The classroom is practice for life
In 2005, the Government of Canada introduced the Key Leadership Competencies, which articulate effective management and leadership behaviours that are universally required regardless of department or...
View ArticleCreatively saying Yes
You’re planning an offsite meeting with your team and you want to include a team-building component. Someone suggests a scavenger hunt around downtown, with teams and prizes. Immediately you think of...
View ArticleAuthenticity & being your best self
Due to my strong personal interest, I’ve done a lot reading on leadership. Sometimes the messages seem contradictory. Be authentic, but change in all these ways that will make you better. I was...
View ArticleDeath to PowerPoint
I’m not the first to say it, nor will I be the last. But by all that is good and holy – death to Powerpoint.There is nothing inherently wrong with Powerpoint, it’s merely a tool and therefore it’s use...
View ArticleDiversity & Inclusion
When I talk about diversity, what springs to mind? Do you picture an iStock photo with a woman in a wheelchair in the foreground and behind her a perfect rainbow of skin colours from milky to jet?...
View ArticleMaintaining the equipment - self care as business investment
If you purchase equipment for the organization, it’s necessary to properly maintain it. You do preventative maintenance on the appropriate schedule, and if issues crop up, you call in appropriate...
View ArticleWhat fishing taught me
In my household, summertime brings outdoor family adventures. One highlight this year was a week long fishing trip to the beautiful Churchill River in Northern Saskatchewan. While being on the water...
View ArticleWorkplace Conflict -- when we care passionately about our work
The public service is rife with passionate people who are dedicated to doing great work. This is both a gift and a challenge. The gift is obvious: loyalty, discretionary effort, increased opportunity...
View Article“Analyst & Influencer”
I’ve recently started a short-term assignment as an analyst in a work unit responsible for “business process management”. Our unit isn’t directly responsible for delivering the program, but we provide...
View ArticleWe are emotional creatures
The workplace is not an emotion-free environment. There are high and lows, joys and frustrations. Friendships and estrangements, entanglements and abandonments. The place is full of people, after...
View ArticleA night at the symphony
Saturday night I attended the symphony. Tchaikovsky's 6th; his last melodramatic work, which he premiered 9 days before his death. It was great. Not specifically because of the music, though I enjoyed...
View ArticleMy leadership commitments
I read a lot of books and articles about management and leadership. About a year ago, I picked up one called One Piece of Paper by Mike Figliuolo. Unlike many of these books, this one doesn't seek to...
View ArticleWhen in doubt, lead with warmth
Leadership, being a people-centered exercise, is not about control but about influence. You can't force another person to do something - you must influence them to go the direction you desire....
View Article"Brush your tooth!"
Growing up I lived half time with my dad and his wife, and the other half of the time with my mom and her partner Glenda. Whenever I left for Dad’s place, Glenda would rattle off a list of reminders:...
View ArticleFeel the fear and do it anyway
Remember learning to drive? You'd seen it done thousands of times, maybe read a booklet about rules of the road. You had visualized yourself doing it and were sure you were ready. Yet despite your...
View ArticleFrom stepping in to stepping out
A few weeks ago, I was indeterminately (tranlsation: permanently, for those of you who don't speak federal government jargon) appointed to the position I've been acting in for the better part of two...
View ArticleConfusing Confidence and Competence
An article in the Harvard Business Review argues that the over-representation of men in management positions is driven by a conflation of confidence and competence. The central idea is that men have a...
View ArticleCrochet hooks
Today's post is another installment in my leadership commitments series. Question of the day is:When I fall down, how do I pick myself back up?My answer:With the magic of crochet hooks.Let me back up a...
View ArticleThe power of the position: how perfectly nice bosses still intimidate their...
Despite hype about flattening the org chart, most of us still work in formally hierarchical organisations. Hierarchies create bosses. Even when you're a particularly lovely person the mere fact that...
View ArticleFull circle
When I first created this blog 5+ years ago, I was very deliberately and doggedly studying management and leadership with particular "upwardly mobile" ideas in mind. I was reading everything I could...
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