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Are Homogeneous Groups Better?
During graduate school, I learned about the Homogeneous Unit Principle. Simply put, the theory states that people are most comfortable in groups of people like them. Robert Putnam's book, Bowling Alone, reinforces the idea of the Homogeneous Unit Principle. His...
What Makes a Great Training Session
If you are a leader, you probably end up presenting training sessions or leading seminars from time to time, even if it is not a part of your formal job description. Last Wednesday, I drove to East Lansing, MI to attend part of Choices 2010. Mary Jo Asmus, an...
Leadership Principles Series | Leading Others and Connecting Through Communication: A Leader Values and Engages Others
A leader values and engages others. One of the competencies that is most violated by leaders is valuing and engaging others. Too often we take our employees for granted. We see them only as someone to complete a task or check off a box. Valuing others begins with...
Try Something New?
For years, my family joked that I only liked to eat macaroni and cheese or pizza. For years, it wasn't far from the truth. Some things I wouldn't eat: turnip greens, seafood. (I still don't.) As I grew toward adulthood, I expanded my food choices considerably, perhaps...
Are We the Same, Or Are We Different?
Sometimes, our similarities and differences are easy to see; our outward qualities of age, race, and gender are visible and obvious. When we see those outward qualities, we may be tempted to label and name before we look deeper to find common ground beyond our surface...
A Myth About Developing Others
Investing time and energy in helping others' develop can seem like a huge undertaking, and it is. Many years ago, I worked as a tutor at local YMCA. One afternoon, one of my students began sharing her story with me. Due to a crisis in her family, she needed a...
Share What You Know
A week ago, my family moved from our home in Chicago, where the view from our windows looked like this, to southeast Michigan, where the view from our back deck looks like this. After one week in our new home, I am happy to report that we've unpacked most of the...
How To Develop Others
Developing others' capacity involves providing exposure, opportunity, and challenge. In order to grow, people need exposure; they need to be exposed to new ideas, new relationships, new environments, new technology, new ways of doing things. A leader's role is to...
Set Aside Time to Develop Others
I could see Kaldi's from my office window. The coffee shop offered breakfast bagels, panini sandwiches and salads at lunch time, and a cozy corner for my mentoring appointments with Cindy. As often as we could, we met for lunch, stolen hours in the midst of busy...
How To Have Great Impact
My oldest daughter has lived over 35 million minutes in her eight and a half years of life. She's grown from 7 pounds to 60 and stands about four feet tall. She is independent in many ways, especially compared to the infant we brought home from the hospital. She has a...
People Who Develop Others
A leader develops the capacity of others. Every day, in leading others, you have the impact to help them grow personally and professionally. You may do so formally or informally; as a job responsibility or not; in the workplace, or in the community; at home; in person...
Developing Others To Ensure Your Work Continues
If you are passionate about the work you do, you need to build into others and help them develop their abilities. It's the only way to ensure that what you've started continues. A few years ago, I started a homeschool co-op. The co-op has continued, in various forms,...