.com and is Excerpted with permission from Leadership Levers (Productivity Press, 2021) by Diana Jones. Eight Behaviors Defensive Leaders Overuse Whether intentional or not, persistent...

Is your leadership rejected or accepted?

How many of you love being in interactions when people have strongly opposed views? How many of you thrive in conflict, and remain spontaneous and creative. Or are you more likely to become defensive, and let your fears and anxieties dominate? I have met only a handful of leaders who love working with conflict. I have worked with many who do not, and those who do their best to avoid it, or ignore the intensity in conversations. Currently, I am...

Three ways to expand organization cohesion

“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it” H E Luccock Covid has wreaked havoc with relationships; people have not been able to get together with those they choose. Leaders with weak or unhelpful relationships have resulted in losing valuable staff. Online meetings have emphatically drawn leaders’ formerly personal and private lives into the professional realm (hello zoom-bombing pets and children). The need for quality human connection and social cohesion in our organizations...

Putting the hard work in for results

“I know the price of success: dedication, hard work and an unrelenting devotion to the things you want to see happen” Frank Lloyd Wright I loved reading Eric Riperts’ autobiography ’32 Yolks’. His parents were deeply in love for his first years then their relationship disintegrated with vitriol and grief. His father died young. Ripert’s love and longing for his dad didn’t diminish over the years. He found several male mentors who along with his mother and grandmother fired...

New Podcasts: with Brad Jeavons of the Enterprise Excellence

Create the conditions where people want to participate. Recently I had the chance to talk with Brad Jeavons of the Enterprise Excellence Podcast, on the applications of my new book Leadership Levers. There are some people where you just get on with, and Brad was one of those people for me. Our early morning conversation was wide ranging. He asked great questions, then created these two podcasts. The links are here. you can listen directly or download these to listen...

Leadership Levers – podcasts and published articles

Summer reading and listening My new book Leadership Levers is available and is gathering attention in the United States as well as here in New Zealand. If you haven’t already, take the opportunity to read it over the summer. Begin the new year by applying the ideas to create greater social cohesion and purpose in your work group and organisation. I have several articles in FAST COMPANY and have been interviewed by a number of podcasters. Hunter Hastings and I had a great conversation...

What a tumultuous time we have been through with covid-19

How extraordinary it is to have large parts of our country 90% double vaccinated. Up from 21.6% on 12th August. What immense and inspired efforts by health workers and communities around the country. Disappointment in having events cancelled has loomed large in both my personal and professional life. Finding attractive options B and C has at times tested my spontaneity. Like many of you, anticipating being with family and friends and refreshing our lives over the summer break is immensely...

What are the Biggest Mistakes Leaders Make Regarding Relationship Building

My editor at Routledge’s Productivity Press Michael Sinocchi, asked me this question. He posted this response on the Lean Insider blog. At the beginning of this month, Diana Jones published an insightful book entitled Leadership Levers Releasing the Power of Relationships for Exceptional Participation, Alignment, and Team Results, which contends that leadership and collaboration are primarily a matter of principles and process and not personality and content alone. Her book reveals the leadership levers to release the power of relationships for exceptional participation, alignment, and results...

Urgent but definitely not important

Early in October I received an email headed URGENT INFORMATION REQUIRED FOR xyz INVOICE PAYMENTS. The following day I received a second email URGENT SUPPLIER UPDATE FROM XYZ. They let me know they were changing their invoice system from 1 November, and that the request was legitimate. While it might have been legitimated from their perspective, from mine it was an unwanted intrusion and unnecessary pressure on my business for some problem the organisation had created for themselves. With Stephen...

Surrealism art inspired by tragedy

I was lucky enough to visit the Surrealists exhibition in Te Papa this month. Extraordinary art works by Magritte, Salvadore Dalí, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Leonora Carrington, and more. Most of the works were extraordinary and captivating. My favourite was Carrington’s Again the Gemini’s are in the garden. Surrealism was the artist’s creative response, born out of horrors of world war, where the worst imaginable had occurred, and then some. Artists of the time chose to tap into the subconscious...