Have you ever found yourself trying to get many people in different departments or on your project team to all agree to something, or to try to come to consensus on a critical decision by committee? It can be like herding cats across a wide field into a fenced-in area at the back, if you don’t watch out. Especially if there are several issues of varying importance to the participants and differing personalities and needs…

The ability to be self-motivated and lead others is a highly important attribute in the workplace today. Strong leadership ability is on most business education and corporate performance competency lists and there are many philosophies on effective leadership behaviors. From surveys, research, stories and history, there is one method for leading that stands out as inadequate at best and highly damaging at worst -fear…

Star Trek: Next Generation fans remember episodes that included an alien race called the Borg in which their stock phrase was “Resistance is futile” where they would assimilate other cultures into their world forcing them to become part Borg. I think they were right in that generally resistance is futile. In my experience, there really isn’t a way to stop the sensation or feeling of not wanting to comply or accept something. When resistance (a force that opposes or slows down motion) arises, it is difficult to prevent the energy from taking over us and halting the ease and flow…

In the world of talent development, employee engagement is a high priority. Learning leaders have a unique vantage point from which to usher in, facilitate, and revise strategies that affect a large part of the organization, particularly as it pertains to preparing people affected by large-scale change. However, they can’t do this in a vacuum. They need collaborators who trust them, and that requires internal negotiation skills that allow them to overcome objections, explore mutual interests, and commit to a win-win outcome through a joint problem-solving process…