This blog has been drafted by one of the first young people we coached nearly a decade ago. He was introduced to the MERIT™ PLE system in his teen years and now has graduated University with a business degree and is employed in the corporate workplace where he applies these leadership principles daily: The holiday season is often associated with giving gifts, spending time with…
The recession in Spring of 2008 had me choreographing a third wave of downsizing in my corporate executive role and when the music stopped, my chair on the executive team was missing as well. The time for a new dance had arrived as my professional future was temporarily freed up. In the following weeks, as the senior corporate job opportunities emerged, most requiring relocation, the…
About 20 years ago this gentleman joined the team I was leading in a small corporate banking start-up serving clients in western Canada. He had just arrived from the UK where he learned the ropes in trade financing with the Royal Bank of Scotland. Although a rookie at the time, he fit brilliantly in our team as we grew up as a company and then…
Work and life decisions in general, are often difficult. I once read the quote, “Be Decisive. Right or wrong, make a decision. The road of life is paved with flat squirrels who couldn’t make a decision.” Like that pondering drifting squirrel, mid-course corrections are necessary to lead successful lives and careers. I learned of three critical strategies for decision making and adjusting from Dr. Ron…
After reading Jesse Sostrin’s 2017 Harvard Business Review article called, ‘To Be a Great Leader, You Have to Learn How to Delegate Well’, I was compelled to share some first-hand experiences in delegating. After 30 years in organizational leadership roles including a decade of professional coaching and mentoring leaders, I can vouch that delegation is one of the most second-guessed management activities. Very few people…
In my experience, organizations move toward their definition of success which originates in the vision, mission, values, and then is lived out in goals, strategies and behaviour. At the same time, employees are navigating toward their own personal definitions of success. These are uniquely based upon each employee’s values, goals, interests, capabilities, and work-life challenges. The larger the organization and the more uncertainty in the…
Have you ever had a bad day? week? month? year? Well that’s common as we are exposed to a lot of negative messaging and uncertainty in our businesses and lives. Shifting social/political/economic trends, thousands of daily media messages, hundreds of emails and texts, very few of which deliver messages of good cheer. A study from a US-based family research institute revealed that even the average…
With so many choices to make every day, we need to sift through our options before stepping into action. Many have heard of the Serenity Prayer which encourages us to Serenely accept what we cannot change and focus more heartily on those things we can, have the Courage to tackle what we can and seek the Wisdom to distinguish between the two. Much depends on…
Have you ever been confused or discouraged when you’ve discovered that a new hire isn’t fitting in, is not performing as expected or is not who you thought they were? What happened? …”their resume showed they had the IQ and technical skills”… “they displayed the emotional intelligence (EQ) we were testing for in the interview.” Where did they fall off the rails? In our leadership…
