Articles

Welcome to our IDEAS section where we want to share with you our current thinking on issues related to leaders and their development. We encourage you to provide us with your feedback on anything you read here, and we look forward to engaging you in conversation about our favourite topic – enhancing the depth and quality of leadership talent in organizations.

WHAT KIND OF LEADER ARE YOU?
BY: DAVE JACKSON

What kind of a leader are you? When is it best for you to use your leadership genius? Let me tell you the story of the 33 miners who survived for 69 days last summer in the Chilean mining tunnel, as described in an exciting new book, 33 Men, by Jonathan Franklin.

WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP – INTERVIEW WITH MELANIE POLONOFSKY
BY: DAVE JACKSON

Melanie Polonofsky is VP of HR for a major division of a large global corporation. We were impressed with her understanding of the development of leaders in large organizations; especially her insights into preparing women to lead. In this interview with Dave Jackson, Melanie talks about what men and women can do to put more women into the “C” suite.

FOCUSING ENGAGEMENT ON DRIVING PERFORMANCE
(HR PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE, MAY/JUNE 2011)
BY: TIM JACKSON

Although engagement surveys deliver comprehensive information about a variety of employee attitudes, perhaps the most important attitude of all is absent from these instruments: how engaged employees are in reaching and exceeding performance goals.

LEADER DEVELOPMENT YIELDS ROI (www.plasticsnews.com)
BY: TIM JACKSON

Developing leaders makes intuitive sense for many reasons. Societal demographic characteristics are shifting, meaning countless baby boomers will retire from executive positions in the coming years.

CROSS-CULTURAL LEADERSHIP SKILLS FOR A MULTICULTURAL CANADA
BY: TIM JACKSON & ERIK GIRARD

It used to be that stories of how leadership styles differ across cultures came mostly from expatriate executives returning home from assignment. They would say that Japanese managers visit the ill family members of their employees; Italian managers openly challenge and show disdain for rules; Middle Eastern leaders ignore efficiency to spend more time building relationships within their teams.