Category Positive Deviance

Are you winning the rat race? December 15, 2021 Affective Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Peer Powered Performance, Positive Deviance, Training No comments

“The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you‘re still a rat.”

Lily Tomlin

Every day is a contest. We compete for increasing market share, advancing our position, receiving the recognition we deserve, the customers we need and the respect we long for. But how do we measure our success? Is there a finish line or benchmark? Do all stakeholders agree on the metrics?

When Vineet Nayar took the helm of HCLT his greatest challenge was not their failures but their successes...

Peer Power Primer December 15, 2021 Affective Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Peer Powered Performance, Positive Deviance

How would you create a culture that attracts 1000 applicants for every position like Zappos or grows its customer base fivefold in just four years as HCL Technologies did? Few would expect to learn the secrets of success from a small town credit union in Boulder City, Nevada, or a rural hospital in Southern Arizona, but wouldn’t you like to know how to create a team that can increase assets by 270% while only adding one employee, or how to be so honest with your board that they plead with you...

Employees in Pajamas? December 15, 2021 Affective Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Peer Powered Performance, Positive Deviance, Spirit at Work

Imagine you are experiencing the worst economic times in recent history. You have just invested in a complete online employee survey program. The results have been painstakingly analyzed and reviewed, and you have a plan for action. Your entire team is scheduled for a nearly unprecedented early morning meeting to give the consulting team ample opportunity to address the issues identified through the survey process and your entire staff shows up ………………in pajamas. Would you be?

a) Outraged
b) ...

Creating a Coaching Community December 15, 2021 Affective Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Peer Powered Performance, Positive Deviance, Training

I am not a fan of all the trendy new coaches. I was a personal coach long before coaching was a profession. In the seven years I managed athletic clubs our teams were responsible for growing the largest chain of fitness facilities in the Pacific Northwest serving more than 50,000 members. Now it seems you can’t go anywhere without being accosted by a “personal coach” of some kind.

In 2009 I was certified as a coach by the same man who founded Sylvan Learning Centers; but Berry Fowler...

Change belongs not to the catalyst but the community December 15, 2021 Affective Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Peer Powered Performance, Positive Deviance

“There are none so blind as those who will not see.”

Contrary to popular belief this phrase popularized by Mathew Henry in his commentary on the Whole Bible (1708) is not a quote from the bible. This kind of misattribution, as I am learning from winner of the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Daniel Kahneman in Thinking Fast and Slow, is not at all uncommon. We are all thoroughly convinced of many, many connections that are not true.

One such misbelief that is shared by most p...