Jim Clemmer

We all need...

Many "change fatigued" frontline performers and leaders struggle with how to strengthen personal effectiveness and leadership. Most leaders can sail their teams or organizations through smooth waters. It's much tougher when clouds gather and the winds of change turn into a full blown gale. We can't direct the winds of change but we can adjust our sails. How we lead ourselves and others through change forms the base of energized or enervated cultures.

When dealing with challenging...

Employee engagement, customer satisfaction, safety, quality, and financial performance are slipping in many organizations. That's often because organizations are over managed and under led. "People are our most important resource" has become a worn out cliché with a high "snicker factor." Research shows that high performing teams and organizations balance the "hard" discipline of systems, processes, and technology management on a "soft" base of effective people leadership. Leading with the...

Many organizations have a high "snicker factor" on their vision, values, or mission statements, declining employee engagement, rising absenteeism, difficulty attracting or retaining top talent, waning customer satisfaction, resistance to change, weak trust and teamwork, lower service/quality levels, and good but not great health and safety. These are signs of a weak organizational culture. They're getting worse with the growth of financial pressures, rapidly changing market conditions,...

While some customer improvement programs may change a few short-term performance indicators, many initiatives fail to change the very character and fabric of the team or organization. Training programs like "smile training," teaching frontline staff how to handle dissatisfied customers, or urging people to be more courteous, can make cosmetic changes. But they're often putting lip stick on a pig. These efforts aren't integrated with a systematic and strategic approach to customer...

Coaching skills have an especially huge impact on the discretionary effort that goes well above and beyond basic job requirements. Enthusiastic extra effort is at the heart of delivering outstanding customer service and the highest levels of teamwork, service, or quality. Extraordinary coaches have 8 times higher levels of employee engagement and commitment, over 3 times more willingness to "go the extra mile" for the team or organization, 2.5 times higher levels of "satisfaction with my...

Most leadership development approaches don't work. In a large scale global survey of CEOs and senior executives 76 percent cited leadership development as important yet only 7 percent thought their organization was doing it effectively. Research shows a key reason is the wide spread use of weakness-based approaches. As seen in a growing aversion to performance appraisals and traditional 360 assessments, focusing on performance gaps and weaknesses is 2 -3 times less effective and undermines...

When two-way communications are stifled and difficult conversations avoided, the real discussions happen in the hallway after the meeting. Commitments aren't kept and deadlines are missed, "blame storming" replaces problem solving, departmental silos grow, meetings waste time and drain energy, lobbying and politicking rises, critical problems are minimized, and touchy issues avoided. These "moose problems" (like elephant-in-the-room) means customers are lost, quality deteriorates,...

In today's fast moving world, innovation and creativity are critical. Leaders who don't adapt risk being left behind. This session is based on research of over 52,000 leaders assessed by more than 500,000 managers, direct reports, peers, and others to find leaders rated at the 99th percentile. These exceptional innovation leaders were then interviewed along with their direct reports and examples collected of what these leaders did to foster an innovative culture. A self-assessment built...

Does your organization need leaders who challenge standard approaches, create an atmosphere of continual improvement, do everything possible to achieve goals, get others to go beyond what they originally thought possible, are energized to take on challenging goals, quickly recognize situations where change is needed, and have the courage to make needed changes? New research shows these are the characteristics of bold leaders.

"Doing more with less" is a major imperative for most...

Most organizations rate employee engagement as one of their top priorities. But many organizations are finding that their engagement survey ratings are slipping - and not just at the frontline employee level. A growing number of people - at all levels and in all roles - are feeling trapped and stuck in their jobs. Many leaders recognize the strong and direct links between levels of employee engagement and innovation, customer satisfaction, quality, safety, productivity, revenues, and...

Health and Safety are critical leadership and culture issues. Health and Safety are symptoms of deeper leadership and organization issues that show up in accidents, sickness, disengagement, and low teamwork. Like incompetent doctors, less effective supervisors, managers, and executives sicken, hurt, or kill people. Too often Internal Responsibility Systems (IRS) fail to address a major variable in the equation; leadership's responsibility to foster a positive and caring culture. This...

Upward leadership is a crucial and often underdeveloped skill. Many people give far too much power and control to their boss. If they've won the "boss lottery" and report to a great leader, work life is good. If the boss is a mediocre or weak leader, work life can be tolerable. And if they've drawn the short straw and have a boss from hell, work life can be wretched.

We've long defined leadership as an action, not a position. Strong leaders influence, connect, change, and deliver...