Leadership Development

The Telecommuting Challenge

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Telecommuting isn’t a new topic. Under the right conditions theZenith Space Command Remote (00)re are many advantages for both employees and employers.

At both ends of the spectrum there are jobs that are impossible for telecommuting (i.e.: manufacturing) and there are jobs that are perfect (i.e.: some accounting tasks). We find the challenges in that grey blob in the middle. Those challenges can be our opportunities.

My good friend Rajesh Singh started a recent thread on LinkedIn asking about telecommuting.
(Read the full thread here.)

But, as I read the comments, I realized that as is often the case the question frames certain assumptions and we don’t think through the “real” problem. Continue reading →

Leaders and managers, the important difference

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There is a huge difference between leaders and managers.
Never sell managers short, they are the stewards of resources.
Their problems will cost you money

Leaders are the stewards of culture.
If the organizational culture is toxic, it is the fault of the leaders.
Their problems will cost you your whole organization.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Endgameleadership.com

Ken Wrede

Kenneth W. Wrede

Following the EndGame

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First, thank you to everyone that has been following me for the last 18 months or so. I really appreciate your thoughtful comments and interest. I know I have been a little slow online the last few months, but your encouragement has made me rethink my blog and the purpose it serves. I have been using my time during these last months for writing and working on a new project.

My goal now is that I want to keep 5,000,000 businesses from failing.

As a step towards that goal, I am launching a new Website called EndGame Leadership.

The early goals of this blog has been for me to capture and articulate my thoughts on a variety of topics that are interesting to me.

One of my pet projects since my EMBA Program has been a personal appraisal of my experience of 35+ years of leadership training, both as a student and teacher. Through that analysis, I have been developing a leadership model that I believe really cuts away all the nonsense of leadership we think we know and presents what is really effective.

I am calling the end result “EndGame Leadership“. There are a many ways people grow as leaders and it is usually a bottom-up, solitary, personal process. They develop their skills on an ad hoc basis and when experience slaps them in the face.

I have taken a fresh approach and researched why have businesses failed? I can’t control anything if a business fails because of market issues or problems with the economy. But, when the research shows that 25% of all businesses in the US fail because of leadership issues, now we have a starting point. When those failures can be traced back to root problems, we know what to fix. My approach was to create a leadership model that is engineered to avoid the root causes that lead to failure.

I would appreciate it if you will check out the new site. Let’s find a way to work together. I can’t save 5,000,000 companies by myself.  (http://EndGameLeadership.com)

There is a preview available of my first book called “6 Rabbit Holes of Leadership”. The book is an attempt to help the novice leader avoid the pitfalls that bogus advice gives though that advice seems often compelling. For more experienced leaders, I hope the book helps you to realize that you were not alone on your journey and I hope the pages give you the framework to help those who look to you for advice.

The preview I am including is the first four chapters out of nine chapters. Please sign-in and take a look.

This site isn’t closing, I have occasional items I’d like to discuss, but this blog will be more personal and, at times, whimsical. If, however, your focus is leadership, please head to the new site and follow me from there. Many of the previous resources are there, but the focus is on leadership.

Thank you for your previous and future support!

Ken

Suncoast Business Leaders Leadership Panel

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This is just a quick note to thank Laurie MacDonald from MacDonaldConsultants for hosting a wonderful leadership panel on 18 May at the Centre Club Tampa sponsored by The Suncoast Business Leaders organization.

Continue reading →

How to Screw-up Leadership Development

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microphone (1) graphic pen

<tap> <tap>

CEOs

<tap> <tap>

Are you out there?  Anybody?

<tap> <tap>

COOs?

CFOs?

<tap> <tap>

Is this thing on?

I really want to be that motivator guy.  You know, the guy that runs around and pumps everyone up.  I want to throw those pithy motivational quotes that seem deep and meaningful, but also contradict each other.  I’d sound really wise and clever.  I wouldn’t give actionable advice, but that’s OK since I couldn’t be held accountable.

<sigh>

I can’t be that guy, at least not this time.  Stick with the evidence because the numbers don’t lie.

I hate to do it, but I have to throw statistics at you…

  • In 2012 US companies spent $14 billion on leadership development.
  • In a 2014 benchmark study from Development Dimensions International, corporate leaders and HR professionals were asked to judge the overall quality of their organization’s leadership.
    • 40% of leaders judged the quality as high.
    • 25% of HR judged the quality as high.

If you accept the judgement of the people responsible, then between 60% and 70% of $14 billion is wasted.

In my opinion… you C-suite people are the problem. Continue reading →

Leadership is Like a Good Suit

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(Or The Fallacy of Leadership Style)

Tux + foam fingerThere are a lot of articles and posts written on the subject of leadership style.  Most of it is based on a faulty premise: you are your leadership style and your leadership style is you.

In other words, people are led to believe that they are defined by their leadership style and they should hone that style into a sharp cutting tool.  However, a sharp tool is not always the best for every job.

“One Style to Rule Them All”

Continue reading →

Cooperation over Compliance

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Cooperation vs ComplianceWhen you are in a position of authority, what is the best use of your time?  How do you get more leadership bang for the buck?

One of my leadership principles is to create a healthy organizational culture.  I think the best way to convey the message is to cultivate cooperation from people instead of enforcing compliance. Continue reading →

Why are We Assessing Leadership Roles and Styles?

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Personality (0)What is the point of all of it?

Millions of dollars are spent each year on personality assessment tests.  But, nobody can express a clear reason why.

“Two and a half million Americans a year take the Myers-Briggs. Eighty-nine companies out of the US Fortune 100 make use of it, for recruitment and selection or to help employees understand themselves or their co-workers.”[1]

Almost 90% of Fortune 100 companies perform these tests.  This is amazing to me.

I have taken these assessments.  After receiving my results, my first thought always is: interesting, but so what?

I see a lot of commentary and articles on how to assess leadership styles and roles.

  • Are you a democratic leader, authoritarian, or somewhere in between (here)?
  • What is your personality type (FIRO-B, MBTI)?
  • What is your role as a team member (Belbin)?

Are these useful tools?  Can we use them to predict behaviors or successes? Continue reading →

Leadership is Like Being a Good Host

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Welcome Mat (0)“But they are like family to me!”

You hear this phrase or something like it when people speak about their work relationships.  Hell, I’ve been guilty of saying it in one form or another.  It is sorta sad to think about it, but we often spend more time in the company of our colleagues than we do with our core nuclear family.

But is it really like that, are we really family?

Would we want to be family?

So we’re all one big happy family!  Now what?

Like the saying goes you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family.  The implied premise is that your family has to claim you.  Thus, if we use the family paradigm, it hurts all the more when you have to, for professional reasons, reject an employee.

I think the best attitude to take with your employees is the same you might take if they were guest in your home.  Be their host.  (I don’t mean in a parasite/host relationship sorta way, I know some of you were thinking it.) Continue reading →