Articles, etc.
Boaz & Fox's article that proposes that if you want organizational change for the better, start with yourself -- the leader of change management.
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Gurdjian, Halbeisen, and Lane suggest four steps you can take to avoid a poor ROI on leadership development programs, which are generally quite expensive -- up $150,00 per person. Learn how to avoid this costly failure.
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Blank and Dorf propose that our traditional approaches to business planning -- especially for start-ups -- is fundamentally flawed and thus a wate of time. Read about how they think we should go about it.
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Workforce Metrics Managing for Top Performance Series -- Employee-Centered Discipline System by Dr. Steve Woods
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Why do my employees disappoint me? It's you. Dr. Woods gets frequent requests for this brief, thought-provoking article from clients and students alike…
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Workforce Metrics Strategic Planning Toolkit -- a succinct reference for those who are embarking on a strategic planning project.
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Do you get in your own way sometimes? A great article on self-defeating behaviors by Dr. Mark Goulston.
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Teams, teams, teams. Dr. Patrick Lencioni summarizes his popular take on the five dysfunctions of teams. Worth reading again...
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Emotional intelligence is a crucial skill of leadership, and awareness and management of your working style and that of others is essential. A good quick read to keep in mind!
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Recommended Books
There are business books that have real, lasting value and are written from rigorous research and experience, and there are books that are basically opinion and little more than the management fad du jour. Here, I will offer recommendations for reading that are worth your time, reading that will stimulate your critical thinking skills and challenge your assumptions.
Dr. Dan Isenberg has been a major global force in advancing entrepreneurship ecosystems, the foundation of all thriving economies. Read about his latest views on how entrepreneurship really occurs.
The Contrarians Guide to Leadership, by Steve Sample was written over 10 years ago. Not many folks have heard of it, but it shows up in the top 20 of Amazon’s best-ever business books. Better yet, it’s cheap. Here’s what Amazon says:
Happy reading!
Websites
Turnover is expensive, but many of us are unaware of the real cost of replacing employees. Here's a web site where you can easily calculate your costs by position. Be prepared to be surprized, and make sure you share your results with your management team.
http://us.drakeintl.com/hr-tools/cost-of-turnover-calculator.aspx
Some of the online resources the federal government provides us can be remarkably valuable. Others, not so much. The O*Net site from the U.S. Department of Labor is valuable to you on a number of levels. From wanting to know how competitive your wages and salaries are, to help with writing job descriptions, to career planning for your people, this site is a treasure. Make sure your HR people access it and use the huge base of data to be found there.
Videos
Ever wonder why some of your people are not as creative -- innovative -- as you need them to be? Sir Ken Robinson thinks it's our educational system. Join over 21 million people in hearing his expert thoughts.
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
Since the passing of Steve Jobs, there have been many eyes and ears looking to see what future implications await Apple. I have sensed a growing chorus questioning the state of Apple’s innovative spirit and energy as stock prices fall in late January. Much, maybe too much has been written about Jobs while the legacy of the innovative genius of Steve Wozniak has received proportionally much less attention. For a fascinating look at the early innovation contributions Wozniak made to the foundation of Apple, click on this link. I suggest you move the progress button to about the 32 minute mark where he begins discussing the birth of Apple and his role in it.
Employer Resources
Here is the Deprtment of Labor guide to using personality assessments in hiring to reduce the high costs of turnover and increase productivity through solid person-job fit.
Adobe Acrobat document [1.7 MB]