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Stop Empowering Your People.

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David Harper
Stop Empowering Your People. Don’t worry. They want you to stop. If the word “empower” were to disappear off the face of the Earth, I’m not sure many people would notice. In fact, many would breathe a sigh of relief. The word “empower” has a distinctly passive quality to it. As in, if you’re people aren’t getting the results they should, you’re supposed to “empower” them.But what does that even…

Don’t Believe It. Leaders Are Afraid to Fail.

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David Harper
Don’t Believe It.  Leaders Are Afraid to Fail. But they survive their self-criticism. 1234qwer1234qwer4 / CC-BY-SA-4.0 Trendy leadership books and articles like to say that “The best leaders aren’t afraid to fail.”What nonsense.Successful leaders are definitely afraid to fail.  They spend a notable amount of time ensuring that they don’t.  In fact, for high-achieving leaders, anytime they come up short of their objective, that is failure.  And it stings.  The pain of coming up…

Now Is Not the Time to Play to Your Strengths.

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David Harper
Now Is Not the Time to Play to Your Strengths. Rise to the challenge. There’s a very seductive quality to wanting to play to your strengths.Many books, blogs, articles, talks, videos, and self-professed gurus have encouraged you to do so.But don’t fall for that.  It’s too risky.  And too costly.When you were a child, did you play to your strengths, or instead did others encourage you to do things you…

Don’t get stuck in the middle.

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David Harper
Do You Get Lots of Work Done? Yes? That’s Too Bad. Don’t get stuck in the middle. Today I read an article in which the author asserts there are two types of leaders: those that manage up and those that manage down.Those that manage up seek to please their manager, and those that manage down seek to please their direct reports.Obviously there are risks in both styles of leadership.However the…

Servant Leadership Gone Too Far

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David Harper
Servant Leadership Gone Too Far Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. It’s not uncommon to hear a leader say something like “I wouldn’t ask my people to do anything I’m not prepared to do myself.”  Often it’s said in conjunction with the concept of servant leadership or something similar.Although the sentiment is admirable, what about the ensuing actions?True, everyone likes to see their manager acting or behaving just…

Remote Work Won’t Kill Corporate Culture

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David Harper
Remote Work Won’t Kill Corporate Culture Just ask Meucci, Gray, and Belleed As the pandemic eases here in the United States, there’s a lot of discussion about what the new workplace will look like. 100% back to office?  100% remote?  Some hybrid model?As part of that discussion, you’ll often hear people lament how virtual work, Zoom meetings, remote offices, etc. will kill corporate culture.How will we build a culture if we…

Does Your Company Bleed Value?

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David Harper
Does Your Company Bleed Value? Time go beyond the tourniquet. Here’s a quick thought experiment:Imagine if each night, 100s of thousands of dollars, or even millions of dollars, were automatically withdrawn for no reason from your company’s bank account.And if your Chair or CEO came to you and asked, “Where did all that money go?”, you’d say, “Honestly, I don’t know.”And if your Chair or CEO then asked, “Well, will…

Don’t Wait for the New Normal. Create it.

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David Harper
Don’t Wait for the New Normal. Create it. Here’s a quick reminder from March 20th of last year: And only 12 months later, here we are. Everyone is now talking/asking about the New Normal or the Next Normal.And you may be wondering too.  What’s it going to look like? Inquiring minds want to know.  But don’t wait to find out what the future holds.Create it.As always, the future won’t just happen…

Which Type of Leader Has Outperformed During the Pandemic?

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David Harper
Which Type of Leader Has Outperformed During the Pandemic? And do you have what’s needed to succeed long-term? The past 12 months have been some of the most challenging of their careers for leaders.  For many, if not most, it’s been learning by doing, without a playbook.So which leaders have been the most successful?  My colleague Rob Kaiser has a few answers.In recent research, he finds that during the pandemic,…

What Will You Take From the Pandemic?

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David Harper
What Will You Take From the Pandemic? Is there room for Post-Traumatic Growth? In March 2020, I published online what I termed the COVID-19 Book, which graphically depicted the impact of the virus.  The emoji 😷 represented someone infected by the virus, and 😢 was for someone who had succumbed to it.  It was meant to humanize what at the time seemed to be very large numbers. I stopped after only…

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