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There's never been more pressure on executive leaders to perform at a higher level in a wider range of areas. While leadership today is more complex at all levels, the role of enterprise leadership presents unique challenges. It can be daunting to keep up, given the complexity and the rate of change in so many different parts of the business.  

Bosses get a bad rap. In a complex, dynamic workplace (and life), it’s easy to blame the frustration or unhappiness we feel at work on our bosses. This talk runs rampant . . . “I don’t get enough direction.” “My boss doesn’t appreciate me.” “My boss takes credit for the work that I do.” Imagine if we took all the time spent complaining about bosses and bottled it—that time adds up. Every second of time spent complaining about your boss (or anyone else) is completely wasted energy and does nothing to help you.

Transformational – Empowering – Collaborative – Thought-Provoking – Practical – Enlightening

This list represents six of the words that individual participants shared when I asked each of them to use one word to describe the leadership development experience so far. We were three months into a six-month development process and I wanted to see where their heads and hearts were.

There has never been a more important time to be an HR leader—it’s a complex work environment and organizations are craving strong leadership. As someone who cares a lot about the HR profession (we must continue to evolve) and the work I get to do as a Talent Strategist, I believe the latest HR Competency Model provides important focus.

You are creating your life as you go based upon how you think about your life. Are you intentional about that or are you reacting to what is?

I am passionate about visioning and goal-setting. In 2007, I created a 10-year plan for my life using the process that I outline in this post. At that time, I was single (three years post-divorce), working for a consulting firm, and trying to figure out how to balance a career while raising my five-year old daughter, 

10% of relevant talent is actively looking for a new opportunity at any given moment in time; that means that 90% of suitable candidates are not engaged in active job searches. They have not registered with recruiters, are not perusing job boards, and are not applying for roles. They may not even be unhappy where they are, but they ARE willing to move!

Making a career transition is a challenge for all leaders and can be particularly daunting for those who have been in an organization for a long time and have strong relationships with coworkers. Having coached many leaders through this transition over the years, I have seen specific strategies used to maintain confidence and manage the change. Most recently, I’ve been able to put these strategies to use through my own experience.

There is a familiar scenario playing out in organizations around the world each day and it looks like this:

"Fred has been working for his company for several years a

nd excels at his job; everyone likes him. When a manager position becomes available within his department, Fred is the likely candidate because he’s good at the job, and the assumption is that he will also be a great manager. If only it was that easy…"

An IT leader (new to his team) was recently grumbling about his team members not wanting to participate in a team outing after work. He made an assumptive leap that their lack of interest in getting together as a team meant they did not want to get to know him. In probing further, I asked him to tell me about his team members and he told me about the work they do. I interrupted and asked about them personally—what are their interests and do they have families? He paused and said “I think a couple of them do.” This opened the door for a conversation about how to truly get to know team members.